In `ggplot2 3.0.0` , `labs` used to be able to take a name list as programmatic way of setting axis labels, e.g. ```r > labs(list(x = "FSC")) $x [1] "FSC" attr(,"class") [1] "labels" ``` which is equivalent to ```r > labs(x = "FSC") $x [1] "FSC" attr(,"class") [1] "labels" ``` But now it won't work properly ```r > labs(list(x = "FSC")) [[1]] [[1]]$x [1] "FSC" attr(,"class") [1] "labels" ``` unless apply the `tidyverse evaluation` ```r > labs(!!!list(x = "FSC")) $x [1] "FSC" attr(,"class") [1] "labels" ``` reference issue https://github.com/tidyverse/ggplot2/pull/2669#issuecomment-405063367