Google dictionary has this information about the origin of ex That guarantees that you won't address them in a way contrary to their own preferences. Is short for exempli gratia, and is in common use to introduce an example within a sentence
2Scratch - EX. (prod. by 2Scratch) - YouTube
Submit a sample of academic writing, e.g., a dissertation chapter
However, some authors use ex.
In writing, though, the use of former doesn't seem so rare In informal english, especially us english, it is acceptable to say I saw your ex with this hot dude yesterday Or, she is still in touch with all of her exes.
What is the proper way to use the ex prefix to more than one word My ex baseball coach taught me Ex by itself (no hyphen) doesn't seem right either In legal language i have come across the term ex post facto
Isn't ex redundant in this phrase
Post facto also means after the fact, so it should be sufficient This is commonly used in Whichever rule you choose and stick to, you'll be swimming against the linguistic tide with much of your text! However, these days, no one pays attention to such niceties, which means that everybody pretty much gets called whatever
Just ask them how they wish to be addressed
