Confession time – I am Southern, born and bred. That means two things.
I pronounce crappie as “CROP-ee,” as opposed to folks from other parts of the country who pronounce it “CRAP-ee.”
And for me, crappie can be singular OR plural – as in “I caught a crappie today,” OR “I a caught a whole bunch of crappie today.” I suspect lots of our readers, at least those also from the South, do likewise.
Yet, we also have LOTS of readers and writers, mostly from above the Mason-Dixon line, who routinely use “crappie” as a singular noun but they use “crappies” as the plural version.
Hence, my dilemma as an Editor. Do I edit for my southern counterparts or my northern counterparts?
Dictionary.com says the plural of crappie is crappies. Yet Merriam-Webster.com makes no reference to a plural form of crappie.
I decided to ask the all-knowing, all-seeing Facebook. I posted a poll on the Crappie.com Facebook Page. Obviously, it is not scientific, but the page has more than 35,000 members so I hoped for a reasonably representative sample of replies.
After being posted for 24 hours, the poll result said 120 people believe “crappie” is singular AND plural while only 11 people use “crappies” for the plural form. I was a bit surprised at the wide margin. But again, it’s not scientific and maybe the Crappie.com Facebook Page is stacked heavily with Southerners?
For the record, I tend to defer to each of our CrappieNOW writers. If they use crappie as a plural noun, we publish it the way. The same for those who use crappies as the plural.
The same goes for various crappie nicknames such as specks, speckled perch, papermouths, white perch, calico bass or even the Cajun version, sacalait.
Whatever you call them, in singular or plural, no one will argue that crappie(s) are GREAT to eat. Hence you would be wise to pay a visit to our Recipe section where Vernon Summerlin shares some incredible ways to prepare your filets every month.
Now, head for the water and catch a bunch of crappie(s).
Richard Simms, Editor
“The outdoors is not a place, it’s a state of mind.”
