ERRATA, ERRATUM
Do not be guilty of the absurd mistake of printing ‘Errata’ as a heading for a single correction. When a list of errors has been dealt with, by printing cancel pages and otherwise, so that only one error remains, take care to alter the heading from ‘Errata’ to ‘Erratum’. The same remarks apply to Addenda and Addendum, Corrigenda and Corrigendum.
PLURALS OF NOUNS ENDING IN -O
The plurals of nouns ending in -o, owing to the absence of any settled system, are often confusing. The Concise Oxford Dictionary says (p. vi): ‘It may perhaps be laid down that on the one hand words of which the plural is very commonly used, as potato, have almost invariably -oes, and on the other hand words still felt to be foreign or of abnormal form, as soprano, chromo, have almost invariably -os.’ The following is a short list, showing spellings preferred:
altos
banjos
buffaloes
calicoes
cantos
cargoes
centos
chromos
curios
duodecimos
electros
echoes
embargoes
haloes
heroes
manifestoes
mosquitoes
mottoes
negroes
octavos
porticoes
potatoes
provisos
quartos
ratios
solos
sopranos
tiros
tomatoes
volcanoes
