I saw this in a news story: "A semi driver is facing charges after multiple people were killed ..." How can one have multiple people? Several, or few, or many, yes, but multiple? Several segments of people? Hmmmmm...

I am beside myself with disbelief!

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Madrox

That's a perfect character for our times! A dittohead! An echo chamber! The sound of thousands hitting the "share" button!

Geoff, I wonder if "multiple" is borrowed from legalistic definitions. It sounds as though it should be followed by "[> # but < than #]"-- borrowing the sound of precision and 'science' to enhance what is actually a lack of specificity...

I have always thought "few" and "several" were confusing. They purport to indicate specific numbers, but they really don't because it depends on one's perspective. "Many," on the other hand seems quite similar to "multiple" - vague, but at least it they admit it!