title: Which preposition to use with "juxtaposed"

text: Are things _juxtaposed to_ or _juxtaposed with_ other things? >   1. The slimy seaweed was startling, juxtaposed _to/with_ the hot smooth > sand. >   2. I moved the painting to the other wall so that it would be juxtaposed > _to/with_ the sculpture that inspired it. > Does the side-by-side nature of _juxtapose_ dictate this, or does it depend on the perceived relationship between the elements?


title: Is “if they would do something” correct English?

text: We were discussing if the following sentence would be proper English: > I asked them if they would do me a favour. (A) The meaning is that I am referring to a point in the past where I asked another person (group of persons, whatever) to be so nice and do me a favour of some nature. Somebody claimed you mustn't use "if" with "would" in this fashion, but instead say: > I asked them if they do me a favour. (B)   >  I asked them if they did me a favour. (C) But I think this has a different meaning, both versions (one with "do" and one with "did"). I can think of yet another option: > I asked them to do me a favour. (D) but I suspect this has a slightly different meaning, not including the tone of the original question. * * * Could you bring some clarity to the matter (for the layman, please), which is correct and if the meanings of A through D correspond to the intended meaning I described (if they are correct, as the semantics of them would be undefined otherwise -- obviously).


title: The etymology of "religion" comes from "legere" meaning to read + "re" meaning again. Or does it? (more inside)

text: The etymology of religion as mentioned in the title comes from Etymonline. And that's very interesting. It makes sense too. My question is, how do the phrases, "to read", "to choose", "to gather", "law", and "to bind" all come together to form the phonetic root "leg"/"lig" which constitutes the etymology of "religion". Or do they at all? Also, is there any meaning to the whole "leg" (body part) thing? Does this have something to do with legs and free will? Because that would be interesting. Other roots with 'legere'               - "intelligence". 'intere': "between" + 'legere': "choose, pick out, read". [2]     - "legal": 'legere':"to gather" or 'lex':"law". [3]     - "ligament": L 'ligamentum': "to bind, tie". [4]      So, given this background, what do you know about the etymology of the word "religion", the meaning(s) of "legere", and, perhaps most importantly, the legitimacy of Etymonline as a source? http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=religion&searchmode=none http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=intelligence&searchmode=none http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=leg&searchmode=none http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ligament&allowed_in_frame=0


title: Synonyms for "tête-à-tête"

text: I'm looking for _single word_ synonyms for _tête-à-tête_ , which express the idea of a private and intimate conversation. I wasn't able to find any.


title: Should one suspend a hyphen when using "two- to three-digit" phrase used as an adjective?

text: Example > Sally alerted her accountant **to four to five digit** revenue discrepancies > in the budget. Should it be: > ...to four to five digit revenue discrepancies or with a suspended hyphen: > ...to four- to five-digit revenue discrepancies


title: Is there a formal verb to describe the act of cheating on another?

text: I wish to say something along the lines of > "after she found out her husband was cheating on her" however I have realized that 'cheating' is colloquial. Is there a formal alternative that **is a verb**?


title: Burn up or burn down?

text: What's the difference between "burn up" and "burn down"? Or is there a difference at all?


title: Is a subordinate clause part of the dependent clause's predicate?

text: Could you please help me determine what the complete predicate is in the following sentence? > I get the willies when I see closed doors. — Joseph Heller, _Something > Happened_. At first I thought the complete subject would be "I" and the complete predicate would be "get the willies when I see closed doors" because that is giving information about what the subject does. But now I am starting to doubt myself--mainly due to the adverb clause "when I see closed doors" which also contains a subject and predicate ("I" and "see closed doors"). Is it possible for this subordinate, adverb clause to be part of the entire sentence's complete predicate? Or do I need to break the sentence up by clauses (in order to determine the complete predicate), and, if so, what becomes of the word "when"? Thank you for your help.


title: A word for 'the ability to see beauty'

text: In talking about someone, perhaps an artist, who has the ability to find or see beautiful things in everyday settings. Is there a word for it ?


title: In my example, do I need a comma before which?

text: The linear fit fails to fit the age profile because it does not really account for the changes in arrests rate which implies a large bias.


title: How does 'to obtain' develop to mean 'to prevail'?

text: What's an intuitive derivation behind definition 2 of **obtain**, that helps to internalise its meaning: > 2\. [no object] [formal] Be prevalent, customary, or established > > [ODO] How does the etymology (listed in that link and here) lead to the foregoing meaning? I haven't pasted the Etymonline entry from above, because it refers only to the more common definition 1 [ie: to get, acquire (something)], about which I'm NOT asking here.


title: How formal should the English in a personal blog be?

text: I'm starting a technology and/or programming oriented blog, and I was wondering how formal should the English be, specially when it comes to the shortening of words like "let's". Ideas?


title: Is "such a cooler" proper English?

text: I'm trying to say something like "that's such a cooler design". Is there more valid expression that expresses the same thing? Or is this okay English? I guess "that design is so much cooler" would work, but it's not as succinct. I'm trying to say that something is cooler than something else, but without explicitly mentioning that other thing, since it is common knowledge between me and the person I am saying it to. So I don't want to use "that design is cooler than X".


title: How to understand this "I not only" structure

text: I read this sentence from a book. _"I **not** only lost all my money - I also lost my passport"._ Why it's not "I am not only.." or "I don't only..".   I don't know how to describe this kind of grammar, couldn't get much help from google.   Could you please explain this to me? Thanks a lot.


title: Does "a [x] of [y]" take a singular or plural verb?

text: What kind of verb, singular or plural, goes with phrases like " _a record of [singular or plural noun]_ ", " _the use of_ ", " _the time of_ "? Does the choice depend on the following nouns (a record of **nouns** ) or on the 'first' nouns ( _record, use, time_ )? Or do these phrases obey the rule of proximity (as does " _a variety of_ ")? I have found different example sentences on the internet (source: newspapers or magazines) with different uses. What is correct? Examples:   * there were a record of other issues;   * there were a record of 28,000 runners;   * there was a record of these statements.


title: Using a singular to mean a plural

text: Suppose I have a sentence of the form: > Ahead I see a red door and a blue door - the path to each is similar. Is this grammatically correct? It sounds odd if I pluralise "path", but this version doesn't seem to make sense either.


title: The behavior that sell goods and service daily basis and collect payment monthly

text: A kind of small business which sells goods and services daily and collects payment monthly. How to describe such a kind of behavior of sell and collection ? Is it ok to use `periodic sell` and `monthly payment` ?


title: It's hard to get a taxi "at this period"?

text: Say it's 5:00 PM in a city, rush hour, hard to get a taxi. What do you say: > "It's hard to get a taxi at **this period/this clock/this hour** "? We can bypass it by saying "now". But what's the way to express it?


title: Stop being so pedantic. Your (what noun?) has no place here

text: I'm looking for a term that means essentially “pedantic-ness”. What is the correct term?


title: representing to someone

text: I don't understand this passage from a Sherlock Holmes story (the second stain). > It was only upon my **representing** to him that I had given a promise that > “The Adventure of the Second Stain” should be published when the times were > ripe,... What does Watson mean by "representing to him"?


title: What's an English word that means "a community of experts"?

text: There is an English word that begins with "con" and means "a community of experts in a certain field". I am not able to recollect that word. Can someone please help me?


title: "just because… doesn't mean…"

text: It appears to me that the construction "just because… doesn't mean…" isn't used in literature at all. Is its use limited to colloquial speech and informal writing? Note that while some people seem to be up in arms about this construction, I am not jumping on that bandwagon. I rather side with sober analysis [PDF] than with angry Reddit rants. So, basically, I'm just looking for a quote by Poe or Twain, though I suspect the construction is younger (is it?).


title: What is the meaning of the phrase 'Here be dragons'?

text: What does _here be dragons_ mean in the example below? > WARNING **Here be dragons.** Relative source binding can not only encourage > bad application practices, such as binding to things defined in codebehind > instead of following a pattern such as ViewModel, but also be hard to debug, > especially when you get into changes to DataContext set by external > consumers of your user control.


title: "Do it" versus "do that"

text: Are there any sentences where _do that_ is preferable over _do it_? > The New Oxford American Dictionary reports when a phrase is informal; it > doesn't do that in this case. > The New Oxford American Dictionary reports when a phrase is informal; it > doesn't do it in this case.


title: Do English speaking people jeer at big feet?

text: (Harry, Ron, and Hermione were walking through woods at night. Then Ron yelled with pain. When Hermione threw the light over him,) > Ron was lying sprawled on the ground. > > “Tripped over a tree root,” he said angrily, getting to his feet again. > > “Well, **with feet that size** , hard not to,” said a drawling voice from > behind them. > > Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned sharply. Draco Malfoy was standing alone > nearby, leaning against a tree, looking utterly relaxed. > > (p121, Harry Potter 4, US edition) As a side note,   * Draco Malfoy is on bad terms with them and always makes a fool of them.   * Ron is a long and lanky boy. (So it seems that his feet are big.) In my country, there is a phrase which has such a meaning that a fool has big feet. (Of course, it’s only a phrase, not truth!) So, without thinking, I felt like taking ‘with feet that size’ as a derisive connotation. However, it suddenly occurred to me that the idea might be unusual in the English speaking world. Is Draco expressing derisive feeling by referring to the size of feet? Do English speaking people think the same way as me in terms of big feet?


