Pedantic fractions
Oct 23rd, 2007 by cpev
Good to see the Financial Times opening up - a bit. You can now access 30 articles per month if you’re registered with the site, although my registration confirmation took about three hours to come through yesterday. Best not to wait until the moment you need to see something before signing up.
Anyway, the use of the word ‘fraction’ in an FT article yesterday caught my attention. The context was that long-term fixed-rate mortgages make up only ‘a fraction’ of the overall housing market.
Fraction is widely taken to mean ‘a small part’, but mathematically it can be any part smaller than the whole - 9/10 is a fraction, and not a very small one. So, in financial journalism, isn’t it better to steer clear of the common usage? Or is it only weirdos (hands up) who are likely to get all huffy?
Either way, “absolutely decimated” is definitely out.
