texts:
There is some historical usage of diacritics in English, like naïve, résumé or even façade. I've been once told that these are used to mark a different spelling, and it may be used like in coöperative instead of co-operative to split the 'oo'.

I've checked with Wikipedia:

  The main use of diacritical marks in the Latin script is to change the sound-value of the letter to which they are added. Examples from English are the diaereses in naïve and Noël, which show that the vowel with the diaeresis mark is pronounced separately from the preceding vowel;

Such a situation frequently happens in word formation, where joining a prefix that ends with a vowel and a word that starts with one. For example: coinduction, preimage, prainvention, etc. Normally one could use a hyphen, but that might be undesirable, and without anything words like bioracle (joining bi- and -oracle, whatever that would mean) could be understood as bio-rackle (I'm sure there are better examples). For example, co-op is sometimes written coöp, stretching it, bioracle could be written biöracle (I admit, it does not look good).

I know this is not a real issue, as most prefixes are known and it is possible to recover the source given context. However, technically, is this correct? To give a more concrete motivation, would it be plausible that in some future version of English (e.g. in a novel) such use of diacritics would be more frequent?


texts: 'There seem' or 'there seems' + usage of the word 'seem'

texts:
First, I have a question "How words 'seem' and 'there' are used together?"

Which is correct:

There seem ...

or

There seems ...

Then, I'm am interested in general constructions with the word 'seem'.

What are common mistakes people make when they use this word?


texts: whose integrity can't be doubted. Unable to recall the adjective for that

texts:
What adj can you use to describe a person whose integrity can't be questioned. Someone who has proved himself many times that can't be doubted.. Or who is impeccable at doing particular stuff that you can trust him blindly.
for instance, what could I use in the following blank?
Everyone had to give an interview to be selected for the next round, while Raj, who had been proven a/an _______ engineer, got bypassed into the finals.


texts:
I am really confused.

From dictionary.com, excessive means going before the usual or necessary.

So does "excessive comforts" mean too many comforts, more than what is necessary, or equal to "too many comforts (all of it) - the necessary part."

If this sounds confusing, here is an analogy using a cup of water:


texts: What does the man in the soup say exactly?

texts:
In this video - Soup Leprechaun the man in the soup says something I cannot understand.

Can a native speaker please help me with that?

Is it:

would you like my pod of gold
would you like my part of gold
...something different...

Please be careful, the video gets really loud at 1min50.


texts: What are the connotations of "getting wet"?

texts:
Do you understand it by its sexual or literal (and serious) meaning? I'm trying to compose a sentence like this:

Are you getting wet later? (with a picture of pool attached)

As a non-native English speaker, I wonder what your first impression will be.


texts: What's another word for an 'outlet' in a creative sense?

texts:
There's a specific word I'm looking for. It's a means of expression or a focus for your energy or skills.

"I need an 'insert-word-here' for my creativity"


texts: Why does English omit diacritics on foreign names?

texts:
Why does English omit diacritics from foreign names that still use the Latin alphabet? For example, why are the Czech tennis player Tomáš Berdych, the Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø, or the Polish city of Łódź so often simply spelled as Tomas Berdych, Jo Nesbo, and Lodz?

Within their native languages these are often separate letters, and in the Netherlands they would always use these diacritics where possible. So what’s the reason that English often omits these?

Two examples:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/31042458
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jo-Nesbo/e/B004MSFDCG/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

(Note: I am only talking about names using the Latin alphabet, I am not talking about transliterated names)


texts:
I am plagued by a sentence from journal Nature. Though understanding the meaning it conveyed, certainly I could not write in that way. Here is the sentence.

  Focusing evaluation on such inflexible terms leads us (a), as scientists at the beginning of our careers (b), to adopt utilitarian rather than academic motives.

I view b as an infinite attribute to modify us in a, and I would replace as in b with who are. So I hope you would explain the structure in the original sentence.


texts: "selling mobile phone brand" or "mobile phone selling brand"?

texts:
"The other three top selling mobile phone brands between 2009 and 2013 were LG, ZTE and Apple"

I would like to ask if I can write " ... three top mobile phone selling brands..."

Is it grammatically correct? And if it is, is there any differences in meaning between the two ways of writing?

Many thanks.


texts: ‘Thank you’ has an exceptionally special place among ‘good’ words used as irony?

texts: A. A. Milne, best known for his books about Winnie-the-Pooh, is much less noted as a prolific playwright of about forty plays. They are carefully crafted works that continue to entertain and delight readers and audiences of all ages in UK, but not in Japan. I have recently translated some of his plays into Japanese in order to revive his plays and introduce them to Japanese theatre lovers. Among his plays full of humour, warmth and kindness to human beings, I came across some instances of ‘Thank you’ used in an ironical way (dramatic irony?). This is a little surprise to me, but what is more surprising is the fact that this ironic meaning of ‘Thank you’ is entered in Oxford Dictionary of English (2003): ‘used ironically to assign blame or responsibility for something,’ while the compilers of learners’ dictionaries are wise enough not to enter this ironic use. Some ‘good’ words or phrases are known to be verbal irony. But I am wondering if ‘thank you’ has occupied a special place among such expressions as you know, great, funny, and nice (the latter two having an entry of ironic use in ODE). Reflecting my speech acts in my own tongue, I have noticed that some ‘good’ words can be used ironically almost in any situation. And in every corner of the world, there have been some cynical people around us. Irony is universal? Every word Dr. Johnson spoke may have had an ironical or cynical touch of meaning. An entry in his Dictionary: Cýnical, Cýnick: Having the qualities of a dog; currish; brutal; snarling; satirical. Does ‘thank you’ have an exceptionally special place among the ‘good’ words ironically used? If so, could you help me have some, if any, explanation or reasons for its frequent use among British people?


texts:
I wrote an essay in which I focused on the differences between travelling by train and travelling by car. I was told I can't use the word 'also' like I did in the following sentence:

"A car is suitable for exploring a limited geographical region, whereas a train is also suitable for long-distance journeys."

I understand the word 'also' here to imply that, in addition to being suitable for exploring a limited geographical region, a train is also suitable for long-distance journeys. Am I wrong?

Edit: After reading some comments, I realise I should have included the previous sentence from my essay here to provide more context. I was talking about rental cars, not cars in general. The original passage, without any omissions, reads:

"Rental companies charge extra if one wants to return the car to a different location from the pick-up point. That means a car is more suitable for exploring a limited geographical region, whereas a train is also suitable for long-distance journeys."


texts: to agree with vs. to give (one’s) agreement

texts:
I am trying to write a sentence about someone giving their agreement, but I am not sure if the implied meaning is actually clear.

"The financial means can only be provided after a revised planning has been agreed with the department."

vs.

"The financial means can only be provided after a revised planning in accordance with the department"

vs.

"The financial means can only be provided after a revised planning to which the department will have given its agreement"

The first and second seem to indicate that the department is included in the revision which it is not.
So I thought the last sentence best, only that somehow I’d rather write:

"The financial means can only be provided after a revised planning to which the department will have to have given its agreement."
(as it is an obligatory condition to giving out the money).

What I would like to know is if "to agree with" or "to give one's agreement" (or any other synonym like maybe "in accordance with") imply the meaning that both parties are concerned (in agreeing) or only the one who gives its agreement (which is what I want to say). There is also the problem that the sentence shall make clear, that the planning is done by one party and the agreement by the other.
Additionally, in the last sentence mentioned in my question (the one I am favouring), I am not sure about the tense that is best to be used.

What will best express the intended meaning?


texts: "Every day" and present continuous vs simple present

texts:
Every day I'm eating vegetables.
I eat vegetables every day.

Can someone explain if there's a nuance in meaning of the two? If there's a better situation to use one than the other? (doesn't have to be the sample sentences)


texts: Is it correct to hyphenate with compound premodifiers? If so, where is the hyphen placed?

texts: For example, "file system" and "related". Is it "file system-related"? It will appear as if it is a compound of "file" and "system-related", won't it?


texts:
Which is the grammatically correct statement :

"We are travelling in a car"

Or

"We are travelling by a car"


texts:
Which is correct:

  One of the clearest analogies which helps us understand ...

or

  One of the clearest analogies which help us understand ...

I think it's the first one because 'One of ...' is the subject and it's in the singular form, but it doesn't sound right.  Which one is grammatically correct?


texts: English words of Latin origin: Did they replace existing words?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, the Latin influence on English builds more than half of its vocabulary.

The same source furnishes a percentage of 26% for words of Germanic origin.
Although I can easily understand that borrowing from Latin must have been very strong, especially through French, I was surprised to read this number.

So, before the borrowing, were there Germanic words that have gradually been replaced? Or did they not exist at all?


texts: And/or in total negation: "Some people are not able to interpret and/or analyze"

texts:
In the following sentence, the “and/or” seems odd in a case of total negation:

Evidently some people are not able to interpret and/or analyze at that deeper level.

Because the sentence says “are not able to”, total negation would seem to unambiguously require “or”.

In a positive sentence, “and/or” is sometimes used to mean inclusive OR (although perhaps OR alone could suffice), but is there any possibility of ambiguity in total negation?

In other words

Not X and not Y = Not X or Y

Would “not X and/or Y” ever be required? Or does such use merely reflect the increasing proliferation of superfluous “and/or”?


texts: Usage of "contributive" vs. "contributory"

texts:
Which of the two is more correct?

  contributory capacity or contributive capacity

(referred to the capacity of a province in ancient Mesopotamia to contribute to state demand for foodstuffs)


texts: Why does English use the preposition on when giving a score as in Joe is on 10 points rather than Joe has 10 points?


texts: Comma before conjuctions in predicates containing two coordinate clauses

texts:
I know that a comma is necessary before a conjunction joining two independent clauses, like in the following examples:

John is tall, and Mary is fast.
The food is excellent, but the service is awful.