How should 'beseech' be used in a sentence? Are any of these correct? > I beseech you to help me find Magrathea. > > I beseech your help in finding The Silver Bail of Peace. > > I beseech to you help in saving the universe. Or should it be used in a different way entirely?


title: Software for transcribing English phonetics

text: After asking this question and learning a lot of facts from comments I got there, I was wondering about the existence of software that transcribes English text into phonetics. I discovered sites such as upodn.com and www.phonetizer.com and software such as PhoTransEdit. After using them on a few trial sentences, I got slightly differing transcriptions. Are these tools authoritative, and do people have any experience with them? Is there software that also transcribes typical stressing patterns in sentences?


title: Is it ok to start a sentence with “also”?

text: Is it ok to start a sentence with _also_? > Also, I had given him the file you sent me.


title: dedication: example usages

text: I want to be sure of the meaning to "dedication" and "dedicated to" phrases. I am sure about the inscription meaning, but I want to ask a specific question: Can someone be "dedicating their comments (positive or negative)" to "some others' activity or thoughts in any form"? I mean, is there any degree of similarity between "to dedicate" and "to comment on" ? This is the lastest place to make any English mistake :) Sorry if any exists above. **Edit:** I am trying to establish a web site, which will let users to comment on things they see while surfing the net. I am interested in a domain name containing the word "dedication" but I couldn't be sure whether a comment on a video or an article can be said to be "dedicated to" that subject.


title: Meaning of “In a medium”

text: What is the meaning of “in a medium” in the following sentence? > A major objective in a heat transfer problem is to determine the temperature > distribution **in a medium** resulting from imposed boundary conditions on > the surface of the **medium**.


title: Is there a specific verb that carries the same effect of the VB “will lead us back to the origin?”

text: While the Victorian age witnessed great oppression against women, it was, at the same time, or perhaps as a result, the inception of Feminism as we know it today. Tracing the gradual synthesis and evolution of Feminism in today's modern Europe **will always lead us back to the nucleus** i.e. the Victorian Age. Therefore, in a way, Feminism might be said to be the export of the Age of Victoria, ironically an era marked with a slew of limitations set upon women. What I am looking for is not an antonym for ‘evolve;’ rather, a verb or a verb phrase which concisely encapsulates the act of looking at the evolution of given activism (or anything) **retrospectively and historically taking into consideration all its consequential, progressive episodes which its inception had set in motion, as opposed to the ‘mere inception.’** Thank you in advance.


title: "It's up to you to make the call"

text: Where does the expression ' _make the call_ ' come from? > We have the evidence but it's up to the jury to make the call.


title: Purchase price/cost/worth/value/… — which one?

text: I have a table called _purchases_ and it stores details about purchases of items in a store. One of these details is the amount of money that were payed for items. How should I call this detail (or table field) in one word? I've been thinking about the following options: _purchase price/cost/worth/value_.


title: What does "gig" stand for in "It's your gig"?

text: I have heard people say, "It's your gig" when they intend to say, "It's your choice after all." For example: > I have said all I wanted to say. Now it's your gig. The intention is that the listener is the one who has to decide then. What does " _gig_ " mean here? _Gig_ seems to have multiple meanings in dictionaries but I am unable to find what fits well in this phrase. Also, does _"It's your gig"_ have any history or specific etymology?


title: What does "and are they ever " mean?

text: So this is the context taken from this post by Jeff who is a co-founder of Stack Exchange: > With 46,656 paths to only 720 real world outputs, it's inevitable that some > of those paths will be severely over-represented or under-represented in the > output. _And are they ever_. If you shipped a real card game with a naïve > shuffle, you'd have some serious exploits to deal with. What does _And are they ever_ mean ?


title: Ambiguity of "Lindsey told Jessica that she had cancer"

text: > Lindsey told Jessica that she had cancer. Who had cancer? Is there any rule in English to claim it definitely?


title: What is the meaning of "chikan"?

text: Here is an excerpt from Revolution 2020 > Aarthi wore a mauve chikan salwar-kameez. Her father had bought for her from > Lucknow. What is the meaning of the word _chikan_? I can't find this word in my dictionary.


title: Comma or Semicolon

text: I'm wondering if the comma placed after _event_ is being used appropriately or if it should be replaced with a semicolon. This is part of a resume so I am trying to keep this information to one sentence. > Assisted with preparations for the 40th anniversary fundraising event, > including cataloging auction items and assisting with planning the 40th > anniversary luncheon


title: Adverb for a person who is not the subject

text: If I went home and was happy to do so, I can say that "I went home **happily** ". If I sent somebody else home and he was happy to do so, can I say that "I sent Johnny home **happily** "? This doesn't sound right because it sounds like **I** was happy to send **Johnny**. Is there a way to use an adverb to describe the action of a person that is not the subject of the main verb?


title: Idiom for "the first attempt (of something) is never right"

text: In Russian there's a saying that 'the first crepe always comes out wrong' (literally 'stuck together into a ball'), meaning that you'll have to try more than once to succeed at something - because crepe batter is usually trial-and- error. What's the appropriate English translation?


title: Which word(s) can be used instead of "the first day of the week?"

text: I have noticed that on Stack Exchange sites, "week reputation" is referring to the reputation gained from Sunday to Saturday (in fact, my today's reputation is different from my week's reputation, and today is Monday). I remember I asked to my friend, who is American, what she would consider the first day of the week, and she replied saying it is Monday. Which word (or words) can I use instead of "the first day of the week?"


title: What is the correct use of foundation in / foundation of?

text: A while back, the question was asked (and answered): _Correct use of consist in / consist of_. I have a similar question: Which of the following is correct: "The objective of these lessons is to provide a solid foundation **_in_** the correct usage of prepositions." vs. "The objective of these lessons is to provide a solid foundation **_of_** the correct usage of prepositions." **EDIT** : Here is the full context where I'm looking to select the right preposition: > "It is important that students understand the fundamental principles of > manufacturing. The objective of the lessons is to provide a solid foundation > **[in/of]** the science and techniques necessary for that understanding."


title: Meaning of "build-up"

text: What does "build-up" mean here: > Many hair products contain chemicals which can cause **build-up** , > resulting in dull hair or a change in perceived texture.


title: Generic term for sunrise and sunset

text: Is there a single generic term to refer, either collectively or arbitrarily, to both _sunrises_ and _sunsets_? I'm looking for something that could be used in the same vein as _twilight_ can be used (formally or informally) to refer to both the pre-sunrise _dawn_ period and the post-sunset _dusk_ period, without specifying which. I'm aware of the concept of a _golden hour_ within the photography and cinematography communities, but I'm looking for something which refers more to the specific astronomical event, as a particular instant in time, while still being agnostic to the direction the sun is going. **Edit:** To clarify, I'd like something that could describe, even informally, any or all of:   1. Instants when the sun is exactly at the horizon, or 0°,   2. Periods when the sun is near the horizon on either side, e.g., –2° to +2°, or   3. Periods when the sun is near the horizon, but strictly above it, e.g., 0° to +2°. I am aware of the various astronomical definitions of _twilight_, but unfortunately none of them meets any of these.


title: Can you give me an idiom which means to take advantage?

text: Eg- He took advantage of the enemies weaknesses.


title: Phrase and word-order meaning

text: I know that "only" and "just" and word-order are oft-mentioned topics on here, but word-order for phrases and meanings - don't both of these mean different things? Here is an example of how word order in a sentence can change the meaning. These two sentences are from a geography site I'm developing: > Between 9am and 5pm, the local market is in full swing. Known for its > variety of foreign foods, many people visit it... > > The local market is in full swing between 9am and 5pm. Known for its variety > of foreign foods, many people visit it... If I'm correct, the first one implies it's only in full swing at the times specified, but the second one means it's always in full swing. I'm not sure how to phrase this best, due to the ambiguity and word-order. What's the best way to rephrase this, and how can I avoid ambiguity when doing word-order when placing a word?


title: What is the meaning of "having one's kitten in one's pocket"?

text: This is an extract from 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' by Alexander Baron: > Corporal Turnbull was a young man, but he was not a man to be trifled with. > He had come back from Dunkirk with all his equipment correct and accounted > for and **his kitten in his pocket.** What does the highlighted phrase mean? The only meaning I could find online was (and I'm not even sure of its validity) that it means 'hiding your anger'. That doesn't seem to be relevant in the stated context.


title: Can I say "Nice!" to a "How are you?" greeting?

text: Some friend told me that "Nice!" can't be used as a reply to "How are you?", instead, she suggested "Good!". Is it really so strict on the word choice in questions like "How are you?"


title: What is the difference between "to thump" and "to punch"?

text: I would like to know what is the difference between _to thump_ and _to punch_? For example: > I punched him and knocked his teeth out. or > I thumped him and knocked his teeth out.


title: "I want [pronoun] [adjective]" vs "I want [pronoun] to be [adjective]"

text: Take these two sentences. 1.I want him dead.   2.I want him to be dead. What is the differences between two sentences? What does the "to be" mean?


title: Present perfect continuous for finished actions

text: Since present perfect continuous is used to talk about an activity that has finished, but whose results are visible now, can I use it for an action like these two ones; 'I have been living in Los Angeles.' 'I have been living in Los Angeles my whole life.' Meaning that both actions are finished actions, as I have relocated recently to another location and the result of my relocation is obvious. If present perfect continuous doesn't show that these two actions above are finished actions, then in what cases does present perfect continuous express that the action has finished? Thanks


title: Is “stuff ” a plural word?

text: I'm wondering which one of these expressions is correct? _This stuff_ or _these stuff_?


title: Is there a word for the definition of an acronym?

text: I can describe "IMHO" as an acronym for "in my humble opinion." How can I describe the reverse processes of translating the acronym into the actual phrase? That is to say, if "IMHO" is the acronym, what do we call "in my humble opinion"?


title: "I'm sure" vs. "I'm for sure": Who uses which, and when?

text: I hear both (and their negatives: "I'm not sure" and "I'm not for sure"). I want to classify the "for sure" variety as regional Southern, since that's the context I most often hear it. For example, take the "gimp" scene from _Pulp Fiction_. (Not that usages in the movies prove anything, mind you, but this is an example most people will recognize.) The character Zed is asked which of the captives he wants to "do" first, and he replies, with a distinct Southern accent, "I ain't for sure yet." Can anyone point to evidence that this usage is regional, or class-based, or particular to any group of speakers? EDIT: Since @MrHen asked for more examples, I googled "I'm not for sure" and picked these off the first page: > "I'm really not for sure ~ what to do with you." > > "I'm not for sure if I'm allowed to bump this ..." > > "I'm not for sure which religion I am?" > > "I'm not for sure when ..." I think it's heard more in the negative than the positive. But I do hear it a lot. In the positive form, it's usually used in the form of a question? "Are you for sure?" instead of "Are you sure?" **UPDATE** I was listening to NPR last night and someone from Alabama who was being interviewed used "for sure" in the positive, as in "I was for sure that I wanted to do that."


