texts: What is the difference between "above" and "over"?

texts:
We ordinarily apply above and over in place of each other.

Is there an accurate difference between them? If so, what is it?
When do we use above and when do we use over?  what is the similarities between them?

we want to know what are differences exactly and accurately among them? I need a response which accurately draw these differences?


texts: From the Feed the birds song in Mary Poppins. The lyrics include the phrase Tuppence a bag. What does this mean?


texts:
I'd like to know what's the difference between:
"We decided to have a nap" and "We decided to take a nap".

Is it a BrE / AmE thing?


texts:
Here's my sentence:

  I haven't played much Risk, but if we do, you can imagine what would
  happen.

Is the above correct, or is one of the two sentences below correct?

  I haven't played much Risk, but, if we do, you can imagine what would
  happen.

  I haven't played much Risk but, if we do, you can imagine what would
  happen.

Thanks for the help!


texts:
I am confused between the two:

  My father is due to retire/retirement in a few months and is restless.

According to my understanding, retire sounds more appropriate. But I am not sure. Could anyone explain the correct form.


texts: Idiom/phrase when one takes some share from the shared resources & offers it to others as if he is offering with his own money & appearing generous

texts:
When Jack takes some leftover beverages (shared-resource) from chip-in that is contributed for a party without other member's consent and are yet required for the coming guests.

Jack then leaves the party to go home. As he approaches his residence building, in  pursuit of his own self-interest, he stops the watchman (who mind the building) and offers the beverages, then goes to the hardware shop attached to the building and offers the beverages to the electrician and the AC technician and other labors who does rectifies his home stuff when they breakdown. This is done so that they feel that Jack is a charitable person who offers then the beverages from his money and are in debt to Jack

What is the idiom/phrase for this situation.


texts:
Background In my thesis I have to write without 1st person. On the other hand I sometimes have to explain how I have chosen some parameters or how I have realized some implementation etc. (which in a paper I would write in 1st person of course).

My solution is very often to write "in this work" or passive voice or whatsoever. It also stands to reason to use the word "here" more often. However, in the most cases it sounds awkward and I am unsure where to position it.

Questions At which position of the sentence I should position the word "here"? Which of the following versions should be preferred:

Version 1: A has to be transformed to B, which here is done by a rotation R.
Version 2: A has to be transformed to B, which is done by a rotation R here.

Or should I 100%ly avoid the word "here" in scientific context?

My impression Version 2 sounds more natural to me. On the other hand the "here" feels so like a little bit "too much". This becomes even worse for longer sentences. In version 1 "here" better fits into the sentence and puts the emphasis where I like it. Unfortunately, it sounds grammatically awkward to me.


texts: Is it possible to form adjective "morally" by deriving it from the noun "moral" (as in "of the story")?

texts:
Recently I used the word morally as an adjective formed from the noun moral. The concept I wanted to describe was that some statement is morally correct if you are able to agree with it intuitively but you don't necessarily have evidence or proof for it. So the statement would be a moral of some precise story (meaning evidence or proof).

Then it was pointed out to me that this might not be correct because morally is usually understood as referring to morality. So I looked it up in the dictionary and, indeed, I weren't able to find the meaning I wanted. So my questions are:

  Is it correct to use word morally in the meaning I referred to above?
  More generally, how do I know that words I form (e.g. by deriving adjectives from nouns) are correct? Is it enough to look in the dictionary and by not finding the word there, could I conclude that the word (or some special meaning of the word) indeed does not exist?


texts:
If two people are trying to avoid eye contact with each other, either out of hatred or just out of lack of interest, can we have one word for this situation?

I am not sure if 'dodge' can be used. In any case, I am thinking of another word which I think I heard in Friends TV series. Perhaps I think Chandler and Joey were avoiding Ross, and Ross confronted them, and used a word starting with B, which meant avoiding. Not able to recall that word. So maybe I am also looking for a word where people are avoiding eye contact for a long period of time.

Sentences: 1. When they met in the hallway, they dodged each other, and went about their business. 2. They have been circumventing each other for days now.

I wish dodge or circumvent could be replaced with better verbs here. Something that clearly hints about avoiding eye contact.


texts: What is an adjective to describe someone who constructs their moral views based on convenience?

texts:
Until recently I believed that "self-righteous" describes someone whose ideas of right and wrong are conveniently aligned with their own situation, in a way that does not require them to put much effort into doing what is right or avoiding what is wrong and allows them to judge others while being immune or resistant to the same judgement themselves.
Apparently this is not what self-righteous means. So what word could be used to describe this? Compound words are fine, obviously.
Examples:

Someone who was born rich saying that people living in poverty are simply lacking ambition.
Someone who cannot afford a plane ticket or car bragging about saving the environment by not using fossil fuel.
Being quick to judge other people's misbehavior but blaming your own misbehavior on something beyond your control.

Example sentence:

Being mad at Laura for keeping a minor secret from you when you've cheated on her is very ______ of you.


texts:
My colleague and I write articles about a social media's updates on the platform (e.g. Twitter dark mode, Facebook ad placements).

Whenever we write our articles, we indicate the date to inform the reader when the update rolled out. Should we still add the word "now" even if the date was already added?

For example,

"Facebook announced an update on ads placement on June 8, 2019. Now, businesses can decide where to place their ads on a video or on users' Facebook feeds."

The reason I try not to use "now" in articles because let's say someone's reading this article a week or month later, would the word now still be applicable by that time?

I'd really like your take on this. Thanks!


texts: How to write Spanish Vowel sounds into English?

texts:
Background
I'm writing a novel with original character names, and I want to find the way of how to correctly write their names in English to keep the same pronunciation as they had had in Spanish.
The basic problem for me is the sounds of the vowels, so how can you generate the Spanish vowels in English?
Example
Nimree written like this in English would have a different sound than its pronunciation in Spanish, and even tough names writing across languages should be respected. I want to shape these Spanish names into English so there's no confusion about how they are to be pronounced.
So how you would write each original Spanish vowel sound so that it keeps its original sound when ultimately read by English speakers who don't understand Spanish vowels?

A
E
I
O
U


texts: I do not understand how the phrase "apple of my eye" connotes affection. Where and how did this phrase originate and how can it refer to something dear?


texts:
"A pertinent way to analyze this broad phenomenon is to subdivide its analysis in three sections which content is partly based on the updated findings...".

Until this passage, I was 100% sure that in this case I had to use whose instead of which.

An entry on Merriam-Webster goes like this:
(Content)
a :  the matter dealt with in a field of study
… the content of sociology is inexhaustible … — Franklin H. Giddings


texts: Does "X is made of people" intend a joking tone?

texts:
The essay How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub reads:

It said "people ages 25 to 29 now make up 7.6 percent of all residents, up from 7 percent about a decade ago." Wow, I thought, Pittsburgh could be the next Portland. It could become the cool place all the people in their twenties want to go live.
...
What does that have to do with startups? Startups are made of people, and the average age of the people in a typical startup is right in that 25 to 29 bracket.

Does this sentence intend a joking tone, like "bread is made of dough, and startups are made of people"? Or it's purely neutral? I'm translating this, and in translation this makes a big difference.


texts: How did "hearties" come to mean "shipmates"?

texts:
Typically I find hearty to be used as an adjective, for example:

Thank you for this hearty meal
He gave a hearty laugh

The definition for which can be found in any dictionary and can mean things like warm-hearted, genuine, forceful, etc.

The noun meaning being

  a brave or good fellow, especially with reference to a shipmate.

I couldn't find any reason why it should be especially applied to men of the sea.

Is there a reason why, for pirates in particular, shipmates are hearties?


texts: Is there a rule for good usage as concerns applying a number word as "one", "two" and so on as opposed to Arabic numerals as "1342"? Is it, for instance, a rule that numbers less than 20 should be designated with number words and larger numbers with Arabic numerals?


texts: Two gerunds and singular or plural verb?

texts:
What are the rules regarding two gerunds that are related to the same noun such as:

Taking and filming hikes make me tick

or

Taking and filming hikes makes me tick

Which one is correct?


texts: Is "gilded" usually associated with gold as an element or as a colour?

texts:
I know that gilded means

  covered or highlighted with gold or something of a golden color

So it can be associated both with gold as a chemical element or just the colour.

Some situations might give away which of these interpretations is the correct one (e.g. a gilded car is hardly covered in gold), but what about ambiguous ones (e.g. gilded earrings)?

When you read gilded in a sentence without further specifications, do you think about an item covered in real gold or just painted in such colour?

I'm looking for a "standard" interpretation (if there is one) on the matter, but also personal opinions, if properly supported, are accepted.


texts: Word for something so familiar or ubiquitous that it goes unnoticed?

texts: Like water to a fish, this thing is not entirely imperceptible but it is rarely noted, if at all.


texts: Is there a generic term/noun for something one says. I'm specifically looking for something you say in a conversation, but maybe there is even a more generic term. I'm looking for a word like 'sentence', 'remark', 'reply', but these are too specific.


texts: Correct or preferred preposition after noob

texts: What would be the preferred preposition after "noob", as in, "I'm a noob [preposition] programming"? Would that be "to", as in, "I'm a newcomer to x"? (I assume you would use the same preposition after "noob" and "newbie".)


texts:
I found the two meanings of the verb 'to catch the train, bus etc' in British English:

1) we are getting the stop/station, waiting and boarding

2) we are getting the stop/station, waiting and boarding and do all these things IN TIME.

There is the example from the related topic (BrE):

How shall we get to London next week?" "I've looked at the timetable, and I think we should catch the 10:49"

and I can't undestarnd how this example reffers with my two meanings of the verb 'to catch the train, bus etc'? I think it is more natural to use 'to take' or 'to get' instead of 'to catch'.


texts: Linking Verb Following a Past Participle?

texts:
I am writing an essay and it requires ALL present tense phrases.

One of my phrases:

  is described

Would that be considered a present tense phrase? Or would it count as past tense?

