niryuu/sni-each-converted huggingface dataset:
Question: How did 7 come to be an abbreviation for 'and' in Old English? is a beautiful question about the Tiroian "et", which is now the "" character 1. My question is what impact did the association of this 7-like-glyph have on the eventual placement of keyboards placing the & on Shift+7 combination? The Wikipedia article on the QUERTY keyboard shows that the ampersand was a separate key in the bottom left of the keyboard in the original patent application drawings. The patent was filed in 1878. The Das Keyboard blog shows a Full Duplex keyboard (with separate keys for upper and lower case letters) from 1897 with no ampersand key at all. I have not yet been able to find a reference to the first keyboard to place the ampersand and 7 together. The Wiki article on the ampersand only mentions that it is usually keyed via Shift+7, but occasionally on 6 or 8 instead. Dvorak layouts appear to share similar associations between 7 and &. So is it a coincidence? Or is there some association? 1 This looks really different in the EL&U site fontface. See the linked question or the Wikipedia article for more faithful renderings. 
Answer: Although the 7 was the ampersand on IBM's standard keyboard layout, that is hardly universal. The first nine printable characters in ASCII are ! " # $ % & ' ( ), which should give a good clue as to what the top row of a teletype keyboard looked like. On many early teletypes and terminals (and also, BTW, on the Apple ][), the shift key toggled bit 4 of the character being produced, thus it would turn a 1 (011 0001) into ! (010 0001), and , (010 1100) into < (011 1100). Since the digits 1-9 received consecutive code, so did the characters produced by combining them with the shift key. Shift-7 on those keyboards was apostrophe; the ampersand was shift-6. Other typewriter keyboards also varied considerably in where they put the ampersand. Its association with the number 7 is nowhere near as consistent as the association between 1 and !, 3 and #, 4 and $, or 5 and % which existed in both older computer keyboards and today's US arrangement.
Output: yes
Question: Let's say I'm always hungry, even after I have my meal(s). What would be a word to express that? IMHO, I think starving, famished won't be applicable as these words would only describe the current situation. 
Answer: Consider insatiable [appetite]. Insatiable means: always wanting more : not able to be satisfied (MW) Impossible to satiate or satisfy: an insatiable appetite (TFD) For example, Most children like to eat but for some an insatiable appetite means they always want more, causing real problems for parents. (BBC) The woman is insatiable. When the final whistle blows, she's eaten twenty-three sandwiches in ten minutes, setting a world record (Eat this Book) [Children] may go through phases where they seem to eat relatively little or are insatiable. (Feeding the Under 5s).
Output: yes
Question: For example, many different religions say that their members can't partake in eating certain kinds of food like shellfish, pork or beef. What is a name for a general rule of this nature across religions? People don't "need" to do them as it is their choice to follow a religion, but still, doing something such as restricting one's diet can be a requirement of a religion itself. 
Answer: May I suggest the words "Proscribed" and "Transgression"? eg: "Damon read the proscribed literature, even though he knew it to be a transgression against his beliefs.".
Output: no
Question: In my language, when I write an email to my professor, boss, etc, there is a greeting part in the first part of email right after "Dear prof. ..."(in my language of course), e.g. "How are you", "I hope everything is alright" and so on. But I don't have any idea how can I write a proper email with such a greeting in English? Or do I have to ignore it because the email is kinda formal? 
Answer: I almost always start formal e-mails with Dear Professor _, I hope this note finds you well. Some guidelines will suggest ending your salutation with a colon rather than a comma, but in many circumstances a comma is acceptable. If the person's title is "professor," you should spell it out (not "prof.") and begin it with a capital letter when it precedes the person's name (as it would in your example). "I hope this note (or letter) finds you well" politely establishes a friendly connection between you and the recipient of your letter and in most circumstances is a great way to start it. Especially if you're asking for something, it's good to indicate your concern for the person you're writing to. For the same reason, it's a good idea to end the letter with a phrase or sentence that will similarly show interest in their work or their well-being. "Best regards," is fine, but if you can tailor it in a way that's a bit more thoughtful, it's better. "I hope your book/project continues to go smoothly." (This can be followed by a "Best regards.") If this is a person you don't know, you may have to settle for a generic "Best regards" alone.
Output: yes
Question: What is the shortest comprehensive sentence in English? 
Answer: "Go." The understood subject is "You". "[You] go" makes sense to me.
Output: yes
Question: Perhaps you say a bad joke or you make a really awkward noise, and everybody suddenly stares at you? 
Answer: You could say that the room fell flat If a joke, idea, or suggestion falls flat, it does not have the intended effect: Cambridge Dictionary While it is primarily used to describe what was said, it can also be used to describe the room the statement was made in. Alternatively, you could say that there was a deafening silence deafening silence A noteworthy silence, or absence of response, especially one signifying disapproval or lack of enthusiasm. The suggestion that they work through the holidays met with deafening silence.
