Re:Cameras and Lenses
by jeffreyrogers on Sunday December 13, 2020 @06:56PM
(#25411753)
> in common use it is understood to be plural
Nothing in what you wrote contradicts what I stated. The man on the street thinks they is plural, and nearly all writing treats it that way. Historical examples excepted.
It is grammatically plural, but it has been accepted for semantically singular use since long before the Victorian effort to impose Latin-inspired rules on English usage which failed to eradicate it despite intense effort. (Victorian prescriptivism did have some good effects — regularized spelling FTW — but trying to eradicate clear and useful usages like singular “they” was one of its less-well-considered, but fortunately also less-successful, efforts.)