texts: Word for dismissing someone's opinions as racist, liberal, etc, instead of debating back

texts:
I'm looking for either a single word or phrase that would describe either someone or the action of dismissing someone's opinions as something "socially unpopular", without giving any reasoning why, either just to spite them, because they have a poor counter-argument, have been backed into a corner, or something similar.

For example, someone who supports something politically incorrect (like, say, stronger gun control or help for male domestic abuse) might have their views dismissed as racist or sexist or liberal without actually acknowledging and debating against them, thus labeling the former as something they might not be.

I was talking to a friend earlier about politics, and she complained about Germany's immigration problem. She said one issue was that many politicians that try to support stronger immigration laws would immediately be shot down as racist or a nazi and forced to resign, instead of being presented with counter-arguments. Regardless of whether you agree with them or not, what would describe that?

EDIT:
Forgot to specify -- the word or phrase I'm looking for would be used in an informal context. And to address further questions, to be used when the person's opinion has legitimate worth and isn't just "being racist" etc, i.e. the dismisser is incorrect, and is only making these accusations because they can't argue further. (Added emphasis to the last sentence of the first paragraph)


texts:
Is there a consensus in terms of the ranking of offensiveness given by the word "damn" and its derivatives?

Damn
Darn
Dang
Ding (as in ding-busted)

I assume that the less a word sounds like the original swear word, the more polite it is considered. I was wondering, depending on the audience, as long as it's not "damn" does it matter what substitute word is used? For example could it be considered offensive to say "darn" instead of "dang"?


texts: What style of romanization is used when writing Japanese names in essays?

texts: Right now I'm using an anecdote about the Japanese Akita, Hachikō. The dog's name contains an "おう" (ou) in Japanese. What is the standard way to romanize this? Should I use a macron (ō) or "ou"? The same goes for the president of Japan, Shinzō Abe.


texts: Referring to adult-age sons and daughters as children

texts:
Is it normal to refer to adult-age sons and daughters of someone as children?

A native speaker of Arabic learning English has said that in Arabic, the word for sons and daughters is "أولاد" (awlaad) (Wiktionary link), and that it applies no matter how old they are, and that the word for people who are not adults is  "أطفال" (atfaal) (Arabic language Wiktionary link). The person wanted to know whether you can still use "children" to mean "sons and daughters", even after you can no longer describe someone as a child in the "not yet adults" sense.


texts: I don't get the meaning of these lines in the movie

texts:
I have a question.
I'm watching a movie, The Fast and The Furious(2001).

And these are line from two people.

Guy A: This ain't working, brother.

Guy B: It's your fuel map. It's got a nasty hole. That's why you're unloading in third.

Guy A: Told you.

Guy B: I lengthen the injector pulse a millisecond. Just tune the NOS timer, you'll run nines.

Q1. In this conversation, what does 'unloading in third' mean?
Q2. And what does you'll run nines mean?

I'm not a native speaker, so please help me to understand this movie better.


texts: What's the word for a gathering mainly for the purpose of eating food? Like a social meet-up for eating? Basically you do on holidays. I feel like the word is on the tip of my tongue but I can't think of it.


texts: Synonym for "Money doesn't grow on trees"

texts:
What would be a more sophisticated phrase for "money does not grow on trees"
Thanks in advance!


texts: Does ‘the moment’ clause always need an unpleasant or surprising situation?

texts:
When I wrote thank you to a commentator in this site, I added a message to it like this: “It all clicked into place the moment I saw your comment!” After a while, I came across an article about the usage of ‘the moment’. I’d like to know if my comment sounded offensive and what I should have written in the comment to express ‘just after’ like feeling.
Here’s the article.

Scarcely had Jake answered the phone when his boss started shouting at him.

No sooner had Jake answered the phone than his boss started shouting at him.

The moment Jake answered the phone, his boss started shouting at him.

As soon as Jake answered the phone, his boss started shouting at him.

Only No.4 is emotionally-neutral. No.1,2,3 express the resultant event is unpleasant or unexpected, though the resultant event of No.3 is less unpleasant and unexpected than the other two. Therefore, in a general sentence, for example, “as soon as he arrived at the office, he sat down at his desk and started work”, it isn’t natural to use No.1,2,3 patterns.

(The script is originally written in English, but the book I have is translated into Japanese. These lines are my English, so please excuse me for its strangeness.)


texts: A quick search suggests that status quos is most common pluralization of status quo. This form, however, is deeply unsatisfying. Clearly, status is the noun in this phrase, while quo is some sort of adverb or something. Statuses quo seems to me the most natural attempt to pluralize (but perhaps a different form of quo is necessary; I am not a Latin expert). Which plural form(s) are correct? Can I use statuses quo?


texts:
I've just come across a strange use of "articulation", specifically: "the articulation between the public and the private sphere".

I thought for sure this must be an error by a non-native speaker; but in searching for the phrase "articulation between public" to confirm, I get a high number of results from high-quality sources.

Is this more common than I thought? Does it have any nuanced meaning in this context beyond the way two organized entities cooperate and interact?


texts:
How would one say that he did the same thing (e.g. making the same dish) but in different ways in a single word?

a more elaborated example would be, I used different technologies to achieve the same goal/result.

EDIT:

i'll add another example because I feel like you misunderstood me.
someone built a program (computer software) and implemented it in all sorts of different frameworks, he called the website that show this process "custom-elements-everywhere".

I built the same program using different frameworks (as a wrapper to ease the process of creating it) and implemented it in a single framework, therefor my website name should be "custom-element-".


texts: Is there a word for false false friends?

texts:
How would you call a translation which resembles a false friend, but is acutally correct?

A false friend resembling translation here is one where the target-language word or phrase:

is not frequently used
parallels the word or phrase in the source language very closely (or vice versa)

Here are some examples of false false friends (German/English):

to hinder -- hindern
to stutter -- stottern
to heave -- hieven
to flutter -- flattern
to swindle -- schwindeln
to cower -- kauern

and examples of translations which parallel the way in which the words are used figuratively:

gaping emptiness -- gähnende Leere
sth falls flat -- etw. fällt flach
writing sth off -- etw. abschreiben
sth is in order -- etw. ist in Ordnung


texts:
Someone is completely on a roll.
Someone completely on a roll is him.

I wonder if two are correct sentences.


texts:
Which comes first in a sentence?

I know some word pairs such as bacon and eggs, where bacon always comes first. E.g:

  Make me bacon and eggs for dinner, honey.

Cats and dogs are the two most common pets I know of. What is the preferred order?

Dogs are superior.

  Don't put dogs and cats together, they might fight!

Cats are superior.

  Don't put cats and dogs together, they might fight!


texts:
The doctor said his nasal 'passage' or 'airway' is too narrow, that's why he is easy to get stuffy nose.
Which word is correct and more common?


texts: What is a sibling that comes long after all the other siblings called?

texts:
I belive there's a word for this, as I've heard it before, but I can't think of it. If a sibling comes many years after the rest of the pack, what is set sibling called? It doesn't need to be one word, but just something you can call someone.

If this helps, I've heard siblings like that are a product of the mother missing having young kids around, due to only having older children, hence having one many years later.


texts: Should I use a comma between two sentence parts that have "you " in them?

texts:
Here's an example:

Once you've run the program you can use it to play the tones.

OR

Once you've run the program, you can use it to play the tones.

Should I use a comma where I used it or not?


texts: "She is pretty and beautiful" does this sentence sound natural?

texts:
In Arabic, we have many similar adjectives that can be used together to describe a noun although they have similar meanings .
It is natural to say "This building is large and big" . Is it natural in English to say " She is pretty and beautiful "?


texts: Grammatical term for words like "yesterday", "today", "tomorrow"

texts:
We class words like "he", "she" and "they" as pronouns.

Is there a category of words that "yesterday", "today" and "tomorrow" fall into?


texts: Word for someone who sleeps during the day

texts:
People are sometimes said to be a morning person or a night person. I also know that the term for something related to night is "nocturnal".

Is there a specific word for a person who sleeps during the day and is active at night? I’m looking for an elegant word for night owl.


texts: Looking for a word to represent metal particles produced when polishing metal

texts:
When polishing metal plates (for example, polishing teppanyaki plate) or sharpening knives, there will be small metal particles released.

I assume that these metal particles are not good for our health so I want to find whether there are some scientific articles available to support my assumption.

It leads me to have to find the correct word representing such small metal particles before looking for the scientific articles.


texts:
Is there a single word for when you request a single word for some phrase or thought?

Example sentence:

  By golly, it's time to make a ____ on EL&U!

Things I've tried:

I've searched this site for "single-word request" but I couldn't seem to find anything of interest.
SWR is an abbreviation, and other people wouldn't know what it stood for.
Singlewordrequest isn't proper English, I believe.


texts:
I have faced the following
sentence:

"The work leverages features unique to a particular platform."

As far as I know an adjective is used before a noun but how can we say "features unique"?

I think "unique features" is correct. But this sentence is written in a valid text and the probability of making a mistake by authors is very low!!!


texts: Accredited school versus accredited degree

texts:
Is it proper use of the adjective "accredited" to say or write "an accredited degree?"
I can't find it used in this manner in a dictionary and I feel like the adjective in this sense should be applied only to the school or institution.  In other words, one earns a degree from a accredited school, but not an accredited degree.  However, I see it all over the internet as "accredited degree" and the company for whom I'm copy-editing wishes to use it in that manner.  Just wondering which is correct..?


texts:
/i/ is usually pronounced in English with the vowels: e, ee, ea, ei, ie, and y. What is the origin of the pronunciation of words such as amoeba, phoenix or onomatopoeia?

I got curious about this after going through my daughter's phonics work and realizing that oe is never taught pronounced as /i/. Is this pronunciation of oe non-standard?


texts:
The Chicago Manual of Style sets out these rules for capitalizing "Captain":

Robert greeted Captain Jones, "Hello Captain."

"Good evening," replied the captain.

