"lice" as a collective noun.

[Mars80]

Can you use "lice" as a collective noun? I've heard people say things like "lice doesn't float", with that use of "doesn't" suggesting it becoming a collective noun.

[linguoboy]

Me personally? No.

However, singular agreement sounds unobjectionable if used to designate the condition of having a lice infestation rather than to talk about actual vermin. E.g. "It is true that if head lice is not checked, treated and cleared from the classroom, family, and social environments, it will continue to spread." (In the same way that I don't blink at "Measles is caused by a virus.")

[dEhiN]

Can you use "lice" as a collective noun? I've heard people say things like "lice doesn't float", with that use of "doesn't" suggesting it becoming a collective noun.

Yeah I agree with linguoboy; it's the plural form of louse (which I didn't know until I looked it up just now!). As such, I think it should really be "lice don't float". And as linguoboy also said, when talking about the condition of having lice, singular agreement is usually (maybe even always?) used. Probably because a single louse is so small, you can't really speak of having a louse on your head*. If you've heard "lice doesn't float" it's probably due to a misbelief that since lice is used in singular when speaking of an infestation, it is a collective noun and could be used with singular agreement anywhere.

*I'm not sure why we use the plural for infestation of "louse" but not for "ant". Confer "ant infestation" versus "lice infestation" or "ant problem" versus "lice problem". One possibility is due to the size of a single louse versus ant?

[linguoboy]

*I'm not sure why we use the plural for infestation of "louse" but not for "ant". Confer "ant infestation" versus "lice infestation" or "ant problem" versus "lice problem". One possibility is due to the size of a single louse versus ant?

Or possibly markedness. I think lice is used so much more often than louse that it might be considered the unmarked form, event though in general plurals are considered more marked than singulars in English.