Can someone please explain this commonly used phrase to me? I cannot seem to find a suitable definition in Webster’s to accurately define the use of this phrase in these threads.
Thank you,
It is used as an expression to mean: all others. It’s probably Latin.
An example…if I was referring to manufacturers of model railroad products, I might say Athearn, Atlas, Bachmann, Broadway Limited, Lionel, MTH, Weaver, Williams, Woodland Scenics, Red Caboose, Kadee, McHenry, Kato…and on and on and on.
OR—to shorten the statement, I could say Athearn, Atlas, Kadee, et al.
Kinda like saying “…and that includes everyone else.”
On the other hand, here in rural West Texas, saying ET AL can have implications about gobbling all your grub (food) and leaving an empty plate…meaning nothing left for the dogs or coyotes—or in your case down in Florida, the alligators 
“and others.”
et al. = et alii or et alibi… literally it means “and others” or “and elsewhere” respectively. it is used similarly to et cetera an example would be “thrall gondolas are made by walthers, atlas, athearn, et al.”
It’s commonly used in academics when there is more than two authors. For example, if there are two authors the reference would be (Vollmer and Kaplan 2008), but with 3 or more, it would be referenced as (Vollmer et al. 2008).
I’m a co-author on a technical report with some 8 authors, so it’s just (Lin et al. 2006), but it still goes on my cirriculum vita.
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I found this definition on Wordnet. adverb |
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and others (‘et al.’ is used as an abbreviation of ‘et alii’ (masculine plural) or ‘et aliae’ (feminine plural) or ‘et alia’ (neuter plural) when referring to a number of people); “the data reported by Smith et al.” [syn: et al.] |
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and elsewhere (used when referring to other occurrences in a text) [syn: et al.] |
I don’t know why a Webster’s dictionary would not have the meaning, since it is in two separate dictionaries I have that were published by different companies:
et al. and others (L et alii); and elsewhere (L et alibi).
In my Webster’s, “et al” is listed between etagere and etalon. The most appropriate defintion in this case is #2 “and others”. Most people use it on the forum as “among others”.
Thank you conagher and Dave, your replies nailed it for me. [tup]
Thanks to Hyun, P & LE RR and Jeffrey for your validation.[#ditto]
cacole and alco fan, thanks for your two cents as well [zzz]
Ok…Now that I know what et al means, what I “really” want to know is:
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Where did you first learn of this phrase? a.) in middle school b.) in high school c.) in college d.)in this forum e.) none of the above.
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When did you start using this phrase regularly? (same choices)
Please answer your choices by entering 1a, 1b, 2c, etc. [(-D] et cetera… I know that one.
I’m a well educated person with a college degree and consider myself to be somewhat articulate and proper. I’m no rocket scientist, but then who here is? And besides, let’s face it…some people here aren’t exactly hitting on all 16. So it makes me wonder why I only learned of this [I’m guessing] old Latin phrase since joining this group. I didn’t grow up in a bubble, that’s for sure.
1b. Sometime during high school, but it wasn’t from any of the school books. I read a lot of history books, and it was the footnotes cited that first led me to look it up. At least that’s my somewhat hazy recollection!
- Can’t say I ever really use it now that I’m out of college. It seems the usage of et al. is largely limited to academic or legal spheres.
We were taught it means “and with” ----it’s Latin. it’s used a lot in land ownership to describe other participents in a land agreement, it is a very common statement.
1-Ummm…Here on your post.
2-Ummm…Never…
Where I live, the only way you would hear that is if someone said “I et al my chicken fried steak & gravy!”[:D]
et al appears in legal notices in the newspapers all the time, related to estate sales, divorce or paternity cases, et al.
I learned it when I worked at a newspaper as a Linotype operator in the 1950s and had to typeset the legal notices.
Cacole-I used to run 4 Monarch Intertypes for a check printing company.
“et” is Latin for “and”. “Et al” means “and others” as discussed above. “et cetera” (usually “etc.”) means something similar, but is more open ended - more like “and so on, and so on”.
I’ve used it for a long time, or at least known what it meant. Maybe growing up back when Mass was still in Latin helped??
[;)]
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Learned it back in high school either in a history text book, or a science text book
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Use it all the time… in college I was a biology major and did research for the first 2 years out of school … now I am in Law school and again its usage is heavy.
I agree, its mainly used in the scholarly and legal spheres. In a casual document you are morel ikely to see “etc.”
yep…here in Texas it’s got a whole different meaning…some would use it as a verb as in: i et al my spinich. or could also be used as a pronoun like: et al ain’t so bad…chuck
I have no idea when I first learned of it. I do not use it, even in academic papers.
“Among others,” would be “inter alii”.
“With others,” would be “C.u.m alii.” without the periods placed to get past Big Brother.
“… and others.” is “et alii,” usually shortened to “et al.”
Commonly used abbreviation, so long I don’t know when I learned it, probably in high school and used it in certain circumstances since college, ESPECIALLY when I want to write quick. It is an academic and “formal” abbreviation as useful or more so than the the “LOL” and “IMO” now being used in online posts a bunch. And easier to say or write, “Westcott and Koester, et al.” than to say “and a bunch of other people.” I use it about as much in informal written posts as in formal bibliographic and reference citations.
Some other commonly used Latin academic terms that are just easy to use for me, and I hope don’t sound too stuffy…
“re” Latin for “about”. Frequently used to refer back to a subject or a discussion. I notice you used “re” as part of your thread title.
“in re” Latin for “in the matter of”, often used in legal matters. Not usually applicable to model railroading discussions
“per” Latin, used in the meaning of “according to”, as in “the concept of track planning squares per John Armstrong”
I often use abbreviations like this to try to get a lot of information in a short line of text for a thread title, so people know what it’s about without having to click and wait for it to open. (I just upgraded from dial-up)