Correct use of the abbreviation for etcetera…

[Negligence1]

Mainly lighthearted.
I know I’m being pernickety, but (and this does annoy me) more often than not, posters on Mumsnet use the abbreviation ect. for etcetera. This is incorrect, as the only correct abbreviation for etcetera is etc.

Yes ect. is an abbreviation, but not for etcetera. It is an abbreviation for Electroconvulsive Therapy, which is when health professionals pass an electrical current through your brain, to treat severe depression, mania among other things.

Well, that’s another 2 minutes of my life I won’t get back!
(sits back and waits for pile on)🤣🤣

&c. is also a correct abbreviation for it in linguistics.

I'm dyslexic, the only way I can remember correctly is by its shape with the 't' being a high point ^
Took probably 25 years to get it fixed in my brain.

Boring

This is incorrect, as the only correct abbreviation for etcetera is etc.**

Actually, you're wrong. &c is also acceptable, and is used in many classic printed novels. Sorry, for that reason YABU.

YANBU to point out that the long-held abbreviation for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and now, in England, Early Career Teacher (ECT) is not an acceptable abbreviation for et cetera.

Ah, you beat me to it. 🤣

Anxiously thinking back to see if my dyslexic ass has used the wrong one!

positive i use the right one hahahaha etc.

@Negligence1 - thanks for the reminder about Electroconvulsive Therapy - although surely that would be capitilised - ECT? Notwithstanding, I enjoyed your post, as for some reason, my brain thinks "ect" is short for "ectoplasm" so I am often led astray by posters who use it :)

"Yes ect. is an abbreviation, but not for etcetera. It is an abbreviation for Electroconvulsive Therapy"

Are you sure? It seems more likely that that would be the acronym "ECT".

It's also et cetera, not etcetera.

I hear you OP. I see it often and it bugs me too. Not as much as when people use 'a' instead of 'an' before a word beginning with a vowel though.

You should pop over to the Pedants' Corner section of MN. You can comment there on SPAG errors without the huge pile on you may get in AIBU.

It’s not “etcetera”, it’s “et cetera”

I don't think the pedantry is very consistent in this case! Various errors in her post.

How about those who pronounce it EKSETERA? The K gets me every time, but not as much as Pacific instead of Specific.

I’m in several what’s app selling groups (mostly kids stuff) and one lady always ends her posts with it so they’ll read ‘good condition, etc’. or ‘will take an offer, etc’. ‘adjustable waist band, etc’. It disproportionally annoys me but perhaps I should be grateful she at least gets the letters in the right order.

Well, yes. You haven't uncovered some great truth known only to a handful of people familiar with Latin. Some people may not know, or forget is all. A little like lose not loose weight. A very common error, but also sufficiently well know in its correct form to not assume people need a thread to educate them about it.

I just assume it's a typo; it's very common to transpose two letters when typing fast.

Ect ect was a Private Eye thing wasn't it?

Although I would hazard a guess that few of the miscreants would know that.

I used to write "ect" instead of "etc" - until I started secondary school and my English teacher put a red line through it! That was a bit of a shock as I'd never previously realised that I'd been getting it wrong. If that teacher hadn't taken the trouble to mark my work properly, I might still be making the same error today.

I used to work in school administration and was often horrified by the lack of writing skills shown by the teachers - so I think that it's entirely possible that many of today's English teachers may have a lower level of literacy than that of a 12-year-old grammar school pupil of 50 years ago. They perhaps don't even notice when a pupil writes "ect" and so don't correct it.

I'd also assume this to be a typo rather that ignorance. I've mistyped etc as ect myself before now, along with other transposed letters issues like teh for the.

I'd save my criticism for real issues. Like people who write "Chester draws" instead of "chest of drawers".

Not a big deal.

I hate these posts. They're just trying to make the OP look smart, but bragging about knowing basic information is a bit embarrassing.

FWIW OP, when I was young I thought it was ect as I thought the t was the one from cetera not et. So I knew it was et cetera (not etcetera) just not the abbreviation.

Yes, the ampersand is “et.” So just add “c!”

You’d be better off posting this in pedants corner.

@AsTim3GoesBy - totally agree about the literacy levels in some teachers. DD's English teacher made a spelling error in her end of term report - I was mortified on his behalf. But when I mentioned it, he said breezily, "Oh, I have so many reports to write - there are bound to be errors!" I was gobsmacked. I write reports at work (not educational), and if I breezily passed off an error like that I don't think I would have the job anymore.
@CasperGutman - I am frequently a culprit with "teh" sadly. But I do routinely spell check for that reason.

I suspect Private Eye borrowed it from The Master "All skools make some sort of show at teaching the pupils things and the headmaster pin up a huge timetable of lessons etc which make the heart sink when you look at it. I mean do the grate british nation understand that thousands of its young elizabethans are looking at latin ugh before their breakfast hav even settled. I mean to sa how would they like saing mnerer moneraris moneretur etc at that hour eh?"