Is it a linking verb following a past participle?


texts: Suppose you're on an internet forum.  If post Y is a response to post X, then X is a [WHAT] to Y?  What's the antonym of "response", here?  The word coming to mind is "antecedent", but that's not the right word.  The thesauruses I looked at (online) weren't very helpful; most of them didn't list any antonyms, and the ones that did gave words only kinda relevant, in context, like "cause".


texts: Does the word “Loyal” have other meaning than “remaining faithful to somebody/something and supporting them or it?

texts:
I found the following definition in the answer to “What are pimps and hoes?” in Music Genres Questions in Wiki.answer.com.:

  “A pimp is a loyal person who pimps out girls of so called hoes
  meaning he makes them go have sex with guys for money and if the hoe
  doesn’t listen she will get slapped or backhanded. Practically the
  pimp makes the profit.”

I don’t understand the meaning of “a loyal person who pimp out girls,” as I recognized “loyal” only in the meaning of “being faithful to sb or sth.”

OALED at hand defines “loyal” simply as “remaining faithful to sb / sth and supporting them or it” with no mention on any other meanings.

Does the word, “loyal” have other meaning than being faithful to, for instance, “professional”?  If “Yes,” is it a customary usage of "loyal"?


texts: What is a communication breakdown caused by two cultures/societies trying to adapt one another's mores called?

texts:
For example, in Japan I often encounter this paradox when it comes to addressing friends. In Japan, it's generally rude to call someone by their first name unless you're really close friends. You'd generally refer to them by their last name followed by -san. Most of the young people that I meet in Japan have a good knowledge of American culture, and understand that for us calling someone Mr. (last name) means that you're not friends at all, and are interacting on a very formal level. So many people whom I've met have said "we're friends, please call me (Tetsuya, Katsuhiro, Yoshida, etc.)", even though we haven't known each other nearly long enough to be on a first name basis (by Japanese standards).

On a similar note, I often want to talk Japanese to my Japanese friends (because I know that they speak Japanese and I want to practice/impress them), but they often want to speak English to me (because they want to practice/impress me). Is there a word or a term for this phenomenon?

edit: To clarify, I'm specifically looking for a term that summarizes the communication breakdown caused by two cultures trying to, out of politeness or respect, accomodate each other's cultures?


texts: What is the difference between "out of", "from" and "off (of)"?

texts:
I dont know when to use each of them when it comes to places I know how to use "out of" and "off" like get in the car and get off roof but in these sentence it says:

the teachers have really been cracking down on kids copying off of each other.

I thought couldn't it be "out of" or "from"? Which is why I'm asking this, I dont know which to use in a certain context.


texts: Is it acceptable to use "just as well" in an academic paper

texts:
The title pretty much sums it up: is it permissible to use the words "just as well" in a formal academic paper?

For instance:

  The exchange might just as well have taken place in Abu Dhabi.


texts: Why do we use "what" instead of "who" in "what is your name?

texts: "What is your name?" instead of "who is your name?" any explanation?


texts: Does adding on to a statement mean you agree with it?

texts: If Person A says "Never trust a used car salesman or a politician" and Person B says "Or a lawyer" is it implied that person B agrees with Person A? Is there a word or phrase for this?


texts: "Subscribe for" vs. "subscribe to" updates

texts: What form is correct or more suitable when speaking about website updates?


texts:
'Customer Support' vs 'Customer Service'

I'm curious the different meaning What is exactly different? When use?


texts: How should I interpret "uncertain one" in this title?

texts:
"A consequential choice for France—and an uncertain one"

This is the title of the article about the French election. From this title I interpret that French people must make an extremely important choice in the coming election, and that it is not clear which candidate can make their lives better. Is my understanding appropriate?

April 22, 2017, The French election, The Economist


texts: Is the proper spelling “judgment” or “judgement”?

texts:
I always thought the proper spelling was  judgment, but I see  judgement all the time, even in articles, news, etc.   Merriam-Webster lists  judgement as a variant spelling for judgment.

But is the proper spelling  judgment?  I feel like I’m in the minority on this.


texts: Which preposition to use with “unbecoming”?

texts:
It is easy when you say something becomes or unbecomes someone. In this case, no preposition is needed. It is another story when the verb turns into the adjective “(un)becoming”. I would like to understand which pick is correct:

  a conduct (un)becoming a man

  a conduct (un)becoming to a man

  a conduct (un)becoming of a man

It is that inner feeling that tells me that the first sentence sounds awkward and misused. The variant with ‘to’ will be better in the verbal phrase “to conduct (un)becoming to a man”. Clearly, the choice becomes number three, or does it?


texts: Grammatically correct use of 'whilst stood'

texts: Is 'whilst stood in a cable car' correct grammar or should it be 'whilst standing in a cable car'?


texts: I was reading an article that stated that a certain weapon "necessitated the need for" more training. To me, this sounds incorrect, as "to necessitate" means "to cause something to be needed" (Cambridge dictionary); therefore, following it with "the need for" is redundant. However, I can find nothing to confirm this, and a Google search for "necessitate the need" comes back with many examples of published works and scholarly articles that use the phrase. Am I being overly pedantic?


texts: What's a phrase or word that describe acting, writing and directing at the same time?

texts:
Some actors write their own scripts, direct their own films and act in their own films at the same time. Is there a word or a phrase for it?

The best I can come up with is self-scripted play, much like a child playing with toys.


texts:
I came across this exchange between Fanny Price and Miss Crawford in "Mansfield Park" near the end of Chapter 29.

The phrase does seem to be a saying. Has anyone conjectured that it could be a source for the idiom, "I could care less"?

  "I know nothing of the Miss Owens," said Fanny calmly.

  "You know nothing and you care less, as people say. Never did tone
  express indifference plainer."

"I could care less" could be an abridgement of "I know nothing and care less," a simplification that avoids witticism and heightens the sense of indifference.

We can be sure that Fanny was not speaking sarcastically, so that Miss Crawford must have been mistaken about the tone that expresses indifference most plainly.

It would have been delicious if Fanny had turned to her and replied: "I could care less, dear heart."


texts: quite pretty, rather pretty, very pretty in British English and American English

texts: I have a feeling that "quite pretty" doesn't have exactly the same meaning in British English and American English. For instance, in American English, "She's quite pretty" is considered as a compliment, and is close in meaning with "She's very pretty", whereas in British English, "She's quite pretty" has more or less the meaning of "She's rather pretty", "She's okay", but not "very pretty", which means that "quite pretty" is not "quite a compliment" in British English. What do British and American native speakers think? What would an Austalian or a Canadian think?


texts: Complex yet not, something that can be explained in a different, simpler way

texts:
Here's the sentence I need to complete :
A religious speaks of angels bringing us from heaven before we birth, someone says they don't believe this because they aren't religious, so I explain that I think it's more of a ______
The word "reference" could be used but that's not really what I'm looking for.


texts: Is the expression "blocking point" correct?

texts: In a bullet list, I want to say there is a point which is "blocking".  Is "blocking point" the correct expression or not?


texts: Why to use "May" before using "May God bless you"?

texts:
I heard it many times but I haven't really pondered on that. We can hear these following sentences in our daily lives:

  May God bless you.
  May God be pleased with you.
  May God accept your prayers.

But why do we use "May" at the beginning of the sentence? Apparently, it doesn't make the sentence a question but more polite and respectful towards the God maybe? I cannot tell I heard this structure in any other sentence but religious ones. Which grammar rule does it belong to? And how do we use it in different forms?


texts: Where do I make the pause in this sentence

texts:
I am a Catholic monk, in our breviaries, in the English edition, we have a response for the night prayer which goes: "Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit." How do I use this?

Is it

Into your hands, / Lord, I commend my spirit. Or,
Into your hands, Lord, / I commend my spirit.

You may find this question stupid, but, I am not a native speaker of English. Any help will be highly appreciated.


texts:
Example sentence:

  I wondered why such a __ like Mary had fallen for such a jerk like
  Tom.

I thought of sweetheart but I think the word is more associated to "attractive" woman.


texts: What do you call a person who admits that she has a bad side and a good side too?

texts: What do you call a person who considers himself both bad and good? Bob, for example, burns his enemy's house as revenge, after which he says, "Good Bob wants to apologize, but bad Bob  wanted revenge." What would you call Bob?


texts: What are "people in a conversation" called in English?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  One that is holding a conversation

Currently I am trying to develop a mail software and I want to find the right word (if it exists) for people who are in a conversation. It is not contact list or mail list. It should be a word for the people.

So, what is it called in English? Is there any word for these people?


texts: Is there a technical term to describe why we feel the need to put emoticons and smileys in our writing?

texts: One often wants to convey a kind of mood when writing a comment to another person, especially if what we're saying is ambiguous or can be taken offensively.  So, one adds a smiley or an emoticon.  Is there a technical term for what they add or impart to the English language?


texts: "Indian" comes from Italian/Spanish "gente in dios" (God-like people)? False etymology?

texts:
A while ago in January The Black Hebrew Israelites were speaking/shouting/proselytizing to surrounding people at Lincoln Memorial. The speaker claimed that the word "Indian" means "savage". A member from the crowd approached the speakers, claiming he was a historian, and that "Indian" is a Spanish word meaning "God-like people". Interestingly the speaker from the Black Hebrew Israelites agreed with him.

This video has been pulled by Youtube. Here is another link to the argument.

I had never heard this etymology before. I searched a number of dictionaries but they didn't give an etymology. At Merriam-Webster many of the user who looked up the word said they were prompted to do so because of this section of the video.

So I went to Online Etymology Dictionary, and found no trace of the word God.

In my admittedly meager research I did find a question on this very site, Why do Americans still call Native Americans “Indians”?. Interestingly I found some trace of this etymology from a quotation of comedian George Carlin in the second answer. I quote from the quotation from the answer of that user:

  Now, the Indians. I call them Indians because that's what they are. They're Indians. There's nothing wrong with the word Indian. First of all, it's important to know that the word Indian does not derive from Columbus mistakenly believing he had reached "India". India was not even called by that name in 1492; it was known as Hindustan. More likely, the word Indian comes from Columbus's description of the people he found here. He was an Italian, and did not speak or write very good Spanish, so in his written accounts he called the Indians "Una gente in Dios". A people in God. In God. In Dios. Indians. It's a perfectly noble and respectable word.

