texts:
There are some cases in English where one can substitute in a word that normally has an opposite meaning, but instead produces the same meaning.  For examples, consider the following meanings and uses:

To complete; to provide information requested by a form:

  This is the time of year when millions of procrastinating Americans fill {in, out} an IRS Form 1040.

To complete:

  We can use these azaelas to fill {in, out} that hole in the landscaping left by the utility workers.

(SE questions on that one can be found at least here, here, and here.)

To silence by disabling e.g. a circuit or machine:

  Yes, Dr. Freud, I’m familiar with the model of brain function as spreading activation through neural circuits. That seems to be working fine in this patient, but every time activation spreads to the concept of sexuality, there’s an internal alarm that goes off screaming “shut those circuits {up, down}!”

Little to no probability of occurrence:

  {Fat/slim} chance.

Is there a term for this, and what other good examples are out there?


texts:
I have two sentences. The difference is the position of "were" after "longer than".
Can you teach me how they are different, which is better and why?

Inuits of the Bering Sea were isolated from contact with Europeans longer than Inuits of the North Pacific and northern Alaska were.
Inuits of the Bering Sea were isolated from contact with Europeans longer than were Inuits of the North Pacific and northern Alaska.


texts: What's the difference in meaning between "vaticination" and "prognostication"?

texts: I'm reading a scholarly book which is discussing various ancient and medieval practices of seeing the future, and the author is using both terms. What's the difference?


texts:
On British roads (especially dual carriageways or motorways), signs indicating heavy traffic are a regular occurrence.  The most common ones are:

Congestion caution
Congestion ahead
Congestion after some location, e.g. junction

and also

Queues possible
Queues likely
Queue ahead
Queue after some location, e.g. junction

and even

Caution, queuing traffic

I've been driving in Britain for the past 10 years and generally have come to understand that queue is worse than congestion and ahead/after xxx is more certain than caution or likely.  However are there any specific meanings attached to these wordings?  Are there any rules about using one over another?


texts: Punctuation: We promise [that] it's a big deal

texts: I'm editing a marketing campaign. Out loud, one might say, "We promise it's a big deal." I believe there's an unspoken "that" in there: "We promise [that] it's a big deal." Would you punctuate the sentence differently with the missing word? My first instinct was no punctuation: "We promise it's a big deal." But on subsequent passes, it started to look more and more incorrect. It's very possible that I've gotten way too close to the words and can't see the logical, simple answer in front of me! Thanks for your help.


texts: problematic(s) (noun, not adjective) vs. problem

texts:
This question differs from this, where answererss nix 'problematic' as a noun. But the following academics (all fluent in English) use it: are they  wrong? If not, how do these cognates differ?

Richard Posner's  highly cited book is called The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory.

Nikolas Rose and Peter Miller. Political Power beyond the State: Problematics of Government

ABSTRACT
This paper sets out an approach to the analysis of political power in
terms of problematics [bold mine] of government. It argues against an over
valuation of the 'problem of the State' in political debate and social
theory. A number of conceptual tools are suggested for the analysis
of the many and varied alliances between political and other
authorities that seek to govern economic activity, social life and
individual conduct. Modern political rationalities and governmen-

The Idea of Labour Law. p. 324. Author: Guy Mundlak, LLM (Waived), SJD (Harvard Law).

  As long as labour law is explained by reference to the relationship between labour
and capital, only some aspects of labour law's problematics [bold mine] are highlighted. It is
therefore essential to recognize the third function of labour law. In speculative
fashion, I would like to suggest that the third function has often been concealed by
labour's side. Recognizing the distributive impact of labour law within labour's side
has often been left to free-market advocates.


texts: Usage of Future tense will and to be + ing-form

texts:
Could anyone please explain the usage of the future tense 'will' and 'to be +ing-form'? Is it correct to say 'I will clean the kitchen right now.' (I am about to do something in the very near future) and 'I am working tomorrow.' (my intention)
Thank you very much in advance.


texts: I don't know the correct name of what I'm looking for!

texts: I'm not sure what the thing that I'm searching for is called when you'd rather use a different word choice than the word you're using instead, but has the same meaning though. Where would I find a list of different word choices to use that has the same meaning?


texts: Are multiple criterion equivalent to criteria?

texts:
David would give it about 5 minutes even if it met every one of his criterion.

David would give it about 5 minutes  even if it met his criteria.

Are both of the sentences grammatically correct and are they semantically equivalent?


texts: What does “I’ve got my fist cocked if you still want to f*** with me,” mean in reference to the comment on the hard-boiled character of Rick Perry?

texts:
I came across the line, ‘I’ve got my fist cocked if you still want to fuck with me’ in the following sentence of the article titled “A Different Kind of Texan” in August 29th New Yorker Magazine.

I checked ‘cock one’s fist’ and ‘get one’s fist cocked’ on Google to find there was no entry of both phrases. I guess ‘get one’s fist cocked’ implies ‘about to punch in the other’s nose’ figuratively. But I don’t understand what the subsequent ‘if you still want to fuck with me.’ Does it mean ‘If you keep bugging me by digging into that subject,’or 'stick around me'?

The text reads:

“On June 17, 2001. On a day that would be known as the Father’s Day Massacre, Perry vetoed eighty-two bills. Perry had been a nonentity during the session - -
 “It was a power move - -,” Bill Miller, a lobbyist in Austin, told me recently. “It was a punch in the nose, and a ‘By the way, I’ve got my fist cocked if you still want to fuck with me’.” The reasons that Perry gave for targeting many bills were picayune, and his vetoes seemed personally directed at lawmakers, of both parties, who had fallen from his favor.


texts: Can I use the verb ‘to calculate with’ in a given example?

texts: Boiler size is calculated with sufficient reserve for the number of beds in a particular apartment.


texts:
Where one finds phrases such as "imbued with ambivalence"?

From Source, some other phrases :
"having many commonalities emanating from their histories",
"issues had a significant interplay on (her) ability" and
"I asked her to convey a narrative"

What kind of talk is that? What do these (archaic?) uncommon phrases are called?


texts: What's "mutton sleeves" or "leg of mutton sleeves"?

texts:
I'm reading a book and came to this term... it's a bit strange to me... so I searched on internet but can't find a definition.

There are some pictures on internet and wiki mentioned it in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890s_in_fashion , I roughly guess it means the sleeve style for ladies, that has a big part on the shoulder, am I right? or is there somewhere an accurate/official definition?


texts: Why is the action of removing a digital file named "Delete"?

texts:
After reading these questions:

Difference between "delete" and "remove"
How much use did the word 'delete' get before the technological boom?
Delete or Remove (ell.SE)

and the definition of delete in Oxford:

  Remove or obliterate (written or printed matter), especially by drawing a line through it.

I think that delete is only used for line, text, script. It is reasonable that when you get rid the text on the screen, you delete it. But since when was delete also used for files? A file, whether it is physical or digital, is still an object. For example you can't delete a picture hanging on the wall, why can digital pictures be deleted?

Bonus from Ngram for delete:


texts:
At work (in some code) I encountered the word "output" being used as a verb and was a bit confused at first, because I misread it as a noun. I have never seen this usage before and for some reason it seems very strange to me, but then I am not a native speaker.

I checked the dictionary and "to output" is indeed listed, but there is no mention of the commonness.

So, is this usage common or rare? Should I change the word or keep it?


texts: Is there a synonym for a decision that has 3 options? How about 4 options?

texts: Hi I am looking for a word or phrase that suggests there are three options, and maybe a word that means there are 4 options. Something that can be used in writing rather than conversation.


texts:
When I say "comment out", does it mean to uncomment something or comment it?
What is better, or more correctly used?

PS: I'm talking about source code.


texts:
This quote is from the Very Bloody History of Britain by John Farman. I have a soft spot for it as the first history book I ever read, almost twenty-five years ago.
I have always wondered what the phrase below means, apparently from the time of King Alfred:

Swa clæne hio wæs oðfeallenu on Angelkynne ðætte swþiðe feawe wæron behionan Humbre þe hiora ðenunga cuðen under-standan on Englisc.
This means 'So clean was it fallen away in England that very few were there on this side of the Humber who could understand their service books in English'.

'So clean was it fallen away'? What does this mean? It's obviously a literal translation into modern English, but what did this phrase mean?


texts:
From the movie Choke (2008)
In the beginning the lead character is describing a group of sex addicts saying:

  They may not look like much to you, but they were all-stars on the
  circuit.

Toward the end of the movie, the lead character has flashback about how he's became a sex addict. He remembered a woman in a plane's lavatory he accidentally saw naked and she made him to have sex with her saying

  There are no accidents on the circuit, honey.

I've read all vocabularies, but didn't find any definition that could explain what circiut they were talking about

I only can guess that it has something to do with sex addicts slang or something


texts:
I was wondering about the correct ending to use, amazing pyrotechnics or amazing pyrotechnic.

My gut-feeling says that pyrotechnics is the correct spelling, but in my native language, I've only ever seen it being spelled as a single noun. Which in turn makes me a bit puzzled.


texts: What word best means "disdain for the uncouth"?

texts: I'm looking for a word that means: bigotry against, or disdain for, uncouth people. ('Misanthropy' is too general, I think.)   This would sort of be the converse of anti-intellectualism.   By 'uncouth people', I mean people who (example) might casually toss litter into the street and not give it a second thought, etc.


texts:
As in, if there is space for 100 grubles in my zeblar, is there a single word which means the zeblar contains between 0 and 99 grubles?

I'm looking for it to fit the sentence:
"No [not full] slots have been found."

Using the hyphenated "No non-full..." sounds like a marginally confusing double negative


texts: Is there a sentence structure that allows for things like "people looks"?

texts:
Over on meta.stackoverflow.com, a question was raised regarding the syntax of this sentence "This is what 51,000 people looks like." To me this sounds correct. My answer on the meta question may not be right, but I swear there's a rule (or set of rules) regarding this.
In case anything gets deleted -
The question:

If you follow the link: Ten. Million. Questions. Let's celebrate all we've done together, you get to the page that says:

This is what 51,000 people looks like.

