texts: What's the most common verb to use when you are undergoing medical exams?

texts:
I think you can say the following:

  I'm at the hospital, doing medical exams.

  I'm at the hospital, undergoing medical exams.

  I'm at the hospital, having medical exams.

  I'm at the hospital, taking medical exams.

I'm not very sure if some of them may be confused with taking a written medical exam (you can't discard the possibility that someone could be at the hospital writing a exam).

Which of them is less ambiguous? Is there a better choice?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When are “if” and “whether” equivalent?

As a non-native English speaker, I would use the following sentence:

  I am wondering if you have seen that movie.

Is it correct to use if here?


texts: RULES FOR LINKING VERBS (state of being verbs)

texts:
I have an English grammar book from 1984 (let this not affect the question please), where this example is given about action verbs and linking verbs:

I enjoy a cup of coffee when I arrive at work.

In the answers section, the very "enjoy" is characterized as a state of being (linking) verb, while "arrive" is said to be an action verb. According to some methods of testing I found on the internet, the most common one being the ability to replace the SOB verb with "is, am, was", the verb enjoy is not a linking verb, since it is something the subject "I" can do. She/he CAN enjoy a cup of coffee. Unlike, for instance, "The cake smells good," or "The little boy is hurt." The cake cannot SMELL anything, nor can the boy IS anything. Is this therefore a wrong instance of a SOB (linking) verb, or is the rule for testing them wrong, and there is a better one?

Another example presented in the book which I am not so certain of, "Do you have the latest sales figures in your office?" HAVING is something someone can do. It can be changed into "have you the ... in your office?" and this too cannot be changed to "are you the sales figures...in your office?"

What is the rule here for linking verbs, and IS there one at all? I understand that grammar changes according to region of the world and whatnot, but also that grammar is not necessarily always a rigid set of rules.

Thanks for the help.

ps: in the examples of action and linking verbs, these are presented:

ACTION: to WALK, to KICK, to TYPE, to DRINK, etc.
STATE OF BEING: to BE, to HAVE, to BECOME, to SEEM, to APPEAR, etc.


texts:
Which one is correct?

You and your rudeness is getting on my nerves.
You and your rudeness are getting on my nerves.


texts: English is not my first language.  I googled and googled, but this was one thing I was not able to find.  Can someone give me a definition of this?


texts: When should an adjective be followed by a comma?

texts:
This happened whenever she was left alone in someone else's home.
  She'd feel as if she had been put inside a huge, abandoned turtle
  shell.

I don't know why, but I just put a comma in the example above (I think I learned this in some writing course.)

I searched for a similar sentences on Google and found this:

  Living in a huge abandoned turtle shell called Big Green

So I'm a bit confused, when should an adjective be followed by a comma?


texts: Is the infinitive at the end of "I did whatever I wanted to do" necessary?

texts:
In a statement such as "I did whatever I wanted to do," or "I wore whatever clothes I wanted to wear," are the infinitives "to do" and "to wear" necessary? Is it improper to say "I did whatever I wanted"?

In my opinion, it sounds more formal with the infinitive, but I'm trying to meet a word limit…


texts:
I am looking for a word or phrase that means the characteristic of being generous with one's thoughts.  For instance, a mentor would have this characteristic--that would be a person who had agreed to provide a leg-up for a junior person in their profession by sharing information and feedback. I am looking for a positive word because, of course, someone who is "generous with their thoughts" might be a busybody.
The particular context is that I am trying to describe a new working group that will need to come up with innovative ways to solve problems and one of the rules of the group will be that everyone be equally generous with their thoughts, as opposed to being entirely dead wood or, even worse, only speaking up to shoot down other people's ideas.  So I want to convey that offering your ideas is a gift and that those who do not want to offer ideas do not have this admirable characteristic (and should not volunteer for the group).
Actually, the folks who participate here could be said to have this characteristic!


texts: Is there a saying or proverb for "an inventor being killed by his own invention"?

texts:
There is long list of inventors whose death was somehow related to the product, process or procedure they invented. To cite just a few,

Marie Curie (1867–1934) invented the process to isolate radium and died of aplastic anemia as a result of prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation.

William Bullock (1813–1867) invented the web rotary printing press. Several years after its invention, his foot was crushed during the installation of a new machine in Philadelphia. The crushed foot developed gangrene and Bullock died during the amputation.

Franz Reichelt, the Flying Tailor This Austrian-born French tailor is remembered for his accidental death by jumping from the Eiffel Tower while testing his own invention, a wearable parachute suit for pilots who would escape from a damaged plane.

Is there a proverb or saying for such a situation?


texts:
I saw two verbs for making new oath.

Take an oath
Swear an oath

What is the difference between them ?

Which one we should use ?


texts:
I'm not sure what time I should use after while in this sentence:

  He constantly thinks about their correspondence while he was in prison.


texts: "a" vs. "an" when the next word has multiple pronunciations

texts:
In this sentence:

  The teller would refuse (a/an) 1149 penny payment.

"1149" could be pronounced "one thousand one hundred forty nine", or it could be pronounced "eleven hundred forty nine".  One way would take "a"; the other would take "an".  Assuming I don't want to spell out the number or rephrase the sentence, which article should I use?


texts: Are the adjective "wise" and the suffix "-wise" etymologically related?

texts: Are they linked, or have they arisen seperatedly and/or without connection?


texts: In the OED, one definition has three explanations separated by a semicolon and two use 'with' in italics: what does it mean?

texts:
In the OED, oen definition has three explanations separated by a semicolon and two use 'with' in italics: do I have to use 'with' to use that definition?

'Crowd'

  a. To fill or occupy with a crowd or dense multitude; to fill to excess or encumbrance; to cram with.

All the examples use 'with', e.g.

  1849   Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 597   A port crowded with shipping.

I want to say that X crowds in Y, in sense 7a, that they fill it to excess.

So e.g.

the trash crowds in the bin.

Or is that necessarily metaphorical?


texts: In the phrase "the scales have fallen from my eyes" why did they use the word "scales"?

texts:
It's an odd word there. I've never thought that I had "scales" on my eyes when I couldn't see. Why didn't they use something like "darkness" or "clouds"?

When I think of scales I think of Lady Justice and her scales. Is the writer talking about reptile/fish scales? That still doesn't make any sense.


texts:
Please someone who specializes as a grammarian answer this:
The family is/are pursuing their individual interests.  Could you also give me the authoritative source for the answer!!!


texts: It surprised me his not inviting you to the wedding party. Is this sentence grammatically correct?

texts: I came across this sentence in a book. It's an example of "it" as a preparatory subject. What I didn't understand is the part " his not inviting ". It sounded weird to me. If it's correct, then how? If it's not, then what is the correct sentence?


texts: Where does describing something as "the gold standard" come from?

texts:
In statistics (and some other fields, such as medicine, I believe), the best available benchmark under reasonable conditions is sometimes referred to as "the gold standard". This phrase is also used colloquially to mean an ideal against which others are compared - google gives its definition as "the best, most reliable, or most prestigious thing of its type".

I can think of two plausible origins of this phrase. "The gold standard" seems at first to mean the standard (for comparison) that is golden (i.e. the best). But I could also see it having emerged from analogy to the literal gold standard, i.e., "the system by which the value of a currency was defined in terms of gold, for which the currency could be exchanged".

What is the true origin of this phrase?

The wikipedia article clearly believes it's the former:

  The phrase is therefore ambiguous and its meaning should be deduced from the context in which it appears. Part of the ambiguity stems from its usage in economics, where "gold" does not imply "best" but is merely one of many possible standards.

But there are no sources for this interpretation cited, and not even any discussion on the talk page about it, so I'm not sure I can take this as more than just one person's opinion.

EDIT: I can (and have) come up with plausible justifications for both interpretations. I'm asking this question in the hopes of a more definitive resolution to the question, so I'd prefer (if possible) answers that could shed some light on the history or origin of the phrase being used as described, or offer sources that do the same.


texts: Unusual verb form: "While the parcels were bringing down and displaying"

texts:
In Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma, she writes (Volume 2, Chapter 6):

  They went in; and while the sleek, well-tied parcels of 'Men's Beavers' and 'York Tan' were bringing down and displaying on the counter, he said ...

This verb form is peculiar. I would have expected to read that the parcels "were brought down" or "were being brought down". But as written, it looks like the parcels themselves are doing the bringing, rather than having it done to them. What is going on here?


texts: What is the origin of "pretty" as slang for "somewhat"?

texts:
We now often hear phrases like:

  That's pretty interesting.

The word "pretty" here is used to say "somewhat," "considerably/rather," or something along those lines (if a little stronger).

However, this definition doesn't appear in any dictionary I've searched.

What is the earliest known use of this form? More generally, how did this use of "pretty" come about?


texts:
In a sentence, is it better to use

referred to as sth.

or

called sth.

In the sentence I'm talking about TLS which is:

most frequently referred to as SSL

or

most frequently called SSL

I know both are correct, but I don't know which one is used in a modern, everyday talk.


texts: the meaning of the word "bearing" in a sentence

texts:
The bearing of these ideas upon our thinking about the ancient world is immediately apparent when we state the broadest generalization that can be made about the structural relations of the region that is the subject of this volume.

The sentence above is from THE CAMBRIDGE ANCIENT HISTORY Volume 01 Part I, page 5.
I want to know the meaning of the word 'bearing'. I've referenced dictionary but I didn't find a meaning which could let me understand the sentence well. Anybody can help me?? OvO

PS: What I found in Longman dictionary of contemporary English 5ed is as follows:

bearing noun

1 have a/some/no etc bearing on something   to have an effect or influence on something, or not have any effect or influence:
Exercise has a direct bearing on how healthy you are.

2 lose your bearings
a) to become confused about where you are:
I completely lost my bearings in the dark.
b) to become confused about what you should do next:
young men who have lost their bearings in a changing society

3 get/find your bearings
a) to find out exactly where you are:
He paused to get his bearings.
b) to feel confident that you know what you should do next:
An introduction session helps new students get their bearings.