I have just read this comic, and not quite sure what is the mistake in the last sentence "How pacific do these errors have to be?". Should it be peaceful instead of pacific? (English is my second language.) ![enter image description here](http://i.stack.imgur.com/xhOcj.jpg)


title: What is meant by "the passive voice remains 'an important arrow in the rhetorical quiver'"?

text: I'm interested in reading a series of the art and craft of writing by Constance Hale, a San Francisco-based journalist in the New York Times. The 4th in the series on NYT April 30 issue deals with the use of passive voice under the title, “The pleasures and perils of the passive," which reads as follows; > The word passive gets a bad rap. Maybe a high school teacher forbade > “passive constructions.” Or we recall authorities like Strunk and White, who > famously told us to “use the active voice.” > > There is certainly some merit to this rule of thumb; some of the worst > writing around suffers from inert verbs and the unintended use of the > passive voice. Yet the passive voice remains _an important arrow in the > rhetorical quiver_. After all, it exists for a reason. I don't understand the line – "the passive voice ' _remains an important arrow in the rhetorical quiver'_ " in the above quotation. I assume it's a metaphorical expression. Though it may sound like sour grapes, I think clarity is the best art and craft of writing preceding to any other techniques. Can you explain the line in plainer English for me? Is "an important arrow in something" a well-used expression?


title: What are alternative phrases for "with respect to"?

text: I often overuse the idiom "with respect to" - it's my default phrase when I'm writing formally and want to restrict the domain of a statement. e.g. X is changing with respect to Y ... Changes with respect to Z ... With respect to A, ... What are some alternatives to using this idiom?


title: What percentage is equal to almost all?

text: If you use the term "almost all" in a sentence what percentage would you attribute to that? Example 1: Dan at almost all of the pie. Mary had the rest. Example 2: Almost all kids who go to college have student loans. Just looking for expectations and an estimate. If I knew that Dan ate 90% of the pie I would just say that, but I see he at almost all of the pie but not sure the exact percentage. When I say almost all what would people think?


title: How can I refer to a period of day when people are awake/active?

text: The context is comparing air travel vs overnight train travel. In this case, air travel takes 1 hour, plus time required to travel from city to airport, arrive early for check-in & security, then travel from destination airport to city, altogether I probably lose around 4-5 hours of [the word I'm looking for]. Train travel between the same cities is much slower, but there is an overnight schedule, which leaves at 21.00 and arrives 6.00. So I don't have to lose any [the word I'm looking for]. What is a suitable word(s) to fill the bracketed part? Daytime may be close, but it's not very accurate because I also don't like losing non-daytime like 18.00-21.00.


title: Verbal constructions with "on" in colloquial AE

text: Are verbal constructions with "on" somewhat more typical of AE than BE? e.g. beat (up) on someone, miss out on something, pass up on something, check (up) on something, catch up on something, someone, etc.


title: Verbal constructions with "with" more common in AE than in BE

text: Is it correct, and safe to say, that -- _generally speaking_ \-- verbal constructions with "with' are _to a certain extent_ more widely and commonly used in AE **_than** in BE_ and other varieties of English ? E. g. Speak/talk with (as opposed to the shared speak/talk to); visit with (=chat/converse with); meet (up) with (originally chiefly AE); get back with someone (as opposed to the shared "get back to"); stick with (as opposed to the shared "stick to"); check back with (as opposed to "check back to"); compare with (as opposed to the shared "compare to"); correspond with something (as opposed to the shared "correspond to"); interview with someone (as opposed to the shared "interview someone"); consult with someone (as opposed to the shared "consult someone"); conform with (as opposed to the shared "conform to");(...)


title: What exactly does "my grandfather built this house" mean?

text: When someone says that "my grandfather built this house", say now or even 20-30 years ago, do they mean their grandfather literally built that house from ground up? Foundation, framing, wiring, plumbing, stucco, roofing — the works?! Or do they mean it to say "My family has lived in this house for 3 generations since my grandfather [paid someone to] build this house?" Potentially based on grandfather's design/vision. Sure maybe grandpa put in the floors or a custom bookshelf, but did grandpa literally build the house?


title: Is 'r' in Br/Amr pronunciation of Arjmand (Persian word) silent?

text: Is 'r' in Br/Amr pronunciation of 'Arjmand' (Persian word) silent? (In other words, how is this word pronounced in Br/Amr English?)


title: "Sl*t" term for males

text: "Slut" can have two meanings:   * an immoral woman, or prostitute   * a dirty and slovenly woman I would like a term for men that is the equivalent of the second meaning. Is there a term for describing a man that is dirty and slovenly?


title: What is the meaning of "on steroids"?

text: I see this phrase coming after animal names: "A badger is basically a weasel on steroids—you wouldn’t want to upset one". So what is its meaning?


title: What is the term for a common expression that is inaccurate or misleading?

text: What is the term for a common expression or colloquialism that is inaccurate or misleading, such as the use of "mental math" to mean "mental calculation" or "mental arithmetic"?


title: Which usage is more common? (singular / plural)

text: Which one of these is more common or better to use? > Delete selected Item(s). Or > Delete selected Item/s. * * * Note: It should be used in our _Document_ (not a _Program_ ).


Why did jazz musicians start referring to an engagement as a "gig"? If any, could anyone provide a couple of quotations from eminent authors to show where a word was first used in this sense? > **gig** | _noun_ , a live performance by a musician or group playing popular > or jazz music. | _verb_ , perform a gig or gigs.


title: Is the usage of "so as to" correct?

text: Can "so as to" be used, and if so in what contexts and in what situations? Can it be used formally and in written documents? Edit: I'm looking more at an IT question for example "You can do 'something' so as to get the variable and process it"


title: "I had sent you"

text: I received the following email today, we discussed the report before the email where I told the person that **I hadn't** (also can I use hadn't here) received it. I was wondering if it's all grammatical. The reason why I am asking this question is because the person is a native speaker. > "I had sent you the report on the 20th of Feb"


title: Two horses - singular or plural

text: Is the following sentence (grammatically) correct?               I've got a brown and a black horses.      The sentence was meant to express the fact that I have two horses, a brown one and a black one. I am especially curious about the plural form of the noun _horses_ , as it seems to be grammatically correct (it's two horses) but unnatural.


In what situation (if any) you would say "better play positive"? Please, don't add any punctuation between words.


title: The history of "softcore"

text: Over lunch recently, my colleagues and I were discussing the term "hardcore," and speculating on its origin. Our speculations evolved into "What has either a hard or soft core, where the hard cored thing would be used by professionals and the soft cored one by amateurs?" because this is where we figured the terms originated. Following this discussion, I did some research and found that the origins of hardcore (by way of Etymology Online) are most likely from the original definition of hardcore: > material such as stones and broken bricks used as the foundation for > buildings, roads etc. rather than having to do with a fruit or ball as our lunch group had envisioned. The _foundation_ connotation is presumably the important connection between these usages. However, looking into _softcore_ has produced less satisfactory results. I found this description from 1875, which explains hard-core and soft-core and says that soft-core is essentially compostable garbage. What I don't understand is how this word came to be associated with its current, more familiar meaning, which is as a milder or watered down version of "hardcore." Given their relationship, I expected there to be a more explicit connection between the two. For instance, that soft-core was a layer applied after hard- core or that inferior roads used soft-core instead of hard-core, but that doesn't seem to be the case. What is the connection here?


title: How to write out numbers in compliance with British usage?

text: This question regards the numbers from 1 to 999. We can ignore commas, hyphens, and spaces. What I'm interested in is when and where to use the word "and". There are a few interesting cases: 1) 20 < n < 100 Is it "twenty and one", or "twenty one"? 2) 100 < n < 120 Is it "one hundred and eleven"? "One hundred and one"? Or is it "one hundred one", "one hundred eleven"? 3) n = 190 (for example) Is it "one hundred and ninety"? Or "one hundred ninety"? 4) n = 191 (for example) I'm assuming it's "one hundred and ninety one"... Or is it "one hundred ninety and one"? Thanks so much... I'd be very grateful if someone could answer these 4 cases :-)


title: Is there a word for the second part of a story title after a main character?

text: I commonly see the format: > _Main Character(s)_ and _some other important idea_ Story titles:   * Harry Potter and **the Goblet of Fire**   * Alexander and **the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day**   * The Three Little Pigs and **the Somewhat Bad Wolf** Band names:   * Johnny Cash and **the Tennessee Two**   * Fitz and **the Tantrums**   * Florence and **the Machine** And even slight variants:   * Sex and **the City** Is there a name for this common construction? Do the two parts have technical names?


title: What's the meaning of "bootstrap"?

text: Can anyone explain the meaning of "bootstrap" to a Spanish Speaker? Here is some context: > One aspect of ... (something) ... is the need to **_bootstrap_** the > configuration.


title: What does “Drop and give me twenty, America’ in ‘Paul Ryan’s song of himself’ mean?

text: The New Yorker magazine August 16 issue carries the article under the title ‘Paul Ryan’s song of himself’ which is posted by Andy Borowitz. I as a non- native English language learner cannot tell whether this is Paul Ryan’s own poem or simply a lampoon by the poster. The ‘Paul Ryan’s Song’ starts with: > "This morning I was at Equinox   >  Getting ripped and shredded, pumped and jacked,   >  Cross-training with Jeremy   >  Who totally kicks my butt." and wraps up with the following 4 lines: > "Because I am Paul Ryan.   >  Paul Freakin’ Ryan.   >  _Drop and give me twenty, America:_   >  It’s clobberrin time." According to wordreference.com, ‘Drop and give me twenty’ is an imperative, usually said to a soldier by a commanding officer: do twenty push-ups. (But it could be a joke if the speaker is not a commander and the person spoken to is not a soldier.) www.urbandictionary defines it "Heard, Understood, and acknowledged", commonly used in the US military, also used to _show eagerness or joy._ What does ‘Drop and give me twenty, America’ mean? Is ‘Drop and give me twenty’ usually used as an _imperative_ as defined by wordreference, or just for affirmation of the order like ‘understood, Roger’ as defined by urbandictionary?