The word "people" here is not used in the singular sense, and furthermore, it is preceded by a numeral, so it must be plural. The verb "looks" should be "look".

My response:

The subject of the verb (looks) is not always the noun closest to it (people). I'm not an English expert, but I believe the subject of this sentence is the word this. In other words, replacing the middle part (is that a clause?) with is what that it becomes:
This is what that looks like.
Correct as it's written, I believe. Perhaps a good question for english.stackexchange.com!

Is a sentence like "This is what 51,000 people looks like" grammatically valid? If so, what are the rules around this?


texts:
Anosmia = Loss of the sense of smell
Anopia = Blindness
Anaesthesia/Anaphia = Loss of the sense of touch
Ageusia = Loss of taste
?       = Deafness

I can't find an equivalent medical term for deafness. Is there one? I also find that the word 'deafness' suffers from a dearth of synonyms that do not involve the word 'deaf'.

Also, if there are terms that are more apt for the loss of the other traditional senses, please list them as well.


texts: the placement of prepositions in phrasal verbs

texts: In England today, "put your coat on" and "put on your coat" are in free variation. But was there an original dialectal difference in the placement of the preposition, and if so, which areas said "put... on" (and take....out and all other similar examples) and which areas said "put on X"?


texts: A collective word for finding community through sharing food

texts: Looking for a word that would describe or better describe finding community amongst sharing food or finding community because of food shared.


texts: "Racial Flow" in the movie Get Out (2017)

texts:
Person 1: I like you on your racial flow, though.

Person 2: -Is this a racial flow？

1: - Racial flow.

2: Am I feeling a racial flow？

1: Yeah, youʼre feeling racially flowy.

Context is that, Person 1, the guy, is invited over to the house of Person 2, the girl, for the weekend, and is subjected to a lot of racism, and the girl is sorry for her family and she is sorry to have them as her family, since they upset her BF. He says, no need to be sorry, it is nothing important, although he likes her racial flow. My friend suggested that "being on the same flow" might be the meaning I am looking for. On the other hand, I thought he might have found interesting how easily she joins her family in their unintentional racism and she goes with the flow (current). Thanks for your help, sincerely.


texts: Is there an adjectival form of “levity”?

texts: Can anybody tell me the adjectival form of levity? I've found levitious here, but not sure whether it’s a dictionary word.


texts: What is the meaning of "tap dance to work"?

texts: I know what tap dance is. But the book "Tap Dance to Work" by Loomis seems imply doing something joyfully or easily. Where is the phrase originating?


texts: Looking for a word which means "relating to the order in which things are written down or expressed"

texts:
I am looking for a word (which may not exist!). It means something like "relating to the order in which things are written down or expressed"; not, however, the the order in a dictionary (that would be "lexicographical") but rather the order in normal writing.

So, if the word was "freddographical" I could talk about English and French being freddographically different because in English one says "blue car" but in French it is "auto bleu". Equally, in the UK we write a date 30/04/2011 but in the US they write 04/30/2011; I would call that a freddographical difference.


texts: Synonyms for the meaning of the 'shrugging' gesture

texts:
'Shrugging' is a gesture we make with our shoulders.  Now I'm not strictly looking for synonyms of the actual gesture of shoulder shrugging, but rather words that convey the same emotion as when someone shrugs.  Ideally, I'm looking for a verb.

I recognize there are many reasons to shrug: 2 main reasons being to say 'whatever' or to say 'I don't know'. I'm actually looking for both interpretations (it doesn't have to be one term for both).  Again, I'm looking for synonyms for the meaning of the gesture.


texts:
What is the meaning of the phrase " his reason was despaired of " in this context?
The young count was taken back to his hotel in such a state that his reason was despaired of. He was unable to be present at La Stilla’s funeral, which took place amid an immense crowd of the Neapolitan population.
Does it mean " he lost his sanity or he went insane (due to grief) " ?
Source:
http://www.tkinter.smig.net/Romania/CastleOfTheCarpathians/Chapter09.htm


texts: I'm looking for an online resource to list conjugation of some of most common English verbs (to be, to get, to do, to have etc.) in their archaic (Early Modern) forms. In particular, I'd be interested in conjugation for various tenses - I can easily find "am, art, is, are" and similar, but finding conjugation of "did" is not nearly as easy.


texts:
Can "because" come after "since?"

Here's an example sentence.

  I don't like when you do that, because
  since it makes you look weird, it also
  makes me look weird when I'm with you.

Is there anything grammatically wrong with that sentence? "Since" after "because" works here, right?


texts: Is it incorrect to write "I rate this book a 3 out of 4 stars?"

texts:
I was informed by a new editor that the sentence "I rate this book a 3 out of 4 stars" is incorrect. In the words of the editor - ""A" is wrongly inserted; you have already used "this" as a determiner, and there is no need for another one."

Could you please help me understand if this is true?


texts: We still can’t sleep. / We can’t sleep yet

texts:
I'm wondering if these two sentences mean the same thing to you, or are they different?

We still can’t sleep.
We can’t sleep yet.

Thank you.


texts: Does "allows to + verb" imply that the corresponding event occured?

texts:
Example:

  Yahoo vulnerability allows hacker to delete 1.5 million records from database.

Does this imply that the hacker did delete those records or just that he was in the position to delete the records but not necessarily performed the action?


texts:
I came across this question on Meta Stackoverflow, where a discussion was going on in the comments about the terms brackets and parenthesis and the right usage of them.

It seems there is a different usage in British English and American English. Because I’m German I didn't have a clue about this and would like to know if there really is a difference.

The Oxford Dictionary denotes brackets as: ( ) and [ ], but I think { } and < > belong to this family too, where for example { } are curly-brackets.

Parenthesis is the term only for ( ).

Is this true for both British and American English? If not, where is the exact difference?


texts:
I've been tasked with creating some custom website tracking for a CMS, similar to Google Analytics. I was going to title this area on the back-end as Analytics but I got a spell-check red squiggle and that sent me to a Google search which resulted in me finding out analytics isn't a real word.

So is there a noun form of analytic or am I just being stupid?


texts:
But the faithful were not troubled by consistency,'the bugbear of little minds'- and the
       ratbane of inconsistent bigots.

What does ratbane mean? There is a clue on Wikipedia, but I don't understand it. I should mention the sentence is from Eric Temple Bell's Men of Mathematics.


texts: Capitalization of for latin phrase in title case (in vitro, in vivo, etc)

texts:
I would like to use the following phrase as a title that needs to be in "title case". I'm wondering what the procedure is for capitalizing Latin phrases.

  Media for in vitro tissue production

Variation 1

  Media for in Vitro Tissue Production

Variation 2

  Media for In Vitro Tissue Production


texts: Etymology /history of political sense of mandate

texts: There is a sense of mandate which is commonly used in US politics which dictionaries do not quite capture. An elected official, typically the president, is said to have a mandate (either in general or to do specific actions), when they have won a clear and decisive election. I believe this derives from U.K. Politics where the government must have a majority of support either outright or via a coalition. I would like to know the history of this usage, particularly with regard to the threshold of Victory required.


texts: Correct name of an agreement used as a template for individual ones

texts:
I can't decide on the most preferred taxonomy regarding agreements. A chain can sign an agreement that each of its franchises can suborder and sign their own individual deal. When I looked it up, I got two suggestions (and can add others by my own). Now I'm sitting here scratching my head indecisive on which one to pick.

General agreement
Framework agreement
Collective agreement
Group agreement
Suborderable agreement

Which would be the most preferred term for such an agreement? I'm formostly looking for a formal nomenclature and American English is preferred (if there's any difference).
Edit
The said agreement will also be used for individuals (e.g. members of a labor union, where the union is the signer, while the members are suborderers). Franchise was just an example (perhaps poorly chosen).


texts: Is "how" a subordinator between independent clauses?

texts:
We will look at how this is used.

My question is this:

Is the word how a subordinator in this sentence? If not, what is it?
Are "We will look at" and "this is used" two independent clauses?
Are these independent clauses connected by a word "how"?


texts: Do not pass when signals flashing. Grammatical?

texts:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/islandyorkie/14757675659/

This warning, or similar, is on most every school bus I've seen.

It bothers me because I can't find the verb in the when phrase.  I assume "flashing" is a gerund form, and the sentence is missing the verb are.

Have I misinterpreted this?  Is this construction used in other situations?


texts:
The new president was invited to speak at a conference in Tokyo where he was to present his views on the shape of the world.

or

  The new president was invited to speak at a conference in Tokyo where he has to present his views on the shape of the world'

In the first sentence we have used was twice, while in second sentence one was and one has.

Which one is correct?


texts: What does ‘play a blinder’ mean? Is it a popular phrase?

texts:
I came across the phrase ‘played a blinder’ in the following paragraph of the New York Times’ December 12 article, titled “British Euro Farce,” dealing with British Prime Minister David Cameron’s veto of EU treaty reform in December.

  Marx observed that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Having a British prime minister say he’ll only go along with Germany saving the euro if City of London banks get an exemption from a financial transactions tax, while a Tory M.P. parties with Nazi lookalikes, and another Tory boasts of Cameron having “played a blinder,” is about as farcical as it gets.

As I am unfamiliar with the phrase, ‘played a blinder,’ I checked its meaning on Google, and found that only the Free Dictionary comes up with a definition:

  to perform with a lot of skill, especially when you are playing sport, as an example: He's played a blinder in every game so far this season.

Apparently it indicates performing the play skillfully and successfully. Can I apply this definition to the above sentence as it is?

Does it mean many Tories believe that Cameron vetoed the EU treaty reform successfully 'with a lot of skill’? Why is “played a blinder” in quotes?

Is ‘play a blinder’ a popular idiom, not only in sports but in all other domains, in both UK and US?


texts: Should there be hyphenation in words that specify a process or concept or something similar to these?

texts:
There are sentences wherein processes, concepts etc. are hyphenated.
For eg., progress-enhancement process, authentic-leadership approach etc.
I know there is no need of hyphenation in these cases, but what is the rationale behind  placing hyphens for such words? Is it correct?


texts:
Noodles are tasty. I like them, but why are they also used as an exclamation of dismay in the following?

