Prissy Locutions

Recently I have been collecting "prissy locutions" - itself a rather fussy way of describing writing or speech that is excessively fastidious and finely phrased.

(Yes I am aware there might be an element of the kettle calling the pot black here)

As I labor through the second volume of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy - far less pleasing than the first -  the one thing that consistently keeps me entertained is Merv's arcane word choices: anile, fuscous, cruddled, spilths, marcid, phasma, volitant and volitation, gracile. 

That, and his precision phrasing.

For instance, Peake is such a stickler for proper grammar that when a group of characters leave a room, he refers to their ‘exeunt” rather than "exit".

Another prissy locution I came across recently was on some vintage UK television show (can't remember if it was a drama or a doc). A posh, well-spoken character referred to “trades unions” rather than "trade unions". Uttered with a flourish of fastidiousness that drew attention to the fact that he was pointedly saying it the correct way - an audibly dainty emphasis on the  "s" on "trades",  as opposed to the colloquial rendering.

I get the thinking behind "trades unions" - if it's unions plural, then necessarily that's got to be many different trades. Still, something in me remains unconvinced.

Presumably, with this thinking, you would have to refer to "trades unions leaders" rather than "trade union leaders"?  The former is a bit of a tongue-twisty mouthful - all those esses. It might be correct but it sounds wrong. And as we know from the history of language, the vernacular pronunciation will ultimately triumph. 

"Trades unions" is similar to a PL I have heard a bunch of times from British news presenters - "drugs dealers" instead of "drug dealer". And sometimes “drugs dealer” singular.

Again there is a certain logic there - any given dealer is likely dealing more than just the one drug (and dealers as a plurality almost certainly refers to dealing in many different drugs). 

Still, it feels grating and pedantic. The conventional rendering is pleasanter on the ear.