title: Why place a hand on the Bible instead of the Judge's genitals when taking an oath?

text: Etymonline gives the etymology of _testify_ as > ...from testis "a witness".. + root of facere "to make"... Biblical sense of > "openly profess one's faith and devotion" is attested from 1520s. Related: > Testified; testifying; testification. (also, testament, intestate, etc.) In Biblical times, to swear a most sacred oath, the swearer made his oath by holding on to the oath-giver's genitals. > Abraham... said to the senior servant in his household... **Put your hand > under my thigh. I want you to swear by the Lord**... that you will not get a > wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites... So the servant **put > his hand under the thigh of his master** Abraham and swore... (Gen. 24) and > When the time drew near for Israel _(Jacob)_ to die, he called... Joseph and > said to him, **“...put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will... > not bury me in Egypt..."** Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as > he leaned _on the top of his staff_. (Gen. 47) Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki (aka Rashi) explains in his commentary: > Since one (a Jew) who swears must take with his hand an article related to a > mitzvah... and circumcision was his [Abraham's] first mitzvah, and he had > fulfilled it with pain, **[Abraham's circumcised penis]** was dear to him; > so he took it. ( _bracketed expansions mine_ ) Others interpret (reason?) that this oath was sworn by holding the oath- giver's **testicles**. The Latin word for "witness, one who attests" is **_testis_** , as well as _testicles_ (from Latin testiculus, diminutive of testis). The Greek for spermaria is similarly derived. So, how did _testify, testimony, testament, protest, detest, contest,_ even Old and New **Testament** diverge so wildly from it's origins, to swear while holding someone's penis or _testicles_? Why don't we swear _by our balls, soft bits, tallywags, twiddle-diddles, goolies, trinkets, bollocks, nuts, or cojones_? Was there ever a time when such little things didn't make such big promises?


title: What do you call a man who knows well how to fix his household appliances?

text: Some men are really good at fixing things, especially the household appliances while they're not specialists or technician. Is there any words to explain these people?


title: How to pronounce the programmer's abbreviation "char"

text: In many programming languages, _char_ is a type name for character values. The word _character_ is pronounced with a [k] sound, but what about _char_? While trying to find the answer elsewhere, I learnt that there is an English word _char_ which is pronounced [tʃɑ:(r)], but it has nothing to do with characters. How would you read the following piece of code out loud?               char a;      Is it [kær], [tʃær] or [tʃɑ:(r)]? I've always used the last but I have no idea whether it's correct.


title: For those who know (who knows)

text: Which one sentence is correct: `"For those who know"` or `"For those who knows"`? Google gives me about the same number (1 070 000 vs 783 000) of search results.


title: Word for describing in a positive sense

text: What is a word that means to say in a positive sense? For instance, when writers say that a person was _sexually assaulted_ instead of saying _raped_. Or people use _let go_ instead of _fired_. What is that called?


title: Is this a Grill door? how do you narrate if some one opens or closes it?

text: ![enter image description here](http://i.stack.imgur.com/FQAhx.jpg) Is this a grill door? if not what do you call this type of doors? Old elevator systems uses this door. If a hinged door is opened, we use "push open", "pull open", "heave open", "dash open", "bang open" etc... How will you narrate the operation of this type of door.


title: Term for a quote's 'author' or 'creator'

text: I am looking for the correct term to describe a quote's author or creator. For example, the quote is: > If you are going to go through hell, keep going. The quotee/quoter/author(?) is: > Winston Churchill


title: "As evidenced by" or "as evident by"?

text: I have this sentence: > Group theory is one of my favourite areas in mathematics, as evidenced by > the fact that I chose to do two group theory modules in my undergraduate > course. I am wondering if it should be _evident_ instead of _evidenced_.


title: What is an adjective for "almost, but not entirely correct"?

text: I'm looking for an adjective, and I'll use an example to describe what I'm looking for. John says: _"It is impossible to stand on one hand."_ When in reality, it is _unimaginably difficult_ (one might also say, _statistically impossible_ ) to stand on one hand.* John's statement isn't necessarily _wrong_ , it's just incorrectly "rounded off" the slightest amount, and "technically correct, but not completely". Someone pedantic could correct John, saying: _"Your statement is ** ___ __ ___**."_


title: Present Perfect Continuous vs. Present Perfect

text: Which is correct, are both equally possible? "I've had a cold for the last three days." or "I've been having a cold for the last three days." "I haven't felt like this for ages." or "I haven't been feeling like this for ages." Is there a rule? I browsed similar topics here but I can't find an answer.


title: Does "abstruse" carry a positive or negative connotation?

text: _Generally_ , does the word "abstruse" give positive or negative (or neutral) connotations? For example, "daedal" and "profound" would generally be considered a word with positive connotations, whereas "confusing" would have negative connotations, and "abstract" would be neutral. I am aware that the entire sentence needs to be taken into context before we can determine the connotation, but with _just the word_ , what connotation does "abstruse" give generally?


I emailed a professor at Harvard for graduate study and he said he was nearing retirement and recommended his student working in Minnesota. I was going to reply him. Should I use this as a beginning: "It is a pity for me that I could not have the opportunity to work with you and under you supervision" It feels so weird. Thank you all~


title: What does “Live goes on, Wills to a heart” mean? What is the origin of this phrase?

text: I saw the phrase “ _Live goes on, Wills to a heart ... Japan_ ,” as the ending line of the article of Time magazine (April 6th), titled ‘A hard look at Japan’s debt problem.” Could you tell me what this line means, and where it came from. The article ends up with the following paragraph: “The leak from the reactors can be hazardous, but the patriotic Japanese can deal with it in a unison effort; even though the disaster may last a long time till there is a resolution to the destruction of Fukushima nuclear plants. _Live goes on, Wills to a heart--Japan.”_


title: What is the opposite of “patricide”?

text: What’s the opposite of the word _patricide_? I’m looking for the word that describes the act (or the person, to keep in similar vein with _suicide_ , _patricide_ , etc.) of a father killing his son out of malice. I’m not looking for _matricide_ , which I consider to be a related but not opposite term for _patricide_.


title: Can the name of a country always convey the name of a nation?

text: There is an old name of a country and its description: > Persia: The **land** and **people** in southwestern Asia from the ancient > Sassanian empire to the modern nation state of Iran, prior to 1935. I found the description wrong grammatically because the name only refers to the land not people who are Persians/Iranians not Persia. Is it correct to use the name of a country for the land and its people both in standard English? P.S: It is the link: http://meta.history.stackexchange.com/questions/416/some- mistakes-in-persias-tag-information and here: http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/persia but according to the link which has been sent by coleoptrist as a comment under this topic they have added something to the tag Persia recently so the content has changed!


title: Is there a difference between "opt" and "choose"?

text: Could you give examples where one is better suited than the other one? Or are they completely synonymous? (I'm not a native speaker.) **Update:** I'm writing a piece software documentation and I wonder if it's better to use _choose_ or _opt_ : > ... Note that these components can receive input themselves (although they > may **opt/choose** not to). ...


title: "England in sight of victory" vs. "Victory in sight for England"

text: > England in sight of victory This was the headline in a leading newspaper but I can't help but feel that there is something wrong in it. I would have phrased it as: > Victory in sight for England Which one is correct?


title: Should I write "that being said" (vs. "that's been said" or "Having said that")?

text: I often write what "sounds" right (being not a native English speaker/writer), and I believe the expression "that being said" to be fairly common, as opposed to a more complete form like "that's been said" or "Having said that". In doubt, I turn to google fight, which seems to confirm the common usage. (not exactly the right reference, I know.) Yet, I don't think that "that being said" is correct, especially in writing. "That said" is even more common. Is it also acceptable in writing? What expression would you use in formal writing? (Not too formal though: like a technical forum)


title: "That said" vs. "That being said"

text: > **Possible Duplicate:**   >  Should I write "that being said" (vs. "that's been said" or "Having said > that")? Is "that said" proper English? I see people use "that being said" more often, but I am not sure if this is correct. Thoughts? I've included an example of how I recently used "that said" below. > Most startups are looking to sell, whether that means selling early or > holding out for an IPO. **That said** , this is probably the best thing that > could have happened to Gowalla.


title: Having at one's disposal

text: > One has at one's disposal ... Is the following an acceptable synonymous phrase? > One has (the) disposal of ... It made sense to me initially, if a little more active than the first. But I've now said it so many times it's starting to sound right, wrong, and not like words at all.


title: "Border protection" vs "boarder protection"

text: Is the term _boarder protection_ valid? It has 52,500 results on Google. What is the difference between _boarder protection_ and _border protection_?


title: Is there such a word as 'tractless' and what does it mean?

text: I recall hearing the phrase 'tractless wilderness' but no dictionaries has 'tractless'. Up until now, I believed the meaning to be 'expansive'. There is a possibility that I'm confusing it with 'trackless', but I don't see how this would convey the same meaning as 'trackless' simply means without tracks.


title: Which tense should use? Present Perfect or Past?

text: Which of the following sentence is correct? "I have talked with him today. He wants to do the work" or "I talked with him today. He wants to do the work." Which tense I need to use at the sentence? Present Perfect or Past tense?


title: What is the basic meaning of 'blueprint'?

text: I just want to know the meaning of _blueprint_. Some websites say it's a method of printing, some say it merely means a pattern or design used by engineers or architects to document their ideas. I am really confused. Can someone explain to me the basic intention and meaning that underpins this word? If so, it would be much appreciated.


title: Why is "chore" pronounced differently from the "chore" in "choreography"?

text: How come the word "chore" is pronounced like it is, when the word "choreography", which has the same initial letter combination, is pronounced differently? Is there a phonetical rule to explain this?