  Oh Noodles!


texts: What does mean "to be interested in someone"?

texts:
Example: She doesn't seem the least bit interested in him.
Does she interest him or is she of interest to him?


texts: Obtaining a degree vs to obtain a degree?

texts:
Which one of these is correct (and why)? If both are correct, which one is considered more formal?

1)
My goal of attending college, is to educate myself, not obtaining a degree.

2)
My goal of attending college, is to educate myself, not to obtain a degree.


texts: A word for someone who is left-footed but right-handed

texts:
Most people are either right- or left-handed, or ambidextrous. This handedness is usually followed by the foot they use for kicking, meaning that a right-handed person is usually also right-footed.

Is there a word that describes someone who is right-handed but left-footed, or vice versa?

EDIT: I ask because I am right-handed and right-footed when doing something that involves my whole body (such as batting, archery, etc.), but am left-footed when it comes to kicking.  What does this make me?


texts: Idioms for diffrentiating the experience of dealing with drones versus expert professionals

texts:
I'm looking for a means of expressing a type of individual (or the burden of dealing with a type of individual) that is hired/outsourced but is not autonomous, initiated nor can they deliver anything beyond what one commands them to do.

I'm trying to draw a distinction between the following two extremes:

a drone with no experience beyond the limited task for which they're hired.
a consultant that can boast direct business experience at a high capacity.

E.g. Describing the difference in the service experience between an average domestic painter and a prolific interior design consultant.

E.g. Describing the difference between a web designer that claims to offer marketing (but in actuality offers little more than remedial S.E.O. measures) and a bona fide marketing specialist.


texts: Gobble gobble - Are the two meanings related?

texts: Turkeys say, "gobble". We also "gobble" down a lot of turkey on Thanksgiving. This is just a bit of idle musing, but are the two meanings of this word somehow related via the American & Canadian holidays?


texts: Do I use ''becomes'' or ''became'' here?

texts:
I have a sentence which I'm not quite sure is right:

The certificate became invalid when the commitments contained in the
agreement are not fulfilled.

I got confused a little. Shouldn't the word "becomes" replace "became"?


texts:
I am confused about the preferred way to combine an em-dash insertion with a comma occurring in the outer sentence. Until now, I had preferred to write:

  The erosion responsible for residuals is less related to the material process of creation—e.g., rewriting in the sense of Mondrian or blurring the edges in the sense of Rothko—, but to the double nature of time.

Consulting another question on the web, I convinced myself that em-dash and comma are complementary and there is nothing wrong in combining them. However the example on that linked page indicates that perhaps the comma should precede the insertion, like so:

  The erosion responsible for residuals is less related to the material process of creation,—e.g., rewriting in the sense of Mondrian or blurring the edges in the sense of Rothko—but to the double nature of time.

Is there any advice on which variant would be preferred in academic British English?


texts: Usage of definite articles in noun phrases

texts:
I am writing a research paper and English is my second language. I am fully confused with the usage of a/an/the in the noun phrases with the structure (noun of noun).

for example, consider this sentence:

we try to explicitly describe geometry of image edges.

what is correct form at the end of the sentence ?

1- geometry of image edges

2- the geometry of image edges

3- the geometry of the image edges

4- geometry of the image edges

Can you give me the link to a tutorial or article on the internet that explains exact grammatical rules on this subject ?

Thanks in advance

Vahid


texts:
I'm wondering about these two sentences, I want to know which one is correct please

Foreigners are welcome to apply
Foreigners are welcomed to apply


texts: What does 'Tear yet’ mean on the Charlie Sheen’s rant about his qualms with CBS

texts:
I stumbled on the word tear yet in the following sentence in today's Washington Post article titled "Charlie Sheen radio outburst spurs shutdown of ‘Two and a Half men.’" What does tear (yet) mean here?

  CBS and Warner Bros. TV have taken the extraordinary step of scrapping production on the country's most popular comedy series, "Two and a Half Men," for the rest of the season after star Charlie Sheen went on his most breathtaking radio tear yet Thursday.


texts: What do you call someone who makes sausages?

texts: I'm looking for the name of the person who makes sausages. As in, you have a butcher and [the guy makes the sausages].


texts:
I am confused as to some of the vocabulary that can be used to compare numbers and quantities, and would very much appreciate some clarification.

I suppose it is safe to say that 1 is smaller than 2.
Can I also say that 1 is less than 2, and if so, which form is preferable?
It seems that saying that 1 is lesser than 2 is uncommon - but is it incorrect?
Finally, -2 is clearly less than -1, but is it true that -2 is smaller than -1?
(If I have 2$ of debt, then I would say that I have less money than if I had 1$ of debt, but I would also say that my debt was larger, not smaller).


texts: Difference between "respect of others" and "respect by others"

texts: What is the difference between respect of others and respect by others? Is there any rule that applies here?


texts: What is the context of Mark Twain's "If you don't like the weather…" quote?

texts:
It seems well-accepted that the quotation

  If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few
  minutes.

was said or written by Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain. (At least two fairly credible sources would seem to say that Samuel seeded said saying.) Anyway, what the sources I've been able to find don't say is whether he said it or wrote it, and what was the context when he did?

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/twain.asp
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/401087-if-you-don-t-like-the-weather-in-new-england-now

Meta aside: The FAQ says not to post questions purely discussing English literature, but that is not my intent. The above phrase (often bastardized) has apparently become a sort-of idiom for "wait a moment" in modern English (for example, the second comment to this question). I'm trying better to understand the full meaning of its original context.


texts: Is there a connection between the various "states of being" that you can be "on"?

texts:
Prompted by the title of this question and a couple of comments on it, I'm minded to think there that many "states of being" that you can be "on", as in...

  on fire, on holiday, on guard, on the blink (intermittently faulty), etc.

Sometimes we just use [verb]ing to generate an appropriate word (holidaying, guarding, resting, etc.)

Or different prepositions (in purdah, at play, under suspicion, etc.)

Is there a (even partially-applied) rule indicating when on should be used?

Just to muddy the waters a bit (or maybe it'll inspire someone to see the rule, I dunno). You're at lunch, but on your lunch-break.

By way of one final 'tickle', I wonder if the difference between in retreat and on retreat will spark a line of thinking in someone ("in..." meaning "running away", whereas "on..." probably implies you're spending some time at a monastery or similar).


texts:
I just looked up the word "hyperbolic" in the 3rd edition of "The New Oxford American Dictionary", and the second definition says "(of language) exaggerated; hyperbolical."

When I go to hyperbolical, it says that is the adjective form of hyperbole.

Which is the more correct term to use? I have heard hyperbolic a few times, but never hyperbolical.


texts: Can "any of" be followed by "and" or must it be "or"

texts:
... to divide the residue of my estate equally among those of John, Mary, and Joseph, who are alive at my death, except if any of John, Mary, and Joseph has died...

Or should it be 'if any of John, Mary, or Joseph has died'?


texts: Is it acceptable to place a comma after the em-dash in this sentence?

texts:
Due to financial struggles brought on by marital struggles—or perhaps it was the other way around—, the family had to forsake it as the bank foreclosed on it.

I normally wouldn't place a comma, but had the statement between the dashes been missing like so—

  Due to financial struggles brought on by marital struggles,the family had to forsake it as the bank foreclosed on it.

...then there would be a comma.

Thanks for the help, lads and lasses.


texts: Suppose we have find a relation between two quantities X and Y. When we say "The more Y, the more X" is it implied that the relation between Y and X is linear?


texts: Comma usage (ex. His sister, Anne, was not feeling well.)

texts:
I would just like to clarify if in this kind of sentence, where you state the name of a person, are commas always needed to offset Anne?

  His sister, Anne, was not feeling well.

Or is it acceptable to remove the commas? If yes, when?

Thank you!


texts: What is the difference between "get it over" and "get over it"?

texts:
I was wondering if there are grammatical differences between "get it over" and "get over it"?

If "over" is an adverb, "it" as a pronoun must be between "get" and "over", which is what I learned from grammar; so in "get over it", "over" must be a preposition?


texts: Things needed to perform an activity - requisite or requirement? Or something else?

texts:
I'm designing an application to help tour operators with their operational tasks. I have something that I currently call "requisites", which is what is necessary to perform a certain tour. Common requisites for a tour will be a guide and a vehicle. Sometimes there may be other things, such as a driver, or horses, a boat etc.

A friend of mine, who is a native English speaker (as opposed to me) tells me this word, "requisite", isn't a word that's used much, and that a better, more understandable word would be "requirement".

I'm looking for the word that's not only more fitting, but also understandable. Which word would be best used between the two? Or maybe even a totally different word? Thank you!


texts: Article: brain and bowel/ the brain and bowel/ the brain and the bowel

texts:
I'm a learner of English working on a translation.
Which option is the best for completing the sentence below and why?

It’s been known for a long time that human homeostasis is controlled by two main organs –

a) brain and bowel
b) the brain and bowel
c) the brain and the bowel


texts:
So I am not looking for 'Enochlophobia' or 'Agoraphobia' the fear of large crowds.

I am looking for a generic term (or is it collect noun?!) for phobia of various groups of people e.g. homophobia, Islamophobia, racism etc.


texts:
Which is correct?

  He created them flawless.

  He created them flawlessly.

If flawlessly is correct, what is it an adverb of?


texts: What does “the man who had ‘no room for Churchill’ in the White House” mean? Is it a set phrase or just a turn of words?

texts:
http://frontpagemag.com. (April 16) reported that President ‘Obama snubbed Margaret Thatcher’s funeral’ by saying “Obama is not fit to lick Ronald Reagan's boot heels after walking behind his horse,” and went on sarcastically;

  "The man who had no room for Churchill in the White House would
  certainly have no time to take a break from his umpteenth golf game to
  pay tribute to a woman who represents everything that he is working to
  destroy."

Is “have / had no room for X” in the White House a set phrase or an ad hock turn of words to mean “have no special attachment / reverence to a big name or specific person, or even country?


texts: how can I phrase the future possible applications of a technology?

texts:
I'm writing an overview for a paper, and want to let the reader know part of the outline:

  ...in the last paragraph I want to mention the possible future applications one can reach/accomplish with super conductivity.

