On 2006-01-10 09:03:55 -0800, B said:

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:49:15 +0000, Padraig Breathnach
wrote:

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

Again, in English I think graffiti is uncountable, noting that English
has got a good knack of defying rules. Graffito doesn't sound right to
me.

I use the word 'graffito' in some circles. Where I feel that people
might regard it as odd, and I want to refer to a single message or
image,

However, the singular "graffito" in Italian wouldn't mean a single
message scrawled on a wall. It would mean something carved or incised.
The term graffiti derives from the fact that in ancient times, these
messages were actually incised on walls with a stone or a blade. I
don't think the word is ever used in the singular to refer to what we
call graffiti, which are generally no longer carved, but spray
painted. I would suggest you use graffiti for a single message and
think of it as individual characters (scratched on a wall, if you
will) which constitute a message, and then your precision will be
placated.

I'm trying to think of an English analogy, where a word in the plural
is used to refer to a different thing as one in the singular, but I
can't think of one.

Now that's settled can I have a panino ? Or do I have to ask for just
one panini, please? bill