Not really sure, now that I think about it.
I know 'et al' and 'etc' are different, though only marginally. I don't know why I started using it, but I seem to use 'et al.' to mean "and others", which is literally correct, but grammatically incorrect when meaning things not people. I had been taught that 'etc.' meant "and so on" which is correct in modern usage, but not literally correct. To my thinking, the difference between the two is mostly the former implies a fixed (but not necessarily known) list, whilst the latter implies an open-ended list.
Perhaps it's because 'etc' is so overused - finding something else when the overuse annoys me is one of my traits.
Wade.
