[Avodah] Legions

[H Lampel via Avodah]

Regarding my collection of words that ostensibly are exceptions to the
rule that the plural of nouns ending in "on," although masculine, are
usually formed by adding -oth rather than -im, REMT wrote to me offlist
(but then gave me permission to cite him by name) that the only words
on my list that are exceptions are esronim, rimonim, and armonim meaning
chestnuts, spelled with an ayin (not with an alef, meaning castles.

The rule is stated for nouns, such as gilayon, and not for adjectives
such as rishon, acharon, kadmon, nor verbs such as nidon.

He also pointed out that at least one of my examples is not a plural
at all -- sh'monim -- it doesn't mean "more than than one sh'mon" --
and many are not plurals of "on-ending" words: onim is the plural of
oneh (and is a verb, to boot); beinonim is a plural of beinoni; almonim
is the plural of almoni; shonim, of shoneh; bonim, of boneh; Tzidonim,
of Tzidoni -- not of Tzidon (as RTK also noted). Finally, the plural
of aron is aronos, not aronim.

Regarding the last, another which was also picked up by RTK, my mistake
was taking the word aronim in Gemara RH 23 as an example of a plural,
which it is not.

All this goes to demonstrate that doing clever data searches is
no substitute for knowledge. But being a glutton for punishment,
here's another try for an exception to the rule: Chalonim (windows,
from chalon) (Yechezkiel 41:16, Yoel 2:9), although most often it's
pluralized chalonos.