@ScottS You’re probably right about HALOT. I wish it came with a decoder. The subtle use of punctuation: דָּג...: fish Jon 21.11, coll. Neh 1316; pl. 1K 1513 Jb 4031 Qoh 912, דְּגֵי הַיָּם Gn 92 Nu 1122...; שַׁעַר הַדָּגִים → ‏שַׁעַר‎ 4e. Der. ‏דָּגָה‎, *‏דַּוָּג‎, ‏דיג‎, ‏דַּיָּג‎, ‏דּוּגָה. So what’s the difference between the semicolon and the comma, exactly?

(I included that last part because it’s even more strange to me - the gate of the fish(es)? Which has what to do with what?)

The following entry on דָּגָה does seem to be making the point about it being a single fish, anyway. (? rd. → הַדָּג...like maybe somebody put the he on the wrong end?)

@Susan "So what’s the difference between the semicolon and the comma, exactly?" : comma separates elements within a "(sub)meaning", semicolon for separating "(sub)meanings".

@Susan Wot, the Fish Gate? I'm within near walking distance of what might be called "the gate of cow(s)", normally referred to as "the Cowgate". It's near Grassmarket, Haymarket, Fleshmarket (!), and the (more distant) Cornmarket.

@Susan But interesting that both HALOT and BDB both have distinct entries for the msc. and fem. forms, and discern a difference of semantic nuance between them. Wonder what DCH does.

@Davïd OK, so I think that means “coll” applies only to Nehemiah? As Scott said.

@Davïd OK, now I’m totally confused. Does שַׁעַר הַדָּגִים mean something other than “the gate of fishes” there (I see there are a zillion meanings for שער... that’s just the one I know), or was your reply supposed to somehow inform on that meaning? There doesn’t seem to be a related reference in that entry. I don’t know what “4e” means.

@Susan Yes, "coll[ective]" goes with Neh 13:16 -- still nowt to do with Jonah, though.

@Susan :) ("4e"?) Just a gate where they sold fish, I reckon.

@Davïd I like how the Baylor Handbook says, ‘Although there are several Hebrew words that may be either masculine or feminine, דג is not one of them.’ Kinda seems like it is, eh?

@Davïd "שַׁעַר הַדָּגִים → ‏שַׁעַר‎ 4e." It seems like “4e” is somehow related. I also don’t understand why they’re referring to some gate somewhere that has no textual reference. Whatever.

@Susan Ah, I think they mean that dag and dagah are different words, unlike e.g. ruach which can be grammatically either msc or fem.

@Susan I see -- actually looking at it now :) -- they mean sub-section 4e in the sha'ar entry.

@Davïd Oh, I see. Seems kind of irrelevant then. (Why would it be helpful for addressing this problem if dag could be either masculine or feminine? No verbs anyway. That’s not the problem.)

@Susan Right - you saw that already. ... But now leads to a "wha?!" -- as there is no "4e" under שַׁעַר - has to mean 4d, "the gate as a place of trade".

@Davïd Oh, finally, makes sense. Interesting, at the top of the entry on שער it indicates that that word can be either masc. or fem.? (That first vowel is....? I thought patach was just construct but the Is 14:31 ref there is also patach.)

@Susan Almost - limited number of "fem" occurrences (3 in MT + 2 more in Samaritan Pentateuch?) for a predominantly msc lexeme.

This starts to suggest why the reference grammars/syntax books have such substantial discussions on "agreement"!

Anyone? Was this question ever edited, as per the comment? I don't see any edit history as I type.

@Davïd There was a suggested edit. That I rejected.

My rejection reason had to do with bogus use of formatting options. I didn't even catch that any re-wording that had happened through the formatting problems.

@Davïd On further review I don't see any evidence that the edit I rejected had any content differences that would effect the state of the question as described in that comment.

@Caleb Thanks - I wondered if it was something like that. Grateful, too, for your wider reformatting exercise. :)

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@Davïd I found the “concise” version of DCH, also two entries. Dag:

> 19.0.6 n.m.—‏דָּאג‎; pl. ‏דָּגִים‎; cstr. ‏דְּגֵי—fish, as coll. only Ne 1316; דְּגֵי הַיָּם fishes of the sea Gn 92, שַׁעַר הַדָּגִים fish Gate Zp 110. → דיג fish; cf. דָּגָה fish.

And dagah:

> 15.0.1 n.f.—cstr. דְּגַת; sf. דְּגָתָם—fish, as coll. (exc. Jon 22), דְּגַת הַיָּם fish of the sea Gn 126. → דיג fish; cf. דָּג fish.

Indicating that the latter is most often the collective, apparently. The frequency stats are helpful.