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Is there a name for "and" used in "A,B,... and Z," e.g.

"I got an apple, orange, watermelon,... and a Boeing 747"

is there a name for final "," transmogrifying gloriously into an "and" miracle?

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    This is a very elementary question. "And", in virtually all cases, is a conjunction. And your second question is confusing.
    – Hot Licks
    Nov 25, 2016 at 1:53
  • @HotLicks : what second question ~S, why is the final comma becomes an "and"? that is the only question I got.
    – jimjim
    Nov 25, 2016 at 1:55
  • Is this a conjunction? don't we need logical statements on both sides of and ? is there such a thing as additive and?
    – jimjim
    Nov 25, 2016 at 2:13
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    This isn't math or programming.
    – Hot Licks
    Nov 25, 2016 at 2:22
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    @Arjang: If you use the text search tool in your browser (commonly invoked with Ctrl+F) and search for "?", you'll find two in your "question" body, one in your first comment, and three in your second comment. The second comment, arguably, supports the question body, but still it looks like you have three questions — unless you say that the second and third question marks ("?") don't count, before the words before them are incomprehensible.
    – Scott
    Nov 26, 2016 at 22:18

3 Answers 3

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The comma is known as a 'serial comma' or 'Oxford comma' or 'Harvard comma'. The 'and' that follows it is just a conjunction. Use or omission of the serial comma is a matter of style.

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    We don't know if there is a comma right before the and.
    – aparente001
    Nov 25, 2016 at 4:09
  • @aparente001: Read through the flowery language in the last paragraph of the original question. It's asking what the comma before a final 'and' in a series is called.
    – cnread
    Nov 25, 2016 at 4:15
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Each comma in your provided series is intended to obviate the necessity of writing "and" over and over again. Shorthand, in other words.

I see, by viewing your personal statement, that you are a mathematics buff. Just imagine the writer's cramp you would get if you had to write down every term in a summation rather than using the Σ notation. Same thing ...

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It's called a conjunction. Example:

I have two children, ages 13 and 21.

If I had four children, I might say

I have four children, ages 13, 16, 21 and 24.

You could omit the "and" but that is rather unusual in text (as opposed to mathematical notation).

transmogrifying gloriously into an "and" miracle is an electrifying phrase but it shows you are a sophisticated English speaker. It makes me think maybe I misunderstood what you're asking. Do you speak another language besides English, and if so, which?

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  • Farsi and Turkish, but I find english to be much more intresting.
    – jimjim
    Nov 25, 2016 at 11:53
  • @Arjang - Ah. Is there a one-to-one equivalent to "and" in either of those? My only other languages are Spanish, French and German, and compare to, say, (English, Chinese), they are all ridiculously similar to English.
    – aparente001
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:41

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