In this interview on the TV show The Wire, David Simon (the show's creator) says: > Much of our modern theater seems rooted in the Shakespearean discovery of > the modern mind. [The show is] stealing instead from ... the Greeks ... to > create doomed and fated protagonists who confront a rigged game and their > own mortality. The modern mind ... finds such fatalism ancient and > discomfiting ... We are a pretty self-actualized, self-worshipping crowd of > postmoderns and the idea that for all of our wherewithal and discretionary > income and leisure, we’re still fated by indifferent gods, feels to us > antiquated and superstitious. We don’t accept our gods on such terms anymore > ... we don’t even grant Yahweh himself that kind of unbridled, > interventionist authority. What exactly is meant by "the Shakespearean discovery of the modern mind"?


title: Are the commas placed correctly?

text: Are these punctuated satisfactorily with the commas? If not, where else would you put them? He said that he didn't want to go, and quite frankly he shouldn't have. We can bill you on our customary terms, or if you'd like we can charge you directly. We can bill you on our customary terms or, if you'd like, can charge you directly.


title: How to categorize "grrrr", "errhh", "argh",..?

text: 1. What are these called in English?   2. Are they same thing as "Gosh" or "Gee"?   3. Maybe sounds of emotional changes?


title: Overall structure, dashes and commas

text: The following sentence comes to me a bit intricate: > The ultimate responsibility still rests in the hands of Internet users who > vote – they, along with the officials elected to serve them, make up the > global community. I didn't understand the understand the use of the dash and the commas and what does the expression `Internet users who vote – they...` mean? Why did the writer use the personal pronoun "they " to refer to internet users? Does he need a new subject after the dash? What is after all the grammatical structure of this sentence? I need an overall explanation of this sentence, please!


title: "She" or "her" following "no one but"?

text: Which pronoun is correct in the following sentence? > No one but **her/she** ever made a perfect score on the test The answer according to the book is _"her"_ , but it is getting on my nerves. I tried solving it by making a different statement as follows: > She made a perfect score on the test Why does using "No one but" change it to accusative case?


title: History and heritage = hypernym and hyponym?

text: I'm not quite sure how to phrase my question...but anyways. History and heritage are often confused with one another. "Heritage is owned by someone or some group; history is not. History is what people study in order to preserve and extend their heritage." So, in a relationship between history and heritage, is history the **'hypernym'** and heritage the **'hyponym'**? I am not sure how correct these terms are, as it is my first time seeing them. I found them, with examples, on this website: http://www.fun-with- words.com/nym_words.html


title: What does "Every once in a while, however, you’ll find yourself crafting " mean?

text: My English is not good and I'm trying to improve it. I came across this sentence while reading an article, and I want to know what it means: > Every once in a while, however, you’ll find yourself crafting.


title: When ending a list with "etc", should there be a comma before "etc"?

text: When listing items and ending the list with "etc", should there be a comma before "etc"? E.g.               red, green, blue, etc      or               red, green, blue etc      Related question, though this one involves the word "and", so I am no sure if the answer applies to this question or not: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/412/comma-before-last-item-in-a- list


title: The first forty years of life give us the text, the next thirty supply the commentary

text: What does the following sentence mean? > _The first forty years of life give us the text, the next thirty supply the > commentary_ I can't see the link between the text and commentary.


title: "Perhaps" versus "probably"

text: Can I say > Perhaps the most natural option is to... instead of > The most natural option is probably to... Do these two sentences have the same meaning? Generally speaking, should I prefer one above the other?


title: Did English ever have a word for 'yes' for negative questions?

text: The Germans have _doch_ and the French have _si_ as a word that means "yes" in response to a negative question, such as: > Don't you want some ice-cream?   >  Yes [I do]! In English, we only have _yes_ (as far as I know) and further clarification is required in order to be unambiguous. Did we ever have such a word in English and, if so, what happened to it? If not, given the French and Germanic influences on English, any idea why not?


title: Can one be *highly* ambivalent?

text: I've always felt that it's something of a contradiction to be _very_ or _highly_ ambivalent. It's grammatically correct, as far as I know, but is it stylistically acceptable, or is my sense of linguistic style correct?


title: What does the phrase "point-blank" mean in "she refused point-blank to join in"?

text: > So she refused point-blank to join in. What does the expression _point-blank_ mean in this context? Could you give me some more examples of situations where this phrase could be used?


title: Is the word "throwee" acceptable?

text: I wanted to have a word to refer to the thing being thrown, so I decided to use the word "throwee". I can't find this word in online dictionaries, so I guess this word does not exist in the English language. However, I really like this word and I would like to continue using it in my written communication. I'm not a native speaker, but from my experience with the language, "xee" means "object/person being xed" (where "x" is a verb, e.g. "employee" - "person being employed"). So, what do you think? Is the word "throwee" acceptable? Is it OK if I continue to use it? Should I use a different word? * * * To provide context, I'm a JavaScript programmer. In the JavaScript programming language, there exists a `throw` statement, which throws values of various types (e.g. strings, numbers, objects).               // code examples     throw 123;     throw "Invalid argument";     throw new Error;      An usage example would be: > If the throwee is a _Number_ value, then... . which is more terse and IMO more readable than: > If the value being thrown is a _Number_ value, then...


title: Clear way of saying that one set of rules overrides another, if contradicts

text: I'm working on updating a constitution, but as it is for a non-incorporated entity it doesn't have to be legally perfect. I'm much more interested in clarity. Here is what I have at the moment: > If any of the regulations of the Guild, the rules of Societies Council, or > other provisions enrolled upon the Guild Statutes Book should disagree with > this any portion of this Constitution or with any Regulations, then those > rules shall be overruled. _Regulation_ is defined earlier in the document as > a rule or law that is passed by committee, with on going consequences to the > club. Basically: > If A,B, or C contradicts X or Y, then uses A, B or C instead


title: "Is" or "was" written by?

text: We usually speak of the events of a work of fiction in present tense, even though they may clearly have happened in the past: "Macbeth hallucinates a dagger floating before him." This is because the events of the work in a sense unfold as you're reading them, so they are always in the present. But does this extend to facts about the work itself? Specifically, does it extend to discussion of the work's authorship? Which of these sentences is more correct?   * _A Brief History of Time_ is written by Stephen Hawking.   * _A Brief History of Time_ was written by Stephen Hawking. Does the age of the work in question matter?   * _Macbeth_ is written by William Shakespeare.   * _Macbeth_ was written by William Shakespeare. Does it matter if the work is an ongoing series?   * _Welcome to Night Vale_ is written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor.   * _Welcome to Night Vale_ was written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Are there other subtleties I haven't thought of?


title: Difference between venture and adventure

text: Is there any difference between usage of words _venture_ and _adventure_? Is _venture_ a short form usage of _adventure_?


title: What is a better word for "works with" or "supplements"?

text: _Situation:_ A device does not require other special devices but works with standard equipment (and requires it to function properly). It is more that the device supplements the other devices. I am now looking for a different way to express something like this: > ... and does therefore **work with** standard equipment. Is there any better word for this?


title: What's the meaning of "lose steam"?

text: This is part of a comment made from a discussion on homeless people: > ...It would be nice to think that I'm going to be able to help turn his life > around but we'll have to see if he loses his steam or falls off the wagon. What does _lose steam_ mean? Since _falling off the wagon_ means to resume drinking after having stopped. I'm guessing _lose steam_ means something like to resume using harmful drugs after having stopped?


title: as of late vs of late

text: Which is correct? Is it "as of late" or "of late", is the "as" part necessary? Also, can you give me a couple of different examples of sentences using the two? Is there a word that is used similarly to those particular words, that i can use to substitute the words "as of late" and "of late" with, so i don't get confused and know how to use them? Does the following sentence "and as of late he has agreed to return home" make sense? If not, then can you restate the sentence? EDIT: The thing is I've already used the word recently (twice) in the same paragraph and i'm meant to be writing a formal letter. Is the sentence correct or not? Because this is the first time I've used this site and the answers are "disorderly". Thanks again :)


title: Alternative to the idiomatic phrase "highway robbery"

text: I was wondering whether there were any other alternatives to the phrase "highway robbery". I am trying to say the same thing in a light-hearted, but not too casual way.


title: Is there a word for a concept defined by the lack of something?

text: I have been trying to find a word that describes a concept that is only defined by the lack for something. For example, there isn't really any such thing as cold, it is a concept we use to describe the lack of heat. So is there a word to describe the kind of word that "cold" is?


title: Established as a rule through experimentation or statistics

text: There's a word that's slipped my mind. It's used for example to qualify findings through tests or statistics as opposed to formulae or hard science. Any ideas?


title: Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors - what category?

text: Is there a single-word category for the status Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors? I've heard it called as "batch status" but can't seem to find the right single-word category for it.


title: Is there a word for "umming"?

text: Is there a word for saying "um" or "uh", etc, during speaking? Or a word for "um" and "uh", etc?


title: Is it okay to say "that which"?

text: I know that there are certain times to use "that" (for restricting the noun) and certain times to use "which" (for adding information). How about "that which"?: > Truth is **that which** conforms to reality. "That" is here a demonstrative pronoun, but it seems that this usage of _which_ is incorrect. Is this okay? If it's not correct, how could I restate that sentence?


title: The difference between "take" and "last"

text: We say: "the meeting will last two hours". But we say: "how long does the flight take?" Please let me know the difference between _last_ and _take_ and when we should use each.


title: My leg is sparkles, my leg is pins

text: I am trying to improve my vocabulary translating lyrics of songs I like. Today is "Slow Show" by The National. Everything is pretty clear, but for one line: > My leg is sparkles, my leg is pins My understanding is that his (the singer's, speaking in first person) leg feels "pins and needles", numb. But I am not sure this is the case. For example, I didn't understand why "sparkles" and "pins" are plural while the subject is singular. In case you need context, you can find the lyrics here.


title: Equivalent of "anthropomorphism" for babies

text: _Anthropomorphism_ is about attributing human emotions to other animals. I have a one-month old baby at home, and was wondering if there was a corresponding word for attributing _adult_ human emotions to infants? If I say "she looks guilty", am I being _adultomorphic_?


title: Can "the fact that X" imply "X is a fact"?

