Bad English from the Department of Extra Superfluous Comparatives

Driving home this evening, I heard a radio advertisement for an art exhibition this weekend. The advertisement promised “thousands of pieces of art from more than a hundred forty plus artists!”

Pardon me for micro-aggressing with my command of the English language, but either the “more than” or the “plus” is redundant. “A hundred forty plus” is, by definition, more than 140. Therefore, the advertisement claimed that there would be more than more than 140 artists represented. Since “more than” does not imply an upper limit, you really can’t get more than “more than,” unless you’re going to get into infinities.

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