texts: Is there a word to describe the situation when a system that you created yourself surprises the author?

texts:
I just thought that there would be a bunch of errors logged in my system, because it seemed as if two files with the same path and filename were being saved at the same time, conflicting with each other.
Then I noticed that one of the files got saved as name_1.png instead of name.png. From my foggy memory, I vaguely recall having encountered this problem in the past, and apparently, I coded in this feature to handle the situation. I had entirely forgotten about it and can't even immediately find where in the massive codebase this actually occurs.
This is not the first time that this happens to me in this vast system I'm programming, which has been ever growing for years in complexity.
Basically, it's now a nightmare to attempt to go through all of it, so I always have like a "fog" around large parts except those I've recently been interacting with directly. There's a lot of "mystery functions" which interact with each other in ways I've long forgotten how I originally intended them to work, and they have slowly evolved to be quite robust and "well-oiled", so to speak.
Could this be called something more accurate than the overused "ironic"? I feel as if there's probably an English word which describes such a complex system which surprises the author due to having forgotten that they made a specific feature, long after it's been implemented and tested and then forgotten about like an old legend or myth.


texts: how to differentiate -is from -es sound sing/plur?

texts:
Especially in the context of Latin and Latin-derived words, where the English pronunciation is often rather arbitrary, this might lead foreigners to confusion between the singular and plural forms.
I am therefore asking native speakers how the differentiate the two sounds in words like:

Analysis vs. Analyses
Anastomosis vs. Anastomoses
Metamorphosis vs. Metamorphoses


texts: Book or App to learn subtle differences between synomyms

texts:
I've been working on my English vocabulary for about 16 months now. I feel like I'm at a point at which I sometimes know different ways to express something I have in mind, but I struggle to choose the one that best fits the context.

Sometimes, I can find out if a word is more formal or literary, or conversely, if it comes from slang or is a colloquial word or expression, and also if it's a regional expression from NA, UK or AU which is helpful ... but it's not always the case.

So, I'm searching for a book, an app or any other media that would shed some light on these kind of questions.

Here are a few examples that are not meant to be answered but I put them here just to illustrate the kind of choice I have to make to express myself:

lopsided, awry, slanted, askew, crooked
scant, scanty, sparse, meagre
to be loath/reluctant/unwilling/disinclined/averse to do sth,
reckless, heedless, blithe, casual
pander, fawn over/on one, cater for vs cater to (NA vs UK),
to gleam/shine/shimmer/twinkle/glimmer/glisten/glance/glow
stammer/stutter/splutter/falter
mumble/mutter/whisper

On top of that, I can see that there are sometimes paradoxical definitions depending on the dictionary I'm referring to Collins, Lexico, Cambridge, The Free Dictionary (this one is useful for idioms), and every once in a while ... urban dictionary :)


texts: Adjective or locution showing that the absence of something is required?

texts:
Is there any short way to say that something must be absent? If something must be present, I'd use "is required", but what can replace "must be absent", and only that? Words like "unexpected" don't fully fit the meaning I'm looking for.
This request relates to programming and I'm not sure if there is such a way to convey in a short manner, and that could be written in way to oppose "required".
The full concept is that I setup group requirements. An object may have any number of components, but to be part of a group, they must obey the group's requirements. The group says that it accepts all objects that have some components, but rejects those that have some other components.
I'd use it in a sentence similar to:

From the point of view of the group, some specific components are required and some other specific components are __________.

And it could be also written as:

From the point of view of the group, some specific components are required and some other specific components must be absent.


texts: Why is it called a Four-Poster Bed, and not a Four-Post Bed

texts:
It seems that every reference I can find refers to the columns of a four-poster bed as 'posts', so why is it called a four-poster bed?
I've found some references that indicate that it was called a four-post bed in the 14th and 15th centuries, but nothing describing the change over time or where it came from.
A friend posited:

I assume it came from the way people talk. “That’s a four poster there”

But I would just like some more information regarding that. Is it just a change in the way people talk? Or maybe how they write?


texts: What is the origin of the American expression "s*** fire"?

texts:
Ever since I read a fictionalized account of Francis Drake’s adventures in James Michener’s The Caribbean (1989), I have been curious about the nickname of a ship known as the Cacafuego (literally Shitfire or Fireshitter).