text: > **A** : How do I know if my professor is good? > > **B** : Do you understand what he says? > > **A** : Yes, but that might be because I'm a natural genius, and not > necessarily the fact that he is good at teaching. > > **B** : Oh, you said _"the fact that he is good at teaching"_ \- so you are > already taking for granted that he is a good professor! > > **A** : You're an idiot. This scenario was just made up - this never actually happened to me. However, I thought it is possible nonetheless (very rare though). **Can** saying _"the fact that X"_ imply _"X is a fact"_? What could **A** say instead to _prevent_ **B** from using that logic?


title: What word could I use to describe this?

text: I'm trying to talk about how well two designs complement each other. My exact sentence is: "I will use the focus of the designs as a measure of complementness." However, "complementness" isn't a word (recognized by major dictionaries). What can I use instead to convey the same meaning?


title: Phrasing "An hour's rest"

text: I was just posting a question to the Homebrewing StackExchange, and I found myself pondering the proper way to express my sentiment. I first wrote "an hour's rest", but upon review, I deemed the apostrophe extraneous. What is the proper way to form this phrase? I can't make a case for the word 'hour' being plural or possessive, so I'm beginning to think the whole letter 's' is unnecessary. Thoughts, anyone?


title: "at the floor" vs. "on the floor"

text: For the following sentences: >   * He threw the book _at_ the floor. >   * He threw the book _on_ the floor. > I know the book hit the floor in both sentences but which one is more commonly used and also what's the difference between 'at' and 'on'? Do we acknowledge the exact position from 'at'?


title: Name and rules of this construction: "A somber man privately, Johnson had an acid humor."

text: I'm reading a book right now that in my opinion overuses a certain construct. It's used so much that it distracts from the content. Some examples: > Eccentric and egotistical, Berkeley was not so much interested in dance > steps as he was in camera movement. And: > A somber man privately, Johnson had an acid humor, quite different at the > dinner table … from what reached the screen. And: > Solely a screen actor, Gary Cooper mastered his craft so that he knew > exactly how to react for the camera.    ## 1\. Is there a term for this construct? I'm thinking maybe it's some kind of topicalized apposition? So you could start with > Gary Cooper, **solely a screen actor,** mastered his craft so that he knew > exactly how to react for the camera. and then pull the appositive phrase to the front to make the sentence interesting: > **Solely a screen actor,** Gary Cooper mastered his craft so that he knew > exactly how to react for the camera.    ## 2\. What is the relation between the phrases? There does seem to be some relationship between the phrases in the particular constructs I quoted: Johnson's somberness and acid humor obviously contrast one another; Cooper's mastered the specific craft of the screen actor; I suppose Berkeley's eccentricity accounts for his interests. That last one's less clear to me. But is this kind of relationship a requirement? Say I combine two phrases: > A big man, John Doe loved the color yellow. Could that just be one way of expressing two unrelated things in one sentence, or would the reader expect them to have a bearing on each other? I'm curious about the "rules" (whether written down somewhere, or the conventional usage, or your intuitions) of the relationship between the phrases in this construct.


title: Like Phrases like phrases

text: Phrases in a sentence such as: Like a bat out of hell. Like a scowled dog. Like a rabbit in heat. What are these "LIKE" phrases called?


title: Hyphenating spelled-out fractions with large numerators and/or denominators

text: I find myself in the awkward position of needing to systematically spell out fractions where the numerator, the denominator, or both have three or more digits, and I'm not sure about the hyphenation. For example, 124/145:   * one-hundred-twenty-four one-hundred-forty-fifths?   * one hundred twenty-four one hundred forty-fifths?   * something else?


title: What's the opposite of "precede"?

text: In the particular context that I'm in, I was writing about several lines of programming. For simplicity, let's call them:               line a     line b      First, I described `line a`. Great. Then I wanted to write about `line b`, but couldn't think of the way to describe the relationship between `b` and `a`. The closest I could think of was "follows", but to say "the following line" is ambiguous: it can refer to either the line of code after `line a`, or it can imply that I'm going to copy and paste `line b` into my text and reference it there (which was not the case). I ended up saying something to the effect of "`line a` precedes some code that...", but was wondering: If `line a` "precedes" `line b`, then what is the proper and unambiguous term for the relationship between `line b`, relative to `line a`? Postcede?


title: Is "once you stop to think about it" ambiguous?

text: I tripped over a phrase in a book similar to "Once you stop to think about it, the existence of rainbows is pretty amazing." Now, in context, it is pretty clear that I am supposed to stop my usual thoughtless existence to take some time thinking about rainbows, but literally, the phrase could mean that I should stop all this useless thinking to have time to appreciate rainbows more. Is the phrase "stop to think about it" actually ambiguous or is it always used in the sense of thinking?


title: Use of possessive form in this phrase?

text: In the following phrase, we are debating if a possessive genitive form should be used or not: > "Such mapping enabled the use of the classical statistical mechanics' tools" Should "classical statistical mechanics" be modified with the apostrophe to express a genitive form?


title: Is there a word that means, "Group with a distinguished member?"

text: A group can be defined as (link): > a number of persons or things ranged or considered together as being related > in some way. Now suppose one of those persons is a distinguished member - like a leader, or a shaman, or a coach. Is there an alternative to the word "group" which would emphasize this? I'm looking for a word that emphasizes that some particular member is "special", but not that they are necessarily "better", nor that people are arranged in some sort of a hierarchy.


title: "would I need" or "will I need" What is the correct sentence?

text: I don't know which sentence is correct for my formal letter?   1. As a foreigner will I need any work permit or personal accident insurance?   2. As a foreigner would I need any work permit or personal accident insurance? My teacher said that "will" is not correct but she also said that "summer" has to be "Summer", so I don't know if this sentence is correct or incorrect.


title: "Will graduate" vs. "will be graduated" vs. "is going to graduate"

text: Which of the following sentences are correct? >   1. He will graduate in May. >   2. He will be graduated in May. >   3. He is going to graduate in May. > Issue 1: Is the second one grammatical?   Issue 2: There is high uncertainty that cause he may not graduate in May, like fail one course?   Issue 3: In a formal letter, which one is correct? Besides, I heard from one of my friend whose mother tongue is not English: "I have been graduated from Boston university". Is that one grammatical as well? I know the second one is passive and not correct but in this article I saw somebody use it. Therefore I am confused.


_animus_ has the etymology of "breath, life", just like _animate_. How does animus have the meaning of ill will?


title: Could I use 'this' to introduce a person?

text: Which of the sentences below are correct? > This’s my best friend, William.   >  Those’re my classmates, James and Harry.   >  That’s my teacher, Mrs Wilson. UPDATE: I just took an exam. The correct sentence is the last one, but I don't understand why.


title: frontend, what does frontend mean?

text: front means ahead, infront , forward end means last point, finishing point, but what does FRONTEND mean? for example engineering design is clear to me, but "frontend engineering design" what exactly wants to tell us about engineering design? i am looking for an explanation for frontend without any prefix of suffix actualy. purely for " frontend".


title: Why use BCE/CE instead of BC/AD?

text: When I was a kid, I was always taught to refer to years using BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini / year of our Lord). However, I somewhat regularly hear people referring to years as in the CE (Common Era) or BCE (Before the Common Era). Why do people use the latter terminology? For one thing, I find it confusing. It doesn't help that BCE is similar to BC. But moreover, there is only one letter of difference between the two terms, whereas with BC and AD, the terms are clearly different and I find it easier to distinguish! Were BCE/CE established earlier than BC/AD?


title: Which of these sentences is correctly written?

text: Someone edited my message on StackOverflow, but it really bugs me out. I'm not sure what's wrong with it:   * As you see, the bigger the circle becomes, the more vertices I need for hiding the straight lines.   * As you see, the bigger the circle becomes, the more vertices I need to hide the straight lines. The latter (corrected) sentence just bugs me out for some reason. It would sound better if there was a comma after the word "need", perhaps, but I guess that would be even worse in means of grammatical correctness. Can someone explain why is the first sentence bad and the second sentence correct? And could there even be better solution to fix the first sentence?


title: Looking for a word that states an instance is immutable

text: If I have something that I don't want to change, is it proper to attach "candidate" to the end of it? So if someone applies for a job with an application, I would consider them to be a candidate, but would that also imply that the application would not change? (because perhaps a candidate is immutable) Is there a better word to use for an instance of something that is immutable?


title: Is spell-checking software becoming a linguistic authority?

text: It seems that‒whether intentionally or not‒spell-checking software in web browsers and productivity suites heavily influence our use of language. For example: in drafting a document, I found that my spelling dictionary did not include the word _unbeknownst_. The average user would likely take that as an indication of the word's obsolescence or nonexistence. Is there some discussion in the linguistics world around this impact and the effect it may have on the field?


title: Should "brother" be capitalized in a letter salutation?

text: John Smith, a member of my congregation, would be addressed as _brother_ in face-to-face conversation. If I write a letter to him, should I capitalize this word? For example, as in: > Dear Brother Smith,


title: Attribution: Quoting a Fictional Character

text: Famously: > "Try not. Do or do not. There is no try."   >  \-- Yoda Thing is, this is from a movie. A writer wrote it and a voice actor spoke it. Is there a correct form of attribution for a case like this? If so, what?


title: Can a spoof and a dark comedy be the same?

text: I and a group of friends were watching a video on TV when one idiot from the group (who wasn't my friend but a friend's friend) wanting to sound intellectual claimed that the video was based on "dark humour". The rest of us downright disagreed and said that the video was a spoof or a satire but could never be dark comedy. This idiot not wanting to give up then claimed that the video was both a spoof and a dark comedy. We did not argue with him further on this as there as no point. But what piqued my curiosity was that could a film/video or a work of literature be both a dark comedy and a spoof? By the way I am not a native English speaker but have taken every care to write in proper English and I would appreciate it if you could correct any errors I've made and also answer my question.


title: "Which" or "where"?