title: Can the definite article be omitted when referring to a person qualified by a noun?

text: Is there a difference between these references to a specific person: > "The implication is clear: as **the** psychologist Jonathan Haidt said..." and > "The implication is clear: as psychologist Jonathan Haidt said..." The first one uses the definite article and is a quote from Daniel Kahneman's book 'Thinking, Fast and Slow', where the article is consistently used in such references. In the second one I've omitted the definite article. It seems more intuitive for me, a non-native speaker, and is something I would use in my own writing. Are both expressions equally correct? Are there situations that require the article and vice versa?


title: Meaning of "cut loose and cause havoc" in the following sentence

text: When Uncle Fred suggests to his nephew a visit to a suburb, once an estate owned by an uncle when he was younger, Pongo is amazed and relieved, believing the suburbs do not hold anything like the opportunities offered by the city for someone like his Uncle **to cut loose and cause havoc**.


title: "Hang in" vs. "hang on"

text: Are these two the same when used to express "keep it up" or "survive a little longer"? Also, I often hear people say "hang in there", but I rarely hear people say "hang on there".


title: “Your interview with him.” Who is the interviewer?

text: You write something like this: > I'm interested in your interview with Barack Obama. Most people would take this to mean that it was Obama who was the interviewee (the one answering questions). However, couldn't it technically have been the other way round, i.e. that Obama was the interviewer?


title: Does 'express' in Visual C# express means 'free'?

text: Does appending an **express** means something is free as the **Visual C# express** may suggests? I cannot find that in a dictionary.


title: "At the drop of a hat"?

text: Where does the figure of speech "at the drop of a hat" come from? I understand the phrase means "Immediately; instantly; on the slightest signal or urging. (Alludes to the dropping of a hat as a signal.)" - TheFreeDictionary.com But I don't understand why anyone would think that dropping a hat were some sort of signal. What's the historical context?


title: Literally vs. figuratively: how literally is literally?

text: I'm sensitive to the fact that in light of recent events, the example discussed in this question may be unsettling to some. For that, I apologize, but I cannot think of an effective alternative. In a _Modern Marvels_ documentary on The History Channel, the narrator says, "[...] bombs have evolved into devices that can literally blow mankind off the face of the earth." It's difficult to tell whether "literally" is appropriate in this instance. On one hand, the narrator likely uses the word literally to emphasize that although it may have been common for many years to talk about bombs as being powerful enough to blow up the world, in the modern age of weaponized hydrogen fusion it really is possible to eradicate all of mankind. On the other hand, bombs don't blow people "off" the planet, they merely destroy them and leave their scattered remains. With that in mind, my general question is this: when using the word literally, is it important that every word or phrase be meant to take on its most technically literal interpretation? Or is it enough that there exist two, reasonable, alternative interpretations of the sentence, one of which is a _more_ literal rendering, and that the more literal of the two is intended?


title: Single word to denote date and time

text: I want one word that means Date and Time. For example in "the date and time of the event will be announced later" I want to use single word instead of "date and time"


title: Why "on the books", not "in the books"

text: _On the books_ means "part of the law". > These changes would add little to the civil rights laws now on the books. I know the meaning of this idiom, and idioms are used as they are, but idioms often have stories behind. Why is it not "in the books"? Could it be that in the old days people used slates of rocks to write on?


title: How commonly is "but" used in sentences?

text: Usually, whenever I post a question on Stack Overflow, I have a habit of using the word _but_ excessively. Is there an alternative word can I use?


title: "Disclaimer" vs. "disclosure"

text: What is the difference between _disclaimer_ and _disclosure_ , and when is it appropriate to use each? Often I see (especially on answers on SE) comments like: "Disclaimer: I work for company that makes this product," or "Disclosure: I never actually tested this". It seems to me that this is backwards, "disclosure" should be used for sharing some information that would otherwise be a secret, or considered a hidden agenda; and "disclaimer" for disavowing the information, or stating that this is not actually proven. Am I correct?


title: Meaning of "to be responsible for being..."

text: > The external safety unit is therefore responsible for the functions and > applications being correct. What is meant by the sentence above?   1. The external safety unit is therefore responsible for the correctness of functions and applications.   2. The external safety unit is therefore responsible for the functions and applications which are correct.


title: If the plural of ‘man’ is ‘men,’ shouldn’t the plural of ‘German’ be ‘Germen’?

text: What makes these two words so different that 'man' is changed to 'men', but 'German' is changed to 'Germans'?


title: Enter the world

text: I am planning a big career change. In the emails to the people I want to ask for internship, I wrote "I strongly desire to pursue a career in AABBCC and currently looking for internship opportunities to enter the world". I used the phrase "enter the world" because the barrier of the type of job I want is pretty high. Is this correct english? And is there better way to say it?


title: Word meaning relating to or involving humans or people

text: I need a word to fill the blank in this sentence: "The hurricane was one of the most _blank_ -deadly events in history." The human death count was recorded, but not the death count not for other species, so it was definitely a deadly event for humans, but the toll taken on other species was not known. At the moment I'm using _human_ for this purpose, but _human-deadly_ doesn't sound quite right, nor as good as possible. I understand that without the word, the statement would generally be taken as referring to humans but I would prefer to specify.


title: Why did the old pronouns and their respective endings vanish from daily usage?

text: If I’m not wrong, the verb conjugation in the past used to be:               I have           we have       thou hast        ye have       he/she/it hath   they have      This conjugation is closer to its equivalent in the German language:               ich habe         wir haben       du hast          ihr habt       er/sie/es hat    sie/Sie haben      The thing is: Every verb in every tense in German ends with _-st_ in the second person singular, and as far as I know, in Elizabethan English the verbs used to end in this way as well in the second person singular ( _thou shouldst_ , _canst_ , _makest_ , _eatest_ , _composest_ , etc.). Why exactly did the old _thou_ disappear, as well as related forms _thy_ , _thee_ , _thyself_ , and _thine_ , as well as the corresponding verb ending _-st_? Same for _-eth_ in third person singular ( _it hath, maketh_ , etc.), why did it just disappear from daily usage? I’m a Brazilian and my mother-tongue is Portuguese, so I’m not well aware of the background of this, and I am very curious. These forms can be found in the old King James Bible and in the poetry of William Shakespeare, as well as in many other sources, but I would like to know exactly why they’re gone, and for what reasons.


title: Is this Irony/Idiomatic speech?

text: I was reading this blog post and had trouble understanding this comment on the piece: > Or you could **_appropriate the Freudian hermeneutic_** : "Sometimes a > vessel is just a vessel." I understand "hermeneutic" to be a study of interpretation, especially that which concerns the bible. I also understand "Freudian" to be a school of psychoanalysis in which importance is given to theories of sexuality (and that it has come under critical scrutiny of and is at large disregarded by feminists). So I would like to ask whether the above is meant to be ironic?


title: What does "colored nurses" mean?

text: In the Wikipedia entry listing the characters from Harper Lee’s 1960 novel, _To Kill a Mockingbird_, there is a line that states the following: > Calpurnia is the Finch family’s housekeeper, whom the children love and > Atticus deeply respects (he remarks in her defense that she “never indulged > [the children] like most **colored nurses** ”). What does the line “never indulged [the children] like most **colored nurses** ” mean?


title: "each day" → "daily"; "every other day" →?

text: Is there an adjective that means "every other day"? I found "bidaily" but it seems to mean "twice a day", not "every second day" (not even both as "biweekly" does). I'd need this word to very concisely describe a questionnaire by its issuing frequency.


What is the term for words that have changed meaning over time? For example, in relation to this question on Workplace Stack Exchange the term snafu was of military origin and was used to define a person, team, organisation, etc that continually makes mistakes. The first time I saw the term was in relation to a data protection leak and this now seems a pretty common usage e.g this article amongst the tech community. Is there a term to describe words that have changed meaning over time, or words that have been adopted by a particular community and had their meaning altered?


title: I am looking for a word that is the same as "aspiration" but it's done

text: For example if you wish to do or have something, you can use _aspiration_. What word is the best to use for things that you have and done already? I was thinking about _accomplishment_ , but it only applies to things we did. I want a word that combines the meaning of things we did and things we have right now. It's hard to communicate what I need, so I give one more example: > Alex's aspiration > >   * playing piano >   * having a piano >   * other things that I use to do and have > > > Alex's [word I am looking for] > >   * I already learned playing piano >   * I bought a piano >


title: What word means the opposite of "preamble"?

text: I'm looking for a word the describes the concluding text of a document, i.e. the opposite of the document's preamble. Is it just "conclusion"?


title: Is "qo" a step in the evolution of the question mark?

text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark According to the wikipedia article I've linked to above, "qo" was sometimes used in the middle ages to abbreviate the latin word "questio" in the way that we might use a modern day question mark. I can't find any example of this anywhere online. Help?


title: 'Tenure' vs. 'tenancy'

text: Can anyone clarify for me the differences between these two words, in their senses of "occupation by a tenant"?


title: Using "of" and "about" interchangeably

text: Can I use _of_ instead of _about_ in the following sentence? > I'd like to hear your thoughts and recommendations about my decision **of** > this company and my resignation petition. Also, could you tell me whether I can use _on_ in place of _of_ , if using _of_ is correct in this sentence?


title: Why are reveries sometimes called "brown" studies?

text: Though this idiom is by no means very common, one comes across it now and then. (I just came across it again today, which is why I'm asking this question.) Why is a "brown study" so named?


title: What does "on the couch" mean?

text: What does this mean ? I'm on the couch tonight for sure From the movie Judgment Night (1993).


