That being so, I’m fine with “ances” so long as discrete plural things are intended and there is sufficient precedence. So “resonances” meaning discrete, measured instances of resonance works for me, but I’d be leery of using “insurances” for insurance policies. Two Reliances would be fine, if you were referring to something like Reliance buses, but I would avoid using two “reliances” for my reliance on two different people.

Ultimately, it comes down to what usage you feel comfortable with (or you think you can get away with) because enough people have used it before you.

And now I’ve made myself slightly crazy and spent a lot of time I REALLY needed to spend on work looking for a perfect short story to suggest to you. And I can’t find it! Argh. My book collection is a bit scattered at present, but if I hunt down that story again, I’ll mention it here. I believe I saw it in a collection. It is about a single guy traveling with a hive alien (and ambassador, I think) in an old world. A lot of it is about the guy trying to puzzle out this extreme racial guilt felt by his hive alien companion. One of the tricks of the story, the most obvious one, is that when the alien’s speech is represented directly, it consists of a vertical set of words and symbols, which looks more like a mathematical equation or computer code than speech.

Ah well. Back to work for me. Thanks again for the suggestion!

In Footfall an advanced species of herd animals is defeated by humans due to they’re inability to understand the concepts of “ruse/stealth/ruthlesness” in war. Very relevant to your article and a great read.

cao