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Earlier than the Second World Battle, King George journaled the tip of Neville Chamberlain’s time period as prime minister:
“I accepted his resignation, & instructed him how grossly unfairly I believed he had been handled, & that I used to be terribly sorry that each one this controversy had occurred. … I despatched for Winston & requested him to type a Authorities. This he accepted & instructed me he had not thought this was the explanation for my having despatched for him.”
5 ampersands! In three sentences! Written by a king! Of England!
I used to be excited by this grammar. I puzzled why an abbreviation for the fifth hottest phrase within the English language doesn’t grace each textual content, e mail, and guide as we speak, because it did then.
Time for a Wikipedia journey. Within the mid-1800s, “&” served because the twenty seventh letter of the English language.
However when the creator of the now-ubiquitous ditty “ABCDEFG” sought to rhyme “Now I do know my ABCs,” Z usurped “&”. In any case, what rhymes with ampersand?
Over time, “&” fell from its regal perch as a letter.
However I believe it’s time for a comeback. I’m changing the three keystrokes “a-n-d” with “&” in emails and weblog posts.
A pyrrhic productiveness win or an homage to the Queen’s English?
It’s not an both/or.
It’s an &.
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