Do tou refer to a set of bellows, a pair of bellows, or just a bellows?
The word ‘bellows’ is what grammarians and linguists call a plurale tantum item (from Latin meaning “plural only”). It’s used like ‘(eye)glasses’, ‘pants’, ‘trousers’, ‘scissors’, etc. Although such words lack a singular variant for referring to a single object in grammatically correct language, there is a tendency for people to assume and create them based on analogy to words that regularly produce singular and plural forms, e.g., in the fashion industry ‘pant’ is used to refer to one pair of pants and children often call one such cutting tool a ‘scissor’.
I usually say ‘a bellows’ or a ‘set of bellows’ when referring to this thing.
Thanks Khan Krum. If I’m going to play this thing, at least I’ll be able to sound informed when talking about it.