More than over

Early on in my career, more than three decades ago, I found myself in a discussion with two older colleagues about when to use “more than” versus “over” in our corporate communications.

They decided – I was more of a spectator in this conversation – “more than” should always be preferable, except when writing about spatial relationships; it wasn’t more than six feet, it would be over six feet. This was the nuts-and-bolts stuff of writing, and I remember thinking I'd gotten pretty far on some natural writing ability, but this was the big leagues. I'd better start paying better attention to the elements of style.

I learned on the job, backed up by the Associated Press stylebook. I stuck to “more than” through the years, whether writing or editing other people’s pieces. I was defending, in my small way, the stability of the universe of grammar – isn’t that something writers are supposed to do?

Last month I was proofing something my boss wrote, and he used “over” when the sentence called for “more than.” I marked it up and got an email back from him with a link to a ten-year old article in Forbes. Citing overwhelming usage, AP was now allowing “over” in place of “more than.”

Ten years ago? How'd I miss that?

The world keeps turning, although sometimes consistency is the gravity keeping our feet on the ground. I just finished what I believe will be my final week as a corporate communicator and I’m okay with moving on from a world where “over” replaces “more than.” Just not here.