As a move intended more to recover the commerce of fishing than to preserve disappearing species, the federal government established a national position of fish commissioner. Too much fishing combined with water pollution to eliminate entire populations of fishes across the continent. Because deer, fish and waterfowl were game animals, they were pluralized as deer, fish and waterfowl.

They discussed, voted and accepted the protocol of not pluralizing the names of game animals with an “s” or an “es.” The decision focused on the rationale of saving time and printing space by eliminating the need for manipulating a few more movable-type pegs.īecause cat, frog and horse were not game animals, they were pluralized as cats, frogs and horses. In the 1890s editors and publishers who specialized in magazines oriented to fishing and hunting held a national conference. A little library research yielded the answer.

My half-dozen dictionaries accept either treatment but word historian that I am, I wanted to know how the vagary took hold. Other publications use the standard grammar-based spelling of “fishes” as the plural form. Some publications - digital and hardcopy, and academic and cultural - use “fish” as both the singular and the plural form of the noun. Though many beginnings interweave to tell the whole story, the best place to start is with that word “fishes.” Fishes began a century-long process of changing how people interact with wildlife.

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