But what happens when there is a subordinate clause formed in turn by two independent clauses connected by a coordinating conjunction? Should there be a comma before the conjunction? I am referring to
sentences like these:

She says that John is tall and Mary is fast.
I hate those restaurants where the food is excellent but the service is awful.
I am leaving the country so that the police cannot find me and I don't go to jail.

I tend to think there should be no comma in this kind of sentences, but I would appreciate if someone could confirm it. Assuming I am right, is that true independently of the length of the coordinate clauses?


texts: Tense switching when describing an action

texts:
What is it called when the tense switches in the middle of a clause?

“But, sir,” said Harry, making valiant efforts not to sound argumentative, “it all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got to try and kill him.”
‘Oh,’ said Slughorn, repressing a large belch. ‘Oh, dear. Yes, that was – was terrible indeed. Terrible ... terrible ...’

I'd like to learn more about the grammatical rules behind it, but I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what it's called.


texts: Is there a term for a free ride without consent?

texts:
I think there should be a specific term for someone getting a free ride without consent, but I keep thinking of the word "hijack" which clearly isn't correct.

Examples include jumping on a train without a ticket, or riding without consent on the back of a truck. Or perhaps I want to sit in on someone else's meeting and just observe.

Am I gatecrashing? Or going along for a free ride?

Equally, if I hop on the roof of a train to get somewhere for free, is there a term for that?


texts: Why is it unacceptable to use the word "conquer"?

texts: I created a time line with one entry that read "Cortez conquered the Aztecs" for the date 1519. My instructor was very angry I wrote this, and said it is not politically correct to say "conquered". I think this is a correct statement, and fact, so how is it offensive? What is the reason such a way of writing is not politically correct?


texts: Plural or Singular After a List of Items

texts:
Given the sentence:

  The password must be at least 8 characters long, contain at least one lower-case and one upper-case case letter(s) and a digit.

Should the word "letter(s)" be in singular or plural? Why?

EDIT: To avoid discussion on the password policies, please consider another example:

  Today I've seen one yellow, one blue and one green bird(s).


texts: Can an independent clause have an implied (or null) subject?

texts:
I'm trying to determine whether a clause with an implied subject can be considered independent - specifically in the case of compound sentences.

For example: "I was tired, but went to the party anyway."

To my thinking, the second clause is an independent clause because the reiterated "I" is implied, but I can't find much to back this up. Thoughts?


texts:
The Wikipedia article on gemination claims that gemination of /t/ is the distinguishing factor between the pronunciation of the two phrases night train and night rain.

In my whole life, I've almost never heard the final /t/ in night and the initial /t/ in train articulated the same way. The initial /t/ in train is affricated due to it being in the /tr/ cluster, while in night the /t/ is either a typical English T /t/, unreleased [t̚] or glottalized. They are distinct enough.

I don't think this minimal pair is distinguished by gemination in practical use, as far as I know. How is this pair really distinguished? Is there really gemination there?


texts: Is there a single word for a "mirrored-eerie"?

texts:
I recently discovered that I sometimes feel this strange "mirrored-eerieness", a tension that is in expectation of something good, even glorious. Whereas "eerie" tends to connotatively denote "premonition of something horrible", this "mirrored-eerie" would more connotatively describe a "premonition of rapture". It's like an ambigious "near-spiritual" experience.

I think, like "eerie", it would mostly serve as an adjective, but also as a noun that describes a feeling, like "terror", or "joy". Perhaps like "eerie", it could take on the form "____(i)ly". Otherwise, maybe "____ified".

From the examples I'll give, it's pretty flexible.

Example 1:

  Alone in the chapel, the room became warm, the candles seemed to burn brighter, the stillness turned ________: soul and senses seemed at once to heighten and separate from the earth as though some apparition were moments away.

Example 2:

  She stared into space, feeling ________, slowly disconnecting from the world passing by.

Example 3:

  ________: the kind of feeling you'd get if some holy spirit entered the room unannounced, or the soul of a lost loved one sat beside you.

I usually get this strange feeling listening to music, especially, if not exclusively, music that uses the "Lydian" mode--the "brightest major scale possible". It's not commonly used in popular music, simply because it just seems off. Ridiculously bright.

To understand the feeling of what I mean, here's two songs from Radiohead.
Radiohead uses C Lydian a few times. Here it is in "Codex" at 3:44, and here it is in "All I Need" at 2:45. I started both clips a few seconds behind for context.

Even if you aren't a music theorist, you can just sense there's something about those parts that seems abnormally bright, heaven-gazing. The effect maintains the tension of "eerie", but the implication of something heavenly and not hellish.

"Anticipation" could work, but it seems weak, and could be used in either a positive or negative context. "Wonder" seems like it could word, but it lacks the notion of tension. "Excitement" is another close one, as it seems to denote tension, and usually positive tension (due respect to Bloc Party), so it's a possible candidate, I think.
Either there is a word out there that connotatively merges the two ideas, one can be made, or a pre-existing one can be extended to include the merging of ideas.

If by a new word, "foreawe" seems like it could work. Literally, "before awe".

  The silence and foreawe would soon give way to a glorious sight.

Or,

  Suddenly the world felt farther from me: I stood foreawed, feeling like I would be taken from this earth to heaven itself.

Any suggestions?
Thanks so much,
-Jon


texts: John and I went to the café with two of our other friends

texts: I'm trying to understand some interlinguistic differences in the use of other and its equivalents. I wondered if the sentence above strikes other English speakers as odd - the meaning is perfectly clear, but do you think you would say this spontaneously?


texts: Detecting vibration in voiced and voiceless English sounds

texts: I heard people saying that if you put your finger on your throat you would be able to feel voiced sound vibrates and voiceless sound doesn't. I tried it but both sounds seem the same to me. So did I do wrong, and how to "feel" this correctly? Thanks


texts: Bardcore are modern songs rewritten to sound medieval. Is there any word for the opposite, when old songs are rewritten to sound more modern?


texts:
So no one told your life was gonna be this way.

Is it used to say something would happen in the next future?


texts: what means "low ceilling means in "The old man at the bridge"?

texts:
The line comes from The Old Man At The Bridge By Ernest Hemingway.Here is the line:

It was Easter Sunday and the Fascists were advancing toward the Ebro.It was a gray overcast day with a low ceiling so their planes were not up


texts:
Examples are provided aplenty, from chef Gordon Ramsay:

Fry. Roast. Drizzle. Done.
Drizzle olive into the sauce circling the fish. Done.

But you also see the term used on buttons in computers and mobile devices - presumably used as a contraction of I'm done or You're done and frequently displayed as an alternative to Close.
But what kind of phrase or grammatical formation would be correct to refer to this usage of the word 'done' as a standalone word. Is it even 'correct' usage, let alone perhaps not even being 'proper' usage?


texts: A more commonly understood synonym for "inculcation"

texts:
What word is similar to inculcation, but would be understood by ordinary people?

When I asked about inculcation, people didn't understand the word. Psychologists, however, use it.


texts:
I'm looking for a term or expression that would fit in an 1800's context. It's a derogatory term I once heard used by a person of middle or lower class to describe a person who is a nobleman by birth but who lacks the common sense that comes with real experience.

For example, a sailor might talk behind the back of a captain who only got the job because of highborn status.

The term highborn itself could work if used right, but there's another term that's more inherently demeaning.


texts: What's a single word that means "group of branches"?

texts:
We have a system that allows users to group branches (stores/shops/outlets) of a company/franchise, but it has come to the attention of the team that not every English speaker may call them branches (although they're what we call them, but the system is global).
We wish to use a single word to refer to the "group of branches", but we're stumped.
To clarify, a group of branches is categorized by the users in however way they wish to categorize them, whether it is based by locations/shared preferences/properties, or anything in-between. For example, KFC may have a group with the following branches:

KFC in Country ABC City X Mall A (Food Court 1).
KFC in Country ABC City X Mall A (Food Court 3).
KFC in Country ABC City Z Block 123.
KFC in Country EFG City Y Block 456.

I'm providing the above example so that it is understood that the user is in control of grouping the branches, and there is no expected correlation that could help define the grouping (give the name). The only thing they have in common is the company/franchise that owns them.
One of my colleagues suggested "Area", while I suggested "Division". The antonyms of branch are "whole" and "company". I was calling for "division" as a branch may be a "subdivision". Otherwise there's "aggregation", "collection", and "entity", which I didn't like, because we use that terminology for other things (internally), and they might sound too complex/vague for the average user. I'm still not sure what to actually call it, and where to search for other systems that have it already figured out.


texts: what is the person who is always nosing in people's business?

texts: what is a person called who is always nosing on other people's business - like having a neighbor always outside on the balcony or window to check the neighborhood out.


texts: How do I address a letter when I do not know the name or gender of the person I am writing to?

texts:
If I write a letter to someone I have not written to before, I do my best to discover their name and use the appropriate title and their surname.

I recently needed to write to the administration section of a University, and I was wondering whether the traditional "Dear Sir/Madam" was still acceptable given the fact that some women prefer to be called "Ms" instead of "Miss" or "Mrs" and that the LGBTQ members of society may not identify as either Male or Female.

I have read How should I address someone with a known name and unknown gender?, Why haven't we used "it" instead of "he or she"? and even Is there a correct gender-neutral singular pronoun ("his" vs. "her" vs. "their")?, however, none of them seem to provide an answer.

Note that I do not believe this is a duplicate of "Dear Sir or Madam" versus "To whom it may concern" as that question does not take the concern of gender identity into account, merely the concern of not knowing who to address a letter to.

Can anyone enlighten me on current protocol?


texts: expression for people entering a place, moving, noise

texts: I need an expression for the ambiance of when people are entering an event venue such as a hall, stadium, etc., and what to call it when this action stops.


texts: Why is a story not called a “-logue”, though it has a prologue and an epilogue?

texts:
The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines -logue as:

  indicating speech or discourse of a particular kind.