I looked at 20 books by the most famous novelists of the 1900s to see who follows the rules noted above.  Generally, most writers follow those rules (Michael Chriton, Dan Brown, Ken Burns, Tom Clancy, Wilbur Smith, Clive Cussler, James A. Michener, Joseph Heller, Robert Ludlum, Nora Roberts, to name a few).  Some other writers do not follow those rules and would write "replied the Captain."  Those include Douglas Adams (in some books), William Goldman (the Princess Bride), JK Rowling (Harry Potter).

To me, it's strange that none of the "style books" cite any authority as I just did.  Finding authority for a rule was the basis of the Oxford English Dictionary, and gave it credibility.  Generally, American writers use "down style" as in the Chicago Manual of Style.  British writers are more likely to use capitals.

I think it looks sloppy to have the word "captain" capitalized in some sentences, and lower case in other sentences, despite the fact the word is used differently.  Should I consider the nature of the writing?  If I were writing an article for the New York Times, I would use "down style."  But if I were writing a fanciful book like the Princess Bride, should I consider using capitals, as William Goldman did?

People say "the captain" is correct, because with that use, it's a descriptive noun, whereas, when the character is addressed, "Hello, Captain" the word substitutes for the name and is thus a proper noun.  To me, that is a rather fine distinction.  When I choose between writing "said Captain Jones" or "said the captain" it is interchangeable, yet one is capitalized and one is not.  When writing alternates like that, it looks sloppy to me.

Any thoughts are appreciated.  Thanks!


texts: Word for having the perfect word for an occasion

texts:
I remember reading or hearing once that there was a word, I think of Greek etymological roots, that meant "having exactly the right word for an occasion."

It's rather frustrating that I can't remember this particular word, so I'm hoping someone else out there knows it!


texts:
Wikipedia says it used to stand for mistress. But you don't read it as mistress, do you?

What is the pronunciation like? I think it would depend on the expansion.


texts: What is the grammatical subject in these phrases: "what is there to eat?" and "who is at the door"

texts:
If I say "there's something to eat, most analyses I have seen seem to imply that the pronoun "there" is the grammatical subject in similar existential sentences (but not all sentences with "there + be", What's the subject of "There is my biscuit!" ? And how about "There is one biscuit left"? is an interesting discussion of this). I also understand that "what"and "who"are the grammatical subject when used to begin questions and that sentences can't have two subjects (compound subjects not being the same thing).

Can someone please explain what I'm missing here?


texts: Adjectival order: “a style appropriate for” or “an appropriate style for”

texts:
I would like to understand the correct grammatical order in the sentence,

  In your essay, you must use grammatically correct sentences with accurate spelling and punctuation in a style appropriate for the situation.

I hold the view that “style appropriate” is written bad because the grammatical order indicates that an adjective needs to be before the noun.

Is it grammatically correct?: NOUN + ADJECTIVE X

So,

  In your essay, you must use grammatically correct sentences with accurate spelling and punctuation in an appropriate style for the situation .

It is true that it works like this  ADJECTIVE + NOUN

Resource: Cambridge English Objective First Book, Fourth Edition


texts: Is there a list of syllables contained in US English?

texts:
I'm trying to find a list of all syllables (ideally just syllables that appear at the start of words in english).

Any suggestions?


texts:
I've seen many a quotation begin with A Great Man Once Said or A Great Man Once Wrote, and as I was writing something just now, I began with that before realising that I don't actually know where this lead-in actually comes from.

A popular reference is the last line of the film Kick-Ass, and I've found a 1993 music album with this title, but I'm sure I've read this lead-in in much older literature before.

Is there some well-known passage in a book or poem which first popularised this phrase? Or some other item of pop culture?


texts: How do I use proper grammar in the negation of "have not" for the following sentence translation?

texts:
I'm translating a DIALOUGE sentence from Japanese to English, and I'm having issues with keeping the negation of the verb "have not" in my translation while following proper English grammar, or avoiding the sentence reading awkwardly in English.

Below is the original Japanese sentence and underneath that are the individual segments parsed out with their English equivalent. (Particles are Japanese 'articles', and can mean different things based on the surrounding words or phrases).

  貴女とて想いは同じではありませんか？

貴女 - feminine - 'you'

とて - particle - 'even'/'even though'/'on the grounds that'

想い - noun - 'thought'/'experience'/'hope'/'expectation'

は - topic particle (denotes topic of sentence)

同じ noun - 'same'/'similar' / etc.

では - conjunction - 'then'/'well'/'so'/'well then'

  ありません - sentence ending verb - 'to have'/'to exist'/'to come about' negative polite form

か - Japanese question mark

The following are the English translations I've made after converting the literal translation to proper American English.

Even though you have not had similar thoughts then?

Even though you have not had similar thoughts as well?

Even you have not thought the same as well?

Even you have not similar thoughts as well?

A only-English-speaking friend I've run the above translations by suggested
"Even you must have had similar thoughts?" which fits the situation, but leaves out the 'not'.

Based on the information above, which sentence works while leaving in the 'not', or what would you suggest as a alternate translation that works in English that contains the negation?


texts: Is there a word for an observation that leads to a positive inner reflection?

texts: I made a little song that express the feeling of observing something beautiful thing that leads to an inner reflection and personal growth, but I can't find a word to name the song. Is there a single word that means all that?


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "wrapped around her little finger" come from

texts: I know what "wrapped around her little finger" means, but I cant get straight on where it originates. Thanks


texts:
My son was given this worksheet. He wrote the word Jack in the lower right box and Garry above it in chart 2. I think he got it backwards, but does the sentence "Garry is my brother's Jack son" make sense? Why not "Garry is my brother Jack's son"?
(I don't think the bottom left four girls can be identified exactly, either, but that's not the point now.)


texts: Which article a/the should be used in API documentation?

texts:
For example:
some_field - an/the description of smth
In what cases articles should be/should not be used?


texts: I know what "so help me God" is used for, but what does it actually mean?

texts:
The phrase is of course very well known:

Do you promise to say the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God?

I used to interpret “so help me God” as:

(a) God help me say the truth, i.e. God give me the moral strength to be truthful.

Recently I found that in the northeast of Portugal (in a mountainous area where men used to wear skirts and play bagpipes) people used to utter a similar phrase, “assim Deus me salve,” literally “so save me God,” as a guarantee that they were saying the truth or would keep a promise. Now God can help one be truthful but cannot save one be truthful. This plus context make it clear the Portuguese phrase means:

(b) May God save me if I’m saying the truth/I keep my promise (and not if I don’t).

The phrases are so similar that now I wonder whether the English one does not mean (a) at all but rather something like (b):

(c) May God help me if I’m fully truthful (and not if I’m not).

Online resources make me favour (c) only marginally. They say what the phrase is used for, but do not discuss the actual meaning:

Merriam-Webster: used to stress that a statement is serious and truthful.
Oxford Learners: Used to emphasize that one means what one is saying.
Longaman: used when making a serious promise, especially in a court of law.

So my questions are: (1) what is the correct interpretation of “so help me God?” and (2) would interpretation (a), even if it is not how people understand the phrase, be possible at all, i.e. would it be correct to say “(…) nothing but the truth, so help me God” to mean “(…) nothing but the truth, God help me keep my promise?”


texts: Dear Family & Friends or Dear Friends & Family?

texts:
I would like to begin the speach adressing family & friends...

Should I say " Dear Family & Friends " or " Dear Friends & Family "?


texts: What's the proverb that runs something along the lines of "Even God doesn't help the fool"?

texts:
There is a proverb that goes something like "even God doesn't help the fool".

I cannot remember the exact proverb. Can anyone help me get the exact one?


texts: Connotations of using "boy" by upper-class liberal Britons in beginning of 20th century

texts:
Could someone provide (ideally documented) evidence for the following details of the possible meanings/connotations of the word "boy" as used by a start-of-20th-century upper-class British person of liberal social persuasion.

The exact person is probably irrelevant, but in case it helps to clarify the answer, its John Maynard Keynes.

The specific questions I have are:

What were the standard connotations of using the word boy by a British person of Keynes linguistic type (e.g. upper-class Briton, socially very liberal, at the start of 20th century).
How likely is it that the word "boy" was used to refer to an of-age adult (say above 18 years old) in general language usage?
Is there any possible evidence that "boy" may have been a slang for adult (over 18) male prostitute, in the slang of either Keynes's typical language usage, or more specifically, British upper-crust homosexual culture of the time which presumably had its own slang like any subculture does.

In case the question seems peculiar, it arouse out of trying to parse a quote in Keynes's letter referring to "Tunis, “where ‘bed and boy’ were also not expensive.". Please note that the letter was addressed to his homosexual lover, to provide context for the third question above.

It was claimed that it is impossible - merely from the word "boy" - to discern whether he may have meant a of-age prostitute or underage one. I am looking for linguistic reference to support either view (e.g. if someone can show that there indeed was slang usage that didn't imply underage; or vice versa that there's no linguistic evidence that there was any chance of him speaking of adult males).


texts: Is it appropriate to add a postscript to an email?

texts:
Wikipedia says:

  A postscript may be a sentence, a paragraph, or occasionally many paragraphs added to, often hastily and incidentally, after the signature of a letter or (sometimes) the main body of an essay or book.

When all letters were handwritten, and adding a new thought to the letter would have likely involved rewriting the entire letter, a postscript had obvious practicality.  Now, however, one can just as easily add the thought to the main text.


texts:
I want to say, "For the ones who I care and who cares about you."
Is this admittable to say like this?

And I have one more question to ask.

Can I say, "for the ones I care and who cares about you"?

What I mean is, can I delete who in this double relative pronoun sentence?


texts: Looking for a word that best describes this quote?

texts:
I'm reading Anna Karenina for an AP Literature class, and I have to do journal entries on the reading, which includes character analysis. One of the characters, Stepan, cheats on his wife.

