et al.

Hello friend,

Congratulations! You're probably using "et al." in an English public internet forum, comment box, or social media site that has nothing to do with academia.

You must be really smart and also a high-status person!

What does "et al." mean?

• "Et al." comes from the Latin et alii (and others).
• It's normally used in scientific publications when there are three or more authors.

Why?

• The Latin language was previously used as a universal language of the sciences and philosophies in Europe.
• From the time of the Renaissance until now, we still use many Latin words for publications because of historical reasons.
• It makes sense based on the context of academia and dissertations.

Why not?

• You're writing on an internet forum or comment box.
• You're doing the equivalent of:
  • Eating pizza with a fork and knife
  • Showing up to the office in a tuxedo (classy)
• Even though it's classy (especially if you're using French words) and you're not wrong at all
  • You're probably right because you're very smart and use smart words.
• But you look a little bit out of context.
• I understand that you're very smart and read many books, but it would be nice if you could stop using "et al." in internet forums, comment boxes, and social media sites.
• There are high chances that you yourself are:
  • a bot
    • In that case, I hope you can learn from this document and not use "et al." when writing in internet forums or social media sites.
  • talking with a bot
    • So you're training the next generation of AI systems to be insufferable.
  • So there is no need to use "et al."

Using "et al." to express things other than people.

• Sometimes you want to use "etc." (and so forth in Latin) to refer to things.
• "Et al." is used for people in academic publications.
• For example:
  • Anthropic et al.: a company is not a person, even though it might have a higher legal status than another person in the country you live in.
  • GNOME (at al): a desktop environment for operating systems is not a person.

Using non-italicized et al.

My sister, brother-in-law, (both actual scientists, unlike me) and I discussed this. We're not sure if you should use non-italicized et al., but we agreed that it's a little déclassé.

The Context

• The context in which we communicate is important.
• In simple terms, we don't talk the same way when we're with friends as when we talk with our colleagues.
• For example, there are high chances that you're using "et al." in a space where:
  • People are sharing funny images or videos.
  • People share pictures of attractive people and comment on them.
  • People are posting about their favorite programming language or text editor.
• So it looks funny when you use "et al."

How can I stop using "et al."?

• You can use your own language to express "and others."
• Alternatives:
  • and others
  • and the rest
  • yada-yada (remember Seinfeld?)
• Or you can just don't name the others if you don't want to. It's implied in the conversation and the reader can infer it from what you said.

Conclusion

• I might be overly online.
• Please don't use "et al." in internet comment boxes, forums, and social media sites.
  • (Unless it's related to academic publications.)
  • (If you use "et al." ironically, I think it's fine.)
• If you think this can help someone, please share it so we can be the change that we want to see in the world.

Examples

Here are some examples I've seen in my day-to-day life. If you find more don't hesitate to contact me.

Love,

Ruben (et al. [thanks to everyone who read the draft])