4 [singular, uncountable]   the way in which you move, stand, or behave, especially when this shows your character

5 [countable]   technical   a direction or angle that is shown by a compass:
learning to take    a compass   bearing

6 [countable]   technical   a part of a machine that turns on another part, or in which a turning part is held ➔    ball bearing


texts: **in** an equilibrium or **at** an equilibrium

texts:
I often search for valid collocations using google with a specific query phrase. In case of the phrase in question, i.e. in/at an equilibrium I have a problem since both seem to be used almost equally often. So I am wondering whether there is any difference in meaning in phrases like:

The molecular system is in an equilibrium.
The molecular system is at an equilibrium.
The molecular system is in equilibrium.
The molecular system is at equilibrium.

Are the above phrases all correct?


texts:
When, where, why and how did the term head come to be used to describe
quantities of cattle, animals, people, and so on?


texts:
As shown in this answer, English speakers will often drop the article when referring to using a place for its intended use. For example:

  He went to school/work/church/(also in BrE: hospital).

However, I have never heard anyone say:

  I am in bathroom/restroom/whatever local term you use.

It's always:

  I am in the bathroom.

Why is that?


texts: I am currently using the word "blessed" in writing a STEM paper (to be published). The usage would be something like "Devices of this type are often blessed with more reliability", or, "Function of this class are often blessed with smoothness". The word "blessed" used here sounds somewhat improper to me, even sounding a bit humorous (?). I can try to reword it and avoid using "blessed" here, but I often find myself in such a situation where a proper formal synonym of "blessed" would be perfect. After searching in some thesauruses, I am still not sure about it.


texts: "Have some reason you" or "Have some reason why you"

texts:
Can the "why" be removed from the phrase "have some reason why you?"

Example:

  Do you have some reason you ____?

vs.

  Do you have some reason why you ____?

Are these both grammatically correct? What's the difference, if any? Googling I find a lot of both, but I'm still wondering about this.


texts: Alternative to "daydream" without the pleasant connotation

texts:
I am looking for a word that means something like "daydream" or "fantasy", but without the connotation that I actually want this "imagining" to come true.

For example, something that would fit the sentence "I was on the bus today, and fantasised that the bus crashed and I had to decide who to save first."

Fantasise sounds a touch too sexual to me.

Daydreamed makes it sound like wishful thinking, something I hope will come true in the future.

Imagined is close, but doesn't have the same sense of running through the scenario in detail in my head in the way the other two do. This part is important.

Any other ideas? The sentence can be rephrased as required.


texts:
Google defines paradox in three ways, the first two being:

a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.
a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.

These are almost opposite definitions. My English book defined it as the second, but I've always understood it to mean the first. Which is the most common usage?


texts: Whats the word people say for when something they give you came from someone else?

texts:
For example, if Jon gives a sword to Person A to give to B, Person A would tell B:

  "Here, take this sword. [word] from/of Jon."

Was it "compliments"? I'm not certain.

  "Here, take this sword. Compliments from/of Jon."


texts:
In California, wildfires are raging again and strong winds and dry
  forests mean that the flames spread over 177 kilometres and destroy
  thousands of buildings.

I don't understand why 'mean' is put there.
Does 'mean' contain the meaning of like 'result'?
If so, Why did it use present tense, 'mean' instead of past tense 'meant'?


texts: I am searching for the adverbial form of "undefeatable" or a suitable synonym

texts:
I am translating a text, and I have a sentence that structurally translates into:

"The noble ideal they have in their sights will enter even the darkest souls and convert undefeatably into a charitable reality like every scientific truth"

I do not believe that "undefeatably" is a valid word. Neither is "unconquerably" or "unbeatably"?
I could use "inevitably" but that is not quite the same. The text is about war and peace - not the book, but the concepts - so, a word that relates to defeat in battle would be appropriate.


texts: The set of (the?) numbers of the form 2x+1

texts:
Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

The set of the numbers of the form 2x+1 is infinite.
The set of numbers of the form 2x+1 is infinite.

That is, should I or shouldn't I put "the" in front of "numbers" ?


texts: "Less than" or "More than", That is the Question

texts:
Consider the following statement:

Less than the ability to use reason to escape mortality, Heidegger argued that what defines us is primarily the attempt and desire to escape it.

If we assume that the sentence means:

What defines us as human beings is primarily the attempt and desire to escape mortality and not so much the ability to use reason to escape it.

Do we need "less than" or "more than" in the original sentence?

Here is the paragraph where the above sentence appears:

This focus on the body by the early critics of modernity was to continue in the work of Martin Heidegger, before taking a decisively French turn and emerging as a defining feature of poststructuralist materialism. Despite containing comparatively little analysis of bodies as such, the principal thrust of Heideggerian philosophy was modernity’s refusal to acknowledge mortality, the simple fact that human being is Being-in-the-world, a being that dies and lives in overwhelming fear of death’s inevitability. Less than the ability to use reason to escape mortality, Heidegger argued that what defines us is primarily the attempt and desire to escape it.

Update:

My problem is that if one does not have any prior knowledge about what Heidegger actually meant, they would probably get exactly the opposite of what I mentioned above, that is:

What defines us as human beings is primarily the ability to use reason to escape mortality not so much as the attempt and desire to escape it.


texts: "Arnold raced out of the door": grammatical or not?

texts:
Arnold raced out of the door, and started...

In its time, it was once reported, this was one of the most often-read lines of fiction in the English language: it is the sentence fragment shown in a brief close-up shot of mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher's typewriter in the opening credits of Murder, She Wrote from 1984 to 1991. You can see it here.

Even conceding that "door" can be used as a perfectly legitimate synonym for "doorway," this always bothered me. One may race out of a room, and one may race through a doorway, but I don't see how Arnold could have raced out of a door—unless perhaps he had been standing still in the middle of the doorway before suddenly "racing" out of it, which seems unlikely.

What's interesting is that "Arnold raced out the door" doesn't bother me as much without the of, perhaps because I'm subconsciously putting an implied through into the sentence: "Arnold raced out [through] the door." Even so, I was surprised and amused to see that, out of all the examples they could have chosen, Merriam-Webster illustrates its definition of out as a preposition with the phrase "ran out the door." (Were the writers of this definition Murder, She Wrote fans, I wonder?) This doesn't seem to leave much room for my interpretation.

How should the clause "Arnold raced out of the door" be evaluated? Is it ungrammatical, grammatical but poor form, or grammatical with no reservations?


texts: A word to describe someone who has your fate in their hands (ironically)?

texts: I am looking for a word to describe someone who has your fate in their hands. It might be an archetypal name of some sort, as well as a freshly coined word. It would be perfect to have a tinge of irony in it, although it is not necessary.


texts: What is it called when a non-verb is used as a verb?

texts:
This is in very common use on the internet. I just read this:

  "[The] hotel employee walks in, I say "uh, puppy" and she just NOPEd the [heck] out of the room."

This is often done by adding 'd to the word.


texts: Is there an alternative word for "facepalm"?

texts:
Okay, we all know what a facepalm is. It has pretty much entered the modern vernacular as both a noun and a verb ("to facepalm").

However, I was wondering if there was a more formal word to describe the gesture of hanging your head into the palms of your hands. The thing about a facepalm is that it usually describes extreme frustration at a perceived idiocy, but this is not the only situation where the same gesture applies: Desperation, embarrassment, exhaustion (both mental and physical) and concentration can all induce it.

If there is no such word (or words) to describe it, how did authors of old show this gesture? After all, I can't see Tolkien or Nabokov writing about a character who "facepalms" at a certain comment or situation.


texts: Describing anxiety, another word for foreboding or dread

texts: Is there a single word that describes that deep seated sense of dread and doom, the feeling that something in your personal world is not right, or is about to be absolutely ruined (other than foreboding)?


texts:
Tell me please if the following use of hear is appropriate in the sentence.

  Rob is telling the funniest joke, you should hear it.

Would it be more correct to use listen instead. Although I am not a native English speaker, listen doesn't sound good to me in the context.


texts:
I wonder if the usage of ''of'' in this sentence is correct? The sentence is
'' As continuation of completion of the common market''.
Can the usage of ''of'' two or three times be possible?


texts:
What’s the difference between the suffixes -gram and -graph? Is there any difference? Even if they are completely synonymous, what’s the difference in etymology?

For example, pictograph vs. pictogram, cryptograph vs. cryptogram, etc.


texts: What does 'Icier' mean? Question about a review of Elementary in the Washington Post

texts:
I have a question about the following article: CBS’s ‘Elementary’: Sherlock, rehabbed in the Washington Post from September 13, 2012 and in particular this part.

"...
“Elementary” exhibits enough stylish wit in its mood and look to quickly distinguish itself from the latest British “Sherlock” series (seen on PBS), in which Benedict Cumberbatch (or Bandersnatch Cummerbund, as my colleague Lisa de Moraes likes to call him) plays a far icier version of the character.
..."

Considering that I recently Tweeted:
"... #JohnnyLeeMiller is a worthy successor of #JeremyBrett (pic) as #Holmes, while #Sherlock / #BenedictCumberbatch is a disgrace to the #legacy ..." I don't understand the term 'icier' at all.

I meant that in Elementary Holmes is a 201x version of the original Holmes where the Holmes in Sherlock acts more as a clown, a person in need of psychiatric help.

What do you think the Washington Post meant with 'icier'?


texts: What is the proper from for punctuation concerning parentheses?

texts:
I always learned that the parentheses end inside the punctuation like this:

A sentence about some particular thing (with a parenthetical note at the end).

However, sometimes I find that it is necessary to have a period at the end of the statement inside the parentheses. This makes the sentence terminate oddly if I follow the same rule.

This is example one (where the parentheses contain a short list, then end with, etc.).
This is example two (where the sentence might be short, but the parenthetical note might be quite long. In fact, it may even require more than one complete sentence, which makes the end of the whole thing look weird to me because there is a period in the middle but not at the end).