Through a tricky ruse, "el Draque" (as he was called in the Spanish of the time) captured the unarmed 120-ton Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción- known to her sailors as the Cacafuego - and made his fortune. For this and other exploits Francis Drake was awarded the Knighthood in 1581.

To this day, in my part of the former Spanish Empire the word Cacafuego is still loosely associated with pirates, although when questioned few know why.

Elizabethans seem to have adopted the word into English. However, perhaps out of delicacy, it seems to appear rarely in print.

I found a 1641 text in which one captain excoriated another (seemingly named Coale), using the word to mean braggart (or possibly swash-buckler).

Some historians and etymologists have speculated that the word survived in a less vulgar form as spitfire, to eventually grace the plane flown by the heroes who saved Britain during the dark days of WWII.

Fast forward to Southern-American slang.

Although already in general use in Texas and some other southern American states, it was popularized in the less-than-great American classic film Smoky and the Bandit (1977), and mentioned by Charles Frazier in his book Cold Mountain (1997).
Now “Shit fire!” can be heard as an exclamation of surprise throughout much of the US.

Supposedly derived from the old phrase “Shit fire and save the matches!”, I thought it unlikely to come from British English as the safety match was not in use until 1831; however, “match” was used as early as the 1500’s to mean a piece of lit wood.
Due to the paucity of written references I found it difficult to connect the old usage in Britain to that in the US.

Does “Shitfire!” (as used in the US) come from a British etymology or can the blame be laid totally at the Americans’ backdoor?


texts: What does treat 'em and street 'em mean?


texts: what does " which way does this go, now?" mean?

texts: I am reading a play, in a coversation one of characters refered to table setting and ask " which way does this go, now?" what is that about? about eating ? or cleaning the table?


texts:
I may be wrong here, but I think of the verb "will" as in the set phrase "if you will" as an actual verb, with the rare sense "wish, desire, want", not as a mere future marker. Therefore, in this sentence:

He wasn't very bright, or kind of a dummy, if you will.

...the "I you will" part can be replaced with "if you want to me to put it in a different way".

But I've heard some people replace "will" with "would" for some reason. Hence:

He wasn't very bright, or kind of a dummy, if you would.

To me that sounds kind of strange, as if what you meant were "if you wanted to put it in another way". But what do I know, may be "would" would sound more polite or something, even in a phrase like "if you will", rather than just the past tense of "will".

So the question is: Is using "if you would" instead of "if you will" in the sense of "if you wish/want/like" technically "correct"? ("correct" as in proper according to the original use of "if you will".)


texts:
I want to express the following idea:

  Do your homework at least one day before the submission deadline.

Suppose the 2nd person knows about this submission deadline thing (or may be clear from the context). Say, the previous sentence was "The submission deadline is 1st August". Then is it grammatically correct and meaningful to say "Do your homework at least one day before"?


texts: Can two contradicting ideas be put together in the same sentence?

texts: I have written a paragraph in which I have described that a person's fingers are both smooth as glass and bumpy as a rocky road at the same time. I was criticised for this statement, but I do not think that such statements are wrong. Please help.


texts:
Here, in the place where I am being hosted, almost every evening there is an event usually called "burlesque".

Is "burlesque" normally used by Americans?
How is the word used generally? In what context do we refer to this word?


texts:
The introductory paragraph of the book An Introduction to Mathematics, written for general audience by the great British mathematician Alfred North Whitehead goes like this:

  Chapter 1: THE ABSTRACT NATURE OP MATHEMATICS

  The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment. The
  important applications of the science, the theoretical interest of its ideas, and the logical rigour of its methods, all generate the expectation of a speedy introduction to processes of interest. We are told that by its aid the stars are
  weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted.
  Yet, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, this science eludes the efforts of our mental weapons to grasp it - "'Tis here, 'tis there, 'tis gone" - and what we do see does not suggest the same excuse for illusiveness as sufficed for the ghost, that it is too noble for our gross methods. "A show of violence," if ever excusable, may surely be "offered" to the trivial results which
  occupy the pages of some elementary mathematical treatises.