I understand that -logue is a combining form noun, but it has always struck me as odd that a narrative does not have a more formal name to match epilogue and prologue. Is there a more formal name for a story along the lines of prologue?


texts: "do anything but" meaning in the sentence

texts:
I came across this question while practicing for a test. The question is

  Only by overlooking the grievances frequently expressed by her constituency could the incumbent think that the pandering advertisements would do anything but ______ her campaign.

We have to fill in the blank with two similar meaning words where the options were

  bolster 2. aggrieve 3. encourage 4. hobble 5. hamstring 6. restore

So my attempt was : I thought that "do anything but" means it would do anything except to "support" or "bolster" the campaign. But the correct answers are hobble and hamstring , which means that "do anything but" phrase should mean opposite of what I was thinking.

Please explain me the usage of "do anything but" .

Thanks


texts: What is the meaning of the idiom to grow a funny bone? What does funny bone refer to? Googling shows only places where it was mentioned.


texts:
I wanted to get the usage of There’s clarified. I have read sentences like:

  There’s a lot of projects on that topic.

It appears to me that There’s applies to a lot of projects, rather than to the projects themselves. Is that right? If that’s the case, is

  There’s many students standing there.

not grammatical?


texts: What could "cert 4/52" mean in a clinical record?

texts:
What could "cert" mean in these clinical record extracts?

Work stressful - cert 1/52.
Sent him in to Homerton. Cert 4/52 from 12th March, bus driver.


texts:
My son asked me about the discoloration on our outside brass doorknob, and I told him that it was verdigris, explaining that it was basically rust that formed on brass, bronze and copper.

I know what it is and its origin (Old French "vere grez" "green of Greece") but I had no answer when he asked why we don't just call it rust.

Any ideas? One of the definitions of rust is:

  any film or coating on metal caused by oxidation

so it would seem to be a correct term to use, but I have no idea why it is not used(at least in my experience) when referring to oxidation of copper.


texts: "Employee in accounting" and "employee in accounts"

texts:
What's the difference between employee in accounting and employee in accounts?
Are these correct names for an occupation?


texts: How does one write a suffix on double words?

texts:
I was wondering how I should write words like "control structureless". Should you keep the space between the words, concatenate them or use a hyphen?

In my native language, Dutch, we would write "controlestructuurloos", so you would concatenate, but I could imagine it's not supposed to be done like that in English.

EDIT: By "control structureless" I mean "without control structures".


texts: What is the tense of "You should do that."? Also, what about the tense of if-conditionals.


texts: Punctuation, compound sentence, Oxford, and

texts:
I've got myself confused with comma placement before the word 'and'.

I've read elsewhere on here that a comma should go before the word 'and' for compound sentences (this example was used, which I've borrowed, hope that's okay):

A cat can climb trees, and it can climb curtains.

[A cat can climb trees] + [A cat can climb curtains].

But how does this differ from a 'list', evoking the Oxford comma debate probably about using a comma in a list form, e.g.: a cat can climb trees, curtains and humans.  Why is the above feline example not also considered a 'list'.

Here's another example - is this a compound sentence or a list or both? I assume it's a compound sentence, but it could be considered to be listing actions that they intend to do.

EXAMPLE
We’re risk assessing every person on a case by case basis and we’re deciding what further treatment is required.

Have I got myself unnecessarily confused?!


texts: How to refer to historical data from latest to oldest?

texts:
Consider I have a a list of 5 exercises I did, sorted from most recent to oldest.

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5

So the last exercise I did is Exercise 1. My question is how do I refer to exercise 2/3/4/5?

Is exercise 2 the second to last exercise? Isn't last in this list exercise 5? I'm a bit confused as to what second to last would mean here. Is last the last exercise I did or last in the list.

Can anyone clarify please?

EDIT: Is what I'm looking for the following? Is this the proper way to refer to the exercises?

Latest
First Latest
Second Latest
Third Latest
Fourth Latest


texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe sitting at my desk, doing things that look like work, but not actually achieving anything. Something like a verb form of "busywork".

As in:

  It's an hour before quitting time, but I've finished all my work. Can I go now, or do I need to keep [word]?

Or,

  My boss asked me to look into this, but I've investigated, and there's definitely no problem. Should I just keep [word]?


texts: usage of the phrase "intrinsic nature of the philosophy"

texts:
I am trying to use the phrase "intrinsic nature of the philosophy" in the following sentence, which comes from my thesis writing. As an ABC learner, I am not quite sure whether this expression is lengthy. Could someone give me a hand to make the following sentence an elegant English writing. Your help will be greatly appreciated!

  This issue is more intractable, as the flaw is rooted in the intrinsic nature of the philosophy.


texts:
I'm looking for some type of inverse of "mandatory to not", as in "mandatory to not have any errors in your exam" or "mandatory to not read foreign words in the book." (Those must sound awful to a native speaker, but I hope the meaning is clear enough.)

"Forbidden" or "disallowed" are too strong in this sense, but "optional" is also at the wrong end of the spectrum. Is there a better fit, or should I use a longer explanation?


texts: Should there be a hyphen in expressions such as "currently-available X"?

texts:
My natural instinct is to hyphenate expressions such as "currently-available", "currently-implemented", etc., when they modify a noun.  Example: "the currently-available version of X". It seems to me that the words function as a compound adjective, and I was taught to hyphenate compound adjectives that occur before a noun.

However, to my surprise, I find this expression often left unhyphenated.  Now I'm confused.  Is it considered appropriate or inappropriate to hyphenate the words in this situation?

EDIT:
I only now noticed this is essentially a duplicate of this Is “currently-installed” a proper compound adjective?, which is apparently itself a duplicate of others. My apologies.


texts: What's the name of the color printed section in a book?

texts:
Before books were routinely full color, there would be a section of full color pages bound into the middle of the book.

What's the name for this section?


texts: Is "I always found their sight relaxing" grammatical?

texts:
I ask because the sentence returns 0 results in Google.

I'm a little confused. Is the sentence grammatical? If not, what's the correct alternative?

Here's an example of the sentence in a context:

  The river is empty, except for a group of elderly people stretching,
  trotting, and doing Tai Chi. I always found their sight relaxing. It
  reminds me that life can slow down sometimes.


texts:
What would be another way of saying "It'll do more harm than good" but in the context of "it'll do nothing for you?" Here's some context.

  The common mistake, however, is believing that only lifting weights
  multiple times a day will get us to where we want to be. This is
  wrong, and unfortunately, it may even do nothing for you.

I'd like to rephrase this to match and compare like "Nothing more than something" but that sounds really stupid.


texts: When can I use "where" to introduce an attributive clause?

texts:
I wonder in which case I can use the word "where" to introduce an attributive clause.

For example, when a sentence contains the word "situation":
It's really a difficult situation in which you can do nothing.

We can say:
It's really a difficult situation where you can do nothing.

When can I use "where" or what words can be followed by an attributive clause that is introduced  by "where"?


texts:
Yesterday I used the sentence:

  "I know people except (for) you."

and I have been told that the correct version is:

  "I know people other than you."

Although I have been looking at related threads, I still don't know why my first version is wrong and the second one correct. Could you please help me?

Kind regards!


texts: Word for a person who condescends himself to praise others

texts: I'm sure there are some obvious words that mean this but I can't think of any. For example, he might say, "You've done an amazing job! Much better than what I could've done."


texts: What is the opposite of "free" as in "free of charge"?

texts:
What is the opposite of free as in "free of charge" (when we speak about prices)?

We can add not for negation, but I am looking for a single word.


texts: A word or phrase meaning familial relationship in a workplace, but no nepotism

texts: Suppose there are two family members working in the same place, hired and retained through their own merit.  (That is not nepotism.)  Is there a word or phrase that can get the situation across succinctly?


texts: Where does the basketball term 'dagger' originate from?

texts:
Today someone made a comment on the Warriors NBA basketball team, specifically talking about Curry, talking in light about his "daggers".  Specifically, they said, "When Curry shoots those 48% daggers, it's hard to not curse him under your breath."  Curious about the definition, I looked it up.

The meaning of dagger, in basketball lingo is:

a made shot in a pivotal part of the game, a shot that silences the a
rowdy crowd or puts the team ahead in the closing moments of a game

My question is, what was the earliest usage of this term? I can't seem to find any information online on where the term has started, and I'd love to understand the history behind the term dagger.


texts: Is the singular form of "desiderata" a disused word?

texts:
I was interested in the following paragraph which appeared in an article titled “A New Gauge to See What’s Beyond Happiness" by John Tierney in The New York Times (May 16, 2011).

  “They wanted to win for its own sake, even if it brought no positive
  emotion,” says Dr. Seligman, a professor of psychology at the
  University of Pennsylvania. “They were like hedge fund managers who
  just want to accumulate money and toys for their own sake. Watching
  them play, seeing them cheat, it kept hitting me that accomplishment
  is a human desiderata in itself.” [emphasize mine]

Can someone clarify if the fragment "a human desiderata" is "simply" ungrammatical, as I think it is, or if the problem consist in the fact that the singular form of "desiderata", that is desideratum, is a disused word?

Is it possible to argue the latter hypothesis from the nGram below?

Oxford
Dictionaries - "desideratum: noun (plural desiderata)"


texts: ? and ! after a question, what does it mean

texts:
I grew up learning that an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence refers to a sentence that should be read with, anger or loud emphasis or excitement:  https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/punctuation/what/fourteen-punctuation-marks.html
What is the general consensus for sticking one after a question mark? Does it make the question a loud one, an angry one?
For example, what is the emotion intended here:

we'll just go and get you some?!

