To a Frenchman, everything is a platitude that is not a paradox. The Bramleighs Of Bishop's Folly Charles James Lever A platitude that nobody has expressed and that nobody has acted on is a great truth. The Ghost in the White House Gerald Stanley Lee It is tolerated to-day for no other reason than that it has cornered the platitude market.
It is short for the Latin et alii ('and others'), which means and others.. For example, the phrase IBM, Microsoft, HP, et al. means IBM, Microsoft, HP and others or Carrâ¦uthers et al.- Carruthers and others.
et al. The Latin abbreviation et al. stands for et alii which translates as âand other people.â It is like etc., but it is used only for people. You will generally see et al. used in bibliographical entries for books, articles, or other publications that have several authors (usually four or more) in order to save space.