I planned to blog about how people misuse the word “entitled”  to mean “titled” until I consulted the dictionary and found that “entitled” is infact an acceptable alternative to “titled”. However, the Associated Press stylebook explicitly says to use “entitled” only “to mean a right to do or have something. Do not use it to mean titled.”

So which is correct? Dictionary or AP? While the dictionary is known to cave in to popular misusage, the AP stylebook is hardly a source for universal usage. Plus, as an ex-employee of a hardware store, I take issue with AP's distinction between cement and concrete. That's another story though.

I then stumbled upon a Web site by English Professor Paul Brians, Washington State University, that contains a ton of info on Non-errors. This page describes “usages people keep telling you are wrong but which are actually standard in English.“

Lo(w) and behold:

 “People should say a book is titled such-and-such rather than entitled.

No less a writer than Chaucer is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary as having used 'entitled' in this sense, the very first meaning of the word listed by the OED. It may be a touch pretentious, but it’s not wrong.“

Still, though, for the sake of efficiency (which all developers should relate to), I prefer “titled“ because it contains fewer letters than “entitled“. :)

BTW, Professor Brians also has an a-z listing of actual Common Errors In English Usage. Please refer to his remarks on the actual misusage of  “more importantly“, which is another pet peeve of mine.

Thanks!