texts:
I have known the usage of 'wage' as a verb, like 'wage a war'. But what's meaning of 'waging peace', the 'wage' here is still meaning 'engage in'?

updated

cite from the article in the New Yorker:

  Rosalynn runs a mental-health program at the Carter Center, whose mission includes "waging peace."


texts: schools of thought vs. schools of thoughts

texts: I am wondering if I should say schools of thought or schools of thoughts? The word thought can both be countable or uncountable, I think.


texts: What word describes someone who asks for a favor, gets it, and when asked for a favor in return, demands payment of some kind?

texts:
There's a word I'm searching for, can't quite put my finger on it and that kinda makes me crazy.
It's when someone has a total lack of self awareness about certain situations. Like when a friend moves to your town and asks to stay with you for a month so they can get settled and find a place, then a few years later the situation is reversed and they ask you to pay rent...
Help me out here, it's on the tip of my tongue.


texts: What is the significance of the “ô” character in “rôle” in this work?

texts:
In this document from 1916, on the last line of the first page is the word rôle. If context matters, the entire sentence is:

  As might readily be supposed, the control of the lactic acid fermentation plays a very important rôle in the manufacturing processes of all types of cheese.

This appears to be the only occurrence of this word or character in this document.

What is the meaning of the ^ mark? Is this an old writing convention that has been lost? If so, when was it used?


texts:
Is it grammatically correct to say "Fire meet gasoline", as in the Sia's song,  or just poetic license??

"Flame and candle meet, fire meet gasoline
Fire meet gasoline, I'm burnin' alive
I can barely breathe, when you're here loving me
Fire meet gasoline, fire meet gasoline"


texts: An expression for "create and maintain motion"

texts:
In Swedish, there is an expression that goes "make speed". It is used for example when a child asks a parent to push the swing which the child sits upon. Or if a child sits in a soapbox and is being pushed forward by a parent, the parent is "making speed". The expression doesn´t just mean to "start the motion", but also to maintain it for an unknown period of time.

So, if I ask someone in Swedish: "Can you make speed?" that person will understand what I want him or her to help me with. But I am not sure it sounds good in English.

Here are some examples in sentences:

If you can imagine a giant with lungs so strong that he could blow on a swing to make it move the following sentence could be used in swedish: "He did not push the swing, but "made speed" by blowing at it"

Another example: Imagine a merrygoround which you put in motion by treading on pedals conected to it. Then I could say: "You do not "make speed" by pushing it, you have to use the pedals"

Or lets say I have been "making speed" all day. I have pushed a swing, pulled a soapbox car, used my lungs to propell something into motion etc. Finally I get tired of it and say: "Why is it always I who have to "make speed" and not any of the others?"

What can you say in English that corresponds to this expression?


texts:
I'm writing my statement of purpose for grad school application. I would like to express "I came from an academic background that is half business-related", as I majored in E-business. What is the correct adjective form in this case?

semi-business-related, semi-business related, semi business-related, or "semi" is not required at all?

Thanks.


texts:
Can someone explain me this phrase attributed to Berkely

Wikipedia

  In Principles #3, he wrote, using a combination of Latin and English, esse is percipi, (to be is to be perceived), most often if slightly inaccurately attributed to Berkeley as the pure Latin phrase esse est percipi. The phrase appears associated with him in authoritative philosophical sources, e.g. "Berkeley holds that there are no such mind-independent things, that, in the famous phrase, esse est percipi (aut percipere) – to be is to be perceived (or to perceive)."

I have read explanations online, but I'm wondering if someone could give me an example of the phrase?


texts: When expressing opinions : to me vs for me

texts: What is correct?: "To me, studying is important" or " For me, studying is important"


texts:
The following is taken from the Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE, 2013 Edition. Can someone please help me understand why choice (C) is offered as the correct answer? I know my confusion stems from my faulty analysis of the argument (attached at the end), but I am just unable to identify the gaps of reason from here. I would appreciate any insight on the matter.

Over the last several decades, the demand for Country Y’s auto-mobiles increased in Country X but demand for Country X’s auto-mobiles in Country Y has remained stagnant. Initially, this disparity was plausibly due to Y’s manufacturers having superior technology, which has yielded more fuel efficient cars with cheaper maintenance. However, now Country X’s cars are comparable—if not slightly superior—in these respects. What Country X’s manufacturers fail to acknowledge is that Country Y’s drivers drive on the left side of the road. Clearly, to help lessen this trade imbalance, Country X manufacturers should produce more cars with right-side steering wheels.

Which of the following is an assumption made by the argument?
(A) Reversing the trade imbalance requires making [right-hand-drive cars].
(B) If Country X makes auto-mobiles with right-side steering wheels, most consumers from Country Y will chose to purchase a car from Country X.
(C) If consumers from Country Y drive on the left side of the road, these consumers are less inclined to buy [cars built with] steering wheels on the left-side of the car.
(D) Cars from Country X will continue to improve their fuel efficiency and reduce their maintenance costs.
(E) The government of Country Y requires all its citizens to purchase cars with right-side steering wheels.

My Analysis:

Conclusion:  to help lessen the trade imbalance, country X's manufacturers should produce more cars with right-side steering wheels.
Premise No.1: country X's manufacturers have upgraded their technology and cut their maintenance costs to match that of country Y's manufacturers, but there still exists a trade imbalance
Premise No.2: country Y's drivers drive on the left side of the road.
Assumption: trade balance, and therefore offsetting any imbalance, is dependent on the manufacturer's technology, maintenance cost, and assigned location of the steering wheel.

Answer Key Explanation:

Choice (A) is not necessary—it strengthens the argument. In fact, it guarantees that the  conclusion is true, but it’s not the assumption. I don’t need reversing the trade imbalance to require the plan advocated in the passage. I only need the plan to help lessen the imbalance. The same problem exists in choice (B): I don’t need most consumers from Y to purchase cars from X in order to help lessen the trade imbalance. Choice (C) says that if they are not inclined to buy them, then the plan is no good. Thus, this is essential to the plan working. Choice D is not necessary: I don’t need Country X’s cars to continue to improve. I only need them to continue to be comparable to Country Y’s cars. Choice (E) makes me like the plan but it is not essential. I don’t need the preference for right side steering wheels to be government-mandated.


texts: Etymology of the noun-form of gamy / gamey

texts: I was watching Futurama and there was a scene where Fry tasted a steak and said it tasted gamy (or gamey). Now I've looked up on several dictionaries and they all state that in the context of meat it describes a strong flavor or odor of game. However when I lookup the aforementioned word game and it's plethora of definitions there isn't a single definition that relates to any form of meat or even food for that matter. What does this game exactly mean?


texts: "Add connections" or "Create connections"?

texts:
I am building an interface for making connections between items.

When viewing a particular item, the user has the possibility of connecting it to other existing items, by selecting them from a list.

Which expression is better? Is "add connection" even correct?


texts: "Screw[ed] it," vs "screw[ed] it up," vs "screw[ed] up."

texts:
How do the three phrases differ? For example:

Speaker A: Hey, I called to tell you about my audition.

Speaker B: "Don't tell me you screwed it."

Speaker B: "Don't tell me you screwed it up."

Speaker B: "Don't tell me you screwed up."

I found the three instances in Google Books:

Who the hell you think you are? You screwed it.
You had a nice cushy job with the Agency. You screwed it up.
I bet if you tell us what you screwed up, we could tell you how
to fix it.

With you screwed up occurring more often (79,400 results).
What's the difference between the three. Which, for instance, would fit my example the best?


texts: What does "[it] was not an option" mean, exactly?

texts:
What is the meaning of the following phrase:

  A romantic relationship between X and Z was never an option.

Does it mean that it was not feasible due to past circumstances or not desirable  by one of the two and thus not chosen  ?


texts:
The reason for A and B are/is C and D. Should it be "is" or "are"?

How about in this context:

  The principal philosophical motivation and practical result of the constriction of economic freedom in Atlas Shrugged is the redistribution of wealth and the asphyxiation of industrialists.


texts: Should I write "one of 2 things", "1 of 2 things" or "One of two things"

texts:
I am proofreading some rules and came across the following:

  Each turn you must do 1 of 2 things:  either take an action on 1 of the top 2 cards of your deck, or discard the top card of your deck"

and

  When taking an action, choose 1 of the three actions that may be present on the active area of the card.  The 3 actions are: . . .

My gut tells me that the "1"s should be written out as "one" but that the "2"s and "3" could be left as ordinals or written out. I am also aware that some would say that all these numbers should be written as words, since they are less than ten. How should the above best be written?


texts:
Just as there are those among us who are predisposed to develop physical strength more easily than others, mental strength seems to come more naturally to some people. There are several factors at play to determine the ease at which you develop mental strength:

What does "play" mean in this context?


texts: "I was really thinking" vs. "I really was thinking"

texts:
Which one of the following is correct?

  I was really thinking to do that.
  I really was thinking to do that.


texts: Is the use of the word 'damn' to express frustration offensive?

texts: For example, will a sentence like 'It's so damn hot' be considered offensive by the person whom it is being said to?


texts: "[adjective] and [adjective] [noun]" -- Should the noun be singular or plural?

texts:
In a scientific paper I submitted, a reviewer suggested that I change the sentence

  The operation just substitutes "(m, l)" with "m" on both the sender and the receiver side.

to

  The operation just substitutes "(m, l)" with "m" on both the sender and the receiver sides.

by changing the last word from singular to plural.

There is only one sender side and only one receiver side, so my intuition tells me to use the former version, since

one would clearly write "...both the sender side and the receiver side" and
I'd also write "The green and the blue box are standing on the table" (instead of "boxes").

However, I failed to find a grammatical rule for this, and English is not my main language. Is the reviewer right? And why?


texts: 'things necessary' and 'necessary things' - same meaning?

texts:
Take these two sentences -

1) How to express the willingness to learn things necessary on the job?

2) How to express the willingness to learn necessary things on the job?

Are they grammatically correct? and do they convey the same meaning?

