English usage question: below

[wshaffer]

I've been seeing what seems to me to be an increase in what is (to me) an odd usage of the "below" - people saying things like, "Type the below command," instead of "Type the command below." For a long time, I wrote this off as an idiosyncratic usage of non-native speakers of English, but I've heard it recently from native speakers and seen it in at least one piece of commercial writing that I'd have expected to have been carefully copyedited.

So, I'm wondering - has English evolved to a point where "the below command" sounds completely normal, and I've just failed to notice?

Come to think of it, I can't quite explain why that usage should be wrong. After all, both "the paragraph above" and "the above paragraph" sound entirely natural.

Comments

[onetarot.livejournal.com]

Your latter examples involving "above" sound natural because you are leaving out the verb, which you include with "below". I just now had an editor point out that "type the above command" (see the command, there? Type it.) and "type the command above" (type the command you already have in the above space) are two different things.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's true. I hadn't thought of that because I was mentally filling in a more typical example of where I might use above, like, "Refer to the paragraph above," versus "Refer to the above paragraph." Where, because of the nature of the verb, there's no difference in meaning.