Would it be better to phrase this as follows?

  ...I will mention the possible future applications of super conductivity.


texts: How to name liabilities owed by me and by someone?

texts:
If I have to pay an invoice it's my liability. If someone has to pay an invoice issued by me it's also liability. Are there any words that distinguish these two types of liabilities?

Disclaimer: Sorry if that's obvious, I'm not a native speaker.


texts: Not "irony" or "hyperbole" - is it just "joke"?

texts: Is there a word that describes a saying which states one thing in order to make the point (clearly known by all) that the opposite is true? For example, my brother is sitting in front of a once-full-now-empty plate, and I say, "You weren't hungry, were you?!"


texts:
Can transitional phrases perform the dual task of sentence connector and adjunct?

He failed to clear the hurdle. In spite of this, he did not give up.

Here can "in spite of this" be both a connector and an adverb phrase modifying the verb 'give up'?

He is a Vegetarian. Unlike his friend, he doesn't relish eating out.

Can  "unlike his friend" perform dual function as in the first example.
Thanks


texts:
As a non native English speaker I've always found the following form strange:

Said Hamlet, "To be, or not to be".

I would more naturally say:

"To be, or not to be", said Hamlet.

Is there a stylistic difference between the two?


texts: How do I introduce a quoted clause within an independent clause?

texts:
How do we introduce a quoted clause within an independent clause?
For example, when talking about why we say, "John passes away or passed away." How do we write it in a sentence?
My sentence starts off as the following:

We normally say "John has passed away or John passed away."
Or I should write it as follows?
We normally say, "John has passed away, or John passed away," rather than "John passes away."

Do we use a comma before John, or colon, or do we write it as in sentence #1?


texts: Correct format for [Plural noun] of [physical quantity] [values]

texts:
Which phrase is correct?

Two lines of length 9 cm and 10 cm.
Two lines of lengths 9 cm and 10 cm.


texts: Which sentence is most suitable in the context of history?

texts:
The day of sorrow becomes the day of happiness.
The day of sorrow changes into the day of happiness.
The day of sorrow turns into the most peaceful day.

Detail context:
The day when one country dropped bombs on the city of another country is now remembered and observed as thanks giving day. I wish to stress the irony of such a thing.

Please suggest more suitable sentences.


texts: How did "ropey" come to mean "of poor quality"?

texts:
Rope is typically long, strong and fibrous.

So how did us Brits come to use "ropey" to describe something of poor quality?

  British informal of poor quality:
      a portrait by a pretty ropey artist

While we're on the subject, why do we also say we "feel ropey" when we're not too well or hungover?


texts: Is it correct to use comma before and after the word 'actually' in the following sentence?

texts:
So, the sentence is:

  I think we are all looking for an answer from someone who, actually, is a Hawking's student, at least I am.

I want to emphasize on the word 'actually' because someone who is not a Hawking's student answered the question that I asked on some other forum.

How good is it to use the commas before and after the word 'actually'?


texts: What is the word for the verb that signifies performing the action suggested by a given noun?

texts:
I realize the wording is a little difficult to parse; essentially, I'm asking how to fill in the following blanks:

The ___ of "mistake" is "make".

The ___ of "action" is "perform".

The ___ of "party" is "throw".

The ___ of "campaign" is ___.

Compound words are, of course, perfectly acceptable. A similar question suggested "performative verb", but the Wikipedia description seems to be referencing something else.


texts: Is the sentence "I saw him saying..." right?

texts:
Is the following sentence right in any way:

  I saw him saying that to the Chairman

instead of the more acceptable

  I heard him saying that to the Chairman?

I have a sense that the first sentence focuses more on the action and the second one on the fact, but I am not 100% sure.


texts: What part of speech does "overall" have in "performance overall"?

texts:
I have the sentence:
"Profits from abread are down because of a recession in Japan. However, our performance overall has been good, and revenues have increased."

I'd like to know, what type of speech does "overall" have in this sentence.

Personally, I think that "performance" is noun acting like an adjective and "overall" should be noun. Am I wrong? Could you help me, please?


texts: Word for statements commonly found in self-help literature

texts:
Is there a single word for statements, often found in self-help literature, like the following:

  You forgive people simply because you still want them in your life.

  The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.

They appear to deliver a profound and elucidating observation about a person and humanity in general but on closer examination, there is not much weight in them.


texts: Which of these two sentences is correct: they need to understand the lesson well,or they need to understand well the lesson?

texts: Which of the following sentence is correct: They need to understand the lesson well, or they need to understand well the lesson.


texts: Correct usage of the idiom "We will cross that bridge when we come to it"

texts: For the idiom "We will cross that bridge when we come to it", shouldn't it be "We will cross that bridge when we will come to it"? If not, please help me understand how the latter is grammatically incorrect.


texts: Where is the root morpheme in Modern English ambassador, embassy?

texts:
If there were no such a word as embassy, I would consider ambassad as a root and -or as an agent derivational suffix here. But embassy makes me puzzled.
If we accept that segmentation shold be done  like EMBASS-Y, how can we define -ador in ambassador then? as a derivational suffix?


texts: Is parallel structure actually necessary? If so, why? If not, why bother teaching it?

texts:
I know parallel structure makes things look and sound better. But there are sentences that lack symmetry that are still grammatically correct.

I stole an example from a worksheet: The class valued respect, honesty, and being on time in a teacher.

It was marked "incorrect". Why is that "incorrect"? It is correct. It just doesn't comply to a rule I've never heard of until this year. Respect, honesty, and being on time are all nouns. They are each perfectly perfect to be used as direct objects. Why is it suddenly "incorrect" to use a gerund phrase along with plain nouns? Notwithstanding the better flow of "promptness" in place of "being on time", why is it considered "incorrect"? Do teachers take off points for this kind of thing? In my opinion, telling kids they have to use parallel structure is just as stupid as telling them they can't begin sentences with conjunctions.

Why is this a big deal?
I'm sure about a hundred years from now, there will be a literary device made  up to explain lack of parallel structure. Students will be forced to marvel at the fact that authors chose to deny its existence. Teachers will tell their students that having one odd item out in a list creates emphasis and should be celebrated. Omission of parallel structure will one day become the new polysyndeton.


texts: Difference(s) between Especially and Specially

texts: I have really hard time to figure out when to use Specially and when to use Especially. Since both are adverbs, that makes it even harder. Can anyone simply give a way to distinguish between these two adverbs?


texts: History of the non-rule that proscribes ending a sentence with a preposition

texts: Famously, if not accurately, Winston Churchill is supposed to have responding to an editor who had "fixed" a sentence ending with a preposition by writing, "This is the sort of thing up with which I will not put."  The terminal preposition/adverb construction is often required in German grammar and I am asking if the English "rule" that proscribes the usage arose as an expression of anti-German sentiment around about the time either the two world wars started up.  What is the history of this "rule?"


texts: In phrase "human being," is being a gerund?  I'm looking for a form of "be" that is present time, shows action/change/movement and does not require me using "human becoming."


texts:
Is it correct to say "to suggest to someone that they should do something"?
Found in "Advanced Trainer, Six Practice Tests with Answers" by Felicity O'Dell and Michael Black, Second edition, Cambridge University Press and UCLES 2015, page 145:

Why does Erica talk about her cousin? (multiple choice,

answer A: to suggest to Ross that he should not overreact)

I looked up the verb "suggest" in different dictionaries (Longman Dictionary Of Contemporary English, Oxford Online Dictionaries, Collins Cobuild Dictionary, Cambridge Online Dictionares) but could not find this structure:
to suggest to someone that they should do something
The structure closest to it that I have found is "a simpler explanation suggested itself to me" (Oxford Dictionaries Online)


texts: Usage of Upon in unusual way after verb and before noun

texts:
So I would like to ask if the usage of upon makes sense in the following sentence. I have already done extensive research on the interwebs but have not come to a conclusion; hence I am here.

Does this sentence make sense?

  Did the boy deliver the agreed upon resolution?

I don't believe the usage of upon makes sense in that sentence.
If I'm wrong, how does that change the meaning from the following sentence?

  Did the boy deliver the agreed resolution?


texts: Why do we commonly use "all day" but not "all hour"?

texts:
I hear the phrase "all day" used a lot in my day-to-day activities. For example:

  I have had tests all day, so I am very tired."

This can also be applied to "all week," "all month," "all year," and so on. However, I have never heard the phrase "all hour" or the phrase "all minute." Instead, I normally hear something like this:

  He has been outside this whole hour, and I am starting to worry for him."

So, I am wondering, why do we use all in front of some amounts of time but not others?


texts:
Please help me. Here is a piece of my English exercise. The textbook was written by British authors.

Now, class, I’d like you all to write … a description of your last holiday.
A.  me
B.  to me
C.  it me
D.  about me

The key gives the answer “A” - "me". Why is “B” ("to me") incorrect? How to explain that? I've studied the "write me/write to me" discussions on this site. Still, I don't understand.


texts: "There is" or "There are" a large quantity of people?

texts:
There is a large quantity of people.
  There are a large quantity of people.

Are both correct?


texts: Phrase meaning "perceptible on the timescale of human attention"

texts:
Is there a word/phrase meaning "perceptible on the timescale of human attention"?

For example, a light turning on and off once per second qualifies. A laser turning on and off at 100Hz is too fast. The movement of the sun and moon in the sky is perceptible, although barely so... you'd have to make a record of where they were (e.g. sundial) and note changes over the span of minutes. Movement of glaciers (in general) is too slow to be perceptible in this way.

Quantitatively I would put this at 10Hz - 0.01Hz, but I'm wondering if a more evocative phrase exists, since I'm looking at the qualitative/evocative aspects of it, rather than quantitative.

For example:

  The sway of the trees and the movement of a clock pendulum are _____; the beating of a bee's wings and the movement of a glacier are not.


texts:
If a question tag were moved forward in a sentence, how would it be punctuated? And if the question tag were a parenthetical,   would the sentence still be a question?

There’s no point, is there, in our leaving the house today?
There’s no point, is there, in our leaving the house today.