Output: no
Question: I was wondering what "take a stab at doing something" means? For example I'll take a stab at answering these. 
Answer: As everybody has said, to take a stab at means to attempt. I want to additionally note here that I believe it to be related to the idiom stab in the dark, meaning an attempt at something with little guidance or hope of success. It doesn't carry the full weight of that meaning, though, just an attenuated implication of not necessarily knowing what one is doing, more likely used as mild self-deprecating humor than anything else.
Output: yes
Question: I was told in a Latin class that the name Christopher has Greek roots that mean "one who carries Christ". I assume that the Latin connection here is fero, which is the verb to carry. With that in mind, does the name Jennifer have a similar derivation? If so what would she be carrying? 
Answer: No Jennifer is from From a Cornish form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar (see GUINEVERE). This name has only been common outside of Cornwall since the beginning of the 20th century, after it was featured in George Bernard Shaw's play 'The Doctor's Dilemma' (1906). GUINEVERE From the Norman French form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, composed of the elements gwen meaning "fair, white" and hwyfar meaning "smooth". In Arthurian legend she was the beautiful wife of King Arthur who engaged in an adulterous affair with Sir Lancelot. Her betrayal of her husband with Mordred prompted the battle of Camlann, which led to the deaths of both Mordred and Arthur. The Cornish form of this name, Jennifer, has become popular in the English-speaking world.
Output: yes
Question: I often hear US citizens say something like this: <Some phrases>. Period. What does period mean when it appears in a sentence by itself in this type of situation? 
Answer: A period is what the full stop is called in American English. Saying period at the end of a sentence is a way of expressing the finality of what is being said. For example, A: But phones are good for taking pictures. B: No, I don't think so. Phones should only be used for communication, period.
Output: yes
Question: What's the difference in meaning between "register" and "registry"? Can both be used interchangeably when talking about an official (public) list of items, records? 
Answer: The online oxford dict says: Register noun official list or record, for example of births, marriages, and deaths, of shipping, or of historic places. a book or record of attendance, for example of students in a class or school or guests in a hotel. Registry: noun (plural registries) a place or office where registers or records are kept. But yeah, it also says that a registry too can mean a list. And I think 'Registry' is used more in the former context than the later. Even while talking in context of computers we say things like 'Windows Registry'. For me, the word register brings along a sense of being finite but registry does not. like when I think of a register of records, I usually get a quantified picture of the records list comes to my mind, like a page, or a notebook. but 'registry' brings along a picture of non quantifiable !! or its just weird with me. Anyone have other thoughts on this?.
Output: yes
Question: As per title of the question, I see this a lot. "We will release the product when issue 51 has been finalized." "We are waiting for it to be finalized." Is this just a case of people trying to sound professional with corporate jargon , or is there a real difference between 'finish' and 'finalize'? 
Answer: "finishing" means reaching the end of some process, "finalizing" means declaring the end of some process. After finishing, nothing needs to be done any more, after finalizing, nothing is to be done any more. Finishing a specification means ending the process of drafting it, finalizing a specification means ending the process of refining it into a state fit for formal adoption.
Output: no
Question: Is the word "dude" becoming gender neutral? I don't think so, however, has modern usage changed? Are there some recent examples of "dude" being used to refer to a woman or group of women? 
Answer: It is common in my experience (woman in US, 26, liberal hippie type) for groups of women to be called "dudes" or "guys" by both men and other women, but not for individual women to be called a "dude" or a "guy." One exception seems to be in greetings using "dude," as in, "Hey dude!".
Output: yes
Question: I am just wondering about the difference between: in contrast to and in contrast with 
Answer: In fact, they could be used interchangeably, however, "in contrast with" is more common in UK English. Moreover, When we say "contrast with", CONTRAST is behaving as a verb. Example: "He likes to contrast his checkered jacket with plain pants" or "his checkered jacket contrasts with his plain pants." But when we say "in contrast to", it is behaving as a noun. Example: "His checkered jacket stands in contrast to his plain pants." (As you can see, in this sentence "stands" is the verb). (Testluv, GMAT Instructor, Beat the GMAT forum).
Output: yes
Question: I'm writing an essay for college admissions, and this snippet is highlighted by my auto-correct as incorrect: There are many obstacles I face while working on a project, most of which take a lot of time and energy to fix or work around. I can't see anything wrong with using work around in this context, but I'd like to know how to correctly use this phrase. 
Answer: Work around is a phrasal verb. Work-around is a noun (often written workaround, without the hyphen). Your example uses the verb, so it is correct as written. Ignore the auto-correct suggestion in this case.
Output: yes
Question: My spellchecker insists on replacing "furthest" with "farthest". I was under the impression that farthest is strictly speaking in terms of distance, whereas furthest is more abstract. A poster on this forum gives the following example: The further [quantity] you walk, the farther [distance] you get. What gives? 