Now, in fairness, I noticed that Carlin says "more likely the word Indian comes from", so it seems he qualified that statement with an expression of uncertainty.

Anyway, that's what I found. In a comment to that answer a user comments:

  Deriving "Indian" from "In Dios" really really really sounds like a backronym (or backmanteau, or whatever). George Carlin was a comedian, not an etymologist or historian.
  Link

I have good reason to doubt this etymology, but it's surprising that it seems to be a popular etymology doing the rounds, such that two speakers in that video believed it, one of whom claimed he was a historian, and George Carlin also spread this.

My first question is: This is a false etymology, right? If so, any idea where it originated?

Second question (just for general knowledge): The word India was used for the geographical area of India going back a long way correct? It's not the case that it was only referred to as Hindustan. My reading on Wikipedia suggests that "India" was used by Herotodus in 4th century BC and from the 9th century in Old English.


texts: How to pronounce "CEEAUS", "ICNALE", etc.?

texts:
Are there rules for pronunciation of acronyms?

There seems that acronyms are pronounced differently, for example, TESOL /ti-soul/, UCL /yu-ci-el/. Could I generalize a rule based on my limited observation?

The rule is that if the acronym is formed like an English word, like a consonant or a cluster of consonants, a vowel, and then a consonant, and a vowel, it will be pronounced like an English word, and if the acronym is formed not like an English word, it will be pronounced letter by letter.

  "CEEAUS" for "The Corpus of English Essays Written by Asian University
  Students"; "ICNALE" for "The International Corpus Network of Asian
  Learners of English"

Thanks.


texts: Should the abbreviated forms of Latin terms be placed in italics?

texts: When writing English, one often uses Latin terms, such as exemplī grātiā, opere citātō, and id est, but in abbreviated forms, "e.g.", "op. cit.", and "i.e.". When writing Latin terms in English, one often places them in italics. Should the abbreviated forms of such Latin terms also be placed in italics?


texts: Placement of question mark when terminal quote has no question mark but sentence does

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Question mark usage/position when sentence ends with a declarative quotation?

If I'm quoting something someone said and the quote does not have a question mark, but I want to end the sentence with a question mark, would it be

  Are you sure she said "Spicy?"

or

  Are you sure she said "Spicy"?


texts:
Using different numbering systems/notations, "normal" decimal numeric expressions can be presented variously.

For example, my age (57) is represented in hexadecimal as "39"

However, once I'm 58, it would be "3A"

How are hex numbers pronounced? Is it proper (ethics aside) to say that (in hexadecimal) I'm "thirty-nine"? Or is it pronounced "three nine" or some other way?

And what about "3A" - would it be "thirty ten" or "three A" or...???

Of course, the same question applies to other numbering systems: octal, or one of your own derivation, etc.


texts: Having done something so often, that it's all routine

texts:
I would like an expression that emphasizes that you've done something lots of times, that it's just routine to you. I thought

  "I've done it so many times, I can do it in my sleep"

might work, but I'm curious if there's any better alternatives.


texts: Preventing the repetition of two predict-originated words in a sentence

texts:
I have the following sentence:

  Researchers have noted the predictive power of features derived from students'
  activity sequences when predicting if students will stop participating in online courses.

I know that predicting sounds a little repetitive. However, I could not find another way to phrase this. Any ideas?


texts: What is a word or phrase for someone who does shift work alone?

texts: The kind of worker (shift worker) who to do all job alone without co-worker, like someone who works in such fast food or retail but he got the single person shift. Is there any specific term about that. Thank you for you answer.


texts:
We say that could is sometimes the past of can. If that's true then why can't we use it in the following context.

They didn't let us. We could walk.

Instead we say:

They didn't let us. We could have walked.

But we can say:

Listen! I can hear something.
I listened and I could hear something. Why not "I listened and I could have heard something"


texts:
In the final scene Hamlet's mother, watching the duel and worried about her son's fortunes, observes that

  He's fat and scant of breath.

Editions that bother to explain this or that archaic turn of phrase in Shakespeare take the trouble of pointing out, usually in a footnote, that the author actually meant rusty rather than corpulent.

I wonder whether this is true.


texts: Gerund, to-infinitive or bare infinitive?

texts:
Which of the following three constructions is more common in everyday speech?

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than kissing my girlfriend.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to kiss my girlfriend.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than kiss my girlfriend.


texts: American kitchen towel. I've seen lots of interesting stuff on here, but What is it in a recipe?

texts:
My recipe for bottling (Am.canning) sour cherries tells me to put
old kitchen towels in the base of a water bath. I'll be standing glass jars on them, and boiling the whole shebang.  Sooo - am I supposed to use something like a J-cloth or something like a tea towel? I'm pretty sure I'm not to use British kitchen towel aka kitchen paper.
Could someone who cooks answer, perhaps?


texts:
Having 10 percent of the population left-handed was an advantage for human beings.

Is the sentence above natural to you, especially, the part "Having 10 percent of the population left-handed".

Does the word order "10 percent of the population left-handed" make sense to you?

PS
I have realized that "having" is a gerund, and I do not have any problem about it. I am wondering about the phrase "10 percent of the population left-handed". Why is it possible? Is it possible because of "have"?


texts: What is the correct spelling of the Arabic name سعد in English?

texts:
I need help in how to spell the Arabic name (سعد). I previously asked the question Sa'ad : Correct spelling in English and French; however, it got closed.

I added a youtube video describing how it is pronounced, so experts can listen and try to describe how it would be spelled.

Based on the FAQ, Spelling and punctuation are acceptable questions.


texts: What is an adjective relating to the concept of dialects?

texts:
I'm trying to say:

  the dialect__ differences between Castilian and Chilean Spanish are
  exciting.

I thought it was dialectic, but I recently found out that dialectic meant:

  the art or practice of logical discussion as employed in investigating
  the truth of a theory or opinion. logical argumentation.

Or does dialectic also make sense in the above sentence?


texts: How to politely say to sellers in stores that you don't need help?

texts:
This happens quite often. You're at a store, and while looking for clothes sellers come over and ask if you need any help. And since my English is far away from normal English I just use what I know might work in similar cases.

What do natives use to say politely (or why not just informally), that:

They are ok, and they can find it on their own?
They are just, kind of watching (I know this can't be the right
word), probably not intending to buy anything particular at the
moment?

Thank you!


texts: What's a generic noun for referring to the bulk material of pure chemical elements?

texts:
What's a generic noun (single word or multi-word term) for referring to the bulk material of pure chemical elements?

I am talking about H2, O2, lead, diamond, graphene, etc, but not chemical elements, i.e. the atoms of hydrogen, lead, carbon, etc.

Just like "chemical compound" is an umbrella word for water, CO2, etc. etc., what is the umbrella word for substances that is composed of a pure chemical element?


texts: Can I say “the Iowa caucus result may ‘tip Newt Gingrich off’ GOP presidential ticket”?

texts:
Further to my question about the meaning of “Work on your issue” in Time magazine’s article, “Playing favorites,” there was another phrase I’m unfamiliar with in the subsequent sentence;

“One 2007 Norwegian study showed that firstborn have a 3-point IQ advantage over later siblings, partly a result of being the exclusive focus of their parents’ attention in the earliest part of life. These benefits accrue like compounding interest. A small IQ advantage may yield a similar edge in SAT scores, which may tip firstborn off the Harvard waiting list and into the entering class.

I looked for the definition and usage of the phrase, “tip somebody off someplace (Harvard waiting list / position, situation, whatever) in English dictionaries at hand, but was unable to find any relevant answer. They show “tip A off (off A)” as an idiom meaning “secretly inform a person / police about (against) something,” which I don’t think applicable to the above sentence.

From the context of the above sentence, I guess “tip somebody off someplace” means to place somebody successfully (or luckily) to someplace or status, but I’m not sure. What does “A similar edge in SAT scores may tip firstborn off the Harvard (entitlement),” exactly mean?

Can I apply the phrase to other instance, e.g. “The Iowa caucus result may tip Newt Gingrich off GOP presidential ticket”?


texts: I don't understand the meaning of the last sentence. “He held out his palms as if to have them read”

texts: A thin dark man in a dirty caftan materialized and spoke to us in a lengthy nasal language. He held out his palms as if to have them read.


texts: Can we use "who" by itself as a subject in spoken language?

texts:
For example, I want to say " Students who didn't come here yesterday are lazy."
But I say " Who didn't come here yesterday are lazy" instead because I talk to students and  I don't want to say "students" again. Does it make sense?


texts:
Fridges were especially useful for storing perishable substances such
  as milk, which had previously been the cause of thousands of
  deaths every year in the big cities of the world.

In the above sentence, would the antecedent of the relative pronoun which be "milk" or "perishable substances such as milk". I get confused whenever I try to identify the antecedents of relative pronouns with two or more NPs joined together.


texts:
“Harry! Good-o!” said Bagman happily, looking around at him. “Come in, come in, make yourself at home!”
Bagman looked somehow like a slightly overblown cartoon figure, standing amid all the pale-faced champions. He was wearing his old Wasp robes again.
(p349, Harry Potter 4, US edition)

According to a dictionary at hand, ‘overblown’ means ‘exaggerated’.
I’m thinking ‘overblown’ in the above quotation is used to contrast against ‘pale-faced’ champions. However, I can’t get what is exaggerated for sure; The color of robes? His happy face? Therefore, I can’t imagine such cartoon figure at all.
What does “a slightly overblown cartoon figure” mean? What kind of picture would you get from it?


texts: Can "authored by" be used to describe code project contributors?

texts:
I'm looking for a way to list the contributors to a code project in the project description. After seeing the responses to Does "collaborated by" make sense?, I started thinking of substitute words to replace "collaborated by" with.
My next idea was to use "authored by", like shown below:

Unicorn is an amazing tool that does super, cool stuff. Project authored by James Smith and Olivia Jones.