How about:

3) I usually list necessary things before I go to the supermarket.

4) I usually list things necessary before I go to the supermarket.

Grammatically correct? same meaning?

Another one:

5) 10 Necessary Things to Learn Before Traveling to a Foreign Country

6) 10 things necessary to Learn Before Traveling to a Foreign Country


texts:
It is missing from my list.

It is missing on my list.

It is missing in my list.

Which one is grammatically correct?


texts: word to describe one's ability to speak truthfully in a given situation

texts:
I'm looking for a word that has the specific connotation/denotation about the speaker's ability to speak truthfully based on their knowledge of the subject that they are speaking about.

For example:

  I cannot speak with _ about your
  legal problem, because I am not an
  attorney.

I'd like the word to render the phrase after the comma redundant.


texts: is it okay to use the word "upgrade" in this case?

texts:
In my company, we found that one of the software that comes with operating system is old and is causing the issue, we thought to replace that software with latest version but that did not happen, so we installed latest version of that software in a separate folder and then using it without disturbing the one that comes with operating system.
Can we say that we upgraded the software or we cant say as we did not disturb that but installed a new latest new version separately?
What is the word we can say in this case?


texts:
In the play King John by Shakespeare the following line is used:

  To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
     To throw a perfume on the violet,

What did Shakespeare mean by "gild refined gold"? Did he literally mean "put a coating of gold on gold", or was there some other meaning?


texts:
"I don't know when I am going to see him again."
Does saying "when" imply that you are certain (assuming) you will see him again, but don't know when?
I was told that it doesn't assume that, and saying it still leaves the possibility that it won't. However, I have trouble accepting that.
For example, if you just finish your first date,
you wouldn't ask:
"I don't know when our second date will be." to your friend if you're unsure if you're going to have one.


texts:
I'm a copywriter editing some text for a client who is a life coach. She has written this sentence which I'm stumped by having to punctuate in Australian English. It explains the excuses people often use to avoid self-care practices:

Self-care is about having enough energy to support others. This probably seems obvious. 'I know that!' I hear you say, and then I hear a 'but' - '…but I don't have the time', '…but the kids need me', '…but is so HARD'.


texts:
Watching YouTube videos posted by the British wildlife rehabbers Wildlife Aid, I noticed that the head rehabber seems to (affectionately) call hedgehogs "pogger" or "poglet."

Is this actual British slang, or is this his personal term, using "pog" for "hog" in a manner similar to "hocus-pocus," "hanky-panky," "higgledy-piggledy," and so forth?


texts: Ambiguous? "someone lives between place A and place B"

texts:
Is this sentence: “someone lives between place A and place B” ambiguous?

Depending on the cities, I wonder whether it means:

"someone lives in a place C between A and B"

Or,

"someone keeps traveling regularly from A to B and B to A for whatever reason. But stays in A and B."


texts: What does "non-authors" and "canonical redirects" mean in this sentence?

texts:
Prevent sniffing out user names of non-authors by using canonical redirects?

What does canonical redirects and non-authors mean?


texts: How to shorten: Environmental data, geospatial data, business data

texts:
I have the sentence "These data sets span domains such as environmental data, geospatial data, business data".
If I remove the repeated data i.e. "These data sets span domains such as environmental, geospatial, business data" does it then mean the same as the above sentence?


texts:
I just saw this in a play that I'm reading (on page 24 of this version of A View From the Bridge by Arthur Miller):

  Enter Beatrice with coffee. ï

What does the ï represent or mean? I can't find it anywhere else in the text when someone enters a scene.


texts: What noun describes how much a tag is used?

texts:
When I say "tag", I mean the tags we have on StackExchange, and imageboards or other websites which use a tagging system. Is there a single noun to describe how many things the tag applied to? single-word-requests has ~4500 questions to which it applies, so I could say for example:

  The [noun] of the single-word-requests tag is about 4500.

"Strength" comes to mind, but I would imagine that word is more applicable in military contexts. Is there such a word?

I realise there are far more elegant solutions without a single noun. I'm looking for a concise field name for a Tag table in a database. The field describes how many entities to which the tag applies. So it would look something like:

Tag(_TagID_, TagName, [NumberOfXWithThisTag])

And the SWR tag could look like:

(0016, single-word-requests, 4481)


texts: What do you call any person who is in a relationship?

texts:
In speaking directly to a person of any gender, what might the identifier be for them in terms of their relationship?

For example, "wife" would describe a person who is the female in a married relationship (generally); but is there a good word to use to describe the same, but for any relationship and either partner, other than "person in a relationship"?


texts:
What is the difference in meaning between rank and ranking, as in "an officer with high rankings" and "a high-rank officer"?

I know perhaps there might be a difference in usage, but my question is about any difference in the meaning.


texts: Is this sentence "I barraged him with an interview" grammatically correct?

texts:
"I barraged him with an interview."

The above sentence sounds wrong to me.

I feel like you should barrage someone with either a plural (such as "I barraged him with questions.") or one of those terms that is technically singular but actually represents a multiple things, for example "I barraged him with a bunch of questions".

But given that "a bunch" is technically singular, doesn't that mean my original sentence "I barraged him with an interview," is technically grammatically correct?


texts: How should I express the idea of a website having very few visitors?

texts:
I just checked the Chinese Language & Usage site and found that there had been only one or two questions being asked per day. I need a word or an expression to describe a website like this. In particular, I'd like to fill in the blank in the following sentence.

  The _ of the CLU site makes me want to join the sales team and help
  promote the site.

The words I have thought of include depression, unpopularity, inactivity...None of them seems a good fit.


texts: What does "when you’re talking to the cool kids around the water cooler" mean?

texts:
The DOM is what you call bits of rendered HTML when you’re talking to the cool kids around the water cooler.

What is the meaning of the when statement ("when you’re talking to the cool kids around the water cooler") in this sentence?


texts: use of hyphen to apply an adjective to non-hyphenated compound word

texts: Do I write "non-power of two" or "non-power-of-two", where I assume "power of two" is a non-hyphenated compound word?


texts:
According to Oxford Dictionaries Online,

finite ... 2 Grammar (of a verb form) having a specific tense, number, and person.
non-finite ... Grammar (of a verb form) not limited by tense, person, or number.

Modal verbs (can, may, should etc) are always followed by bare infinitives. For example:

We could practice our dialogue.

Here, practice is a bare infinitive and is a non-finite verb and can, by its own nature, does not express tense, person or number.
Does that imply that in sentences like the one above, where a bare infinitive follows a modal verb, neither is a finite verb? If so, am I correct in understanding that we can have grammatically legitimate clauses and sentences even without a finite verb?


texts: Instructing someone to ask him/herself. Which is the correct use of punctuation?

texts:
Which is the correct form?

  Ask yourself, is this really what you want?

or

  Ask yourself, "Is this really what you want?"

or

  Ask yourself.  Is this really what you want?

(Sorry for the title. I can't phrase the question properly. I don't know the areas in grammar associated with my question. If someone can give me a better title I'm more than willing to change it.)


texts: "execute delete this data" , "execute to delete this data" or "delete this data"

texts:
I am from Japan, so there would be some errors of my English below.
The pop-up message in a web application we are developing
"Are you sure you want to execute delete this data?" ...(1)
It appears when a user choice the data they want to delete from a database and then press the "Delete" button.
I pointed out a grammatical error because there are two verbs EXECUTE and DELETE in a row.
However,my boss said the word "to" of infinitive verbs is sometimes left out so the (1) sentence above was originally
"Are you sure you want to execute to delete this data?"...(2)
So he said (1) is correct.
I think (2) is not grammatically incorrect but sounds too much, so I want to say
"Are you sure you want to delete this data?"...(3)
Which is the most correct and natural, (1),(2)or(3)? And please show me some examples in which the word "to" of the infinitive can be left out from sentences.


texts:
I have seen titles, such as books or business names, that omit the apostrophe. Is this proper? Can a title be apostrophe free if the author chooses? EX: Tom and Sallies Big Adventure.
Should Sallies properly be Sallie's? Or Sallies'?


texts: How many syllables are in "nights 'n' days"?

texts:
While I was trying to match the number of syllables in my poem, I could not be sure how many syllables these sentences below have.

Count the nights and days spent together in spite
Count the nights 'n' days spent together in spite

Do these both have 11 syllables? I think the second one has 10 syllables. Am I wrong?

Thanks.


texts: Word for knowing something as a fact, but not fully comprehending its reality?

texts:
I'm thinking of the way a lot of people (myself included) remember information out of a history book:  You superficially understand that the information is true, but remembering it doesn't feel like understanding an actual part of reality, it feels like retaining an abstract piece of information.  Like you know it's real, but you don't feel that it's real.

I suppose it's generally the kind of extremely shallow awareness you have of something if you've been told about its existence, but haven't observed or experienced it yourself.


texts: Name for rhetorical technique of abandoning commas in a long list?

texts:
I just came across a very nice example of a rhetorical structure I know I have seen many, many times:

  Our national character feels like it’s possessed by every hellish ghost of American history: white supremacist patriarchs, gilded age swindlers, paranoid McCarthyists, Know-Nothings and Klansmen and con artists and terrorists.

(Source:  Sarah Kendzior writing for The Globe and Mail.)

Notice that the usual comma-delimited list turns, after the word "McCarthyists", into an unpunctuated list separated by repeated use of the word "and".  The effect (at least on me as a reader) is to create a simultaneous sense of both urgency (we are trying to get through this list as fast as possible) and exhaustion (this list is SO LONG that we can't even use commas any more).

Does this rhetorical technique have a name?


texts: I want to express that after a certain experience I have some new insights.  Does an insight come "into mind", or do you "gain/develop" insight? How is this best phrased?


texts: Is there a term for joyriding without stealing a car or endangering myself?

texts:
Let's say I buy a Ferrari or Lamborghini, or perhaps borrow one from my parents or a friend. I then proceed to drive it around town and generally just have fun driving the vehicle, with no particular destination in mind.

