The use of and/or is universally condemned for its inherent ambiguity because and is conjunctive and or is disjunctive. Somehow I was under the impression that using and/or was a recent phenomenon. Not so. Bryan A. Garner in Garner on Language and Writing cites an Illinois Appellate Court case that condemned its use in 1932.* Irresistibly drawn in, I read the case. The court referred to and/or as a “freakish fad” and then devoted more than two pages quoting others who condemned it as well. And/or is referred to as “a bastard sired by Indolence (he by Ignorance) out of Dubiety,” a “barbarism,” “pollution of the English language,” and an “accuracy-destroying symbol” that encourages “mental laziness in the drafting of private contracts.” Wow, it’s uplifting to see this kind of passion by lawyers about language. * Tarjan v. National Surety Co., 268 Ill.App. 232, 240 (1932)