Can "authored by" be used to describe a code project?
When I googled the definition of "authored", I got the following results:

au·thor
verb
past tense: authored; past participle: authored

be the author of (a book or piece of writing).
"she has authored several articles on wildlife"
be the originator of; create.
"the concept has been authored largely by insurance companies"

I'm not sure if a code project falls into any of these categories.
The first definition seems to be specific for writing, so is source code considered a piece of writing?
The second definition is much more general, but it is not clear what this usage can be applied to. Not everything that can be "created" can be "authored".
For example:
"The construction worker created a house" makes sense.
"The construction worker authored a house" does not make sense.


texts: Meaning of "objective thinking" in the mentioned context?

texts:
I know the meaning of "objective thinking" but what does it mean in the following context?

  We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars, but it all comes to the same thing: peace in our time. A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run.

(Eco-Action)

I guess it doesn't here have the meaning it has in science or philosophy. But then I don't know what other meaning I should asign to it. Does it mean something like "wisdom"?
Objective thinking sometimes is contrasted with emotional thinking. Source. The question is how "peace in our time" is a requisite to objective thinking.


texts: empathetic eye or the eye of an insider?

texts: I am a student going abroad from a developing country to study in a developed one for 2 years already. Now i am looking for research job in the developed countries. Regarding migration of labor, can I say I have the eye of an insider? or just the empathetic eye? I feel like I can understand the migrants for a better work and better life, but I don't feel like I have experienced the hardships as much as they do. So I am confused about expressing the feeling. Many thanks for your help.


texts:
Which is correct?

  Roman temples have not preserved in their original condition
  Roman temples have not been preserved in their original condition


texts: Meaning of "niche" in "he knows the niches of this or that genre"

texts:
He knows the niches of this or that genre.

Which meaning is intended here?

He is a master at every genre and knows everything about them.
He has a shallow knowledge about every genre.


texts: Is "you and I" the subject in this sentence?

texts:
I know that "you and I" should be used when it's the subject of a sentence, and "you and me" when it's a complement. But I'm not sure about the following phrase:

  We are very good pals, you and I.

It would seem to me that "you and I" is a subject here (so I should use "I" instead of "me"). Is that correct?


texts:
Is there any provision in grammar for nested bracketing commas?

Consider a sentence in the form:

  I compare this thing and that thing, which, as shown somewhere, has some property, to demonstrate an arbitrary point.

By adding brackets next to the commas I propose two interpretations

  I compare this thing and that thing(, which,) as shown somewhere(, has some property,) to demonstrate an arbitrary point.

  I compare this thing and that thing(, which(, as shown somewhere,) has some property,) to demonstrate an arbitrary point.

In this example I feel it should be obvious from the context the second interpretation is intended. Is there any way force this interpretation without rewriting the sentence?

I hope something may exist which is similar to how parenthesis then brackets then braces can be used when nesting or how lists can use semicolons where the list entry themselves include commas.


texts: Is there a chance that the expression "He is unfit to babysit" is about the baby to be babysat rather than the person who is supposed to babysit that baby? Thanks!


texts: Is the term 'analytical analysis' pleonasm?

texts:
I'm working on a paper and I have two kinds of analyses. The first one uses numerical simulations and the other one uses a formula I compare to the numerical results. I call the first method 'numerical analysis' and the other one 'analytical analysis' but this term, 'analytical analysis' does not sound right to me. Is it pleonasm?

Thank you very much.


texts:
Greatly complicating matters is a subplot about the firefighter’s soldier brother, whose death at the hands of another trooper is covered up, turning the brother into a malevolent spirit. But all is forgiven in a riot of tearful Hallmark sentimentality that Mr. Kim has the good sense to gently pillory. It all proves exasperating, and yet, yes, a sequel is teased at the end.

Ref: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/movies/along-with-the-gods-review.html

The above is quoted from an article of the New York Times. I googled up the word and found that the defition is "to attack and ridicule publicly". How I see it is that the writer is saying "the film is abused by too many tearful hallmark sentimentality which Mr. Kim is well known for".

Am I getting this right or missing something?
Thank you!


texts:
Some animals have different words for the animal and for the meat - cow/beef, pig/pork. Some animals just use the same word without any compound - fish, quail.

But some animals use compounds of the form [animal] meat, while others use [animal] flesh. I looked at the Wiktionary entry on flesh, and it didn't really explain when to use flesh rather than meat, and why it is the case.

We talk about "human flesh" not "human meat", and can use either "horse flesh" or "horse meat", and we use meat not flesh for kangaroos, dogs, whales or dolphins, all of whom tend to be "friends not food" to most English-speakers.

Is the difference that flesh used to be more common than it is nowadays, and human flesh and horse flesh entered English earlier than the other phrases? Wiktionary mentioned some uses of flesh as archaic.

(I'm aware that meat used to be used for all food, and that flesh can be used for the body of living animals, but I assume neither fact is relevant here.)

(A similar question was asked at What is the difference between "meat" and "flesh"? , but it was closed as general reference)


texts: the difference in meaning between present simple passive and present perfect passive

texts:
Michael Swan in his "Practical English Usage" says that present passive forms can have similar meanings to present perfect passives.

  The vegetables are all cut up - what shall I do? = The vegetables have been cut up
   I got caught in the rain and my suit's ruined. = ...has been ruined
  I think your ankle is broken. = ...has been broken
  My suitcase is packed. = ... has been packed.

He states that it happens due to that fact that some verbs refer to actions that produce a finished result (to cut, to build, to pack, to close), while others do not (to push, to live, to speak, to hit, to carry).

He goes on: the past participles of finished-result verbs, and some of their passive tenses, can have two meanings. They can refer to the action, or they can describe the result (rather like adjectives).

  The theatre was closed by the police on the orders of the mayor. (refers to the action of closing).
   When I got there I found that the theatre was closed. (refers to the state of being shut - the result of the action).

I'm not sure I get the difference between the two groups of words mentioned above. Could anyone, please, go into more detail and explain it to me? I need more examples to feel what it really means.


texts: What does the term "economy is flat" mean?

texts:
While watching this video the speaker says:

  [5:03]: The economy is now flat

What does "flat" exactly mean in this context?


texts: Should I greet my customer at 6pm with "good evening" or "good afternoon"?

texts:
How should I greet my customer if I meet him/her at 6pm for a discussion? Should I say "good evening" or should I say "good afternoon"?

From my understanding, "good evening" is used at around 6pm, while "good afternoon" is used for from noon time until around 6pm.


texts: What are more formal synonyms for "telephone tag"?

texts:
Here is Wikipedia's definition:

  Phone tag is a phenomenon in which two parties attempt to contact each other by telephone, but neither is able to get a hold of the other for a conversation. Both parties may leave a message on the answering machine or voicemail of the other, and request a call back. This continues for a period of time, often with the two parties exchanging attempts to have a real-time conversation.[1] The name derives from the playground game tag, where players chase one another in turn.


texts: What is a word for a question that has no answer because it is seemingly invalid?

texts:
A friend of mine posted a riddle on Facebook involving adding money and then subtracting money. It ended with a question asking where $1 went, but the trick was that there was no discrepancy, so the $1 didn't exist.

  The question: Three guys walk into a
  hotel, and they're going to split the
  cost of a room. The room is $30. They
  each kick in $10 and head up to their
  room. The manager gets wind of it and
  tells the clerk the room is only $25.
  He hands five $1 bills to the bell hop
  and tells him to go refund the guys'
  money. On the way up to the room, the
  bell hop gets to thinking, as bell
  hops are wont to do, and says to
  himself, "No way can three guys split
  $5, I'm going to help out." He stuffs
  $2 in his pocket, knocks on the door,
  gives each guy back a buck and heads
  back downstairs to the desk, glowing
  in the warmth of a job well done. So
  now each guy has paid $9. $9 times 3
  is $27 plus $2 the bell hop
  stole--only $29! Where is the other
  buck?

(I bolded the question)

I said the question was invalid, but my friend pointed out that every question is valid to ask.

What would I call this question that has no answer?
(If I understand correctly rhetorical is when you can answer the question, but it is not meant to be answered, so by that definition "rhetorical" would be invalid here.)


texts: What is University Declaration of the Current Year strictly?

texts:
I am reading this website where it says

  The application must be submitted - - with the following documents attached to it: - - the university declaration for the current year.

I think the University Declaration of the Current year is the Certificate of the Student Status that the student is studying in the university that time.
I can also get a document Called Transcript of Records which has the same pieces of information as the former document but also much more (all courses completed also). This document would be a big list and I do not want to annoy the reader by too much information.

I can also cut the latter document to contain only the first page which has all the info of the former document but also courses completed recently during the recent study year.

What should you include in University Declaration of the Current Year?
I think maximally the Certificate of student status + recent courses completed from the current (study) year.


texts: What word or concise phrase in English covers international politics and economics?  My Merriam-Webster defines geopolitics as "politics, esp. international relations, as influenced by geographical factors."  Is there a word that covers this AND international money issues?


texts: What is a single-word to describe a person who refuses to apologize or admit when they're wrong, especially when dealing with others?

texts:
This is in regards to something objective that I am writing about unhealthy familial dynamics and how someone can move on in healthy ways. This is for a course I am taking.

What is a single-word to describe a family member who refuses to apologize or admit when they're wrong, especially when they've hurt or betrayed their family members? These slights could be trivial - hurt feelings, moderate - abuse/neglect, or extreme - criminal/exploitative.

Here are a few examples of each:

Trivial - A mother in her 60s hurts the feelings of her 40 year old daughter by calling her cute and/or adorable. Not only does the mother fail to notice that her daughter is hurt, but dismisses other people when she's told that her daughter was clearly hurt and that it's considered inappropriate to refer to someone in that age group as being cute or adorable. The mother immediately dismisses what is being said by stating that she didn't do anything wrong. When asked if anyone ever refered to her as being cute and/or adorable at 40 years old, she responds with no, but refuses to make any distinction.
Moderate - A father continually calls his daughter fat. She develops issues in regards to her self-image and it has a negative effect on her overall mental health. She falls behind at school. When others attempt to intervene, the father refuses to hold himself accountable or responsible and continues calling his daughter fat, even when he's aware of the consequences. Child Protective Services are brought in and the girl is removed from the home.
Extreme - A son uses his parents social security numbers to take out many large loans without their knowledge. He defaults on all of the loans, leaving his parents in millions of dollars in debt. He refuses to go forward and admit to the banks/federal agencies that he used his parents social security numbers without their consent, letting his parents take the fall.