Later he is described as "Stepan was a truthful man with himself. He was incapable of deceiving himself and persuading himself that he repented of his conduct."

Ironically, cheating on your wife is often seen as something dishonest.

A few pages later it explains Stepan chooses his political views based on those that suit his own personal beliefs (confirmation bias). For example, "The liberal party said that marriage is an institution quite out of date, and that it needs reconstruction; and family life certainly afforded Stepan little gratification, and forced him into lying and hypocrisy, which were so repulsive to his nature."

Okay, so we see the conflict: Stepan by nature is a truthful man, but monogamy is forcing him to lie and cheat, making him a hypocrite.

So given all this context, I don't know what the best adjective would be for the quote "Stepan was a truthful man with himself. He was incapable of deceiving / persuading himself that he repented his conduct." I want to say integrity, because he's staying true to himself... but how is he staying true to himself if he's in a marriage? Doesn't that make him a hypocrite? But on the surface, hypocrite isn't an apt description of that quote, because there isn't anything hypocritical about the quote itself.

I think I've just confused everybody who has read this. But if you think you understand what I'm getting at, feel free to offer some help.


texts:
In the sentence:

"Over the airwaves, following a commercial, played the melancholy piano chords from Moonlight Sonata." — Can "play" go in that position?

It does sound strange to me, but if I simplify it, it seems like it might work: "On the radio played the song." But I'm not sure.

But putting it at the end also sounds strange:

"Over the airwaves, following a commercial, the melancholy piano chords from Moonlight Sonata  played."

It seems like I would need an adverb at the end to make it not feel so abrupt at the end. e.g.

"Over the airwaves, following a commercial, the melancholy piano chords from Moonlight Sonata  played softy." (but I don't want to do that even if it's correct.)

Any help on which of these are correct? All?

(Also, I am considering using "On the radio" instead of "Over the airwaves"  — would that make any difference?

Also, is it "from Moonlight Sonata"? "of Moonlight Sonata" "from the opening of Moonlight Sonata")

Thanks!!!


texts: Would help me find a word for this definition? There is a specific word for this definition in my mother tongue I’m sure there is one also in English

texts: What do you call a person who sticks to you and try to be friend with you while you don’t like them very much but he or she keeps sticking to you and it really bothers you?


texts: Which one is more appropriate: To learn more about or For more information

texts:
When sending a formal email, which of the following sentences is more appropriate to use:

  To learn more information, please visit helloworld.com.
  For more information, please visit helloworld.com

Also, using To learn more information... has any grammatical issue? Is there any reason why you should not start a sentence with an Infinitive Verb?


texts: Etymology of "[Where/What/Why] in the world" idiom?

texts: I've searched the internet and found definitions, but I cannot figure out when this would have EVER meant anything. Any ideas? Specifically, the type of phrase I am referring to is "What in the world were you thinking?" or "Why in the world would I want to do that?" In those questions, "in the world" is used to emphasize how ridiculous the OP must have been when making such a decision.


texts: What is the subject of the following sentence?

texts:
Food allergies are adverse reactions to an otherwise harmless food or food component that involves an abnormal response of the body's immune system to specific protein(s) in foods.

This is a beginning sentence of a paper on food allergies. I was wondering what the subject of the verb involves and have asked opinions from three English language experts who also have scientific knowledge, but their opinions vary. Their answers were as follows:

Person 1: The subject is food allergies and the verb should be involve.

Person 2: The subject is abnormal response and the verb should be involve.

Person 3: The subject is food or food component, so this sentence is correct. He also pointed out that the paper is written in British English (I showed him the following sentences and he got some clues from there) so here involves means evokes or causes.

Which of these opinions is the correct one?


texts: American reading of the British expression "look around impressively"

texts:
In British English, "he looked around the room impressively" is a somewhat common expression (warning: I grew up in the colonies and lived in the UK for only about 5 years, so please correct me if I'm wrong here. I feel like I've read it in books by Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchet, PG Wodehouse, etc, but I could just be losing my mind). It doesn't really make any sense, now I think about it, but it basically means looking around in a puffed-up way, checking to see if other people have noticed you. But it's less derogatory than looking around disdainfully or arrogantly. Grandiosely might be a reasonable synonym, but it makes an awkward and ugly phrase.
In any event, American readers in a writers' critique group vomited on it and said it didn't make any sense. So my questions are:

Does it really not make sense to American readers? Is it actually a nonsense expression that I just invented without realizing it? And what idiomatic expression might American English readers prefer?


texts: Looking for word describing a person who is always really quick at looking things up

texts:
I was wondering if there is a word to describe a person who always is really quick at looking things up on etc. his phone.

E.g when you just can't remember the characters name in the film you just saw and this guy quickly pulls his phone out and looks it up.

I am looking for an adjective to fit: I was not sure about the meaning of the word, but the quick-lookup-guy quickly found the answer.


texts: Did Emma Goldman first use the term “provocateur”?

texts:
According to etymonline provocateur, the short of agent provocateur,  is somehow related to activist Emma Goldman.

  1915 (Emma Goldman), shortened form of agent provocateur.

The site California Report  summirises the history of the expression agent provocateur and its later shortened version,  provocateur:

  Agent provocateurs went to work in the United States as well. According to Martin from the OED, the first documented use of “agent provocateur” in an English text was in 1831. Over the decades it was shortened to just “provocateur.” Here’s a prime example from “They Call Me Carpenter,” a book written by Upton Sinclair in 1922: “The poor devils who went on strike were locked out of the factories … and their policies bedeviled by provocateurs.”

and suggests that provocateur was common among activist such as Emma Goldman:

  Leftists, as you might imagine, did not love agent provocateurs. Around the time that Sinclair was writing, the term had become a nasty slur among people like anarchist Emma Goldman. “Emma Goldman says it’s the worst word there is, worse even than a traitor and/or spy,” Nunberg said.

So what happened exactly? Did Emma Goldman first use the shortened expression “provocateur” in writing in 1915? Is there any evidence of this?


texts:
I was watching the DVD movie Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, the British mathematician who helped crack the Nazi's enigma code in WWII. In one key scene,  Turing uses the expression digital computer to explain to Joan Clarke what ‘Christopher’, the machine he is making, does.  He describes it as

  “... an electrical brain, a digital computer.”

I think the year depicted in the movie must have been 1940. The name of Turing's creation was never called ‘Christopher’ that is pure dramatic/artistic license, its real name was bombe and it was a monumental deciphering machine.

Basically, I have three questions:

Was Alan Turing aware of the term digital computer? Did he actually ever use it himself?
Could one describe the British Bombe as being a digital computer? Wikipedia calls it an “electromechanical device”
When was the term digital computer actually coined?

YouTube clip: Alan Turing explains 'Christopher'

BOUNTY INFO

I should have left a message with the bounty, too late now.

Q1. I am asking whether Turing was familiar with the term “digital computer” in the 1940s but especially before the end of World War II. Biscuit Boy's answer refers to Turing's paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, which is dated 1950.

Q2. Because I know nothing about the history of computers nor how they work, I am hoping the community of Stack Exchange can provide a clear-cut answer.

Q3. According to this source, the term digital computer was devised by  George Stibitz in 1942, which makes Cumberbatch's line a lexical anachronism.

Q4 Bounty bonus. The name of the first electronic digital computer.

Many cite ENIAC as being the holder of this title, but there are sources which claim the Universal Turing Machine “is the mathematical tool equivalent to a digital computer", and elsewhere:  “The first fully functioning electronic digital computer was Colossus (1943)”.


texts: "Untick" vs. "uncheck": which is more common in Canadian English?

texts: I'd be grateful if any Canadian speakers can tell me: in the context of an option in a computer dialog box/menu, which of the words "untick" vs "uncheck" is most commonly used (or are they used interchangeably)?


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

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


texts: Defining a goal that can be achieved through many ways

texts:
I want to define a goal that can be achieved through many ways.
Does multidirectional work?  "A multidirectional goal"?

It's for a title of an essay saying that there is not just a single way to stay healthy, but health is a single goal which can be achieved by multiple routes.


texts:
At work today, I wrote "we have several XXs. We should consolidate on one XX."

A colleague corrected it to consolidate into.

Which is correct?

I'm English and my colleague is American, if that makes a difference. Googlefight ranks them as about equal.

UPDATE
The actual XX is fairly technical and obscure so I'll use algorithm as a stand-in.

We use several algorithms for calculating the score.
--several paragraphs later--
We should consolidate on a single algorithm.

The separation between the problem statement and the solution leads me to believe that skipping the preposition won't work.


texts:
He also recognised that through the very process of perceiving and acquiring knowledge, we partly invent the world by our means of measuring it – in space and time and by the ‘orders’ he categorised as quantity, quality, reason and modality.

In the above sentence, does "invent" mean "create a secondary version"? And what does "orders" mean there – "concepts"?


texts:
In various news articles, I've come across the phrase retail pol. What does it mean?
Here are some examples from online:

Matt Viser, Boston Globe, via tweet:
What kind of retail pol will Jeb be? @ananavarro insists he won't guess the ages of young children, like Romney.

David Paul Kuhn, The Atlantic, Forget the Retail Politicking: Presidents Are Made Wholesale
Barack Obama won the presidency. And Obama is no retail pol. This is why President Obama struggles to convey the spirit of these hard times.
...
In 2008, Mike Huckabee was Republicans' best retail pol. Huckabee, however, still languished in single digits until his second place finish at the ultimate foe retail event, the Iowa straw poll.

Double Down: Game Change 2012 By John Heilemann, Mark Halperin
As a retail pol, Santorum still left much to be desired. He was windy, dour, and digressive -- senatorial in all respects. But his crushing defeat in 2006 seemed to have imbued him with a degree of humility, and he exhibited none of the slickness, phoniness, or cartoonishness of some of his rivals.

Evan Osnos, New Yorker, Born Red
Western politicians often note that Xi has the habits of a retail pol: comfort on the rope line, gentle questions for every visitor, homey anecdotes.

