"What is old is new, again."
Benjamin Barrett
gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
Sun Nov 28 02:09:56 UTC 2010
Thank you for the warning about this! My Mac dictionary agrees that use for more than two is considered incorrect by some.
I avoid the word altogether because it's unkind to the reader.
BB
On Nov 27, 2010, at 5:38 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> The author names a total of seven articles. Then he writes,
>
> "This _latter_ article ..."
>
>
> I've seen this (mis)use of "latter" here and there in contemporary
> writings, causing me to consider it to be a new development driven, as
> usual, by the efforts of the quasi-literate to emulate their betters
> by attempting to write above their natural station in society. :-)
> However, the instance quoted above was penned in 1871.
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