Thank you for your time!


texts: Which pronoun should be used to refer back to actions?

texts:
Which word is better suited to reference an action? For example,

  Setting appearance of each report component is too long process. It’s
  easier to use styles for it.

or

  Setting appearance of each report component is too long process. It’s
  easier to use styles for this.

I'm trying to refer not to some object but to all previous sentence.


texts: What's up with the use of the word "black" in reference to skin color?

texts:
I've never liked the word black to describe people with dark skin.

Those of us with pigment-enriched skin are certainly not black in color.

Why was the term black used to describe people with dark skin?  Why not the more accurate brown or chocolate?

Was this use of the word black originally intended as a pejorative or as a neutral descriptor?


texts: What do we call a person who does shoe polishing

texts:
In many countries, there are people in the streets who do shoe polishing on the go.
 Please refer to the attached image.

What is the word for such a person?


texts: What is a(n) conjunction/phrase/adverb that means the same as "if we ignore X, ... (the rest is good)" in writings?

texts:
Example: "If we overlook the fact that the game lacks purpose, I think it's safe to say it's an amazing pastime."
I think "apart from" could be misunderstood and perceived as "besides" here. That's why I'd prefer to use something more definite.
Also, "except (for)", while correct, seems less like something a professional writer would use.


texts: Is Saturday night before or after Saturday?

texts: People sometimes write something like "let's finish this work by Saturday night" or "let's meet on Saturday night". Which day and time do they mean? Is it short for tonight, and then it's on Saturday somewhere between 6pm and 11:59pm, just before Sunday starts? Or is it after midnight, which is after Friday evening, when Saturday just starts?


texts:
What is this phenomenon called?

Is it common in all English-speaking countries?


texts: The Sam I used to know doesn't exist anymore

texts: Is the use of the article "the" correct in this case? Why?


texts:
I'm looking for a term to describe the phenomenon where a term with a once literal and direct meaning is carried on or borrowed to refer to something that is either only remotely related or completely unrelated to the original meaning.  This is mainly related to the process whereby technology is replaced or made obsolete by newer technology, but the terminology is reused to refer to elements of the newer technology.

For example, once upon a time, typewriters were the primary means of producing documents.  The paper would be fed around a drum, which sat atop a carriage that would advance from right to left with each keystroke in order to reposition the target on the page where the typebars would land.  When finished typing a line on a manual typewriter, the typist would have to manually return the carriage to its home position at the right.  After returning the carriage, the typist would have to feed the paper to the next line by turning the drum.  Automatic typewriters would accomplish this set of tasks with a single button, known as the "return" button.  The "shift" button would shift all of the typebars downward so that the uppercase letter embossed on each typebar would strike the ink ribbon instead of the lowercase letter.

Today, we don't use typewriters at all, and so we don't have any carriages to return, any physical pages to feed, or any typebars to shift, but we still have the terms "carriage return" and "line feed", which refer to specific ASCII characters, and the "shift" key.

For another example, once upon a time, carriages were the primary means of long distance transportation.  To protect the driver and passengers from being covered in mud dashed up by the pulling horses, carriages would have an angled board affixed to the front of the carriage.  This debris-blocking feature was known as a "dashboard".

As automobiles replaced carriages as the popular means of personal wheeled locomotion, the term "dashboard" came to be used to describe the board that sits in front of the driver and front passenger(s) in which the instrument panel and glove box are mounted.  Other than the fact that it is mounted somewhere in front of the riders in a wheeled vehicle, it has no relation to the original meaning of the word "dashboard".

Is there a term that describes this phenomenon?  Or rather, is there a term for a class of words such as these that have been orphaned, so to speak, from their original meanings?  (Something that would satisfy the statement "The terms 'carriage return', 'line feed', and 'dashboard' are all _______s.")

EDIT: While the term "holdover" certainly applies, it does not provide the level of precision that I'm seeking.  I'm looking for a term that describes these kind of terms using the kind of precision with which "skeuomorph" describes holdovers in user interfaces and aesthetics.

Perhaps the recently-coined term "skeuonym" would be most precise, were it to be commonly accepted.


texts: A word to define the set of the terms 'Regional', 'National', 'Global'

texts: I'm looking for a word that defines the level of a competition, for example, a regional competition, a national competition, or global competition, an inter-school competition, or international competition etc.


texts: A word that means to both encrypt and decrypt

texts:
I am currently writing a small class in C# which will take an image, decompile it down to a byte array, obfuscate the data into a proprietary format (thus making it unreadable), and store said data into a file. The class will also optionally recompile the data, thus decrypting the proprietary format back into an image so that it can be used.

I was just wondering if someone with a better vocabulary than myself could throw a couple of words at me that would mean the same thing as encrypt and decrypt, but as a single word. I understand that there may not be a word for this, because the words hold very different meanings at their base level. However, if someone has anything good I would love to hear it.


texts:
From a post on Scott Alexander's Slate Star Codex blog:

  I also think that nobody has ever been able to consistently extract anything useful or scalable out of them, and until someone does, they’ll remain a weird toy where you take them and feel transcendent joy for a few hours...

Is there right concord between  nobody has ever been able and until someone does? Should not it be until someone is or until someone has?

Is there a rule, similar to that of tagged question, that governs such combinations? Might it be that all the variants are correct but differ in meaning?


texts:
I am new to this forum, so please let me know if this question is unacceptable.

I want to say something like, "help model the world by pioneering with companies and originations of the highest order.". By this what I am trying to say is teaming up with different teams to pioneer new projects of theirs. Is the use of pioneering okay or incorrect?

Thanks in advance


texts: How to close a note to more than one person and their family?

texts: I wrote a note addressed to more than one group. Do I close the note to you and your family or to you and your families? My memory would say either or is correct.


texts: What's a "right old roarer" in British English?

texts: I was reading an Amazon review just now, and came across someone (Tchaikovsky) being described as a right old roarer.  I'm guessing this is familiar slang to Brits, but I'm not getting good search results, and it's a bit difficult to infer the meaning through context.  What does it mean?  Is it common use?


texts: Where and when did the negative connotations of "manipulation" appear?

texts:
When we think of manipulating objects, we might think of a juggler, magician, chef, etc.

When we think of manipulating people, however, it almost always comes with negative connotations. These fascinate me as we're perfectly prepared to have our behaviour altered by charsimatic people, but not manipulative ones.

When I look up the origins of the word, the online etymology dictionary tells me it comes from Latin of filling the hand, to manipule, meaning a measure, to skillful handling of objects, to the skillful handling of people.

I'm also familiar with NLP, Neil Strauss's "The Game", and Cialdini's "Influence".

Was there any negative connotation of manipulation before these?

Are there any other words that carry a more definite negative that I'm not aware of?


texts: Can I use "what are you talking about." with the words in that order?

texts:
We've got a dispute on the point whether the phrase should be "What you are talking about." or "What are you talking about." in the affirmative sentence.

I was arguing that it should be the former, and the word-order is not so important in that phrase, is it?

Help us solve the dispute, please :)


texts: Singular or plural verb after parenthetical material containing a conjunction?

texts:
I would tend to say

  Sara (and all of us) have a lot to think about now.

...but it occurs to me that if I remove the parenthetical it's clearly incorrect. Is it proper to say

  Sara (and all of us) has a lot to think about now.

...that sounds really strange to my ear.

Also, does it change the rules in any way if I use an em dash, e.g.

  Sara–and all of us–have a lot to think about now.


texts:
I am trying to write a sentence to mean that something made me think deeply about myself and I would really like to use the word introspect. I came up with:

  During several instances of reading that book, I felt the need to stop
  and introspect...

Is there a better way to say what I am trying to say? Can anyone give me examples of using this word as a verb without changing it to its noun form, introspection?


texts:
Is there a single word that could be used as a verb to mean to advance through time?

For example, in the sentence: with this jump, I advanced 15 seconds through time! It's used pretty often, which becomes heavy to read, so instead, they would say something along the lines of I {verbed} 15 seconds with this jump!

I thought of using update or progress but you would need a lot of context clues to understand they're not used the way you expect them to.


texts: Australian English for items that are discounted, on sale, or on clearance?

texts:
US English user looking for help with AusE. How would you describe to a friend something you bought that was on sale, discounted, or on clearance? Would it be with those terms, or variations on those terms, or with different words entirely? What would signs outside a shop having a sale say?

Google's intractable, keeps trying to sell me horse saddles.

Thanks in advance for your time and help.


texts: Word describing the act of giving someone false confidence

texts:
I'm having trouble coming up with a word. I need to know what word describes the act of giving someone false confidence. An example would be...

Someone made a batch of home brewed beer and gave it to a master brewer. They said that it was good but the home brewer knows that it isn't. The brewer only said it was good to be polite and encouraging but that's not very helpful in the long run for the home brewer.

It's not really that the master brewer is patronizing the home brewer, he's not being condescending or acting superior, but "patronizing" is the only word I can think of at the moment. Maybe "enabling" would be a better description but I was wondering if anyone could think of a better term to describe this situation.


texts:
Consider this question:

  Is the "hand't we" in "hadn't we better have a process?" grammatical?

Is that correct? I am not sure if the use of the phrase "hadn't we better" is correct or not.


texts: Subject-verb agreement while talking about percent

texts:
Which one of the following two sentences is the correct sentence?

"20% of the participants believe that the world is flat."
"20% of the participants believes that the world is flat."

What grammatical rules govern the choice of the correct sentence here?


texts: Confused by “you came in here knowing what you had to do”

texts:
This is a caption taken from an episode from a tv series. To set the scene, a lady comes into Frank's place seeking his help in making a decision. After conversing with her, Frank realizes she might already have decided how to make the decision.

I am confused by the word had.

The quotation is,

"You came in here knowing what you had to do,"

but I think it should be,

  "You came in here knowing what you are going to do,"

or

  "You came in here knowing what you have to do,"

or

  "You came in here knowing what you would do."


texts:
I had heard the expression "have a nose for news" but when I was watching a tv show (web of lies) the expression was "news for nose". The exact quote goes like this:

  GEORGE WEBER NOT ONLY HAD A GREAT NEWS FOR NOSE -- A GREAT SCHNOZ AS
  WE WOULD CALL IT -- BUT HE ALSO GOT INTO THE FABRIC OF THE VERY PEOPLE
  WHO WERE LISTENING.