From the Atlantic title, it appears retail is meant to be in the opposite sense of wholesale, and from the examples, pol probably means politician, but I'm still not 100% sure of its meaning.
What is the phrase's definition? That is, what is a retail pol and what are their characteristics?
What is the origin of this phrase?


texts: Do any people distinguish between "analog" and "analogue"?

texts:
In my personal usage, the words "analog" and "analogue" are allocated to two different meanings of the word.
One refers specifically to non-digital signals, for example:

The analog clock reads 5:37.
The phonograph only works with analog signals.

While the other is used in the sense of reference to another material:

The remotely activated webcams built in to laptops are a chilling analogue to the telescreens in George Orwell's 1984.

I have a similar split between "dialog" and "dialogue", which refer specifically to a message window on a computer GUI and spoken conversation respectively.
However, in all the language packs for software that I've ever encountered, the words will always exclusively be analog and dialog or analogue and dialogue, for American and British English respectively. Similarly, when I see most people type these words, they will usually use "dialog" to refer to spoken conversation and be American, or use "dialogue" for the message window and be British.
My question is, is this analog/analogue split a regional variation in Canadian spelling, or is it just something I've picked up personally? Does anyone else, or any other group of people, make this distinction?


texts: What's the meaning of "They’ll be all the sense you got"?

texts:
On page 13 of Educated by Tara Westover, it says

  When Dad read the verse to his mother, she laughed in his face. “I got
  some pennies in my purse,” she said. “You better take them. They’ll be all the sense you got.”

What's the meaning of "They'll be all the sense you got" here?


texts: Should "guest of honour" be capitalised?

texts:
The Principal will invite the guest of honour to give the National Day message at 9 o'clock.

Is the guest of honour capitalised?


texts: What do you call it when someone does or says something and then it becomes a saying?

texts:
For example, say in discussion with someone, you gave something a "name" for something that they did - for this example let's just say you referenced what they did as they "white-collared it" and it caught on and now whenever someone does the same thing, you say to them "ahh, so you white-collared it huh!?".

Is there a term for to explain that?

Another example, I'm not sure if it's exactly the same, but say someone made a typo or similar for something, but it was humorous at the time, and now has caught on, so whenever said "thing" is mentioned, it is now referenced to in the manner they mistakenly typed it as.


texts: Is it possible for the words "exorbitantly grateful" to be interpreted as a bad thing? (or over the top)

texts:
Normally I use the word exorbitantly to describe an excess in a negative sense, however this time I used it to express an abundance of appreciation and gratitude.

Could a critical reading of "I am exorbitantly grateful for your words of support" be interpreted as over-the-top, or confusing? Does it properly highlight the humility of the person saying it?

Is this considered a non-standard, or a creative usage of the word?


texts: Is there a word for turning something into a competition?

texts:
I'm looking for a word, expression, or more succinct phrase that captures the idea of taking something that did not start as or was not originally intended to be competitive, and making it into a competition.

Example:

  "The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but they ______."

It is a similar idea to "weaponization" of something - taking something that wasn't intended to be used as a weapon and transforming it into one.
"Competitionization" doesn't really hold water, nor does adding "-ization" to most of the synonyms for "competition."

Is there an appropriate word?


texts: Can I have multiple question marks in one sentence?

texts:
When I ask multiple questions at once should I break it up into multiple sentences and capitalize the first letter at the beginning of each question(?), or should I use one question mark at the very end?

For example: "Is it where my heart is? where my family is? or wherever I feel most at home?"

You'll notice that I want to retain the flow of the sentence to emphasize the sequence of the questions, especially as I introduce that last 'or'.

Thanks!!


texts:
In Treasure Island there is a description of Black Dog.

  He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand,
  and though he wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter.

What does the phrase wanting two fingers of the left hand mean?

Why did the Author not use "missing" or "without"?


texts:
Greeting,

I work in Korean Company and having some trouble trying to make English translation of Inventory Status Report.

Suppose I have 5 different kind of items (=5 different item number), and each item has 2 quantity in stock, so I have total stock of 10 item quantities like the list below,

List of Item (each in stock quantity)
Item A(2), Item B(2), Item C(2), Item D(2), Item E(2)

Will it make sense to everyone if I make summary like this?

Inventory Summary:
Total Number of Item : 5
Total Stock Quantity : 10

Or could you suggest me better phrases to put in for 'Number of Item' and 'Stock Quantity' to make clear understanding?

Thank you!!


texts: What do we call a stronger form of word aside from synonym?

texts:
For example, see - stare - glare or hit - strike - smack.

They are synonyms but  deliver more power in their meaning/sound and sometimes have more exclusive usage, yet deliver the same message.


texts: Which word to define the characteristic sounds in a location?

texts:
I'm struggling to find a word that fits into the following:

  The settlement's peaceful surroundings are ????? by the crashing of
  the pounding waves against the cliffs below and the swirling winds
  that come in from the Livian Sea.

I initially wrote "backed", but the more I looked at it the more it felt wrong.
Characterised/Illustrated also (briefly) came to mind.

What is the right word to define the normal sound effects to a location?


texts:
Where I work there is a common saying thrown around, to "put a bottle on the fence" or the deliverable was a "bottle on the fence". It generally indicates the creation of an example or starting point so that it can be critiqued, commented upon, reviewed, discussed, etc.

A handful of us think this might be a phrase unique to our workplace, and recent discussions indicate differing opinions about how it is interpreted.

What are other folks' experience (or lack there of) with this phrase? How would you interpret it?


texts:
How can we describe a broad sense of taste?

Can we say that we have a versatile taste?

Or is it more correct to say that we have a diverse taste?

Taste here is with reference to food.


texts: The difference of "stocking shelves with goods from far away" and "also shipped in from abroad" within the context?

texts:
I didn't quite understand the sentence below. This is from a piece on import being harmful for the economy of a country because it decreases the number of job opportunities. Isn't stocking shelves with goods from far away and shipping from abroad are basically the same thing? It's both import, but I also understand from the sentence that he compensates for the first one with the second. Am I missing something?

  Sam Walton chose instead to stock his shelves with
  goods from far away, in line with an ethos he’d also shipped
  in from abroad – an ethos made in Britain by the eighteenthcentury
  economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo.


texts: Is the question mark misused in affirmative sentences?

texts:
For example, I found the following sentence written by a native English speaker (UK) so I'm going to assume that he knows how to put it the right way, although I wouldn't use this form.

  I now have a bit more time to fix bugs
  etc but I'm open to offers if anyone
  wants to help maintain this module
  with me?

Is it correct or is the question mark misused here?


texts:
Is it proper to say 'show special treatment' for example in "He showed him special treatment."?

I know it sounds more natural to say, "He took a special interest in him because of his background." but is it weird to say "He showed him special interest and treatment because of his background."


texts: What words satisfy this requirement: The singular form ends in "s" and the plural form drops the "s"

texts:
Recently, I realized that I did not know of any words in the English language whose singular form ends in an "s" and whose plural form drops that "s."

I was wondering if anyone either knew the answer or knew of a means of learning the answer (e.g, a database to search words by oddly-specific criteria)


texts:
Consider the following portion from a drug's website:
Bamocaftor potassium is a CFTR channel (DeltaF508-CFTR Mutant) corrector in phase II clinical trials at Vertex, in patients with CF who are homozygous for the F508del mutation of the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, or who are heterozygous for the F508del mutation and a minimal function (MF) CFTR mutation not likely to respond to tezacaftor, ivacaftor, or tezacaftor/ivacaftor and also in combination with tezacaftor and VX-561 in F508del/MF in patients with cystic fibrosis.
The compound is also developed by the company as a fixed-dose combination of VX-659, tezacaftor and ivacaftor.
Can the two separate portions be merged to form something like:
Bamocaftor potassium is a CFTR channel (DeltaF508-CFTR Mutant) corrector in phase II clinical trials at Vertex, in patients with CF who are homozygous for the F508del mutation of the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, or who are heterozygous for the F508del mutation and a minimal function (MF) CFTR mutation not likely to respond to tezacaftor, ivacaftor, or tezacaftor/ivacaftor and also in combination with tezacaftor and VX-561 in F508del/MF in patients with cystic fibrosis. Furthermore, the compound is also developed by the company as a fixed-dose combination of VX-659, tezacaftor and ivacaftor.
Does it make sense to connect the two portions, or should I have just left it as it is? And is "also" redundant when the sentence already starts with "furthermore"?


texts: Why is it “a President” when it's clear to anybody that it's refering to the present President?

texts:
The New York Times (January 20, 2015) carries an editorial board article under the headline, “At the State of the Union, a President outgunned in Congress is still combative.” It begins with the following passage:

  The circumstances facing President Obama as he delivered his State of
  the Union address Tuesday night could not have seemed less promising:
  a presidency with only two years left to get anything done in a Congress that is now totally in the control of a party that has
  routinely ignored his pleas for cooperation.

I learned in high school that the definite article (the) is used when the person or object is already known to others (e.g. to readers or an audience). So I wonder why it says a President in this particular line when it is obvious to everybody that it is President Obama who is being referred to.

Could you tell me why it should be “a President,” and not “the President” ?


texts: What is the opposite word of "greyscale" (or black and white)?

texts:
Some words that come to mind:

Multi-color
Natural color
True color
Colored

Is any of these correct? Any better word?

EDIT:

As some commenters requested, I am adding context.

I am not going to use the word in any specific sentence. I am a programmer and I am trying to categorize colors used in a program into greyscale colors, and then _ (answer here) colors.


texts:
What does spore mean in this quote from The Independent?

  "In the fight against rhino poaching, the dog's nose has proved invaluable in finding poachers," he said. "Our human trackers, which rely solely on their eyesight, cannot see spore due to environmental conditions - be that very thick vegetation or rocky outcrops. The dog's sense of smell has proven superior in scenarios like that."


texts: Non-technical word or phrase to describe a data "query"

texts:
The scenario is that I am replying to an email from a colleague requesting statistics from a database. I am wanting to say that the results are of the same 'query' that was run the last time (and all previous times - a dozen or so).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL#Queries for the technical meaning of 'query' in this context.