The term "joyriding" has a connotation of both danger and theft (my emphasis):

  a fast and dangerous ride, especially one taken in a stolen vehicle. (Oxford)

"Take it out for a spin" is the best I could come up with, but I'm sure there's gotta be a better term out there.

Are there any terms (not necessarily one word, but as minimal as possible) which mean "to drive a car around for fun" without the connotation of dangerous driving or stolen vehicles?


texts: Which one is the right form of Stative verb "stand"?

texts:
I am looking for an explanation why,

She stands in the shade of  a tree.❌(wrong)

She is standing in the shade of the tree.✅(correct)

but,

The temple is standing in the heart of the city.❌(wrong)

The temple stands in the heart of the city.✅(correct)

why "she stands" is wrong but "temple stands" is correct?


texts: What is a word to describe one's thoughts that sound logical and reasonable but, in reality, they are not?

texts:
In Greek, λογικοφανής is a word that describes a person who spits out seemingly logical statements.
It often has a negative connotation as it is targeted towards people who tend to fool the public with supposedly beautifully-constructed thoughts that sound convincing in our ears but are not necessarily accurate.
The first word that comes to mind is deceptive, but it is not quite what I look for.
Any thoughts?


texts: What is a an alternative for "bring" in bring a new perspective?

texts:
In the sentence:

Studying the published articles on this artwork will allow me to bring a new perspective.

What is an alternative for "bring" or even "perspective"?


texts: Using pond as a verb to describe the formation of puddles

texts:
"The tenant complained that water is ponding in the parking area." or, "Due to the ponding of water in the lower lying areas, mosquitoes became a nuisance."

"ponding" is not accepted by spellcheckers and I can not find a reference in dictionaries either.

In Namibia and South Africa "ponding" is used in spoken and written English extensively, especially in technical reports.

The question is whether this is a valid verb or not. If not, what verb would describe the formation of puddles?


texts: Difference between 'sort of', 'kind of' and 'somewhat'?

texts:
I was told that these three phases have the same meanings, but I want to know if there are any differences between them:

sort of
kind of
somewhat


texts: What does "moral vision is so imperiously unsparing" mean?

texts:
The following is an excerpt from an article in the New York Times:

  No poet of our day has such a well-earned reputation for difficulty as the Englishman Geoffrey Hill, and there are few whose moral vision is so imperiously unsparing. Of late, however, the almost belligerent demands of Hill's severe and densely forbidding poetry have taken an improbable turn: part of what's become daunting about his work is simply keeping up with it all. ''The Orchards of Syon'' is Hill's fourth book in six years -- an ample output even for poets of sunny disposition, but for one of Hill's penitential austerity over the previous 50 years, it is something closer to a mutinous outburst.

I don't understand the sentence in bold. I've looked up the words one by one in the dictionary. But I still don't understand. Can anyone rephrase it with more accessible words?


texts: How do you diagram a sentence that does not contain a verb?

texts:
I am trying to do a structured sentence analysis of Ephesians 1.  Verse one doesn't contain verb.  It's a salutation/greeting.  That should mean it would not be considered a "independent clause" right?
Here it is:

  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

I'm weak in sentence diagramming or structuring.  Can someone help?


texts: History and meaning of the word "clientelist" as in "clientelist politics"

texts:
In relation to news reports about modern Greece I see the term "clientelist politics" which I assume to refer to some sort of corruption. In order to learn more I looked up clientelist in the OED only to find it isn't there.

  What is the history of the word clientelist and what exactly is its
  modern meaning?


texts: correct word for an object being worked on

texts:
If an object is being worked on, changed, corrected, ect. in some way, what would you call that object?
Someone asked if I'm looking for a noun or adjective ... great question ... looking for a noun!


texts: Is this in-sentence list correct or should it be reworded? "Track Waste, Cost, and Assess Trends"

texts:
At first glance I think it's wrong because it's not truly a list of three because you aren't tracking trends, you're assessing them, but I can't think of a fix other than completely rewording it.
It's trying to say: You can track waste, you can track cost, and you can assess trends.


texts: One Word Synonym for "Tired" as in Exercising/Running

texts:
Is there a single synonym for "Tired" that only fits for the exercising "Tired" and not the sleepy "Tired"? Exhausted would work, but you could also use exhausted if you were very sleepy. I want this because I am making a card game with a word and a single definition. Here is a sample sentence that it would fit in, and another sample sentence that it should not fit in.

Should fit in:

After Mary ran 10 miles, she was _____.

Should not fit in:

After a long day of work, Gary was _____.

Thanks!


texts: Word for someone who is a good judge of character?

texts: What is a word that can be used to describe someone who has a 'good judge of character?'


texts: Can subordinate conjunctions in some cases act as coordinate conjunctions?

texts:
I'll just mention a simple example to make myself clear.
English Rules suggest that a Compound Sentence can be formed using the following structures:
1.) [Independent Clause] , coordinate conj. [independent clause] .
2.) [Independent clause] ; conjunctive adverb , [independent clause] .

Can subordinate conjunctions make up a compound sentence by possibly acting as a coordinate conj. or conjunctive adverb in any case?

Example:

Mark goes to church daily, although he was busy today.
(Independent clause)       (conj.)    (Independent clause)

OR

Mark goes to church daily; although, he was busy today.
(Independent clause)       (conj.)    (Independent clause)

Is it possible for "although" to be considered as a coordinating conjunction itself and not connecting it with the Independent clause?


texts:
My hypothesis is that in informal writing (say something like Stack Exchange questions) "it's" is massively more common than "its".

Is this true? Are there any data to support it?
Concrete percentages?

Is there a heuristic that a very simple program¹ can use to detect when "its" would be appropriate?

The purpose of this question is that it is one of the more frequently confused pairs of words. I'm designing tools for flagging potential spelling mistakes, so if one was a lot more frequent than the other and I had indicators that the piece of text was poorly spelled then it might be a valid suggestion.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Are split infinitives grammatically incorrect, or are they valid constructs?

One of my friends once told me 'to go' is considered a whole word and no word should be put in between. Are either grammatically incorrect and is one preferred?


texts: Use of article 'the' before public places

texts:
I am not sure about the omission of article- 'the' before names of public places such as library, market, zoo. I came across this sentence:

"The spices were bought from local market"

Should I insert article 'the' before market and write it as

"The spices were bought from the local market"

Also, what is the correct expression with the word library:

At the library or at library


texts: Is there a word that means "structure and function"?

texts:
"Structure and function" is a fairly common pairing of words used in structural biology; is there some word that means the same as the both?

I've taken to using "anatomy and physiology"—"structure and function" applied to the macroscopic—but I feel that it requires some poetic license.


texts: I want to form a sentence which says"I am yours" in a way that I replace "yours" with thy/thine, but I have no idea which one is correct. I've read that each one of these is used depending on what word comes after thy/thine, but in this case "yours" is the last word in the sentence, therefore it isn't followed by anything. I also have the same question for the sentence "I am hers". What word is going to be a proper replacement for "hers", given the fact that it is also the last word?


texts:
In the word 'cartoon', sound is /kɑːtuːn/

word has two syllables, kɑː and tuːn and the syllable tuːn is stressed.

But the online dictionaries don't show the dot (.) between these two syllables.
but stress mark is marked for the syllable tuːn.

Could anyone tell me why there is no dot (.) between the two syllables kɑː and tuːn.


texts:
I understand that it's a "piece of information", but does it also imply, that the information is valuable? Can a paragraph of text about a subject be a knowledge nugget? If so, can it contain several small pieces of information, or it must be information about single subject? In other words: knowledge nugget is just one simple fact, or several facts about single subject?

Is this a common, neutral expression, used in daily life, or it sounds odd?


texts: Could you please tell me if the expression 'common life' is a correct one? If two people are living together, are they "sharing a common life"?


texts:
My question is about noun clause in the negative form.
So here is the sentence:
But what you can do is don't give up.
Can I use the negative form (don't) in the second part of the sentence? And if so, is it grammatically correct? Should I use "not" instead of "don't"?
Here is the context so you could understand the meaning of the sentence better:
Jack, you can't just let it go. But what you can do is don't give up. I believe in you. You have to try to do it for one more time.


texts: Is “go all coy over stg.” an idiom or simple combination of words?

texts:
I found the phrase “go all coy over reports “in the following sentence of Washington Post (May 12) article introducing CBS’s reported deal with Ashton Kutcher in replacing him Charlie Sheen as the leading cast of its sit com, “Two and a Half Men.”

Apparently “go all coy over stg.” looks like an idiom. So I checked usage of ‘coy’ in English Japanese dictionaries at hand and Oxford Advance Learners’ Dictionary to make it sure, but none of them carries the words, ‘go coy.’ Is “go all coy over stg.” an idiom, or simple combination of words?

“Ashton Kutcher has suddenly gone all coy over reports that his entourage is putting the final touches on a deal to have him replace Charlie Sheen on CBS’s “Two and a Half Men.” Kutcher’s finally got something he could tweet that we really want to know about, and now he clams up. Geesh!”


texts: Is there a better term for a groceries divider bar?

texts:
I'm Flemish, and I recently read that in 2005, the Dutch dictionary added the word "beurtbalkje" (literal translation: turn cuboid) as a neologism for the little plastic or wooden thing that you can put between your groceries and those of the previous or next customer. I think this is such a nice word for it, beautifully simplistic and yet rather obvious what's it's supposed to mean. The alliteration is also a nice touch.

However, I can't find a similarly appealing word in English. The literal translation sounds obscure. Groceries divider bar is a bit long to ask. I found "checkout divider" on Wikipedia, which is somewhat better, but it just doesn't sound as nice as the Dutch word "beurtbalkje".

Is there a better name in English than "checkout divider"?


texts: Appropriateness of "putting my child down to sleep"

texts:
I was telling a friend of mine that I was getting my child ready to go to sleep when I heard an audible gasp.

I was told that "putting my child down to sleep" is a phrase used in connection when euthanizing pets.

What is the proper was of saying that you are getting your child to sleep?


texts:
This is the sentence that is confusing me:

  Thanks to this screenshot we have a better view [of how] this model is built.