Answer: The NOAD I had on my Mac Mini reported the following note, which is the same note found on the Oxford Living Dictionaries about farther and farthest. Traditionally, farther and farthest were used in referring to physical distance: the falls were still two or three miles farther up the path. Further and furthest were restricted to figurative or abstract senses: we decided to consider the matter further. Although farther and farthest are still restricted to measurable distances, further and furthest are now common in both senses: put those plants the furthest from the window.
Output: yes
Question: A knife has a handle and a blade. A spoon has a handle and a... Bowl? A fork has a handle and... Spikes? Prongs? I guess this can be extended to more esoteric cutlery such as sporks. 
Answer: Bowl: the hollow of a spoon (M-W) (visualdictionaryonline.com).
Output: no
Question: It is common in American English to refer to a powerful person or organization as an 800 pound gorilla. The expression makes sense -- a gorilla of that size would certainly be intimidating -- but what's so special about the number 800? Searching "n lb gorilla" on Google for various values of n results in many more hits when n = 800 than when n is any other quantity. Also, the Google Ngram Viewer finds notable occurrences of the phrase "800 pound gorilla" in texts starting around the late 1970s; other sized gorillas don't seem to be mentioned at all. The Wikipedia entry for the idiom claims that the phrase is rooted in a riddle ("Where does an 800lb gorilla sleep?"), but that's just passing the buck. A 700lb or 900lb gorilla would be equally entitled to sleep wherever he wants to. Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry for gorilla states that the average male gorilla weighs about 400lb, occasionally reaching 500lb in the wild. Only obese gorillas in captivity have attained weights of 600lb. So the number doesn't even seem to be related to gorilla biology (except that it is safely larger than any known gorilla, save King Kong). Given that it's an arbitrary figure, is there any reason the number 800 would be more popular than any other? More generally, is there any relevant research into why some numbers would be more popular or pleasing than other in contexts like this? 
Answer: The answer to your question is No, there is no known reason for preferring 800 to any other number. I am not aware of any research into the question, but I haven't looked. Compare "The whole nine yards", "42", and "A Thousand Nights and a Night".
Output: no
Question: How can I explain to people that the phrase off of is grammatically incorrect? I've heard this phrase used a lot, especially by Americans (though they aren't the only ones). In my understanding, off of should usually be replaced by off, as in, I took the book off the shelf as opposed to I took the book off of the shelf Am I wrong? Or is there perhaps some simple way I can explain this to most people? 
Answer: How can I explain to people that the phrase "off of" is grammatically incorrect? You can't, because it's not. There are thousands of examples of "off of" in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, not just in spoken English, but in magazines, newspapers, and academic journals as well. "Off of" is well-established as standard in American English. Plain "off" may be stylistically preferable in many cases, but it is simply not a rule of English grammar that if a word could be removed it must be removed. Some people seem to think that such a rule exists. It does not.
Output: yes
Question: For example: A situation needs both Fact A and Fact B to be explained, but a person accepts Fact A and rejects Fact B, misconstruing the situation? Do you think this is just ignorance or deliberate _____? 
Answer: How about obfuscation? From M-W: obfuscation: to make (something) more difficult to understand Your example: Do you think this is just ignorance or deliberate obfuscation?.
Output: no
Question: Whenever I hear statements like "It was a great deal for he and I" and "Call Karen and I in the morning," I die a little. Such solecisms, as Twain said in another context (Cooper's prose style), "grate upon the fastidious ear." Moreover, I know that these things will likely become accepted usage in time, if that hasn't already happened. As someone who tries to be careful with words and speech, I feel almost a moral obligation to hold the line against this kind of decline. I'm not a word snob; I say "ain't" when it works for emphasis, and so on. I've tried suggesting the grammatical alternative to the above constructions, but even when I phrase my suggestion in the gentlest possible way it never works well and I almost always wind up feeling pedantic and priggish at best, and at worst I feel I've alienated someone. What's the general opinion here? Is it best to just let these things slide or to take up the fight? In sum, is there a good way to promote good grammar, or at least protect it from the most egregious violations? 
Answer: Does the grammatical faux pas compromise or endanger the communication, or is it merely annoying? (Annoying to you personally, of course. The speaker, and no doubt many others are perfectly happy with it.) Language can be a delight, but it is also, and to many, merely a means to an end. If you are with friends who enjoy language for its own sake and who want to improve their understanding and usage of it, a courteous and appropriate correction will be appreciated. If you are with strangers or persons with whom you have only a business relationship, then as long as the communication is not jeopardized you're probably best advised to bite your tongue and realize that you are a member of a small minority. Unless, of course, you really do wish to be viewed as a snob.
Output: no
Question: Assume that I give my work information in my CV with the date (year) intervals. My last position started this year and is continued at the moment. Example Co. ABC Manager 2012 - cont. How should I abbreviate continued here? Is cont. correct? 
Answer: I believe the answer to the question in the title of your original post is "cont.", but the usual way of putting that on an application or resume is spelled "present", as in "2012 present".