I want to say "Attached are the results of|in the usual [insert word or phrase]"

The literal synonyms for "query" are well wide of the mark. I want the word or phrase to be non-technical. Format/arrangement/layout/etc. implies the presentation of the data rather than what data was selected.

Alternative arrangements to the entire sentence are less preferable but welcome suggestions nonetheless if they are necessary to solve the conundrum.

Bonus points (if I could) for a better word than "usual" considering how often the query has been used before: "customary" and "traditional" are worse.


texts: single word counterpart to the word 'insidious' when the results are beneficial

texts:
I’ve been trying to think of a single word counterpart to the word insidious.

  Oxford Dictionaries:
  insidious (adjective), Proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects.

The meaning I require (to describe the action of yeast say within dough or a must, and by metaphorical extension, small acts of kindness in society) is

  Proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, with beneficial effects that eventually make a great difference.

There are related words with no implications of good or evil effect:
Thesaurus.com gives synonyms for pervasive including permeating and pervading.

Is there though a single word (not a phrase, proverb … please) with the required meaning?


texts: "In only the city" or "Only in the city"

texts:
I am a foreign English student and have a question regarding the placement of only in a sentence.

I wrote You can do all these things in only that city in an exam, which is apparently wrong. But switching the order of only and in changes the meaning. I want to say that you can do all the things without leaving the city. Not that it's the only city offering all the things.

Is my sentence correct and if not, what would be the correct way?


texts: Pass value to function, constructor, shader: "pass", "give", "transfer" or other

texts: Which word is better to use to indicate the transfer of a value to a function, the constructor of a class, or to transfer data from an vertex shader to a fragment shader? I tend to the word "pass". But is it always right? Thanks in advance!


texts:
Should I use capital or lowercase for a specific character mentioned in a spoken sentence?
Is it therefore 'the professor' or 'The Professor' if I am referring to a known
character in the story.
Many thanks,
TJ


texts: What is the single name for this switch thing?

texts:
I found this switch in South India. It is not moving and also I don't know
how to use it.

(click on image to enlarge it)

What is the single name for this switch thing ?


texts: What is the origin of "cr*p on a crutch"?

texts: Where did the saying "Crap on a crutch" originate?  My mother used to use it a lot and I find myself using it also.


texts:
From Mary of Magdala, the female disciple of Jesus Christ cited in the New Testament,  we have the names Magdalen and Magdalene.  Oxford Dictionaries includes the archaic definitions of  magdalen, a reformed prostitute, and  a home for reformed prostitutes.

According to Etymonline, the Greek female name Magdalene was anglicized to Maudelen in the early 14th century. In Aramaic, Maghdela meant “elevated, great, magnificent” while in Hebrew מגדל, migdal (or migdol), meant “tower” or “fortress”. From the comments, @John Lawler mentions that in modern Hebrew - migdalor stands for ‘lighthouse’ lit = tower + light.

Two eminent and prestigious English Colleges are named after the catholic saint but their names, although spelled Magdalene and Magdalen, in keeping with tradition are pronounced /ˈmɔːdlᵻn/ mawd-lin

Magdalene College Cambridge

Founded 1428

  One of the questions we are asked most commonly is about the pronunciation of the name of the College! Though nowadays spelt in the biblical and continental way, 'Magdalene', the College name is customarily pronounced 'Maudlyn'.

  The College at its refoundation by Lord Audley in 1542, was dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. The choice of the name of Mary Magdalene appears to have had a touch of vanity. In many early documents, the name is clearly spelt as pronounced: 'Maudleyn', containing within it the name of Audley himself! The final 'e' on Magdalene was an attempt, with the advent of the postal service in the mid nineteenth-century, to distinguish us from our sister College, Magdalen Oxford.

  Magdalen College; University of Cambridge

Magdalen College Oxford

Founded 1480

  People are regularly surprised at why Magdalen College is pronounced “Maudlin”. This charter offers a reason why. Waynflete decreed that his College should be known as “Collegium beatae Mariae Magdalenae” in Latin and “Maudelayne College” in English. In the 15th century, English speakers called St. Mary Magdalene “St. Mary Maudelayne” (or “Mawdelayne”), without the “g” – like “Madeleine” in French. It was only later that we put the “g” back. Magdalen College, however, like Magdalene College, Cambridge, has preserved the old pronunciation of her name.

  Magdalen College; University of Oxford

It's pretty straight forward how the English adjective maudlin, meaning ‘tearful’ and ‘highly sentimental’, was derived from the Anglicized name Maudlene but less straightforward is the whereabouts of the letter "g" that must have been seen and — more importantly — heard in migdol, Magdala and in the Greek Magdalene. In fact, the "g" is included in the  following IPA transcriptions: /ˈmaɡdəlɪn/, /ˈmæɡdələn/ and /ˈmæg də lən/. Unbeknown to me, the last ‘e’ in Magdalene is sometimes  pronounced /ɪ/ as in mæɡdəˈliːnɪ.

So although the "g" was absent from Maudlene, both Cambridge and Oxford later sought to reinsert the "g" in their college names. Why?

Why did Cambridge and Oxford replace Maudelyn and Maudlin with Magdalen(e), and when exactly did this happen?
Why  didn't the spelling also change for maudlin, when the name Magdalen(e) and the noun magdalen was introduced in England?


texts:
I've been wondering which of the sentences below is gramatically correct.

1) When it has compeletely destroyed you, grief will be there.
2) When it has compeletely destroyed you, grief is there.


texts: Where does "A Very British... " come from?

texts:
Quite often - particularly in the media - I see British examples of things being referred to "A Very British... " whatever it is

e.g. a documentary about the British building their first nuclear bomb was called "A Very British Bomb" - but, OK it was British in that it was made in Britain, but I couldn't see what was "very" about it... (It didn't spray tea and crumpets everywhere or anything)

I don't see it applied to other nationalities (e.g. you wouldn't really see "A Very French... " or "A Very Irish... ")

A quick google search for "A Very British" shows up loads of examples, but noticeably a book from 1982 called "A Very British Coup" - are they all spawning from that or is it just another example?

Edit

To clarify, I'm not just talking about the words "very British" but more the commonality of the use of "A Very British" (I'm not sure of how I'd explain - perhaps that needs another question!) almost as a title or a self-contained grouping of words.

For example: If I asked you where does the common usage of the words "Big Brother" come from, you might say George Orwell's 1984 (if not the TV show! But even there it originates with 1984) - it has a specific use outside just a brother who's big. You probably wouldn't tell me there's nothing special about "big brother" just because a google ngram shows that "little brother" is used more than "big brother"

N-gram, little brother, big brother


texts: Is there a principle for the word order of idioms e.g. Town & Gown rather than Gown & Town?

texts:
The second version sounds awkward but I don't know why?

So is there any rule for these idioms e.g. reverse alphabetical order e.g. Walkie Talkie?

Is there a name for these?

Just found another Sooner or Later


texts: Correct form when talking about intersection of few roads

texts:
I'm in the process of writing a thesis (in a different language). I was wondering if it is correct to say that there are 3 roads that intersect, and I am planning their reconstruction:

Reconstruction of intersection of A and B and C in X.

where A, B, and C are street names, and X is the name of a town.


texts: Identifying Appositives and Nouns in Apposition

texts:
I am having some trouble discerning appositives from their nouns in apposition.

Consider an example from the Wikipedia article on appositives, "My friend Alice Smith likes jelly beans."  "My friend" is the subject, while "Alice Smith" is a restrictive appositive.

Then consider "I visited Canada, a beautiful country."  Here, "Canada" is an object, while "a beautiful country" is a non-restrictive appositive, according to the article.  Why isn't "a beautiful country" the object and "Canada" a restrictive appositive, since it narrows the scope down from "a beautiful country" to a particular beautiful country?

The criteria can't be that the noun in apposition is always placed before the appositive in a sentence, as the article specifies that the appositive appears first in the sentence, "The first to arrive at the house, she unlocked the front door."  This example also restricts us from saying that the appositive is always closer to the predicate.

So what is the correct criteria used to appropriately discern the appositive [phrase] from its noun [phrase] in apposition?


texts: Is there a word for "making oneself certain again"?

texts:
If I am uncertain of something and later I made myself certain again, is there a single word to express that?

Example:

"I was uncertain whether the result was correct. But I re-certained myself by double checking my calculations."


texts:
I was just now watching a TV programme where a character said "I'm concerned when we switch brands of coffee".
Ignoring the choice of:

switch brands of coffee  // switch coffee brands

Is it correct to say brands (pl.), because to me both the above and:

switch brand of coffee // switch coffee brand

sound fine, or at least, I do hear both. Which is "more correct"?
I can justify either: the sentence speaks of switching to a singular thing, but then it switches between plural things.


texts:
Easy isn't it?  everyone knows what "eat" means.

Except I'm not sure there is agreement.  We probably all agree that to eat, one puts food in the mouth, masticate (chew) and swallow.  But is even this true?  It works for any animal with a mouth.  But if we look at protozoans (unicelled organisms similar to animals, they were previously classified as animals, until 2005), they have no mouths.  So when they take in food, is it incorrect to say they "eat", so are we required to say they "consume" or "injest"?  There's a word, "zoophagy", which means "to eat meat".  There are fungi that are zoophagous, so, by definition, those fungi "eat meat".  But fungi don't have mouths implying that eating doesn't require a mouth.  Then, when a fungus is zoophagous, it can only obtain food by inserting a part of itself (a hypha, a bit like a root) into the food source (an animal) and digesting it, then to absorb the resultant soup of nutrients.  Therefore, zoophagy, "to eat meat", seems to require digestion to take place (one of the most common uses of the term "zoophagy" is with regard to fungi, so it seems that to eat without having a mouth is a common understanding).  So, does eat' include digestion or exclude it?  I've checked the Oxford Dictionaries (OED, COED) and they do not help.  While they seem to define eat well, they give no information to prove their definition is valid (it excludes digestion).  Certainly, OEDs would exclude digestion so that means they would require that we do not apply the term "eat" to protozoa or fungi (but scientists do).

