'10 items or less' becomes 'Up to 10 items'

I'm sorry to bring up 'less vs fewer' so soon after the last time we discussed it, but I must share with you a news story about supermarket chain Tesco altering its '10 items or less' signs to read 'Up to 10 items' in an attempt to avoid 'less' and 'fewer' altogether.

As the story mentions, and as you may have realised, the new wording is amusingly ambiguous:

A Plain English Campaign spokesman said: 'There is a debate about whether the word should be "less" or "fewer".

'Saying "Up to ten items" is easy to understand and avoids any debate.'

That may prove to be wishful thinking, as some would argue 'Up to ten items' could be taken to mean 'ten items and no more' or 'nine items or fewer'.

Thanks for this one, Ro.

Tesco teaches teenagerese

The Daily Mail yesterday carried a story about Tesco issuing "a phrasebook of 'teenagerese' to its growing band of workers over retirement age to help them understand their younger colleagues and customers".

The paper listed some of the words and phrases in the phrasebook (plus definitions), including 'wack', 'buggin' and 'phat'. However two of the words given were 'vexed', and 'rank' (with the meaning of 'disgusting, horrible'). I didn't think either of these were slang - and the OED agrees with me.

But next time you admit to being vexed by a rank smell in Tesco, don't be surprised if you see the supermarket's more mature employees reaching for a phrasebook...