I hope for objective answers.


texts: Based on the definition, I would think both lances and spears are a type of polearm. However, in some cases, I have seen the word polearm used separately to lances or spears. For example, in the game Maplestory, players can either equip a spear OR polearm, as if to say the two are completely different categories of weapons. Different sites also show different things. Some state that they consider lances and spears as polearms, while others specifically refer to polearms as something else entirely. What do you guys think?


texts: How did -proof semantically shift from “proof of” to “proof against”?

texts:
proof (n.)
early 13c., preove "evidence to establish the fact of (something)," from Anglo-French preove, Old French prueve "proof, test, experience" (13c., Modern French preuve), from Late Latin proba "a proof," a back-formation from Latin probare "to prove" (see prove). "The devocalization of v to f ensued upon the loss of final e; cf. the relation of v and f in believe, belief, relieve, relief, behove, behoof, etc. [OED].
Meaning "act of proving" is early 14c. Meaning "act of testing or making trial of anything" is from late 14c., from influence of prove. Meaning "standard of strength of distilled liquor" is from 1705. In photography from 1855. Typographical sense of "trial impression to test type" is from c. 1600. Numismatic sense of "coin struck to test a die" is from 1762; now mostly in reference to coins struck from highly polished dies, mainly for collectors.
Adjectival sense (proof against) is recorded from 1590s, from the noun in expressions such as proof of (mid-15c.), hence extended senses involving "tested power" in compounds such as fireproof (1630s), waterproof (1725), fool-proof (1902), etc. Shakespeare has shame-proof. [...]

Such auto-antonymy (semantic turnarounds) bewilder me the most. Some other adjectives with '-proof' are: bulletproof, judgement-proof.


texts: Origin of "City of ...", "County of ...", "Town of ..."

texts:
I'm curious about the numerous civic names (at least in Canada) which are in the 'of' form, by which I mean: City of Toronto, County of Wellington, etc.

To me, this form sounds antiquated. I can accept when 'of' is adding some value to the phrase, like 'hall of fame', 'house of cards', but when it's merely referencing a civic name, where's the value? It's Toronto. It's Wellington County. No 'of' needed!

I assume that these sorts of expressions have been part of the language for a long time, but am curious as to how and when this form may have originated.


texts: Failing to put in minimal effort despite great opportunity

texts: I'm looking for a phrase or word meaning that someone is failing to put in minimal required effort to leverage great opportunity.


texts: Alternative word of extensive/broader experience

texts: I usually see "I have extensive experience" or "I have broader experience" in resume. I want to know an alternative way to express that "I have much experience and great knowledge in something"


texts: What are the subject, verb, object, complement and adverbial all types of?

texts: Is there a noun that groups these five objects, in the same way that the term "noun" describes "apple", "bottle", "curtain" and "procrastination". Would you just call them sentence components? Note that I'm not asking about what you'd call the words themselves, but how you describe their function in a sentence, in the same way that you describe a group of words predicated around one part of speech as a "phrase".


texts: Must "as a..." construct refer to the subject?

texts:
There is a way to construct sentences in English which I encounter quite often:

  As an anthropologist, I find communities interesting.

I find this construction sensible and easy to understand. However, sometimes I encounter things like:

  As an anthropologist, communities make me curious.

Here, the clause doesn't describe the subject of the sentence, or the word it directly precedes, but another word in the sentence. Such a construct is a (rather common) mistake in Russian, and it makes me wonder how it can work in English.

However, this does not quite exhaust the variety of the usage of this construct. Often I stumble upon sentences like this one:

  As an anthropologist, communities are amazing.

These I can understand, but I have a feeling that they make no sense grammatically: how can something grammatically refer to something which wasn't even mentioned? The frequency of such usage suggests that I might be quite wrong, though.

Could you please describe the proper grammatical rules for such a construct?

(Unfortunately, I couldn't find an effective way to look for the information about such a "clause", which I couldn't even name, inviting the possibility of creating a duplicate question)


texts: One word for "Unseen but felt" or maybe a better expression to denote the exact meaning?

texts: Romantic relationships and sexual activeness are also sensitive areas where competition among men is unseen but felt.


texts: Formulation of questions by using conditional sentences

texts:
Consider the following setences:

1st - Interestingly, If the Titanic HAD HIT the iceberg head on, she would not have sunk. (third condiotnal)

2nd -  If you had a million dollars, you would travel the world. (second conditional)

In order to form questions, would it be true if I said that we can only form them by using the result? For example:

If the Titanic HAD HIT the iceberg head on, (condition)
 she would not have sunk (result)

If the Titanic HAD HIT the iceberg head on, wouldn't she have sunk? (question)

If you had a million dollars, WOULD you travel the world?

Would it be possible to say: HAD you a million dollars, you would travel the world?

Thank you very much


texts: What's the word for an unused, enclosed space between two apartment buildings?

texts:
Over a decade ago, my partner and I moved to New York City (Brooklyn). We were somewhat surprised to find a certain feature of our apartment building; where it abuts the adjacent apartment building, there is a small open space, a few feet wide. This space is fully enclosed by the buildings and cannot be accessed except by an internal access door through the basement of the buildings. No one ever enters or uses the space. It provides positioning of windows for sunlight into the kitchens, bathrooms, and central living spaces of all the apartments. We can look from our kitchen directly into the neighbors' kitchen a few feet away. An example of this space is shown from Google maps below:

For scale of the space, compare to the cars on the street. These are not very large buildings; maybe 3 or 4 stories tall, and each floor is just a single residence.
I'd like to be able to say with friends something like, "Today there are workmen doing construction in the ____ and it's very loud in my apartment!".
What's the name of this small, enclosed open-space feature between two apartment buildings?


texts: "Request sample documents for which to follow" vs. "from which to follow"

texts:
I am editing a document that has the following sentence:

  If there are no brand standards published regarding logo use and colors, the team will request sample documents for which to follow.

The "for which to follow" seems so awkward  to me. Should it be "from which to follow" or should I just rewrite the whole sentence?


texts: "has" or "have"? As in "X requires that Y have ..." versus "X requires that Y has ..."

texts:
To me, it seems that the following subtly differ in meaning:

X requires that Y have (occurred prior to blah-blah-blah)
X requires that Y has (occurred prior to blah-blah-blah)

Problem is, I can't figure out how they differ (however, my sense is that has sounds slightly slightly awkward / less acceptable than have). Are there any contexts in which one would be preferred over the other?

Here is the full sentence:

A felicitous interpretation of example (9) requires that the observation have/has occurred prior to the time of utterance.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Is it required that multiple verbs in short sentences match tense?

texts:
Today a question was asked in English language learners concerning tenses in a short sentence with multiple verbs. Basically it was, which is correct?

I thought you wrote poetry.
I thought you write poetry.

My answer (in summary) was that #2 sounded better. Some did not like the answer, thinking the usage to be ungrammatical. We even had a friendly chat about it. Lambie and Gustavson did their best to convince me. I ended up saying that the only basis I could fully agree with them is if tense agreement were grammatically required.

I'm not asking for up-votes (go down-vote the answer, and even this question, if you want), but I chose to escalate the question to the PhD and expert folks here to see if that grammatical requirement actually exists.

Lambie's final comment in chat was:

  OK, call it agreement, that's fine. "I'm thinking I will buy some chicken." She was thinking she would buy some chicken. ...

People had to leave before I saw a difference and could comment on it. In his final example, the chicken buying was a single act. It happened yesterday and has nothing to do with today, except maybe dinner.  However, if she happens to be a professional chicken buyer, then that remains true.  The state of her professional chicken-buyerhood does not change with midnight.

Nor does the potential poet in the original question. So, today:

I think you write poetry.

Tomorrow, what will be this thought about (tomorrow's) yesterday? Did I think you are an ongoing writer of poetry, or that you were someone who once wrote poetry?

So that is my case as to why two tenses might be grammatically used in a short sentence.  Am I wrong?


texts: Obtain a visa "in", "from" or "at" the embassy?

texts:
What is the correct preposition in this statement?

  I obtained my visa at/in/from the Embassy of the Republic of ...

I have a visa now, I visited an embassy, made all the procedures and successfully obtained my visa. And now I want to tell a person where I got my visa.


texts: Word or phrase describing "conforming to mean or average"?

texts:
I am exploring a statistical experiment in which participants are asked for their rating of an idea (say from 1 to 10).  Then they are shown the average rating of all other participants, and given an opportunity to change their own rating.

I am looking for a word or phrase to describe the participants who change their own rating to a rating closer to the average.

Confirmation bias seems similar, but it does not capture the exact idea.


texts:
Do all the following three sentences mean the same? Where should I put the preposition phrase.
1- In India, people love to eat mangoes.
2- People in India love to eat mangoes.
3- People love to eat mangoes in India.
4 - Farmers are protesting in India.
5 - Farmers in India are protesting.
6 - In India, farmers are protesting.


texts: I understand in the restaurant if the server asks whether you want ketchup or not? You answer I'm good. Thanks.. That means no. However, I heard when someone was asked would you like ...?, and they answered I'm ok.. And the first person took it as rejection. Now I'm confused. Does I'm ok. really mean yes or no?


texts: Explain the verb tense in "I wish I never woke up this morning"

texts:
This is from a song by Police, Darkness:

  "I can dream up schemes when I'm sitting in my seat
  I don't see any flaws 'til I get to my feet
  I wish I never woke up this morning
  Life was easy when it was boring"

Shouldn't it be, according to www.eslbase.com, "I wish I  havn't   hadn't woken up this morning"?
(though I agree the latter flows worse)


texts: Which preposition should I use before "cells"?

texts:
Which preposition should be placed before "cells"?

in or on?
For example

The cytotoxicity of Doxorubicin in Hela cells?