Without the ! to me it reads as a simple question, but with an ! it suddenly feels like the question is intense or angry?


texts: "Scientists and poets" — translation of the Russian phrase

texts:
In Russian, we have a phrase, which divides people on two categores - left brain and right brain. This is "physicists and lyricists" (физики и лирики). The first better work with maths problems and techonoligal stuff, others are keen on literature, languages, history, art and etc.
What is the best alternative of this phrase, suitable for native's ear?


texts: What does word «zippo» means in American slang?

texts:
I have to work in contact with one guy from the US who is known for his extremely laconic way of expressing himself in writing (it is curious there are no problems like the one described below when communicating with him verbally).

Recently I wrote him message asking if he managed to find some old (and quite possibly gone forever) data we had talked about before and received a one-word answer «Zippo.». No more words, nothing attached. What does it even mean? Is it some slang word for naught (from the context of our previous conversation it is clear that it can't be about a zip-archive or zipped files)?

Does any one know the origin of this intriguing word? Is this word in use throughout the US or some local slang (the guy resides in Newark, NJ)?

P. S. Maybe I am wrong and it is not an American slang, but the guy is an American for sure.


texts:
we are arguing about whether the sentence "my problem solved" is Correct or not?
If NOT so what's wrong with it?
my friends are saying that the correct form is "my problem got solved" but I'm saying it means something else and I want to know exactly what's wrong whit my own sentence.


texts: I'm translating an article about a Student Union that was remodeled and expanded. A section is titled "Having a 'Bowl'". This part tells about the expansion- two extra bowling lines for Game Center and a relocated wall. Is the word 'bowl' related to the bowling lines, or is it an idiom?


texts: I like to have a friendly debate, but a lot of time people just come up with nonsense arguments like "Yeah but I'm right because you are stupid.". They are meant to be insults, but is there a word for this type of argument?


texts:
I'm going to do the IELTS academic test in a few weeks and have trouble describing charts. Basically I have no major problems regarding the English language, but I have difficulty expressing the numbers and figures without repeating some phrases over and over again.

For example I have tried to describe this chart where the educational levels of residents of Glasgow in 2010 were shown.

The problem I am facing is that I have to label the numbers to use them in my report: "71% of the people who were 16 to 24 years old had a university degree."

But because there are many numbers to mention my report sounds like this: "... of the people who were 24-35 years old... among the 50-75 aged people ... the people who were between 35-50 years old..."

When the chart deals with years it is very easy because you have many options like "in the following year", "in 1950", "during the next 10 years" and so on. But in the example above that is not possible because the groups are discrete rather than continuous like years.

Are there any possibilities to avoid such phrases to reference a group in bar chart etc.?


texts: Word-order in sentence of The Silence of the Lambs

texts:
A sentence in the Chapter 11 of The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris has a strange grammatical structure for me.

It sounds like out of order, even though I can't think exactly what would be a good order.

The sentence is:

  He had done it five times that they knew of, had Bill.

I understand the meaning, but can't grasp why the author choose this way to deliver it.


texts: The use of "who" on non-human subject such as a virus

texts:
A question struck me one day when I was writing a blog post and wanted to use the relative pronoun who on non-human subject such as a virus. I had seen many examples before where this pronoun, which is used chiefly to refer to humans, is being used on non-human subjects and they appear idiomatic:

Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct
He plays Andrew Martin, a robot who, over 200 years, discovers what it means to be human. (From a 1999 edition of USAToday. I discovered it on COCA.)
They doubtless were Thark warriors who had been sent out to capture us. (From A Princess of Mars.)
In common usage ‘animals’ only refers to animals who aren't human

If my analysis is correct, it appears that the use of who on non-human subjects is acceptable when there are signs of personification (example 1), or the non-human subject actually possesses human-like properties and resembles a human in many ways (example 2, 3).
In example 4 I find it a little bit tricky to justify the use of who. The reason why the author chose the pronoun who rather than which or that probably has to do with how the expression reads and sounds, which he stated in the endnote as the reason why he/she didn't use the phrase animals other than humans. So here is my question:

It was due to the dengue virus who infected my stromal cells and impaired my bone marrow.

Can I justify the use of who in this sentence I wrote by giving a similar argument such as I like the way it reads and sounds as the presence of who makes the virus seem like a person and that's my intention? Or in other words, will the sentence be considered ungrammatical since I use the pronoun who instead of that or which, even though my intention is to make in-human subject seem like a person?


texts:
What is the correct hyphenation of "kinetic" (if it matters in British English). I found two possibilities:

  ki-net-ic (/kə-ˈne-tik/) in the Merriam Webster (which might be US English) and kin-et-ic (/kI'netIk/ or /kaI'netIk/) in the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 8th edition (British version?).

Is there a difference in hyphenation rules between British and US English?


texts: Is "I have and always will eat food" proper English? Can you conjugate eat for the future only?

texts:
The original sentence is:

  I have eaten and always will eat food.

If you cut out the first eaten, is the sentence still grammatical?:

  I have and always will eat food.

How about:

  I have, and always will, eaten food.

Is this sentence grammatical? If not, why not?


texts: Are there rules about where a long title should be broken across lines?

texts:
Here is the title: Clean your vessel & everything on it in a single session!

  Clean your vessel
  & everything on it
  in a single session!
  Clean your vessel &
  everything on it in
  a single session!

Which is correct? Both versions have lines of about the same length. How do I choose between them?


texts:
I am translating a paper about a general physics question.  I am not very familiar with physics other than the historical perspective and I am requesting some help with the grammar.  I have a sentence that translates perfectly from the original Spanish as follows:

“At the moment of t1 at which both objects reach the ground, y1(t1)=y2(t1)=0.”

In English, a complete sentence requires a subject and a predicate.  In the above sentence, the subject would be “y1(t1)”, which I guess I don´t have a problem with.  My query is regarding the simple predicate, which in this case would be “=”.  All of the English words in this sentence amount to prepositional phrases.

Is this standard use of language in scientific documents in English?  Should I change the sentence to read something like, “The formula y1(t1)=y2(t1)=0 is satisfied at the moment…”?


texts:
In Bloomberg magazine, I saw this sentence:

  Rust Belt states  that have bled manufacturing jobs.

Does it mean they have lost the jobs or gained more jobs?


texts: How to say: work (in/at/on/?) your hours

texts:
My intention is to let a person (i.e. my employee), whom I'm talking to, to choose his/her work hours.
For example:
Employee: I'm going to do this task between 1-4 pm today.
Me: Sure, no problem. Work (in/at/on/?) your hours!
What preposition should I use?


texts: "Quench your thirst" makes sense, while "Refresh your thirst" seems to me to not make sense, but "Refresh your thirst" are the words in an actual Coke ad. Does "Refresh your thirst" make sense?


texts: Does it make sense to apply the quality of "Identicality" to one or multiple objects?

texts:
I'm writing a script which involves the comparison of two objects. I keep finding myself referring to this sort of test as an "identicality" check. From my preliminary research, "identicality" does not seem to qualify as a word. Also, the more I think about it, the less sense it makes to me. A single object should not be able to posses the quality of "identicality", since it requires that a second object exists for comparison, yet makes no reference to said object.

Does it make any sense to refer to the "identicality" of two objects? Should it instead be "identicalness", if that makes any more sense?

I'm not sure if "identicality", or even "identicalness" is etymologically sound either, or if it is just my mind kludging things together.


texts:
Is my example a run-on?

  "Assuming I have a dog and my ex-wife has a cat, both picture1 and picture2 show: (1) I am allergic to cat, (2) my ex-wife hates my dog, and (3) we're not happy."

Edit: I changed the math equation to actual sentences since it was confusing people. Note that even though I am using small/simple sentences for (1), (2), (3), my original sentences for (1), (2), and (3) are quite long.


texts: "Vanish into thin air" and "disappear without trace"

texts:
I can understand the construction like the following with vanish and disappear.

  The money vanished from my wallet.
  Money seems to vanish into a black hole.
  A strange light appeared and vanished into the darkness again.
  The sun disappeared behind a cloud.
  His sudden disappearance is very worrying.

In the following sentence,

  All the chocolates vanished away in no time at all.

what if the adverb away used with the verb vanished is dropped? It appears to be redundant.

Both of the idiomatic phrases vanish into thing air and disappear without trace appear to mean "vanish all of a sudden in a way that seems impossible or in a way that cannot be explained or at least difficult to explain", such as

  When the hunter looked again, the bear had already vanished into thin air.
  The plane disappeared without trace and no survivors were ever found.

How much does it make a difference, if the first sentence is given "disappeared without trace" and the second one is given "vanished into thin air"?

Moreover, the indefinite article a is quite less frequently seen with disappear without trace such as disappear without a trace. Does the article a have its own meaning in some contexts or it's just optional?


texts: What is the origin of the expression "fruitful language"?

texts:
The phrase "fruitful language" came up in an answer to the scifi.stackexchange.com question "Was Rian Johnson considered for Episode IX?"
I was not familar with it, nor was another commenter. But the author of the answer left a comment mentioning "it's a common thing rugby commentators say, as someone who is not opposed to the language, yet obliged to apologise as part of their network contract."
I was able to find a few other examples online, confirming that this is not just one person's mishearing  or something like that:

Suffice to say some fruitful language came out my mouth after that!!!

(matt-man, Sunday 2nd November 2014; PistonHeads » Gassing Station » TVR » Wedges : "Oh B******s!!")

You could tell from the start that Mark is clearly anti Conservatives and used some very fruitful language towards them, to say the least.