I am completely at sea trying to understand the last line, starting with "A show of violence"..

Is he referring to The Tragedy of Hamlet (which I haven't read or know much about) or is a "show of violence" used as an expression or a metaphor?


texts: How did these two sentences "I am looking for a responsible man" and "I am looking for the man responsible" come to take on different meanings?

texts:
The first sentence "I am looking for a responsible man" means that I am looking for someone who can be trusted whereas the second sentence "I am looking for the man responsible" means that I am looking for the man who has done something.
In the former, responsible acts as a prepositive adjective while in the latter a postpositive adjective.
What are the perhaps etymological or linguistic reasons that led to these two sentences with the main word 'responsible' take on different meanings?


texts:
I'm looking for a synonym for dragged on.

For example:

This project has dragged on and needs to be completed.

His story was very long, it just dragged on.

I have used languished in the past, although I don't think that is correct usage.


texts: the pulp for the marriage made by the empress dowager has made me a fool to the whole world


texts: Plural contraction in a very specific case: Which is correct?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “There are so many” vs. “There is so many”

I was talking with a friend recently, and to entice him to come to an event with cookies.

Which way is correct?

"There's cookies" versus "There are cookies"? The former is the equivalent of saying "There is cookies", which is not correct, but I am under the impression the way I said it is still grammatically valid.

Is it okay to say "There's cookies"?


texts: What is the history of "nil" in British football /soccer?

texts:
In British football if neither team scores a goal, the score is said to be: nil-nil or  nil-nil draw. Curiously, the winning team's results are always spoken first. So if Arsenal are playing home the score will be written as: Arsenal 0 Manchester Utd 1 but when spoken: "Manchester Utd 1, Arsenal nil" or "Arsenal lost 1 nil".

I know that nil is derived from Latin nihil, which means nulla, niente in Italian, and nothing in English but why wasn't the Old English nowiht (nought) preferred?
Could it be that the game was first introduced into Britain by the Romans, and the Latin term nihil, stuck?  There is a short reference in Wikipedia which claims:

  Certainly the Romans played ball games, in particular, Harpastum. There
  is also one reference to ball games being played in southern Britain
  prior to the Norman Conquest.

There are sources that claim the forefather of modern football is calcio fiorentino  played in 15th century Florence, which suggests that the sport had continued to be played in Italy long after the fall of the Roman empire.

To further back up my hypothesis, English football is not alone in using the term nil.  The French and Dutch say nul; the Greeks, nil; the Russians, ноль (nol); the Swedes, noll; the Norwegians and Germans, null, and the Hungarians nulla. Surprisingly, the Italians use the term zero, and the Spanish, cero.

Am I therefore correct in thinking the Latin-derived term nil is used in British football because of the Roman conquests?
If not, what is the history of nil, a word I barely, if ever, hear outside the realm of football?  When was it first introduced in British football (soccer)?


texts: What does "How do I feel this good sober" mean?

texts:
Help settle an argument.

There's a song whose chorus  "How do I feel this good sober?"

One interpretation is, "How is possible that I feel as good as I do, even though I am sober?"

The other is, "What can I do so I continue to feel as good as I do now, even once I sober up?"

Of the two disputants (one of whom is me, the other of whom is wrong), one asserts that the song-writer (Alecia Moore in case it helps) is being deliberately ambiguous; the other asserts only the first interpretation is correct.

I'm not taking a poll here. I'd like someone to give me a reasoned defense of one interpretation or both.


texts: What term describes "the degree to which peers can loan each other money"?

texts:
I want to make a distinction between two groups of people:

Group A has the liquidity and borrowing power.
Group B has minimal liquidity and borrowing power.