The cytotoxicity of Doxorubicin on Hela cells?

or even

The cytotoxicity of Doxorubicin against/to/towards Hela cells?

Well, totally at a loss.

Is there any difference?


texts: How to refer to a server, router, switch in general?

texts: In a room there is a server, switch, router and SAN switch. What can we call them in general? Can we call them "machines" or "equipment"?


texts: What is the outer part of building called (figure)?

texts:
What is the part of the building (usually skyscraper) extending out called?
It's the spot where superheroes are shown to be sitting when contemplating about their lives (looking down at the city).

For instance:

http://blog.frieze.com/uploads/blog/MID021A-03_thumb.jpg

http://www.uni.illinois.edu//og/media/archive/photos/2007/05/01/spiderman-3.jpg

I initially thought of ledge but I'm not sure this is the exact answer.


texts: Is it awkward to use the verb "to mint" with "law"?

texts:
Would it be awkward to use the verb "to mint" with "law" ?

For instance: "Minted in 1962, this law ..."


texts: Is it wrong to say "have enough sleep" instead of "get enough sleep"?


texts: "I was so pleased to be seen I made him repeat it."

texts:
I suppose some people can weep softly and become more beautiful, but
after a real cry, most people are hideous, as if they’ve grown a spare
and diseased face beneath the one you know, leaving very little room
for the eyes. Or they look as if they’ve been beaten. We look. I look.
Once, in fifth grade, I cried at school for a reason I cannot recall,
and afterward a popular boy—rattail, skateboard—told me I looked like
a druggie, and I was so pleased to be seen I made him repeat it.

I'm kind of confusing in understanding the bolded part. Does it mean that the author was so pleased because the popular boy saw her and ask him to call her a druggie again? Is there sarcasm in here?


texts: Is “closed press (remark / ceremony / meeting)” a popular English word?

texts:
I saw the word, “closed press” in Time magazine’s (August 15) article titled “Chris Christie lays out argument for 2016.”

  “Christie spoke at length about his record in New Jersey, emphasizing
  accomplishments like teacher benefit reform and bringing down the
  Garden State’s budget deficit. Christie’s remarks were closed press,
  but multiple guests provided quotes and recordings.”

And I saw “closed press” in the following instance:

  “Obama Accepts Transparency Award in Closed Press Ceremony. March 30,
  2011. President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed,
  undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.”

Source

From the above sentence,’ I was able to easily surmise that “Closed Press” means a meeting / event shutting out press / reporters, and I checked Cambridge, Oxford, and Merriam-Webster online dictionary to make sure of it, and found that none of them carries “closed press” as a heading. I wonder why none of them carries the word.

On the other hand, Google Ngram shows emergence of “closed press” in 1870s. The currency peaked in 1940 at 0.00000016% level, and has tailored off to a low 0.00000004% level since 2000. But I can’t tell whether Ngram shows “closed press” as V+N, or a noun.

With that said, here are my questions:

Is “closed press” a well-established English word?
What is the alternative word to “closed press” e.g. unofficial remark or meeting?
Though I don’t find any problem in the line, “Obama accepts Transparency Award in Closed Press Ceremony,” the statement, “Christie’s remarks were closed press” sounds somewhat foreign to me, because it appears to me as if saying [Christie’s remark = closed press]. Is it rhetorically and logically a perfect line?


texts:
"In August of 1930, a Norwegian sloop, the Bratvaag, sailing in the
Arctic Ocean, stopped at a remote island called White Island.The Bratvaag was partly on a scientiɹc mission, led by a geologist named Dr. Gunnar Horn, and partly out sealing", The Ice Balloon, Alec Wilkinson.
What is the difference between blond type expressions?
Are they replaceable in general?


texts:
I am struggling with the order of "can" and "always" in those two sentences:

One way to illustrate this problem is by imagining a finite number of mathematical points and noting that those points always can be described by an infinite number of mathematical functions. In analogy it seems possible that a finite amount of evidence always can be described by an infinite number of scientific theories.

In other contexts I understand that you should write "can always" but here it just sounds wrong to me and I want to write it like above, is this wrong?


texts: "A tax is a tax is a tax." What does this sentence mean?

texts: I am not a native English speaker and this question has been bothering me for a long time. I saw this sentence on my text book. However, I don't know what's the meaning of it. And I don't even know whether it's a correct sentence (in terms of syntax). Could somebody help me?


texts:
"You need word of mouth for this type of film and that's what this
  weekend was all about," said Sony distrivution head Rory Bruer, who
  granted it's a "crowded field."

What's the meaning of "crowded field"?

Does it just mean that the field(the movie market) is flooded with many new films?


texts: Meaning in context of 'founding population'

texts:
Bryan Sykes, an Oxford scientist, wrote a book called "The Seven Daughters of Eve" in which, using studies of mitochondrial DNA, he had claimed to be able to trace nearly all living Europeans back to a founding population of just seven women—the 'daughters of Eve' of the title—who lived during the Palaeolithic. To each of these women Sykes given a name—Ursula, Xenia, Jasmine and so on—and even a detailed personal history.

Can the paragraph above have the implication that the 'daughters of Eve' lived in the same generation? If so, why? Is the use of 'founding population' that create this implication? Would it be sufficient to remove 'founding' to avoid this implication?


texts:
The verb prefix en- seems redundant to me. For example

a book titled 'Something'
a book entitled 'Something'

Are these identical in meaning, or is there some nuance?


texts: Does using the word "solely" in this sentence

texts:
I'm writing an individual report in school and wrote:
"I was part of the development team and worked solely with front end development"

Is this a correct way to use the word "solely"? Does it create ambiguity? I mean to say that I only worked with front end development, not that I was the only one working.

EDIT: Some research.
Merriam-Webster defines "solely" as:
1) "to the exclusion of all else"
2) "without another : SINGLY"

Oxford Dictionary defines it as:
"not involving anyone or anything else; only."

Comment suggested that I use the word in the sense that is mentioned first when defined but this varies between sources. I've decided to not use the word to avoid ambiguity.


texts:
Which verb should be used in place of "is" which is currently used in condition in the following sentence:

"They thought that subsequent contributions to the joint venture would be made into the designated holding company through purchase of its additional shares, once the shareholders agreement (is?) signed."


texts: Is the word "will" some conjugation of the verb "to be"?

texts: I have the impression that the phrase "will be" is using the verb "to be" twice. Is that correct?


texts: Relative pronoun or elipsis ? : 'for those who the disease seeks to attack'

texts:
This sentence was spoken recently in the British House of Lords :

It would be wrong of me to mislead the house by pretending that there was an easy way out of this epidemic for those who the disease seeks to attack.
Lord Bethell - Quoted by The Guardian on MSN News 23/04/20

Rather than be pedantic and say 'whom the disease seeks to attack' is it actually better to miss out the relative pronoun altogether and simply say :

... those the disease seeks to attack ?


texts: Word or short phrase meaning "Happening on the same day as"

texts:
I'm wondering if there is a conventional word or short phrase meaning "happening on the same day" -- similar to "at the same time" but implying same day without implying that the events are simultaneous.

For the sake of example, I'll use a placeholder I came up with, cosolar

"X is [cosolar] with Y"
"I missed my final exam because it was [cosolar] with major surgery."

Is there such a word?


texts: A term for a particular type of self-satisfaction

texts:
There's a particular type of self-satisfaction where a person feels good about themself because they see a flaw or a weakness in someone else.
"I'm good because someone else is worse."

It often manifests itself in a religion context: feeling good because someone else is a "sinner".  It also manifests itself by feeling good because one is more clever or knows more than someone else.  It's the "beam" in the saying "Why do you see the mote in someone else's eye but not the beam in your own?"  Is there a word or term for it?


texts: Syntactic explanation of "delivery by today"

texts:
I am in the middle of a syntax analysis of some informal language usage and someone used...

"..., delivery by today,..."

After a noun, in this case a package. It was clear that the phrase described when the object would be delivered, but when explaining it, I struggled to do so.

How would someone explain the phrase "..., delivery by today,..." as describing the package, when it is its own noun phrase or how would one chart it?

It seemed to fill the role that "delivered by today" would have, so I could even see it serving as the verb. Is there a convention in English I can cite for it being in the form delivery over delivered to explain this form?

Also, this is my first question on here, so if I should have gone about it differently, please let me know. I really appreciate this community.


texts: Words that result from a gradual distortion of other words

texts:
Among others, I've heard the following words and their supposed origins:

Beef: Comes from the french word "boeuf".
Marmelade: Contraction of "Mary" and "malade" according to some story about a doctor using a mixture including oranges to treat Mary Queen of Scots.
Mayday: Could come from the french expression "M'aider".

Is there a technical term to describe words like this that come from the gradual distortion of other words (either more ancient or of foreign origin)?


texts: What is the exact historic meaning of gaming?

texts:
Did a few google searches on this, but not to my surprise, only results about video gaming come up.

In Hamlet, Reynaldo says: "As gaming, my lord."
to which Polonius replies "Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, Quarreling, drabbing—you may go so far"

or to describe Germans, British lexicographer Sir William Smith writes: “Their men found their chief delight in the perils and excitement of war. In peace they passed their lives in listless indolence, only varied by deep gaming and excessive drinking.”

I'm guessing it means something along the lines of having fun, but is there a more specific definition that anyone knows?


texts:
What is the antonym of "to toggle"?

A search shows both to untoggle and to detoggle in use, but I could find neither in dictionaries.
(I could find untoggle as "to unfasten by removing a toggle from its loop" in Merriam-Webster, but that seems to be a different meaning for the word.)

Another alternative could be to oppose "to toggle on" with "to toggle off".

So, how should I write these sentences?

  You cannot * untoggle this choice.
  This option cannot be * untoggled while Foo is selected.
  Selecting Fizz will * untoggle all Buzz options.


texts: What's a word for the "one big thing" that drives society for a time?

texts:
I recently read about different cultural changes and how they're named. Let's simply say stone age, bronze age or space age or internet age. In all of these "ages", there's something (a discovery or an invention or an idea) that just, kind of, "sticks out".

