# On the title of the vocabulary column **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 11, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805 "2007-09-11T17:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pret-a-Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8c91f0/32.png) [@Pret-a-Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pret-a-Poster)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805/1 "2007-09-11T17:01:08Z")
Does the average American student have less vocabulary today than in days gone by?Is that a correct usering of “less”? Shouldn’t it be “fewer”? 😉 1. Seriously, though, I’ve heard of people having a limited vocabulary, a smaller vocabulary, but never “less vocabulary”. Is that a newly coined phrase? 2. Since the word in question is in the headline and not the text, could it be the work of a Reader editor rather than Cecil, or does he write his own his headlines? ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805/2 "2007-09-11T17:03:36Z")
[QUOTE=Prêt-à-Poster] Does the average American student have less vocabulary today than in days gone by?Is that a correct usering of “less”? Shouldn’t it be “fewer”? 😉 [/QUOTE] It seemed a bit awkward to me, too, but “fewer vocabulary” would much worse. RR ---
**Author:** ![Pret-a-Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8c91f0/32.png) [@Pret-a-Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pret-a-Poster)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805/3 "2007-09-11T17:04:52Z")
That was a joke. See the ;)? The real questions follow the word Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805/4 "2007-09-13T12:33:08Z")
My apologies. I remembered the post below vaguely and I meant to search for it later, but I forgot. [Quote=Cecil Adams] You understand, of course, that the author of the column (and of most newspaper articles, for that matter) doesn’t write the headline. [/quote] [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4475678#post4475678](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4475678#post4475678) ---
**Author:** ![Pret-a-Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8c91f0/32.png) [@Pret-a-Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pret-a-Poster)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805/5 "2007-09-13T14:05:13Z")
And you’ll notice that that headline writer made the “mistake” on the same word, “less”. Although in the prior case I think “less” was a legitimate usage. As Merriam-Webster says: “Less has been used to modify plural nouns since the days of King Alfred.” About the comment from Bibliophage: “Prêt-à-Poster, for future reference, posting the same question twice in two different SDMB forums is called cross-posting and is not allowed here.” Actually, since my post on the CCC forum sat unanswered for two days after a boost, I had a choice of boosting it again (also a taboo at SDMB) or re-stating it for a different set of posters. I considered waiting until it was so old that it could no longer be boosted again because it would be a zombie thread (another taboo), but that time period is always up for debate 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805/6 "2007-09-13T14:23:59Z")
[QUOTE=Prêt-à-Poster] About the comment from Bibliophage: “Prêt-à-Poster, for future reference, posting the same question twice in two different SDMB forums is called cross-posting and is not allowed here.” Actually, since my post on the CCC forum sat unanswered for two days after a boost, I had a choice of boosting it again (also a taboo at SDMB) or re-stating it for a different set of posters. I considered waiting until it was so old that it could no longer be boosted again because it would be a zombie thread (another taboo), but that time period is always up for debate 😃 [/QUOTE] I’m pretty sure there was a third option. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805/7 "2007-09-13T15:58:47Z")
Would less “of a” vocabulary make any more sense? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-title-of-the-vocabulary-column/418805/8 "2007-09-13T17:21:03Z")
[QUOTE=Prêt-à-Poster] And you’ll notice that that headline writer made the “mistake” on the same word, “less”. Although in the prior case I think “less” was a legitimate usage. As Merriam-Webster says: “Less has been used to modify plural nouns since the days of King Alfred.” About the comment from Bibliophage: “Prêt-à-Poster, for future reference, posting the same question twice in two different SDMB forums is called cross-posting and is not allowed here.” [/QUOTE] In retrospect, I could have been more diplomatic about it. I didn’t really expect you to know the crossposting rule. My post shouldn’t be seen as a warning, just a guideline. If you don’t get a good answer, it’s not such a bad thing to bump a thread shortly after it falls off the first page (after 2 days by default, I believe). I saw your second post in this thread as a reply to RiverRunner rather than a bump in the usual sense. For what it’s worth, the rule against responding to zombie threads, provided you have something useful to add, isn’t really enforced in the Comments forums.