In my language it is correct to use something like "of how" to introduce an explanation. But I'm not sure about using that in English.


texts: Steal from the rich and give to the poor

texts: I'm trying to remember a single term that's equivalent to someone who steals from the rich to give to the poor. It's not "altruistic," it's something more specific.


texts:
Is there a word for taking delight in being made angry?

It seems like in today's Twitterverse of "gotcha politics" this word should exist, my friend suggested coining the word "Shadenfervor" but it doesn't quite fit the task at hand.


texts:
Is there an opposite of 'damned with faint praise'?

Meaning to subtly endorse something by making overly mild criticism.


texts: What is the difference between "something" and "anything" in a question?

texts:
Can someone help me in this case?

Do you know something about that girl?
("something"= A gossip or something like that.)
Do you know anything about that girl?
(the same as: "Do you really know her?")

Are these meanings correct?


texts: Compound subject or not? Plural or singular verb?

texts:
Is give or gives correct in the following sentence:

  Substantial experience combined with my programming skills give(s) me the
  expertise needed to complete the job efficiently.

Is "combined with" equivalent to "and", making "experience" and "skills" a compound subject? If so the verb should be plural.

If its not, is it governed by the "closest subject rule" and "skills" make it plural?


texts: Quote: nearly impossible for artists to critique themselves well?

texts:
In the recently-released movie, Birdman, Michael Keaton's character witters a seemingly famous quote to Edward Norton's character about artists critiquing themselves and how it is nearly impossible to do well.

What is that quote?

Or, what is a reputable quote that represents the notion that constructively self-criticizing one's music or art is very challenging?


texts:
People often use the term 'static' or 'static noise' to describe the sound of an untuned radio - which is more accuractely called white/pink/brown noise depending on the frequencies present.

I'm curious as to why it's called 'static'. What's unchanging?

From wikipedia all I could see was:

  Alternatively, the use of an FM radio tuned to unused frequencies ("static") is a simpler and more cost-effective source of white noise


texts: A word that means "being protected from other people's TMI"

texts:
What I mean is the flip side to 'privacy'.
If having your own personal information protected from strangers' eyes is 'privacy', then being protected from unwanted exposure to strangers' secrets, intimate details, nude pics, etc., is...?


texts:
In the following sentence, should it be "has the advantage of" OR "has the advantages of?".  The former looks correct to me, but I'm not sure of the grammatical reason for this.

Magnetic resonance imaging has the advantage of being noninvasive and not involving exposure to radiation, when compared to computerized tomography.


texts: When is it appropriate to use the title "Miss" as opposed to "Ms."?

texts:
There has been some disagreement in my other online searches, and in my own education.

Assuming that I do not know if the individual addressed is married, when should I use Miss Brown, and when should I use Ms. Brown?


texts:
In the statement:

In life, try to often make yourself a minor character in someone elses novel.

where - if anywhere - does the apostrophe go?


texts:
What's the difference between "content" and "contented"?

  I feel content with my present condition.

  I feel contented with my present condition.

  When she calls me by my name sweetly, I feel contented.

  When she calls me by my name sweetly, I feel content.

Hopefully, that'd be enough examples. One with the preposition, one without.


texts: "It can be really exciting" vs. "it can really be exciting"

texts:
I bumped into a question concerning the place where the "really" should be.

I get confused because Google seems to have more results for "it can be really exciting", so I wonder which one is correct.


texts: Is it correct to say "rushed into my ears"?

texts:
I'm trying to describe the chirping of birds can be heard once I opened the door and my sentence is:

The chirping of birds that last incessant rushed into my ears when I was opening the old oak door.

Is it correct? Are there any better approaches? (I personally think "rushed into my ears" sounds weird XD)
Thanks.


texts:
In several recent calls for papers for conferences in my area of science I have started noticing people apparently using the term 'academician' synonymously to 'academic'. An example:

  The symposium will provide an excellent platform for knowledge exchange between researchers, scientists, academicians and engineers working in the areas listed here:

Looking up the term in Merrian-Webster, this does not seem to correspond quite to what I usually think of as an academic, i.e. someone who works in research and/or teaching at an academic institution - typically a university:

  a : a member of an academy for promoting science, art, or literature

It does also list 'academic' as a meaning of the word, so I guess it might be OK. Is it just me that has the impression that the 'academician' term has started popping up a lot recently?


texts: Is it at all idiomatic to say "between doing something and doing something else, I've realized that..."?

texts:
I'm writing a personal statement and I want to explain that while on a language learning journey and, later on, on a language teaching career, I realized what languages actually represent in the world. While doing it, I had a feeling that if I wrote something like

between learning and teaching, I've realized that...

it would be fine, but I'd like someone to back this up first.


texts: "There is a difference between..." vs "there is the difference between..." is there a difference?

texts:
"There is a difference between A and B" OR "There is the difference between A and B"?

I am struggling to decide which article to use in such sentences.

Should it be the or a before difference? Google results favour "there is the difference" but it does sound a little unnatural to me unless you really mean some specific "difference", hence any day I would use a instead of the. Can somebody add some more context to this?


texts:
What is the word for how something is written?

I create the program for a local roller derby team, and when I went to ask one of the players how her name is written, I ended up just asking how it was spelled, but what I was really asking was:

Is it one word or two?

Are there any capital letters?

Are there any special characters?

And other questions to that effect.

Knowing one or two words that encompass all of these elements so that I could more efficiently ask people about their names would be really useful and appreciated!


texts:
Is it somehow possible to use an indefinite article before a word which is adjacent to 'in question'?

For example, does 'A little car in question now stood outside the front door' make sense?

Doesn't 'in question' eliminate any possibility for 'a' to appear?


texts: Term that describes when only one option was requested, but more were offered

texts:
Which term describes that in a scenario where only one option or result is requested, but multiple are being offered, which might be perceived badly by the requester?

Example:

  Q: I'm looking for a word that describes a scenario where one option is requested, but multiple ones are offered. Do you know such a word?
  A: Yes, there are WORD_1 and WORD_2.
  Q: But I was only interested in WORD_1, why do you suggest also WORD_2?

Exceptional case that requires further specification of the original request, denial of the complete result or choice.


texts: Constructions "be but one" vs "but + pronoun"

texts:
I've seen these constructions several times and I've found the following definitions (correct or confirm the definitions):

but + noun/pronoun = except

She gave the presents to everyone but me =
She gave the presents to everyone except me

be but one = the only one/the only

I am but one who received the present =
I am the only one who received the present

In addition, can I use be but one without be?
She gave but one present I desired to me =
She gave the only one present I desired to me

and but + noun and not only with pronoun
She sold all the flowers but the yellow one =
She sold all the flowers except the yellow ones


texts: I was talking to a friend about a girl, and he mentioned that “She can pretty much CI anything, CIB, CIM or CID.” I’m wondering what these mean. The context was sexual experience. Sorry if I missed some letters; English is not my primary language.


texts: Period as abbreviation and bullet point usages

texts:
Usage questions surrounding period (.)

Plural after abbreviation do you add s?

e.g. certificates->cert.s, environments->env.s, configurations->config.s?
as bullet points period or bracket goes first?

e.g. i.) or ii).?


texts: What do you call a bunch of garlic (when you don't remove the cloves)?

texts:
I can't seem to find the word that refers to this:

I usually end up saying "bunch of garlic" and have to explain "the garlic bunch before you peel the cloves apart".

What is it called?


texts: Is an apostrophe required in "a good ten minutes away"

texts:
I think if I wrote "a good ten minutes' walk away" then an apostrophe is required as shown.

If I write "a good ten minutes away", where 'walk' is implied from the context, is it still required?


texts:
There is a sentence:

  She brought confusion to my world but I don`t need it.

Do I have to use Sequence of Tenses? Because I think that it should be: "She brought confusion to my world but I DIDN`T need it. "


texts:
According to dictionary.reference.com the word praxis means:

  practice, as distinguished from theory; application or use, as of knowledge or skills.

I recently saw another stackexchange post now deleted, which used praxis in place of practice.

  When it interferes with one's chosen religious praxis.

Is this a proper usage of the word?


texts: Is it correct to say "That needs fixed" rather than "That needs to be fixed?"

texts:
A person I know often drops the "to be" which would normally be before the verb in a sentence.  He'll say things like:

That needs fixed.
It needs upgraded.
They need looked at.

rather than

That needs to be fixed.
It needs to be upgraded.
They need to be looked at.

Is this just a personal quirk?  Is it colloquial or archaic?  It it grammatically correct?  Does it have a name?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  How do you handle “that that”? The double “that” problem

Is there something wrong with this sentence?

  "I don't think that that can be done."

It sounds odd to me. Would it be better if I'd use just one "that" instead of two:

  "I don't think that can be done."


texts:
I was reading a book and couldn't understand the meaning of this:

  After all, how many times had her father complained that she was full of more spit and vinegar than most boys?

I searched, but I could only find mixed opinions that it could be both offensive and non-offensive meanings.

The only trustful source I found was on Oxford dictionary as "agressive energy". Can anyone explain it better? I want to grasp the full meaning of it. Examples would be good too.

PS: I'm not a English native speaker


texts: Could you say 'The gale was blowing about his jacket' ? I'd like to express the repetitive movement of his jacket going from side to side.


texts:
While looking up the best way to describe the aboriginal pronunciation of Uluru (/uluɻu/), I stumbled across retroflex approximants. The linked Wikipedia page states:

  The retroflex approximant occurs in American English, Mandarin Chinese, Pashto, a few Brazilian Portuguese dialects ...

It then proceeds to state that red is pronounced as /ɻʷɛd/ in certain American dialects. Going by the audio sample provided on the page, I find this a little hard to imagine. The article links to another wiki on English phonology which confirms that:

  Depending on dialect, /r/ may be an alveolar approximant [ɹ], postalveolar approximant, retroflex approximant [ɻ], or labiodental approximant [ʋ].

