I'm not sure which is more appropriate, but I would like to contradict what mozart said. In business contexts, per is often used to mean for (its original definition). Outside of business contexts, it is only used in the sense mozart said.
Our ancestors, thinking themselves classically educated, littered their business letters with bits of Latin . So 'per pro', which is usually given as 'by and on behalf of' though a purist would render it ' through the agency of, ('per') and on behalf of ('pro')' was often abbreviated to 'pp' . Indeed, in Britain it is common to use 'pp' as a verb as in " Mr Smith , do you want to wait to sign the letter or shall I 'pp' it ?' We put 'pp' after the signature . 'Per' is not used in that way here but is evidently just another way of abbreviating the phrase.I can see that it might, conceivably, be thought incorrect as being a clumsy way of doing it, though putting simply 'through the agency of' rather than the full translation would surely be of interest only to classically trained and pedantic lawyers! 'Per ', besides meaning 'through', also meant 'by' in measurement.So ,miles per hour' means, literally, 'miles by (the) hour'.
I don't know about all that. When I was a secretary, I used to sign all kinds of letters for the boss,like so: "John Wilson by Catty." Per means according to, like: "We have now won the war, per the President."
Catty
Posts: 3826 | Location: Olympia, WA, USA | Registered: 06-04-02
for" or "on behalf",per is usually used with numbers . "$ per dozen" "$ per persons" etc....