("Live Review: Mark Thomas at Eastleigh’s The Point", By Kieran James, November 12, 2017)

But I could not find a relevant meaning of "fruitful" listed in any dictionary that I checked.
How did "fruitful language" come to have this meaning for some speakers? (Is it related to the use of the word "ripe" to mean "stinking"?) Also, what is the earliest example that can be found of this expression being used?


texts: so-and-so/such-and-such term used with countries and places

texts:
I'm trying to find a nice place holder to express 'X country' or 'country X', like 'when telling people that you are from country X...'. The first idea that came into mind was so-and-so:
wiktionary: so-and-so

Noun
so-and-so (plural so-and-sos)
(idiomatic) A placeholder name for a person or thing, used when a name is not known; a generic name.
She told me to ask so-and-so, but he didn't know, either.

but 'so-and-so country' or 'country so-and-so' doesn't really work.
'Such-and-such' was my next option, but 'such-and-such country' and 'country such-and-such' both also sound a bit off.
Is there a good placeholder term use with countries (and places)?


texts: Syntactic function of "what" in specific case

texts:
See the following sentence:

  Be careful what you eat.

In this case, "what" is having which syntactic function? I checked the possibilities in the wiktionary:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/what
My best guess is that it is a "relative pronoun", but I'm not 100% convinced of that. I feel it could be something other than a pronoun, although I'm not sure how to support that.

(second question removed by OP to keep the focus)


texts:
Currently, I'm living in HK. But I am Chinese and I know nothing about Cantonese which is the mother tongue of Hongkongers. So, I feel lonely here and I don't think I belong here.

So, can I say I don't have a 'sense of community' in HK?

If not, what phrase should I use?


texts: You'll know afterwards, when I get mad. [Analysis of 'when']

texts:
American sitcom That '70s Show has these lines (YouTube):

Eric: So, uh, for future reference, do I have to ask you, uh, before I go out with my friends?

Donna: No. Uh yes. Sometimes.

Eric: So, uh, how will I know which times?

Donna: Well, you'll know afterwards, when I get mad.

Is when a relative word taking afterwards as antecedent?
If you think this analysis is wrong, please provide your own analysis.
If you think this is right, please explain why it has to be.


texts: What adjective do you use to describe a curve that's very curved?"

texts:
Example:

  There weren’t many curves, but those that appeared were so [...] I
  thought I would fly out of them any time.

I thought of sharp and closed but they sound weird to me for some reason. What's a more suitable alternative?


texts: Is there a numerical definition or explanation about the meaning of those words related to time, such as `immediately`, `right now`, `recently`?

texts:
Is there a numerical definition or explanation about the meaning of those words related to time, such as immediately, right now, recently?

For example, immediately would be a range from 1 second to 10 minutes, imagine your boss ask you do something immediately, how long would you let him to wait to get started?


texts: Adjective rank for price/cost of product or purchase

texts:
I've found numerous pages listing the correct order of adjectives.  While some disagree on the number of ranks, all have the ranks they do list are in this order:

Determiner/quantity
Observation or Opinion
Size
Temperature
Shape
Age
Color
Origin
Material
Purpose
Qualifier

However, none of the pages I've found have described which group the numeric price of the thing fits into.
Some have listed "costly" and its synonyms in group two, and that is my guess as well.  Some sites list "value" in group two, but none of the examples I've found have explicitly listed a dollar amount.

They can afford a $500 WiFi-enabled auto-scooping litter box.

or

They can afford a $500, WiFi-enabled auto-scooping litter box.

Note the comma following the price in the second sentence.
If price is in the same rank as WiFi-enabled--an observation/quality--then the following sentence should sound right, but it does not.

They can afford a WiFi-enabled, $500 auto-scooping litter box.

However, there is no group in any of the sites I've found between quantity and observation.
Should I place a comma after $500?


texts: I may know each word, but I don't understand the sentence:(

texts:
I am reading a book on sampling. I don't understand this sentence:

  How many interviews do you suppose it took each of these pollsters to come within a few percentage points in estimating the behavior of about a hundred million voters? Fewer than 2000!

If you need more context to help, please ask :)


texts: What to call value compared with the previous day's value in stock exchange?

texts:
I'd like to know what to call the value compared with the previous day's value in English.

This image is what I screen-captured in tradingview.com

Q1. what do you call these values in English? -> (0.37%, 0.78%, 0.25%)

Q2. what do you call these values in English? -> (9.3, 46.2, 0.00297)


texts: Word or phrase for a person who sets their watch forward to prevent being late?

texts:
My aunt does this. She sets her watch 15 mins early because she knows that she is chronically late all the time.

Is there a word or phrase specifically for the act of setting your watch forward with this intention? Or perhaps for the kind of person who tries to correct themselves with techniques like this?


texts:
I had thought that detritus would be pronounced like detriment, but apparently not.

Why not?

Is there something in the etymology?

Are there any other words of English origin written "-trit-" pronounced "trai"?


texts: Single word/phrase for saving time and thus money

texts: In workplaces, efficiency or processes (ex. Lean Manufacturing or Kaizen) creates a greater output and/or saving money. While words like efficiency or economical implicitly suggest saved time, I'm trying to find a term that would condense "saving time and thus money" without losing the "thus money" semantic.


texts:
What is the difference between "risk" and "uncertainty"?
In what situation should I use each word?


texts: Looking for an adjective for an elected but not yet in charge person

texts:
I'm looking for an adjective for an elected but not yet in charge person.
I remember that there was a synonym for "soon to be" and "President-elect" but that's not the word I'm looking for. As far as I remember it started with in[...] and it could be used with ... president.
I already did an extensive Google search and also here on StackExchange, but I can't find the appropriate word.


texts:
Ability to do X on the behalf of another user

vs

  Ability to do X on behalf of another user

Which one is correct and why? :(

I've been debating this with someone over the copy of some app release notes - we ended up totally rewording it to flow better but I'd still like to know the answer to this question.


texts: Looking for a word for a specific context

texts:
I'm writing about a politician who was expected to get a ministerial position that was instead given to someone else. Sentence goes like
Lloyd Axworthy, a front-bencher who was ____ out of a ministerial position by Andre Ouellette...
What's this verb I'm looking for in the blank spot. I thought maybe "snubbed" but looking at the definition, it doesn't seem to fit. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!


texts:
In my grade school days, I recall a teacher proclaiming to the class:

  You should never start a sentence with the word "Because".

Of course, I've since seen lots of examples to the contrary, and done so my self that seem to be perfectly correct, grammatically.

Did she shorten some other rule that allows for specific exceptions?
Did she just make it up because writing sentences starting with because is a little tricky for young and inexperienced minds?
Is there some other reason?


texts: Single word for agile, stealth, and light fingered

texts:
I'm looking for a single word for agile, stealthy, and light fingered for a name of a skill in a game.
The only thing I could think of is the word 'finesse'.

finesse
fɪˈnɛs/ noun

impressive delicacy and skill.


texts: What's a word for something that's almost possible

texts:
I know my question might sound stupid but I was wondering what would be a word for something that almost impossible yet possible so that it's still quite achievable but requires tremendous effort and time. My sentence goes like
'' She was told she would never be able to walk again however she was certain that she _____ would walk again


texts: Name for something that is being advertised

texts:
What would be the correct term for a thing that is being advertised?

I am looking for something less generic than Product but can still be used across different business domains (so not something like Car).


texts: History and Explanation of Scientific English Pronunciation Convention: PS, PN, PT

texts:
A research question on pronunciation

I have been looking for the explanation and history of the English pronunciation convention of not pronouncing the P at the start of double consonant scientific words, in particular the P in Psychology.

It is my understanding that the letter Psi in the root word psyche is pronounced in both the original Greek and in the Latin transliteration, and further that it is pronounced in German, where the word psychology originated.

The intuitive explanation is that the P was dropped because PS is an unusual initial letter cluster in English, and that the history of this pronunciation convention can be traced to the English pronunciation of Latin words of Greek origin, religious words, such as Psalm, and finally that later scientific coinages built on Greek words beginning with PS, PT or PN followed the pronunciation convention for established for Ps.

And so, my questions are,
1) Is this understanding of the explanation and history correct, and if so is there a source in English documenting or even simply asserting this understanding?

2) Is this understanding in error, partially or completely, and was the English language pronunciation convention established in another manner?  For example, was the pronunciation convention already established in Latin of its Greek loanwords and English merely copied the Latin?  Or do the English pronunciation conventions of PS and PT (Psi and Pi) have different origins and did they establish themselves independently of each other?

Thank you ahead of time


texts:
What does it mean by ‘Look at these sentences with expressions from A and B opposite.’? This sentence is the instruction words of an exercise in an English exercise book.
I don’t understand the word ‘opposite’ here.


texts: The distinction between subject complements and sentence complements

texts:
So I've got this definition of complement from Wikipedia:

  In grammar, a complement is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression.

and for subject complement:

  In grammar, a subject complement or predicative of the subject is a predicative expression that follows a linking verb (copula) and that complements the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. It completes the meaning of the subject.[1] In the former case, a renaming noun phrase such as a noun or pronoun is called a predicative nominal. An adjective following the copula and describing the subject is called a predicative adjective.

So as I understand it, subject complements are a type of complement.

There's various types though. Here is a link with some examples:

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/linking-verb-followed-with-a-preposition-phrase.2415056/post-12143551

Pasting these examples below:

He is in the classroom. [PP complement]
He is very clever. [AP complement]
He is a teacher. [NP complement]

The "AP complement" is a subject complement (predicate adjective), and the "NP" complement is a subject complement (predicate noun), but the "PP complement" is not a subject complement, because prepositional phrases can't serve in the subject complement role. It is a complement though.

Have I got this right?


texts: Area of the body between legs and genitals?

texts:
When your legs are streched, for example when you stand or lie on your back, there is a narrow area, about a finger wide, between where your legs join the body and your genitals on the underside of your torso. What is this part of the body called?

Groin, as the OED defines it, seems to refer to "the depression between the abdomen and the upper thigh", that is, an area on the front of the body and not between the legs, where the area lies that I'm after.

