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@EdwinAshworth's comment; and general hilarity regarding the question
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A colleague asked me: what is the plural of "beef Wellington"? (In response to a few comments, I recognise that I am unlikely to be misunderstood in a restaurant no matter how I order multiple of the dish, and that it might even risk worse understanding to seek correctness; but I am also likely to be laughed at for referring in conversation to Jerome Adams and Sylvia Trent-Adams as "our two previous surgeons general", and yet that is how I should properly describe them.)

According to Wiktionary, the plural of "beef Wellington" is "beef Wellingtons". However, according to Wikipedia, the 'Wellington' in "beef Wellington" is a postpositive noun adjunct. Wikipedia further instructs me that, in such constructions, the pluralizing morpheme should be formed by appending it to "the noun" (presumably, in the case of a postpositive noun adjunct, the modified rather than modifying noun). (@EdwinAshworth observes that there is an exception (when isn't there in English?), namely, "This rule does not necessarily apply to phrases with postpositives that have been rigidly fixed into names and titles." To the extent that this can be said to be true of beef Wellington, it seems to me that the same can be said of crêpe Suzette, which I discuss in the next paragraph.)

(I I tried to test this rule on the examples given of postpositive noun adjuncts, but the only one that is not already, in Wikipedia's phrase, "intrinsically … plural" as quoted and whose plural I know is "crêpe Suzette". This indisputably has plural "crêpes Suzette", but I don't know whether it is legitimate to speak of a singular "crêpe Suzette". The link text on the postpositive adjective article uses the singular, but the title of the article to which it links does not. My question applies similarly to the other instances quoted: what, for example, are the plurals of "man Friday", "broccoli raab", "chicken Tetrazzini", and "peach Melba"?)

So I wonder whether it should be "beefs Wellington", or, as my colleague mused, perhaps even "beeves Wellington". (We have discussed 'beeves' elsewhere, but that question does not seem to address this issue, except for observing, for example in comments, that not all senses of 'beef' pluralise as 'beeves'.)

A colleague asked me: what is the plural of "beef Wellington"?

According to Wiktionary, the plural of "beef Wellington" is "beef Wellingtons". However, according to Wikipedia, the 'Wellington' in "beef Wellington" is a postpositive noun adjunct. Wikipedia further instructs me that, in such constructions, the pluralizing morpheme should be formed by appending it to "the noun" (presumably, in the case of a postpositive noun adjunct, the modified rather than modifying noun).

(I tried to test this on the examples given of postpositive noun adjuncts, but the only one that is not already, in Wikipedia's phrase, "intrinsically … plural" as quoted and whose plural I know is "crêpe Suzette". This indisputably has plural "crêpes Suzette", but I don't know whether it is legitimate to speak of a singular "crêpe Suzette". The link text on the postpositive adjective article uses the singular, but the title of the article to which it links does not. My question applies similarly to the other instances quoted: what, for example, are the plurals of "man Friday", "broccoli raab", "chicken Tetrazzini", and "peach Melba"?)

So I wonder whether it should be "beefs Wellington", or, as my colleague mused, perhaps even "beeves Wellington". (We have discussed 'beeves' elsewhere, but that question does not seem to address this issue, except for observing, for example in comments, that not all senses of 'beef' pluralise as 'beeves'.)

A colleague asked: what is the plural of "beef Wellington"? (In response to a few comments, I recognise that I am unlikely to be misunderstood in a restaurant no matter how I order multiple of the dish, and that it might even risk worse understanding to seek correctness; but I am also likely to be laughed at for referring in conversation to Jerome Adams and Sylvia Trent-Adams as "our two previous surgeons general", and yet that is how I should properly describe them.)

According to Wiktionary, the plural of "beef Wellington" is "beef Wellingtons". However, according to Wikipedia, the 'Wellington' in "beef Wellington" is a postpositive noun adjunct. Wikipedia further instructs me that, in such constructions, the pluralizing morpheme should be formed by appending it to "the noun" (presumably, in the case of a postpositive noun adjunct, the modified rather than modifying noun). (@EdwinAshworth observes that there is an exception (when isn't there in English?), namely, "This rule does not necessarily apply to phrases with postpositives that have been rigidly fixed into names and titles." To the extent that this can be said to be true of beef Wellington, it seems to me that the same can be said of crêpe Suzette, which I discuss in the next paragraph.)

I tried to test this rule on the examples given of postpositive noun adjuncts, but the only one that is not already, in Wikipedia's phrase, "intrinsically … plural" as quoted and whose plural I know is "crêpe Suzette". This indisputably has plural "crêpes Suzette", but I don't know whether it is legitimate to speak of a singular "crêpe Suzette". The link text on the postpositive adjective article uses the singular, but the title of the article to which it links does not. My question applies similarly to the other instances quoted: what, for example, are the plurals of "man Friday", "broccoli raab", "chicken Tetrazzini", and "peach Melba"?

So I wonder whether it should be "beefs Wellington", or, as my colleague mused, perhaps even "beeves Wellington". (We have discussed 'beeves' elsewhere, but that question does not seem to address this issue, except for observing, for example in comments, that not all senses of 'beef' pluralise as 'beeves'.)

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Plural of "beef Wellington"

A colleague asked me: what is the plural of "beef Wellington"?

According to Wiktionary, the plural of "beef Wellington" is "beef Wellingtons". However, according to Wikipedia, the 'Wellington' in "beef Wellington" is a postpositive noun adjunct. Wikipedia further instructs me that, in such constructions, the pluralizing morpheme should be formed by appending it to "the noun" (presumably, in the case of a postpositive noun adjunct, the modified rather than modifying noun).

(I tried to test this on the examples given of postpositive noun adjuncts, but the only one that is not already, in Wikipedia's phrase, "intrinsically … plural" as quoted and whose plural I know is "crêpe Suzette". This indisputably has plural "crêpes Suzette", but I don't know whether it is legitimate to speak of a singular "crêpe Suzette". The link text on the postpositive adjective article uses the singular, but the title of the article to which it links does not. My question applies similarly to the other instances quoted: what, for example, are the plurals of "man Friday", "broccoli raab", "chicken Tetrazzini", and "peach Melba"?)

So I wonder whether it should be "beefs Wellington", or, as my colleague mused, perhaps even "beeves Wellington". (We have discussed 'beeves' elsewhere, but that question does not seem to address this issue, except for observing, for example in comments, that not all senses of 'beef' pluralise as 'beeves'.)