Output: yes
Question: Is it improper to say "me and Person X"? I always hear it said as "Person X and I", but have personally learned to say "me and Person X". Is there a difference between the two versions and is one of them incorrect? "Person and I" just sounds more formal to me. 
Answer: Yes, placing yourself at the beginning is improper grammar. As far as why, I don't know. It just is. To me, it always sounded self-centered to begin a sentence or list of people with myself. I imagine that is the genesis of the rule but I have no idea. It makes someone sound pretty uneducated to do it, though. "Me and Leon" typically followed by "was..." seems pretty common among those with poor grammar.
Output: no
Question: For example, for the original quote we shall use, "One swallow does not a summer make". If someone were to say "One good quote does not a philosopher make" (No dig at Aristotle intended...), or "A fancy suit does not a businessman make". Essentially, a clear allusion to a quote, but not the quote itself. 
Answer: I think you are looking for 'to paraphrase': The adaptation or alteration of a text or quotation to serve a different purpose from that of the original. (AHD).
Output: no
Question: When you are writing about the seasons, should you capitalize their names? For example, would you say: I love the colors of the leaves in Autumn. Or should you say: I love the colors of the leaves in autumn. 
Answer: Particular seasons are temporal elements, in exactly the same way as a day of the week or a month of the year. They pinpoint a specific region of time. As such, seasons should be capitalized. However, the actual word 'season' (like any generic time period), should not be capitalized, as a particular time period is not being specified. Examples: In many areas, school now starts in the middle of Summer, technically. -- We're planning a trip for sometime next season. The next tournament isn't until November. -- There is an event planned every month. Your car will be ready on Wednesday. -- Your order should get to you in a few days.
Output: no
Question: Is there a semantic difference between engine and motor? In some cases, would the use of one or the other word be technically incorrect? 
Answer: I like the definitions provided by WordNet and their definition is the way I've understood the difference: A motor is a machine that converts other forms of energy into mechanical energy and so imparts motion. An engine is a motor that converts thermal energy to mechanical work. wordnetweb.princeton.edu So an engine is a specific type of motor. That's why it's not incorrect to speak of a motorboat, or a motorcar, or a motor speedway, even if the boat or car is clearly powered by combustion. Note that if there's no combustion, there's no engine. Purely electric cars don't have engines. As nouns, motor can also refer to a nonspecific agent that causes motion: "happiness is the aim of all men and the motor of all action", and engine can refer to something used to achieve a purpose: "an engine of change", a railway locomotive, or a machine used in warfare: "medieval engines of war".
Output: yes
Question: I just realized there are some people around my workplace who always try to correct me when using a certain word, saying that that's not how I should speak, and I should use other words (the ones they provide me with) or pretend they didn't understand what I was saying, but it's pretty clear that they did understand. This again with the same purpose, of making me rephrase, or use the words they expect. When doing this, they use, among others, the argument that they sure have understood, but others might not. But then, nobody else complains of not having understood what I was saying. Another argument they use is that even if they understood it, what I said was incorrect. I make the assumption that when I express my ideas in words, I use enough details to get the point across. I would call this type of non-constructive attitude a 'hater' attitude, but I'm curious whether there's a more specific word for this. meta: I'm not a native English speaker, and I don't know a word for this in my language, I'd just use the dictionary to find out if my language has an analogous word. Anyway it would be good to know if there's a word for this concept in these two languages. meta: Also, the situations I refer to happen (mostly) when I'm speaking my own language, but the language really isn't the point here, because I do speak multiple languages and I did meet this behavior (though very rarely) when speaking any language. 
Answer: You could call a person who does that a pedant: Pedant (noun) a person who annoys other people by correcting small errors and giving too much attention to minor details; one who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge (Merriam-Webster).
Output: yes
Question: A co-worker and I are fairly strongly divided on how to pronounce Linux. For a northern Midwest American (Milwaukee area, Wisconsin, to be exact), should it be pronounced lin-uh ks or li'nuks? pronunciations from: Linux. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved August 15, 2011, from Dictionary.com website. 
Answer: From the Linux Wikipedia page, here's how Linus Torvalds pronounces it: /'l.nks/.
Output: yes
Question: Is penultimate commonly used in English, or are its variations (such as second to last) more common? I need to use it in conjunction with the expressions First Payment Date and Last Payment Date to name variables while programming. In my mother language (Portuguese) Penultimate Payment Date would be fine, but it feels strange in English. (I know feels strange is not very helpful, but I'd like to know how to convey the meaning in the most natural way.) 
