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And/or: Difference between revisions
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In a {{nutshell}} “[[and/or]]” means “[[or]]”, because “[[or]]” includes “[[and]]”. | In a {{nutshell}} “[[and/or]]” means “[[or]]”, because “[[or]]” includes “[[and]]”. | ||
“[[And/or]]” crops up often in mediocre drafting. It has a face only a mother could love. It is borne of the quite unjustified fear that when contemplating a list of alternatives the occurrence of ''any'' of which leads to an certain outcome, one’s plans in that regard might somehow come unstuck if they ''all'' occur. | |||
There is no grounds for this fear. Logically, this is how one defines [[and]] and [[or]]: | |||
{{box| | |||
*{{and}} | *{{and}} | ||
*{{or}} | *{{or}} | ||
}} | |||
And/or is not just ugly; it’s defeatist, because of the presence of the [[virgule]], that whoreson slash, which is not even a part of idiomatic punctuation in the English language. It’s a decoration. It has no fixed grammatical meaning. That slash admits that the plain, punctuated words of the English language have defeated you. | And/or is not just ugly; it’s defeatist, because of the presence of the [[virgule]], that whoreson slash, which is not even a part of idiomatic punctuation in the English language. It’s a decoration. It has no fixed grammatical meaning. That slash admits that the plain, punctuated words of the English language have defeated you. | ||