So what is the correct way to punctuate a sentence that ends with parentheses in these circumstances? Sometimes, I abandon the parentheses all together, either neglecting the statement, creating a new sentence or splitting with a semicolon, to avoid the uncomfortable feeling I get when it just does not look right.


texts: Word for word meaning of "to beard a lion in his den"

texts:
I'm going to illustrate a word for word meaning of some English idioms. Just a fun drawing. Get stuck with the phrase “to beard a lion in his own den”.
I understand the meaning “to confront someone on his own territory”. But I need to draw it in exact words.

Would it be evident to English speakers if I draw a character who shaves the lion or cuts his beard with scissors? Maybe not a good idea?


texts: "How much water do you take a bath with?" — Is this sentence correct?

texts: I corrected the student, saying that he should write "How much water do you use to take a bath?" because his sentence seemed unnatural to me. Do you consider it correct? Would you use it?


texts: Singular or plural form of "digit" when referring to digits of individual numbers?

texts:
"Jim and John have strong right arms."

I believe the usage of plural form of "arm" here is correct. Now, I am confused about we should use singular or plural form of "digit" in the following sentence.

"All multiples of 10 have 0 as their units digits."

How about this?

"All even numbers have even units digits."

Also, please explain the grammar rule along with the answer.


texts: A word describing the substance in the human eye

texts: How do they call in English that yellowish substance that is sometimes gathered in the corner of a human eye during the sleep?


texts:
If the title of the magazine is plural, eg "Reflections", "Homes and Gardens" - should I write:

"Reflections" explore the issue ...
or: "Reflections" explores the issue...

Is a singular or plural form correct?


texts: Questions about adverb phrases (or prepositional phrase working as complements)

texts:
When there are two adverb phrases of same kind, it is recommended to put the more descriptive one in the front.

But this people used and in between those adverb phrases.

  My room was in the ship and on the 5th floor.

To me, this and seemed redundant to me. Since "in the ship" and "on the 5th floor" are adverb phrases (or are those complements) that modify "was", a to be verb, I thought it better to omit the word and.

  My room was in the ship on the 5th floor.

But it sounds a little unatural. Is my sentence grammatically wrong? And if yes, why is that?


texts: Difference between "ad hoc" and "impromptu"

texts:
Is there any difference between "ad hoc" and "impromptu"?

Can you find sentences where only one of the words is acceptable and the other is not? And where they are interchangeable?

OED says:

  ad hoc adverb & adjective
  Created or done for a particular purpose as necessary.

  [as adjective] ‘the discussions were on an ad hoc basis’
  [as adverb] ‘the group was constituted ad hoc’

  impromptu adverb & adjective
  Done without being planned or rehearsed.

  [as adjective] ‘an impromptu press conference’
  [as adverb] ‘he spoke impromptu’

This is still confusing for me, as I often hear to use them interchangeably, like in the following situation:

  You have to book meeting rooms in advance, but there are also some meeting rooms available for ad hoc meetings, which you don't have to book.

Is the common use of ad hoc simply incorrect, or has the meaning been shifting recently?


texts: Latin for "to Hide Complexity" as Related to "to Abstract"

texts:
In computer science and programming we talk a lot about "abstraction" by which we mean to create ever "higher" level code to that accomplishes increasingly complex task with less programmer decision making. See Opposite of verb “abstract” and noun “abstraction” for some context.

However, abstract means, "to drag away, detach, pull away, divert" which is not what programmers do when we create abstractions in software.

For example, back-in-the-day, text was represented by sequences of of byte codes e.g.

078, 111, 119, 032, 105, 115, 032, 116, 104, 101, 032, 116, 105, 109, 101

... which we "abstracted" to arrays of characters:

[N,o,w, ,i,s, ,t,h,e, ,t,i,m,e]

... which we "abstracted" to become a string:

"Now is the time"

... which in modern languages is actually a class or similar structure:

"Now is the time".methodThatManipulatesString

At each stage of "abstraction" the minutia of working with textual information didn't disappear, we didn't remove it, and we really didn't (arguably) turn the textual information into some higher platonic form. All we did was hide all the grubby details and then bolt on yet more functionality with it's own grubby details hidden away. If you dig down into any language or platform, the details are all still there.

It is somewhat analogous to a mechanical watch. The watchmakers can tell the time by looking at the gears and springs of a watch but for the rest of us, they hid the watches complexity behind the hands and face of the clock.

So, I'm looking for a term, preferably latin, conveys this idea. Programmers already use "encapsulation" but that just means, "to put in." I want a term meaning "to hide, but not remove complexity" preferably something linguistically and conceptually related to "abstraction" itself.

I think it's important in training to make sure new programmers don't think that abstracted code contain less complexity under the hood than the non-abstracted code despite it's more simple superficial appearance.


texts: How to say: If you do not have any income, please upload a letter stating that

texts: Is this worded correctly? Or should I say "stating as much"? It needs to sound professional but should also be easy to understand.


texts: Is it right to say "Draw it big", and if so, does that mean that "big" is an adverb?

texts:
If I have already talked about drawing a circle and want to say to draw a big circle, is it right to say it like this:

  Draw it big.

For this next sentence, would I need an adverb in the blank or an adjective?

  Draw (SOMETHING) ________ .

If an adverb is needed there, can I use the word big as that adverb? Can big be an adverb?


texts: Looking for a single word that can represent "receive from"

texts:
I am trying to find good names for a part of my software which I would describe as a layer.  Multiple layers can lay ontop of each other and interact only with the layer above and the layer below.

Each layer can either send or receive from either above or below creating 4 function which I need to name.

With respect to the sending part, a simple name is short and easy send_up and send_down.  However for the receive, the most natural word to pick seems to be receive_from_down and receive_from_up.  However I don't like the 2 vs 3 word solution.

I am looking for a single word to represent receive from which makes sense in this context.

--- Edit ---

To increase clarity (Andrew Leach's comment), the reason I don't like "get" is because it's active while as "receive from" is passive.  An example; if the layers are:

A
B

Assume that A is generating data from thin air.  A would call send_down() which is an alias to receive_from_up() on B.   B at a later date would call send_up() which is an alias to receive_from_down() on A.  At no point would a layer call it's own receive_from_down().  So receive half of the problem is always initiated by a neighbor.  This makes me feel that get is confusing.

To Jim: There is a hierarchy. Any layer can choose to pass a received message to the next neighbor or not.  Any layer can also generate a message in either direction spontaneously.


texts:
Break even is commonly used in economics to refer to the point where cost and revenue are equal. However, instead of using the long way of saying that

  Firm X had reached the point of break even

is it possible to say

  Firm X had broken even?

I realise that broke even is in common usage today, but somehow broken even just doesn't sound right. Is it correct or is there a better way of saying it?


texts: Sentence: use of is/are with you yourself

texts:
Can't seem to figure this one out:

  Of course, it is more difficult to analyze those signs if you yourself is/are stressed beyond belief.

Both seem to sound wrong (or maybe I'm overworking). Removing yourself solves it; yet I'd like to still keep the emphasis. As far as I'm concerned, the double pronoun is perfectly fine to use, and also is present in different languages: German "Sie selbst"; Russian "вы сами"; Latvian "jūs paši"; etc.


texts: "Certainly" and "Of course": what is the difference?

texts: Is there any difference in expressing consent and assurance using adverbs "certainly" or "of course"? What would be more appropriate one in everyday conversation?


texts: Can “lackadaisical” be used in literature?

texts:
Has lackadaisical ever been used in literary works?  My Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has no quotation that includes this word.

Who first used lackadaisical in the 1760s as the OED claims?


texts: Is there a word that signifies regular plus post-season games in sports? For instance, in American football, there is a pre-season consisting of games that do not count towards any league standings. Then there are regular season and post-season games, both of which determine overall standings for the year. Is there a single word to describe regular and post-season games taken as a whole? I considered "official" games but I'm not sure that captures it. "Meaningful" seems a bit vague since a game between two teams completely out of contention is sometimes considered not meaningful. The intent is to separate the games into two groups, "pre-season" and all other games that count towards the season standings.


texts: One word to describe "On the left" or "On the right" like in Above and Below

texts: As in the title, It would be handy if there were equivalents of Above and Below for 'On the left' and 'On the right', I'm wondering why there aren't ?


texts: Does every "whether" have to be followed by an "or"?

texts:
Does every whether have to be followed by an or?

That is, is whether a correlative conjunction which requires or as a counterpart, or is whether able to stand alone with a single possibility?


texts: Meteor & Meteorite is to Meteoroid as A & B is to Asteroid?

texts:
In astronomy,

A meteoroid is what it is called before it enters a planet's atmosphere,
A meteor is what it is called after it enters a planet's atmosphere but before it hits the surface, and
A meteorite is what it is called after it impacts the planet's surface.

The Question

Is there, or has there ever been, a -eor and -eorite analogue for asteroid? Like, say, just for an example, asteror or asterite?

(I looked on the OED and found out that asterite is in fact a word; but it doesn't mean what I'm looking for, or if it does, then it doesn't display that definition.)


texts: Correct word when "introducing" someone to an organization

texts:
I want to tell an organization to "say" or "introduce" the staff that are supposed to take a course in our organization. The only word that comes to my mind is "introduce" which I know is wrong.

  Please "introduce" the staff that will participate in the course.


texts:
If "to assume" is an "assumption".
What is the noun for "to resume".

Resume as in: pause and resume; to pursue again.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
Is “my wife and I's” correct, or should it be “my wife's and my”?

How to use the possessive form when referring to someone else and yourself?
For example, how could this awkward sentence be rephrased...

We're all going to to the apartment which belongs to Christina and me.

... to use the possessive form? These don't sound/feel right...

We're all going to Christina and me's apartment.
We're all going to Christina and mine's apartment.


texts: Short format indicating the next day in a calendar app

texts:
I'm developing a scheduling logic like below.

To avoid confusion, I want to attach each post-midnight time selection with an additional short string indicating that the time belongs to the next day.

That's why I put (+1d) as indicated in a red box below.

But I'm not sure if it's the best choice, nor if other people would take its meaning clearly.