What's the word for this thing? (And if so, what might it be today that the civilizations after us call our time?)


texts:
I'm editing a text and came across this sentence:

If that sounds like your cup of tea, head over there to meet the charming Kumamon in person today.

I feel that "the" is used incorrectly, as Kumamon is the name of the mascot--name in the sense of "Bill" or "Robert" is a name.  I asked some other people in the office and they felt that there was nothing wrong with "the" because "the" is used in titles such as "The Amazing Randi" (a magician and skeptic.)  I argued that the writer of the article means that the bear has a charming personality and that "The Charming Kumamon" is not its title.  In other words "...head over there in person to meet Kumamon who is charming."  They replied "Right, so there's nothing wrong with using "the"  Your sentence is more awkward so it can be cleaned up by shortening to "the charming Kumamon."  I disagree. For example, "I was told to talk to the smoking man." it is unclear whether the man is smoking a cigarette or he himself is smoking (as in "on fire.") so it is unclear if the bear is charming people or if the bear is charming.  I was told I was being nitpicky and that everyone knows what the meaning is because of the context.

Is the sentence as given above OK for the meaning "Kumamon is a bear who has a charming personality," in that people like him?  I think there's something fishy about the construction.


texts: "Application for Android" versus "application on Android"

texts:
Which one is correct/most scientific?

I am developing a certain application for Android.
I am developing a certain application on Android.
I am developing a certain application for the platform Android.
I am developing a certain application on the platform Android.


texts: Origin of *sheerleg* in reference to marine cranes

texts:
What is the origin of the term sheerleg in reference to marine cranes?  Etymonline, most dictionaries, and Google ngrams don't have entries for this term.  (OED1 (1914) has an entry for a related term, sheer hulk.)  From www.collinsdictionary, sheerleg means “one of the spars of a sheerlegs” (note, shear legs “are a form of two-legged lifting device”).  More helpfully, en.wikipedia says “A sheerleg is a floating crane, but, unlike crane vessels, it is not capable of rotating the crane independently of the ship.”

Anyhow, what's the origin of this term?


texts: What do you call someone who helps a volleyball team but isn't playing for the team?

texts: So i'm helping my high schools girl volleyball team and the coach wants to make me part of the team but I obviously don't play for the team since i'm a guy. The coach wants to make a jersey for me as well but I don't know what name I could be called.


texts: Idiomatic saying for "just over" and "just under"

texts:
Is there an idiomatic saying to say that a distance is about x kilometer, including the connotation of "a little bit more than" or "a little bit less than" as "just over" and "just under" respectively denotes.

  The village is located __ 30 km to the south of London.

Clarification:
I'm not looking for one word that is saying both (like around, approximately, etc.), but for two different (opposite) words with the connotation of either "just over" or "just under".


texts: Can 'easierly' or 'easiestly' be held grammatically consistent?

texts: The concise substitute for 'in an easy way' is 'easily'. In order to save words, can't 'ly' be allowed for the comparative and the superlative degrees as well? I have already seen instances like 'worstly'. After all, language and the dictionary are always updating, and through us.


texts: Origin of the expression "to run roughshod over someone"

texts: What is the origin of the expression "to run roughshod over someone"? I have heard it being used by Mitt Romney, but I couldn't find if it has an American origin.


texts: What do we call one step in a resolution?

texts:
Lets say, I have taken a resolution. And there are 5 steps in the process of accomplishing the resolution. Is there a word for each of those steps? A word other than "baby-step", "target", "milestone"?

Milestone sounds bigger than resolution itself.
Baby-step doesn't have the same seriousness as resolution.
Target sounds more like and end-point. But, we are looking at something that's somwhere in the path to the target.


texts: What is the difference between "low-hanging fruit" and "firing fish in a barrel"?

texts: Do these two phrases have the same meaning?


texts:
I am a bit confused about these sentences below. The word "encumbered" baffles me. "Encumbered" is usually used in passive sentences. I am not able to understand the agent in these following structures. What confuses me is when the agent is not animate, that is, the object in the passive sentence followed by "by" is not a person. For instance,

1. Mike was killed by Rob. (Passive)
1.1 Rob killed Mike. (Active)

The use of "encumber" in following sentences,

1. Women tennis players are not encumbered by long, heavy skirts and high necked blouses.
2. We were encumbered by equipment and supplies.

Here, the thing that does the action is not animate. What could be the active voice sentence? Are the following constructions correct?

1.1 Long, heavy skirts and high necked blouses encumber women tennis players.
2.2 Equipment and supplies encumbered us.

I am referring to this dictionary.


texts: What does it mean to "spend pains upon someone"?

texts:
I read a sentence in a chapter in my book which was:

  Sadao had taken this into his mind as he did everything his father said, his father who never joked or played with him but who spent infinite pains upon him who was his only son.

I don't know what spend means in this context.


texts: Singular/plural forms of abbreviations of expressions with "of" in the middle

texts:
Is it grammatically correct to abbreviate expressions with of in the middle? If so, what will be the singular and plural forms of such abbreviations if the word that changes is not the last one in the expression?

In particular, I am interested in quantity of interest. My guess is QoI for singular and QoIs for plural.

And here is yet another question: should o for of be capitalized as well?


texts: Is there an expression or idiom for something convenient that happens right when you need it to?

texts:
Especially if it's something unlikely. Almost as if it could only happen in a movie. For instance, you're about to be robbed and a random cop on patrol arrives at that exact time. What are the chances of that?

Is there an expression/idiom that communicates that general idea?


texts: Is it "enough to worry" or "enough to be worried"?

texts:
I'm trying to describe a scenario where, for a parent, their child has gone long enough (for them) to ______?

worry
be worried

Honestly, both of them sound ok to me (not a native speaker), apart from the fact that be worried is longer to spell out. And searching on Google Ngram shows that enough to worry is more prevalent, though enough to be worried is also used sometimes.

And I can also think of other situations where the phrase would be used:

The speed at which species are dying off is fast enough (for us) to ____
The radioactive wastes are leaking at an alarming rate, enough for us to ____

I'd like to know, is any one of them "wrong"/should be avoided, or is there any difference between these two, mood, emphasis, etc.? Any reason to choose one over the other?


texts: "Who wants ice-cream?" — Should I say "(not) I" or "(not) me"?

texts:
With the enthusiastic question of "Who wants ice-cream?", what is the more correct response?

  (Not) I.
  (Not) me.

Neither response is a sentence. The first response of "(not) I" sounds stuffy, like it should be followed with an indignant sniff. The second sounds like American idiom and acceptable for casual speech.

What do you say?


texts: Can you use "new" and "prospective" together?

texts:
I just read this news—AIIB Welcomes New Prospective Members.

Aren't new and prospective contradicting each other? If you are a new member, you can not be a prospective member.


texts: What's the correct way: "Helped me go through" or "Helped me going through"?

texts:
Huge discussion here at home.
My daughter insists that in her speech is correct saying:
"Good friendships helped me go through tough times"
Her father insists that it should say either:
"Good friendships helped me going through tough times"
What is the English grammar rules that govern the tense of "to help" and the phrasal verb "to go through" in sentences such as this one?
Thank you


texts: Term for a humorously hypocritical last sentence at the end of a lecture

texts:
At the end of a long lecture on proper behaviour by Pokémon Go players, there's a request to let the Shrine Priest know about any rare Pokémon, indicating that they're playing the game as well. Is there a term for such a sentence? I want to use it as follows:

  At the end of a long lecture about proper Pokémon Go behaviour, there was a ____.


texts: What does "sidehill garger" mean? (early 20th-century American literature)

texts:
I am reading "Wood-Folk Comedies: The Play of Wild-Animal Life on a Natural Stage" written by William J. Long, a naturalist and author, published in 1920.
When I was reading it I had a word that I didn't understand: sidehill garger. The sentence is like this.

  One told me that I had surely seen a "sidehill garger"; another wished
  he could have seen it too; .....

In this scene fox hunters are talking with the author who saw a fox pounce upon a chunk of wood that the author threw after the fox as he moved away. The fox was hungry and he took the wood as a small animal, his game. All the hunters there don't believe what the author told them.
I googled "garger" but I couldn't find anything. I am happy if someone knows the expression.


texts:
I want to write

  It looks like I misunderstood Berta's explanation

But in more formal way.

Thanks


texts: Usage of interest as a verb: "I interested them in signing up for camp"

texts:
The other day I was speaking to a neighbor, and he mentioned he was running a camp and had several kids signed up. His daughter piped up and said "I interested them in signing up", to which her father corrected her "You can't say 'I interested them'. Say 'I got them interested'".

I still haven't determined who was right. Clearly, there is an acceptable usage for the word interest as a verb: eg. for a waiter to say "Can I interest you folks in one of our desserts". Is saying "I interested them in buying a dessert," the same thing? On reflection, it does sound a little off, but I may be overthinking it.


texts: "... get just deserts." Can ambiguity be syntactic and also semantic?

texts:
On the page, but not when spoken, this line has a double meaning:

"Lost travellers in Egypt get just deserts."

The key word is the homograph ( or homogram) deserts which can be abstract , (when stressed on the first syllable) or concrete (stressed on the second);

Should this example be categorised as syntactic ambiguity, or semantic ambiguity, or lexical ambiguity? Can it be all three?

Syntactic Ambiguity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity

  desert:    arid land with  sparse vegetation; see Merriam-Webster (abbreviated)

  just deserts: what one deserves, especially  punishment:  see Oxford
  Dictionaries  (abbreviated)


texts:
Is the use of 'as' in place of 'because' considered to be poor grammar/style? For example

  I cannot come with you as I am too busy

instead of

  I cannot come with you because I am too busy


texts:
After editing a question recently, the OP undid those edits stating he did not like the bad changes I made with regards to the grammar of the post. The author originally wrote:

  Nobody in this community, including myself, has high enough a score to re-open questions.

Irrelevant to my question here, I made the edit because score and reputation are different concepts. So I changed it to:

  Nobody in this community, including myself, has a high enough reputation to re-open questions.

