Myriad: noun or adjective?

[Bossy Monkey]

Poll question: Myriad: noun or adjective?

In other words:
There are myriad crooks, feebs, and nutjobs in the Bush Administration. (adjective)

or

There is a myriad of morons in Bush Administration. (noun)

I very strongly prefer the former, but admit a weakness for the latter sentence.

Edit: moved a stray parenthetical comment.

[Kali]

1. votin and posting NOUN to keep myself honest before I go look it up!

back in a flash


Edited to say: Ha! both:



myr·i·ad ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mr-d)
adj.
Constituting a very large, indefinite number; innumerable: the myriad fish in the ocean.
Composed of numerous diverse elements or facets: the myriad life of the metropolis.

n.
A vast number: the myriads of bees in the hive.
Archaic. Ten thousand.


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Usage Note: Throughout most of its history in English myriad was used as a noun, as in a myriad of men. In the 19th century it began to be used in poetry as an adjective, as in myriad men. Both usages in English are acceptable, as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's “Myriad myriads of lives.” This poetic, adjectival use became so well entrenched generally that many people came to consider it as the only correct use. In fact, both uses in English are parallel with those of the original ancient Greek. The Greek word mrias, from which myriad derives, could be used as either a noun or an adjective, but the noun mrias was used in general prose and in mathematics while the adjective mrias was used only in poetry.


Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

[RebelOne]

9. Your second definition is incorrect.

This from the grammar book "Woe Is I":
myriad. It originally meant "ten thousand," but myriad now means "numerous" or "a great number of: (Lulu has myriad freckles.) Avoid "myriads" or a "myriad of."

And from "The Grammar Lady":
The P.R. office wants a new brochure touting "the myriad new choices of majors." They wonder if this use of "myriad" is correct. Yes, it is. But they should avoid "a myriad of" and any use of the plural form.

I'm a copy editor, so I sort of know what I am talking about.

[Kali]

21. Well, actually the what you are saying is the

American Heritage Dictionary is incorrect.

Hey I just googled it, I didn't make it up.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. both..I don't like to get in a rut

[alittlelark]

3. I see it as always an Adjective... It is a modifier.

How many 'myriads' can one have?

[Quetzal]

4. Voting noun

before someone posts evidence indicating what part of speech it is.

[Tom Kitten]

5. Myriad is the name of a font I use sometimes...

In that case it is a Proper noun....Other than that, have at it!

[kariatari]

6. both. functional shift. meh. someone beat me to it.

[Salviati]

7. both

as in you have a myriad of sand grains,

Or you have a myriad of the second degree (i.e. a myriad of myriads)

[MissMarple]

8. Hmmm...??

[Bossy Monkey]

11. Dangit, too late to edit the poll. This would have been a great reply! :)

[Redstone]

10. It is / was a noun!!!!

But almost everybody uses it as an adjective.

A Myriad was a Greek military formation of hoplites, similar to a modern infantry division, of 10,000 men.

Redstone

[Bossy Monkey]

12. Need a tiebreaker. Don't MAKE me set up the "It's an adjective" phonebank!

:D

[Stop_the_War]

13. BOTH!

It is both an adjective and a noun.

[Placebo]

14. It's a computer font.

The "official" font of Apple Computer Inc., created by Adobe originally. It's popular in advertisements if you notice little things like fonts, which I do. :P

[Redstone]

15. Afraid not. The official font of Apple is Apple Garamond,

a derivative of Adobe Garamond.

Myriad is a Monotype font. (And a good one.)

Redstone

[Placebo]

16. No it's not. Well, at least not anymore.

Take a look at their website or watch a Steve Jobs keynote, or check the back of your iPod. Myriad all the way. :)

[Redstone]

17. Agh! I'm embarrassed! When did they change?

Probably about when they went from being a computer company to a gadget company.

But isn't their website still the old Apple Garamond? I'll rely on your judgement, since I can't rely on mine.

Redstone

[Placebo]

18. They still use Garamond for a VERY select few things...

but more than 90% of their stuff now uses Myriad, including all their product packaging for absolutely everything, and website, and so on.

If you don't have the fonts here is where you can get them for free:

http://homepage.mac.com/evikne/fonts.html

shh :P

[Redstone]

19. Thanks for the information, but

I already own a small fortune's worth of Adobe, Monotype, and ITC typefaces (I won't use fonts from anyone else, generally).

I'm lucky to be in a segment of the business that doesn't require me to use the "latest hip" typefaces, so I was able to avoid the Lithos plague of a while ago.

Redstone

[Minimus]

20. Ah, one of my pet peeves - the use of myriad

I know it can be both but I have always used it as an adjective. I cringe when I see "a" in front of myriad.

Example:

The sky has a myriad of stars. (x( this is me cringing)

My preference:

The sky has myriad stars.


IMHO I believe it is more concise as an adjective. Maybe because it sounds more poetic.

But, hey I ain't no grammar expert.