Answer: Someone I know who is a native speaker of Spanish and a professor at a university in the United States has complained that when he used the word "penultimate" in class, the students don't know what he's talking about. The word is perfectly, unimpeachably, 100% correct. It is a bit of an upscale, literary word though. It certainly is a "term of art" in fields like linguistics, where it is used commonly to refer to syllables. I searched for the word in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, and divided the results by section: spoken, fiction, magazine, newspaper, and academic, and got these results: spoken: 10 fiction: 53 magazine: 55 newspaper: 36 academic: 93 total: 247 So, it is certainly used in all areas of English, with a moderate skew towards higher registers like academic writing. Depending on the intended audience, a writer contemplating using the word "penultimate" should consider that there is a relatively high likelihood that word will not be understood. Instead of "penultimate", the phrasing in common usage is either "next to last" or "second to last". Both of those should be universally understood. Interestingly, Google Ngrams shows that the word "penultimate" rose in usage (in published books) steadily from 1800 to about 1990, and since 1990 it has shown a steep dropoff, taking us back to usage levels from the late 1960s. The better-understood terms "second to last" and "next to last" are less common (again, though, in published booksGoogle Ngrams tells us nothing about spoken usage), with "next to last" having more historical usage but a slow tapering off of usage since 1960 and "second to last" increasing in usage from 1970 on, with both enjoying approximately the same usage today.
Output: yes
Question: There are many English words with silent letters, words like gnome or island that are spelt with consonants that aren't pronounced, but are there any words that work the other way round, with a pronunciation that includes extra sounds or syllables that are not in the spelling? I can't think of any real examples, hence this question, but a made-up example would be if gnome were spelt nome but pronounced with a g at the start. Or if people started pronouncing offer as "ofter" as a sort of weird parallel to after. Note: I don't mean words like rough, where the f sound is spelt gh, because in those cases the spelling does still include letters (however seemingly illogical) for each of the sounds. 
Answer: The name "Stephen" is pronounced as "Steven", that is, "ph" is pronounced "v", which is unexpected. Some notes: "ph" is normally pronounced "f", and both "v" and "f" are labiodental fricatives, so this strange pronunciation doesn't come entirely out of the blue. The name can also be spelt "Steven" (e.g. Steven Tyler), thus matching the pronunciation. Admittedly, this is not exactly what you are asking for (it's like "colonel", where "lo" is pronounced as an "r"), but since you consider colonel "in an adjacent neighbourhood", you might be interested in "Stephen" as well.
Output: no
Question: What is the difference between 'day off' and 'off day'? What I found is 'day off' means a holiday when you are not working, while 'off day' is the day when you do not work up to the mark. Can anyone put more light on this? 
Answer: Yes, a day off is a holiday for someone or a day that they have taken off: a day on which somebody usually and regularly does not have to work a day on which somebody is allowed not to come into work An off day for someone can mean same as day off, or that they are having a bad day at work: informal if somebody has an off day, they do not perform as well as usual. [US] a day when people do not go to work.
Output: no
Question: In a few days, I have to do a class presentation project about the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. I want to say that the movement's original name was the "New Negro Movement," but I'm not sure if that's okay. I'm white, and I really don't want to offend anybody in my class. Is it all right to say this word in context? Or, should I ignore its original name, and only refer to it as the Harlem Renaissance? 
Answer: In the context of this class, and definitely in the name of the movement, I would say it's okay. To be even more safe, you can refer to the movement as the "New Negro Movement" and its members as African Americans (if that's correct).
Output: yes
Question: Is there a word or phrase which describes "choice of misleading words", or the negation: "choice of non-misleading words"? The nearest phrases I can think of are linguistic deception, or controlled language, as in Nineteen Eighty-Four. For example, Richard Stallman actively opposes such misuse of language: I think it is ok for authors (please let's not call them creators, they are not gods) to ask for money for copies of their works (please let's not devalue these works by calling them content) in order to gain income (the term compensation falsely implies it is a matter of making up for some kind of damages). Another example is "credit" in banking, which just makes "debt" sound like a good thing. EDIT: The term may either refer to an individual's malicious use of misleading terminology, or to widely-accepted use of misleading terminology. The answers reflect this, but my question does not. 
Answer: I'm not sure if you're looking for a verb meaning "to use misleading words" or if you're looking for a noun referring to the misleading words themselves or the act of using misleading words. Either way, consider an adjective: Disingenuous disingenuous (adj). Lacking in candor. Also : giving a false appearance of simple frankness: CALCULATING. (From Merriam-Webster online) While I'm not finding this (explicitly) in any dictionary definitions, I'm also used to "disingenuous" carrying a connotation of being manipulative or sneaky.
Output: no
Question: The only word that comes to my mind is tiptoe. However, this word implies that you are walking stealthily or cautiously. Is there a word that just means to walk slowly? Example sentence: Without knowing what I was doing, I _ toward her. 
Answer: I would suggest amble: verb to go at a slow, easy pace; stroll; saunter: noun a slow, easy walk or gentle pace. dictionary.com Your sentence would then be: Without knowing what I was doing, I ambled toward her. As that definition suggests, strolled or sauntered may also work for you.
