Anymore or any more?

I can’t take it anymore: it’s time we cleared this up.  Ok, there are three schools of thought about anymore and any more.

1.       Anymore is an abomination that should not be accepted in any circumstances.  This point of view tends to be held by angry old teachers like me, but we are probably wrong; or, if we are not, we are becoming wrong, as so often happens with this unstable language.

2.       Anymore is absolutely fine. This point of view seems to be current among students.

3.       Anymore and any more are two different things and provide a useful distinction.

I think we should go with 1 or 3 here.  In other words, if you  always use any more and never use anymore, you’ll be fine. If you prefer to make life harder for yourself and  avail yourself of the  useful distinction, then it is this: anymore is an adverb of frequency, whereas  any more is an adverbial phrase referring to quantity. 

Accordingly, we would say: “I don’t drink anymore” (I no longer drink; I have given it up); whereas we would say “I don’t have any more beer” (I have no more beer, the beer is finished, and clearly I  cannot yet claim not to drink anymore).