So, this simple little question is in fact very complicated.  What does "eat" mean?

Thanks if you're brave enough to have a really good stab at this.  All logical answers and appropriate citations appreciatively received.  Happy to be guided from philosophical perspective (logic) or from a pure linguistic perspective or both.

(PS My current opinion as a non-linguist is that, based on fungi, "to eat" must include digestion and needn't involve a mouth, mastication or swallowing.  Please do not let my position bias your thoughts.)

Cheers


texts: "As a(n) X", followed by a statement not from the perspective of X

texts:
Am I correct that the following is an error, and, if so, of what type? (I'm almost positive I once knew the term to describe this increasingly common construction and that it was considered ungrammatical.)

I believe the sentence,
While on tour, the children lived with Georgiana's mother in Philadelphia,
is meant to convey:
While the parents were on tour, the children lived with Georgiana's mother in Philadelphia.
However, my uncertainty was the catalyst for the question in question. The sentence is from this section of this Wikipedia article.

Is the following sentence an error of the same type, a different type, or not an error at all?

As a roller coaster lover, that one was surprisingly boring,
which seems to claim the ride is a roller coaster lover. Instead, what was actually meant was something like:
As a roller coaster lover, I thought that one was surprisingly boring.

I know that in some acceptable constructions certain words are understood. Is that the case in either or both of my examples or in similar ones?
I realize this may be a duplicate question, but, if so, I was unable to come up with the appropriate search terms to discover it. (Which also explains my inability to come up with a good title for this question.)


texts: Word for a casual performance (example: Bowie performing Heroes live in Berlin 2002)

texts:
I was thinking unpretentious or unassuming, but they don’t quite capture the sentiment that I want to convey regarding this type of performance. Low-key works sort of in a slang way, but I know there is a more satisfactory word out there but I can’t remember it for the life of me.

Link of performance: https://youtu.be/bsYp9q3QNaQ

I’m referring to the way he performs and how he presents himself (the suit, lack of movement, etc.) while still delivering an amazing performance.

Thank you.


texts: What are some less ambiguous words for "choice," "decision," "option," etc.?

texts:
1)  You come to a fork in the road.

You need to make a choice between going left or right.  You face a decision between the left path and the right path.  You have the option to advance in either direction.

2)  You go right.

Right was your choice.  Right was your decision.  Right was the option you selected.

In the case of 2), each of the three words is used to denote an alternative.  Right is a choice, a decision, an option, or an alternative.  In the case of 1), each word is used to denote a set of competing alternatives.  "Left or right?" is a choice to be made, a decision to be faced, an option of which way to go, or a set of competing alternatives.

All three of these words seem to be ambiguous between 1) and 2) (and of course, there's nothing special about the fork in the road example; this is a general problem that can make it difficult to use these words effectively in some contexts).  What I would like to ask for are two separate lists of a few words that are uniquely appropriate for 1), and a few other words that are uniquely appropriate for 2).  Thus far it seems alternative and selection might work uniquely for 2), but I've come up with nothing at all uniquely applicable to 1).


texts: Where does the "I brake for" idiom come from?

texts:
I am familiar with how I brake for is being used nowadays, but am puzzled as to where this idiom comes from.

I can imagine a possible origin, say a particularly popular campaign where stickers with a specific "I brake for…"  message were given, but haven't been able to find anything about this.


texts: Difference between 'acoustic' and 'acoustical'

texts:
"Acoustic" and "acoustical" are both used as adjectives, and both are used often in combinations such as "acoustical engineering", "acoustic energy", "acoustic model", etcetera. Some of these combinations sound better than others, e.g. "acoustical energy" sounds wrong to me, but that may be purely subjective.

Is there any difference in meaning between the words? Or might it just be a UK/US English difference?


texts: What does it mean: "your focus determinates..."?

texts:
I've a problem with understanding following "quote" :

  your focus determines your reality

How does "focus" can determinate something ? May it be about focus of view or something like this ? Can somebody explain it please ?


texts: What is the term to describe a person who answers a question with irritability?

texts:
I am looking for a very particular expression (I believe it is a two word expression/description or, perhaps, what is known as a "coined phrase") that describes a person who responds to a question with irritability/curtness. This is an unfortunate and lamentable case of hearing an expression/description/definition, dedicating it to memory (after all, it IS witty, clever, and a PERFECT description) with grand plans to employ it whenever possible).

My agony regarding said expression began just yesterday after hearing it during "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" - the wildly popular broadcast on NPR.
I have searched Google, dictionary.com, Wikipedia and, of course, inquired of others, none of which has resulted in the answer. I appreciate any advice/ideas!!! Thank you!


texts: Is there a term for something that is tainted with another's saliva?

texts:
From The Encyclopedia Britannica:

  "Food left on plates after eating is
  defined as garbage (jutha) because it
  has been polluted by the eater’s
  saliva. It may be handled in the
  family.

Is there an English word for something that is not eatable or usable by others because it has someone's saliva on it?


texts: What does "cast by" stand for mean the following sentence?

texts: "Thanks for the feedback! Votes cast by those with less than 15 reputation are recorded, but do not change the publicly displayed post score."


texts: Is the use of would with a stative verb to express past states ok in this sentence?

texts:
Is the use of would correct in this sentence?

  We didn't use to have modern equipment but we were very skilled and I would be really happy when my patients got well again.


texts: A word for someone who backs out of a sale

texts: What's a good word for someone who backs out of a purchase? I'm thinking maybe reneger but I don't think that's a smart financial term.


texts: What does the phrase "cross your eyes" mean in this context?

texts:
Here is the sentence:

"Just cross your eyes a little and it would be impossible for you to tell the difference between this and televised football."

The sentence is from a game app's description. I know the lexical meaning of the phrase "cross your eyes".

  Verb    1.    cross one's eyes - partly close one's eyes;"The children squinted to frighten each other"
  Synonyms: squint, squinch
  Webster

However, I am not sure how it would fit here.

Let me make the context clearer. The sentence is about a game update that makes the mobile play so realistic that one cannot differentiate between the game and the real football.


texts:
Is it proper to start a sentence with completely? As in,

  Completely, the men trusted her.

Why or why not?

I ask because it doesn't "sound" right.


texts: What is the meaning and origin of the saying "top brick off the chimney"?

texts:
My parents use the term “top brick off the chimney” for my children sometimes, implying they get the best of what is on offer. For example, the best cut of meat.

None of us quite know what it exactly means or its origin. Both my parents heard it as children in the 1950's / 1960's in New Zealand so I imagine it has an English origin. I'd be grateful if you could tell me any information about when and where it was first used and how its meaning developed over time.


texts: Can somebody help me to find the appropriate word for a course that thorough, fast and useful?

texts:
all
I have a problem to find the good word for describing a course that is thorough, fast (in short time) like seminar and fruitful. Is it possible for me to use words 'a straightaway course'?

Thank you in advance!


texts: I heard that it is okay to use the word "After" in the meaning of the word "Then". Is it true? For example: "After I will play tennis".


texts: Is it "a sombre look" or "sombre looks" when there are many people having (a) sombre facial expression(s)?

texts:
I am looking at a situation where many people are wearing the look and I don't know for sure which one to use between these two:

They had all gathered in the ante-room, wearing a sombre look.
They had all gathered in the ante-room, wearing sombre looks.

Also, is the comma necessary?


texts: what does the word 'edge' mean in this sentence from Sherlock Holmes?

texts:
The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating
nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy.

From the dictionary, there are two definitions which, in my opinion, are contradictory when applied to this sentence. I am not quite sure of the word edge here. Does it mean the side of a blade that cuts, which is a negative meaning; or does it mean an advantage over other people, which is a positive meaning. Does Conan say that the cold air damages man's energy, or actually that cold air makes a man inclined to move more which generates more heat in the body? Thank you.


texts: Etymology of "between a rock and hard place"

texts: I don't find any of the origin stories posted for this phrase plausible. Has anyone scoured the many concordances of the English Bible? If the answer is no, I'll embark on the task myself.


texts: Children are children. Is this sentence correct?

texts:
Is the following sentence grammatically correct in formal writing?
'Children are children'. Wrote this in IELTS examination as a opening sentence for an essay. Curious enough to know before results are out.


texts: I'm looking for an idiomatic expression meaning 'that old problem'

texts: It's on the tip of my tongue but I can't think of the expression referring to a repeated problem that gets verbalised; something like 'that old nugget'??!


texts:
I am using the following phrase in an abstract I'm writing:

  in situ formation of planets

I wanted to ask if a hyphen is needed in this phrase, and if so where?

This question says that "in situ" should not be hyphenated because the two words are not two separate adjectives, but rather "in situ" is a single adjective, borrowed from Latin.  I wanted to confirm that this analysis carries over to this particular usage of "in situ".


texts: What is the antonym of “veering” in the nautical sense?

texts:
I learned that in nautical English, as used in weather forecasts* transmitted by maritime radio services, if the wind is indicated veering, this has the meaning the direction where it comes from will turn clockwise. Unluckily, there was no example for wind turning counterclockwise. Looking into dictionaries and dictionary sites, I only found veering with the meaning of turning, without an implication of direction. (Is the implied direction limited to nautical usage?)

What word or expression is typically used in maritime weather forecasts to indicate wind turning counter-clockwise? Is there an antonym to veering?


texts:
Is there a single word conjuring up the image of an intelligent woman? I am not looking for a gendered form such as "sagess", "luminaress", etc.

Whereas there are words specifically describing women such as "termagant", "virago", and "tart", I'd like a noun that describes a woman as intelligent.