Do you have a better alternative?


texts: efforts by organizations vs organizations' efforts

texts: What is the difference between efforts by organizations and organizations' efforts ?


texts: What is the meaning of “There is this guy”?

texts:
I’ve seen the phrase “there’s this guy...” a number of times, and in each context it seems to has a different meaning (every time I just guess according to the context!)
Is there any idiomatic meaning to this phrase?!


texts: Is there any basis or history for calling @ an ampersand?

texts:
Perhaps it is just my own misunderstanding, but growing up people around me referred to both & (which is correct) and @ (which I suppose is incorrect) as ampersand.  It confused me for a great many years into my adult life, especially before I started using computers where it seems quite natural to refer to @ as the "at sign" because that is how it is used.

Is there any historical justification for referring to @ as an ampersand?  The closest I can find is in Tagalog where perhaps @ can be used in a manner to mean and, but I certainly had no Tagalog interaction as a youth.


texts:
This is a sentence in an article about law and courts:

  the culprit argue the Crown couldn't prove that...

What is the meaning of Crown in this sentence? I guess it's the chief of court, but I'm not sure.


texts: Word for an all seeing society/government type

texts:
I'm looking for a word to mean a society or government type where everything is visible or known to everyone, similar to omniscient. For example, if everyone (including government) can see everything everyone does because of surveillance, but most things are legal so it's not necessarily a negative connotation. I thought reading this list of words might trigger my memory, but it didn't.
Something like "optocracy", though I just made that word up. I could swear I once heard the correct word for it used in an interview I had seen, but haven't been able to find the video or even the word.


texts: (translated) homophone request - luck & chicken

texts:
Homophone request.

The Year of The Rooster is upon us.

The Chinese love their homophones.

We have “鸡” (toneless pinyin: ji) chicken and “吉” (toneless pinyin: ji) lucky.

I'm trying to see if there are any English homophones that could match this criteria: rooster, chicken, cock [any form of synonym would be okay] & lucky, auspicious, propitious [any form of synonym would be okay].

(close rhymes might work)


texts: Did Martin Scorsese use "whom" properly in this interview?

texts:
I was reading an interview with Martin Scorsese in the Times and he said the following:

  But, no matter whom you make your movie with, the fact is that the screens in most multiplexes are crowded with franchise pictures.

Source

Is this proper usage? I have always heard you use "whom" when "who" would be the object of the sentence, or more colloquially when it would make sense to say "him/her" instead of "he/she". In this example, if we replace "whom" with "him" the word order doesn't make sense, so I can't figure it out. I think the larger problem is he ended the clause with a preposition, and the correct verbiage is

  It doesn't matter with whom you make your movie

but that doesn't sound as good.


texts: "I would like to have come" vs "I would have liked to come"

texts:
I wonder why it is correct to say:

  I would like to have come but I was not informed.

Wouldn't it be better to say: I would have liked to come?
(I found many examples on Google).

Is there a difference between the two?
Thanks.


texts: Is it considered correct usage to end sentences with "is" or "are?

texts:
Sometimes, we need to end sentences with "is" or "are" to avoid repetition, but is it correct in formal language?

For example:

  Only error-free documents are taken seriously. I will make sure yours is.


texts:
So this question was just asked and it made me realize I didn't understand what was going on this particular movie scene (Mel Brooks' 1974 Blazing Saddles).
Transcript:

Governor William J. Le Petomane: Holy underwear! Sheriff murdered! Innocent women and children blown to bits! We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!
Governor William J. Le Petomane: [pointing to a member of his cabinet] I didn't get a "harrumph" out of that guy!
Hedley Lamarr: Give the Governor harrumph!
Politician: Harrumph!

Anyways, I thought that harrumph could be used to voice general agreement to or approval of what was just said. This is incorrect. Merriam-Webster's says this:

intransitive verb
1:  to clear the throat in a pompous way
2:  to comment disapprovingly
transitive verb
:  to utter (a comment) disapprovingly

The actual meaning in this usage is the exact opposite of what I thought. So is there another accepted definition? Or is the governor and his cabinet [standing] around harrumphing about the current state of affairs? (from MW link above)
Or is that, as they say, the joke?


texts: What is the actual spelling of "sic"/"sick" in a phrase like "I will sic my dog on you"? This is a tricky one to look up in an online dictionary, every match seems to be referring to an editor's mark for a mistake.


texts:
I have just read a passage from an adapted version of the Arabian Nights (translated by Lang):

  "The rest is still more wonderful," replied Scheherazade, "and you
  would say so, if the sultan would allow me to live another day, and
  would give me leave to tell it to you the next night."

I struggle to understand the use of if + would. Would the following version of the same sentence be also and/or more than the one quoted above?

  "The rest is still more wonderful," replied Scheherazade, "and you would say so, if the sultan allowed me to live another day, and gave me leave to tell it to you the next night."


texts:
I just got an email telling me about a company's 2013 profit. The first sentence is very short, but it is hard to understand for me.

XXXX(company name) misses by $0.05(per share), beats on revenue.

My understanding is the company XXXX lost 0.05 per share last year, but revenues got higher.
or,
the company XXXX lost another figure per share (say 0.10), and lower than market expectation(estimate value 0.05).

which one is correct under this context? what is the correct meaning of the word "miss" here?


texts: Mycorrhizae: how the heck do you say "zae" in greek?

texts:
So, I'm trying to sound smarter than the people to whom I'm pontificating about no-till gardening, and I'd like to include a pronunciation of "mycorrhizae" (which is, of course the plural of mycorrhiza: my-co-RY-zuh) that's, like, correct.

my-co-RY-zay? (which I'm inclined to say) or
my-co-RY-zee? (which, frankly, sounds dorky to me) or
my-co-RY-zy (like alumnae changed to alumni?)
something else I haven't thought of?  OK, of which I haven't thought, damn you.

Help?

Sincerely - The Compost Goddess


texts: What is the modern day equivalent of a "dandy?"

texts:
The Japanese still use this word to describe how a person dresses. However I'm sure that their idea of dandy is different from what I saw in Wikipedia, which shows pictures of men from hundreds of years ago.

I tried to ask this question on the Japanese stackexchange board, but it didn't quite answer my question.

What is the modern-day English equivalent of a "dandy?"


texts:
What is the difference between unavailable and not available?

In my opinion, unavailable is something that will never be available, while not available is something that is not available right now but might become available in the future.


texts: Is "before" a preposition or adverb here?

texts:
In

  Six questions to ask yourself before making a decision

... is "before" a preposition because it is the beginning of a prepositional phrase? Or is it an adverb since it's followed by a verb? (Or is "making" even a verb, or is it a gerund?!)


texts: Are text Readability Scores good indicators of advanced English skills?

texts:
This question is pretty subjective but will be useful for those who want to be English writers.

Basically, I wrote a short story which contains the following attributes :

Word count: 1200
Unique words : 452 (38%)
Difficult Words : 438 (36%)
Sentence count: 26
Average Sentence Length (word) : 46.2
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 8.2
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 23.6
Dale-Chall Readability Index: 11.7
Automated Readability Index: 30.4
Coleman-Liau Index: 20.2
Gunning Fog Index: 27
Readability level: College graduate

What do you think of the statistics about the work that I have managed to accomplish? Do these results guarantee that I confidently possess good English skills?

I will listen to the comments and answers from real human beings to confirm that the numbers will at least mean something important to me. Of course, the story looks complicated at a glance but this does not stop the story from being interesting and enjoyable. Your thoughts will offer some insights to make me continue to refine my English skills better the next time.

As a bonus, I will showcase a part of my short story :

"...Emrys Geijer Fremmevira declares that he will not waste his time talking to them after having confirmed that this is the exact situation they predicted it to be and their bad feelings were actually true in the first place, he commands his golden Silhouette Knight to use an ultimate attack which is so-called "Blast Howling" technique and shouts the words loudly in such an extensive way of doing, his golden Silhouette Knight begins to fortify its balance first by having a number of sticks attach to the ground to provide additional supports to the Silhouette Knight, the golden Silhouette Knight quickly opens two secret covers located on shoulder parts and two secret covers located on ankle parts to unveil a sort of mystifying weapon in the process. After swiftly accumulating the powers, four outputs release an incredible amount of plasma energy excessively towards straight the iron gate, the iron gate melts down so easily after a mere second passing by, because the extent of the super-powerful attack is so remarkable and grows more lethal and destructive the longer the entrance gate can possibly withstand the temperature and remain intact, much to all surprises for the defensive party when the iron gate is officially gone. ..."

Some statistics about the story snippet :

Word count: 206
Unique Words: 133 (65%)
Difficult Words: 75 (36%)
Sentence count: 2
Average Sentence Length (word) : 103
Flesch Reading Ease Score: -46.4
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 45.3
Dale-Chall Readability Index: 14.5
Automated Readability Index: 58.4
Coleman-Liau Index: 19.6
Gunning Fog Index: 48.2
Readability level: College graduate (Grade 58th student and above)

Postscript: This is the best thing I have accomplished so far. These astounding results look really intriguing, it was not easy to achieve these results at all.


texts: What does the expression "a shiver of" mean or imply?

texts:
What does the expression "a shiver of" mean or imply in the following sentence : All of a sudden, electricity flows in an unfamiliar pattern, a shiver of current across a circuit board of cells.
I looked it up in a dictionary but I'm still bothered by the curiosity. Can you help me?


texts: Verbs to specify division by simple divisors

texts:
There are a variety of verbs to indicate multiplication by simple multipliers ("double", "triple"/"treble", "quadruple", "quintuple", etc.). These are largely constructable from Latin roots and the suffix "-uple".

Are there equivalent verbs for division by simple divisors?  There is only one example I can think of: "halve".  (Comments point out that "quarter", and, perhaps, "third" are used.) "Decimate" comes close, but it no longer really retains that numerically precise meaning, and actually indicates reduction by a tenth instead of division by ten.  (That is, it indicates nine-tenths instead of one-tenth.)


texts: What are the alternatives of "based on that" in academic writing?

texts:
I have the following statement:

The algorithm A produces more equal fitness values than algorithm B.
Based on that, one possible explanation of why the search peroformance
with algorithm A is not as efficient as with algorithm B is that ....

