But the advantage is that Lemmy allows Tor. 😅
This specific case isn’t really to do with the evolution of language, more just ineffective linguistic prescriptivism. Some guy 200 years ago decided they didn’t like how “less” had been used for the past millennium so they made up a guideline for what the preferred (like what you just said) then people decided to treat that as an actual rule. Obviously it’s still common to use “less” that way even after a couple of centuries of people trying to enforce that rule, it’s a good demonstration of how prescriptivism is a waste of time.
Strangely enough, in my experience many prescriptivists who rely on etymological arguments are fine with language changing for this one rule. Makes me think they never really did care about historic usage of a word.
It all just comes down to preference, but what a lot of people prefer is being able to express slightly different concepts clearly.
- “fewer costs” : There will be a smaller number of bills to pay
- “less cost” : The total payable will be smaller
- “less costs” : ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
