Imralu wrote:Ah. I have to disagree with you there. The real plural of wug is ickens. It's suppletive.
This makes the most sense, as we recall the name of that most praiseworthy 19th century author Charles Ickens, and all those of the Ickens flock. There are also the place-names Ickenswich, Ickenstown, Ickens Rowe, Ickensbight, Upper Ickenborough, Ickensmire, and Ickens-in-hand, which possibly is a reference to the old saw 'a wug in yer hand is worth two ickens in the smeuse'. And who could forget the infamous Manson-Ickens Line, which demarcated the slave-states from the free in the
.
There are some dialects, however, which have preserved an alternate plural
uggens. Cf. the toponyms Uggenswythe, Nether Uggensdorf, Uggensby, Uggenslea (subject of
Uggens Lea - A Dorstop Folksong), Uggenamoot, Greater Uggensgate, East Uggenston (whose football team 'the Uggenston Wugs' is a real turducken of a turn of phrase). It is possible that the form *uggen is a holdover from the Danelaw (Cf.
N.PL
uggin 'turtledoves', 'snipes', 'quail').
And, lest we forget that wonderful Scottish poem "I saw twa uggens".