When baffled computer users phone Support they may say they have a Model AB “minus” 231. In the model name “AB-231” the linking character is a hyphen, though “dash” will do. “Minus” makes no sense in such contexts, but is so common that support personnel have begun to adopt it too.
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This is the tenth year of the Common Errors in English Usage calendar. To celebrate, we are bringing back some of our favorite interesting, funny, but sometimes merely silly entries through the years before going on hiatus in 2016.
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