Output: yes
Question: I live in Australia, but am expected to use US English in my work. I am therefore used to spelling "-ise" as "-ize". I was a little surprised to find that "enterprise" is almost universally spelt with "-ise". Is there any particular reason that this is the case for this example, when "-ize" is so widely preferred in US English? 
Answer: For one, because the etymology is different. -ise (-ize) is a causative suffix in formalise, realise etc. (to make something formal, to make something real...) But enterprise is not "to make something enterpre" or similar (whatever that might mean). The prise bit comes as a past participle of French prendre (to grasp, to take). Another answer is that enterprize is actually attested, and was apparently used more than enterprise in the second half of 18th century (N-gram viewer).
Output: yes
Question: This came up recently on programmers.SE, when someone (a Russian, presumably non-native English speaker) asked why we used the term "sister sites", instead of "brother sites". Of course, I'm a native English speaker, and I have no idea either, hence this question. The full question, for context, was "Several of our sister sites have taken to featuring Questions [...]". It does seem odd, considering that English (usually) uses masculine terms as the default. 
Answer: It is because only female carries the direct increase/multiplication through reproduction; that's why we also say mother tongue.
Output: no
Question: I'm currently writing an article that includes two contexts of communication: effectiveness and competence. Incompetent people can misuse terminology all day and the ideas are effective and do technically work. However I'm looking for a word or term that has two or more meanings and the misuse of could lead to bodily harm or even death; this is to promote the idea of the aspect of competently communicating one's ideas. What word if not used competently could end up leading to injury or death in a context that most people could understand with little-to-no explanation? 
Answer: This may not be exactly what you are looking for, but might work in the context. inflammable Many people see the "in" as a negative prefix, and believe anything marked inflammable is flame retardant. However, both flammable and inflammable have the same meaning: ...both mean "capable of being easily ignited and of burning quickly." This makes no sense to the Modern English speaker. In English, we think of in- as a prefix that means "not": inactive means "not active," inconclusive means "not conclusive," inconsiderate means "not considerate." Therefore, inflammable should mean "not flammable." -Merriam Webster Because of this, volatile or combustible materials are often labeled as "flammable" to avoid a potentially hazardous misinterpretation.
Output: yes
Question: Suppose I tell something to my companion and I want to make sure he understands me. I thought I may simply ask "Do you understand me?". But recently I heard that in such cases I should ask "Does that make sense?" instead. Is this true? Which option is appropriate to use in business communication? 
Answer: I generally go with a simple: Is this explanation okay..? As it sounds neutral and encourages the receiver to provide feedback. If I used pronouns while asking for feedback, like "Did you understand..", "Did I explain this..", .. it generally makes the receiver feel like you might take their feedback negatively or take offense if they were not able to understand.
Output: no
Question: There is a saying in Hindi in India "teri lal" which translates "yours is red" which means "Whatever the case may be you are right" as in "you are always right". It is a sarcastic way of telling (usually) a know-it-all person (but not meant truly) "you are right". Is there an equivalent version of this phrase in English? Example Rohan (the know-it-all): The moon is a sphere John: hmmm Rohan: The moon has its own light. John: OK "teri lal" (you are right sarcastically) 
Answer: Though I agree with the others that the sarcasm is usually implied in the tone of the speaker, there is an idiomatic expression which implies a non-committal agreement without sounding overly offensive: whatever you say TFD(idioms): whatever you say I accept what you say, and I'm not going to argue with you. Usually implies that one doesn't really agree with the other person, but is going to do it to avoid a conflict. A: "Don't worry about the auditors, just run the numbers like I told you." B: "OK, whatever you say, boss." A: "I told you, my parents let me borrow the car whenever I want." B: "Whatever you say." Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
Output: yes
Question: What is the shortest comprehensive sentence in English? 
Answer: No. Also Q: Which is the fifth letter of the alphabet? A: E.
Output: no
Question: What is the mark of punctuation called that sometimes separates sections of a chapter with a glyph placed in the middle between the margins? It's hard to explain, but here's a picture. Does this have a name? (Yes, I know this is a asterisk. Sometimes it's three of them, sometimes it's a stylized graphic. I'm looking for the general name of the...methodology/practice (?) of doing this.) 
Answer: Broader terms for glyphs used to separate text and do other non-text jobs are dingbat and ornament or printer's ornament. More info at the Wikipedia page for dingbat. According to that same page, the specific character you're asking about is Unicode character U+273D, described as Heavy teardrop spoked asterisk, or possibly U+273B, Teardrop spoked asterisk.
Output: no
Question: In the movie Easy A, the character Todd said "See you at salt mines" to Olive when they met at Melody's party. What does salt mines mean? Does it really mean "a mine for salt"? 
Answer: Don't discount the simplest explanation: that there may actually be a place called Salt Mines, which should have been capitalized. For instance, there is a place called Salt Mines here, in Northern Ireland. It's not a salt mine any more: it's a park, which has cycling routes / jumps, with a golf course and so on nearby. In other words, it's a place where people hang out; a place where two people might very well see each other later. This is all assuming that you didn't leave out the word "the", of course. If it's "see you at the salt mines", then yes, they're probably calling the school a salt mine, as a half-joke.