title: wouldn't have missed the day

text: I was watching a BBC sitcom. The scene is set in a wedding ceremony. In the opening of the speech of the father of the bride, he tends to be humorous, and thus he says: "Welcome to the wedding of Laura and Paul, whether you're friends, family or freeloaders, loved ones or loathed ones, people we like or people we had to invite, and whether you're here for a free meal or a free drink, people who _wouldn't have missed_ this special day for the world or people who had nothing better to do. You are all welcome." I am baffled by his using "wouldn't have missed." According to the context, I reckon what he means is more or less "people who wouldn't like to miss this special day for the world." But if he means exactly like that, why does he use the perplexing "wouldn't have missed?" Alright, he might be trying to be witty, implying "people who thought if they came to the wedding, they wouldn't have missed this special day after the wedding." Is my interpretation right?   Even the the implication is like that, I was still wondering how it sounds like in a native speaker's ears? For me, a non-native speaker, all I received was only full of confusion. Not humorous at all. If I were in that wedding, I would get lost and stuck in this "wouldn't have missed" and miss out a bunch of the rest of the speech.


title: Punctuate this sentence

text: Punctuate the following sentence. The distance between St George and and and and and dragon is not equal. (That's right, there are five consecutive 'ands'. I promise it is possible. But you may need to know the story behind it.)


title: How should the year be capitalized?

text: I suppose a year number to be a proper noun, naming a unique year. Therefore, when written as text, it should be spelled with initial capital letters. But there does not seem to be general agreement about this. Few authorities offer a rule at all, probably because year numbers are more commonly written as Arabic numerals. One source treats a year number as a common noun, like any number. A second agrees but says some authors consider a year number to be a _pronoun_ when not preceded by the words "the year". A third says a year number names a unique year and must be treated as a proper noun, citing _The Winston Grammar Program_ by Paul E. Erwin. On wedding invitations, etiquette authorities agree, the year is traditionally written as text. It is for this reason, I suppose, that some authorities think to address capitalization of the year. However, there is no consensus. It is more common to see the advice to capitalize the first word of the year (only). Most Google search results for [ capitalize year wedding etiquette ] give this advice. On the other hand, that paragon of etiquette virtue, Emily Post, specifically prohibits it, saying only the names of weeks and months are to be capitalized. In short, I can find support for three different capitalization rules for year numbers:   * no capitalization (written number rule), e.g.: "the year thirteen sixty-one"   * capitalize first initial letter (wedding invitation rule), e.g.: "the year Thirteen sixty-one"   * capitalize all initial letters (proper noun rule), e.g.: "the year Thirteen Sixty-one" How should the year be capitalized?


title: "He is loved", is 'loved' an adjective or a verb?

text: > He is loved. This is something that I've always kind of wondered. In a sentence like this, is _loved_ a verb or an adjective? Can it be considered either?


title: Capitalization after '3D'

text: I'm translating for a company that creates specialized 3D software. In a lot of the brochures, there are bullet points for things like '3D road design.' or '3D visibility.' To my eye, the words 'road' and 'visibility' should be capitalized in these contexts. To be clear, I'm asking about the cases in which 3D begins a sentence, and whether I should capitalize the word that comes after it. Am I right? Is this basically on a how-you-like-it basis? Additional question (really just curiosity): when I search for questions like this, is 3D an abbreviation or an acronym? I feel like it would technically be an abbreviation of an acronym?


title: Is “bright example” correct?

text: Can I use "bright example" to mean a good example of something just has been described. For example: > Such devices never work more than a year, my mp3 player is bright example


title: Do mathematical equations require punctuation?

text: **Mathematicians rarely heed the advice of grammarians.** In mathematical writing, one often places equations in a numbered environment outside of the inline text. Consider the following example.               Define f to be the function,              f(x) = sin x              (1)      where x is to take values in [0,pi].       Although one rarely finds correct punctuation or consistent grammar in math textbooks or online, I'm inclined to be as anal as physically possible in my Ph.D. thesis and consult the appropriate authorities in the matter. _What is the correct protocol for punctuation in the numbered equation environment?_ In particular, should there be a comma after "sin x"?


title: Past tense and "rather than"

text: I found myself with a sentence like this, using "accept" in the infinitive form after "rather than": > They left the club, rather than accept the terms. But I'm unsure of its grammatical soundness. Conjugating the verb "accept" just sounds wrong: > They left the club, rather than accepted the terms. The gerund sounds right, but I'm not sure why: > They left the club, rather than accepting the terms. What is the grammatically correct way of phrasing this sort of sentence, and why? > [SUBJECT] [PAST_ACTION_1], rather than [PAST_ACTION_2]


title: Which is the proper spelling: "Adapter" or "adaptor"?

text: In my current project we are writing a program to convert a newer protocol to an older one. These conversion programs are being referred to as _adapters_ , but the team cannot agree which spelling to use: _adapter_ or _adaptor_. I personally plump for _adapter_ , as _adaptor_ sounds like its a person (like _actor_ , _realtor_ , etc.) rather than a device. Is there a case for using one rather than the other?


title: When did the distinction between the spoken and written English grammars became recognized?

text: It is generally accepted today that the grammars and vocabularies of the spoken and the written English differ in important ways. Is it known when this distinction between the English grammars become recognized - for example, mentioned in a book or an article?


title: Opposite of acronym

text: If U.N. is the acronym of United Nations, then United Nations is the _what_ of U.N.? Is there an opposite of acronym?


title: What does “the Big Money crowd” mean?

text: I heard the following statement of Barron’s magazine piggybacked to today’s (April 28) AP radio news over AFN broadasting: > “Two thirds of the money managers we surveyed think we are due for > collection of 10 per cent in the next twelve months before stocks resume > their rise. Favorable stocks, General Electric currently tops the list. > **The Big Money crowd** also likes bank shares such as Bank of America and > Citi Group.” As I’m unfamiliar with the word, “Big Money crowd,” I looked for the usage of this word and found a pretty old example: With bond yields edging up, about a third of **the Big Money crowd** thinks utility shares will be the worst performers in the next 12 months.” - online.barrons.com 2013/10/21 What does Big Money crowd mean, particularly ‘crowd’ here mean? Is Big Money a proper noun as B and M are shown in uppercase in the above Barron's example? Is "crowd" a mass noun that takes verb in singlar form like "likes" and "thinks"?


title: Capitalization of "biomedical"

text: I work at a company with the word "biomedical" in its name. Sometimes I see it capitalized in CamelCase, like a programmer would write it ("BioMedical"), and sometimes as one word ("Biomedical"). The second capitalization looks better to me, but I'm not sure. I've also seen the word written out as "bio-medical". There seem to be too many options. **Can anyone enlighten me on the proper capitalization?**


title: Is it proper to ask to belay a request to a superior?

text: The term belay is often used to cancel an order in military settings. The definition indicates it just means to cancel. However, would asking a superior (in a civilian private sector employment situation) add an improper tone to the request?


title: Nonplussed defines its own antonym?

text: I recently encountered this word while reading an article and found that its two basic definitions are "Bewildered" and "Unfazed." How can the word mean both these things as they seem to be direct opposites of each other? Should the sentence in which it's used always explicitly reveal the intended meaning? > And while many of us might be a little taken aback if Mom showed up at our > offices, Secrist is utterly nonplussed, even happy about it. source In the above sentence, it's obvious that Secrist is "unfazed" without even knowing the definition of nonplussed. Instead of adding clarity to the meaning being conveyed, "nonplussed" seems to just add confusion. Then again, maybe I'm missing something. Thoughts? _My first post here so please edit/re-tag as appropriate._


title: A word or phrase to describe people who are practical and "care more about themselves"?

text: What is a word or phrase to describe people who are very practical and shrewd, and more concern about achieving their goals rather than looking at softer sides such as friendships, etc? It is more than just self-centred. It is a kind of character which one who inherits it would not hesitate to do very shallow acts just to emerge as a winner/survive, even if he has to betray his benefactors. It is a very insecure kind of character but on the surface is not obvious to be like so. For example, Tom befriends with Jane in hope of her help at work. Jane helped Tom. Tom, however, may possibly make Jane his enemy one day, when he knows his boss dislikes Jane, so as to appear standing behind his boss. So in some way, Tom in this scenario, is a what kind of person? In casual words, he is practical, shrewd, self-centred, etc. But is there a more concise word that encapsulates all these words and brings about the idea of such a character?


title: I'm looking for a word that is the noun-form of "poorly-constructed" and ends with the -ation suffiix

text: I'm going for some alliteration in a paper I'm writing discussing the history and once-current state of a particular navy, and one of the three things I want to talk about is the possibility of poorly-constructed ships. The other two are appropriation (some ships were appropriated from conquered peoples) and reparation (many ships had seen multiple battles and had undergone numerous repairs). I want to be able to say something to the effect of, "The history of appropriation, reparation, and ---ation in the fleet significantly influenced the outcome of this battle." I've toyed with 'ill-formation', but that doesn't sound right to me; it brings to mind poorly-constructed syntactic objects, not large physical ones. Thoughts or suggestions?


title: A non slangy word for "distractible person"

text: I'm thinking of starting a 12 step inspired support group, for people struggling with distractions. Basically it would be a group for people with ADHD symptoms, whether they actually have the disorder, or have simply wrecked their attention spans by using the internet too much. What would be a good name to put before "Anonymous" to convey this scope? A tongue in cheek name like "Scatterbrains Anonymous" or "Spaceshots Anonymous" seems like it might put people off. I'm looking for something that would be to "distractible" as "depressive" the noun is to "depressive" the adjective. I've considered the neologism route, with "Distractives Anonymous", but it seems like a reach to get people identifying with a term that doesn't even exist yet. Any other suggestions?


title: A phrase or idiom about living one life

text: I have a question about a phrase (an idiom), which can be roughly said as: > You have only one life (to live) and it's not going to happen again. I'm not sure if it's correct, most likely not. What I want is a meaning of this phrase, not said like " _You have only one_ " but like " _Life is just one_ " or " _One has only one_ " if you know what I mean. Not saying to someone: " _You have_ " but saying it like a general statement (" _One have_ " or " _There's a..._ "). Something like: > One has only one life and it's not going to happen again (or repeat). I thought about replacing the part "happen again" with something like "repeat" which would suit better from my point of view but as far as I searched the web, it's not used in this kind of phrase. Suggestions for more less widely used or known phrases welcomed.


title: Do you "have a particular interest" or do you "have particular interest"?

