LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Populous vs. populace

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, March 21, 2018

By Staff Reports

In the Tuesday, March 6th edition of The Daily Iberian, there is some very strange use of language. On the Opinion page, there is a column with the heading, “Students send message to legislators on TOPS.” McNeese Student Government Association President Ryan Robledo is quoted, “We know from historical data that a college educated populous (sic) is a more prosperous populous (sic) at least in greater tax revenue.”

Strange. Populous is an adjective meaning densely populated or having a large population. But we need a noun to be the subject of Mr. Robledo’s sentence.

Let’s try populace. This is a noun meaning the common people or the population. Now that seems to work much better.

Now here is a message that I and many (all) of my friends would like to send to the legislators, “Why should they spend their own money on the cost of a college education when the legislators can force the tax payers to pick up the tab?”

 

John Ferry

new iberia