; half, halves; elf, elves;
shelf, shelves; self, selves; wolf, wolves_. Three others in _fe_ are
similar: _life, lives; knife, knives; wife, wives._ These are specific
exceptions to the general rule for plurals, and not a series of examples
coming under a particular rule; for, contrary to the instructions of nearly
all our grammarians, there are more than twice as many words of the same
endings, which take _s_ only: as, _chiefs, kerchiefs, handkerchiefs,
mischiefs, beliefs, misbeliefs, reliefs, bassreliefs, briefs, feifs,
griefs, clefs, semibrefs, oafs, waifs, coifs, gulfs, hoofs, roofs, proofs,
reproofs, woofs, califs, turfs, scarfs, dwarfs, wharfs, fifes, strifes,
safes._ The plural of _wharf_ is sometimes written _wharves_; but perhaps
as frequently, and, if so, more accurately, _wharfs_. Examples and
authorities: "_Wharf, wharfs_."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 80; _Ward's_, 24;
_Goar's_, 26; _Lennie's_, 7; _Bucke's_, 39. "There were not in London so
many _wharfs_, or _keys_, for the landing of merchants' goods."--CHILD: _in
Johnson's Dict._ "The _wharfs_ of Boston are also worthy of
notice."--_Balbi's Geog._, p. 37. "Between banks thickly clad with
dwelling-houses, manufactories, and _wharfs_."_--London Morn. Chronicle_,
1833. Nouns in _ff_ take _s_ only; as, _skiffs, stuffs, gaffs_. But the
plural of _staff_ has hitherto been generally written _staves_; a puzzling
and useless anomaly, both in form and sound: for all the compounds of
_staff_ are regular; as, _distaffs, whipstaffs, tipstaffs, flagstaffs,
quarterstaffs_; and _staves_ is the regular plural of _stave_, a word now
in very common use with a different meaning, as every cooper and every
musician knows. _Staffs_ is now sometimes used; as, "I saw the husbandmen
bending over their _staffs_."--_Lord Carnarvon_. "With their _staffs_ in
their hands for very age."--_Hope of Israel_, p. 16. "To distinguish
between the two _staffs_."--_Comstock's Elocution_, p. 43. In one instance,
I observe, a very excellent scholar has written _selfs_ for _selves_, but
the latter is the established plural of _self_:

"Self-love would cease, or be dilated, when
We should behold as many _selfs_ as men."_--Waller's Poems_, p. 55.

OBS. 19.--Of nouns purely English, the following thirteen are the only
simple words that form distinct plurals not ending in _s_ or _es_, and four
of these are often regular: _man, men; woman, women; child, children;
brother, brethren_ or _brothers; ox