text: Maybe it's particular (!) to the "particular" adjective. Without it, it's fairly obvious that I "have an interest" is more correct than "I have interest". But when my interest is particular, I'm not sure if the indefinite article is either redundant or even incorrect. Also, "interest" has a slightly different meaning when used with the "particular" adjective, connoting a state of concern, as opposed to a discrete hobby or recreation. Any suggestions?


title: Which preposition should I use here: "thinking of" or "thinking about"?

text: > Thinking **of** getting an external keyboard > > Thinking **about** getting an external keyboard Which one is grammatically correct and why?


title: Single word for random selection

text: I want a word that means "Selected from the pool/set" - randomness is implied but not necessary. What is a good word for this? It would be used in a sentence like: > The parameter is _selected from the set_ and used in the experiment. I want one phrase for _selected from the set_ so that it can be used to form a terminology.


title: "For both X and Y" or "both for X and Y" or ...?

text: Which of these forms is correct? >   * X will be used both for Y and Z >   * X will be used for both Y and Z >   * X will be used both for Y and for Z >   * Other... >


title: "Weekdays" used as an adverb

text: I found a sentence in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: > open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. > > The bookstore opens weekdays from 9 p.m. to 6 p.m. . How do we understand the structure of this sentence? I know it means something is open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.


title: Usage of 'phew!'

text: The online Oxford Dictionary defines 'phew' as an expression of a strong reaction of relief. It has reported this example: "Phew, what a year!" Could _phew_ express lassitude as follows? > Phew! That was hard work.


title: Spelling out non-cardinal small numbers

text: I understand that it's common to spell small numbers in words. However, all examples of this rule I could find use cardinals (i.e. expressing the size of a set of entities) like in:   * We met two cats and seven dogs.   * She has been driving for six hours. My question is to what degree does this rule apply when one writes numbers as nouns rather than numerals? That is, which is the most 'correct':   * He chose the number 2.   * He chose the number two.   * He chose the number 'two'.


title: How to use "To be perceived as to being something"

text: For example. To be perceived as to being useful, the information tool must provide useful information to user and the user must find the information provided by the information tool is useful is there any problem with my grammar ? I am not really sure how to use to be perceived as to being something


title: I can't help it

text: * Mom: John, stop playing video-games!   * John: I can't help it! Could someone explain what John said?


title: Is there a non-idiomatic word or phrase meaning the same as "on the fly"

text: I want to say that someone is quick at thinking on the fly, but need to communicate with non-English speakers. Is there an equivalent non-idiomatic word or phrase? edit: I want it to imply instantaneous adaptation, "i.e. spur of the moment" but that is idiomatic as well.


title: Hyphenation or blending

text: Are there any rules when to write a set of two (or more) words or abbreviations forming a name of some entity as separate, when to hyphenate, and when to stick them together? These are my findings with ngram: >   * bitwise, bit-wise, but never _bit wise_ >   * sci-fi, but never sci fi, or scifi >   * wastelands (increasingly frequent), waste lands (dying out), never > waste-lands >   * fanfiction or fan fiction, but almost never fan-fiction, but >   * fanfic, never fan fic or fan-fic >   * read-only or read only, rarely readonly >   * twofold (frequently), two-fold (rarely), two fold (minimal) >   * bittersweet (rise), bitter-sweet (decline), bitter sweet (minimal), > but... >   * sour-sweet (frequent), sour sweet (less frequent), soursweet (even less > frequent) >   * all-nighter (dominant), allnighter (infrequent), all nighter (somewhat > less frequent) >   * cross-country (gaining), crosscountry and cross country (about equal, > not infrequent) >   * overnight (rise), over night (same as overnight until 1920, then drops > to 0), very rare over-night. > In particular, if I'm coining a new blend, which rules should I follow when deciding which of these three forms to give it?


title: Can I use the word "school" when referring to something that belongs to a university?

text: For example, can I refer to the main gate of a university as _the school's main gate?_ Or say _school begins in September_ instead of university begins in September (especially in informal speech)?


title: What does "Pinkest of papers" mean?

text: I was reading G.K. Chesterton's stories of Father Brown, and in the story "The Mistake of the Machine" (c.1914), I saw this phrase : > It seemed to be an extract from one of the pinkest of American Society > papers, and ran as follows: What does "pinkest of papers" mean? I did a little bit of research, and it seems that in Chesterton's time, people who were of high society standing had their note-papers tinted pink. In Sherlock Holmes, one of his very rich clients send in a letter on: > a sheet of pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open on the table. So, does "pinkest of American Society papers" here imply a society newspaper that was of very high social standing, something like _The Telegraph_ or _Washington Post_? Or does it mean something else?


title: Is incorrect capitalization considered a spelling error?

text: Is incorrect capitalization, such as the lowercase "i" in > can [this is not the sic you're after] i [this sic] have an if statement > within a dialog box code? considered a spelling mistake, or some other type of error?


title: be intended to vs intend to

text: I see a lot of examples of _be intended to_ and _intend to_. Both of them mean **_plan to do_**. Some examples: > Selling was my game and I **intended to** be a winner. > > The ban **is intended to** be permanent. I guess the difference between them is if the subject is human, it should use **be intended to**. Otherwise use **intend to**. Is that right?


title: Correct usage of “all expenses paid”

text: I am confused on how to properly describe an all expense paid vacation. Is it an _all expenses paid vacation_ or an _all expense paid vacation_ , and are there any hyphens between all, expense or expenses, and paid? I ask because it seems to be all over the place on google search.


title: The history of the use of "man"

text: The pronoun 'he' used generically, as well as a lot of words including "man- kind" or generic "man" are sex-biased and are not acceptable. However, not so long ago, they were the proper used terms for describing the general. For example, "Man must adjust to his environment." or "He that loves must forgive." etc. Was this always the case or did there use to be a difference in terms between male and female?


title: Is English 'issue' etymologically related to Russian 'ищу'?

text: I've noted that English word **issue** sounds like Russian word **ищу** , which means "I search for". Issue is something for which a solution needs to be found. So having an issue is closely related with searching for the way to solve it. Is it an accident only or have those words some common ancestor deeply in etymological history (maybe even dating to PIE)?


title: "Normalization" vs. "canonicalization"

text: It seems both _normalization_ and _canonicalization_ are used to describe the effort to transform from an arbitrary form to a unique form. Is there any difference between the two words? Why is there _XML normalize-space_ but not _canonicalize-space_? And a file name in a canonical-form but not a file name in a normalized-form?


title: Is there a verb for "doing the wrong thing by force of habit"

text: I sometimes find myself doing something I did not intend, just because the force of habit is so strong. For instance: On the way back from work, turning toward home instead of the grocery store, even though I was planning on doing the shopping. Or tossing the newspaper in the recycling bin right after my wife asked me to save an article for her. Is there a verb for this behavior? As in "Sorry, I just {screwed up by habit}."


title: Determiner vs. Determinative

text: In the _Cambridge Grammar of the English Language_ , Huddleston and Pullum use the term "determinative" for the lexical category of words like _the_ , etc. And they use "determiner" for the grammatical function that is characteristically filled by determinatives (but which can also be filled by things such as genitive noun phrases). In an older generation of reference grammars, however, notably Quirk, et alia's _Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language_ , the use of these terms is exactly reversed. That is, "determiner" is the lexical category and "determinative" is the grammatical function. The difference has been bugging me for a long time. Can anyone provide a principled explanation as to why we should prefer one over the other? I'm sure Huddleston and Pullum had a motivation to alter terminology that's been in use since Bloomfield's day, but I can't find any discussion in their work.


title: Is this correct grammar with the semi-colon

text: This sentence is from my essay. Is the semi-colon correct? > His most famous residence is the Kaufmann Residence; esteemed for its use of > organic architecture with Japanese architectural components to create > harmony with the residence and nature.


title: Comma before while?

text: After much searching, I am still finding (potentially) conflicting information regarding commas before subordinate conjunctions when they come at the end of the sentence. Specifically, I have read that a comma before _while_ indicates 'whereas.' No comma indicates time. However, commas are also used before subordinate conjunctions when the subordinate clause is non-essential to the meaning of the sentence. Therefore, I am confused whether to use a comma before _while_ in the following sentence. Is there a rule you can refer me to? > "Stick to your guns, Lola," he replied happily, while pinching both of my > cheeks. Based on the above information, there should be no comma since the two actions are happening at the same time. However, the information also seems non- essential to the meaning of the sentence, which means that it would require a comma. Very confusing!


title: Why can a bird be pulled but never caught?

text: In the UK there is a popular idiomatic saying: > **To pull a bird.** "Bird" is a well known Brit expression for a young woman. In the USA, I think "chick" is more popular. The above expression means to have success in fixing a date or going to bed with an attractive woman. I'd like to know why the verb, "pull" was preferred and not _catch_ , _get_ , _take_ , _trap_ , or even _grab_. And why do Americans go for "chicks" and never "birds"?


title: What is the relationship between fame and infamy?

text: In layman's terms, what is the relationship between fame and infamy? Is fame required to be infamous? Are they (definitively) mutual exclusive?


title: Hyphen in the noun 'switching-off'? Or gerunds of compound verbs, more generally?

text: I'm currently proof-reading my girlfriend's Ph.D. thesis (neither of us are native speakers) and I came across the following sentence snippet: "the switching-off induces eddy currents", and the word 'switching-off' struck me as odd. I think it should be written without a hyphen; my reasoning is vague, but seems to hinge on the distinction I feel there is between 'the turning on' (i.e. 'the activating') and 'the turning-on' ('the causing of arousal'). A quick search in my Concise Oxford Dictionary hasn't given me any ideas, so my question is: What's the correct way of writing the gerund of compound verbs? Any online resources going into this would also be much appreciated!


title: What's a word similar in usage to "diatribe," but not as harsh?

text: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a diatribe is defined as _a forceful and bitter verbal attack against someone or something._ I had previously understood it to mean something more along the lines of _drawn out, longer than it needs to be, impassioned persuasion._ For example, in a friendly letter, _My [diatribe] begins here._ Any alternatives?


title: How to say that something is (not) random

text: I want to compare two things, one of which is random and the other is not, in favor of the latter. I'd like to do it in a more sophisticated way than simply using the word "random". Like, for example, > In this case, your pay will not depend on the roll of the dice. But Google Ngrams doesn't find a single occurrence of "depend on the roll of the dice", so I guess there's something wrong with this particular phrase. What would be a better substitute?