I have used Based on that so many times in my thesis, so I wonder if there are better alternatives that I  can use.
Can you suggest some alternatives please?


texts:
I am a bit confused as to where I should use "abandon", "forsake" and "leave".
According to my searches in dictionaries:

Forsake: to leave someone , especially when you should stay because they need you.

Leave: to go away from a place or person

Abandon: 1.to leave a person especially someone you're responsible for.
2.to go away from a place , vehicle etc permanently especially because the situation makes it impossible for you to stay.
( definitions from Longman dictionary)

So it seems to me that there is a nuance here. At first glance the conclusion I drew, was that "forsake" is used when "a person" is left ,while  "abandon" and "leave" are more general ,as according to definitions they are used to say "a person" or "a place" is left, but today I was reading some materials and I came across this sentence:

much of new England in the late nineteenth century presented a discouraging picture of abandoned farms and sickly villages as people forsook the countryside and rushed to the larger towns and cities

It seems a bit odd that "forsake" is used for getting across this concept that a countryside is deserted. Personally, I used to think that the use of " leave" or "abandon" would be more suitable in this case, so it made me question my former speculations about the use of these 3 words again.

Now I hope you can cast light on the difference of these 3 words.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Is analog (adjective) related to analog (noun)?

texts:
analog (adjective) is a continuous stream; it's not digital.

analog (noun) is a comparison, two subjects may be analogous.

Do they share etymology? Is there another reason why those concepts use the same word? To my understanding, the meanings are quite different.


texts: Is it necessary to repete the prepositions in coordinate sentences?

texts: In the coordinate sentences introducted by prepositions is it necessary to repete the preposition in the second sentence? "I am happy to go to the cinema and to have a pizza" or "I am happy to go to the cinema and have a pizza"?


texts: feel + ... + to-infinitive / bare infinitive

texts:
(1) feel + ... + to-infinitive: She felt his answer to be evasive.
(2) feel + ... + bare infinitive: She felt him keep something back.

I have been trying to find the rule: when "feel" must be used with to-infinitives and when with bare infinitives. Do you know it?
The only one I could find: we must use "to" only before "be", and before all other verbs we cannot use "to". Is it right?
Thanks!


texts: I heard "geezer" (?) on "Rumpole of the Bailey" as a character said that her husband, who she was feuding with, had "locked the geezer" (unsure of spelling)...or locked "her geezer"...It was NOT used as a reference to an old man !


texts: What does it mean to use a single quote to abbreviate things?

texts:
I see people use the single quote every now and then.
I know common phrases like can't, you'll, I'd.
But otherwise, I am quite confused why, when and how it should be used.
To name a few,

Sweet Child o' Mine (A song from the band Guns N' Roses)
Jammin' (A song from Bob Marley)
'cause (short for because)

Update: after reading the links provided in the comments.
I still have some questions.
That is, how do I know when to use them?
Or, when I saw them, how do I know what they stand for?
Can I create omissions arbitrarily?


texts: A weird case : "The kitchen’s window" vs "The kitchen window"

texts:
I just came across this article (noun modifiers), and I'm surprised that these two nouns mean different things:

The kitchen’s window
The kitchen window

The Ngram shows zero usage of the first one even though it's very common .

Here are some articles using the first one ( The kitchen’s window ):
The New York Times Making a New House Look Old

The kitchen’s window and door combination has an arch similar to that
of the brick-in arch elsewhere in the facade.

One biotech gasps for breath

[...] and an assortment of sweets soon cover a long table by the
kitchen's window .

How come?
Thanks.
Update :
Thanks to @Lawrence, I've noticed that there is an Ngram apostrophe issue, and that's why it shows zero usage of kitchen's window . To workaround this issue, I used a wildcard and here is the result of the kitchen * window
( Please, click on search lots of books to see the result ):


texts:
What is its called when you buy a program or game and you can't use it anymore do to the devs shutting down the servers (an online game in my case)
The only reason it will not work is do to the dev's shutting it down.
(By the way, I can't get a refund so is what they did illegal because to I paid for something and I cant use it do to it being the dev's fault, not me? Because I'm not letting this go; I paid for it and I should be able to use it.)


texts: Where to put a period when you quote a title at the end of the sentence?

texts:
Which one is correct?:

I have never heard of "Oranges".

or

I have never heard of "Oranges."


texts:
What is the plural of the word "it's"?

Perhaps "it'ss" or "it'ses"?

Usage: "The paragraph contained three it'ss"
Meaning: "The paragraph contained three occurrences of the word, it's"


texts: The deal between "Mary and me" vs. "Mary and I"

texts: I think "Mary and me," even though it sounds odd to the ear, is correct, but my choice is between:  "I've forgotten everything about the deal between Mary and me" and "I've forgotten everything about the deal between Mary and I."  I'm wondering if the words "deal between" have any grammatical significance on whether I should be using "I" or "me" here.  Any thoughts?


texts:
The sentence is:

"Volunteers were all over the age of 18, but researchers didn't specify their familiarity with art or their ethnic or national origin."

In the previous sentences we already read about volunteers and researchers
(https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/do-you-weird-art-blame-your-brain)

Why it is not:

"The volunteers were all over the age of 18, but the researchers didn't specify their familiarity with art or their ethnic or national origin."


texts:
Ethymology of "dry run" is explained here: "Where does the phrase "dry run" come from?". What is its antonym?

However I wonder, what is the opposite of "dry run".
I guess it might vary a lot depending on context.
I am starting from programming context (many programs have option "dry run" , I wonder how to call opposite option "wet run"?).
However I would be happy to receive more universal overview (as "dry run" can be used in contexts of : showing presentation, running production process, army test and many more)


texts: A word for the answer that is "the" answer

texts:
Sometimes when I ask a question on StackOverflow or SeasonedAdvice, I get an answer that is the perfect succinct answer to my question. Almost provably the best answer.

In Swedish there is a word derived from the quick lookup you would do when you were doing an arithmetic problem in school, and you checked the Answers section in the back of the book.

The Swedish word is "facit". (I'm pretty sure it is related to the typewriter brand name "Facit" that was huge in Scandinavia during the early 70's.)

Is there an equally distinctive term in English?

A complete example for any Suedoisuisses

-Han tejpade först sina trasiga skor med silvertejp. Sen lite härdande silikon. De var som nya. 212 kr från Clas Olson.
-Du, jag tror facit vore en resa till myrorna.

I'd be pleased to learn the heritage of the word "facit" too of course, the letters alone implies a latin root.

My explored options that I am unhappy about are

A perfect answer.  This is just a compliment
The answer I was looking for. It just serves my purpose
The definitive answer.

I can't complement an answer on SO with "This is the definitive answer". It would be odd to me.


texts: "Were" or "was" in this sentence from a The New York Times article

texts:
I was interested in the following sentence which appeared in an article titled “Hemingway's Prize-Winning Works Reflected Preoccupation With Life and Death" in The New York Times, ON THIS DAY, (July 3, 1961).

  Mr. Hemingway earned millions of dollars from his work; for one thing,
  a great many of his stories and novels were adapted to the screen and
  television.

Is the fragment "a great many of his stories and novels were adapted to ..."  ungrammatical, as I think it is?

I would reword "were" with "was", but I'm not sure on this correction, because I'm not able to precisely identify the subject[s?] of the verb, and if I think that the subject is "a great many" the problem becomes entirely incomprehensible (to me), at all.


texts: Are there any "fake" Italian words used in English?

texts:
Now that we've furnished so many interesting words and ideas in response to @Adrian's request regarding pseudo-Gallicisms, why not do pseudo-Italian pseudo-loanwords in English? To paraphrase Adrian:

  By pseudo-Italian I mean words that are of Italian origin but are not actually correct.  I mean Italian-derived terms that have evolved to the point of no longer being common-usage Italian.

For instance:

Gumare: : a longtime mistress; from the Italian comare, which means "second mother" or "godmother".


texts: What is the proper tense for the negation of "used to"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What’s the negation of “I used to be”? Surely not “I didn’t used to be”?

Should I say I "didn't used to" do something? Or "didn't use to"?


texts: How does omitting the subject affect the sentence structure?

texts:
I was wondering: how does the structure of this sentence change when we use the continuous form of the verb without a subject: (standing)?

"That half an hour was the peak of our social life: standing outside the door and just talking."

What would one call what I can only describe as a 'subordinate' clause?


texts: What is the suitable preposition which come after the verb "hassle"?

texts:
Should we say, A hassles with B or A hassles to B?

What is the right expression?


texts:
I was wondering how do we rewrite this sentence in a nicer way:

This webapp makes me hit the "Cancel" button unwantedly, arghh!

I was wondering what's a good synonym for the word "unwantedly". I'd remember that there's a word but it somehow ran off my mind.


texts: The "garden path" theory of ambiguity resolution. apply to the joke:

texts:
Does the "garden path" theory of ambiguity resolution apply to the joke:

A seal walked into a club...

Given that the listener probably is familiar with this type of joke:

A sandwich walks into a bar ….
A priest walks into a bar…
A string walks into a club…

then this theory might lead the them to choose

A seal walked into(entered) a club(drinking establishment).

If I am wrong what is another possible ambiguity resolution theory that explains the humor in the joke. I might suggest that "pragmatics" also explains the resolution process as the context is laid by the presence of similar style jokes.

Any thoughts?


texts: What does "hunkered down in holy glory" mean?

texts:
Here is the whole quote:

The film glorifies the Confederacy as if they were a bunch of highly principled martyrs hunkered down in holy glory instead of an entitled mob of human-trafficking murderers, rapists and traitors trying to destroy the United States

This doesn't check out for me. The way I understand "hunker down" is something like (physically) "squat". Or more metaphorically, stay in ambush, wait for something to happen in some place.
I cannot figure out how that lowly posture could rhyme with glory or martyrdom, or any cultural reference it may hint to.


texts: Pun on words: how to quickly and accurately understand pun in a sentence?

texts:
Reaching the bottom of a case
I was intrigued to read in The world this week (October 24th) that Brazilian police had raided a senator’s home and discovered about $5,000 wedged between his buttocks. He has denied diverting funds that were meant for the pandemic. If he is innocent then this is a most unfortunate case of a bum rap.