The term "credit rating" implies it's in the traditional financial network, whereas I'm referring to loans among friends, and the ability for that peer group to fulfill an obligation.
The most relevant term I can come up with is that each social network has a different "Economic Plasticity".
Background
The basis for this question is a recent NPR broadcast where a researcher was looking at the public records of collection agencies, and in particular the addresses to which those collection notices were sent.  He noticed that collection notices were sent largely to neighborhoods with a minority population.  Knowing that collections are traded like sub-prime mortgages, and that there is likely no inherent racism in this, he was nevertheless able to find a common thread:

Non-minority/white populations who were more connected to friends and family were more able to help with surprise expenses such as car issues, funeral expenses, and accidents.  On the other hand, minority populations would struggle to withstand those momentary hardships even if they exhausted the resources of their peer network;
The cumulative economic penalties (late fees, interest rates, etc) create a system where the oppressed stay oppressed, and the financially endowed stay endowed.

Not mentioned in this broadcast were the wealthy risk takers, who collectively make bad decisions that could see them end up in a similar situation where they are unable to borrow from friends.
I intend to create a chart, that shows this "economic plasticity" among groups of people.   Any better term is appreciated

In a world where financial inequality is the leading topic of these times, I think this term would be useful in gaining perspective, and perhaps, compassion for those who suffer from this plight


texts: How to present the idea of "Same Month/Same Quarter/Yearly Comparison" in a less clumsy way?

texts:
I am thinking of the title of my chart, since the concept is there but the output is a bit too clumsy, I wonder if I can get any inspiration from here:

The chart is about showing a trend of a certain kind of infection rate in hospital. The chart can be adjusted to show the bars of all "January", "February", etc... from 2007-2010, all "Quarter 1", "Quarter 2", etc... from 2007-2010, and the bar for yearly data (2007-2010).

I know the monthly and quarterly bars can be grouped together, as their all refer to the "specific month/quarter" (I wonder if "specific" is the appropriate term here) across the years, but the yearly bars is a bit different. It is put here because of technical issue, they consider yearly bars as "specific year" across the years, but year itself does not include subsets of years.

Currently I can think of "Same Month/Quarter/Year Comparison of XXX Infection", I wonder if this can properly deliver my message.


texts: Does anyone know of a good online thesaurus? I've used http://thesaurus.com/ and http://www.merriam-webster.com/.  Especially something that's good with phrases, figures of speech or idioms.


texts:
Some twitter account tweeted like this
"when they release the iPhone 7 and you haven't even gotten the 6 yet "(with funny pic)
enter link description here

If I tell the content of the sentence, I could say like "when the iPhone 7 is released" instead of "when they release the iPhone 7".

I'm a Japanese and Japanese tend to remove a subject when the subject is obvious or not so important in a context.

I just wonder which is natural in these two?
A: when they release the iPhone 7 and you haven't even gotten the 6 yet
B: when the iPhone 7 is released and you haven't even gotten the 6 yet

Does B sound weird to native English people?


texts: difference between "confer" upon & "confers" upon

texts:
In an example like:

Aristotle University upon recommendation from College of Nursing and by authority of the Board of Governors of Aristotle University hereby "confer" upon Mr. John Williams the Bachelors of Science in Nursing Degree.

Please suggest if ("confer" upon) as used above is right or it is better to use ("confers" upon)


texts: Are prepositional verbs a sub-classification of phrasal verbs or considered a totally separate category?

texts:
In researching the classification of verbs that are accompanied by other words that may be adverbs or prepositions it seems like some sources favor prepositional verbs as a sub-category and others separating these two separate categories; where phrasal verbs are accompanied by adverbs and prepositional verbs are only accompanied by prepositions.
Further, it seems that neither of these includes verb constructs that are used to form infinitives, as in "it is going to be sunny on Saturday?" Is that correct?


texts:
Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 is…

  AKA the 'Face with Tears of Joy' emoji.

Where will they file this in their dictionary?

Have the people at Oxford made a large mistake, or is there a standard method for dealing with non alphanumeric symbols such as

  @#$%^(*&";

etc.?


texts: Is there a name for “fear of olives” in English?

texts:
I know people with an actual fear of olives. Is there a name in English for this phobia?