text: A question of mine on another SE site was corrected from: > I am trying to determine where on Earth has the lowest gravity. To: > I am trying to determine which on Earth's surface has the lowest gravity. Why is "which" preferable to "where" in this sentence? **EDIT:** The intent of the original sentence was to express "At which location at or near the surface of the planet Earth will an arbitrary mass experience the least acceleration roughly in the direction of the planet's center of mass, assuming that no outside forces are bearing on the mass."


title: Possessive of "day" for "day's leave"

text: I need to request leave for one day and for more than one day. What's the correct way of using the word _day_? Which is correct for a single day of leave? >   * 1 day's leave >   * 1 day leave > What about more than one day? >   * 2 day's leave >   * 2 days' leave > Please clarify with explanation.


title: If an adult gets kidnapped, would it still be considered "kid"napping?

text: What's the other terms if adults get kidnap?


title: "I can't remember things as I used" — why not "as I used to"?

text: There's a line in _Alice in Wonderland_ : > I can't remember things as I used—and I don't keep the same size for ten > minutes together! I wonder why the 'to' has been omitted from the verb 'used to'. Shouldn't the line read "I can't remember things as I used to—and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together!"?


title: Idiomatic phrase

text: What's the meaning of > ARE THE BLOODY COCKS STILL RUNNING THE COOP? Quote from the movie "Young Guns II" For those who are not native English speakers (85% of the world) these kind of phrases are almost unintelligible.


title: Grammatically correct form of "Way <infinitive phrase>"

text: There's a reasonably common idiomatic phrasing in the form "Way <infinitive phrase>!" that denotatively means "You did a good job of <whatever>", but is almost always used ironically. Examples include "Way to go!" or "Way to bury the lede!". (These are actually ironic in different ways, in that the first, presumably, is encouraging a good action when the action was bad, whereas the second is ironically encouraging a bad action.) This has been touched on before in Way to do something, but my question is: **What is the grammatically-correct complete sentence version of this formation? Or is it already and I'm not understanding how?** (Bolded because I've buried the lede.) I can't actually think of an instance where you'd need to use that basic formation formally; I just can't figure out its basis.


title: Comma after To at the beginning of a sentence

text: I am just writing my master thesis and I am unsure whether to place a comma in sentences starting with "To". Here are some examples:   * To be able to improve the performance[,] it is important to discover the performance issues first.   * To create consistent plans[,] there are two basic directions of planning: top-down or bottom-up.   * To acquire query plans[,] EXPLAIN PLAN statements have to be injected in the statements within the context of the application. Is the beginning an introductory phrase? I am German and therefore not familiar with English punctuation yet ...


title: What word or phrase describes pulling a fish out of water?

text: What would be the fishing word or phrase that describes pulling a fish out of water?


title: "Neither a minute" usage?

text: Which of the following sentences is more idiomatic or is there any other way to say it? >   1. In case neither a minute has gone since you left. >   2. In case a minute hasn't gone since you left. >


title: "Masters degree" — capital M or not?

text: When someone states "I have a Masters in Computer Science" should the word _masters_ have a capital M? I've seen arguments for both and can't determine which is correct.


title: Is there an apostrophe in a master's degree?

text: The question asks it all really. When referring to a master's degree, do you use an apostrophe or not? That is, is it "a master's" or "a masters"?


title: Does a person have two “masters’ degrees” or two “master’s degrees”?

text: When someone has more than one master’s degree, should these be described as have several _masters’_ degrees or several _master’s_ degrees? In other words, which of these two applies:   * (singular) a master’s degree > (plural) several **master’s** degrees   * (singular) a master’s degree > (plural) several **masters’** degrees Please note that this is a **different** question from what this has been marked as a duplicate of. That addresses the question for the singular. This question is about the plural case. There is definitely an apostrophe, but the question is where it should go.


title: Meaning of "throw some work your way"

text: I think probably the expression means to find job for someone, Is it a common expression or a word made inside the movie? > _I talked to him. He said he can "throw some work my way"._


title: what does "fancy-ass" mean?

text: What does **fancy-ass** mean in the following sentence: > _And after that, getting hired by some "fancy-ass"._


Is a comma followed by 'and' grammatically correct? For example: > This Agreement, and any and all disputes directly or indirectly arising...


title: Significance of BrE vs AmE in the US

text: I've been working on a thesis concerning the differences between British English and American English. I studied that in the past a standardization of American English was refused, even if spoken and written language were two different things in the United States, and this was because of the opposition of English purists. Today, American newspapers and academic books are written in American English? I mean, for example, they try not to use the past perfect or the present perfect where the British would use it and they prefer the past simple? In the educational system, is standard English that is taught or American English?


title: Consonant transposition: Why is "Wednesday" pronounced "Wensday"?

text: It appears like a couple of consonant sounds have been transposed. How, why did that happen?


title: Percentages of meanings in an English dictionary

text: Often when you look for some new word in a dictionary, you will find many definitions or meanings of the one word. For example when you look for a word _to_ in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary you will find the sorted list of 18 possible meanings of the word. The easier part of the question: The words are sorted according to what? The word frequencies? Is meaning number 1 is most often used? The harder part of the question: Is there a dictionary evaluating each item of the list (of meanings) with percentage? For example for the word _to_ it would look like:   1. in the direction of something; towards something (in 60 % of meanings)   2. to the something (of something) located in the direction mentioned from something (in 22 % of meanings)   3. as far as something (in 10 % of meanings)   4. ... (in 5 % of meanings)   5. ... (in 1 % of meanings)   6. ... (in 0.3 % of meanings) ... 18 ... (in 0.0001 of meanings) If such a dictionary does not exist and you know about some research about this, you can cite such a source.


title: Where did the phrase "I don't give a rat's ass" come from?

text: I would love to know the origin of this saying.


title: Should the word "then" be used instead of the word "than"

text: "If a size '2' is beautiful, than my size '22' must be glorious." I believe the word "then" should've been used instead of "than". Correct?


title: "Why couldn't" vs. "why couldn't you have"

text: Reading Harry Potter 2, I came across the following, and I wonder if the use of _couldn't have_ is the equivalent of _couldn't_ in this context? > "I have got a question, Oliver," said George, who had woken with a start. > "Why **couldn't you have** told us all this yesterday when we were all > awake?" If we change it to the following, how does it change the meaning of it? > "I have got a question, Oliver," said George, who had woken with a start. > "Why **couldn't you** tell us all this yesterday when we were all awake?" And what is the difference between the following? > If you **couldn't** do it, you should have told us yesterday. > > If you **couldn't have** done it, you should have told us yesterday.


title: Meaning of "I've been doing this long enough to drink"

text: Here is the context > I've been a software developer for twenty-one years -- among other things, > that means I've been doing this long enough to drink! ;-) But seriously, > though, I can't imagine doing anything else as well or as joyously as > programming. I'm apparently one of those rare birds that really love this > job. Is this an idiom ?


title: Is it awkward to use the word "aubergine" instead of "eggplant"?

text: According to Google Ngrams eggplant is far more common (although in British English aubergine seems to have a small advantage over eggplant). So, not being a native speaker of English I wonder whether using the word "aubergine" would be considered smug or weird by native speakers. The thing is that I find the word "aubergine" a bit more natural because it's basically the same as in German ( _Aubergine_ ) -- which happens to be my native language.


title: How do you say in English to "Declare something ownerless"?

text: What is the act of making something ownerless? All I've seen is to "declare something ownerless". However, in this statement one isn't so much as announcing as he is transferring something property. Moreover, if one wants to discuss his act of transferring, it wouldn't make sense to use the word "declare" (i.e "his declaration of making this item ownerless was ineffective" sounds like a mouthful).


title: What is the correct verb corresponding to the noun "summons"?

text: I have just seen this usage: > ... you have been summonsed ... My immediate reaction was one of (let's say) surprise; I would have thought the correct form was: > ... you have been _summoned_ ... Is there, in fact, a verb "to summons", and, if so, where did it come from?


title: How do you call the fact of taking a personality test?

text: I am looking for a noun that represents the fact of a user taking a personality test. I was thinking about `examination`, but it sounds like education/certification. _Context (unnecessary):   My website allows users to take personality tests.   It is a REST website, which means I have to use a noun for each type of data object.   The wording is quite important as it appears in the users' browser URL bar._


title: Why is "herself" required in this particular sentence?

text: Why is a reflexive pronoun, i.e. _herself_ , grammatically required in the following sentence? >   * I gave Susie a picture of herself. > Compare with: >   * I gave Susie a picture of her. > This sentence doesn't seem to be able to mean _I gave Susie a picture of Susie_. It means I gave her a picture of someone else. I've looked at the following page, but this type of usage doesn't seem to be covered there: >   * When is it correct to use “yourself” and “myself” (versus “you” and > “me”)? > The answers there suggest that we use reflexive pronouns when the subject and object of the verb are the same entity. _Herself_ isn't an object in the example above, and _Susie_ is not a subject either. The syntax in this example seems to be entirely different. Also, why is the following sentence not grammatical? >   * I went there by me. > ... as opposed to: >   * I went there by myself. > This last example, of course, is perfectly fine. So the question here is why does this so-called 'idiomatic usage' contain a reflexive instead of a normal pronoun. Lastly, why is a reflexive required in this imperative? >   * Do it yourself. > Compare with: >   * Do it you. > Note that _yourself_ isn't an object in that first sentence. (It would be if the sentence was _Watch yourself_ , for example. The object in the example, however, is _it_.) What then are the grammatical rules that stipulate the use of reflexive pronouns in these examples? **Edit note** I've changed the order of the examples here to take the focus off the probable emphatic usage in the imperative (although I'm still interested in the grammar here). I've also added a third example, which highlights more clearly the two issues I am most interested in hearing about:   1. Examples where we need a reflexive pronoun, but the pronoun isn't the object of a verb.   2. Examples, where the _antecedent_ , the original person or thing that the reflexive is duplicating, is not the _subject_ of a verb.  Any answers with relevant observations and or research would be very gratefully received, whether they address the whole question, or just parts of it. **Observations about the imperative example** Although I'm most concerned with the photograph example, I hereby offer some observations about the imperative one. Some of the interesting comments below suggest that _yourself_ here is an emphatic version of _you_. As RegEdit's answer points out, the example with _yourself_ seems to be contrastive. The sentence with _you_ , on the other hand, does not give the same reading. I wonder why that is? I note in passing that _yourself_ seems to be an adjunct ('adverbial') here. This makes it different from another emphatic use of pronouns, which is when a pronoun appears as the subject of an imperative:   * _You_ do it!  I originally gave the imperative example for two reasons. Firstly, the reflexive pronoun here is obviously not the object of the verb. Secondly, however, I gave it because there is no antecedent _word_ in this sentence which could be the _subject_ of the verb, or, which represents the same person as _yourself_. I am curious as to whether the rules requiring reflexive pronouns in emphatic usages, are basically the same ones that require us to use them the rest of the time. In other words, I return to my original question: Why is a reflexive pronoun required in this case?


