This Blog

This blog addresses problems in grammar, research, and style that I have frequently encountered in my students' and my own writing. I aim to explain these problems and provide resources for others who may encounter similar difficulties.

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Myriad

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. (New Revised Standard Version, Rev 5:11)

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.  (King James Bible, Rev 5:11)


The use of “myriad” seems to be an issue of world-ending proportions for some.  The web has myriad complaints about the word.  Contrary to some claims I have encountered about “myriad,” it can be both a noun and an adjective.  As a post about comments in the U Penn LanguageLog successfully illustrates, the word has been written as “myriad” and “myriad of” in different contexts.  The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition 2b for “myriad” as a singular noun clearly illustrates that “myriad of” has been used for a few hundred years to refer to “a countless number of specified things,” as we can see in a few of its examples:

1609    A. Craig Poet. Recreations sig. A4v:   “Thus feeling ill, and fearing worse each day, A miriad of mis-fortunes I embrace.”

1720    A. Hill Creation iv. 4:  “God saw her Grief, and, bent to ease her Pain, And ornament her shadowy Reign, Struck out a Myriad of illustrious Sparks, The Gems of Heav'n, her starry Marks!”

1869    ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad xxx. 321: “Throw a stone into the water, and the myriad of tiny bubbles that are created flash out a brilliant glare like blue theatrical fires.”

1987    Observer 20 Sept. 46/4:  “A myriad of small, specialist software companies have also been spawned in the new ‘sunrise high-tech’ areas.”

For me, the question of “myriad” or “myriad of” is less important than the question of when to use “myriad.”  The OED tells us that “myriad” comes through the post-classical Latin myriades, meaning multiples of ten thousand or a countless number. 

Use “myriad” to refer to a largely uncountable number of items—unless you are aiming for hyperbole.


Resources

"myriad, n. and adj.". OED Online. March 2011. Oxford University Press. 16 May 2011 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124538?redirectedFrom=myriad>.

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