Output: no
Question: The Law of Demeter ("talk only to your friends") is a good place to start, but think about it this way: you can play with your toys, with toys that you make, and with toys that someone gives you. You don't ever, ever play with your toy's toys. Source: The Thoughtworks Anthology What could the last sentence mean? Could a toy have a toy? Assuming a toy means "A toy is an item that is used in play", a toy can never have a toy, so one cannot play with a toy's toys (it's physically not possible). The context is object oriented programming. 
Answer: As other people have said, it's a badly worded analogy, around the fact that you shouldn't directly interact with items you don't directly own (or have been given permission to interact with). A better analogy would be: you have a sandwich, and your partner has a sandwich. You can eat your sandwich if you want, but you shouldn't eat your partner's sandwich without their permission. Otherwise, there may be trouble when they get and try to eat it...
Output: no
Question: I understand the capitalization rule for nouns, proper nouns require a capital letter. Also, I should begin a new sentence with a capital letter. When & why "mom/dad" requires a capital letter ? (Reference- ELL- I am at Vapi where mom is hospitalised) mom: (n) informal term for a mother/North American term for mum. 
Answer: We should capitalize these words if they are being used as the name of the person. You can capitalize these when referring to your own relatives: Hello, Mother. When you use mom/dad in general meaning father/mother, it's a common noun. So do not capitalize them when they follow possessive pronouns such as her, his, my, our, your. (my mother ~ my mom ) A good rule to follow is to capitalize them if they are used as proper nouns. (dictionary.com).
Output: no
Question: Imagine you're in a bar and order a pint of beer, which is 3.20. You only have a 10 note but want to tip the barkeeper. As you can't use 'keep the change' for obvious reasons, what do you say to tip the barkeeper 80 pence, making the total price 4? 
Answer: Please don't! In those sensible countries whose worker economy does not rely predominantly upon the random generosity of strangers (which never made any sense to me at all, but there we go), the cost of item X is C(X) and C(X) is what the till comes up with when you hit the button for X. It's insanely awkward to be given D but instructed to charge E, then to try to get the till to accept E as payment for X instead of C(X) whilst rendering D-E in change. And then all you're going to do is put D-C(X) in a little jar anyway. At best it takes a moment to figure out; at worst it ruins the end-of-day take calculations when a take of T is no longer equal to C(X)*N(X) across all items X. It could even throw off a stock check if executed sufficiently poorly by front-line staff. Even worse, bosses could start to suspect misconduct from staff fiddling the money they've been given by customers, and it would be difficult to prove your innocence from video-only surveillance. Just make your transaction like a normal person, paying D for X and getting D-C(X) as change in return then say "here, keep this; I have enough shrapnel as it is!", make an audible awkward chuckle, smile, and walk away.
Output: no
Question: In computer programming, when you append a "string" to another, you add it to the end of the former string. E.g. String string1 = "abcd"; String string2 = "efgh"; Appending the two strings would give "abcdefgh" But what if I wanted to add string2 before string1 to have the result: "efghabcd" What would be a good name for that that reverse operation? What is the opposite of "append"? 
Answer: Prepend, insert, pre-attach. Some programming languages have additional functions that can add strings in various positions, including the start of another string. For example: slice, push, at.
Output: no
Question: I am writing a report where I want to say something like: The number of structures in the PDB has been steadily increasing, with nearly 140 thousand structures currently available. However, this number feigns in comparison to the number of unique protein sequences that have been discovered, with over 210 million unique sequences present in the UniParc database. However, I am not sure about the "this number feigns in comparison to" part. I have a feeling that I am using the wrong word here, but googling around didn't give me any leads. 
Answer: I thought I would leave the following as I typed it, but I have changed my mind. Ideally, one would say that, "the [protein] is an order of magnitude greater ". Unfortunately, this would require re-ordering the paragraph, and the current order is better. So skip to after the (second) line. For my money, "pales etc." is just not a strong enough expression here. "Pales in comparison with", I venture is used when the first case is impressive, but the second case is so much greater that it makes the first case look entirely unimpressive. An example might be that company X has 140,000 PDB structures, but company Y has 600,000; it is not just somewhat better, but indeed makes the other look er, pale. Again: "I can run the mile in 7:05, but this pales in comparison with Matthew, who can do it in 5:17." I would suggest here, perhaps, "is an order of magnitude smaller than". This is about, for example, 10^5 vs 10^6, or 10^5 vs 10^7. (One can resort to saying, "several orders of magnitude" if comparing (e.g.) computer storage in 1980 with computer storage today.) I would say that the expression, "pales in comparison with", connotes [implies] the same order of magnitude connotes that the things being compared might have been expected to be about the same my mile in 7:05 is pretty good for a typical person, but Matthew is an elite athlete who has been training for a year. (This is not to say that you can not say, "pales in comparison with", about something that is 1/10th as good; one might say, "The {imaginary machine gun} fires 400 rounds per minute, but that pales in comparison with the {imaginary machine gun}, which fires 5000 rounds per minute" although (again) these are both machine guns.) That is to say that although 140 thousand is indeed impressive (I venture) it is implicit that they are of the same order of magnitude. I am thinking, then, that you might say, "pales into insignificance beside" [noting that Michael Harvey mentioned this], which is a way of making the expression stronger, or "is trivial in comparison with".