So, who in the US pronounces red as /ɻʷɛd/? How did this come about?


texts: Sentence Diagramming: The bird in the tree sang happily

texts:
Diagramming: The bird in the tree sang happily

I diagrammed the sentence correctly; but according to the author there is a potential trip to watch out for in the sentence she gave.

She says:

You found the prepositional phrase. You asked, “What question does it answer?” and you said “Where,” didn’t you? What the prepositional phrase “in the tree” really tells is “which one.”
It does this by telling “where.” Now think about that. We often tell “which one” about a noun in this way. “Which dress will you wear?” “The one on the bed.” NOT the one in the closet, or over the chair, or under the dresser.

This is an example of how you must always think about what words and word groups are really doing. In most cases, word order will be a clue as to what a prepositional phrase modifies.

End quote.

I have NO idea what she means. Can someone water down for me what she is trying to say?


texts: What is the difference between "heading to" and "heading for"?

texts:
What is the difference between to and for in the following statements?

I am headed to the airport.

I am headed for the airport.


texts: If it's "yourself", why isn't it "hisself"?

texts:
There seems to be a bit of inconsistency with "-self" pronouns. Some are possessive while others are objective/subjective:

Consider:

  Yourself
  Ourselves
  Itself(?)

vs:

  Himself
  Herself
  Themselves
  Itself(?)

The first set use the possessive pronoun; the second don't. Why?

Similarly, is "itself" "it"+"-self" or "its"+"-[s]elf"?


texts: Why is B.C. (Before Christ) in English, but A.D. (anno domini) in Latin?

texts: There are some posts explaining the shift from BC/AD to BCE/CE, but my question is with the BC/AD terms: why is the former, older, time period in English while the latter, later period is in Latin?


texts: When or why did the pronunciation of the word "renovate" change?

texts: If "renovate" is to make new again (re-nova)...why is it not pronounced ree-nove-ate?


texts: What are the adverbs and the adjectives in the following? "much wholesome" and "any other"

texts:
(It's not actually homework, I am actually studying for a competitive exam.)

The following sentences have been taken from Wren and Martin and I am providing their solutions for figuring out adjectives:

  He gave the boys much wholesome advice

Now Wren and Martin says much is a different adjective and wholesome different, shouldn't it be just wholesome in superlative degree? and can two adjectives come one after another? shouldn't one become an adverb because now it's modifying an adjective?

  Lead is heavier than any other metal

Now again Wren and Martin says any and other are two different adjectives, shouldn't other be the adjective and any adverb?


texts:
Is the phrase "permitting for" okay to use in the same way "allowing for" would be when not working on a verb?

  This does that, permitting for fewer those.

  This does that, permitting fewer those.


texts: Difference between "ADJ enough to VERB" and "so ADJ as to VERB"

texts:
What's the difference between the two structures:

ADJ enough to VERB

"he is fool enough to pretend like that"
"But was their crime great enough to merit a death sentence?"
"Apple offers products are good enough to constitute a category of their own"

so ADJ as to VERB

"he is so fool as to pretend like that"
"But was their crime so great as to merit a death sentence?"
"Apple offers products are so good as to constitute a category of their own"

Are the interchangeable?
If not, how are they different in terms of usage and also connotation?


texts: What does 'against the backdrop of' mean?

texts: How can one use 'against the backdrop of'? Which another word can be used instead of 'against the backdrop of' to mean the same meaning?


texts:
I've been a computer programmer for many years, and recently my father has been learning computer programming. Programmers often times will use a folder called "lib."

Not a native English speaker, my father pronounced "lib" like *lib*eria - short for "library."

When I corrected him and told him it's pronounced "lib" like *li*t, he asked why if "lib" is supposed to be short for "library."

I couldn't think of an answer why. I thought of other words such as

"pup", short for "puppy" is pronounced like the first part of puppy
"mic", short for "microphone" is pronounced like the first part of microphone

Why is "lib" not pronounced like the first part of library?


texts:
Sinn Féin has confirmed that one of their MLA's has removed a clamp from the front wheel of his car, using what appears to be bolt cutters, in Belfast.

This is from the BBC website.

I know the merits of 's for plural acronyms is covered at Plurals of acronyms, letters, numbers — use an apostrophe or not?

but my question is simply: is this a BBC mistake or is it becoming  standard. I'd expected the BBC to be very precise on such matters.

EDIT:  It was corrected on BBC website the next day.


texts:
Is there any difference between “The Lord is my shepherd” and “The God is my shepherd”?

Are Lord and God interchangeable?


texts:
I know there exists a term for the to–too–two situation where the words are pronounced the same but spelled differently.

Is there a term for the situation of unionized /ˈjuːnɪənɑɪzd/ and un-ionized (sometimes spelled unionized) /ʌnˈaɪənaɪzd/ where the words are pronounced differently but spelled the same?

Also, since I can't find it, what is the term for the to–too–two dilemma as well?


texts: Which historical figure did the first "further to the right than X" hyperbole figure?

texts:
Was the phrase originally "Further to the right than Genghis Khan", "Further to the right than Attila the Hun", or someone else?

NGrams for "to the right than Genghis" didn't get any matches, nor did "to the right than Attila". I couldn't find any hits relating to the English language when doing a google search for ""further to the right than Genghis" phrase" either.


texts: Expression meaning "as it certainly turned out"

texts:
I think there was a phrase that meant precisely that. The only thing that I remember is that it ended with ...enough (I'm not very sure, though).

Example:

  I glanced around to make sure I was still in the same room. And [...] enough,
  everything still looked the same: the same wooden tables, the same...

Of course I could be mistaken. In that case I welcome other alternatives.


texts:
In one of Stephen King's books titled "On Writing" he writes: "The next week my mother called another taxi, we went back to the ear doctor's, and I found once more lying on my side with the absorbent square of cloth under my head. The ear doctor once again produced the smell of alcohol..."

Can someone explain what is the difference between the possessive and non-possesvie usage of the word doctor?


texts: When did the pronunciation of "piranha" change?

texts:
"Piranha" is a Portuguese rendering of a Tupi word referring to a sharp-toothed fish with an unfortunate reputation. The correct pronunciation of this word is something like /pɪˈɹɑːnjə/. However, the "mis-pronunciation" /pɪˈrɑːnə/ (peronna?) is commonplace, and has been for some time; at least as far back as 1972, ichthyologist George Myers's Piranha Book claimed that "most English-speaking people tend to mispronounce it".

What strikes me is that when "piranha" was introduced, presumably most everyone who knew the word would also have known the Portuguese origin and pronounced it as such. Even as the word spread to broader society, people should still have seen or heard it alongside its competing Spanish rendering, "piraña", which seems to have even less ambiguity about its pronunciation. Still, somehow the /nj/ was partly forgotten, and the Anglicised pronunciation gained market share.

How and when did this shift in pronunciation come about? Are there records of commentators earlier than Myers describing and/or bemoaning the new pronunciation? I have a half-formed hypothesis that Theodore Roosevelt's 1914 Through the Brazilian Wilderness might be partly to blame, given its titillating marketable lies about the fish's behavior and its lack of a pronunciation guide, but I don't have enough information to make a firm conclusion about that book's relevance.


texts: What do you call the fear of being judged by people from your past

texts:
John doesn't give a damn what strangers think of him. He also doesn't give a damn what his friends or work colleagues think of him.
  He eats at a packed McDonalds not giving a care of the strangers around him. However if he recognizes someone from his past, university, school, he feels an intense feeling of inadequacy, shame, judgement and  self-consciousness. His reason for feeling this is because these people form a benchmark to compare himself with and they will judge him causing him shame. He feel they will judge him  for being single, not being wealthy and not being successful. This is a combination of  "keeping up with the Joneses" + social phobia + specific people benchmark

  He knows he doesn't have a social anxiety as he has no problem around strangers, new places, friends or work colleagues.

What type of condition does John have?


texts: I can say that something exists or that is does not exist. Should there not be some way to express the opposite of the verb "to exist" as a substitution? Or can something the doesn't exist be allowed to have a positive verb at all? Or do verbs ever only have one opposite? "not sit" could be "stand" or "lie", so that wouldn't, but "not breathe" seems to be "suffocate" and maybe not anything else.


texts: How would you categorize an action that is characteristic of a brown-noser (somebody who tries too hard to impress)?


texts: Which is the verb in "caution watch your step"?

texts: for this sentence "caution watch your step",  how should I understand the grammar of "caution" and "watch"? What's their part of speech?


texts:
I know that usually a short video with audio is called "clip", but at least for me, it's associated with a music video, MTV, etc, and doesn't sound professional enough.

So is there a single word for a short video promoting a company, showing the company skills and past achievements etc?

It is going to be used in a presentation which is going to start with the video, and contains Table of Contents as the first slide. So far we have "[company name] Video Clip" but like I said in the beginning, it doesn't feel right. Neither me nor the audience of the presentation are native English speakers, if it matters.


texts: Is there a word for not being sympathetic to a position, but also not being ardent towards it?

texts:
Is there a word for something like, "moderate opposition?"

Context: A friend and I are trying to find or create a phrase for someone who isn't an anti-theistic militant atheist, but also isn't an apologist for theism.


texts: help someone (to) do with DIFFERENT MEANINGS

texts:
I have gone through (almost?) all the posts pertaining "help somebody (to) do" to find the two forms (with "to" or without) are the same in meaning.

It came to my attention that bare infinitives in "verb1 object verb2" (e.g.: to make Alice cry) entails the object in the structure is actually the subject of verb2.

Thus, can I, by analogy, believe the following?

"A helps B do C." --means that B does C, and A helps in an insignificant manner as to be overlooked.
"A helps B to do C." --means that A does the heavy lifting of C, while B, for his/her incompetence or laziness, awaits results.


texts: Alternative Descriptive Statement - Calling something like it really is; both intentionally/unintentionally funny

texts:
I'm curious to know if there is a type of speech or name for what I am about to describe...  For example, instead of saying "let's go on a night hike," one would say, "let's go stumble around in the dark."

