OK, so maybe Monday isn’t the best day of the week to post blog entries. I thought I would be able to get into a routine if I forced the issue, but it turns out Mondays are just a little bit more hectic than other days of the week. Not to mention I am more tired and less motivated so soon after the weekend. I am thinking Wednesdays or Thursdays may be better blog update days. I’m trying Wednesday this week, and we’ll see how well it goes.
Today I want to bring attention to another grammar bugaboo of mine: a particular misuse of the words over and under. It happens all the time — advertisements hype “over 200 exercises” that can be done on that flexible weight machine in your basement (if only you could make yourself go down there and clean the dust off it), and brochures tell you it takes “under five minutes” to get to their cider mill from the highway. What they really mean is more than and less than.
In fact, over means above, and under means below. If you don’t believe me, look the words over and under up in Webster’s. Not one of the many variations on each definition contains anything even close to more than or less than.
Now, most untrained minds will not even notice the mistake. But, aside from my snobbish intolerance of misused words, other, more practical issues of clarity could arise from this error, doubling its annoying factor. If I say, “I am under a hundred pounds,” do you assume: (a) that I am underweight, or (b) that I am in danger of being squashed by tenuously hanging dumbbells?
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Over has been meaning more than since Old English — the OED has an attestation from 1175 of “over a mile” to mean “more than one mile” (it’s definition III.13 in the OED). And the online Merriam-Webster dictionary also lists “mote then” as an acceptable definition of over.
If it’s a matter of untrained minds misusing it, then Jane Austen’s an untrained mind.
Comment by Gabe May 1, 2008 @ 2:32 pmI told you I was a snob, didn’t I? “Acceptable” usage is not necessarily correct or accurate usage as far as I’m concerned. You’ve got me on the OED’s definition, but I still maintain that Webster’s print dictionary presents the most accurate and authoritative American usage available.
“Now, a brief historical note: During the American Civil war, apparently it was quite common for under-aged boys to falsely swear, ‘I’m over 18′ so they could be in the army. The story goes that quite a few of them wrote the number ‘18′ on a slip of paper and put it in the bottom of one of their shoes prior to arriving at the recruiting office, thus technically validating their oath” (Betalogue – http://www.betalogue.com/2004/01/13/more-than-vs-over/).
To me, using over to mean more than is vague and allows for misinterpretation, which is unacceptable. If you have the words to say it best, why wouldn’t you?
Comment by editorialcourses May 1, 2008 @ 7:05 pmI can understand wanting to avoid ambiguous usage, so in that regard I can see personally preferring “more than”.
As for the snobbery, though, this isn’t a matter of merely acceptable usage. This is both correct and accurate usage, and has been for nearly a millennium. Noah Webster himself puts in his Dictionary for Primary Schools that over means “more than” (p. 201), so if Webster’s current dictionary disallows that, it must have been after Webster’s death. Given how often “over” is used to mean “more than” in American English, a dictionary that doesn’t include some mention of this fact, not even to condemn it, seems neither accurate nor authoritative on American English usage.
Comment by Gabe May 1, 2008 @ 7:56 pmHey, I’d like to invite you to my Grammar Group:
Comment by robertstevenson May 5, 2008 @ 9:14 amhttp://www.blogcatalog.com/group/the-grammar-group
[...] 21, 2008 in grammar, history, modification, speech, words, writing Did I miss the memo? Suddenly all the grammar snobs on the snobosphere are debating whether over is an improper substitute for more [...]
Pingback by over = more than « Motivated Grammar May 21, 2008 @ 3:20 pmIf I say, “I am under a hundred pounds,” do you assume: (a) that I am underweight, or (b) that I am in danger of being squashed by tenuously hanging dumbbells?
I assume (a), since that is the only reasonable assumption based on context and real-world knowledge.
Comment by goofy May 23, 2008 @ 12:21 pm