I have not been able to find anything in the usual websites.


texts: Singular or plural after Subject + modal + base form of the verb

texts:
For example:

  A well thought-out system streamlines operation, improves work
  process, reduces data redundancy.....

If can is added to the sentence, should the following verb be singular or plural?

  A well thought-out system can streamline operation, improve work
  process, reduce data redundancy.....

or

  A well thought-out system can streamline operation, improves work
  process, reduces data redundancy.....


texts: Is there a rule for the pronunciation of words with the suffix -ative?

texts:
I have observed that there are, at least, two patterns of pronunciation for words ending in -ative:

The first syllable is stressed and the suffix is pronounced as /eɪtɪv/ (e.g. qualitative)
The second syllable is stressed and the suffix is pronounced as /ətɪv/ (e.g. declarative)

Is there a way (other than memorizing them all, of course) to know how a certain word ending in -ative is pronounced?


texts:
Would you please tell me what the following sentence mean? Who is older than who?

Janet's sister was eight years her elder.


texts: Another expression for an ellipsoid whose major axis is long

texts:
I'm writing a scientific journal.

I'm looking for another expression (or other expressions) for an ellipsoid whose major axis is long (or very long).

(By 'long ellipsoid' what I precisely mean is an ellipsoid whose major axis is much longer than other axes.)

I think 'long ellipsoid' doesn't really sound academical though one can understand it.


texts: "in English language" vs. "in the English language" vs. "in English"

texts:
Which of the sentences below are correct, and why?
Which one would you prefer to use, and where are you from?

"The course materials are only available in English language."
"The course materials are only available in the English language."
"The course materials are only available in English."

Thanks!


texts: I have come across the phrase I will do used as a response. Somehow, it seems incomplete. Shouldn't it be I will do that?


texts:
A thief does not ______ the door.

Is the correct expression to fill the gap 'knock at' or 'knock on'?


texts: Can programmers be called code authors or any other term similar in meaning to a book author?


texts: Determining the correct usage of "reminds" vs "remind"

texts:
In the following sentence:

  We celebrate all the shapes, colors, texture, and fun that remind us of what it was like to be a kid.

Should it be remind us or reminds us? I'm pretty sure it should be "remind", simply because there are multiple things that are reminding us. But wife claims otherwise, so need to settle this! The fact that the enumeration ends with the word fun is I guess the point of contention.

It probably also should be textures instead of texture, but that may be a different argument.


texts:
The word cuisine, like quick, starts with the sound /kwɪ/. However they are pronounced differently (or I hear them so): /ɪ/ is not pronounced in the former at all. I checked it both in a learner's dictionary (+), and in a dictionary for native speakers (+).

Am I missing the /ɪ/ sound in the pronunciation of cuisine, or are the pronunciations incorrect?


texts: What is the precise meaning of "bottom scroll"?

texts:
This is an extract from the book "The Boy From the Woods" by Harlan Coben.

Hester quickly craned her neck toward Matthew and tried, through the haze of the studio spotlights, to meet his eye. She was a frequent legal expert on cable news, and two nights a week, “famed defense attorney” Hester Crimstein had her own segment on this very network called Crimstein on Crime, though her name was not pronounced Crime-Rhymes-with-Prime-Stine, but rather Krim-Rhymes-with-Prim-Steen, but the alliteration was still considered “television friendly” and the title looked good on the bottom scroll, so the network ran with it.>

I can't understand the meaning of "bottom scroll". Is it something like a running line which appears at the bottom of the screen on TV in news? But what leads me astray is the word "scroll".
Or does "bottom scroll" denote a small space somewhere at the bottom of the TV screen, where the title of the TV segment, which is currently being host,  appears?


texts:
Is the following sentence acceptable?

  He arrived ten minutes earlier than he was supposed to.

It doesn't sound right, but I can't think of any better way to end the sentence.


texts: Stand out in the crowd vs from the crowd

texts:
Is 'stand out from the crowd' and 'stand out in a crowd' is same or differs in usage?
Can anyone explain it to me with an example?


texts:
Which one is grammatically correct?