-- I have no idea if there is a name for this type of speech, or if it is just one's own mannerisms.


texts:
In this sentence:

  Used by companies to manage their teams' time.

Is that the correct possessive usage on teams?

Does it matter if a company has more than one team or not? (I assume it does not.)

I understand the usage with plurals and possessives in isolation (and have reviewed those examples). Most people I've asked have said it can be either but I still feel like team's in this case is wrong. The question is if "companies", plural, means that "teams" is made plural (even if each company only had one team). E.g., it seems more clear if you change it to something like "used by people to manage their dogs' time". I'm not sure if it's because "team" is a collective noun that causes some doubt.


texts: There's a lot of buzz these days about 'renewable energy', and with Germany's recent decision to close down their nuclear plants by 2012, activists are talking about moving to completely 'renewable energy'.  But, why is it called that?  What is actually being renewed?


texts: What is the origin of "bored out of my skull" phrase? I've seen it used quite a few times recently, but cannot pinpoint it to anyone.


texts: I am editing a document. The writer used the hyphenated form of "Company-Wide" in the article title. Note that the writer bot only hyphenated the word; the writer also capitalized "Wide." Is this correct?


texts: What do you call someone who hides files?

texts:
I'm writing a novel about a woman who hides files because she fears that other people may access information she wants to keep secret.

Mary Lou doesn't follow a precise method for hiding files in hard-disks, but she does so with excessive zeal.

So, as ever, I would like to know whether there is an adjective to describe Mary Lou.

After a bit of searching I found that bibliotaph means 'one that hides away or hoards books', but, alas, it seems that one can properly uses this word only in reference to books, not files.

So, I wonder, what do you call someone who hides away files?


texts:
Have you seen those home-printed ads, usually pasted on community boards, with cut-up strips at the bottom with the phone number printed on each strip so to allow anyone interested to tear off one of the tabs to phone later? I think they are not common outside the USA.

Is there an idiomatic term to that kind of ads?

I've thought of "tabbed ads" and "tear-away ads" but I've just made that up.


texts: A word for "too many seemingly correct choices"

texts:
I've been looking around for a term to use for an assignment. As a placeholder, I've been using the term "ultraviability" to convey the idea that too many choices are perceived as viable...even if they aren't.

Context

I conducted an evaluation of an interface where participants had to navigate categories to find a particular item. I received feedback that there were too many options that seemed like they could fit the item. As an example, the user was asked to locate ice cream. Many categories were obviously wrong, but the major hang-ups were the categories dairy, milk and creams, and frozen desserts. The correct choice was frozen desserts while the other two did not contain the item.

Already Searched

Information overload (or infoxication/infobesity): While this is an HCI term, it is not the right one.

Paradox of choice: This one doesn't work either because it relies heavily on the idea of too many choices being the cause of unhappiness. It doesn't capture the "too many correct looking choices" idea.

I'm hoping for a concise answer (not a hard one-word limit...but close).


texts:
CNN tweeted:

US Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be separated by plexiglass at Wednesday night’s debate, a source says. The decision to enhance safety measures at the VP debate was met with mockery from Pence's team.
"If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it," said spokeswoman Katie Miller, who herself tested positive for coronavirus in May.

A lot of people tweeted that Pence's compaign opposed Harris' request. Doesn't
"have at it" mean "go ahead with it"? Why does it mean opposition? Thanks.


texts: Valid or not: "Treat others with the same respect you’d want them to treat you"?

texts:
Is this valid?

  Treat others with the same respect you’d want them to treat you.

I'd normally phrase this as:

  Treat others with the same respect you'd want them to treat you with.

Or, alternately:

  Treat others with the same respect with which you'd want them to treat you.

Is the abbreviated version correct?


texts: To 'know' a person — online versus in person

texts:
I searched and couldn't find anything — though that surprises me.

It feels like there are hard to express differences between knowing a person in real life - people I work with, people I went to school with, that sort of thing - and knowing a person online, such as people you play online games with or people you interact with via forums and posts.

I still feel like I know these online-people, or at least, some slice of a persona that they present to me — but the word 'know' doesn't quite feel right, as it at least feels like it should be more different than the word I use to describe knowing someone in real life.

However, guy-I-know-online or lady-I-know-from-forum-postings is really awkward and doesn't feel right either. Is there any word that has any kind of common use that attempts to address this difference?


texts: 'Work hard at it' or 'work hard for it'. Which is grammatically correct?

texts:
Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it.

My friend and I got into a little argument over which is correct. He says 'work hard at it' is correct. I disagreed and said it should be 'work hard for it'.

I'd be grateful if anyone could shed some light on this.


texts: What is the difference between in receipt, on receipt and upon receipt?

texts:
I got the following message from a book store:

  I am extremely sorry for this lapse as I hurriedly sent you the book
  to reach you on time when I received the book from the Publisher.  I
  will certainly ask for the replacement and would send you a fresh
  book.  Please return the book to the following address on receipt of
  the fresh book

and I googled "on receipt" just to be 100% sure that I understood the message right. My googling resulted seeing examples like "in receipt"  and "upon receipt". What is the difference between the three:

on receipt
in receipt
upon receipt

or are they all synonyms? As for the message that I got from the book store, doesn't it mean that when I get the new book, I can return the old book? :)

Thank you for your help! English isn't my native language and that's why I'm not always sure about the meaning x)


texts: The traditional grammar term for 'nominals'

texts:
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Page 329) has a section titled 'Nominals':

Intermediate between the noun and the NP we recognise a category of nominals:
[3] a. the old man
b. that book you were talking about

CGEL defines phrases like old man and book you were talking about as nominals. That is, nominals are defined as an NP minus any determiner.
Is there a corresponding term in traditional grammar or school grammar?


texts: Changing verb tenses in a sample paragraph

texts:
I'm trying to clear some confusion I have when writing in different verb tenses. I found Purdow OWL's tutorial, but the explanation is not clear to me.

Here's the example from the website:
Example 2: Simple present narration with perfect and progressive elements

In this scene...

  By the time Tom notices the doorbell, it has already rung three times.
  As usual, he has been listening to loud music on his stereo. He turns
  the stereo down and stands up to answer the door. An old man is
  standing on the steps. The man begins to speak slowly, asking for
  directions.

Purdue OWL explanation: In this example as in the first one, the progressive verbs has been listening and is standing indicate action underway as some other action takes place. The present perfect progressive verb has been listening suggests action that began in the time frame prior to the main narrative time frame and that is still underway as another action begins. The remaining tense relationships parallel those in the first example.

I've bolded the part that's confusing to me. The present perfect progressive action began prior to the main narrative time frame (this part I understand, it's referring to the the present tense notices) but I don't know what  is that "another action" that begins while Tom has been listening. What is that "another action" that begins while Tom has been listening to loud music in his stereo? Thank you!


texts: Do more contractions always mean more informality?

texts:
As my limited experience in English indicates, more contractions are used in spoken English than in written. Moreover, too many contractions favor casualness. Compare:

I would not have come.
I wouldn't have come.
I wouldn't've come.

However, I've encountered plenty of contractions in formal contexts (textbooks, serious speeches, etc), which makes me unsure about associating contractions with informality.

What is the exact correlation between using contractions and formality?


texts: Why/how native English speakers understand all russian words in "A Clockwork Orange"?

texts:
When native speakers read "A Clockwork Orange", and sees "Moloko", "Devotchka", or "Kartoffel" how do they understand the meaning "moloko = milk", "Devotchka = girl", "Kartoffel = potato"  ?

In "A Clockwork Orange" available 192 russian words!

Maybe Anthony Burgess did a linguistic experiment?


texts: Is it technically correct to end a sentence with "Ltd.." or "Inc..", rather than "Ltd." or "Inc."

texts:
I just came across this sentence:

  ...is expected to take five weeks to repair, according to Aurizon Holdings Ltd. Prices more than doubled last year, topping $300 a ton...

As I'm sure most people do, I come across situations like this one on an almost daily basis, and despite this it almost always throws me off. Because I am so used to the single full stop after "Ltd", "Co" etc. (pardon that pun?) simply representing a shortening of the words "Limited" and "Company", I naturally continue to read at the same pace, without noticing that a new sentence has in fact started, indicated by the capital letter. (In this case the capital "P" on "Prices".) I have to retrace the word.

Is this end-of-a-sentence behaviour simply convention, thus rendering it grammatically correct to rewrite this sentence as

  ...is expected to take five weeks to repair, according to Aurizon Holdings Ltd.. Prices more than doubled last year, topping $300 a ton...

This would save me an annoyance! How about everyone else?

The reason I think it would be correct is simple: We use the first full stop to indicate the shortening of the word, and the second to indicate that we are ending the sentence.


texts: "I hate Jill singing those songs." = "I hate Jill when she is singing those songs."?

texts:
Can the sentence

  I hate Jill singing those songs.

mean

  I hate Jill when she is singing those songs.

Or does it mean something else?


texts: My little grandson who lives in Sydney keeps saying 'mils' instead of 'milliliters' or 'ml'.  I thought at first it was his creation. Then I heard my son say 'mils' to me too but I taught him 'ml' or 'milliliters' at home. Is 'mils' a mainstream word?


texts:
Is it grammatically correct to start a sentence with "As also"?

I guess that the following example is not grammatically correct:

  As also the product includes a clippy-like helper.

while this one is correct or sounds better at least:

  Moreover, the product includes a clippy-like helper.


texts:
I'm looking for a (preferably) one-word term to describe a meal that's filling.

I'd like to avoid ambiguity with the substance put inside cakes, also called filling.
Satiating appears to be too difficult a word, while also having sexual connotations.
I was thinking about filler or big-dish, but they sound awkward.


texts:
What is the difference between the two adjectives: slick and sleek?
My dictionary returns almost the same explanation for both, like smooth and glossy.

Could someone explain when it would be more appropriate to use one or the other.
Thank you.


texts: Word for design homage to previous versions of technology

texts:
I've lost and found this word several times in my life, and now I've gone and lost it again.