title: The fear of not seeing one's mother ever again

text: Is there a word to describe the fear of never again seeing one's mother (or at least any person)? I have already checked the list of phobias that Wikipedia offers but could not find anything that fits the specific meaning I am looking for; perhaps there is such a word, but it does not have the word _phobia_ attached to it. Thanks.


title: help with the verb "is"

text: My friend told me about auxiliary (is); we are using _is_ after _what_ in questions like "What is his name?" and 'why there is' questions like "What season is it?". The main question is when to put _is_ after what and when to put _is_ after season and why ?


title: Idiom for "doing something pleasant and useful at the same time" with positive connotation

text: Is there a phraseme or idiom for "doing something useful (necessary) and pleasant at the same time" with positive connotation? For example - using a bike to get to work and back home is useful (because it allows you to train your body), and pleasant (if you go through the park or a forest, etc.). Or, another possible example - a boss may convince an employee to sign in for a business trip (to the North Pole) because it is useful to the firm and may be pleasant because the employee is an amateur photographer and will have a chance to take a photo of a polar bear. There is a Russian phraseme that is usable in both cases, but is there a similar one in English for at least one of the cases?


title: Any other way of saying "I share your opinion"?

text: "I divide your position" is the first that came to my mind, but I think it's definitely incorrect. Is there any phrase like this with "position", not "opinion"?


title: Is there word for person who committed suicide?

text: A person who committed a theft is a thief. A person who committed murder is a killer(or murderer?). What is a person who committed suicide?


title: The Usage of "Like Anything"

text: I am a non-native English speaker from India. I would like to know the usage of "`Like anything`" when you want to emphasize something you want to say. For example, "`He beat him like anything`", "`She laughs at me like anything`". Do native speakers use this kind of language when they want to intensify their sentences? Out of all, is it correct to use "`Like anything`"? Can someone please shed some light on this. Thank you in advance.


title: Is it correct to say "one year up in India"?

text: I want to say that I have just completed one year in India. Is the following sentence correct? > One year up in India...


title: Language settings description

text: I need a short description for some language settings in an app. You can set a text field behavior to support Latin characters (read left to right), Arabic and other languages that read right to left and languages like Greek that read left to right. How to describe that?


title: "By a certain route" vs. "via a certain route"

text: Which one is correct: >   * by a certain route >   * via a certain route > If "by a certain route" is beyond doubt, then when do we use "via"? I always thought that if we go along something (in this case, go along a route), then "via" is used ("via a route").


title: "You need to undergo the medical tests within 6 months from the departure date"

text: I want to make a statement that means you need to undergo the medical tests _not before_ 6 months from the date of departure. In other words, the medical tests should not be taken earlier than 6 months or trying again "within 6 months period prior to the departure date". I am confused as to which one is correct: >   1. You need to undergo the medical tests _within_ 6 months from the > departure date. >   2. You need to undergo the medical tests _not before_ 6 months from the > departure date. >   3. You need to undergo the medical tests _within 6 months period prior_ to > the departure date. > Please help with the correct wording. Emphasis used only to illustrate the troublesome part.


title: How could I explain this situation in email?

text: My PM given me project and told me develop new project using existing code, but existing project is not good written. I mean they written very difficult code for very simple things. I am quiet confuse, how could i write in mail that the existing project is not worth using. Please help me..


title: Is there a rule for the pronunciation of words with the suffix -ative?

text: I have observed that there are, at least, two patterns of pronunciation for words ending in _-ative_ :   1. The first syllable is stressed and the suffix is pronounced as `/eɪtɪv/` (e.g. qualitative)   2. The second syllable is stressed and the suffix is pronounced as `/ətɪv/` (e.g. declarative) Is there a way (other than memorizing them all, of course) to know how a certain word ending in _-ative_ is pronounced?


title: Is “Studying will help me with achieving my dreams” grammatical?

text: I need to take sentences out of a transcript, so I can’t change the structure of this particular sentence. I can either use it in my work as a grammatically correct sentence, or I can't. I just wanted to know whether the sentence is grammatically correct.


title: Question regarding “Two kinds of”

text: Which of these two is correct, and why?   * two kinds of televisions    * two kinds of television


title: "Except for" vs. "except on"

text: I want to say that I have time to do the homework _only_ on Sunday and on no other day.   So can you help me choose which of the following sentences are considered idiomatic and common for native English-speakers or, if none of my examples is acceptable, suggest what I might say instead? >   1. Except on Sunday, I do not have much time available for doing the > homework. >   2. Except for Sunday, I do not have much time available for doing the > homework. >   3. Besides Sunday, I do not have much time available for doing the > homework. >   4. Other than Sunday, I do not have much time available for doing the > homework. >


title: Past perfect sentence construction

text: This is an example sentence demonstrating the usage of past perfect: > I checked with the supplier and they still hadn't received the contract. In this case the timeline rule works out as it should. Now, if I modify the sentence a little bit. > I had just checked with the supplier and they still haven't received the > contract. Is the second sentence grammatically correct? If so, which one of these would one say as verbally pleasant?


title: What's the opposite of "omniscient"?

text: What's the opposite of _omniscient_ , which means having infinite knowledge, or simply "all- knowing"? Thesaurus.com shows these possible words:   1. **stupid** (opposite of being clever, which ≠ being omniscient)   2. **unknowing** (opposite of being knowing, which ≠ being omniscient)   3. **fallible** (opposite of being infallible, which means "not able to make mistakes", which ≠ being omniscient, since I can know everything and still make mistakes)   4. **erring** (which means "capable of making mistakes", which ≠ being omniscient, since I can know everything and still make mistakes)   5. **imperfect** (opposite of being perfect, which is a superset of being omniscient... how could I be perfect if I'm both omniscient and fallible?)   6. **faulty** (which means "to have fault(s) / defect(s)", is the opposite of "to have no fault(s) / defect(s)", which means being perfect, which ≠ being omniscient)   7. **ignorant** (which means "having inadequate knowledge", is the opposite of "having adequate knowledge", which ≠ having _infinite_ knowledge)   8. **uneducated** (opposite of being educated, which ≠ being omniscient)   9. **unaware** (opposite of being aware, which ≠ being omniscient)   10. **uninformed** (opposite of being informed, which ≠ being omniscient) Yet, none of them are _true_ antonyms for _omniscient_. Is there an alternative? What's another word for "not knowing everything"?


title: Talking about skills level, which adjective fits better: "intermediate" or "medium"?

text: I thought "intermediate" was the appropriate label for the second of a three- level system of grading skills level, but I just saw a CV template on which the levels are defined as "basic", "medium", and "advanced". This made me wonder which one is more appropriate.


title: Is it grammatical to finish a sentence with "also"?

text: In the following text, I wonder if it's grammatical to finish the sentence with _also_. it does sound weird to me. The sentence sound incomplete somehow and makes the audience wait for more. > Here this equation must be understood to mean not only that both sides have > the same value when they are defined, but also that when either side of the > equation is undefined, the other is also. I know it's _the other is also [undefined]_ , but I've never seen a construction like that. If it's grammatical, what is it called?


title: 'by mistakenly, he dropped it' is it grammatically correct?

text: Can I use both words 'by mistakenly' together? I feel that either I can put it as ' by mistake' or as' mistakenly' but not together.


title: What is the difference between "any" and "all"?

text: I am currently designing a web application, and have got into a bit of an argument with the boss over the correct language to use on a search form. Below is the form in question: ![enter image description here](http://i.stack.imgur.com/RBs0d.jpg) The options here will filter the results, so for example if nothing is selected from the Status dropdown, all jobs will be shown regardless of status, whereas if a status is selected, only jobs with that specific status will be displayed. A job may only have one status, and be assigned to one client. The wording of the text for the default Client & Status texts are causing some confusion. At present they are set to "All Clients" and "All Statuses", however it is being argued that this should read "Any Client" or "Any Status". Which would be the correct text to show in this situation, and what is the difference between "any" and "all"?


title: Divide two into four and Divide two by four

text: Why does "divide two into four" equal **two** , and "divide two by four" equal **one half**? Correct if I am wrong, but this what I have learned recently.


title: Origin of the word "spraunce"

text: I was recently talking to someone who said a restaurant was **spraunce** , meaning it was well-presented and high-quality (that being the sense I was familiar with). We briefly discussed the fact that he thought _spraunce_ also implied _expensive_ , whereas I wasn't aware of that connotation. I was surprised when it turned out none of several other people in that conversation knew the word at all. Even more surprised to find out later that it doesn't seem to be in any dictionaries. And positively gobsmacked after going online and discovering even Google doesn't seem to know it. It took me several minutes to unearth this single reference, where it's actually _to spraunce up_. That clearly suggests alliteration / confusion with to _spruce up_. I'm happy to accept that as being a possible component of the origin, but it doesn't really feel like the whole story. Does anyone else know the word? Or anything about its origins and usage?