I am also open to an allusion, like the way "Amazon" alludes to a strong woman. An example of this is "Athena", but it doesn't sound as natural to me as "Amazon" does in describing a person.


texts:
When Dr. Barclay was called, I was surprised. I had expected an elderly man, but he was only in the late thirties and good-looking. Knowing Elinor, I wondered. Except for Fred, who had no looks whatever, she had had a passion for handsome men.
Beside me, I heard Mother give a ladylike snort. “so that’s it!” she said. “She had as much need for a psychiatrist as I have for a third leg.”

A beginning part of "The Lipstick" by Mary Roberts Rinehart.
The short story was written in 1942, so the expression 'a third leg' might be used in a different context from these days' vulgar meaning.
The dialogue is happening in the coronor's office after Elinor took her own life.


texts:
This question came to my mind after seeing this tweet from an online acquaintance:

  The use of learning as a noun makes me ill. Maybe someone gained
  their learnings about language from corporate Borat.

Is the word learning used as a noun not correct English? If so, what are the words one should be using to express the same intended meaning?


texts:
"Thirsty, we drank. Hungry, we ate. Tired, we slept."

Is there a name for this form of writing? Is it a recognised literary device?


texts:
I write and review technical reports.  We need help answering a question regarding the subtle difference in using the word cross or the word traverse in sentences.  For instance:

A pipeline crosses the property.
A pipeline traverses the property.

It is my impression that cross would be the better choice.  To me, traverse implies the act of moving back and forth, or traveling, where cross implies something from point A to B.

Any help is appreciated.


texts: What if we met tomorrow? vs What if we meet tomorrow?

texts:
I just asked a friend: "What if we met tomorrow?"
My girlfriend called me out on it and says it should be: "What if we meet tomorrow?" In my head both sound fine, but I know I couldn't say: "Could we met tomorrow?", so I'm starting to doubt myself. It does seem strange to use the past tense "met" to describe a future event, so is it technically wrong?

Thanks in advance :)


texts: What dos "get hitched" mean in this sentence?

texts:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/magazine/the-lost-history-of-gay-adult-adoption.html

  In May 2008, the California Supreme Court gave gay couples the right to marry. This was reversed in a matter of months, when voters adopted a constitutional amendment. But in the interim, on June 18 at 9:30 a.m., Faderman and Irwin got hitched. What they didn’t do, however, was vacate the adoption.


texts: How derogatory is “chicks” when used to refer to women?

texts:
A comment in “What is a feminine version of guys?” got me wondering: how derogatory is the use of chicks to refer to women (either in general, or to a specific group). To me (I'm a man), it was quite disrespectful, so that it may be some slang term you use with male buddies (“See the hot chick over there?”), but I would not use the term in presence of women: neither in direct address (“Hi chicks!”, as I would say “Hi gals!” to a group of friends) nor when referring to other women.

How derogatory is chick? In what contexts would you use it, as a man? And when used by a woman?


texts: Should there be comma here? “As a tutor running the weekly physics help room, I help students...”

texts:
As a tutor running the weekly physics help room I help students taking their first steps in understanding new and difficult concepts, be that torque for the non-major introductory course or Lorentz contractions for the physics-major introductory course.

or

  As a tutor running the weekly physics help room, I help students taking their first steps in understanding new and difficult concepts, be that torque for the non-major introductory course or Lorentz contractions for the physics-major introductory course.


texts: Hear it used this way? - Complement or Modifier

texts:
While writing the following sentence I was curious whether the sentence was correct. But after checking COCA, I came to now that similar expressions are in use. The sentence I wrote is:

  Have you heard it used this way?

In COCA I found the following:

  I had never heard it described that way.
  I use the term and I've heard it used fairly interchangeably.

My question is:

If the part after "it" for example "used this way", "described that way" or "used fairly interchangeably" is the modifier of "it" and as such it is the part of a noun phrase headed by "it". Or if they are the second complement of the verb "hear", the first being "it".

And how to distinguish the two in here?


texts: Does it sound strange to write "plant's water and nutrients intake"?

texts: there. I'd like to know if "intake" can be used with "plant" in "plant's water and nutrients intake". Or does it sound strange? Thanks.


texts: "Did you do it?" vs "Have you done it?"?

texts:
If someone did something that made me mad, which is correct to say:

Did you do it?
have you done it?

If not, what is the proper situation for saying Did you do it?


texts: Do accents still play a role in British class distinctions to the present day? How have things changed since the 1960s and Received Pronunciation?

texts:
An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him.
The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.
If you spoke as she does, sir,
Instead of the way you do,
Why, you might be selling flowers, too!

Those are probably my two favorite lines in my favorite song of my favorite musical, My Fair Lady. I have to admit I've been caught quoting them once or twice when asked by friends or family why I tend to be exacting about proper English speech. The movie made huge impression on me since I first watched it at age 6; Henry Higgins is kind of a personal hero of mine.
But how true are his words to reality today? Now, I've read all about Received Pronunciation, and hypercorrective hs, and they are indeed interesting topics to discuss, but I get the impression that not even the upper-class adhere to Received Pronunciation anymore, and that much effort has been invested by many British to be more colloquial in speech so as not to seem outwardly too posh or upper-class.  I get the impression that many view speech distinctions as something to be publicly denounced or abhorred.  That doesn't mean that those distinctions don't exist of course, but Received Pronunciation in particular seems to me a social distinction of a long past age, and besides there are a ton of other English accents to talk about. Discussing RP as the totality of what it is to be said on the subject also seems myopically centered on London to detriment of the rest of the UK.
I think it's also important to consider that the demographics of the classes and thus the linguistic baggage different ethnic groups brought into British speech might have changed the different distinctions.   For example, I know that upper-caste Indians have become a prosperous group in the UK; have they in any way changed the markings of the upper class speech?  What about the ascendance of Jews escaping from the Holocaust, and a "Yiddish" manner of speaking they might have brought with them? Have wealthy and prominent Russian moguls changed speech patterns? (For example, in this question the question-answerer remarks on the middle class' willingness to use na zdrovyeh as a toast in place of cheers; have other things changed?)
The converse probably holds too: I'd guess that immigrants from Commonwealth Carribean countries and Polish migrant workers have possibly changed distinctions on what it means to have "working-class" speech patterns.  What can be broadly said about all this?
TL; DR summary: What examples can you offer of accents or speech differentiating social classes in the present day that doesn't discuss Received Pronunciation?


texts:
I said that when I grew up I would own a house right here in Sea Bright. I would be able to look at the ocean every day, in all of its moods, even when the wind howled in winter and smashed the sea into boiling white.

Source: Dreams Do Come True

What does the phrase "in all of its moods" mean?


texts: What is the adjectival form of "nemesis"?

texts:
If I have a non-person object or idea that I consider to be my nemesis1, how could I refer to the object as a noun but use an embellishing adjective to emphasize that the object is my nemesis?

For instance, "Since the end of World War II, Communism has been the [nemesisical] ideology of the United States."

Some words that come to mind include adversarial, opposing, antagonistic, but these don't have quite the same  meaning.

1This question was prompted by a now-deleted question on Software Engineering.SE: Do you have a [programming] language that's your nemesis? (10k only)


texts:
What's a better way of saying "removes responsibility"?

Hard determinism's ______ of responsibility is a fundamental problem for society, as our current punishment systems rely upon individuals having moral choice and culpability.
This ______ of responsibility carries worrying implications

I thought already of "alleviation", "assuagement" but I know that there's a far better alternative that's almost specifically for responsibility, but I can't seem to recall it.

Hard determinism is a philosophical branch which states that everyone's actions are caused by prior events outside of their control.
Therefore, no one ever makes a truly "free" choice, and ultimately someone's actions can be predicted if one were to know all prior causes.
This removes responsibility from the individual.


texts: Word which describes a thing which is to be considered

texts:
I'm after a word to use as a heading for a list of questions which need consideration.

This list of questions is adhoc and will not be repeated - they are specific to a single document which, once it's served it's purpose, will never be reused.

"Considerations" means something different, I keep coming back to phrases and am now suffering mental block.

"Ponderings" seems to imply it is something that I've thought about but these items are things I want other people to think about.

Phrases which describe the word I'm after would be things such as:

Things to be considered
Questions to be considered
Things to be thought about

My particular list is to do with a human resources issue and, having addressed various issues elsewhere in my document, I'm left with a residual list of questions which need to be considered such as:

should ZHCEs accrue annual leave whilst taking annual leave?
should ZHCEs be allowed to transfer annual leave across leave periods?
under what circumstances should ZHCEs be allowed to take leave before it has been accrued?

Any ideas?


texts:
Suppose I am seeing a picture and telling someone

at/on the left side you and at/on the right side me


texts: What is an adjective for "requires a lot of work"?

texts:
For example,
Starting a new business requires a lot of work.

What would be an adjective in: Starting a new business is _.


texts:
My first name is Thu, my middle name is Thi and my last name (which is also my father's name) is BUI.

How should I write my full name:

Thi - Thu BUI
Thu Thi Bui


texts: The popularity of the word "coeval" has been declining for over 100 years now. Why?

texts:
According to Ngram, anyway.

The vast majority of English speakers seem to have no idea what the word means.

Now why is that?

UPDATE: After reading some of the responses:

As a noun.


texts: A shorter term for "Content revision request pending approval" ("pull request")

texts:
I need a shorter word (because it will be a menu item in an interface) for the concept of suggestions to revise content, submitted by someone who does not have the authority to change the content, but who can submit these requests which can be reviewed by the moderators to be either approved or rejected.
A programmer would think of this as a "pull request", but I need to use a term that is understood by all people.
The shortest I can think of is "content revision request" or "revision request". But it would be great if a shorter word exists.


texts: a better term for "Energy Imbalance Market"

texts:
These are how I understand the meaning of the phrases

Energy imbalanced market: Trading of energy in a market where supply of energy is imbalanced.
Energy imbalance market: Trading of energy-imbalance, so that the buyer of a chunk energy imbalance, will reap financial gains from exploiting and possibly blackmailing the disadvantaged consumers and suppliers in this market.

