i mean, i see it all the time, at work and other more formal writing environments, not just from morons but from people whose intellect i otherwise hold in respect. what gives?
It has Not become accepted. It looks ignorant no matter who uses it.
I’m not sure what gives, but it ain’t right.
Barbara Wallraff (Atlantic Monthly editor and language columnist) from ** Word Court** (2000)
“A still easier distinction [than between a while and awhile], incidentally, is between alot and a lot, because there is no distinction to be made: alot is never right.” (161)
The 3rd edition of Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1996) says “alot: This illegitimate form of a lot is begining to turn up in informal correspondence in American English [snip 3 citations from 1991]”
I see alot gratingly often, but almost never in a formal or business context. I would guess it’s a creeping kind of error–the more you see it, the more it looks right. I don’t want to get into a prescriptive/descriptive debate, but…it’s wrong.
As a freelance copyeditor, I can confirm that “alot” has NOT become accepted usage. I challenge anyone to provide a cite from any standard usage reference. It certainly doesn’t appear in any of my references as anything but an illiterate abomination.
all my cites are that it is an abomination to be destroyed on sight.
I think that it’s just because it’s used so often. It is one of my more common typing errors. Most of the time I catch it and go back and insert a space but sometimes I don’t. Perhaps it has just become so common that it is assumed to be “acceptable”–MHO, of course.
Personally, I rate using “alot” instead of “a lot” as moronic as not using capital letters.
Upon encountering this concoction I immediately correct the spelling. Then I strike out the rest of the sentence as meaningless and allot my attentions elsewhere.
To-day, as others have pointed out, alot is still generally considered incorrect. But I fear that some sad to-morrow the more compact spelling may win out.
Spelling ‘a lot’ as one word is one of my biggest pet peeves. It drives me crazy. If it does become accepted usage, I think I’ll have to cry.
Jman
(Here’s my 500th post party…woo hoo! Ok, Party over.)
It’s no better and no worse than “alright”, which, I fear, has become all too prevalent.
Brilliant satire whitetho, brilliant.
I shall never understand the rage of the prescriptivist over such minor matters, although I don’t use alot a lot. “Illiterate abominations”? Langauge evolution.
When I was teaching High School I was constantly correcting “alot” on written assignments. It is not correct. If it ever becomes correct usage, I will stop speaking English and switch to some other language.
The other ‘pet peeve’ I have regarding language is the whole “good/well” thing. Oh yeah, and “should of/could of”. But that’s a whole nuther thread. 