Does this mean he had a great nose for news, are they the same thing? If not, why is the difference?


texts:
If an Acquisitor performs an Acquisition, is their subject referred to as an Acquisitee?

Please give the reasoning for your answer.

Thank you for your time.


texts: Is it appropriate to use 'eagerly' while ending a formal e-mail

texts:
Nowadays, I always use the following phrase when I am ending formal email;

  I eagerly await for your response.

  Regards,

I've seen this phrase somewhere, kind-of a formal e-mail and I am using it since then instead of always saying I look forward to your response.

I would like to know if it is suitable to use that phrase for formal email.


texts: Meaning of "Write Off" in a particular context

texts:
This question is about a specific Seinfeld episode "The Package".

For those that are familiar with the show, Kramer breaks-up Jerry stereo package and sends it back to him with a insurance. That way he could claim that the USPS screwed it up and get the money for it. Once the package arrived, here's the dialogue:

  Jerry: "What happened to my stereo? It's all smashed up."

  Kramer: "That's right. Now it looks like it was broken during
  shipping and I

  insured it for $400."

  Jerry: "But you were supposed to get me a refund."

  Kramer: "You can't get a refund. Your warranty expired two years ago."

  Jerry: "So were going to make the Post Office pay for my new stereo?"

  Kramer: "It's just a write off for them."

  Jerry: "How is it a write off?"

  Kramer: "They just write it off."

  Jerry : Write it off what?"

  Kramer: "Jerry all these big companies they write off everything."

  Jerry: "You don't even know what a write off is."

  Kramer: "Do you?"

  Jerry: "No. I don't."

  Kramer: "But they do and they are the ones writing it off."

  Jerry: "I wish I just had the last twenty seconds of my life back."

Anyway. I don't watch the show with subtitles. I'm from Brazil and I get it pretty well except for this particular term "Write Off". Once I saw it with subtitles just to see what they translated it to and - basically - they translated "Write Off" as an obligation, something people have the right to claim from USPS. I'm not convinced.

Can you help me out on this one?

Thanks so far.

PS: Dialogue taken from Seinfeld Scripts


texts: Which words define the broad meaning of the following (scientific research-related) sentences?

texts:
Background: I'm writing my master's degree dissertation on electrical engineering, related do electroporation, and I'm trying to define broad meanings for some possible approaches to the electroporation modelling (so I can create subsections with those names): here are the sentences that define them:

Theories of electroporation fall into two broad categories: (I) those based on the pore-formation and breakdown voltage modelling and (II) those that describe the electrical changes after the electroporation aiming to obtain the permeabilization state obtained.

So, the first one tries to model the process with more detail, like molecular dynamics in some cases (would that be phenomenological?). And the second one will model the broader view of the process, not being interested of what actually changed on the structure of the electroporated cells, just what this changes reflects electrically.

I am not sure if you guys can help me out or either if this is the right place to ask that. But thanks in advance anyways.

Note: I'm actually not writing the document in English, I'm not from an English speaking country (as you might notice already), but I'll translate what I get here, if I can.

EDIT

The answer I am seeking is not electroporation-related at all, it's more general, like: which terms defines the method of study that concentrates on modeling (I) how the phenomena occurs and (II) how that phenomena reflects macroscopically on its environment.


texts: Indirect quote without quotation marks, two spaces after comma?

texts:
I seem to remember the usage of a kind of soft quotation, with no quote marks, but a capital letter and two spaces after the comma. Has anyone seen this? Does it have a name? Example:

  I asked him if it was possible. He gave me a dirty look,  No way.


texts: What word means something or someone that goes/works against itself?

texts: I think I remember a word like that and it begins with the prefix counter. Can anyone help me?


texts: Where does the phrase "more than a fluke" come from?

texts: Can you tell me where "more than a fluke" comes from?


texts:
Preferably a short one. 'Description' fits my purpose very well, but is longer than I'd like (3 - 5 letters are ideal).

It's going to be used as a heading, umbrella-term, button or similar for image-metadata of some of the ones in Dublin Core; subject ("husband and children") and description ("family in front of waterfall"). And also tags ('Ben', 'Jeremy', 'Sarah', 'waterfall', 'holiday', 'Iceland')

Recognisable acronyms and abbreviations would also work, but usability goes first, so if nothing better is found, 'description' it is.

Edit: Clarification: 'Description' (as it is called for now) is the name of only one category in a software program for image-metadata. Other categories are 'Cam' (camera; shutterspeed, ISO, aperture etc.), 'GPS'/'Geo' (longitude, latitude) etc.


texts:
Which of the following is correct?

It was the memories he made that mattered.
It were the memories he made that mattered.


texts: What does "sizing" mean in this example?

texts:
What does "sizing" mean in the following quote from http://www.wikihow.com/Press-a-Shirt:

  Lightly spray the hanging shirt with sizing or spray starch (optional)
  then remove the shirt from hanger.

My understanding is that in "spray the hanging shirt with sizing", "sizing" seems to be some fluid that will be sprayed on the hanging shirt. But as far as I know, "sizing" means  an action of changing the size of something.

Thanks!


texts: I sometimes get feedback saying 'overall it's good', and I always feel that's saying there's still something lacking and it isn't really that great. Am I reading too much into it?


texts: What does "Show me a sore loser, and I'll show you a loser" mean?

texts:
In the book Crippled America by Mr. Trump, chapter 5: Education: A failing Grade. Mr. Trump quoted:

  The school taught you how to be a leader. It taught you, 'show me a sore loser, and I'll show you a loser.'...

I don't understand what the sentence: 'show me a sore loser, and I'll show you a loser.' means. If 'I'll show you a loser' --> who is the loser I will show?


texts: What is the name for a step sister's half brother?

texts:
So basically, my mom recently remarried to a man with one daughter from a previous marriage. Obviously, she's my step-sister.
Now, here's where I get confused; my step sister's mother had been married once before she met my step sister's dad and married him. In that first marriage, she had a son. When she had her second child (my step sister) in her second marriage (with my step dad), her two children were half siblings.
My step dad is not my  step sister's half brother's biological father. So, what do I call step sis's half brother, since he is technically family?


texts:
The question is a little more complex than the title states. Exceptioned is not in the dictionary. But I am not trying to use this as a verb.

I work in IT. We keep a list of exceptioned words that we parse through on an inbound email. As far as I'm aware, everyone in my industry uses this term quite frequently. I'm also wondering, can others understand what I'm trying to say? What happens that allows someone to "define" this word in the context I'm using it, even if it is incorrect?

I'm not literately inclined. So, I don't even know what part of speech exceptioned should be. But the overall question is, even if this is NOT a real word, why does it "feel" right? Is this really wrong?

I suddenly got hit by the linguistics bug, and something like this example, started to fascinate me. I have so many more questions now!

[Excuse my incorrect tags usage]


texts: Is there any other way you can "wax" as you do when you "wax philosophical"?

texts:
The wax in the phrase "wax philosophical" is a pretty strange bird.  Its wax is obviously not the ordinary definition of wax, which my dictionary summarizes as an "oily, water-resistant substance", a definition which also serves as a fair summary of other, closely related "waxes", as in earwax or beeswax.

Neither is, I think, the wax in "wax philosophical" referring to another sense of wax, as in to grow, and which I know best in reference to the Moon "waxing and waning"; it means, as best I know, that the Moon is shrinking and growing in size.  So is waxing philosophical "growing philosophical"? Sounds pretty strange to me.

The truth is, I only know how to use this set phrase, and can't really break it down into its constituents.  It seems fairly archaic; the philosophical isn't even in the standard canonical form of an adverb, with no ending "–ly".  So I was wondering three things:  What is the canonical definition of wax as its being used here?  In what other ways can you wax? Finally, if wax is acting as a verb here, why is it philosophical, as an adjective, and not philosophically as an adverb?


texts: "Thunderstorm" vs. "tempest" in common usage

texts:
When did "thunderstorm" replace "tempest" in common English usage?

I ask the question because my great-great grandmother, who lived in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, used the term frequently in her dairy of the year 1905.


texts: In Old English or in Middle English was "join" ever pronounced "jin?"

texts: In Old English or in Middle English, was "join" ever pronounced "jin?"


texts: "From A to Z" and other corresponding prepositional phrases

texts:
Certain prepositional phrases seem to correspond to each other in the same way that correlative conjunctions do, but I've never heard of any grammar that relates two PPs.

He traveled from France to Germany.

Are "from France" and "to Germany" really independent phrases? Saying "He traveled from France." doesn't sound complete.


texts: Any psycho-jargon-free alternatives for "in denial?"

texts:
So far I have " self-deception " and "reluctant to admit that...", but neither of these have quite the same meaning as "". Also, they don't quite work in a phrase where the thing denied is unmentioned, as in "That penguin is ."

Clarification: By "psycho-jargon" I mean to refer to phrases or words derived from psychological jargon. For example, saying "That seal is really OCD" when was is meant instead of "OCD" is merely "overparticular" or "fussy," or saying "That walrus is really anal" when what's meant by "anal" is also something like "fussy" and not anal-retentiveness, from which the word "anal" derives. (Anal! What a word to throw around casually!) In the case of "denial", as with "anal", the term is borrowed from psychoanalysis and so, for me at least, it has always sounded too much like the kind of cheapened pop-psychology lingo you'd hear on a daytime show like Dr. Phil.

Clarification 2: No disrespect to anyone who watches and enjoys Dr. Phil's show/shows.


texts: To add someone "to" Facebook or "on" Facebook

texts:
Which one is correct and why:

  It was the first time a girl asked me to add her on Facebook

Or

  It was the first time a girl asked me to add her to Facebook


texts:
Here's a passage from the novel, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy:

  They picked their way among the mummied figures. The black skin
  stretched upon the bones and their faces split and shrunken on their
  skulls. Like victims of some ghastly envacuuming. Passing them in
  silence down that silent corridor through the drifting ash where they
  struggled forever in the road's cold coagulate.

