And/or  And/or (also and or) is a grammatical conjunction used to indicate that one or more of the cases it connects may occur. It is used as an inclusive "or" (as in logic and mathematics), while an "or" in spoken language might be inclusive or exclusive. "And or" has been used in official, legal and business documents since the mid-19th century, and evidence of broader use appears in the 20th century. It has been strongly criticized as both ugly in style, and ambiguous in legal documents . References on English usage strongly criticize the phrase as "ugly" and "Janus-faced". William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, in their classic "The Elements of Style", say "and/or" is "A device, or shortcut, that damages a sentence and often leads to confusion or ambiguity." Roy H. Copperud, in "A Dictionary of Usage and Style", says that the phrase is "Objectionable to many, who regard it as a legalism." Two alternatives have been proposed. The first is to replace it with ""x" or "y" or both." The second is to simply use "either "x" or "y"." The word "either" can be used to convey mutual exclusivity. "When using "either" as a conjunction, [it can be applied] to more than two elements in a series." Thus, "He will eat either cake, pie, or brownies" appropriately indicates that the choices are mutually exclusive. If the function of "or" is clear from the context, it is not necessary to use "either" as a conjunction:  Person 1: You may select one item for dessert. Person 2: What are my choices? Person 1: You may eat cake, pie, or brownies. The phrase has come under criticism in both American and British courts. Judges have called it a "freakish fad", an "accuracy-destroying symbol", and "meaningless". In a Wisconsin Supreme Court opinion from 1935, Justice Fowler referred to it as "that befuddling, nameless thing, that Janus-faced verbal monstrosity, neither word nor phrase, the child of a brain of someone too lazy or too dull to know what he did mean." The Kentucky Supreme Court has said it was a "much-condemned conjunctive-disjunctive crutch of sloppy thinkers." Finally, the Florida Supreme Court has held that use of "and/or" results in a nullity, stating ...we take our position with that distinguished company of lawyers who have condemned its use.