Dear Geist,

What does the term “if and only if” mean in a book publishing contract? I’m guessing it’s annoyingly nitpicking to bring it up with the publisher, but I can’t help thinking that this phrase is what my rhetoric teacher of long ago would have called “meaningless twaddle.”

—Gerry R., Kitchener ON

Dear Gerry.,

Spot on. The term “meaningless twaddle” was made for passages like “if and only if.” At a glance it seems to have more force than the poor wee “if,” but no matter how you study it, turn it around, put it away for a while and then try again, it is only confusing—the last thing you want in a contract to publish your book, or any other document.

(We’ll add that there are some mathematics uses for the term, but none that we know of in straight-ahead English prose.)

—The Editors