> A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy > under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things > to happen. Harry Potter [a baby] **rolled over** inside his blankets without > waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, > not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would > be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the > front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few > weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley...   > (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) What’s the meaning of ‘over’ in the example?   (1) If we adopt the meaning of ‘roll’ as "to move or rock from side to side,” I think ‘over’ could mean ‘repeatedly: adv 11.’ So the baby might have been swaying in the blanket repeatedly.   (2) If we adopt the ‘rolled’ as a participle, the sentence can be a noun phrase that has a participle in it; ‘rolled over’ could mean ‘wrapped: v.tr.12a completely: adv 4.’ - Next sentence also has participle in its noun phrase (absolute phrase).; for the letter was closed on by an adult.   (3) I think one of the two above would be proper, but ‘roll over completely, 360 degrees’ wouldn’t. What can be the proper meaning of the ‘over’?


title: "open mike" vs. "open mic"

text: I run comedy shows, and at these comedy shows there is always an "open mike" section. Frequently I get people saying to me, shouldn't it be "open mic", because "mic" should be the shortened version of "microphone". My case is that "mic" is not a short form, it's an abbreviation, which is different. It's not really meant to be a word, it's only used in conditions where the display of the word does not accommodate all the letters. With an abbreviation, it is sometimes conventional to place a period at the end to convey that this is just part of a word. Like one would use approx. for approximately. Mike is the correct short form, the same way "bike" is short for bicycle. Looking around on the net, there is a lot of discussion, mostly heated, and there are a lot of proponents for "mic". However, I don't think this is a democratic issue. I believe the only reason "mic" has bled into spoken English and is mistakenly thought to be more correct than "mike" is because electronic equipment is widely used and seen. The space above a microphone jack is limited, and thus it is shortened to "mic", not to follow any grammatical rules, but just for space. There is no similarly common and parallel situation for "bicycle", which is why we never see "bic" in place of "bike". In order to make my case that "mike" is the appropriate short form for "microphone", I feel that one can look to the conventions of English usage that support that. I would like to know if there are formalized rules for the conversion of words like bicycle and microphone to bike and mike. Or nuclear to nuke would be another example. Also, the difference between abbreviation and shortening of a word seem distinct to me, but I find that when explaining this issue they are too synonymous and people don't see a distinction. Is there a better way to convey the difference? Please note I am firmly in the camp that thinks that "mic" is wrong, I am just looking for linguistic terminology and etymological roots to explain it. It would take a stunningly compelling argument to change my position. ... Or maybe I should just say to heck with it and call it "open stage"...


title: Compare usage between punctuation variants

text: This got a bit lost in the excitement over my first question, (k+1)th or (k+1)st?, so I thought I'd spin it off into its own question. I'm not sure if this is too abstract to be appropriate for this venue, but I thought I'd give it a shot. When trying to figure out which of two variants of the same phrase is more common, a good first step is to Google both (putting each in quotation marks) and seeing how many hits each garners. As we discovered in my other question, this fails when one or more of the variants contains punctuation. You'd be out of luck if you wanted to decide whether to put a hyphen in _full time_ : _"full time"_ and _"full-time"_ give exactly the same search results, even with quotation marks. (The situation is a bit more complicated with _"(k+1)st_ ", but the bottom line is that it returns many results which don't contain the literal string I was searching for.) Is there any way to measure how widely a phrase **with a specific punctuation** is used? Note that this is question is about measuring usage, not deciding what variant is best for a given situation. For that, the best way is presumably to ask a question here :)


title: "Word for word" or "word by word"?

text: I have an idiom that is used in a sentence; which is correct? >   * You are asked to copy this letter _word by word_. >   * You are asked to copy this letter _word for word_. > Which is correct?


title: Can a person be an oxymoron?

text: I was thinking about how I walk to work while listening to "The Magnificent Seven" by The Clash, which depicts the stupidity of work. I thought that, in a way, is an oxymoron--listening to music that hates work while walking to work. It then spurred a runaway thought train: what if a person looks slender but has bodily strength that matches a champion weightlifter's--is that an oxymoron? Or are oxymorons used for feelings (like bittersweet)? I know the attributes aren't next to each other like a traditional oxymoron, but it's not a contradiction because you're not going against yourself. So what is it?


title: Object coming before the verb?

text: In the Jewel song _Sara Swan Sleepyhead_ we have this passage: > There’s a knock at the door   >  **A funny suit Sammy wore**   >  And on his face an ear to ear grin The bolded part seems weird to me. Is this correct grammar, and how common a usage is it?


title: What does "but" imply in this sentence?

text: From the very second paragraph of "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov: > There were nearly twenty-five million inhabited planets in the Galaxy then, > and not one but owed allegiance to the Empire whose seat was on Trantor. I presume he means that they all owed allegiance to the Empire, but that phrasing sounds like he's saying the opposite. I want to read it as if 'but' is the subject of the sentence meaning 'exception'.


title: What is a "snake metaphor"?

text: I came across the phrase _snake metaphor_ in the article of August 2nd New York Times reporting "Underwear run in the Central Park" under the title, “Got Briefs? This Run's for You.” It was a hilarious and humorous report. But I was caught with the phrase _snake metaphor_ in the following sentence: > Maybe it was the shirt, though in truth the sensation was something like > running with a Burmese python wrapped around your chest. Sorry; normally I > try to limit myself to one _snake metaphor_ per column. As I found no entry of _snake metaphor_ in dictionaries at hand or in Cambridge and Merriam -Webster online dictionary, I think this is a simple combination of words, not an idiom. But what does _snake metaphor_ actually mean? Does it mean weird metaphor? Can we say _snake joke_? I’m also not very sure of how I feel running with a Burmese python wrapped around my chest. Does it mean _heavy and cold_?


title: When is it proper to abbreviate first to 1st?

text: When is it proper to use `1st` instead of `first`? For example, is the correct sentence acceptable? > Can you give more detail about why you 1st got involved? I tried finding some authoritative source on that but failed.


title: What is the correct abbreviation for the plural "Quantitative Trait Loci" — "QTL" or "QTLs"?

text: Strictly speaking, both the biological term _Quantitative Trait Locus_ and its plural _Quantitative Trait Loci_ can be abbreviated as _QTL_. However, one often reads the abbreviations _QTL_ and _QTLs_. Is the _-s_ behind _QTL_ wrong or correct? After all, it's not "Locuses".


title: What does Pedantic mean when used as an adjective

text: According to Dictionary.com, Pedantic can mean > ostentatious in one's learning Ostentatious means to show off , to attract attention. The way I interpret it is that > one is so focused on learning that he attracts attention It sound wrong to me, how does one interpret **Pedantic** when it is used as above? What are some examples sentence?


title: What to put in front of a future role or title

text: I'm looking for the antonym of "ex-": a word to put in front of roles or titles that the mentioned person will hold later in life. For example: In 1982 I met ???? president Clinton. The expression "Sunlight is the best of disinfectants" was coined before World War I by ???? associate justice Louis Brandeis. Would "future" work? Or "subsequent"? Or is there a better word or prefix or phrase?


title: Is there a grammar mistake in "Ball Don't Lie"?

text: There is a novel titled 'Ball Don't Lie', and a film also based on the novel with the same name (visit: Wikipedia synopsis). Then the sentence becomes more famous in sports world after Rasheed Wallace used it in one of NBA games (watch YouTube video here). So I'm just curious, isn't there clearly a grammar mistake in this term? Shouldn't it be "Balls Don't Lie", or "Ball Doesn't Lie"?


title: What's the correct usage of "tell" here?

text: Which sentence is grammatically correct: > I will tell your consultant. or > I will tell to your consultant.


title: Can a colon split a verb and the rest of the predicate?

text: > **Possible Duplicate:**   >  Punctuation to introduce a list: comma vs. colon vs. nothing Is this use of a colon **incorrect**? > I wrote an application whose features included: doing this, doing that, and > doing something else. If so, why? Is it because what precedes a colon must always be a complete sentence, or because—from Strunk & White—a colon should not separate a verb from its complement, or a preposition from its object? Or both? Am I correct that the correct form would be simply > I wrote an application whose features included doing this, doing that, and > doing something else. Or even > I wrote an application that had many features: doing this, doing that, and > doing something else.


title: What term means the "non-fiction information found in a fictional story"?

text: When one reads a fictional story, one can still learn about non-fiction things. I do not necessarily mean in "creative non-fiction", but this is nearly found in any realistic fiction. For example, by reading one of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's fiction novels, one can discover what society was like in his place and time.   * The nearest word I can find to describe this is "subject matter", but I do not know if this accurately fits. Is there a term used to describe this "non-fiction information" that can be taken from a story?


title: What is better terminology for the phrase 'Accelerate success'?

text: What is the correct terminology for a person or group to 'accelerate the success' for an entire organization?


title: A phrase that means "to finally select (or decide) something"

text: I am looking for a phrase or an idiom that means that i have selected the one object from a group or settled on some solution out of many others. Let me provide some examples:   1. I went to the travel agency and they offered me a list of tours. I thought long and hard over the 2 hours and finally selected the most interesting tour among others proposed.   2. I asked for a word on ELU and other users kindly provided me with a bunch of words with requested meaning. I thought for a moment and finally selected the only word I really liked.   3. I developed some C++ library and ran into a problem. I tried many solutions and finally decided which one will work for the situation. In Russian we usually use the idiom "ostanovitsya na" that means "to stop on something". What is the similar phrase (or idiom) in American and British English? ### Update I finally **end up with** "end up"! It is as close to Russian "ostanovitsya na" as it can ever be. Another 2 very similar phrases are "to decide on" and "to settle on". I would like to deeply thank all those who have contributed to the discussion of this question!


title: What to call the collective parts of a day?

