The word for today, "dermatoglyphics," got me thinking about adjectives used as nouns. As with words such as "optics" and "metrics," an adjective can be used as a noun when it is referring to a field of study; however, dermatoglyphics are also the subjects studied within this field. My instinctual reaction is to want to use “dermatoglyphs” as the plural noun. In my work life I rail against the use of such things as "deliverables" to describe the product we will deliver. Am I wrong? Is there a rule in English to govern the use of adjectives as nouns, or is it simply inherited on a case-by-case basis?

Last edited by kmatchstick; 03/13/2009 3:52 PM.