This is my first post although I have been a member for a little while. So I thought I would get some thoughts of other members regarding this topic. I have always struggled with this one. What is the plural of "Walkman"? According to Sony it is "Walkman Personal Stereos" (from yahoo answers). But that is not really practical. What do you like to call more than one Walkman? I am currently using "Walkmen" but I am not completely comfortable with either. As an enthusiast if you had a chance to add a word to the dictionary which one would it be?

Ugh!! Got the heading wrong. It should say Walkmen or Walkmans.

LOL!! Don't concern yourself with that. As long as you have them in plural, you're good! But I think it is walkmans. Walkman personal stereos is an unnecessarily long title since walkman is a synonym for a portable personal stereo. I like WALKMANs as it keeps the WALKMAN word intact rather than the walkmEn. I always wondered about that too!!!

it is Walkmans!

A definite conundrum (A confusing and difficult problem or question) !! If we look at the way the word came to exist may shed some light onto a solution. The word was created as a name for a item by a foreign language speaking country and is a TRADEMARK. Choice of WALK can be easily understood as it is a device that for the most part is used walking or running ( people walk far more than run). As for the second part of the word MAN is often used in English as a overall term describing a single male person or often to mean Homo Sapien ( Human Beings not GENDER specific). Thus MAN could be considered term to equate all people of planet earth. Since in the late 70's the equality of women had not established itself in high levels of business and Sony was a very autocratic run company ( basically Morita made all decisions) it was a MAN's world so Sony felt comfortable with use of the word "MAN" to cover meaning ALL PEOPLE. I do not think "WALKWOMAN" was a consideration. Oh I am so sure WALKGIRL is going to jump on this comment! So in a sense MAN used in this term is itself plural. Wikipedia : " man is sometimes used to refer to humanity as a whole." Yet to describe my collection of hundreds of "WALKMAN" does not seem to sound right. To add a "S" to the end of word making WALKMANS also seems to not be right sounding mostly because part of word "man" already has connotation of plural. Finally to change last half of word to "MEN" plural for man ( except when used as meaning all human species) has its own unique problem. Although changing man to men would be normally the standard English language solution it changes a word that was created and became a official word describing a SINGLE ITEM the "WALKMAN" cassette portable player. It just sounds wrong because the world knows the word WALKMAN. Officially WalkMEN is not a word in dictionary adding to its incorrectness to use.

So we are still left with no real correct solution sadly. The trademark became a official word denoting a single portable cassette player and never had or has a official plural. There you have a none English major's objective observation with not even a subjective solution. A conundrum indeed!!

YOU ARE LEFT TO CHOOSE YOUR OWN SOLUTION

A GRAND excellent question Cooldude. What does the rest of the forum members think and intend to use for the plural of "WALKMAN"?

Walkwoman. Lol. I didn't think of that one. I think that's cool.

How about Walkpersons if you want to be politically correct!

Walkperson! I wonder if Sony would ever consider that.

You guys made my day