Muscovys or muscovies?

[Soon2BChixMom]

Here is a link to a plural finding website for kids, I did a quick search and this is what i got

https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-plural-of/muscovy.html

BUT Muscovy is a word originating from Moscow, in Moscow the plural is Muscovite, i'm not sure if this really affects the question because no one knows how the Muscovy duck got its name, it lives thousands of miles away from the Moscow region so the two words are likely unrelated.

Something to definitely ponder.

 

[Entropy Eggs]

No. One Muscovy duck, two Muscovy duckS. The word Muscovy is not pluralized.
One blue ball, two blue balls...you wouldn't say two blues. I have over 50 Muscovy...which is a lot of duckS!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Good morning fellow NC. Love to see some pics of your Muscovy's

 

[BantyChooks]

No. One Muscovy duck, two Muscovy duckS. The word Muscovy is not pluralized.
One blue ball, two blue balls...you wouldn't say two blues. I have over 50 Muscovy...which is a lot of duckS!

Wouldn't "Muscovy ducks" be a compound noun, with "Muscovy" being the attributive noun? This would differ substantially from your example of an adjective/noun combination, wherein the first word is indeed impossible to pluralize without a significant bout of insanity on the part of the writer.

Attributive nouns are not co-dependent, as a general rule. They can be split and one part (in this case, the word "duck") removed with the remaining noun functioning as normal. The standard rules for pluralization then apply.

Few people say "Buff Brahma chickens," most say "Buff Brahmas." This goes for other animals as well: "Herefords," "Collies," or "Arabians." As far as I know, breed names are considered to be nouns. I checked with a dictionary just now to confirm that. As to whether they are proper nouns depends on whether you listen to the style guides or the general public! I capitalize both breeds and varieties in accordance with how the American Standard of Perfection is styled, though if I wanted to make an effort to be grammatically correct I would certainly fall into accordance with my chosen style guide. (Fun fact: The Chicago Manual of Style uses "Rhode Island Red," capitalized as such, as an example in its section on capitalization of vernacular names of plants and animals... why this differs from their method of capitalizing dog breeds, I am not certain.)

I suppose one could consider this to be a special case due to their different genus as compared to Mallard-derived ducks, but even then, I am not certain how that would change anything grammatically; standard consensus is certainly to use the word Muscovy as a noun.

Maybe I'm completely wrong. I'm no expert.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Wouldn't "Muscovy ducks" be a compound noun, with "Muscovy" being the attributive noun? This would differ substantially from your example of an adjective/noun combination, wherein the first word is indeed impossible to pluralize without a significant bout of insanity on the part of the writer.

Attributive nouns are not co-dependent, as a general rule. They can be split and one part (in this case, the word "duck") removed with the remaining noun functioning as normal. The standard rules for pluralization then apply.

Few people say "Buff Brahma chickens," most say "Buff Brahmas." This goes for other animals as well: "Herefords," "Collies," or "Arabians." As far as I know, breed names are considered to be nouns. I checked with a dictionary just now to confirm that. As to whether they are proper nouns depends on whether you listen to the style guides or the general public! I capitalize both breeds and varieties in accordance with how the American Standard of Perfection is styled, though if I wanted to make an effort to be grammatically correct I would certainly fall into accordance with my chosen style guide. (Fun fact: The Chicago Manual of Style uses "Rhode Island Red," capitalized as such, as an example in its section on capitalization of vernacular names of plants and animals... why this differs from their method of capitalizing dog breeds, I am not certain.)

I suppose one could consider this to be a special case due to their different genus as compared to Mallard-derived ducks, but even then, I am not certain how that would change anything grammatically; standard consensus is certainly to use the word Muscovy as a noun.

Maybe I'm completely wrong. I'm no expert.

I would concur with your assessment.

 

[Oblio13]

If "Muscovy" is a proper noun, it seems like "Muscovys" would be correct.

Like, if two girls are named "Lucy", they would be "Lucys" rather than "Lucies".

But after some Googling, I don't think "Muscovy" is the archaic name for Moscow in this case. I think it's more likely a corruption of the Spanish for mosquito.

So, "muscovies".