Out of all the alterations of proper English possible, how did the new word 'alot' come into internet 'English'?

lanfranco

Probably simply for the sake of convenience -- people type quickly on the Internet and sometimes have little room in which to do it. "A lot" is frowned upon in formal English but is often used in colloquial speech and writing, and I have sadly seen it in student essays ("Michelangelo made a lot of stuff"). It's not surprising that these two words should have been contracted to one in rapid Internet communications and, now, text messaging. Jan 30 06, 5:46 PM

SOTHC

It originated in the time of King Arthur when a knight was plagued with boils and they had to lance alot Jan 30 06, 5:57 PM

soonappear

To save keystrokes. http://www.noslang.com/dictionary.php Perhaps lanfranco's student should have written, "Michelangelo's profuse oeuvre ..." Jan 30 06, 6:41 PM

satguru

Wow, there are some classics there I can't mention on Funtrivia directly ;) Let's hope they stay in the world of screens and don't find their way into The Times- eg ALOT OF PPL KILLED IN MIDDLE EAST TUESDAY God forbid... (oh, and let's hope they do Lance alot- best thing for it!) Jan 30 06, 6:53 PM

lanfranco

Sorry, soon, but "Michelangelo's profuse oeuvre" is such bad writing that I still would have given it a C+ for form -- maybe a B- if I'd been in a good mood. Jan 30 06, 7:06 PM

soonappear

tx4 c+ lan. Apart from the verbosity in "Michelangelo's profuse oeuvre ...", how would you paraphrase "Michelangelo made a lot of stuff" so that it wasn't 'such bad writing' (sic)? Jan 30 06, 8:19 PM

lanfranco

The problem isn't verbosity, which simply means "too many words," it's pretentious language. Here's a sentence from a good paper on Michelangelo written by a 20-year-old whom I once taught (forgive me, R.Y., wherever you are): "Owing to his versatility and interest in experimenting, Michelangelo worked in all branches of the arts and was able to achieve distinction in each of them." Clear and straightforward, but also reasonably well-written and offering some useful information. Jan 30 06, 9:47 PM

Baloo55th

"Alot" isn't internet stuff. It predates the internet's universality and is just an example of ignorance like 'thankyou'. It has been common in schoolwork for many years - just as "it's" meaning belong to it rather than "it is". Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying we should go back to writing "a numpire" instead of "an umpire". I'm saying we don't need contractions like "alot" which have neither the excuse of linguistic fluidity like the umpire example not the excuse of greater clarity. The excuse of saving keystrokes reminds me of the Victorian (I think) who proposed the economy measure of leaving full stops and commas out of addresses to save ink. Feb 01 06, 6:26 PM

minuscule_

Altho, as an aside, contractions bring us asunder. Feb 01 06, 7:07 PM