Talk:dwarf

Plural of dwarf

There is much debate on the correctness of the plural form of dwarf being either dwarfs and/or dwarves. I investigated this and it appears that both are correct. Both appear in both the Oxford and Webster dictionaries. The Longman dictionary, however, indicates that dwarves is used if countable.

• dwarf plural dwarfs or dwarves [countable]

dwarf in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

No, no and no. It's saying the noun is countable. If a noun is uncountable, it doesn't have a plural (or indeed a singular). Mglovesfun (talk) 21:55, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Mythological v Natural

The definition for "dwarves" is included under the term "dwarf", but absent on the page "dwarves"; it is to the best of my knowledge that, while sometimes used interchangeably, "dwarves" references fictional creatures while "dwarfs" references legitimate objects (most often humans).

This is supported by all 3 of the citations listed for "dwarves", each of which are used in a fantasy / mythological setting and clearly refer to the fictional creatures, not human beings who are "much smaller than the usual of its sort" - the appropriate term for whom would be "dwarfs".

I propose that the definition of "dwarves" be changed to the mythological definition, which is currently under "dwarf", and that this definition either be removed from the entry "dwarf" and/or a link be added to the mythological definition to the page "dwarves". Redranger8402 (talk) Redranger8402 (talk) 20:22, 25 August 2023 (UTC)