Lately I’ve been noticing people sign off in emails like this:
I know one person who does it, then noticed several more over the last few weeks. What is this supposed to mean, an abbreviation of “best wishes” or something? It just looks a bit unnatural to me.
Do you use this? Why? Is it common in certain places? I don’t think the individuals in question are from the same region or culture.
I’ve seen senior staff do it on occasion. And one of my colleagues does it regularly. I agree it seems affected. If you’re too busy to write “regards” then why waste all that time writing out B-e-s-t. Just slap a “B” down there and be done with it…
“Best.” It’s quick and easy to type, it’s warmer than “Sincerely,” but not as intimate as “Hugs!” and it translates into the shorhand for a lot of colloquial sign-offs, such as those **In Winnipeg **listed. Never thought it sounded affected, not to my ears. (Eyes?)
Need an alternative?
At work, I send a bazillion emails a day, many of which are not requests but simply confirmation that X has been done, so “Thanks, Purple” isn’t the way to go, since, really, I’ve nothing to be grateful for, as I’m the one who’s done the work. “Have a nice day” is a tad formal and dry for me, so I’ve been using “Cheers! Purple” as a standard sign-off. Sounds friendly without being too intimate, methinks, and no one’s said otherwise.
Sounds weird to me. Either use nothing before my signature, or often “Regards”. For friends I might use “Take care”. I’ve been known to use “Fervently yours” if I want to be funny.
I think Europeans use it a lot-- it’s the standard in Dutch, if memory of experience serves correctly. Not considered inordinately informal-- friendly semi-formal.
This seems incredibly common in academia, and I have mostly noticed it used among males. My professors, my husband’s professors and Sr. Olives himself (as a TA) uses it. Another common one is ‘‘Warmly.’’
I don’t feel particularly strongly about it one way or another.
There are three ways I sign off on emails: “thanks,” “love,” and “best.” I thus end up using “best” a lot as the default when neither of the other two is appropriate.