That is to say, I am questioning if an agency of the US govt, and their private sector collaborators, have possibly neglected to use professional grammar.

Energy Imbalance Markets is cooperation among electricity providers (generators and transmitters) to overcome the problems of unpredictability and intermittent nature of renewable power supply, such as solar and wind - especially those provided by homeowners.

Since energy-imbalanced providers are highly unpredictable, conventional energy suppliers would have to invest in assets to provide assurance of supply to smooth over the unpredictability of those providers. Hence, making renewable energy a hifalutin noble but near pointless effort.

However, pooling together resources, demand and supply, and trading energy over the existence of energy-imbalance will save traditional suppliers obliged to accept imbalanced-energy supplies, actual money.

Which would have been a better term for such energy trading cooperation?


texts: What's the word for controlling/inputting without actually touching the device?

texts: I'm writing a program that allows user to emulate keyboard and mouse using an array of sensors that are put on the user's wrist, so that the user can control the computer without having to come close to it. Is these a general word for such input model?


texts: Verb for bringing something from out of a state of completion?

texts:
Let's say you are filling out a form. When you are done you can say, "I have completed this form."

It is in a state of completion because all of the required entries are filled out.

Now, let's say you need to make a few revisions, so the very first thing you do is to erase a field on the form. You've now brought this form to a state of "incompletion"

What verb adequately describes this notion of "to make incomplete?"

e.g. "When I erased this field I have ______ this form." (past tense example)

Something like this? "I have uncompleted this form."


texts: Is " ... and was wondering ..." correct?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  I <verb> and am <rest of sentence>

Since I'm a native Spanish speaker I tend to suppress the subject a lot when speaking, since most of the time it's tacit for us.

So, many times I find myself writing things like "but I'm not sure, and was wondering", which sounds good to me, but then I realize that, in this case, was doesn't have a corresponding subject, at least not an immediate one.

Can the subject (I) from the first part of the sentence be considered as the subject of the remaining statement ("was wondering")? I guess not, but it doesn't hurt to ask.


texts: How to pronounce abbreviations by prefix part?

texts:
For example, how to pronounce the following:

dir (directory), deer or /də:/?
char (character), /kær/ or /tʃa:r/?
def (define), deff or diff?
mic (microphone), mik or mike?
var (variable), vaar or /vɛə/ or /və/?
bin (binary), binn or bine?
lic (license), lick, like, liss, lice?
dat (data), datt or date?
loc (location), lokk or /lək/?

etc. and the general form?


texts: There is something about us that we see in that?

texts:
I think Egypt has such a grip on us because they had access to stone …
  and with that stone they built the world's first skyscrapers..there's
  something about us that we see in that.

What does the last sentence mean?


texts: What does 'one' in this sentence refer to?

texts:
The past decade has seen a growing public fascination with the complex
  “connectedness” of modern society. At the heart of this fascination is
  the idea of a network – a pattern of interconnections among a set of
  things – and one finds networks appearing in discussion and
  commentary on an enormous range of topics.

What does one mean here?

[Source: Networks, Crowds, and Markets]


texts:
There's a question in an exam paper to which there's only one answer:

Students ______ to make tough decisions after the final exams are out.
Between 'have' and 'are', which most suitably fills the gap?

(the tense of the passage is present - from a newspaper actually)


texts:
Peter gave me a despising look.
  Peter gave me a despised look.

Are the two statements above the same?

My understanding is that in statement 1, I may have done something that Peter thinks is not good. So he looked down upon me. In statement 2, I may have done something to show that I looked down upon Peter. So he felt that he had been looked down upon.

Is my understanding correct?


texts:
I just learnt about the expression "to bite the bullet", meaning Accept the inevitable impending hardship and endure the resulting pain with fortitude (as seen in its article in phrases.org).

I have read about its origin, but it looks a bit unclear or disputed, since different historical reasons appear in its Wikipedia article.

Is there any authoritative or more relevant source to get to know its origin? Does it always mean "show courage" or it depends on the region?


texts: What is more acceptable—"Hopkins's" or "Hopkins'"?

texts: The title is fairly self-explanatory, but I was wondering how one would write/say the possessive form of the name "Hopkins". Is it " Hopkins's " or " Hopkins' " or are both acceptable?


texts:
Is either of these 'more correct'?

She may even have pre-empted us.
She may have even pre-empted us.

Is it purely a case of which sounds better in any case, or are there specific rules?


texts:
I've recently come across a novel called A most wanted man, after which being curious I found a TV episode called A most unusual camera.

Could someone shed some light on how to use "a most" and whether it has anything to do with "the most"?


texts:
I cannot grasp the sentence structure of this:

  What incites my curiosity even further is how to we categorize appropriation in the case when Japanese people say that there is nothing offensive about an “appropriation”, that they are not victimized, but are, instead happy? (Source)

What makes me confused is the part of "how to". I understand the subject is What incites my curiosity even further, but why does "we categorize "come after "to", not a verb, just "categorize"?

Then it occurred to me that maybe I grasped the structure wrongly. Or is it just a mistake?


texts: Are there any cases where "out of" is dead wrong or sounds awkward?

texts:
The question about "he looked out the window" vs. "he looked out of the window" has already been asked and answered satisfactorily: apparently it's a matter of taste and de gustibus non est disputandum.

Now English is admirably flexible but it cannot be infinitely flexible, hence my question: are there any specific cases where I should better opt for the "out of" or rather for the bare "out" lest I sound like the well-meaning illiterate I really am?

OK, after two days of silence I gather that there's no easy rule of thumb, thus one can rely only on his own Sprachgefühl. Anyway thanks for trying.


texts: Pass me the almond cookie V/s Pass me an almond cookie

texts:
Sentence:Pass me the almond cookie.
Why does this sentence not framed like -"Pass me an almond cookie"
IS it because the person wants "the almond cookie" out of all other cookies. Because the definiteness of the cookie takes precedence over "an"


texts:
I'm trying to say that each message can take some time to arrive (a delay), and that each such delay can have any value. So, which one of the following is the most appropriate?

  There is no bound on message delay.

or

  There is no bound on message delays.

or

  There is no bound on messages delays.

Also, there is a number of processes, running at different speeds, and the speed difference is unbound. So a similar question would be what's the best combination of words for the following sentence?

  There is no bound on relative process/processes speed/speeds?


texts: Difference between elucidate and explicate

texts:
I read the definitions of these two terms rendered by various dictionaries and concluded that

elucidate denotes 'to make perspicuous or intelligible (especially by explanation)'; whereas,
explicate denotes 'to elaborate on a theory in a manner that makes it more perspicuous or intelligible'.

I can't discern a distinction other than the possibility that explicate is the more appropriate word when the object is a theory (e.g. one might explicate a theory but elucidate a process).

Is that the distinction between these two words? If not, then what distinguishes these two words from each other?


texts: What tense uses the future perfect "will have + past participle" and then adds a present participle?

texts:
The sentence

  I don't think the leaves will have started changing colors yet.

threw me for a loop today.  I've been searching for hours, and I can't find anything close to a definitive answer on the question.  At first glance it looks like it's simply Future Perfect.  That can't be right, though, because the timing doesn't work out, being as how it's talking about an action in progress with the present participle.  At the same time, I don't think it can be Future Perfect Continuous while it's missing the "to be" verb.  I know that there is nothing grammatically wrong with the sentence, but for the life of me, I just can't define it.


texts: "An arc of knives deal damage" or "An arc of knives deals damage"

texts:
From a video game:

  Fires an arc of knives in front of the caster which deal physical damage.

A forum user posted this criticism:

  An arc deals physical damage. The subject is arc, not knives, so deal should be changed to deals.

A developer's response:

  No, it is the knives dealing the damage, not the arc. The grammar of the main sentence leaves the subject of the subordinate clause ambiguous - it could be either - but the conjugation of "deal" tells you it is the knives.

I understand the argument on both sides (sort of), but I feel like the forum user is correct.

Could someone with a better understanding of grammar help me see what the correct form is?


texts:
In school we are taught the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.

Today's XKCD got me thinking about when the letter Y is considered to be a vowel.  I understand (perhaps incorrectly) that in words like bicycle and why it is a vowel. What about the word voyeur (as mentioned in the XKCD alt-text)?

If I've got this backwards, and Y is almost always a vowel, how can I tell when it is a consonant? Thinking back, I don't think my education ever covered the difference between them, we just memorized which letters were which.


texts: Does "parody" imply a mocking or satirical intent?

texts:
When garnishing my cake, I attempted to parody your style of blending the glaze and frosting together with melted butter.

Is this a correct usage of the word parody given that there is no mocking or satirical intent?


texts: How to identify the antecedent of an adverbial phrase

texts:
I am working with a test prep guide that states the following:

incorrect: John picked up one of the balls that was on the lawn.
correct: John picked up one of the balls that were on the lawn.

Question:  Why does the phrase “that…lawn” modify “balls” and not “one”?  Is there a rule we can apply?


texts:
I came across this sentence, "Twice as many people as previously estimated are dying of Sepsis."
Then can I change that sentence into this one?
"People are dying of Sepsis twice as much as previously estimated."
If not, is there any other alternative?


texts: Why does pluralization of compound words typically occur in the middle as opposed to the end of the word?

texts:
As I understand, correct plural versions of passerby and attorney general become passersby and attorneys general.  But why?

With passerby, the the preposition "by" has been combined with the noun "passer" to become a one word noun "passerby".  So why shouldn't this be passerbys?

If I am an attorney general, and you are an attorney general, why are we not attorney generals?  As an American I have always heard it as attorneys general, however this article suggests British English does use "attorney-generals" (as well as an interesting 2nd paragraph that further probes my question).

Are there hard rules to this topic?  Or merely generally accepted practices based on locale?