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.
I am voting no--for several reasons: 1  Many people do not know the meaning of et al., so using it will confuse readers. 2  Dear and hello are warm, positive words. Et al., the abbreviation of et alii, is about as friendly as a flu shot. They don't fit well together. The use of et al. is not standard in greetings, so people will stumble over it, wondering whether they missed an important new rule somewhere.