Basically, it describes mimicry of a previous version of the same technology. Often a feature of this kind will be included to increase discoverability of functions or provide recognizable feedback. Examples include:

The digitally recreated sound of a camera shutter that plays when taking a picture on some smartphones (or the iris effect on the screen that make it look like an aperture is closing and opening)
Using the gesture of swiping in from the side of a touchscreen to access the next page of a digital document


texts: Obligatory punctuation for independent clauses as parts of a noun phrase?

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  I remember the time I pushed John and he fell over.

Is that sentence correctly punctuated as written?  I ask because it has no commas.

As I understand it, the phrase “the time I pushed John and he fell over” is a noun phrase with time as its head word.

However, wouldn’t the units “I pushed John” and “he fell over” each be themselves considered independent clauses?

Doesn’t this therefore demand a comma before the  conjunction and, since it is being used to join two independent clauses?

That is, shouldn’t that sentence when properly punctuated be written this way?

  I remember the time I pushed John, and he fell over.


texts: What is the English term whose meaning covers both that of *Word* and *Title*?

texts:
I am developing an App for which I have need to find a word or term whose meaning would encompass both the words Word and Title.

Examples of a Word,  are "car", "mobile phone".
Examples of a Title would be "Car price went up this year" or "Mobile phone sales declined in US"

I need to to give a field name for such words or titles, and currently I am using the term "WordOrTitleID". This term is a bit clumsy, so I am looking for a term that would better cover both meanings.

If I used TextID, that would not be helpful because text can be anything?

If I used ExpressionID, that would also not be helpful because expression is quite ambiguous, plus users wouldn't be able to relate to it.


texts: Take the car (underground) and get the car (underground)

texts:
I know than we can say

  let's go by car

OR

  let's take the car (because it is too far to walk - and I already have the car nearby.)

But, can we say:

  Let's get the car

And the same with the underground. We can say:

  Let's go by underground.
  Let's take the underground.

But, can we say:

  Let's get the underground

I know about that 'take' is more AE and 'get' is more BE, but I'm not sure that it is correct to use 'get' with 'underground' and 'car' in BE in the meaning 'go by'.


texts: Writing letter name pronunciations in a simple way

texts:
Short version, I want to fill in this list of letter names suitable for use in dialog: ?, bee, cee, dee, eee?, eff, gee, aitch, eye, jay, kay, ell, em, en, oh, pee, queue/cue?, arr, ess, tee, you/yew?, vee, double you/yew?, ex, why?, zee.

Problem letters are A, E, Q, U/W, and Y.

I can find formal pronunciations like /ei/ for A, but that doesn't seem easily understandable.

Example, ""Yes, it's ABC spelled ?-bee-cee," she clarified." (I'm not interested in writing A-B-C instead.)


texts: What is the origin of "in one fell swoop"?

texts: I know the meaning, but wanted to know the origin of the phrase.


texts:
I'm looking for an antonym for individualistic that ideologically corresponds to valuing the common good above the individual.

For example when Spock says "the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few", what ideological stance could this view be ascribed to?


texts: what is the difference between propaganda and hoax?

texts:
I was looking for definitions of propaganda and hoax. The problem is that people in the internet are trying to post their own definitions without a clarification.
At the end I chose these following definitions:
Propaganda: is a fabricated story spread to manipulate readers and to harm the interest of a particular party.
Hoax: is similar to propaganda but the main aim of the author is not to manipulate readers' opinions but to convince them of the validity of a paranoia-fueled story.
Do you think that they are correct/clear?


texts: Can humans be "beneficial" to each other?

texts:
I could be beneficial to you if you hire me.

Is that an idiomatic English sentence? Can we use beneficial for humans?


texts: Slang for giving the way to do something, not for giving the final thing itself

texts:
Someone asks how to grow a chicken, and suddenly some guy just drops a chicken already grown up.

  I need to find an algorithm to solve a given problem, but I don't want the code itself, just a way to do it.

Considering these scenarios, is there a slang term or phrase not for "giving something already made", but for "giving the way to do it"?

Thanks.


texts:
I don't understand this sentence, what are two words "HAD" mean?

"I think they may have thought that reaching out to people who represent what is now the mainstream way of thinking and HAD who HAD more access to the Trump administration than people in past was a better way to send messages or get information," said Bruce Klingner.
CNN — (beware the autoplay video)


texts: If we define "good" as "giving satisfaction" who is getting satisfaction in a sentence like "the book was good"?

texts:
good - satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree
satisfactory - giving or affording satisfaction; fulfilling all demands or requirements

How would we reword a sentence like "the book was good" to fit this definition? "The book was giving satisfaction to me (the speaker)" doesn't seem to fit because that sentence is a fact, and "the book was good" is an opinion. "The book was giving satisfaction to people in general" still seems like a fact as well.


texts: What are those translation devices you see at the UN called?

texts: What are the devices called that don't create a translation themselves (unlike the infamous LogBar ili or a fictional babelfish), but receive an infrared or radio signal of a human providing a live translation and play it in a connected earphone?


texts: Is there any rule about splitting phrasal verbs?

texts:
I thought of this question right after I posted a tweet about a service upgrading me to a free student account since I am in college. I said "That really helps a broke college student out." I actually paused for a second while I was writing that to decide if I should say

  That really helps out a broke college student.

or

  That really helps a broke college student out.

Are there any prescriptive rules about splitting phrasal verbs like this? I know this breaks the "don't put a preposition at the end of a sentence" rule, but that "rule" has an exception for phrasal verbs.

To clarify:

Is there any rule that says phrasal verbs can't be split, even if it is just an imposed, prescriptive rule?
Does splitting a phrasal verb to put a preposition at the end of a sentence fall under the phrasal verb exception to the prepositions at the end of a sentence rule?


texts:
This is a well worn phrase I'm trying to avoid in my writing. I'm looking for another word to replace 'hum', which I take to mean the background noise resulting from people talking. I came up with 'murmur', but ideally, I'd like a word that suggests a deep pitch. You see, I'm writing about a group of men, and in my head, I compare the sound of their voices to sounds stones would make as they bounce off each other while being carried along by a river. 'Trundle'? I thought 'gravel', but then, I plan to use that word a short distance away, and I hate clumsy repeats.

Any suggestions?


texts: A word that means: you pretend to like "cultured" things when you really don't

texts:
"Pretentious" comes to mind, but I thought there was a word that specifically refers to pretending to like things of "high culture", or dislike the opposite. When I looked in the thesaurus I didn't see it.
Example uses:

I said I thought The Walking Dead was a stupid TV show, but I who am I kidding. I was just being ____. It was fun to watch and I love zombie shows.
You're being ____, pretending to like Mozart but listening to 80s rock ballads when no one around.


texts: Is "well-accomplished" a natural expression?

texts:
I know that "well" can be placed before a past participle, to increase the extent to which something is acted on. For example, well-preserved, well-known, well-packed..

But when I use some word with very positive meaning themselves, can I put "well" before it? For example, "well-accomplished"?


texts:
What is the person who gives you information called?
Basically I have read a play in which there are two characters that provide you information of the happenings in the play like the information that is important for the play . Now they are not narrators as such but they are normal characters of the play that converse and the readers are acquainted with some significant information?  So what can they be called ?  Like in this sentence : Salarino and Salanio play the role of ___________ (those who convey information ) in Act 2 scene 8.

P.S. : To be more specific this is with reference to Salarino and Salanio in the merchant of venice by Shakepeare  . And i am not happy with the word information tellers  since I want a single sophisticated word.


texts: What does "compound" mean in this sentence?

texts:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tientsin_incident

  In addition, there were divisions within the Japanese government between one faction that wanted to use the crisis to start a war with Britain and another that argued that since the war with China was already compounded the border war with the Soviet Union, starting a third war at this time was unwise

I understand the first 1-2 parts of the sentence: there were internal divisions in the Japanese government regarding a new war with Britain due to how the war with China progressed. Also, the part after the last comma is obvious, but the part in between depends on the meaning of "compounded", but no meaning I know of for "compounded" makes sense there.
I would have understood if it had been followed by with or something like that. Maybe a comma or a dash to emphasize how to stress it would make the meaning more obvious?


texts: Was vs were 'The deaths of these people'

texts:
was vs were

When writing this sentence:

  The deaths of these people were / was to have far-reaching effects for Rome...

'The deaths of these people' is a singular event, that is having the effects, or would I use the plural because it's deaths plural and the people are plural...??


texts: A word meaning choosing to see a person's activities but not necessarily agreeing with them (on social media)

texts:
The context of this question is social media. In light of the various unfortunate events that often seem to stem from internet echo chambers, I've been thinking of ways to mitigate the tendency of social media to create echo chambers.

Social media sites usually allow you to "subscribe" or "follow" someone whose activity you're interested in. However, both of these words have connotations that imply you agree with the opinions of this person. However, following a Twitter account is very different from following the teachings of Jesus. Subscribing to a YouTube channel does not mean you also subscribe to their school of thought. The use of these words on social media sites makes it unlikely for most people to "follow" or "subscribe" to anything they might disagree with, stimulating the creation of echo chambers.

In the interest of making the world a better place, I believe that we should promote thoughtful disagreement at least as much as we do mindless agreement. As a step towards that, something needs to replace the traditional concept of subscription on the internet. What word could be used to replace "follow" or "subscribe" on a social media site that doesn't have implications of agreement?

The options that are most viable to me right now are "listen," "observe," and "monitor." However, "observe" also has connotations of agreement, although maybe less so than the ones in place now. "Monitor," on the other hand, has an almost negative or overly cautious tone. "Listen" seems like it's in a good place, but for the sake of thoroughness, I'm submitting this word request here. The word should be a good fit for a social media site, and a verb will probably work the best, but it's not impossible for it to be a noun or other part of speech. For example, instead of "following" a user, you could add the user to a list of "<insert noun here>s"


texts:
I have a few questions about simple situations.