Output: no
Question: 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"? 
Answer: Conclusion, afterword, and epilogue all seem to fit the bill. There's also postamble, but I believe that's more of a computer science term for data transactions.
Output: yes
Question: I am writing a poem for school. The verse with the word I need to change is this: 7 hours is too long In much too short a day You really don't care if you get an answer wrong Because you don't care a _____ about radioactive decay The only thing I can think of is the word shit, but that word is too offensive. I have tried looking for inoffensive alternatives at Real Life English's Not so Offensive Alternatives to Bad Words in English, and wordhippo but these alternatives do not sound great, especially in a poem. I also searched for don't care a ___ on the free dictionary by Farlex's idioms website and "don't care a fig" came up, alongside some other suggestions I tried from the autofill suggestions. Most worked literally, but I am looking for a more clever and poetic word or words that could be used in a way that relates to my poem. I am not just looking for any old answer. I do not want you to simply search for "don't care a" on google. I want suggestions that fit creatively into my poem. 
Answer: One option for a word is whit1 : the smallest part or particle imaginable Don't care a whit2 is even an idiomatic phrase: didn't care at all. Sally thought Joe liked her, but he didn't care a whit about her. I don't care a whit what you do with my old clothes. 1 Webster's Third New International Dictionary s.v. whit2 2 The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs s.v. didn't care a whit.
Output: yes
Question: Assume that I give my work information in my CV with the date (year) intervals. My last position started this year and is continued at the moment. Example Co. ABC Manager 2012 - cont. How should I abbreviate continued here? Is cont. correct? 
Answer: There is no right or wrong with abbreviations, but you would do well to avoid them if possible. Here are three distinct pieces of advice: Just write "(continued)" (including parens), and you'll be fine. If you have some sort of mania for them, or horizontal-space consideration, then sure, write "(cont.)". It's a good idea to set it in italic, no matter what you do. In your case, though, you should probably write one of: 2012 present 2012 As those both look better than "2012 (continuing)".
Output: no
Question: I just noticed that the word in the movie title The Pursuit of Happyness is spelled with a y instead of an i. But my spell checker highlights "happyness" as a mistake. Why is it spelled differently here? Shouldn't it be happiness? 
Answer: It is happiness, in the same way it is luckiness. Happyness is a typo, whatever it is intentional (e.g., to make fun of somebody who wrote that word) or not.
Output: no
Question: Suppose there is a long sentence like: This London hit show took America by storm, full of charm, humour and delightful songs that make it a perfect theatrical event for the entire family. And you want to cut it off after an arbitrary specified amount of characters like so: This London hit show took America by storm, full of charm, humour and delightful songs that make... What is the name for the missing text indicated by the three-dot ellipsis? 
Answer: So you're talking about the "film on the editing room floor" is that right? Note that very often with single-word-requests, the correct answer is simply "there's no such word." In this case, the correct answer is simply "there's no such word." Note too that the situation can vary greatly: the ellipses in DH Lawrence's, err, 2nd? version of Lady Chatterly's Hot Lover, simply meant he never wrote them. Other times like when I quote from references the ellipsis means "the quotor left it out to save space" - and so on. There wouldn't really be one term for these vastly different, err, concepts ("never-written text" "swear words" "boring stuff" etc.).
Output: no
Question: What's the difference between "successive" and "consecutive"? 
Answer: Successive relates to two whereas consecutive involves more than two.
Output: no
Question: I'm describing what an opiate addict looks like before recovery. Instead of saying "he looked like a vampire," I'd like to say something like "he looked [vampiric]." I actually just found out vampiric was a word, but I want something that sounds better (more colloquial/natural, I suppose) and covers a variety of traits (pale, emaciated, sickly, etc). Why I don't just use "vampiric": As @chepner commented: I think the idea is to find a word that isn't so "circular", and doesn't refer explicitly to vampires or require knowledge of vampires in context. If someone were to ask "What does a vampire look like?", then "It looks vampiric/vampirish" wouldn't be terribly helpful. I don't want to explicitly refer to drug addicts as vampires. I just want to capture those traits in the best way. 
Answer: For something often used to describe people and not an analogy like ghoulish or vampiric or cadaverous: pallid - very pale, in a way that looks unhealthy and not attractive.
Output: yes