Here is an image in which the area is marked in green: https://i.stack.imgur.com/OFaO3.jpg (NSFW, genitals covered). Please note how the 'string' of the taut adductor muscles separates the groin on the front side of the trunk from the area in question on the trunk's underside. The image shows a female body and the perineum is invisible below the genitalia in the shadow between the buttocks.

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Courageous_Cunt_06.jpg (NSFW, explicit)


texts: “Quote by Albert Einstein” or “quote from Albert Einstein”?

texts:
Can both “by” and “from” prepositions be used to indicate the person as the source of quotation?

Is there any difference?

To me “quotes from Albert Einstein” sounds more like “quotes from Albert Einstein's publications”, is that impression correct or not?


texts: Meaning of headline "Goldman Stunned by Op-Ed Loses $2.2 Billion for Shareholders"

texts:
What does this headline mean?

  Goldman Stunned by Op-Ed Loses $2.2 Billion for Shareholders

I am not sure what "Op-Ed loses" means in this context.


texts: A writer I work with keeps using the phrase "wonder the question" -- as in, "Scientists have wondered this question for years." It totally rubs me the wrong way, perhaps because it's contrary to the normal use of "wonder" and the phrase "ponder the question", but is it truly an improper use of "wonder"?


texts: What word describes the melancholy felt at a place of great loss?

texts:
I was talking to someone the other day, and they described a visit to a battlefield where thousands of people died during the Civil War.  They were looking for a better word than "melancholy" to describe that specific sort of historical empathy that comes from visiting such a place.

Is there a more precise word to describe the feeling you have when you are at a place where a great loss or tragedy occurred?

Example:

I felt really [word] when visting Normandy.  Thinking of how many people died there really hit me hard.


texts: Where does the usage of around/round come from in expressions like "first/second/this time around"?

texts:
The first/second etc. time around:

the first/second etc. time that something happens.

Looking after a baby is much easier the second time around.

(Macmillan dictionary)
The expressions appear to be from the early 20th century but their usage literally took off from the '60s and are quite  common usage now  as suggested by Google books.
Where does this pleonastic usage of "around/round" come from? Does it refer to an old, outdated meaning of around which is not stated here?


texts: Is this phrase "now processing..don't terminate this program" correct?

texts:
I'm developing an application in English, but I'm not a native English speaker, so it's hard to put some English phrases in my app. The following message will appear when my program is processing, so users will have to wait until the process ends.

  Now processing...don't terminate this program.

I don't know if the phrase is used correctly. Can anyone help?


texts: Meaning of "What to you are going to take?"

texts:
The sentence is as follows:

  So let’s say you’ve made your own mind up about this method and what to you are going to take?

What would you mean when you say

  What to you are going to take?


texts: What's a word for "a person who strives to be unique"?

texts:
English buddies! I've got presque vu today.

I'm looking for an adjective or noun that connotes:

A risk-taking individual
A unique individual
An individual who isn't content with following in the footsteps of others.

I feel like a word for this does exist, but I can't think of it! (In other words, college application essays frustrate me.)

I'd be grateful for any help!

EDIT: Thank you all so much! I need it because my counselor wanted me to describe myself in 3 words...which is difficult. I appreciate all the words :)


texts:
Following sentence I read on the web

The NYT book reviewer was repelled by the author's pose. The aphorisms are lazy, the facts sloppy, and the studied cool.

Can pose be used to describe writing?
Is using author's pose in a book where the author narrates his own experience  e.g. such as in an autobiography, acceptable English?
If I look up pose noun

noun

a bodily attitude or posture: Her pose had a note of defiance in it.

a mental attitude or posture: a pose cultivated by the upper classes.

the act or period of posing, as for a picture.

a position or attitude assumed in posing, or exhibited by a figure in a picture, sculptural work, tableau, or the like.

a moment in which a dancer remains motionless, usually in an assumed posture.

a studied attitude; affectation:
His liberalism is merely a pose.

~ dictionary.com
I am wondering if this is a misspelling and should read as prose

Prose is a form of language that has no formal metrical structure. It applies a natural flow of speech, and ordinary grammatical structure rather than rhythmic structure, such as in the case of traditional poetry.
~ literarydevice


texts: What is the grammatical name of this: "that he would agree run the state"

texts:
What is the grammatical name of this:

He averred "....that he would agree to run the state....'


texts: Where does the phrase "red herring" come from?

texts: I understand that "red herring" means something like a clue or indicator that is misleading.  But where does this come from?  What does a misleading clue have to do with smoked fish?


texts: I know that I can say, "all you have to do is" but may I say, "all you had to do is" when you actually talk to someone at present tense, but you want to refer to the past event specifically?


texts: Is there an idiom for "something tasty/good/nice, but not nutritious/substantial"?

texts:
Something like "good soup, but no meat"

update: not necessarily food related


texts:
Is it bad style to start a sentence with being or grammatically wrong. It´s a participle right? Still I feel it is just not it?!

Something like:

  Being an English teacher means to not only teach a language but also to teach children about different cultures.


texts:
What does this sentence mean: "It is easier to make a 3-inch mirror and then to make a 6-inch mirror than to make a 6-inch mirror from scratch"?

It seems to say that A is easier than B, with
A being "make a 3-inch mirror and then to make a 6-inch mirror", and
B being "make a 6-inch mirror from scratch". But why that makes sense?


texts:
"Don't", "wouldn't", "couldn't" and "isn't" are all contractions of "do not", "would not", "could not" and "is not"... So what's "won't" a contraction of?

It appears to be "will not", but if so, why isn't it "willn't"? (And if there's no good reason, has it ever been "willn't" at any point in history?)


texts:
He eats, if only to survive.
He eats only to survive.

Do these two have differences?
And is if only to the reduced form of if it were only to?

Thanks.


texts: Differences between various types of speech

texts:
What are the differences between the following types of speech

- Casual speech
 - Day-to-day speech
 - Informal
 - Street speech
 - colloquial
 - slang
 - idioms

Is casual = day-to-day? and is that = colloquial and slang all the
time ?
Is casual always informal or we could have a formal casual as well?
Can I talk to my manager or in an official meeting in a casual way?
Is informal always = colloquial or slang?
Is colloquial and slang always = street speech
Are idioms all formal or we could have informal idioms as well? and
if so could these idioms be considered slang?
Do we have two levels of formal idioms one used by book writers and
another for used for day-to-day speech?


texts: Let's say someone fails at a task and gets berated by another person. That person also fails at that same task but it's ok for them to fail. What is the word to describe this person?


texts:
Here is the context:

Please enter a colleagues email address:

My coworker believes that in this context, it should be colleagues. I think that because it is a possessive noun, that it should be colleague's. I am no English expert, but I did learn about the use of apostrophes in public school... which version is correct?


texts:
What are "objects of knowledge" here? I know it is talking about the school of thought that believes one can not distinguish between objects and our perception of them, but why "objects of knowledge"? what is the difference between "objects" and "objects of knowledge"? DOes it mean "the objects that we have knowledge about" which simply implies "objects"?

On the one side is the school of neo-realism, which posits that objects and phenomena exist in themselves and can be studied rationally and empirically, independent of one’s mental state.5 There is an immaculate universe ‘out there’. On the other side is the phenomenalist contention that one cannot distinguish between objects of knowledge and objects as one perceives them. Linguistic philosophy examines how basic epistemological words such as ‘knowledge’ and ‘perception’ are used.

(Art and Science by Sian Ede)


texts:
I was creating a domain for a website, but I couldn't understand the difference (if there is any) between the words coded and encoded.

What's the right use of them? Or are they just synonyms I can use interchangeably without worrying about context or register?


texts:
I understand what the sentence The house is a full day’s journey from here means, but I’m wondering what day’s is short for in this expression. It doesn’t match any pattern I know.

A couple of examples:

He’s = he is
Let’s = let us
Mary’s car = the car belongs to Mary
Day’s = it sounds to me like something belongs to a day and this is what I don’t understand. Shouldn’t it be The house is a full day of journey from here instead?


texts: "It wouldn't surprise me if it" + subjunctive

texts:
'It wouldn't surprise me if it [was/were] true.'

Recently I have become interested in the use of the subjunctive mood in English; however, I am not entirely familiar with it yet.

Should the above sentence use "was" or "were", i.e. Does it require/should it use the subjunctive?


texts: Is there an English equivalent of the German word-pair "selbe/gleiche"?

texts:
In German both words, selbe and gleiche, mean something like same in English. But they have a subtle difference in meaning. Take a look at this sentence:

  We eat the gleiche (=same) soup, but we do not eat the selbe (=same) soup.

As you can see in the picture below, both people eat the same (gleiche) kind of soup, but they don't eat from the same (selbe) bowl of soup.


texts:
What is the correct abbreviation for Hour (with or without the full stop)?
Since the last letter of the word is not same with the last letter of its abbreviation it should end with a period, right ? If so... why it is so common to use "h" without the full stop? Are they both correct ?

12 h

or

12 h.


texts:
Preparing for our honeymoon in the USA, I am wondering what is the most appropriate way to address someone (a stranger) on street, e.g. to ask for a piece of advice. I can imagine that

  Good day sir! Would you mind helping me out?

is a too formal way. Or is the most common way

  Excuse me sir, can you spare a minute?

Furthermore, how do I address a female stranger? Dependent on the strangers age, is

  Ma'am

an option?

Thanks in advance!


texts: To press ones forefinger onto someone's shoulder

texts: What's the expression for touching someone with your forefinger or hand to, for example to get their attention, to wake them up, or to mark your presence.


texts: How do native speakers guess the pronunciation of a word that they've never seen before?

texts:
How do native speakers guess the pronunciation of a word that they've never seen before ? Is there a general rule for that ?