This is a letter published on the economist, I believe there is a lot of word play. And I did some search and found Lot Lick answer inspiring to another related question. Can you further explain the play on the words: case, bottom/bum/buttocks, and rap?
Of there is more word play, please enlighten me as well.


texts: What would you call a contraption that uses a string or a cord to turn on a light?

texts:
When I was younger, I hated to fumble my way in the dark to my bed, so I rigged up a string that ran from my light switch, across the ceiling and down to my bed. I could tug on it to turn off the light when I was ready.

What would you call this type of contraption?


texts: The meaning of sentence "Right to the point on both counts." in simple words

texts:
I can't understand the sentence "Right to the point on both counts." It comes from a comment by user Eric in SO:

  Right to the point on both counts. Thanks. I didn't like it either, but was looking for ammo to defend my point. Since one rarely types JS code interactively, there isn't much benefit to the short form. – Eric

I am not a native English speaker, so I have difficulty understanding the sentence above. I have referred to some dictionaries and translator, but I still don't know how to understand it? So I want to know its meaning in simple words.

I have known that the meaning of  "on both counts" is "for both issues", but I can't understand "Right to the point".


texts:
I get a bit confused when you can and can't combine the present and past tense. For example, look at the following sentence:

When the plane landed, I looked out the window because I wanted to see what Norway looks like.

Should it say, "Norway looks like" or "Norway looked like?"  I ask because when I looked out the window, I didn't want to see what Norway looked like twenty years ago.

Any opinions?


texts: Nothing lasts forever, [so | nor] do we?

texts: Like the title may already suggest, I am wondering if "so" or "nor" would be right in place for refering that something is (not) like stated in the main sentence. What do you think?


texts: Can I use “disactivate” instead of “deactivate”?

texts:
I was working with somebody else's source code and find them using the word “disactivate” in the code documentation as follows:

  disactivate the minor mode.  The persistent action is to show help

I've never encountered this word before and always assumed “deactivate” is the only valid verb to mean the opposite of “activate”.

Apparently, “inactivate” is used as frequently as “deactivate” but mostly in biology, rather than in general contexts. Is “disactivate” a legitimate word? If yes, in which contexts it's used most frequently?


texts: When denoting a company name, followed by a strap line, what punctuation mark should I use?

texts:
When writing out a company name, which would you use:

Company Name: Strapline
Company Name - Strapline
Company Name – Strapline
Company Name, Strapline

Or is the correct one missing from this list entirely?


texts:
Jack has been to a lot of parties this month. He enjoyed (every - each) one of them.

There are 3 glasses, but (each-every) one has a different shape.

In the answer guide, the two questions are answered as 'every' but why?

If the sentence focuses on the group as a whole, the answer will be every while if the sentence focuses on the individuals, the answer will be each

But how can I know whether the sentence focuses on the group or the individuals?


texts:
How to write in English for international readers?
I'm not a native English speaker but I've been learning the language for many years in many fields (Mathematics, Physics, Mechanical Engineering and Programming to name some). Every now and then I find something explained in 'basic' English that I just cannot figure out without some search. Along the way I learned some small tricks for writing English for foreigners.
Assume that the reader has an intermediate-high English level to answer this. The reading fluency is the main concern in this question, not the learning of the reader. I also wanted to give my 2 cents in this so I'll answer my own question in community wiki format, so please add your advice there.
This question came up to me after reading the word 'Jeopardy!' in this stack overflow blog post.
EDIT: I read this afterwards (which seems pretty mistaken):

John Saunders: I wonder what proportion of StackExchange users don’t know what “Jeopardy” is?
Jeff Atwood (author): @john I suppose the same proportion that don’t know what “Wikipedia” and “Clicking a Link” is.


texts: Should an ending semicolon be underlined?

texts: Should the semicolon at the end of an underlined heading also be underlined?


texts: If X or [if] Y - Should I extend conditional after "or"?

texts:
I have a message to write where the recipient may encounter two problems. It is currently written like this:

"If you are having problem X or if you are having problem Y please contact Z."

I'm not sure if the second if is necessary or even allowed.

Should it be:

"If you are having problem X or you are having problem Y please contact Z."

Or even:

"If you are having problem X or problem Y please contact Z."

English isn't my primary language so I was hoping to get an answer here for the proper wording.

The criteria is the clearest and easiest to read message (which is proper English) wins.


texts: I was all set to release an album titled Peripeteia. I thought the word aesthetically sounded beautiful and the meaning, reversal of reality, "the moment the hero realizes all he believes is untrue" (in greek tragedy), etc. seemed very fitting to many of the songs and some of my recent personal experiences. Unfortunately, another band released an album titled Peripeteia, how random! Can't believe someone beat me to it. Does anyone know any words that have the same sort of meaning?


texts: Tenses in sentences with more than two verbs

texts:
I´ve spent a fortune on swimming lessons. Next month I will have been training for three years and I don´t think I _______________(can) dive successfully when I go to Mexico this summer.
If I thought that somebody was in my house, I would call the police and I _________ (not confront) the intruder.

What tenses should be used in the blank spaces above? I know conditionals and future perfect pretty well but I always have a problem when there are more than two verbs in a sentence. So my question is what tense should be used in any conditional or a future perfect sentence when there are more than two verbs just as in the examples above?


texts:
Our current house color is the combination of beige and gray, but I'd like to pick a different one.
Our current house color is a combination of beige and gray, but I'd like to pick a different one.

Which is correct?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When do I use “I” instead of “me?”
  John, Valencia, and I (or me)?

I found a photo of Sarah, Thomas, James and I?

OR

I found a photo of Sarah, Thomas, James and me?

"I" subject pronoun,  photo "object",   "me" object pronoun - or not as the case may be?

I believe it is "me" not "I" but can you provide why this is so in terms of sentence structure.

Thank you


texts: Can the word "bully" be used as an "adjective"?

texts:
I want to write the sentence:

  Bill helped him when he needed to overthrow the current leader, who is a bully.

Is there anyway to make that sentence flow better? For example, can I somehow use the word bully as an adjective:

  ...when he needed to overthrow the bully leader.

And the sentence sounds odd. Which word can I use for better flow that would work in day-to-day language?


texts:
In the poem THE TYGER by William Blake:

  Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
  In the forests of the night;
  What immortal hand or eye,
  Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Why is "Tiger" spelled Tyger, with a y?

If it's just a difference in the orthography (or lack of convention) at the time, why don't modern editors update the spelling?


texts: Is this grammar correct: "It's infuriating no longer being able to tell them what I think of them."

texts:
So I have: "It's infuriating no longer being able to tell them what I think of them."
Is that grammatically correct?

I know I could use:
"It's infuriating that I'm no longer able to tell them what I think of them."
but is it really necessary to have that extra "I" at the start of the sentence?


texts:
I am in an English course, in Cambridge School, in Lisbon, Portugal, and I am learning Past Perfect.

I am also in a Pastry course, and today we had our first English lesson. The teacher wrote some vocabulary in the board, and we had to make sentences with the vocabulary.

I suggested this sentence:

  Before I baked the cake, I had already mixed it.

But, she told me that this sentence was wrong. I explained to her that I was taking an English course in Cambridge, my Cambridge teacher is Scottish, and she taught the Past Perfect this way.

I am confused now, I don't know who is right. The Pastry teacher said that the right way is:

  Before he bakes the cake, he had already mixed it.

-Or-

  Before he had baked the cake, he had already mixed it."

Can somebody help me please?


texts: Is "hooray" generally considered to be onomatopoeic?

texts: Is this word onomatopoeic, just an interjection, both, something else?


texts: What do you call overtaking after overtakers? Not necessarily a single word, a phrase will do

texts:
What do we call the act of overtaking a vehicle which is already being overtaken by one or more cars? You see that some other car begins overtaking, and you join this overtaker, and others may join you, creating a dangerous string of overtakers.

It's kind of "blind overtaking in a row", where you blindly hope that there will be enough time for you to finish the maneuver, since your visibility is obstructed by the overtakers ahead of you.

In Russian, we call it "обгон паровозиком" - "train-style overtaking", because several overtaking vehicles look like the carriages of a train.

I was reading a local news report in which a guy joined such "overtaking train" and killed an oncoming driver, and I became curious about the phrase used in English for this "train-style overtaking".

I don't necessarily need a single word - a phrase will do. There must be some commonly used expression for this, because this must be a common while dangerous practice. I googled for "overtaking in a queue" and "serial overtaking", but there were no relevant results.


texts: Why are web browsers browsers, but I am a surfer?

texts:
What is the origin of the name of a program being used to access the Internet is a browser, but a human looking around on the internet is surfing?

Why is there this discrepancy?


texts: An adjective that would subtly imply that the criticism is not a personal grudge

texts:
I have expressed disapproval of sb/sth and my professor has escalated the issue to the management stating behavioral issues.
I am writing a letter explaining what went wrong.

I want to state that the criticism was not harsh, not intended to malign sb.

What are the options, please ?


texts:
What do you call it when you transpose the last two words of a sentence on purpose?

Such as: "Once upon a midnight dreary" Instead of "Once upon a dreary midnight?"

Or: "Hark! What light through yon window breaks" Instead of "What light is breaking through that window?"

Or: "God rest ye merry gentleman, let nothing you dismay?" Instead of "...Let nothing dismay you?"


texts: What's the meaning of 'otherwise' in this sentence?

texts:
What's the meaning of otherwise in this sentence?

  Even a fifteen-minute burst of light in otherwise sustained
  darkness can reset an animal's circadian rhythm.


texts: Which Is Correct: exact date or exact dates?

texts:
Is it correct to make the word "date" plural or leave it singular in phrase below:

  Enter the exact date you started and finished each employment.

or

  Enter the exact dates you started and finished each employment.


texts: What does the phrase "Lady-Macbethed" mean?

texts:
Colonel Hampton snorted contemptuously. Senile dementia! Well, he must
  have been senile and demented, to bring this pair of snakes into his
  home, because he felt an obligation to his dead brother's memory. And
  he'd willed "Greyrock," and his money, and everything, to Stephen.
  Only Myra couldn't wait till he died; she'd Lady-Macbethed her husband
  into this insanity accusation.

