The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #60703   Message #972914
Posted By: JohnInKansas
26-Jun-03 - 04:49 PM
Thread Name: BS: Commonly misspelled/mispronounced words
Subject: RE: BS: Commonly misspelled/mispronounced words
I note one above that doesn't seem to bug many people, but the "as" in "as per" is redundant. "Per The American Heritage Dictionary" would have been sufficient.

Probably the most ubiquitous nonsense usage is the "times more" and "times less" construction. If you do something once more, you've done it twice. If you do it "two times more" you've done it "thrice," or three times. Two times two is four, but two times more than two is six.

Even worse is the "hundred times less" - which of course, in most cases should be "hundred times fewer" for any but total illiterates, but once less means it's all gone, so anything more than "one times" less (or "one times" smaller) apparently means the person is operating in some plane of reality where "multiply absent" means something to them. To me, it means the user is illiterate, or is in advertising, where lying is acceptable and expected.

John