With respect to grammar, I assume the OP took offence to me changing "high enough a" to "a high enough".

While I think either choice would be fine, my two questions are:

Is there anything wrong with either phrasing?
Is there an actual difference in meaning between the two?


texts:
A dewclaw is a vestigial digit on the foot of some mammals, notably dogs.

Here's a picture of a dog's paw with an arrow pointing to the dewclaw.

The claw part is obvious enough, but why dew?


texts: Why was 'Jesus' spelt 'Jhesus' in Wycliffe's Bible?

texts: I found that in Wycliffe's Bible, Jesus Christ is spelt as "Jhesu Crist". Why was it spelt with 'Jh' instead of 'J'?


texts: What is the word for "the study of the afterlife"?

texts: Thanatology is the scientific study of death, but is there a better term for the study of the afterlife?


texts: Where did the words "Baby Back" come from when referring to ribs?

texts: Many restaurants sell baby back ribs, but why are they called baby back, and when was the first use of the term?


texts:
Is there a single word for the act of making a pilgrimage?

  The text excludes the following people from the requirement to make a pilgrimage....


texts:
What does the term "first-class" mean in this sentence?

"We live in a flawed world, and Hadoop [computer software] is designed to survive in it by not only tolerating hardware and software failures, but also treating them as first-class conditions that happen regularly"

Websters defines first-class as being of the best quality, first-rate; as, a first-class telescope, or as in a first-class car.

However that traditional definition does not seem to fit, because I would not think of incidents of hardware failure events being of high or low quality.

Lets say my car breaks down while driving, we do not say the car failure was first-class.


texts:
Will anybody be able to mention the English word for "Volume per second (or preferably Volume per Time unit) or "Amount of task per a second"?

Thank you.


texts: How to say something covers all the view up to the horizon line?

texts:
I am trying to say something (e.g. wheat field) is visible on whole photo, from observer point up to the horizon, expanded into both left and right directions. I am looking for some idiom or singular verb that can express that idea (as I can do it in Polish).

I wish it was describing universal property of the field, and not be bound to particular observer, that's why I discarded "cover all the view" from title.

On some online dictionaries I found "all the way up to the horizon" expression. Thus: "fields outstreched all the way up to the horizon".

I came up with "field extends/outstretches all over the horizon", but I am not sure whenever it is not bad copy of "all over the world" expression.

Also, I am not sure whenever any of these express the idea of fields being visible not only on the horizon, but on the whole view.


texts:
I’m translating a movie about basic income, from French to English. In this movie, someone says that basic income would make people do a lot of new things, that it would create a lot of initiatives.

If anyone knows French, the exact words are "Il y aurait une floraison d’initiatives." (There would be a "flowering" of initiatives. I don’t think I can use "flowering" this way, in English, but I think you can see what is meant. It’s like, an explosion of initiatives, you see.)

So, I’m trying to put a word, or words, there, rather than "flowering". How would you say that?


texts: A word denoting the status of concepts that are based on the property of "extension" such as "size", "shape" and "length"

texts:
It's in a philosophical context. It is evident that without extension, things can't have size, shape or length. Now I want to use a word that describes these latter concepts in term of their dependence on extension so that I can use the word in the following hypothetical context:

  Extension and its .... are properties of material entities.

I have already thought of "derivatives" but for some reason I thought there may be better words.


texts: Word that describes devices which are combinations or two other devices?

texts:
I'm wondering if there is a term that describes any given physical device that is a "spiritual" combination of two other devices. Meaning, it mimics the form and function of both parent devices.

Examples:

Spork (combination of a spoon and a fork)
Halberd (combination of a staff and an axe)
Calculator Watch (combination of a calculator and a watch)

To explain via analogy, "Portmanteau is to words as _____ is to devices"


texts: Why do we 'return' a member to parliament?

texts:
OED sense 12b, of the verb to return deals with the matter of returning a member, at one time by the sheriff, nowadays by a returning officer.

It is is part of the wider paragraph 12 meaning headed Chiefly Law. Sense 12a deals with the idea of return, in the way of answering an official request for information, such as in:

  1927   Times 19 Mar. 7/5   The total area of land in use for
  agricultural purposes was returned at 31,000,000 acres.

  1976   Eastern Evening News (Norwich)  22 Dec. 1/3   Fisher sighed
  when the not guilty verdicts were returned.

  2006   J. E. Moore Murder on Maryland's Eastern Shore iv. 41   The
  sheriff returned the writ marked simply, ‘Cepi’ (meaning, ‘I have
  taken’).

No information is given on the etymology of this meaning of the verb return. So why do we return a member to parliament, and why do juries return verdicts?


texts:
I'm trying to find a word for the responses which people utter during prayer recitals or general "praise the lord" sort of speeches (not in sermons). Let me try elucidating this via an example:

Priest: "blah blah blah"
Random Person: "amen"
Priest: "blah blah blah"
Random Person: "ooo, praise the lord"
Priest: "blah blah blah"
Random Person: some random quote praising the lord

The best example would be the stuff you see in movies, typically portrayed in African-American churches. I'm sure there's a word for it. Also, forgive me if the meaning is not clear.


texts: 'Bramble Bush' has a figurative meaning?

texts:
Why might this introductory (denoted 0L by some law students) law book be entitled Bramble Bush http://www.amazon.com/The-Bramble-Bush-Classic-Lectures/dp/0195368452 ?

I'm regardful of the definition of bramble as a verb and noun. Here, I guess that it means 'blackberry bush', but this doesn't comport with law literally. What did I miss or misconstrue?


texts: A word that could mean apostate quisling

texts:
I'm looking a for a word that describes someone who appears to have given up a particular belief and adopted an opposing one but in reality, only to subvert the newly adopted belief. This is a a particularly pernicious treachery, so I need something that gives that sense.
The closest I can get is an apostate quisling but that phrase fails to really describe it properly or indeed literally, as quisling would describe a traitor and not someone attempting to subvert from outside.
Does anyone know of a word that would fit my description.
Edit:
Or as Chris H points out perhaps a word that means a false apostate.
In response to Phil Sweet, in my scenario, they would be acting as part of a plot.


texts: "does there exist" or "does there exists"

texts:
I have seen many uses, even in books, of the three words "does there exist" and of the three words "does there exists". Examples:

  Does there exist a political business cycle? [1]
  Does there exists a general procedure for justifying ... [2]

And even in the same paragraph in another book:

  Does there exists a uniform way of specifying languages ...? That is, does there exist a uniform construction such that ...? [3]

I would guess that the form does there exist is the right one, but a confirmation would be nice, or even better -- an explanation/reference.


texts: If mono means 'one' and poly means 'many' what would be a prefix for none?

texts: If I wanted a word that indicated the absence of a property, like how 'inorganic' means 'not containing carbon,' what prefix might I use to indicate that?


texts: A word for a “troll” who is actually advocating a point of view

texts:
The word "troll" (in the Internet-related sense) usually means someone who doesn't care about the issues they talk about, but just wants to anger and/or hurt as many people as they can (usually for a perverse sense of power). Now, I have come across many people (online and in person) who have an actual point of view that they are advocating, but who express it in a deliberately abrasive way. Like a troll, they try to hurt and anger people they disagree with, but unlike a troll, they're not trying to hurt anyone they do agree with. Is there a word or term for this?

An example would be a conservative who is trying to hurt, anger, and insult liberals, but not conservatives; or a liberal who is trying to hurt, anger and insult conservatives, but not liberals.


texts: Is there a word to describe nostalgia for things that never existed? For example, a 1950s-style diner is supposed to reconstruct a cultural archetype, but there never existed such a diner. John Wayne characters are similar, he usually plays a cowboy-type, but no heroic cowboy ever really existed.


texts: Is this sentence correct in the way that "and" is used?

texts:
"It is a relatively inexpensive process, and also preserves the involved materials in the solid-state, avoiding possible phase limitations."

It doesn't sound so good to me, but I am not a native speaker. I was thinking that maybe like this sounds better:
 "It is a relatively inexpensive process, WHICH also preserves the involved materials in the solid-state, avoiding possible phase limitations."
Thanks a lot in advance!


texts: What would Prof. William Strunk Jr. say about writing saute vs. sauté today?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Diacriticals and non-English letters in anglicized loan words: keep 'em, dump 'em, italicize the words, or what?

I have no idea what I’m doing.  Catch as catch can.  “Saute” seems correct to me, but I was clobbered by someone who insisted I was “just ignorant”.  (I won’t argue that.)

I assume purists will insist the accent pretty much always be used for foreign loan words.  But... I’m writing in English.  It just seems like it should be okay to incorporate “saute”, and the other words, as native English words pretty much as soon as you start using them and people know what you’re talking about.  This seems to me less of an offense than, say, willfully “misspelling” tire vs. tyre.

I prefer Strunk’s application of the serial comma for logical reasons, yet this goes against common accepted practice.  So I don’t see all such things as black and white.  I’m just curious if a case can be made for saute?  [And I can stuff this thread up my friend’s rather beautiful upturned snoot!]

Sure, at first glance it’s just “ignorant” (we are so petrified of that), but on the far side is it not better to accept simplicity if still clearly understood?

I guess I will qualify this as an American usage question – specifically about the word saute.  (I’d like to thank and excuse all jurors originating from the British Isles and France.)

What does the Chicago Manual of Style say?  What do you say?


texts: "x and y are what drive them" vs "x and y are what driveS them"

texts:
Which of the following is correct?

  It seems evident that self-confidence and a desire for power are what drive
  them to enter this competition.

  It seems evident that self-confidence and a desire for power are what drives
  them to enter this competition.


texts:
I am editing a story where the game show "Jeopardy!" is used as a possessive within a quote. Should I insert the 's within the single quotes around the name, such as 'Jeopardy!'s', or would the 's go outside the single quotes, such as 'Jeopardy!''s? I cannot use italics, because house style calls for quotes around the title (journalistic style).

Also, would it be:

"Jeopardy!'s" success was due to host Alex Trebeck.

"Jeopardy!"'s success was due to host Alex Trebeck.

Thanks.