The above text is taken from the novel Dearest, by Henry Beam Piper. What does the phrase "Lady-Macbethed" means? Is it old usage, or do we also use this phrase in modern times?


texts: Smoking or to smoke costs a lot of money

texts:
What is the correct way to say the following sentence:

  Smoking costs a lot of money.

or

  To smoke costs a lot of money.

From what I have read I use the "-ing" form for something that I don't do anymore and the "to" form for something that I just stopped doing for a while. But I can't figure this one out.


texts:
I have in the recent past come across what seems to be a comparative structure, ‘as something as something else' for example, as tall as, or as good as. But the structure which is causing me a headache is the one which appears to have a noun in the middle, which goes against the general rules. The following are some examples:

-He is as good a footballer as the next.
  -She is as disruptive a person as...

And this little gem which I stumbled upon recently

- Ad blocking is as big a disruptor for us as the internet was when it came along.

The way I see it is that it is ok to say something like, ‘laughable a situation’ or, ‘unfortunate an occurrence.’ Yet it seems strange.

I have hunted, without any success, all over the net to find an answer.
Can anyone tell me why this is possible?

Thanks guys


texts: "Has" or "Have" after "Who" in a sentence?

texts:
I'm confused about using "has" or "have" after "who". For example:

I am a doctor who have confusion in using has or Have.
I am a engineer who has 4 year experience, degree in engineering and is
    available.

Will it vary depending on I or Who?


texts: Is "with all due respect" now mainly used as a sarcastic expression?

texts:
With all due respect is an idiomatic expression which has been used with he following meaning since the  19th century:.

  This phrase always precedes a polite disagreement with what a person has said or brings up a controversial point. [c. 1800] (From AHD)

but according to the following extract from the Grammarist its meaning has changed in recent years and its usage now suggests a sarcastic and possibly disrespectful tone:

  With all due respect has become an overused phrase, it is now often used sarcastically to mean the exact opposite of what it states. Political debaters and others may preface a rebuttal to an argument with, with all due respect. In this case, a subtle disrespect is intended.
  In 2008, the Oxford dictionary compiled a list of the most irritating phrases in the English language, the phrase with all due respect came in as the fifth most irritating phrase in the English language.  Perhaps because of its changing function from a phrase meant to mitigate hard feelings to a phrase that allows a subtle disrespect, cloaked in courtesy.

The same topic is discussed  also in the following extract from The writing tips:

  But in popular culture, the expression has become associated more with insult than with respectful deference:

  Bill, with all due respect, you’re an idiot. –Stephen Colbert to Bill O’Reilly
  Amanda Marcotte – With All Due Respect, You Are A Moron. –Blog headline.
  When do you plan on submitting your resignation? I ask this with all due respect. –Blog reader responding to request for questions for Senator Richard Durbin.

  The 2006 movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, may have influenced the popularity of “with all due respect” used to introduce a blatantly disrespectful and offensive comment. At least twice in the movie, Ricky Bobby says something extremely vulgar to his team owner. He has the mistaken notion that prefacing a remark with the expression “with all due respect” gives a speaker license to insult and offend.

Questions:

Has the meaning of this old expression mainly changed to a sarcastic idiom?
What alternative analogous idiomatic expression could now be used instead to avoid possible misunderstandings?


texts: Which logical fallacy pushes through something as though it were fact and creates a point of contention afterwards to distract?

texts:
For example:

"To corrupt society by allowing violent video games is something only a mother could understand."

The point of contention is likely to be the latter part, where you'd be tempted to say "That's nonsense, being a mother doesn't somehow give you greater powers of perception" or similar, and argue about that, whilst completely missing the point that the person arguing has just stated that violent video games corrupt society and it has gone through unnoticed.

They could easily follow up with "Go on then, name one man that is able to understand the corruption they cause", and you're now fighting on two fronts - if you say "hold on, that premise is flawed" you can be steamrolled over because it sort of seems like it should be true, and you immediately weaken your position as appearing not to understand thus proving the second point about mothers.

Alternatively, you could defend yourself and argue their case for them "Well as a man I was exposed to many video games as a child and they haven't had any effect on myself or anyone that I know", and you're knee deep in agreeing with their hidden assumption before you know it.


texts: In sentences with "too" and "enough" what word does the to-infinitive modify?

texts:
When a to-infinitive is used with words like "too" and "enough" what word does it modify? For example

The animal moves too quickly to be captured.
The bag is too heavy to lift.
He is scared enough to fire his gun.

At first I thought the to-infinitive modified the adjectives and adverbs quickly, heavy, and scared, but I got confused on later example sentences.

Bob is too eager to fight.
Bob is too eager to fight to wait.

It seems strange for two to-infinitives to modify an adjective at the same time, when it occurred to me that the to-infinitive may be modifying "too" instead. Is this true? In any case, "to wait" does not seem to modify the same way "to fight" does in the latter sentence, but I haven't found a good explanation on how a to-infinitive like "to wait" works with words like "too" and "enough" in dictionaries. Also, the first three sentences don't make much sense without "too" or "enough". "The animal moves quickly to be captured" has a much different meaning than "the animal moves too quickly to be captured."


texts: Why does the book Foundations of Computer Science of BA Forouzan usually use "that" in the structures like this "... but searching a linked list is slower that searching an array..."?


texts: How can I use “fête” as a verb in active voice?

texts: Oxford Dictionaries cites a verb as an entry for fête and gives a passive example. How can I use fête in the active voice? For example, can one fête an occasion with pomp and circumstance?


texts: the meaning of "how long do you think they will be"

texts:
i can't understand the meaning for this question "how long do you think they 'will be'"
is the meaning talk about how long"they" will arrive in the place ?


texts: Word to describe someone who plays 'devil's advocate'

texts:
Say someone regularly plays devil's advocate, arguing against whatever belief is currently espoused, even if he believes in it.  In particular the individual believes in doing this with his own beliefs as well, and regularly mentally argues against a belief he holds to ensure they are reasonable and not skewed by bias.

Is there a word to describe a person who does this, or the belief in the importance of doing this with one's own beliefs?

Is there a word to refer to the act of arguing against your personal beliefs, particularly in situations where the argument is done internally, purely to verify the validity of the belief, rather then externally as part of a debate or discussion with others?

Edit:

to clarify I'm trying to avoid negative connotations, looking for either value neutral or positive word.  The focus should be on questioning ideas as a path towards checking biases, flawed logic, or simply finding missed arguments against that may change one's judgement; with the ultimate goal of ensuring a more informed final decision.  Or in short, a way to avoid personal dogma clouding reason.


texts: The origin of "It's just one of those things"?

texts:
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, "It's just one of those things" means:

  said about an event or situation that you cannot explain, or do not like but cannot change

But what is the origin? Why do people use this phrase to express such a feeling?


texts: Should "Happy Birthday" or "Happy Anniversary" written on a cake or card be in quotations or is both with or without correct?


texts: What is the difference in meaning and usage between the words "topic", "theme", "subject"?

texts: I'd like to get a feel for the difference between these words. When are they interchangeable and when is only one of them appropriate or preferable?


texts: Why does "He is as rich as any in our town" mean "He is one of the richest people in our town"?

texts:
According to my textbook, the sentence

  He is as rich as any in our town.

has the same meaning as the following one:

  He is one of the richest people in our town.

Is it right? It seems that the first sentence means he has the same amount of money as any person in the town has. But it is impossible, isn't it?


texts:
I’m Spanish but sometimes see TV shows in English.

My question is whether the words horse and whores sound exactly the same, because in many English language TV shows it seems like they are, which really surprises me.

Are they homophones?

I cannot hear any voicing at the end of the word whores to distinguish the two words.


texts: What's difference between objective and subjective pronouns

texts:
I like David as much as her

I like David as much as she

Dose the first sentence conveys the meaning?

I like david exactly same her

And the second one

I like David as much as she does David


texts: How is "organic" different from "natural"?

texts:
Looking into my dictionary, one meaning of the word organic is:

  occurring or developing gradually and naturally, without being forced or contrived

And you see this word being used like Organic Google Search or Organic Food or things like that.

My question is, can't we just use natural instead of organic, as in natural Google search or natural food? What makes organic different from natural?


texts:
Quick question:

"The duo known as Pin Up Club owes its name to..."

In this sentence, am I correctly referring to 'the duo' with 'its name'? Or should this be 'their name'?

Thank you in advance.


texts: Is "hiree" a word or are there alternative words with such meaning?

texts:
I need a word that means "someone that was hired."

For example a trainee is someone who is being trained.
I google'd hiree and I got some results, but am not sure if this is a proper word.


texts: The project was completed "under" or "by" a company?

texts:
The project was completed by Microsoft.
The project was completed under Microsoft.

Would it be correct to replace "by" with "under" in the above sentence?
I've seen sentences like these

The project was supervised under Microsoft.


texts:
I am debating with a friend about how to interpret this trivia sentence.

When asked how old she is, Jane says:

"In two years, I will be twice as old as I was five years ago..."

Would the answer be eight because in 2 years Jane will be ten which is twice as old as she was five years ago?  Or would it be 12 because in 2 years Jane will be 14 which is twice as old as she was five years ago from today?

So, is "the five years ago" portion of the question relating to today or 2 years from today?

Thank you for any help.


texts: What is the difference between "certificate" and "certification"?

texts:
Could someone please provide examples of the differences between certificate and certification?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, certificate is:

an official document attesting a certain fact, in particular.
a document recording a person's birth, marriage, or death.
a document attesting a level of achievement in a course of study or training.
a document attesting ownership of a certain item.

Certification is an official document attesting to a status or level of achievement.

It also is the action or process of providing someone or something with an official document attesting to a status or level of achievement.


texts: Generic Term for Professional vs Amateur

texts:
In ballroom competitions, events are listed as in the following example:

  Amateur Adult Bronze International Standard Waltz/Quickstep.

I can break this down except for the first bit as:

[??? (Amateur)]
[Age Division (Adult)]
[Level (Bronze)]
[Style (International Standard)]
[Dances (Waltz/Quickstep)].

