Thread: Courts-martial
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Old 13-May-2004, 04:25 PM
Stuart Stuart is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2002
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Default Re: Courts-martial

Quote:
Originally Posted by SciFi Chick
No, this is not a political thread. It's a point of grammar. I can't remember why it's courts-martial instead of court-martials. And even though I know it's courts-martial, and I'm normally a stickler for correct grammar, it just sounds wrong. So, I propose we just make this an exception to whatever rule it follows. Anyone with me?
Martial is the adjective; its defining a specific sub-set of courts. IIRC back in the old days there were military courts, secular courts and ecclesiastical courts plus several others. I can vaguely remember reading a reference to Courts-Royal in the trial of somebody or other but I can't remember the context.
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