Pre-PEP: Dictionary accumulator methods

[Paul Rubin]

Reinhold Birkenfeld <reinhold-birkenfeld-nospam at wolke7.net> writes:
> > Any takers for tally()?
> 
> Well, as a non-native speaker, I had to look up this one in my
> dictionary. That said, it may be bad luck on my side, but it may be that
> this word is relatively uncommon and there are many others who would be
> happier with increment.

It is sort of an uncommon word.  As a US English speaker I'd say it
sounds a bit old-fashioned, except when used idiomatically ("let's
tally up the posts about accumulator messages") or in nonstandard
dialect ("Hey mister tally man, tally me banana" is a song about
working on plantations in Jamaica).  It may be more common in UK
English.  There's an expression "tally-ho!" which had something to do
with British fox hunts, but they don't have those any more.

I'd say I prefer most of the suggested alternatives (count, add,
incr/increment) to "tally".