Have you ever seen 'Et All' used as a salutation?

[motely36]

I noticed that a coworker uses it in emails. I have never heard of this before. I think of the term 'et al' as meaning 'and others' or 'etc', but have never seen or heard the phrase 'et all'.

What say the grammarians of the lounge?

[trof]

1. Example?

[motely36]

10. like the following

Et All:

Sorry I am an idiot.

Regards,
x

[Orrex]

16. Haven't seen that one, but

I've seen this one several times:

"In lieu of the recent incident, all lunches should be labeled with their owner's names."

And that's where they put the apostrophe, too.

[trof]

23. Aw jeez. D-U-umb.

:eyes:

[Dervill Crow]

2. LOL - is the coworker a freeper? nt

[motely36]

11. I don't know

I really don't know the person that well.

I have now seen two emails from them done this way. They were sent all company.

[Dervill Crow]

17. As you said, "et al" means "and others."

One of the main lessons I've tried to teach my kids and a rule that I try to follow is, "If you don't know what something means, don't say it, and for God/dess's sake don't put it in writing!" Especially an e-mail to a whole company.
:blush:

[flvegan]

3. Never heard of it.

[LynzM]

4. You're correct.

It's not meant to be used as a salutation, so far as I've ever seen, or read about. It's like saying "Dear and others..."

[motely36]

12. They don't even uses the dear

Its just Et all:

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Your COWorker is trying to look superior, but showing her utter contempt for real knowledge

et all is meaningless.

And is that all that she uses as a salutation? Like this:

Et All,

Please remember to bring your butt plugs to tomorrow's in-house team-building exercise.

E.G.,
Moran



Because if she is, she not only has the wrong spelling, she's totally misusing what she's trying to use in the first place.

Idiot.

Hit her in the face with a striped bass.

She's either a Republican, an Evangelical, or she sells Avon, Lia Sophia, Home Interiors, Pampered Chef, or Mary Kay, right?

[trof]

7. Yeah, what he said. But I'd use an electric bass.

;-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. a solid body electric bass.

With a uranium core, just to drive up the mass a ludicrous amount.

[trof]

20. You always top me.

:-(

[motely36]

9. Your example is how he uses it

:shrug:

[MorningGlow]

6. Whoo! That's quite the mashup

You're right--"et al." is short for the Latin "et alia", which means "and others", but "et all" is SOOOO wrong. This grammarian says ouchie. x(

How do they use it? "To President Joe et all"? (ick) or as an opening greeting? "Et all--The meeting today is cancelled"? (mongo ick!)

[WildEyedLiberal]

13. That's painful

It hurts my brain.

[petronius]

14. That's definitely nonsense - what's wrong with "Hi all -" or just "All -"?

[av8rdave]

15. Et All! How's it going?

No, doesn't sound right.

Et Tu, Brute?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

18. What a

maroon.

The coworker is a doofus.

Unless of course I am living in the bizarro world of upsidedownsville.

[jobycom]

19. "et al." means either "and others" or "and elsewhere." Maybe he means "Att: All?"

Et all is southern, for "having eaten the entire amount offered."

"et al" usually is used to refer to a known group, not a random number of others. "Monica et al." implies Monica and the group associated with her for whatever reasons you are talking about her. If Monica and her department wrote the report, then "Monica et al." implies Monica and the rest of the group, which would generally be known to the reader, more than meaning "Monica and a bunch of other people random people."

"et al." can also mean "and elsewhere," as in "Refered to in footnote 17 et al."

Often "Attention: All" is shortened to "Att: All." Maybe he is trying to say that, or heard it read once and misunderstood it. I had a friend in college--a decent writer--who used to spell "fulfill" "fofill" because he heard it used as a kid and spelled it that way in his head. Never could correct him. We used to profread papers for him, and it was always misspelled. I don't think he could disconnect the wiring long enough to change it.

You could try a couple of things if you want to correct him. One would be subtle, as in sending a reply with "Att: All" in the header. Might force him to look it up. Or use "et al." properly someplace in the text. Or you could be bold and just tell him--some people are good at taking corrections, others not. Or you could leave an anonymous note: "Thought you might need to know, you are misspelling "Att: All" in your documents."

Just my thoughts.

[Lavender Brown]

21. I've heard it

I work at a law firm that goes by the name of various partners, and a vendor once called and asked to speak to "Mr. Etal?" Et-AHL, like that was someone's last name. :eyes:

[Callalily]

22. Well actually,

I use et alia (nuter plural) a lot, which references a lot of people.

Also when referencing a lot of people, et alii is used as a masculine plural while et aliae is used as a feminine plural.

Anyway, that's the way I've always understood it.

[Duer 157099]

24. Well, what about this:

Perhaps they are using the French "et" as in "hey" without the H. So, like the Canadian "Eh" (pronounced like a long "a")

So, it'd be "A All" - sounds like "hey all"

Either that or they're just really really stupid as pointed out above

[GaYellowDawg]

25. Only at a country buffet.

As in, "I et it all." Get it?