Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.

Input: Consider Input: E.g. is short for exempli gratia, and is in common use to introduce an example within a sentence. Submit a sample of academic writing, e.g., a dissertation chapter. However, some authors use ex. or ex: (short for 'example') for the same purpose, and this form is listed in some authorities like the Wiktionary. Submit a sample of academic writing, ex: a dissertation chapter. I know they both roughly mean 'example', but which one should I use, and when? Are there connotations associated with one or the other? This question has been asked elsewhere, and this very answer comes up when you ask Google about the difference. It would be good to get an EL&U answer for it.

Output: E.g. is short for exempli gratia and stands for 'for example'. Ex., if used to mean the same, is incorrect. Mostly ex. is used as short for exercise and not 'for example'.


Input: Consider Input: Do the English have an ancient (obsolete) verb for the action of the book opening? For example, in Russian we say otkrit' (open the book), but in the Old slavonic the verb razognuti (to unbend the book) was used.

Output: This is a very interesting question. There may not be an old word in English that does what you describe, but it is important to note that the English word 'open' relative to a book meant something different in earlier times. To open a book now usually means to part or spread the cover and the pages into a position so you can read the pages contained in the book. However, books used to be made by folding sheets of paper larger than the page size and they would be sold without trimming the edges, so when you got your new book, it would be 'unopened' meaning that you couldn't turn the pages. You had to 'open' the book with a dull knife (like a letter opener) by ripping along the folds. (This is why some books have ragged edges of the text block, to evoke the memory of those ripped page edges.) The OED has e. transitive. To cut open the leaves of (a book) when they have been left joined along an edge during the making; to cut open (the leaves) of such a book. You will find old books described (by knowledgable book dealers) as 'unopened'. This correctly means that the folded sheets are un-ripped; it doesn't mean that no-one has ever spread the covers and looked inside.


Input: Consider Input: What is the etymology of shithole? Did it originate from A) the orifice through which excrement is passed, or B) the hole in the ground intended for the disposal of such excrement? (This is a serious question for professional research. You don't want to know the details.).


Output: The OED's earliest citation for shithole is from the seventeenth century, and it's given as 'coarse slang' for 'the rectum or anus'. The earliest citation for shithole meaning 'a toilet; a latrine' is only from 1947.