What should I say to another person right after falling?
a) I fell
b) I have fallen
What should I say to another person right after throwing a ball?
a) I threw the ball
b) I have thrown the ball
What should I say to another person right after taking something?
a) I took
b) I have taken

Please provide explanations for your answers.


texts:
Is 'crewing' mainly about seamen or can it also be used as a general synonym of staffing, hiring, recruiting, employing, etc?

I want to use it in a sentence like 'the art of crewing' or 'crewing art' as in 'hiring people is difficult task - it's an art'.


texts:
Does "but one" mean "only one" or "except one"?

This phrase shows up in the song "Love is an Open Door" from the movie "Frozen". The relevant line is "Our mental synchronization can have but one explanation".

EDIT:
Shouldn't it be "Our mental synchronization can't have but one explanation"?


texts: You're reading a report. It's full of excuses and flat out lies from someone who thinks they can pull one over on you. When you go home and complain about it, you might call it complete bull****. I'm trying to keep my story clean, though, so I'm looking for another way to describe it. I've found synonyms, but I'm still looking for something that sounds natural even from a character who's comfortable swearing.


texts: What is a word or phrase for how you feel when you discover something that you don't think you can have

texts:
The title is relatively self-explanatory.  For example, I have been introduced to something that I want but only a few people will get one (e.g. winning the lottery, finding a four leaf clover, or getting a certain job).

What word or phrase succinctly describes what you feel in that moment?

Edit: to clarify, there may be a chance that you'll get the thing you want, it might require a lot of luck or hard work, etc., but the idea is that you don't know.  Like a mix of serendipity, despair, and determination.


texts: I need a word to describe a person who seeks information for other people?

texts: Im looking for another word to call a person who seeks and finds information for others.


texts: Measurement and Unit, are these the best words to use to describe things like 100mg, 1ea, 4tab

texts:
I have a spreadsheet that has some data concatenated and I want to split it into appropriate fields.

METHADONE HCL 5MG TAB UD
POTASSIUM CHLORIDE 20MEQ PACKET
MUPIROCIN 2% NASAL 1GM OINT

I am thinking that:
the 5, the 20, and the 1 are measurements
the MG, MEQ, and GM are units
the TAB, PACKET, and OINT are forms

Is there a better word to use for any of these? For example, measurement might not be appropriate because measurement might imply both a number and a unit of measure (eg if someone asks for a measurement you don't reply "four," you say "four somethings.")

EDIT - these are descriptions of discrete medications. So Methadone 5 mg tablets. I might have a bottle of thirty 5 mg tablets. This is why "qty" is not ideal - it's being used for another label (the thirty).

To explain more about the problem - this is part of an inventory calculation. Right now I have these drug descriptions. In the example of methadone, if I give you "30," I need to be clear that I'm giving you 30x5 mg (as opposed to 30mg). The reason is that destruction is also tracked. So if a patient consumes 20 of the 30 tablets, we have ten tablets to account for. If the ten are destroyed, they can be destroyed as 10 tablets or 50 mg.

So I could rephrase the question as: in the phrase "Thirty (30) 5mg Methadone Tablets"

Thirty is Qty.
Methadone is Drug or Item or Whatever.
Tablets is Form.
mg is Unit (?) - is it? Perhaps metric is better?
5 is ??????


texts: Is saying "an obsolete remnant" redundant?

texts:
Is saying "an obsolete remnant" or "an old remnant" redundant (or tautologous), or can the adjective be necessary to convey what I'm trying to say?

(I imagined "remnant" already carries the connotation of "obsolete" to some extent, but looking at Wiktionary, maybe that is not the case.)

Bonus question: Is there a better noun for "something that's remaining or left behind, yet obsolete"?


texts: whether - followed by positive or negative form?

texts:
''Pascal attempted the experiment of
seeing whether, with the aid of the most incisive knowledge,
everyone could not be brought to despair: the experiment miscarried,
to his twofold despair.''
Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality
 By Friedrich Nietzsche

What exactly does the phrase from above mean? That Pascal tried to find out if he, somehow, could stop people from despairing, or if he could get all of them to despair?


texts: What is the meaning of "enormous condescension of posterity" in below context?

texts:
Consider the abstract,

As the works of dozens of women writers have been rescued from what E.
P. Thompson calls “the enormous condescension of
posterity,” and considered in relation to each other, the lost
continent of the female tradition has risen like Atlantis from the sea
of English literature.

Taken from  -
Green,Sharon Weiner,M.A.; Wolf,Ira K.,Ph.D. (2015-02-01). GRE, 21st edition (Barron's Gre) (Kindle Locations 16724-16728). Barron's Educational Series. Kindle Edition.
I am unable to infer the meaning of what the author is trying to suggest with this line,

the enormous condescension of posterity

Words with their meaning-

condescension - an attitude of patronizing superiority; disdain.
posterity - all future generations of people.

Kindly elaborate. I know that the author uses a metaphor(comparision) -

the lost continent of the female tradition has risen like Atlantis


texts:
There is a piece of work but no-one wants to do it  and it seems that you are the only one that will do it. So the burden will be on your shoulders. What idiom can I use?

For example: This work will be pushed to me or This job will be explode in my hands?


texts: Is there a word or phrase for a concert where one composer's works are played?

texts:
Latvian has the word autorkoncerts, translated in the Latvian-English dictionary as one composer's concert.
Russian has the phrase авторский концерт, which literally means 'author's concert'.

Is there an equivalent word or phrase in English for a concert during which the compositions of only one composer are played, parallel to the solo recital for vocal/instrumental performances?

(To be used on a poster alongside the Russian Авторский концерт.)


texts: 'Bone-idle' - what is the origin of the meaning?

texts:
Phrases.org quotes Robert Forby in his glossary The Vocabulary Of East Anglia, 1830, commenting that the entry falls short of mentioning the actual wording 'bone-idle' :

Bone-lazy, bone-sore, bone-tired, adj. so lazy, sore, or tired, that the laziness, the soreness, or the fatigue, seem to have penetrated the very bones.

The OED tells me that the two earliest uses of 'lazy bones' are :

1593   G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 185   Was..legierdemane a sloweworme, or Viuacitie a lasie-bones.
1600   N. Breton Pasquils Mad-cap (Grosart) 12/2   Go tell the Labourers, that the lazie bones That will not worke, must seeke the beggar's gaines.

However the first uses of 'bone idle' are attributed by the OED to Thomas Carlyle and Rudyard Kipling :

1836   T. Carlyle New Lett. (1904) I. 8   For the last three weeks I have been going what you call bone-idle.
1891   R. Kipling Light that Failed vi. 98   Bone-idle, is he? Careless, and touched in the temper?

I am intrigued as to how bones can be either 'lazy' or 'idle'. It is muscles that are the active constituents of limbs. Bones are moved by muscles.
Is the origin due to the concept of just the depth of idleness, that there is nothing deeper in a limb than a bone ?
Or is there some other original meaning to the idiom ?
Note : There is a mention of 'bone idle' in an answer to a closed question but the answer gives no information about the origin of the expression.


texts: "You all should have" vs. "you should have all" vs. "all of you should have"

texts:
Which one of these three constructions is more correct:

  By now, you all should have received your insurance cards.

  By now, all of you should have received your insurance cards.

  By now, you should have all received your insurance cards.


texts: American English Word Stress Last Content Word

texts: I read that as a general rule, the last content word of a phrase gets the most stress. So, in the sentence "I'm late" late will get the most stress. Now if we add the word "Sorry" at the beginning of the sentence "Sorry I'm late" will the word "sorry" change the stress of late? Do we need to stress both the word "Sorry" and "late"? Any suggestion appreciated. Thank you!


texts: A word for a character trait that is of degrees?

texts:
Some or maybe all character traits come in different degrees. For example some honest people are less/more honest than others. I want a word to describe such a feature.

Example:

That character trait is not the same in everyone who has it, but it is ---- .

I know of "of degrees", "subject to degrees", but I am looking for other words.


texts: Is object raising always possible in the sentences with "worth" or "worthwhile'? (the usage of "worth" and "worthwhile")

texts:
In the following passage from a school textbook, can I change sentence in bold type to listed ones #1 through #8 below?
Unexpectedly, everyone in the crowd leapt to their feet with their hands in the air. They were bursting with excited shouts and unending cheers for Ethan. In this moment, all of Ethan’s hard work and dedication was being rewarded with glory. Ethan’s touchdown didn’t win the game, but it will be worth remembering. By now you’re probably wondering why.

It will be worth remembering it.(the first "it"=dummy subject, the last "it"=Ethan's touchdown).
It will be worthwhile remembering.(the raising of "it" the object of "remembering")
It will be worthwhile to remember.(the raising of "it" the object of "remember")
It will be of great worth to remember.(the raising of "it" the object of "remember")
It will be worth it remembering.(the raising of "it" the object of "remembering")
It will be worth it remembering it.(the first "it"=dummy subject, the last "it"=Ethan's touchdown)

The sentences above are based on the following reference.
It's not worth fixing the car.
=It's not worth it to fix the car.
=The car is not worth fixing.  (Merriam Webster Learner's dictionary, "worth")
Also based on the following reference, is the following #7 & #8 correct with grammar?
In campaign filings, Mr. Booker valued his stake in Waywire at several million dollars, though people familiar with the company's finances said it was unlikely it would ultimately be worth enough to return investors' money.(New York Times)

It will be worth enough remembering.
It will be worth enough to remember.


texts: Help with rewording my sentence? Or is it fine as is?

texts:
Here’s my sentence: “Trying to guess why she’d floundered the attempt would be like taking a shot in the dark.”

Here’s the meaning of ‘take a shot in the dark’ from the Cambridge Dictionary website:

  An attempt to guess something when you have no information or knowledge about the subject and therefore cannot possibly know what the answer is

My problem with this: It seems to me that because the phrase ‘take a shot in the dark’ already implies that something is being guessed, I should rephrase my sentence to leave out saying that the character is ‘trying to guess’ something and only use the phrase itself, but I can’t figure out how to reword it.

If anyone can help me reword the sentence, I would really appreciate it. Or, if I’m just overthinking this and it seems alright as is, please let me know.