What is "envacuuming"?

In the Polish version of the book, it is translated as "enwakuumowanie" and that's not even a real word.


texts: Which one of three styles is the most correct?

texts:
which one of three styles is the most correct ?

first example:
1- The algorithm's running time.
2- The algorithm running time.
3- The running time of the algorithm.

second example:
1- The Transmitter's energy consumption.
2- The Transmitter energy consumption.
3- The energy consumption of the transmitter.

Honestly, I am confused about them :), I am not sure what the difference is. Is there any grammar for such situation? Thank you in advance.


texts: Are there different pronunciations of 'cucumber'?

texts:
I think the word cucumber is pronounced as if you would say 'car' without the 'r' and then 'cumber'.

However, many people I know say it in a way that sounds like 'queue' and then 'cumber'.

Are there different ways to pronounce it? If yes, is it some kind of dialect or is it just American English and British English?


texts: Someone who appears more of an expert than they are

texts:
I believe there is a term for a person who uses 'expert sounding' terminology and exudes confidence, even when their actual abilities are significantly short of their 'presentation'.

Using 'wine' a subject.... if a person described a taste as:

  Magnificent bouquet, the esters resonate with hints of mulberry and
  asparagus. This must be an oak-matured red from Bordeaux. Perhaps....
  2003 vintage, that was a year when unusual rainfall produced an
  outstanding crop that had the same rich tannins.

A person describing the wine like that has apparent confidence, apparent technical expertise, and so on. Yet, if he was a fraud, and knew nothing about wines, and the "wine" was really vinegar.... what would you call that person? Additionally, this would not be a one-off thing. This would be a person who consistently "bamboozles" people, and only when you dig below the posturing, or put them in the company of a 'real' expert, do you see the reality.

A fraud, a cheat, an imposter. Those would be true, but I'm sure there's a word which also covers the confidence, charisma, and presentation style too.

I just can't think of it.


texts: Is it correct to say 'struck an example'?

texts:
When teaching people, is it correct to say:

'The author struck an example.' ?

Can anybody give me another word used to mean 'give an example' when using examples or parables to teach people.


texts:
I am reading this book named "Asking the right questions" by M. Neil Brown. I am unable to comprehend the meaning of the bold text below.

  While absorbing information provides a productive start toward
  becoming a thoughtful person, the sponge approach has a serious
  disadvantage: It provides no method for deciding which information and
  opinions to believe and which to reject. If a reader relied on the
  sponge approach all the time, he would believe whatever he read last.
  The idea of being the mental puppet of whomever one happens to
  encounter is horrible imagery for a person and a community.
  Decisions become accidents of association, instead of reflective judgments.

Could anyone please explain it using some form of grammar jargon, that will help in future to tag the question more appropriately,

Edit- Can you help me in understanding the below text too.
Supposing the reason(s) were true, is there any way in which the conclusion nevertheless could be false?


texts: "The latter" to describe the last item in a list

texts:
So far, I've used the word "the latter" to distinguish between two items or things. Like in the following sentence:

  “This item is available in wood and in metal, but I prefer the
  former.”

Recently, though, I've been wondering if it is possible to use "latter" to refer to the last item on a longer list? Like in this example:

  "This item is available in wood, plastic, metal and paper. The latter
  is the least expensive"

What is your take on this issue? Any feedback appereciated!


texts:
I was pondering the etymology of behoove before actually looking it up, and noticed that behave looks and feels similar, but when I compared them while It said that behoove comes from OE, behave only showed up in the 15th century.

Is there a derivation?


texts:
I'm trying to analyze the following sentence:

  Shelby’s driving compulsion was to avenge her dead parents, whose catamaran was torpedoed by a Russian submarine while they were on vacation.

I'm concerned that the "while they were on vacation" clause is too far removed from "parents." Sometimes it seems to me that the clause is, in a vague way, modifying "a Russian submarine" instead. I would like to know if the sentence is acceptable as it is or if it needs to be rewritten.


texts: What's wrong with my use of "anyone" and "their" in this sentence?

texts:
For a paper that I have to write for school, I have the following sentence* that my teacher claims is incorrect. I am not sure what is incorrect about it, but it has something to do with my usage of anyone and their.

  Because of how the program works, anyone interested in using it only needs to have it installed on their machine.

What's wrong with my anyone - their usage?

*The sentence provided has been deliberately modified to make the subject of my paper ambiguous.


texts: Meaning of "falls short of" in this sentence

texts:
I have to do homework in English  and my English is a little bit rusty. I have a problem understanding the meaning of the last part of this sentence (bold here to identify it):

Detailed technical requirements and instructions, that falls short of code.
Coding and testing standards fall outside this section, so you can assume the code has to be of high quality. See the milestone example below to understand the level of detail required.

I understood the first part until the comma but I did not get the meaning of the whole sentence: is it asking for "Detailed technical requirements and instructions"  with or without code ?


texts: The bottom graph shows the acceleration profiles, while the top the corresponding speed changes

texts:
Are the verb and noun omissions in the following sentence correct? (The words enclosed in parentheses are the omitted ones.)

  The bottom graph shows the acceleration profiles, while the top (graph) (shows) the corresponding speed changes.


texts: Can somebody make sense of this sentence?

texts:
I am just curious if anybody can make head or tail of this sentence. It does not make any sense.

  On the other hand, for cemented sand, a power function can fit as the relation between UCS and porosity (n) of cemented soil specimens as voids/volumetric cement content ratio (n/Cv) parameter that has been investigated by several researchers.

P.S. I am busy reading articles and I ran into this one. Either it is ungrammatically written, or I can't make sense of it.


texts: Is there a general word for the letter/numeral used in enumerating a list?

texts:
For example, if I have a list

First Item
Second Item
Third Item

or

 A. First Item
 B. Second
 C. Third

or

i. First
ii. Second
iii. Third

Is there a general term for the symbol denoting the enumeration of each item? e.g. in first example, it's the numbers 1, 2, and 3; second it's A, B, C, and third it's i, ii, iii.


texts: Single word for a person who gets addicted to a specific food item for a while

texts: I am looking for a single word for a person who gets addicted to a specific food item for a while, and then moves on to other, but is usually binge eating some specific food or the other. Example - My roommate got addicted to some chocolate and got one or two every day for a week, then she left it and got addicted to soup and kept drinking soup instead of breakfast or lunch, three to six packets in a day.


texts: Age old question: What's the meaning of 'word'?

texts:
An old question, for which I could find absolutely NO reference on the internet for many years. Perhaps I wasn't looking in the right places, but I have no clue about its usage either.

Then I stumbled upon this article just now that actually happened to address the same premise. I tried to figure out myself as a function of context but my better judgement was to seek expert advice. So here goes.

In the following excerpt I found in an article:

  Ricky: Yo player let me get some of that valium!
  Albert: **** off these are for my back spasms.
  Ricky: Okay fine then I will tell your girlfriend about last weekend.
  Albert: Fine, here you go a**hole.
  Ricky: Word.

What exactly does word mean at the end? What are its connotations? Thanks :)


texts:
I was looking at a short summary of Augustine's Confessions, and came across a statement by the translator that though the word "confession" can mean acknowledgement of sin, it can also be a statement of praise.  Elsewhere, in religious writings, I also see it apparently meaning giving thanks, making a vow, etc.  Yet the dictionaries I looked at, don't have these meanings for confession.  They only mention confessing to one's sins or crimes or something that one finds shameful or embarrassing.  Confession's etymology apparently goes to "confiteri" which simply means to acknowledge.

Appreciate any help.

LATER EDIT:
I'll quote it from the book: "The very title itself can be read two ways: Of confession as praise, as well as confession as acknowledgement of faults." That's from the introduction, nothing more is said of that.


texts: How to interpret "I don't want to know what/who/where/how/why"?

texts:
I'm wondering about the right or possible interpretations for the "I don't want to know..." construction when followed by questions.

I'm not a native speaker, but in my own hypothesis the cause of "don't want to know" can be the speaker's or the subject's ignorance, or existing knowledge with regard to the answer to the question. So for the sentence [1], there are two possible interpretations (a) and (b):

[1] I don't want to know who came.

a. because I don't care!

b. because I already know! Why are you telling me this! (e.g. I feel ashamed that people have assumed that I didn't know who came)

Does this fit your intuition? Thank you!


texts:
Is

  It was me that Mr. Jones thought could do it.

correct?

Is that required between thought and could?


texts: What is a more general word for 'airport' and 'train station'?

texts:
I am designing an application, and I am looking to group these two entities (airports and train stations) into one category. The primary meaning of station seems to be for trains, and air station seems to refer to military airfields.

Is there a word that can be used in place of both an airport and a train station?


texts: Why "attention to detail" over "attention to details"

texts:
Why are people more likely to say "attention to detail" over "attention to details"?

I understand both are grammatically correct. But what slight difference between them, if there is any, makes it more likely that people will go with "attention to detail" instead of "attention to details"?

I personally do think though that "attention to details" does kind of sound somewhat odd, but can't quite put my finger on why it might. Can anybody please elaborate and explain why? Or am I just wrong and does it sound fine to you?


texts:
It's glazed ceramic, tan and brown.  There's no handle.  It's about 21" tall and about 10" diameter.  It's quite heavy.  The sides are straight up and down.

Thank you.


texts: Is it correct to join a verb and an adjective by a conjunction?

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  Did it make you laugh or make you silent?

Would it be correct to rephrase this as

  Did it make you laugh or silent?

If you replace "silent" by "cry", then the analogous rephrasing is clearly OK.  But it sounds peculiar to my ear to connect "laugh" (a verb in this context) with "silent" (an adjective) in this way.  I don't know how to describe why it sounds funny to me, though, so I hope someone can elaborate on what is going on in this example.


texts: Why can't "do" be left out of "I do not like apples"?

texts:
I like apples

is good grammar

  I not like apples

is bad grammar. It must be

  I do not like apples.

I'm looking for a concise explanation that I can give to an 11 year old learning English.  I'm a native speaker but I cannot seem to justify the grammar in any better way that "it is so".


texts: I'd like to know if this is a grammatically correct sentence

texts:
It is what to unify and harmony with Nature.