title: Opposites, when dealing with adjectives and objects together

text: If we have the sentence, "Bob had blinding love for Susan." would the opposite be: "Bob had blinding hatred for Susan" or: "Bob had clear hatred for Susan"?


title: /ð/ → /d/ shift in English

text: As a result of a /d/ → /ð/ shift, _fæder_ became _father_ , _hider_ became _hither_ and _togædere_ became _together_ , giving us our modern English forms. However, I know that _murder_ and _burden_ have archaic forms- _murther_ and _burthen_. This means a shift from /ð/ → /d/ also happened, doesn't it? The High German Consonant Shift turned /ð/ →/d/, a change that affects modern German and Dutch. The English _that_ and Icelandic _það_ versus the German _das_ highlight this change, but it also went the other way- German _tot_ versus English _dead_. My questions: 1.) When did this consonant shift happen in English? Etymonline mentions 12c. 2.) What are some more examples of the /ð/ → /d/ in English words? 3.) How is the shift mirrored in other Germanic languages?


title: "Complement" or "supplement"?

text: On a site similar to this one I answered a question and the OP made a comment which prompted me to complete my answer in an edit. I called it "an example" but I originally wanted to call it "supplement" or "complement". So, I wonder: is either of these titles correct in this context? Both? Both with a different nuance of meaning?


title: Meaning of "fl." and "seq."

text: Currently I am reading a book titled _Configurations of culture growth_ by the American anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber. Part of his book consists of tables that iist eminent people from all fields of human activity (science, literature, drama, painting, sculpture, ...). Next to some of the names are abbreviations like "b." (born), "d." (died), "r." (reigned) and "ca." (circa). But there are two abbreviations whose meanings are unknown to me, namely "fl." and "seq.". Do you know what they mean? Here is an excerpt from Google Books: ![enter image description here](http://i.stack.imgur.com/1ugKg.png)


title: How to divide words into syllables?

text: For example "my class" - are the syllables in this "mike" and "lass" or "my" and then "class", another one is "recent" - are the syllables "reese" and "ent" or "ree" and "sent"?


title: Use of "concretely" for "specifically"

text: I have sometimes seen people using _concretely_ in places where I would normally use _specifically_. I am not sure if both words correctly apply or if _concretely_ is just a mistranslation from another language. For example: > We do have contacts with people abroad, **concretely** with various trade > unions... > > We will only deal with mathematical problems, or, more **concretely** , with > a certain subset of such problems. > > We detected certain problems with some measures, **concretely** with the > extreme values obtained from some indicators. Is this correct?


title: "Niveous" poetic synonyms

text: Are there any more poetic synonyms for "snow-white" and "niveous"? I was searching but I've only found "nival".


title: “Most of them plant based”

text: > What's remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these > remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have > since been found to have at least some basis in fact. I am confused by **“most of them plant based”** Is the word _plant_ acting as a verb in this sentence?


title: She was eight years her elder!

text: Would you please tell me what the following sentence mean? Who is older than who? Janet's sister was eight years her elder.


title: Word for secret or in-joke

text: There is a word, somewhere in my dictionary, that means a joke that only a particular group understands i.e., _in-joke_. I can't remember it and have failed to find it with an online thesaurus, but it is particular to the idea of a joke and not just secret knowledge such as _arcane_ or _esoteric_.


title: Meaning of “it” in “it [. . .] settled into its unbreakable parts”

text: Please help me understand the meaning of “settled into its unbreakable parts” as used in this excerpt below from Flannery O’Connor’s _The Violent Bear It Away_ : > He was sitting forward on the seat, looking out the window at a hill covered > with old used-car bodies. In the indistinct darkness, they seemed to be > drowning into the ground, about half-submerged already. The city hung in > front of them on the side of the mountain as if it were a larger part of the > same pile, not yet buried so deep. The fire had gone out of it and **_it_ > appeared settled into its unbreakable parts**. > > The boy did not intend to go to the schoolteacher’s until daylight and [. . > . .] Please tell me what the _it_ refers to here. Is it the _city_ , or the _fire_?


title: An idiom meaning someone's doing something useless and has no result at the end

text: In my native language, we use an idiom to warn someone that they're doing something which has no result at the end: > Trying to convince him is like squashing water ... Is there any idiom in English with the same meaning?


title: Is there an American English equivalent of the British idiom "carrying coals to Newcastle"?

text: I'm an American living in the Netherlands who is learning Dutch. There's an idiom in Dutch that describes performing a needless/futile activity, "water naar de zee dragen," which literally translates to "carrying water to the sea." My Dutch parents-in-law asked me if there was an English equivalent, but I couldn't think of one. In doing some searches online, I found that the English translation given for the this idiom is always "carrying coals to Newcastle." This was the first time I'd ever come across the phrase, and subsequent searches revealed that it was indeed of British origin, though one site I found did claim that it was an American phrase. However, neither I nor any of my culturally American friends have ever heard of this phrase. Is there an American English idiom or phrase that carries the same connotations for carrying out a futile activity?


title: Can I use an explicit verb in a comparison clause?

text: It seems that I often write something like this: > The sizes of these datasets seem to grow faster than the processing power of > computers does. Now, a longish text I'd written was proofread (by a non-professional) and in every case the suggested correction was as follows: > The sizes of these datasets seem to grow faster than the processing power of > computers. (Yes – only the last word was deleted by the proofreader.) Being a non-native user, I'd like to ask if the way of writing that I've adopted from who-knows-where is always wrong. (Personally, I feel that in some cases – too long sentences maybe – it clarifies my intention slightly.)


title: Can you "regret" someone else's action?

text: I have rarely heard _regret_ used like this, and while it sounds wrong to me, the dictionary doesn't appear to preclude this usage. Dictionary.com: > **Regret** > > **1.** to feel sorrow or remorse for (an act, fault, disappointment, etc.): > _He no sooner spoke than he regretted it._ > > **2.** to think of with a sense of loss: _to regret one's vanished youth._ For example, is the following correct? > He always regretted her impulsive decisions.


title: What is the origin / history of "can't seem"?

text: The construct "I _can't seem_ to X" is widely used and considered normal, as far as I know. However, looking at the meanings of the verb "to seem", I can't find any that would fit the use in this phrase. Has "to seem" ever meant something else? Is this phrase a contraction of a longer phrase?


title: Why does my grammar check want to correct "versus" to "or"?

text: I typed the following sentence into Google Docs: > The calculation becomes more involved, since there are several different > ways to use the silicon wafers (polycrystalline versus monocrystalline). The word _versus_ was underlined in red, and right-clicking yielded > Did you mean: **or** What's going on here? Fwiw, it does the same thing if I use _vs_ instead of _versus_.


title: What are the meaning and possible origin of "word!" and "word up"?

text: Several times, I have had conversations, all over instant messenger, finish with "word" or "Word up G". As it ends a conversation, I am guessing it is like "goodbye". My question is what is the meaning of "word" and "word up g"? Also, what is the origin? I am more interested in the meaning as that will help with understanding its usage.


title: Word up, and where it came from

text: I'm aware of English's unpredictable nature in wording, but this phrase got me thinking. What is the origination of the phrase `word up`... a lot of times shortened to just `word!` I understand the meaning of the phrase to be:   * Great!   * Alright!   * Ok!   * I agree!   * That's awesome! , but how did `word` end up being a synonym for these?


title: A phrase for "extremely bad luck"

text: Is there a (short) phrase or idiom meaning that someone had `extremely bad luck`? In the context of a sports match: as you would have a "perfect game" or the even more specific "perfect hand" (when playing cards); that would mean having such good luck that you couldn't possibly lose. I'm looking for a phrase with the opposite meaning: having such bad luck that the players can't possibly win, no matter what they do. I'm looking for something with a stronger implication than just _"a bad luck streak"_. For example, similar in meaning to _"a terrible game"_ or _"a disaster/debacle"_ , but which also implies that it was based solely on chance, not on the players doing something wrong (the way _"terrible"_ implies). Is there a way to convey this meaning in a single phrase, without an additional clause or sentence explaining it? Either a general-purpose or sports-related term would do


title: Would or Could, in a list of questions, is the first verb always the correct choice?

text: Here is an example of what I am wondering about: > I wonder why or how someone could kill a person. In this sentence we have two questions, _why_ and _how_. They both require different supporting words: _would_ and _could_. Here I have chosen _could_ , but _would_ also sounds fine. Which is correct? Does the order of _why_ and _how_ in my sentence matter? Finally, what is the name for _why_ and _how_ in this sentence? Edit: I think this is a Syllepsis, and thus correct.


title: "Parametrise" or "parameterise" a curve?

text: In British English, which one is correct? Does one _parameterise_ a curve or _parametrise_ it?


title: Juggernaut or Dreadnought

text: Which one sounds more dominant by definition? Juggernaut - something (such as a force, campaign, or movement) that is extremely large and powerful and cannot be stopped. Dreadnought - "fear nought". Mostly the largest British warships after the "age of sail".


title: What is the word for the combined senses of an organism?

text: I'm having difficulty recalling the word for the unique sensory space of an organism. Or it might be the word for the impression derived from those unique senses, I'm not totally sure. It would be used as follows: *The human **_ _**is comprised of sight, smell, taste, touch and sound, and differs from the **__** of a bat.*  I believe I encountered it in Valentino Braitenberg's "Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology."


title: Does this sentence contain an introductory clause?

text: > I could do this myself, but I suggest you follow the manual. In the above sentence, does "I could do this myself" count as an introductory clause? Or does the conjunction modify it? Also, is it wrong of me to use the comma after 'myself'? Or a matter of choice?


title: Does this phrase mean what I want it to mean?

text: I want to say that "the value decreases at a rate at least x" (i.e. faster than or equal to x). Does the phrase "the value decreases at minimum rate x" mean the same thing? If not, is there any other way to rephrase it?


title: What's the difference between publisher, published, and published by?

text: As I understand, a publisher is an organization which prints a book. But I'm still confused between _published_ and _published by_. Is _publisher_ and _published by_ the same thing? Does _published_ mean the date of publishing?


