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Forum:Etc. vs et al.: Difference between revisions
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::::: Ngl, "et alibi/alia" seems obtuse and pedantic. It mat be technically correct, but how many casual readers — or editors for that matter — actually know it exists? I certainly never heard of it before this thread, nor have I since in any other situation. And I read a lot. My preference goes "etc" -> "et alibi/alia" -> "et al". | ::::: Ngl, "et alibi/alia" seems obtuse and pedantic. It mat be technically correct, but how many casual readers — or editors for that matter — actually know it exists? I certainly never heard of it before this thread, nor have I since in any other situation. And I read a lot. My preference goes "etc" -> "et alibi/alia" -> "et al". | ||
::::: "Etc" may not be quite precise enough, but it communicates a general idea that everyone understands. {{User:Epsilon the Eternal/signature}} 21:52, 17 December 2023 (UTC) | ::::: "Etc" may not be quite precise enough, but it communicates a general idea that everyone understands. {{User:Epsilon the Eternal/signature}} 21:52, 17 December 2023 (UTC) | ||
:::::: Epsilon, maybe Najawin and I haven't been sufficiently clear: no one is suggesting that we type out ''et alibi''! The suggestion is that we would type ''et al'' – which surely you've seen many times, both on the wiki and off it – with the understanding that it stands for ''et alibi''. Which it validly does. | |||
{{quote|In lists of places, ''et alibi'' may be used, which is also abbreviated ''et al.''; ''et alibi'' means "and elsewhere".|{{w|Et cetera#Similar Latin expressions|Wikipedia}}}} | |||
:::::: Sure, maybe it's obtuse and pedantic. Unfortunately, [[Tardis:Citation]] forced us into the obtusity and pedantry game years ago by proscribing ''et al'' in the first place. If we're going to be obtuse and pedantic either way, we'd might as well bother to be ''correct''. | |||
:::::: Jack, to be clear, unless you have new arguments against the analysis presented in the OP and by Najawin in the discussion section, it's ''etc'', not ''et al'', which is being misused in our citations. – [[User:NateBumber|NateBumber]] ([[User talk:NateBumber|☎]]) 22:49, 17 December 2023 (UTC) | |||
