and/or and/or or/and

[Dave M]

In the "Taxi driver ..." thread, SusanB notes the recent appearance of or/and, in place of the more typical and/or.

I wonder if the two are slightly different, the first-mentioned word being the more likely:

For pud, there's apple pie and/or custard (you're likely to have both, but you can have one or the other should you wish)

The estate car version is available in red or/and white (probably it'll be wholly in red or wholly in white, but you can go mad and have it two-tone).

I'm trying too hard, methinks. "Or/and" is just too hard to SAY to catch on!

[Geoff]

Jun 2, 2008 8:16:01 GMT Dave M said:

Or/and is just too hard to SAY to catch on!

Agreed.

[Tone]

I think that it's all a matter of euphony.
But mayhap those who use it think that they are indicating some nuance (which is lost by the unusuality).
Or maybe they are just trying to be different?

Tone

[Paul Doherty]

Or perhaps they don't think it matters ...