title: "Comical" v. "Comedic"

text: Is there any semantic distinction between the words _comedic_ and _comical_? I usually use the former to describe people and the latter to describe things, situations, etc.


title: What does "This change has been a long time coming" mean?

text: > This change has been a long time coming. So what does this sentence really mean — the change has taken a long period of time to finally occur? Or something different?


title: Merriam-Webster's Jeopardy! session at "yeah"

text: The overview definition of "yeah" in Merriam-Webster's free online dictionary is obviously wrong ("—used in speech to show that you are surprised by or disagree with what someone has said"). However, this wrong definition was certainly not consciously entered for this word. Instead, presumably an editor misplaced the overview definition of some other entry there. So, the question is, can someone guess, correctly, what entry the spurious overview definition came from?


title: Is it offensive when using the word 'animals' (in this context)?

text: I have read this question on Travel.SE, and I am kinda confused about the use of the word _animals_ in that question: > These are entirely different classes of travel. Portugal+Spain is an easy > trip within the usual Western world, close to home and without any > significant apparent dangers other than the usual pickpockets and the > expensive Euro zone. You can easily get home if needed (regular flights from > Madrid and Barcelona directly to TLV, connections through all around Europe > from everywhere else). > > Russia, Cuba and China are different kinds of **animals**. > > Russia is an unstable place, other than in......etc Was it meant to be offensive or not? if not what did he mean?


title: Is "very crucial" redundant?

text: This came up as a multiple-choice question in an exam. Is using "very crucial" redundant?. . . or tautology?


title: What do you call someone who likes controversial things?

text: > **Possible Duplicate:**   >  What do you call a person who does/thinks the opposite of the crowd for > just that reason? For example, there is an almost-normal person, but this person has a special quality, (s)he likes things that go against "normal people", for example he likes Hitler, but stating that will begin and endless debate about morals. Hipster may be a word, but is there a better word for that?


title: Verb agreement in the sentence

text: I suspect my verbs do NOT agree =) In the below sentence, I'm trying to say that I've asked this girl out for drinks in the past. However, every time I'd ask, she would agree at first and later bail out. > I've asked this girl (BTW, she is a lawyer) out for drinks several times; > she is 7, nothing special. She would express interest at first, and later > bail out. Please suggest. The source of my post: http://www.reddit.com/r/seduction/comments/e3m3g/dealing_with_a_flake/


title: What does the word "rich" mean in the reactionary sarcastic phrase "That's rich!"?

text: What does the word "rich" mean in the reactionary sarcastic phrase "That's rich!" (Google shows 67M hits). I take it to mean "rich" as in "rich in irony". What it is the source of the phrase and how long has it been used? EDIT: It looks like it is rich as in a rich source of entertainment or delight.


title: How to express a group suggestion? "I would like for us all to ..."

text: I am writing an email to my work colleagues regarding a current project. I am the lead for the project, and also one of the workers. I want to describe an activity that I think the whole group should take part in, but I am not in a position to say "do it this way", and even if I was, that's not how I would want to act. What is the best way to express this idea? My current draft reads as follows, but I don't think it sounds right: > I would like for us all to _X_.


title: Comparative and superlative adverbs?

text: I'm a native speaker of English, and I don't know how many times I've wanted to say "happilier" instead of "more happily", or "happiliest" instead of "most happily". Is there any record of such comparative/superlative adverbs (-lier, -liest) being used, even if it is in weird experimental literature? Interesting problems arise with words already ending in "-ly", e.g.:   * `sillily`: in a silly manner   * `sillilier`: in a sillier manner   * `sillilily`: in a manner suggesting a silly manner (double-adverb)   * `sillililiest`: in a manner suggesting the silliest manner possible (Typeset in fixed-width not because I think it's right, but because otherwise it's impossible to read "sillililiest".)


title: History: Relationship between happy and lucky

text: Why are the words happy and lucky so closely related, historically? Looking at the etymology, the **hap** in **happy** is the same as in **happenstance** , **happen** , **hapless** , etc. The etymology, according to dictionary.com is "ME < ON happ luck, chance." What also makes me ask this is that it seems to be the case in other languages, as well. For example, in German, **gluecklich** still means both happy and lucky. In Russian, **счастливый** is the same - both happy and lucky. Did people use to think that happiness meant good luck?


title: Is "class Xth" instead of "class X" ok?

text: Many people say, e.g., "Class Xth," "Category Xth," "Part Xth," "Street Xth," instead of "Class X," "Category X," "Part X," "Street X," respectively. Is the former right?


title: What does "The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda—I wish that had been a success!" mean?

text: > "The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda—I wish that had > been a success!", Johann Strauss II said I don't understand what he said, and what he means to.


title: Is there a difference between 'eventually' and 'in the future'?

text: I was at a yoga class and the instructor said something about how a posture will 'eventually or in the future allow you to roll your spine out.'. And then I wanted to know, is there a difference between the two phrases? Is there more certainty in one, or maybe one implies a ''sooner'' time?


title: Word that means "First Among Equals"

text: I am trying to come up with a word that would describe someone who is the first among equals. I did a quick search on the term on Google, and didn't come up with anything really satisfactory.


title: What's a word for an instance in which one has an opinion about something without having tried it?

text: What do you call it when someone has a strong opinion about something without having any experience with that thing? For example, if someone writes an entire newspaper article about how disgusting pie is without having ever eaten pie. The word lodged in my brain is "hypocritical", but I know that's not correct.


title: Forum/s, Topics, Discussions and Posts

text: There are many internet forums out there and I am wondering which would be the most correct way to structure one's own forum. For example, many forums are stated as "Forums" (even more use the singular "Forum" form or "Board"), then coming up with "Categories", "Discussions" or "Topics" and finally "Posts" or "Comments". I would like to know what you would prefer and if you would make some distinction between some forms of "Forums" when naming their structure.


title: Please, do also... or Please also

text: How should this sentence be phrased? _Please, do also visit this house._ _Please also visit this house._ It seems like that the answer might be dependening on the actual context, however, in that case, which context does each of these sentences belong to?


title: "Before date" versus "by date"

text: Is it incorrect to say "Please do this before Tuesday"? Is there a difference between that and "Please do this by Tuesday"?


title: Verb + not = do not verb ? What is the gramatical explanation?

text: I have long been puzzled by the usage of 'verb + not'. For example, Kennedy said, "... my fellow Americans, _ask not_ what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." The Bible states, " _Give not_ that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you" (Matthew 7:6 KJV). I think 'verb + not' equals 'do not verb'. Is that so? Can anyone tell me grammatically? Is 'verb + not' only used orally? Is it a formal expression or not?


title: Correct preposition for "porch"

text: I would like to know whether 'I park my car ' ** _on_** the porch' or ' ** _in_** the porch' is correct?


title: How do I say "send a code to every friend"

text: I have 10 promotional codes that I want users to send to their friends, but I want the users to understand that I need them to send one code to every friend.... I mean this: I have 10 codes, suppose this: AAA, BBB, CCC, DDD, EEE, FFF, GGG, HHH, III and JJJ. I want the user to select 10 friends and send AAA to friend 1, BBB to send 2, etc. When I say "Send one of these codes to every one of your friends", it seems to me that the user will understand that he/she has to send AAA to all friends, or all 10 codes to all friends. What is the best phrase to say to make it clear that is one of the codes to one friend, another code to another friend, etc., up to 10 friends? thanks.


title: Phrase for "human handling time"

text: I want to say the product reduces the "human handling time" from 1 hours to 5 minutes. I googled "human handling time" (the whole phrase), but only 21 results are shown. What I should use to replace "human handling time"?


title: "To be" differences with other languages

text: I am a native speaker of Portuguese, and in latin languages there are two verbs representing "to be", one which is a permanent state of being ("esse") and another that is a transient state of being ("stare"). My question is, what is the best way to convey this difference when there is a single verb available?


title: What does "Eat our peas" mean - where does it come from?

text: In a recent speech about the national debt, Obama said it's time to "Eat our peas". What does it mean - where does it come from?


title: Origin and usage of "for choice"

text: I recently encountered the phrase "for choice" to mean "by preference". At first it didn't look like idiomatic English to me, but a web search turned it up in a few other places. Is this common in some dialect other than mine (in British English, perhaps)? And is it native to that dialect or borrowed from some other language?


title: "systematize" vs. "systemize"

text: Merriam-Webster defines "systemize" as an alternate spelling of "systematize." Is there any reason to choose one over the the other (besides "systematize" sounding a little weird to my ears)? I did notice that the spell checker in my browser is marking "systemize" as incorrect, though Word says it's fine (U.S. English).


title: What does "Man of the room" mean?

text: I am in the process of translating Sister Sledge's "B.Y.O.B" song into Russian. Could you please help me to grasp the meaning of the "Man of the room" idiom used in this song?


title: ”See/wonder if +(a negative)” vs. “See/wonder if + (a positive)”

text: I’ve asked a similar question about ‘wonder if’ before, but I’ll give it a second try to learn more about a difference in nuance between a negative clause and a positive one. Just look at these examples. >   1. He snapped it shut again, worried that the sound would attract Filch, > wondering whether that hadn’t been Cedric’s plan – ( _Harry Potter 4_ [US > Version]: p.461) > >   2. See if she can’t break the habit of writing horrible lies about people. > ( _Harry Potter 4_ [US Version]: p.728). > > I’m vaguely thinking in the above cases, _wonder whether_ and _see if_ are figures of speech, and those sentences have other meanings, for example, like this. >   1. If Cedric were here, I would like to say to him, “That hasn’t been your > plan, hasn’t it?” (hopefully) > >   2. If she were here, I would like to say to her, “You can break the habit, > can you?” (peremptorily) > > Also, I’m thinking positive ones have no such meanings, kind of neutral. I might be reading too much, but I have a reason to become sensitive to negatives. (Does the sentence of “Don’t you …?” have a connotation of accusation?) Let me get it straight. Here are my questions. **1\. What’s the difference between a positive and a negative in wonder/see if clauses?** **2\. Is it determined by the form or by the context? (I’m asking this one because both of my examples have a similar context that the speakers have a bone to pick with him or her.)** **3\. Does the same go for other verbs, for example, _ask, doubt, know, tell,_ and _be not sure_?** I’d be happy if you could help me!


