AP Stylebook: "More than" and "over" now mean the same thing

I say we all head more than to our computers, fire up the internet, find the AP website and fire off an email.

 

Taking it down the serious road for a minute, the explanation for the change from AP Stylebook editor Darrell Christian, via the Poynter article:

“We decided on the change because it has become common usage. We’re not dictating that people use ‘over’ – only that they may use it as well as ‘more than’ to indicate greater numerical value.”

OK, so the driving force is because everybody is doing it. What’s next? Let’s roll with ICYMI or FWIW or any acronym reserved for text messages simply because it’s common.

Thankfully, virtually every newsroom has internal style guides. I hope more than one newsroom doesn’t cave to allowing the use of “over” to indicate quantity.

 

No, actually, I didn't know that. And you weren't spanked, so drop the victim act already.

First of all, there are few sacred cows here, if any. Subjects disintegrate here all the time. You are well aware of that.

And I wouldn't agree this subject did in fact disintegrate. There's been nobody howling about how all of this must be Obama's fault, or anything like that. It turned asinine, to use your word, because we all feel AP has made an asinine decision. Our jokes might be lame in your eyes (or everyone's eyes) but it's a form of commentary. That's how I see it, anyway.

You're welcome to disagree, of course. That's why I suggested you try to take the thread in a different direction. It was a serious suggestion and it still stands.

 

Sorry, I didn't catch that. My bad. Long day. Sorry.

 

The problem with that, unfortunately, is all it's going to take is four, five years, and any copy editor who says, "I'm not ALLOWING 'over' to replace 'more than,' so don't try it," is just going to be looked upon as a dinosaur. So many rules have been loosened already, and the coming generations never knew it was any other way. They just think the copy editor is making arbritary rules on his/her own.

Thank you, Inky. We good. We over good.

 

The reaction to this is a bit ridiculous. Language changes. It's OK. You can stop clutching your old Stylebook to your chest.

There's plenty of other misused words that aren't in the AP Stylebook. It doesn't say you have to use "over" instead of "more than." It isn't even suggested. They just took out the rule that you had to use "more than" in those instances.

If you don't like it and you're a copy editor or reporter, don't fucking use those words. No one is forcing you. You can even have your publication create its own style guide. Most publications do.

 

My guess is (and I was off today, so I don't know) that we will continue to edit as the rule was never loosened.

 

Fuck AP with a rusty hacksaw blade, over and over and over again. "More than," motherfuckers, forever and ever, amen.

 

What's the more than/under on the number of responses before Obama gets the blame/credit?

 

What's AP style for "somebody call the whaaa-mbulance?"

Seriously, the topic was treated with the gravitas it deserves. Some things need only be mocked - this is one of them.

Thanks, Obama.

 

"Ain't" gets used quite a bit in conversation, but you would never put it in print, no matter how often it was used.

While on the subject of word usage, a friend of mine asked me if it was proper English to say or writer "and also." I thought about it for a few seconds and said it wasn't. Yet people do it quite a bit.

Yeah, words may take on new meanings over time, but the meanings of words and proper grammar are not exactly the same.

 

I am sticking with "more than." I will continue to use it when I write, I will continue to change it when I edit and I will continue to yell at reporters and editors who miss it in their stories/edits. Fuck an AP Stylebook.