The Standing Lists

The Society maintains, in its archive, four Standing Lists, each addressing a distinct aspect of its institutional life. Each is bound in leather of a distinct colour and stored in a locked cabinet in the Curator’s office at Bedford Square. Access is by appointment, on Tuesdays. The Lists are reviewed annually at the AGM and amended only by formal motion; the Society holds, by a rule of 1893, that the four Lists must be opened in the same review meeting, a Fellow proposing to amend any one List doing so in the presence of all four.

List I — The Standing List of Constructions Not Permitted in Society Correspondence

Bound in red. 374 entries, current. Established 1849.

The earliest of the Lists. Use of a prohibited construction by a Fellow in Society correspondence is grounds for an internal memorandum from the Errors Committee; repeated use is grounds for formal censure. Removals require a two-thirds majority and are, in practice, almost never carried. Selected entries:

• “comprised of” (entry 14, added 1851). The whole comprises the parts; the parts compose the whole.
• “could of” (entry 41, added 1873). The Society holds that the phonetic similarity to “could’ve” is no defence.
• “irregardless” (entry 71, added 1903). The List’s annotation: “The construction is a double negative formed by the addition of a redundant prefix to a word already adequate. The Society notes the construction with regret and proceeds to its prohibition.”
• “it’s” (in possessive sense) (entry 6, added 1849; a founding entry). The error is among the most common in English and the Society regards it as among the gravest.
• “less” (where “fewer” is appropriate) (entry 8, added 1849; founding entry). The List references the Fewer-vs-Less Excommunications of 1961.
• “literally” (used as an intensifier) (entry 162, added 1997, on the OED’s revision of the entry).
• “the reason is because” (entry 53, added 1888).
• “To whom it may concern” (entry 4, added 1849; founding entry). The List’s annotation: “The construction is the salutation of those who have not, on principle, taken the trouble to identify their addressee. The Society does not, on principle, write to those whom such a salutation would address.”

The full List, including sub-entries for variants, runs to approximately 600 prohibited constructions across nine pages.

List II — The Standing List of Persons to Whom the Society Has Written and Not Received a Reply

Bound in green. 11,847 entries, current. Established 1849.

The largest of the Lists, and, on the Curator’s view, “the most accurate single document the Society possesses regarding its place in the modern world”. Entries are removed only on receipt of a reply, which has occurred at an average rate of approximately seventeen entries per year. Selected entries:

• The Editor of The Times. First entered 1849; extended to each of fourteen successors in the office. Two replied briefly on first taking office; both subsequently lapsed into the family practice.
• Every Prime Minister since 1881. None has replied in person. Two (Salisbury, 1898, and Major, 1992) replied through private secretaries; the replies were polite and noncommittal, and the entries remain.
• Most living British poets. Forty-seven at the time of writing. The Curator notes that “the unanswered poet is, on the Society’s experience, more thoughtful in their non-reply than the unanswered politician.”
• The Director-General of the BBC (post-1996), in the matter of the disbandment of the Pronunciation Unit. Four successive Directors-General. The List notes that the matter remains, on the Society’s view, current.

The full enumeration, by category:

The Curator’s note: “The Society writes, on average, to twenty-eight persons for every one who replies. The figure is consistent across the period 1849–2026; the Society regards it as a stable feature of the modern world.”

List III — The Standing List of Words to be Used Sparingly, if at All

Bound in blue. 412 entries, current. Established 1893.

More permissive than List I: a Fellow may use a word from List III without immediate censure, but is encouraged to justify the use. The List is divided, since 1934, into intensifiers (the Society’s general view being that intensifiers are evidence of insufficient confidence in the underlying claim), hedges (evidence of insufficient confidence in the writer’s right to the claim), and others. Notable entries include “very” (when used more than once per paragraph) (1893, a founding entry); “actually” (1903); “basically” (1971); “arguably” (1947); “some would say” (2009); and “indeed” (1893), of which the List notes that it is “a word of considerable elegance, which the Society does not wish, by inclusion on the present List, to disparage; Fellows are nevertheless encouraged to consider, on each use, whether the word is doing work the surrounding text could not.”

List IV — The Standing List of Apologies the Society Has Issued

Bound in black. Empty. Established 1847.

The shortest of the Lists. The List was established at the Society’s foundation on the proposal of Mrs Ellen Walker (#00003), who held that “the Society ought, on its formation, to maintain a list of apologies it has occasion to issue, on the principle that any institution will, in time, have such occasions.” The proposal was carried by acclamation; the List was bound in black at her instruction; Mrs Walker maintained it in person until her death in 1881.

The List has been reviewed at every AGM since. It has not, on any review, contained a single entry.

This is not, on the Curator’s view, a matter of accident. The Society holds, by long custom, that “the Society does not, on principle, apologise for the application of its standards. Where the Society has been understood to give offence, the Society’s settled view is that the offence has, in fact, been taken; the Society has merely written. The matter is, in this respect, the recipient’s.”

The List is opened at each AGM by the Curator, who reads from the inside cover the same statement as has been read since 1847:

“The List of Apologies the Society has Issued, established in 1847 in anticipation of the Society’s eventual occasions for apology. The List is, at the time of present reading, empty. The List remains open.”

The reading is, by long custom, received in silence. The silence is, on the Curator’s view, “the most consistent silence in the Society’s institutional life, and the most appropriately observed.”

A note on the Lists’ relation to one another

The four Lists, taken together, constitute the Society’s running self-account: what the Society will not say (List I), to whom the Society has spoken without being heard (List II), what the Society would prefer not to say (List III), and what the Society has not said (List IV).

Their total weight, in their bound modern volumes, is approximately fourteen kilograms. The cabinet in which they are stored has been reinforced once, in 1971. The Curator notes that it may, on present growth rates, require further reinforcement by approximately 2050.

Fellows of the Society are bound by Lists I and III in Society correspondence, and contribute, in the ordinary course of their efforts, to List II. Fellowship confers no exemption from any of the four. The Society regards this as part of the honour.