title: Why is it "how come" and not "why come"?

text: When someone asks "How come?", the person answering actually answers the question "why?". "Why?" and "How?" are very different questions. I was wondering how "how come?" came to be an alternative way of asking "why?". Perhaps "how come?" is short form for something else? I'm trying to understand the reason the word "how" came to be used in the phrase "how come". Why not use "what come", "who come", "when come" or "why come"?


title: What is the origin of "rock" meaning "utilize"?

text: Urban Dictionary example: > "you can have the bed, I'll rock the couch" Earliest example I can think of: > RUN D.M.C. "It's Tricky" -- "It's tricky to rock a rhyme . . . " Now it seems pervasive. Is there something else that put it on the map or did it just take 25+ years to slowly filter into the mainstream from Ebonics (unlike, e.g., "Word Up," which seems to have risen and fallen over the same period).


title: Is there a difference between "select of your own choosing [something]" and "select [something] of your own choosing"?

text: What is the semantic difference between "select of your own choosing a partner" and "select a partner of your own choosing"? Slightly awkward grammar aside, the first seems to suggest that the choice is whether or not to participate in the selection process, while the second seems to suggest that the choice is of the partner, but is there any real difference between these two wordings?


I would like to know what is the origin of the expression "one eye on the past, one eye on the future". After googling for it, all I get is references to songs.


title: What does "canonical" mean?

text: Sometimes I read a sentence containing the word _canonical_ , but I cannot find appropriate meaning of the word. For example, in this link: > Returns a **canonical** representation for the string object. It's hard for me to find an appropriate definition from Google Dictionary: > ca·non·i·cal Adjective /kəˈnänikəl/ > >   1. According to or ordered by canon law >     * the canonical rites of the Roman Church >   2. Included in the list of sacred books officially accepted as genuine >     * the canonical Gospels of the New Testament >   3. Accepted as being accurate and authoritative >     * the canonical method of comparative linguistics >   4. (of an artist or work) Belonging to the literary or artistic canon >     * canonical writers like Jane Austen >   5. According to recognized rules or scientific laws >     * canonical nucleotide sequences >   6. Of or relating to a general rule or standard formula >   7. Of or relating to a cathedral chapter or a member of it >


title: Why A is pronounced differently in "opacity" and "opaque"

text: When I look at pronunciation guides for _opacity_ and _opaque_ I see the following: > **opaque** : oh-peyk (a hard A) > > **opacity** : oh-pas-i-tee (a soft A) Since their root seems to be the Latin _opācus_ , why do they have different pronunciations? Aside, I've been pronouncing _opacity_ as _oh-pey-si-tee_ (hard A) for most of my life, so I'm a little embarrassed.


title: Why is the plural acronym "CSS" treated as singular?

text: CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, which is a plural phrase. One would say: > Cascading Style Sheets _are_ used to provide a central location for all of > the stylings of a project. However, it seems to be the prevalent usage to say: > CSS _is_ used to provide a central location for all of the stylings of a > project. Why do we do this, and is this correct? Would anyone ever say "CSS _are_ used to provide a central location for all of the stylings of a project"?


title: Does American "condominium" as applies to building ownership have an equivalent term in British or Australian or other English dialects?

text: An American "condo" is a building, usually residential or industrial, that is owned in condominium by multiple parties. I've recently learned that this term isn't used in conversation in Britain or Ireland. Does it still exist as a legal term there? What is the equivalent conversational term?


title: What does the word "seether" means?

text: I am trying to translate Veruca's Salt song "Seether" and I can't find this word's translation, or, at least, meaning. > Ow!   >  Seether is neither loose nor tight,   >  Seether is neither black nor white.   >  I tried to keep her on a short leash,   >  I tried to calm her down.   >  I tried to ram her into the ground, yeah. Google Translator translates it in Russian as _Огнечар_ , but I haven't found this word's meaning either. It seems it is some kind of proper name; if so, from where?


title: The meaning of "a cottage industry of people"

text: What does "a cottage industry of people" in the following Washington Post article mean? > All of the early machinations by Republicans and Democrats who want to be > the next president — even though President Obama won reelection just 292 > days ago — have spawned a cottage industry of people wondering whether this > is the earliest start ever for a presidential race and whether that’s a good > or a bad thing.


title: What does "match X against Y" mean?

text: I just read a post that says: > When Angular bootstraps your application, the HTML compiler traverses the > DOM matching directives against the DOM elements. What does "match... against" mean? How should we should use it?


title: Plural after comma in complex sentence

text: What's correct? "The fact that he wears a hat, and recent observations of him in red boots, **suggest** to me that he has a sense of fashion." OR "The fact that he wears a hat, and recent observations of him in red boots, **suggests** to me that he has a sense of fashion."


title: Less technical term to describe how often a recurring schedule repeats itself?

text: Defining a recurring schedule requires two steps:   1. How often the schedule repeats itself (e.g. weekly, every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, etc.)   2. Inside each repetition, when the recurrently scheduled event actually happens (e.g. 1:00PM on Tuesday and Thursday of the first week, and 3:00PM on Monday and Wednesday of the second week) The combination of these two things can be called "schedule" or "frequency" or another simple term. But what is a good name for step #1 alone? Microsoft Outlook calls it "Recurrence Pattern" which to me seems intimidatingly technical. Is there a plainer English term that will work instead? The word will be used as a label in a website form where users choose how frequently (how many weeks) the schedule repeats itself.


title: Single-word adjective for "which should be repaired"

text: I'm looking for a term to characterise things which _should_ be repaired. I am also looking for an antonym to go with it. Imagine I have two boxes, one with phones which should be repaired and the second with others. I have to label each box with a single short word because the boxes are very small. _Repairable_ does not work because it describes things which _can_ be repaired. So what are your recommendations?


title: 'Investigation of' or 'Investigation into'?

text: I have a phrase: > Investigation of catalytic phase structure using SEM and TEM methods I always thought that "investigation of" is a correct way of saying it. But I am told that it is actually "investigation into". Browsing the net, I could not find the answer about the difference of these two. So my question is: does "investigation into" even exist, and if so, what's the difference between it and "investigation of", and where can each be used?


title: "On aisle two" vs. "in aisle two"

text: In supermarkets in the United States, I tend to hear this often: > Cleanup **on** aisle two [or some other number]. Would _in_ be as good as _on_? How is _in_ different from _on_ in this context?


title: Because of in the beginning of a sentence

text: Is this sentence right? " I eventually go to that restaurant. Because of the prices I can't afford to go there very often" Can I start a sentence using "Because of"?? Thanks


title: Meaning of the phrase "I am all ears"

text: I was going through Stack Overflow and I noticed this phrase. > I am all ears Is it some spelling error of "I am all yours" or does it mean something like "I am eager to listen"? What is meant by this phrase & what do you call this type of phrase?


title: Word for when one uses the wrong word in a sentence

text: Specifically, I'm looking for the term for when a person uses a word correctly, but intends a different meaning. For example: > I empathize with you. When the person really means: > I sympathize with you. Both sentences are grammatically correct. They both have meaning, and as sentences they are both "correct"...they're just incorrect in this case.   This isn't a case of a malapropism where a similar sounding word is inserted with ludicrous results, nor is it a parapraxis, eggcorn, or mondegreen (as I understand them). It's simply a case where a person either misunderstood the difference between the two and thus chose the wrong word or the person did understand but believed (in this case) they empathized when in fact they only sympathized. I'd like to say something like "You made a grammatical mistake/error" - except in this case it isn't grammar...


title: Meaning of 'confer upon'

text: > The only objects which can constitute [the space-time framework essential to > interpersonal communication] are those which **confer upon it** their own > fundamental characteristics.


title: Where does the term 'board' come from in 'room and board'?

text: Where does the term 'board' come from when its used in the 'room and board' context?


title: Can I name one client of my application "tenant" if I have multitenancy?

text: I'm a software developer and want to add the feature "multitenancy" (German: _Man dantenfähigkeit_, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitenancy) to my application. Each entity in my application has several attributes. Now I want to add an attribute and give it a good default name. I could use "company", "subsidiary", "client" or maybe "tenant"? _Tenant_ sounds odd to me because it is immediately associated with renting an apartment. I've googled for lots of terms but never found a way to describe in one word what I'm searching for, so I'm asking here. Can I just call this attribute/form field in my application "tenant"? I don't want to use "client" because that words means so many different things in the IT department. At the moment I'm using "client organization".


What's the best way to find the subject in a sentence? How do you define a subject? I am especially curious about such cases, in which the subject seems to be represented by more than one word: The majority of people didn't mind the new policy. A great number of students went on strike yesterday. Addition: and such cases where the passive voice is used: The man was bit by a dog. Children were frightened by the wolf. Also, please, consider such cases with ergative verbs: I broke my chair. The chair broke. The chair was broken by me.


title: What does "punch line" mean?

text: I read this sentence and I don't understand what "punch line" means here: > Most people recognize this Amazon: Jeff Bezos's hyperproficient Borders- > killer; one of the few dot-com initial public offerings that didn't end up a > **punch line** ; ...... I know the literal meaning of "punch line". So in this sentence, does it mean that most dot-com IPO companies failed like jokes, so they "end up a punch line"? This explanation sounds awkward to me. Could somebody please explain the usage of "punch line" here?


title: -ship vs. -hood

text: What is the difference between nouns naming states of being or positions ending in -hood and those ending in -ship? In practice, if one were neologizing such a word how would one decide which suffix to use? Examples: Apprenticeship; proprietorship; friendship; childhood; falsehood; statehood