Waters for two

An old thought that I had written a couple of years back but never posted. This was on my dilemma on the usage of word water, which is singular in almost all languages. The thought was on …

…my conversation with a Dutch air host serving on the plane from Amsterdam to Liverpool made me realise this. It started when my request for 2 bottles of water must have been a little inaudible, so he brings his ears close to me and I repeat - two water? In confirmation he utters “two waters!” and then he goes down deep inside somewhere in his trolley to magically appear back with a couple of bottles of still mineral water. Meanwhile, I have already gotten into a thought process re-interrogating the usage of word ‘water’ in my head. I had learnt in school that water is neither singular nor plural, therefore is just referred as Water, and when in abundance becomes a plural form. Similarly, like the word expanses for expanse. However his calling ‘two waters’ rather than ‘two water’ did make sense. This is because we have been able to divide water by putting it (maybe them) into bottles.