Also, do these two sentences have different meanings:

  A. The aesthetics of nature is what unifies and harmonizes with nature.
  B. The aesthetics of nature is unity and harmony with nature.


texts: Which is preferred, "On the other hand, if ..." or "If, on the other hand, ..."?

texts:
Suppose you were presenting two different conditions.  Which of the following is preferred?  Does it matter?

  If the flower is red, it may be a
  rose.  On the other hand, if it is
  blue, it may be a violet.

or

  If the flower is red, it may be a
  rose.  If, on the other hand, it is
  blue, it may be a violet.


texts:
This looks like a duplicate but it's not. Here is the 2013 question:

In farms or on farms? The OP only wanted to know which sentence was grammatically correct.

  They live the quiet life on farms
  They live the quiet life in farms

Instead I would like to know why we say “on a farm” and not “in a farm”

I was teaching English to a small group of Italian kids this morning, and we were playing "Guess which animal am I". While it was easy enough to get them to say

  Do you live in a jungle?
  Do you live in a house?
  Do you live in the water?
  Do you live in a tree?
  Do you live in a garden?

For one kid the question

  Do you live on a farm?

proved to be quite a battle, so I pretended to be deaf when he asked Do you live in a farm? until he got the phrase exactly right.

However, it would be neat if I could provide an easy explanation or mnemonic for these kids to remember, apart from me acting decrepit and deaf again next week. Any ideas?

Please, no comments on my being pedantic and fiscal, I know it's not the end of civilization as we know it, if a learner says I live in a farm but the preposition on is used in this case, and parents pay me to teach their kids!


texts: Something had me do or Something had me doing something else?

texts:
I’m editing a short story and I’ve stumbled upon a problem. I
frequently use structures like:

Agony had my insides convulsing.
Defeat had me slumping into a chair.
Fear had my body shaking.

My question is, are these sentences correct as written, or should they
be written like this:

Agony had my insides convulse.
Defeat had me slump into a chair.
Fear had my body shake.


texts: Past perfect/simple question in an example

texts:
Talking about the trip I did a few years ago:

  I have been there and  it was amazing. I had not seen a frozen sea until that time!

Did I use past perfect correctly or should I just say "I did not see .."? Also is the "until that time" ok?


texts: "How will history remember" vs "How history will remember"?

texts:
Context: there is a war going on. Actual use:

  A difficult winter is heading their way. But Jonas means to change all that. He finds himself wondering how will history remember this day.

MS Word recommends how history will. Google search shows 98k results for how will history, 180k results for how history will.

EDIT: After more thought, I realized that even though I wrote this intending the intonation to be a question, I have not added the question mark, hence the problem. With a question mark and a proper separation of clauses in the phrase (i.e. a colon), Word doesn't complain anymore.

Bottom line: how history will is more common.

My writing style favors inversion. Even in speech I would prefer to say "how will history". It just makes a lot more sense to me. I have no idea why :).

The question? Why are these two forms both so popular? Is there a recommendation when writing literature as opposed to news articles or legalese?


texts: What is the meaning of "tank" in this sentence?

texts:
I think that to tank means to become strong, huge in height and weight.
But I can't place the same meaning in this context:

  When the economy tanks as it did in the recent recession,

How does the economy become stronger in a recession ?

From www.forbes.com


texts:
Here are two sentences:

  Sarah hasn't contacted me. She couldn't have got my message.

What is the correct meaning of the above?

Since Sarah hasn't contacted me, there's a possibility she missed my message
(the same meaning as “She must have missed my message.”)
OR
Sarah hasn't contacted me BECAUSE she couldn't have got my message for some reason


texts: What is the best way to write a plural of a plural?

texts:
What started out as programming has turned into a curious language/grammar question.
I'm writing a program and want to clearly specify a variable name. The variable will be a dictionary and each item in the dictionary stores the details of a "revision".
variable = {
    "revision_a": {"detail_a": "", "detail_b": ""},
    "revision_b": {"detail_a": "", "detail_b": ""}
}

I want to name the variable revision_details but I don't believe it clearly communicates what the list is. If I saw a variable named revision_details I would assume that it stores details about a single revision.
revision_details = {"detail_a": "", "detail_b": ""}

In this case would revisions_details be correct grammar? If this is or something similar correct what is the official term for this and what does the correct version look like? Otherwise would I just need to find a different name like details_of_revisions or just revisions?
To clarify, what is the right way to say "revisions details", i.e. multiple details about multiple revisions?


texts:
A stone's throw is described as approximately 20 to 25 feet.

Does it make sense to describe double that distance as "two stones throws away" or would I have to use some other unit?

See also this question.


texts: What is the difference between assumption and conjecture?

texts:
An assumption is a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.

A conjecture is to form an opinion or supposition about (something) on the basis of incomplete information.

What is the different between the two?


texts: Why is "the" dropped in "I go to school by bus"?

texts: Why is the dropped in "I go to school by bus"? Why isn't it "I go to the school by the bus" if both school and bus are countable? Does the rule that a countable noun must have an article have an exception here?


texts: What does the phrase “tiny bit of an ask” mean?

texts:
I rewatched the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who, in which the following dialogue occurs:

Warrior: The Dalek fleets are surrounding Gallifrey, firing on it constantly.
The Doctor: The Sky Trench is holding, but what if the whole planet just disappeared?
Clara: Tiny bit of an ask.

What exactly does the last sentence mean, or is it just made up?


texts: What part of speech would "color" be in, "Mercury is the color red"?

texts:
Mercury is red.

  Mercury is the color red.

Red is describing Mercury. What part of speech would color be?


texts: "A good knowledge in English"/"a good knowledge of English"

texts: Any comments on the usage of "a good knowledge in English"?


texts: What does "the world takes you at your own estimate" mean?

texts:
I was looking for some quotes of "think highly of" when this sentence showed up repeatedly among the top results.

"Think highly of yourself because the world takes you at your own estimate."

I think it means the world sees you the way you see yourself? But I'm not sure.


texts:
Lemonade is a fizzy drink, strongly carbonated. It comes in two varieties, white (which is actually colourless) and red. I have never known anyone to make it at home.

Various things I've picked up in reading suggest that all three of the above sentences are untrue in American English, and the second sentence is untrue anywhere outside of Ireland.


texts: Meaning of 'That old rocking chair's going to get me'

texts:
In the Joni Mitchell song Stormy Weather, there's this line:

  That old rocking chair's going to get me

What does that mean? I suppose that old rocking chair is a symbol of something, but what? Death? Something else?


texts: Answering with another question for "What do you mean"

texts:
Is it correct to answer "by what?" for the question: "What do you mean?", like:

What do you mean?
By what?
By doing this... (example)

Is there any better way to answer with a question that sounds more fluently?


texts: A verb to describe traveling time and space

texts:
I've read it from a children's book and heard my friend used it to describe time and space traveling. It starts with trans- something.
I've googled every possible synonym with it and can't find it.
It's driving me crazy please help me.


texts: "The Cry of Jousts of King Richard II" — a problem with translation

texts:
I'm trying to translate this text to Polish and everything seems pretty clear to me, apart from the usage of the words "within" and "without". I presume it's some kind of technical vocabulary referring to the subject of jousting. Could someone explain to me what these words mean? Here are three excerpts from the text:

  At those jousts the noble ladies and damsels will give the knight who jousts best of those without a horn garnished with gold, and they will give to the one who jousts best of those within a white greyhound with a collar of gold around its neck.

  And the noble ladies will give a circlet of gold to the one who jousts best of those without. And one within that jousts best will be given a golden belt.

  And there will be given in the same field to whoever jousts best of those without a noble courser, saddled and bridled. And whoever jousts best of those within will be given a fine chaplet well worked with silk.


texts: What does “As for Romney, the G.O.P. is over him” mean?

texts:
New Yorker (March 4) carries the article titled “Ann and Mitt Romney’s lost fairy tale” portraying an interview of Mr. and Mrs. Mitt Romney by Chris Wallace on Fox News on Sunday, which ends up with the following statement:

  “Romney said, “We were on a roller coaster, exciting and thrilling,
  ups and downs. But the ride ends. And then you get off. And it’s not
  like, Oh, can’t we be on a roller coaster the rest of our life?” Maybe
  Congress thinks that we can. As for Romney, the G.O.P. is over
  him—mostly. “

Though it  may look quite obvious to native speakers, I’m at fault to interpret the phrase, “the G.O.P. is over him.” Does it mean that  the G.O.P. forsook Mr. Romney, or the G.O.P. is the past tense to Mr. Romney ?

Can it be possible for any major, decent political party to dump its former leader or champion like old shoes - 弊履の如く捨てる- in Japanese expression, simply because of his not making it, or vise versa?

Is “over” used here in the same way as ‘over’ in ‘game over' or 'done’?

I consulted OALED at hand. It provides 10 different definitions of the word, ‘over’, among which  I find (6) not used or needed, and (8) ended. I wonder if either of them could be applicable to the ending phrase, ‘As for Romney, the G.O.P. is over him—mostly,’ but I’m not sure.


texts:
'I think the doctors didn't expect Bob to wake up.'
I must change this sentence using May. Which version is correct?
'The doctors may have not been expecting Bob to wake up.'
'The doctors may have not expected Bob to wake up.'


texts: Can 'a small part' be used to refer to people?

texts:
Can 'a small part' be used to refer to people, like
A small part still have a radio at home.

Thanks.


texts: A word similar to pride (without its troublesome patronizing connotations)

texts:
I frequently want to express a feeling of pleasure to be associated with someone who is doing something exceptional. The phrase that comes to mind is, "I'm proud of you," but I am troubled by a certain sense of the word that suggests that I am responsible for the success of that person. It has a bit of a patronizing, parental feel to it.
So for years, I've been hunting for something that expresses some of the same sentiments, without the troublesome patronizing connotations.
The wordy version of the sense I'm working toward is: "While I am not responsible for the great things you are doing, it makes me feel good to be associated with you, a reflected glow like warming myself beside a fire." I'd even be happy with a portmanteau.
Any suggestions?