What would be a good term to describe the first bit of the event description?

If it helps, the options for the first block are:

'Amateur'
'Professional'
'Pro-Am' (wherein a professional and an amateur compete together)
'Teacher/Student'.


texts: What is it called when someone turns into the person they were acting as

texts: For example, say an actor was playing a part but then they actually believed that they were that person.


texts: is there a word to describe " understand each other without words esp. in a teamwork"?

texts: Especially when the players work in a team for a long period and they know each other very well, therefore they can guess what teammate wanna do next even without words. Is there any word to describe this phenomenon?


texts: Subordinate conjunctions - Semicolon before acceptable?

texts:
What would be correct?

The word "sacred" means "regarded with great respect and reverence", and the word is most commonly used in religious meaning; however,...

Or

The word "sacred" means "regarded with great respect and reverence", and the word is most commonly used in religious meaning. However,...

Or

The word "sacred" means "regarded with great respect and reverence", and the word is most commonly used in religious meaning, however,...


texts: What does 'sharp' mean as it relates to being physical?

texts:
Someone told me "You are very sharp, though I will leave it up to you to decide if I mean mentally or physically".

What does sharp mean in the 'physical' context?


texts: Is "since I'm" now an acceptable alternative to "since I was"?

texts:
In a recent episode of the television show Entourage, Ari Gold (a 40 year old man) says:

  I've known her since I'm 19.

In an episode of Sex and the City, a character, who is 15, tells Carrie:

  I've been giving blowjobs since I'm 12.

The speakers are replacing the past tense of the verb to be (was) with the present tense (am).

Is this simply a mistake of the writers (seemingly specific to HBO), or is this usage a trend that is developing? I've heard it in other television shows and in person, as well.


texts: Title Capitalization Doubt: "If" or "if?"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Which words in a title should be capitalized?

Suppose I'm going to write an article/essay with the following title:

"What To Do If You Believe Space Aliens Shot JFK"

Does the word "if" get capitalized, like above, or not?


texts:
I am writing my resume. I have finished college, but in my university there is an annoying (months long) wait after the last exam until people who have completed their work toward their degree receive their diploma. I am updating my resume and I would like a word to explain the situation.

Something like "degree in process" or "diploma pending". I feel this reads like I have not yet finished my studies, and that's not the case.


texts: Can native English speakers tell the differences between [ɣ] voiced velar fricative and [g] voiced velar stop?

texts: We don't have [g] in Vietnamese so I use [ɣ] instead. I wonder if it is acceptable since I can't tell the difference between them. And it seems like that native speakers can't distinguish the voiceless pair, because I saw people use [k] voiceless velar stop for [x]voiceless velar fricative when pronouncing foreign words.


texts: Expressions in Tim Minchin's "Angry (Feet)"

texts:
I'm having a little trouble with matching some of the lyrics of Tim Minchin's "Angry (Feet)" to the reactions to them of the audience. This makes me suspect I'm missing some of the semantic layers. The lyrics are broken down between the more "controlled" and the more "natural" (maniacal) subpersons, I'll mark them like this and like this respectively.

"My father left my mother for the love of a pantang (?) nother" [3:20]
"In primary school I had trouble making ashtrays friends" [3:45]
"And while he lied there bleeding I used his feet to kick him in the head" [5:40]


texts:
I discovered this phrasal verb (maybe) go for the throat, but I have been unable to find out anything more about it. I would like to know its meaning in the paragraph below. Could you help me, please?

  Get ready to be gaslit by gaslight in a mesmerizing story scripted by
  Laura Marks, a comics newbie and TV veteran. I met Laura working on
  the never aired version of Locke & Key prepped by Hulu and was blown
  away by her deft touch at dialogue and go for the throat instinct.

  Joe Hill (via Instagram)


texts:
The usual expression to indicate that a location is inside a body of water, below the surface, is “under water”. A Stack Exchange user who seems to be a native English speaker writes:

  While it's reasonable to say "beneath water" or "below water," I don't think I have ever heard or seen either until just now. I would not consider those phrases to be idiomatic; if I heard either of them I'd certainly do a double-take.

Others were quick to reply with uses of “below water” and “beneath water”, for example movie titles such as Beneath Water and Life Below Water, and the United Nations sustainable development goal “Life Below Water”. Textual search in Google Books shows that “below water” is significantly less prevalent (~2–10%) than “under water”, and “beneath water” even less so, both in American English and British English, and with relatively little variation over time in the past two centuries. These figures may be somewhat inflated because the numbers for “under water” do not include the spelling “underwater”. The statistics include expressions such as “below water surface” and “beneath water bodies”, but also expressions like “under water harvesting”, so I don't think that the spurious hits affect the numbers significantly.

So “beneath water” and “below water” are overall rare, but not inexistant. How come some speakers consider them outright unidiomatic, while others consider it normal (if perhaps rare)? Is this a regional or social variation? Is there a nuance in meaning?


texts: What do you call for a person who submits an application for a student?

texts: We have agents, student and parent who can submit an application for a student. Wondering whether I could call them applicant?


texts:
I saw a sentence when I read my textbook.
It says

  The Lanes go to church every Sunday morning to listen to the minister preach the Bible.

But,all I know about "lane" is something like a narrow road or other routines.
Can you tell me what the meaning of " The Lanes" is in this sentence?
Thanks.


texts:
You were, after all, brothers in blue

From TV Series Elementary S03E08, what does in blue mean here?


texts: Sentence meaning changes with word order. What?

texts:
This is some I have never heard of.

To illustrate the concept, I use the sentence:

  Maelle and Gerard are competent, loving parents, both are engineers.

I know the sentence sounds weird. In the grammar book, one of the choice is :

  Maelle and Gerard are both loving and competent parents and engineers.

At first I thought this has to be a wrong revision because now the two adjective modify both nouns.

Both the grammar book says that it's wrong because of a different word order that conveys a different meaning. I thought what?


texts: "Toilet", "lavatory" or "loo" for polite society

texts: My friend is trying so hard to fit into polite society, and is raising her child to say loo rather than toilet. I know it should be lavatory (and I would not say lav) but we are in the 21st century now. What would be deemed appropriate?


texts: What punctuation did the original manuscript of Beowulf have?

texts:
I am trying to find information on the punctuation of the Beowulf Manuscript, but not getting much. I found an image online of what appears to be a front page of an old looking book, but I'm not sure to what it is. The etexts online of the manuscript have ! exclamation marks, commas, large gaps to signify the meter or whatever it is... etc. There is a lot of "modern" stuff in this "old" English.

What I would like to know is what punctuation and formatting features were present in the original manuscript. If no original manuscript exists today, then theoretically what would've been present. If one does exist, then would be cool to know the museum it is at, but also what punctuation and other formatting features it has. Did it use the period? Commas appear to be an Italian invention (from a quick Google), so that seems to recent to have been in the original document. But "sentence stops" like periods might have been. Did they use all lowercase letters, or were there a mix of capital / lowercase letters like we write Beowulf words today? Did they have quotes? Did they have ellipses?

That's about it, thank you so much for your help!


texts:
I am looking for a comprehensive list of Apheretic forms in English. I remember seeing in old books words being prefixed with apostrophes which do not require them in modern writing, but can't remember many instances.

Wikipedia provides a list of apocopations but none for apheresis.


texts:
What does  "telling the truth has become a societal antiquity" mean?

I saw it on a random post earlier today. I guess it could mean that it's an outdated method: that many people resort to lies.


texts: When speaking of age 13 and over, is it 12+ or 13+?

texts:
When you take into account all ages above a certain age, what is the correct way to write it?

I was supposed to write all ages above 12, and not including 12, so I wrote '13+', which in my mind seemed to mean '13 and plus'/'13 and above'.

Someone told me it's meant to be written as '12+', but to me, this looks as if it's including the age 12 in it.

What is the correct way, when talking of all ages above but not including 12, to write it: 12+ or 13+?


texts: What is the source of the expression "like a paper devil"?

texts: What is the source for the expression "like a paper devil"?  As in "as fast as a paper devil."


texts:
Situation: There are two political opponents running for the same position. In politician #1's commercial, he attacks #2 by pointing out flaws in his campaign or history. #2's attack is more clever. He "takes the high road" by saying that he'd never stoop so low as to attack his opponent, while this itself is an attack as it implies his opponent is beneath him, since he has gone so low as to directly attack him.

What's this type of attack called?


texts: How does “found-in-a-cabbage-patch look” look?

texts:
There was the phrase “found-in-a-cabbage-patch look” in the article of Time magazine (October 3, 2011) titled “Playing Favorites,” that dealt with the results of recent researches on the prevalence of parents’ favoritism toward particular one of their children.

The author, Jeffery Kluger writes;

  “I was the second of four in an all-boy brood, and by almost any measure, the third in line, Garry, should have been the favorite, simply because he was gorgeous, born with extravagantly long eyelashes, absurdly perfect features and platinum blond hair that completed his ‘found-in a-cabbage-patch look.’”

I can vaguely imagine how a cherub-like boy with ‘found-in a-cabbage-patch look’ looks with the association of “Cabbage-Patch Kids” dolls. But I don’t think the author is referring to “Cabbage-Patch Kids” character here.

What do ‘the baby found in a cabbage patch’ and ‘found-in-a-cabbage-patch look’ mean? What is the origin of the word, “found in a cabbage patch”?


texts: What this "a warm lot" means in this case?

texts:
I'd like to ask about the sentence below from The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist by Conan Doyle.

  The landlord further informed me that there are usually week-end visitors—‘a warm lot, sir’—at the Hall, and especially one gentleman with a red moustache, Mr. Woodley by name,

I'm not sure with the italic part, what it refers to.
Is it..?

They come very frequently. ("warm" being adverb)
They come in large numbers. ("warm" being adverb)
The pub's master is describing them(weekend visitors) as warm. ("warm" being adjective and "lot" being "fellow, folk")

If it's (3), what does "warm" mean in this case? Being "noisy" "excited" or even "fishy" "rich"... ?