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The vast majority of the time when I see the word "myriad" it is in a sentence like "He had a myriad of things." However I don't like the extraneous words so I normally use it like "He had myriad things." My boss corrected the latter usage while editing something I wrote.
I averted an argument by simply changing the sentence to "He had various things." but was I incorrect?
From TheFreeDictionary.com regarding myriad
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.
Myriad - 10,000 (from greek 'murioi')
Therefore:
10,000 men - myriad men
not:
10,000 of men - myriad of men
Of course, in modern English usage, it is often not used to mean exactly 10,000; just the way 'dozens' and 'hundreds' get used loosely, this has now come to simply mean 'a great many' in most cases.
The form remains the same, though. 'Myriad' should stand alone without 'of' following.
Hope that helps.
N.B.: Also, with regards to the question, 'myriad' can also be used to refer to something with a wide variety of elements/parts - "the myriad political scene" from OED - Here you see that 'political scene' is singular. So you could say:
The myriad things in his office - meaning 'the many items in his office.'
or something like:
The myriad apparatus/paraphernalia in his office - meaning 'the wide variety of items'
Myriad can be used both ways. It is an adjective meaning various and can be used the way you do. It is also a noun meaning a great number (originally 10,000). So it can be used the way your boss does. So it would depend on the way you are using it. Are you meaning "various" or "a great number"
Both are used. I tend to find myself saying "A myriad of...", possibly because "myriad" isn't a normal number like "million" etc.
I don't think people generally use "myriad" exactly like quantifiers such as "various", however.
"myriad" is the same sort of word as "dozen" or "score". Where you would have "a dozen men", you could equally find "a myriad men", but not "dozen men" or "myriad men". As stated before, myriad = 10 000, although this figure is rarely what is meant (a myriad is rather a lot).
Using the word "of" suggests that the men collectively make up a group called "a myriad", as in "a gang of men" (the men together make up a group called a "gang"). I'm not sure about "a handful of men", since it only has this figurative meaning when combined with "of" - you wouldn't call the men a "handful" (that's a different meaning again). However, the usage of "of" is widespread, and so has to be accepted.
Languages evolve and change. Definitions are constantly being rewritten as new ones develop or are tossed aside. The majority usage of myriad as a noun has come to define it as a noun as well. Thusly, myriad is both a noun and an adjective. The old definition as an adjective has become awkward. For all intents and purposes, it would do you much better to write "I have a myriad of things" instead of "I have a myriad things". It sounds better, it looks better, and it comes across much more smoothly.
It depends on how you use it. If the number is specific to 10,000 then you say, "10,000 men". But if you aren't being specific, you'd say, "thousands of men". So can't I apply this to myriad?
If myriad literally means 10,000 then you would not say "a myriad of things" just as you would not say "a 10,000 of things". Even when myriad is used to mean simply "many" or "several" you would still not say "a many of things" or "a several of things".
I have many ideas in my head. I have several ideas in my head. I have myriad ideas in my head. I have 10,000 ideas in my head.
I don't have a many of ideas, nor do I have a myriad of ideas.
I think of myriad as a grouping, like a fleet of ships or a pride of lions. I don't know why, it just feels like that to me. So "of" makes sense if you think of the word like that.