text: Millennia are made of centuries and decades, centuries of decades and years. Years are months, months of weeks, but not precisely. Days are made of hours, but what do we call the several imprecise periods in a day: morning, noon time, afternoon, evening, night? I.e., answer this riddle, for which I have no answer: Days are made of these, which are themselves made of hours. What are they?


title: What is the correct way to write the interjection "ha ha?"

text: I had a hard time finding the English origin of this interjection and how it technically should be written. I am often ridiculed in written conversations, especially those that are informal, because I might reply to something funny with, "Ha ha ha." It seems as if the accepted way to colloquially spell this is "hahaha." When asked about it, I actually admitted that the original spelling might have been something like "ha-ha-ha," similar to how "goodbye" seems to have been originally written as "good-bye." What is the correct way?


title: What is a good term to describe the last of a dying breed?

text: Is there a word or short phrase that describes a person or animal that is the last survivor of a dying tribe/species? I'm trying to use the word facetiously to describe something technical and dry. For example, "the XXXX of the widgets," or "XXXX widget," or "widget XXXX." So the more creative the allusion the better!


title: Will the comma suffice to indicate whether the subject or the object is being modified?

text: There are two separate meanings I'm trying to convey with the following two sentences: > 1) "I painted my brother sitting against the wall." > > 2) "I painted my brother, sitting against the wall." **My brother, in the first case, and I, in the second are sitting against the wall.** At least, those are my intended meanings. Is this correctly conveyed through the addition of the comma in the second sentence? I know that restructuring the sentence can, of course, make it more clear, but this format somehow sounds nicer to my ear. And as an aside, have I correctly put commas in the first line of my preceding paragraph? (The portion in bold.)


title: Why are "sugar" and "sure" pronounced with an SH?

text: As far as I know, those are the only two. They should be pronounced _Soogher_ and _Soor_ , shouldn't they? I looked them up on Dictionary.com, and their etymologies reveal no trace of an _SH_ , except where the listing for _sugar_ had: > Middle English sugre, sucre (noun) < Middle French sucre < Medieval Latin > succārum < Italian zucchero < Arabic sukkar; obscurely akin to Persian > shakar, Greek sákcharon I see an obscure kinship to _shakar_ , but the word morphed so many times since then that the _SH_ disappeared pretty much completely. And _sure_ is even worse, with no sign of _SH_ : > Middle English sur ( e ) < Middle French sur, Old French seur < Latin > sēcūrus Why are these the only two like this?


title: Meaning of "miss"

text: I was wondering what each "miss" means in > I always miss you, so I miss you, so I miss you, so I miss you so much now. The only two meanings I know for "miss" are: the one as in "miss a chance" and the one as "think about". However, someone on the internet said that each had a different meaning: > I always avoid you, so I miss you, and finally I lost you, so I miss you so > much now. where the first "miss" meant "don't encounter", and the second "miss" meant "think about". Is this explanation correct?


title: What does “We don’t do anything that’s not completely up and up” mean?

text: I found an amusing story titled “Lobster salad, but a key ingredient was missing” in today’s (August 11）New York Times NY/Region section.   The article reports that Zabar’s, the famous grocery in Upper West Side have sold salad delicatessen of which main ingredient is crawfish, and doesn’t contain any bit of lobster meat by the name of “Lobster Salad” at $16.95 per pound for years. It has been a very popular item to New Yorkers. When the secret was betrayed by a reporter of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, and soon the news widely spread through local newspapers, Saul Zabar, the 83-year-old president insisted selling lobsterless lobster salad was not dishonest at all, citing the case of a Japanese version of crab meat using pollock as the base being widely sold in Japan under the category name of “Crabmeat Resembling,” – which caught my special attention to this particular topic. Cutting to the chase, I was caught up with the phrase, “We didn’t think that we were doing anything that was not _completely up and up_ ,” in the following remark of Mr. Zabar: > “But by then Mr. Zabar had had enough. “We really didn’t think that we were > doing anything that was not completely up and up,” he said, “but there was > an element that might be confusing, and with all this stuff going on, I > decided now’s the time to clarify.” Eventually he changed the name of the product. What does _“completely up and up_ ” mean? Is this common, colloquial phrase?


title: What is meant by the phrase "which is to say"?

text: When someone says > ... `X` which is to say `Y` ... is there an implication that `X` is mistaken or false? In this construction is `Y` generally the opposite of `X`? Some random examples from the NY Times: > "When you are unemployed, _which is to say_ when you are underfed, harassed, > bored and miserable" (source) > > "But corruption levels are around the global average, _which is to say_ , > corruption is rife" (source) > > "There are journalists who cover the world of ideas, _which is to say_ they > report on the lives and work of people who have them" (source)


title: “Minutes later” vs. “a few minutes later”

text: Can I say this: > I forgot about it minutes later. Or do I have to say it this way instead: > I forgot about it **a few** minutes later.


title: Why use 'step down' instead of 'resign'? Is there any difference?

text: > Ozzie announced his plans to **step down** from his role at Microsoft on > October 18, 2010


title: What does "which" mean in this sentence?

text: This sentence is from a transcript of a podcast: > The researchers say that even mammals that breed year round—which should > offer protection against seasonal shifts—may still feel the impact of > climate change. I don't understand what the word "which" means here. Does it refer to the "mammals"? If it does, I am confused by the whole sentence — what's the connection between the middle part of the sentence and the rest?


title: "Cooking" is to "culinary" as "dining" is to what?

text: The art of cooking is called culinary art. Is there a comparable term for the art of eating or dining? Is there a more sophisticated term?


title: More idioms like "needle in a haystack" relevant to hidden/hard to find items?

text: Are there more idioms, sayings or phrases similar to "needle in a haystack" that are relevant to hidden objects, or difficult to find items? Also interested in similar nouns relevant to the somewhat oppositional concepts like "needle" and "haystack" or "3-leaf clover" vs. "4-leaf clover" where one object is significantly harder to find.


title: Is it “If money were not an object” or “If money were not an option”?

text: The phrase "If money were not an option" is often used to mean "Don't worry about how much it would cost". However, I just noticed that the last word, **option** , makes it sound like saying "If spending money was not one of your options". Should I keep using this phrase? Or is it a mutation of the phrase "If money were not an **object** " ? Going by exact quote searches with Google, they're about the same: "if money were not an object" (32,400 results) and "If money were not an option" (27,500 results). Or would I be far better off using neither of these and just saying "If money were not an issue" ?


title: "requested to" vs "requested from"

text: > This document has information about checks to be requested **from** each > department. vs > This document has information about checks to be requested **to** each > department. Is the usage of both correct? Downvoter: Any help improving this question?


title: What does “flustrated” mean, and is it a word?

text: What does the _flustrated_ mean? Is it even a word? I am using Lingea Lexicon and it doesn’t know this word, but the Internet is full of it. I find myself hating people for using it both in English and in my own language (Czech), because if it actually has a meaning, I am afraid that those who use it doesn't even know it and use it with the meaning of _frustrated_ , which is wrong. I dug into it a while back, which only deepened my opinion about people who use it; see Urban Dictionary: _flustrated_.


title: Is it acceptable to write "(wo)man"?

text: I just read this: It’s a (wo)man’s world out there. Is this an accepted approach to gender-neutral language, or is it just used when humor is intended?


title: Can “famous last words” be used in positive way as a response in conversation?

text: I came across the phrase, ““famous last words.” I took it literally as the last word delivered by famous people. But Wikipedia defines““famous last words” other than this sense as:   1. used in a conversation to show disbelief of the previous statement.   2. used as a warning that following the course of action just mentioned will result in impending doom. For example: A. "We won't miss the train. Mike's never late". B. "Famous last words!" However, Readers English Japanese Dictionary, a popular and reputed Japanese English dictionary published in Japan at hand shows the definitions:   1. n. Collection of famous last words.   2. (joc/iron) ①そうでしょうとも（That’s right / Exactly)．②それはどうかな（It’s dubious. / I can’t trust it.）. The definitions of the above ① and ② are clearly conflicting. ① is affirmative, and ② is skeptical, if not totally disapproval. Can “famous last words” be used in an affirmative or approving way as Readers Dictionary says in ① of the above definitions?


title: Pronunciation of "zounds?"

text: I came across the sentence "Fortunately their are a variety of different offerings out there with zounds of features." Disregarding the misuse of "zounds," how would Elizabeth I have pronounced the word? To rhyme with "God's wounds?" Or otherwise?


title: Isn’t a word missing?

text: I’m quoting a part of the article titled “Pakistan Sees Shared Intelligence Lapse” written by Alan Cowell in today’s (May 4) New York Time’s Asia Pacific section (online edition) simply by cut-and-pasting of the text: > “After the meeting, Mr. Gilani that he did not believe the United States > Congress would show its displeasure with Pakistan by cutting aid to his > nuclear-armed nation and he said the West would continue to support Pakistan > as a “responsible nation.” “We are working together” against terrorism, he > said. Don’t we need ‘said’ or ‘told’ between Gilani and that in the first line, or omission of the verb permitted in press English, or it is simply erroneous drop of ‘said’?


title: What is the antonym of "to get used to"?

text: I am looking for an antonym of the phrase "to get used to" in the sense of doing beginning (or in this case finishing) to do something oneself. The only one i can think of is "to get out of the habit of". In Russian there is a word "отвыкать", that has that meaning, but i wonder if there is a phrase or a word that has that exact sense.


title: Origin of "they", "them", and "their"

text: I know that _they_ , _them_ , and _their_ did not exist in Old English. What language are they derived from?


title: One word to describe "one hair that grows on someone's bald head"?

text: Is there a single English word for **a single hair** that grows on someone's head which is practically bald? I found a picture like this one, this is a movie character: ![enter image description here](http://i.stack.imgur.com/w1Y4B.png) See that one hair? Is there an English word that describes that **hair**? [Not just that is _one_ , but also _a hair_.]


title: Why do clothing tags say LGG for large?

text: Tags on _large_ size T-shirts will often have the letters _LGG_ to specify large. Why don't they simply say _LG_? Is _LGG_ simply short for _large/grande_?