(no subject)

[narcasse]

Growing up I was always taught that ‘e.g.’ as the abbreviation of ‘exempli gratia’ was the correct abbreviation to use when providing examples while ‘ex.’ meant ‘excluding’ and yet today I’ve seen the latter as an abbreviation for ‘examples’ again. Or at least I think that that's what was meant, either that or Sebastian’s been pre-emptively cut out as a topic for a fanfiction contest for some reason. I’ve seen ‘ex.’ used before but that was by someone who’d made a pig’s ear of the entire content of what they were trying to say so that they’d used Ron Weasley as an example of a real world actor. So I ask you, non-British (and possibly non-Commonwealth as well) flist, is this 'ex.' abbreviation indeed acceptable form beyond the boundaries of Her Britannic Majesty’s great empire?

In other news: Datacenter Innovation from DreamHost, a slightly different aesthetic to the Large Hadron Collider.

Comments

[7veilsphaedra.livejournal.com]

Not in any of the places I was educated, either in Canada or overseas. The correct symbol here for 'for example' is eg., although using it is slapdash and might indicate areas of sloppy, fallacy-ridden argument.

[reichsfreiherr.livejournal.com]

Having looked again at the contest info page you linked on your LJ they’re definitely using ‘ex.’ as ‘example’ unless there really are some very specific exclusions going on there.

[7veilsphaedra.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's one of those odd internet-driven adaptations of the language, something someone decided made more sense, which has become conventional through being splattered on enough sites that people started to wonder if they were spelling it incorrectly when they weren't. Language has this oddly malleable, gyroscopic quality. After being bullied throughout the 80s with American Heritage and Chicago Tribune Manual of Style, then rediscovering this strangely nationalistic pride in Canadian Gage during the 90s, and then this weirdly blended British-American-Canadian internet driven mishmash, I'll be damned if I know the rules anymore. I start to snicker a bit hysterically when editors get all uptight and righteous about things like commas though.

[blasphemiliar.livejournal.com]

is this 'ex.' abbreviation indeed acceptable form beyond the boundaries of Her Britannic Majesty’s great empire?

This is the first place I've seen 'ex.' used in that way. I'm surprised.

[reichsfreiherr.livejournal.com]

I saw it used once before in the abovementioned example which had too much wrong with it for me to consider any of it consistent English usage but this time (http://community.livejournal.com/boysnextdoor/127897.html) there’s a list which really does suggest that they mean it to be ‘example’.