For example, someone said :

Words that end in -ic or -tion will be stressed on the second to last syllable. It doesn't matter how many syllables long a word is, we will count backward.
Here are some examples with -ic and -tion.
-ic: `classic, fan`tas-tic, e-co-`nom-ic, en-thu-si-`as-tic
-tion: `nation, con`di-tion, in-tu-`i-tion, spec-i-fi-`ca-tion

I would like to know more other rules like the above one, not only how to stress the word properly but also the way to pronounce one word correctly (or nearly correct) without knowing the phonetic.

p/s : In short, my question is : "Is there a way to guess the pronunciation of a word correctly (or nearly correct) when we don't know it's phonetic code ?"


texts:
If you could go back in time, what would you do so that you ___ your life lived without regrets?

will have
would have
have
would have had

My questions:

Is this a badly written sentence? How do I make it right?
Which answer will natives go for?


texts: Treatment of Designation and Title in Text

texts:
I work at a company that publishes standards. These publications have a designation and a title.  For example, the designation might be "Standard 100."  The title might be something like "Machines Handbook."

Most (but not all) of our publications punctuate the in-text reference as follows:

Standard 100, Machines Handbook

I was wondering if it is more proper to treat the title as a subtitle and punctuate it as follows, with AP guidelines concerning reference material in mind:

Standard 100: Machines Handbook

I've been looking at all my online resources, and none seem to take this specific case into account when addressing title punctuation. My ancient copies of Rude's Technical Editing and  Reisman's A Style Manual for Technical Writers & Editors are not helpful, either. ISO appears to use the comma/italicized style. It would be nice to hear how professional editors would handle this if they were in charge of setting a standard for style.


texts: What is the difference between 'transferred epithet' and 'metaphor'?

texts:
In the poem 'My Mother at Sixty-six' by Kamala Das (which I have attached below), what is the poetic device in the line 'the merry children spilling out of their homes'?
I feel like it should be transferred epithet as the children are not literally spilling. The adjective which usually describes a liquid spilling out of a cup is being used to describe the children. The children are coming out of their homes in huge numbers which just looks like liquid spilling from a cup.
But my teacher said that it was a metaphor with no explanation. But I'm skeptical about that.
From what I know, metaphor is a poetry device in which something/someone is compared to something else without the use of words like/as. For eg: You're the sunshine of my life.
My Mother at Sixty-Six

Driving from my parent’s
home to Cochin last Friday
morning, I saw my mother,
beside me,
doze, open mouthed, her face
ashen like that
of a corpse and realized with pain
that she was as old as she
looked but soon
put that thought away, and
looked out at Young
Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes*, but after the airport’s*
security check, standing a few yards
away, I looked again at her, wan, pale
as a late winter’s moon and felt that old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
but all I said was, see you soon, Amma,
all I did was smile and smile and
smile......


texts: What's the context of use of the word kudos?

texts:
What's the origin and context of use of the word kudos?

I think these phrases are similar:

Kudos for you
Karma for you
Points for you

The first time I read kudos was playing Metropolis Street Racer


texts: "Changes would not be reflected" vs. "Changes will not be reflected"

texts:
Following Martha's advise I am splitting up a question Compound sentences, the punctuation and mooore.

When I describe consequences of some actions one can take, what form of the verb "will" should I use?
If both are generally allowed, how do they change the meaning?

Consider the following sentence:

  Changes [will/would] not be reflected in the tree structure until the node is manually toggled.

To understand the context, suppose one have performed actions that indirectly affect a tree structure. In an amicable way, these changes should be reflected in the structure. But they would not for some reason, and one must take an additional action for them to appear.

The problem is that I don't know whether these action have been taken by anyone or whether anyone will ever perform them. It's just about that such actions exist.


texts:
There's well-known expression: Don't you dare...

Is there a way to somehow make it stronger, to show more of your emotions when you "asking" person not to dare etc.?
I've heard 2 cases, but don't really know the differences or even are they correct or not.

Don't you just dare...
Don't you even dare...

What do you think?


texts: Is there a word for 'nobody likes me' syndrome?

texts:
Is there a word to describe nobody likes me feeling?

What would be appropriate in the following cases?

  I am suffering from ______.
   Or
  I feel ______.


texts: Which form to use when a verb has an irregular and an regular form?

texts:
This list of verbs given at English for students.com shows that some verbs, as to blend (blent/blended), to broadcast (broadcast/broadcasted), to bide (bode/bided),... have irregular and regular past forms at the same time.

In this kind of situation, which form is preferred, if any?

The two forms make me confused and I cannot decide in the following options:

They are completely interchangeable and one can use any of these forms without any second thought.
The irregular form is the correct one, but most people don't know it and use the incorrect regular form. One should use the irregular form.
The irregular form is the correct one, but almost no one is aware of it and most people use the incorrect regular form. Using the irregular form should be avoided, as it could be seen as pedantic.
The irregular form is a fake irregular form, coming from the irregular form of another verb. For example, the past form of belay has always been belayed but  people use belaid in imitation to lay/laid.
The irregular form is an archaism. The regular form is the new, universally agreed form.

Note that these cases are not mutually exclusive.

If the question needs more context to be answerable, I am interested in the case of a formal writing (a letter of recommendation in the case at hand) in American or British English. The word I am trying to use is to blent in in past form. But I am interested in a general guideline too.


texts:
Is the given sentence gramatically correct? I am a beginner in english.

Being born in the christian faith, I has often to go to the church.


texts: What does the end of sentence "eh" tag mean in Canadian English?

texts: What does the end of sentence eh tag mean in Canadian English? It seems like it should mean something. In other languages, final tags can indicate questions or other things.


texts: Thirty days hath September, April, June and November?

texts:
According to everything I can find1,2, and all usages I can remember ever coming across, hath is the 3rd person singular present tense of have, and not the plural.

So why does the rhyme go as follows?

  Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November

Should it not be "Thirty days have September, April, June, and November"?


texts: Should a comma be included when listing age?

texts:
When listing age under someone's name for reference, does there need to be a comma between "age" and the number?

My company is running an ad for a beauty supplement featuring our brand ambassador for the product. The main image is a headshot of our ambassador with her name and her age listed below.

In my specific example, should her age be written:
A) Age, 62
or
B) Age 62 ?

We generally use Chicago, but it seems like there wouldn't be a difference across the different styles.


texts: Where can I find a list of common phrases?

texts:
I'm not so good at english, and I would ask if someone knows a website that lists the most used english ways to say, like for example, "eat the bullet" or "with a grain of salt".

I've done some research about it, but the only thing I got is Urban Dictionary, but unfortunately it's not easy to find the phrases; it would be great to have a vocabulary of "ready phrases" (for poor-english people like me:-)


texts: Why do many professional writers hate adverbs, and what should be used in their place?

texts:
In response to the death of Elmore Leonard the New York Times has posted a list of writing tips he composed back in 2001. Among them is the following:

  To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin.

This is not the first time I have read of professional writers discouraging the use of adverbs. While technically (adverb!) appropriate English, why are they treated with such disdain, and what makes a good adverb substitute?


texts: Why is there an "in" in "she'll be in the first woman to hold a top position in the government"?

texts:
I just don't know why there's an in in the following sentence:

  If she succeeds, she'll be in the first woman to hold a top position in the government.

Taken from this CNN story.

Why must there be a preposition and does it make any sense? What will be different if the preposition is omitted?


texts: What's the word to describe when movies try hard to evoke emotion?

texts:
Some movies overplay/over-do certain elements to make viewers feel emotional - cheesy lines, music and others. I've read a review which used a word to convey this pithily but I can't seem to remember for the life of me!

An example would be: I'm not sure I want to see the new movie. It is XXX.

Edit: added sample sentence.


texts: What does 'shrink' mean in this sentence: "I don't talk about me like a TV show character would to his shrink"

texts:
"I don't talk about me like a TV show character would to his shrink"

I've heard this alternate usage very rarely, so I couldn't understand what the person means when he/she says it.

I guess this is not the literal meaning of the word 'shrink', which is to reduce in size?

I also read about another usage, where 'shrink' means your psychiatrist or doctor, but the above sentence definitely means something in a different context, not as a doctor but a different meaning. Can someone explain this please?


texts: What does "fag paper" mean in this context?

texts:
While reading this article, I was struck when one of the "sources" are quoted as saying

  There is never more than a fag paper between them

I have always understood "fags" to either refer to cigarettes or homosexuals, but what does it mean in this context?


texts: Where did the notion of 'dumbing down' first arise from?

texts: Can anyone tell me the origin of the expression 'dumbing down'? It seems increasingly difficult to trace the etymology of neologisms, but I'm curious whether anyone has any information on this phrase. Thank you.


texts: Definite Article and no Article with Animal Groups

texts:
I've encountered two sentences:

  — Dogs make good family pets.

and

  The main source of food for the Hippo is the short grass.

My question is:
Why do we use the plural form of 'dogs' with no article in the first example sentence and the singular form of 'Hippo' with the definite article in the second one?

Are there any rules concerning the use of articles with animal groups/species?


texts: what's the meaning of "to take a bite out of her" in a specific occasion?

texts:
Here is the thing, I was watching Sharp Objects Episode 6 and when little Camile dressed in a red cheerleader suit, waiting for some compliment but her mother kept silent, her sister said:"Mama, couldn't you just take a bite out of her?"
I looked up to dictionaries, all I could find is the meaning: to reduce something by a large amount, but I don't think is the appropriate meaning under that occasion (I think her sister wanted her mom to praise her dress or sth.)
So could anyone give me an answer? It would be very kind, Thank y'all!


texts:
The phrases have expired and is expired are in practice more or less identical. Formally, of course, they are different in that the former uses expired as a verb with have as its auxiliary, whereas the latter uses expired as an adjective.

Can anyone think of why one might be preferable to another in a written context such as an announcement that The offer has/is expired?

Ngrams for is expired,has expired seems to indicate "is expired" is more archaic, but is there another reason other than trendiness to prefer one to the other?


texts: What is the meaning of "Hotstepper" in Ini Kamoze's song?

texts:
In the song Here comes the Hotstepper, sang by Ini Kamoze, is repeated the word "Hotstepper". I have been looking for the meaning of this specific word, but I don't seem to find the exact one in the context.
Most of the times the definition I have found for the word is:

Used to define a person who is very skilled or adept at an activity.

But I also found several times the following definition:

Used in Jamaica to describe a criminal on the run.

Which would fit more, as it is a Jamaican song and the lyrics seem to be closer to this meaning:

Here comes the hotstepper, murderer
I'm the lyrical gangster, murderer
Pick up the crew in-a de area, murderer
Still love you like that, murderer

Can I have any confirm on which meaning is the right one for this song?


texts:
Is the following sentence (from a cookbook) grammatically correct?

"I am fairly certain that nothing could possibly go wrong when eggs and tomatoes intersect."

After this sentence, the author proceeds to discuss several examples of recipes that include both eggs and tomatoes.  I would argue that "could" should be changed to "can", to make it agree with the tense of "am".


texts: Is there a word for getting excited about nothing?

texts:
Is there a word for getting excited about absolutely nothing? For example, if you can recall in the Christmas movie ELF, Buddy got all excited about wondering what a Christmas gram was. In reality, though, it isn't all that exciting. Is there a word for that?
Any suggestions are welcome!


texts:
Has "which were" been omitted before " noted" in this text?

  But there is no other evidence that the Persians of this period were the slaves of any such superstitions as that noted by Ammianus.


texts: Can "the chickens have come home to roost" have positive as well as negative connotations?

texts:
In answering a recent EL&U question (Idiom for the phrase "someone who gets what he deserved"), I cited the phrase "The chickens have come home to roost," and said that it "applies whether the person deserved good results and got them or deserved bad results and got them."

But an astute commenter observed "I don't think I've ever heard that idiom used in a good context," which led me to wonder whether I was wrong in claiming that the saying focused strictly on the justice of the chickens' homecoming and not on whether their presence was injurious or beneficial to the person (or thing) so visited.

I subsequently found that the phrase is indeed strongly tilted toward the suggestion that that the metaphorical chickens are undesirable results of past conduct or action. Specifically, the phrase seems to have originated with a proverb equating curses to chickens returning home to roost.

But is the connection of the phrase to curses being lost in modern, informal usage? Can the phrase reasonably be used today to express a notion of either positive or negative consequences flowing from correspondingly positive or negative actions? And finally, what is the origin of the proverb about curses resembling chickens that come home to roost?


texts:
I am a spanish speaker, and the last night I watched the movie "The Silencing". There, some characters used expressions such as:
"Realized I did not like to let animals suffer"
In which cases can I start a sentence with a VERB, instead of, for example: "I realized that I did not like to let animals suffer"? Is it grammatically correct?
Thank you in advance!


texts: English questions and negation with *do* in syntax

texts:
A former lecturer of mine once explained why, from a syntactic point of view, the English rule that negation and questions are formed with the auxiliary do follows from other syntactic facts about English.

More precisely, if you gave a good syntactician not familiar with English a corpus of English sentences containing everything but questions and negated phrases, then s/he could infer grammatical rules from it (such as headed-ness of phrases, what kind of arguments what word takes, etc.) From some of these rules, then, s/he could see that something specific would be wrong with the sentences "Gave you the present to Mary?" and "He went not to the cinema."

Can someone explain what exactly this something is and how it follows from other sentences?

FYI, my lecturer did this in Government & Binding with X-Bar theory. This may be more suitable a question for the proposed linguistics.stackexchange.com but as it's not online yet I'm trying it here first.

Edit: the beta is online now at https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/.


texts:
I have always found myself impulsively and automatically spelling "anti-vaxxer" with two 'x's, and a Google search indicates that most other media sources did the same; however, I can't think of any other words in English that contain two adjacent 'x's, and I also can't think of a good consistent rule that would explain why it seems that the 'x' should be doubled in this case.
The person who reads is a "reader", not a "readder". However if I were to make up a word "to zif", then "the person who zifs" would probably be a "ziffer". In that case, you need the extra 'f' to distinguish the sound from something that rhymes with "lifer". Maybe the reason for the double-'x' is then that "anti-vaxer" might be mispronounced as "anti-vaikser"?
Anyone understand what is going on here? Are there other words that have an unusual but customary consonant doubling like this?


texts:
I learned the word from my UX team. They do this exercise where they put users into different buckets based on their characteristics and behavior. These buckets are called Personas.

What are the other words with the same meaning?

Yes, I googled the word and couldn't find anything convincing.
According to thesaurus.com, synonyms of Persona are personality, card, crank, figure, oddity, case, clown etc.

Are their other nouns which have similar meaning as Persona?


texts: Word for small chat about the speakers well being

texts: Is there a word or expression for a small chat that is about how people are? For having a bit of context, two characters, who meet up almost on a daily basis, ask each other how they are, before talking about more important subjects. I tried to search for a definite answer, but I haven't found anything suitable. As far as I know, small talk might be used, but that includes more subjects, like weather, work and what not. The other one could be stating that they simply had a chat, but that could be again about almost any subject. Catching up would be the most appropriate one I could think of, but that for me seems as if there should me way more time between the two talking to each other than just a few days. For me catching up has always been associated with long time no see type of conversations. The sentence I want the word to use in is:  After a small chat about their well-being and James’s shopping list they made their way to the supermarket.


texts: "He took her arm" vs. "He took her by the arm"

texts:
He took her arm.
He took her by the arm.

I couldn't understand the difference between these sentences. Please help me out!


texts: Word for topics that a council will focus on

texts:
A council in an organization usually has a general set of tasks that it should fulfill. When council members are elected, they usually define a set of topics they think are extra important for the next term. They will focus on these topics.

In Dutch, one can speak of speerpunten of a council. German has the word Schwerpunkten. These are defined as "main point of discussion or policy" and just "main point" in Wiktionary.

Is there a word in English that one can use to talk about this?

Example sentence:

  This year's [word, plural form] of the participation council are reducing overtime, improving the work environment and monitoring the company's financial situation.


texts: "What" = "the thing" in the beginning of the sentence

texts:
Is the sentence

  What he didn't know is that in the future (...)

correct?
The meaning should be similar to "The thing that he didn't know..."


texts:
I received the following email from a colleague, who is a native speaker of American English:

  Back on for today. Starting at [10:00].

What does "back on for today" mean?


texts: Term for easing up sails in a heavy storm

texts:
What is the correct verb (or phrase) to describe the action of reducing a boat's sail power in a heavy storm? So far, I've only come up with reefing the sails, but that refers to the furling of the sails around their respective beams. This is a rather slow process; I'm looking for something that refers to a quick, decisive action taken in an emergency -- for example, when the wind shifts suddenly or the boat threatens to capsize from too much force exerted on the sails.

Personally, I would call it easing up or letting up the sails, but that's only a landlubber's guess.


texts: How did 'forthwith' evolve to mean 'immediately'?

texts:
[OED:]  Etymology:  For forth with (preposition), = earlier forth mid, along with, see forth adv. 2c. The adverb forthwith originates from this phrase, the preposition being used absol. or with ellipsis of its regimen.
[forth adv. 2c] †c. In early Middle English forth mid, later forth with = ‘along with’. Also absol., along with him, them, etc.: at the same time with something else.

at the same time ... does not mean 'immediately'. Per this answer, with can mean 'with' or 'against'; so I don't know how to disambiguate it.
Here's my guess at the etymology: Suppose you want to proceed forth with X. Then X may need be completed immediately.
Please allow me to verify, to avoid deluding myself with false etymologies.


texts:
This is probably one of many questions brought forward by this computing age; but what can I call a person who installs an installer?

I was thinking installee, which isn't a word given we already had installer for "someone installing something", but now the something being installed is itself referred to as the installer [of the resultant software]!

So forgetting the current status of installee (and only if no answers end up being "oh, here's a word that you overlooked which does mean what you want");is "installee" morphologically sound, can I help coin it to mean "one who uses an installer"?

If I was to write-

Use bob.com to download the CoolPlugin installer.
The installee must then ensure all documents are saved before continuing.

-would it make sense to you?


texts:
The Oxford dictionary list "acedia" as:

  noun literary  another term for
  accidie

  Origin: early 17th century: via late
  Latin from Greek akēdia
  'listlessness', from a- 'without' +
  kēdos 'care'

Is there an adjective for being in a state of acedia?


texts: Can the terms "jingoism" and "ethnocentrism" be used interchangeably?

texts:
Maniacal belief that "your" race, gender, culture, religion, language, country, group, beliefs are better than everyone else's.

Which term would be more suitable: "jingoism" or "ethnocentrism"?
Can they be used interchangeably?


texts: What's the difference between hard-boiled fiction and crime fiction?

texts: I'm seriously confused now. I just read (in Wikipedia) that detective fiction is a sub-genre of both crime fiction and mystery. Now there's this hard-boiled thing. Those money-grubbing editors and critics only do this to annoy, I think.


texts:
I have found much trouble identifying the old word 'tis.
Does it mean "this is" or "it is?"
I have done some research and found that the dictionaries conflict.
One said 'tis :An old English word used in the place of this is ; a contraction of this is.
I showed this to my brother and he showed me another one it said 'tis :an old English contraction of the words it is.
as in:

'tis(this is) the voice of the lobster....or
'tis(it is) the voice of the lobster....

So how?


texts: Looking for a limerick, tongue twister or haiku

texts:
Has anyone come across a limerick, tongue twister or hai ku relating to the following words?

pear, pair, pare

Or does anyone want to make an attempt, something along the lines of "woodchuck chuck" or "which witch"


texts:
I'm not a native speaker, but at least here in California, it seems that "sweetheart" refers predominantly to women.

How customary is for a woman to call man "sweetheart"?