I worked at X company ...

from Aug 2005 to Sep 2007.
from A up to B.
from A until B.
from A till B.
between A and B.


texts:
What do you call it when your mind starts examining things automatically because of being exposed to these things in the past. This is not intentional thinking nor  wandering but rather an automatic response in your mind

  John  has quiet time at home and wants to just relax, but he can't stop his mind ... the events of the day.

Using Reflect and Review make the thinking seem voluntary when I am trying to convey the involuntary aspect of it.


texts: Has "hacker" definitely gained a negative connotation?

texts:
The American Heritage Dictionary defines a hacker as:

  One who is proficient at using or programming a computer; a computer buff.
  One who uses programming skills to gain illegal access to a computer network or file.

I was surprised to find a neutral/positive definition which, as the word history shows below, was the original connotation of the term.

Word History:

  Computer programmers started using the word hacker in the 1960s as a positive term for a person of skillful programming ability. The usage probably derives from hack meaning "to chop," or from hacker, "an amateurish player, as at golf." As time went on, hacker became less positive, however. Already in the 1960s, engineering students at such universities as Cal Tech used the related noun hack to mean "an ingenious prank." Among the pranks that some computer programmers would engage in, of course, were break-ins into other computer systems. As such break-ins attracted national attention, the media seized upon the word hacker as the label for the perpetrators—a usage that many programmers object to because they know it used to be a term of praise.

Questions:

Has "hacker" still a neutral/positive meaning  or has it definitely gained a negative reputation?

When did this semantic change happen?

What terms  are commonly used instead of "hacker" with a positive connotation?


texts: Idiom about something that attracts big crowds

texts:
In Russian language we have an idiom

  слетелись как мухи на говно
  (fly on it like a fly on sh…)

It’s about something that attracts big crowds, like sales or something. People “fly” there like flies on ****. Well, you get it. So I was wondering if there is some English analogue for this idiom and perhaps something softer and less disgusting.


texts: What does "Like a jug that's googling out buttermilk" mean?

texts:
Reading "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" on Project Gutenberg I come across a sentence I can't quite comprehend. Also, word "googling" caught my eye:

  whilst he made all sorts of signs with his hands and said "Goo-goo—goo-goo-goo" all the time, like a baby that can't talk
  ...
  The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up, but just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug that's googling out buttermilk.

I would thought it's an OCR error, and something like "gurgling" meant instead, but there is a scanned page adjacent to the text, with the same word in print: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm

So, I am eager to know the meaning of the word "googling" in this context(this answer weren't of much help). Also, it would be nice to get the meaning of the whole idiom "like a jug that's googling out buttermilk".


texts: What does "shine" mean in the context of this Harry Champion song?

texts:
Harry Champion was a music hall singer of (I believe) ~1900-1920 in East London. His songs often reflect the time period and location that he lived in.
In his song Samuel Duff, the lyrics of the first verse are as follows:

My father always used to say you ought to wear a shine
To show the people what you're paid and what's your proper line
So upon me face I wear this little bit of fur
Because I am a sideboard manufacturer
When they see me sideboards when I'm walking out
Dogs begin to bark and people all begin to shout

In this context, what does "shine" mean?


texts: How to puncutuate when using self imposed questions in a declarative sentence

texts:
I have toyed with using a colon and keeping the question marks or even ditching the question marks. See below:

  Admittedly I was apprehensive at first to approach the prisoner, all I could think was “What crime did he commit?”, “How was he going to treat a 21 year old girl?”, and “How can I avoid talking to him?”.

But should it be this:

  Admittedly I was apprehensive at first to approach the prisoner and all I could think was:  What crime did he commit? How was he going to treat a 21 year old girl?  How can I avoid talking to him?

or this...

  Admittedly I was apprehensive at first to approach the prisoner. All I could think was what crime did he commit, how was he going to treat a 21 year old girl, and how can I avoid talking to him.


texts: Can someone help me to understand this difficult sentence structure?

texts:
Please help me to understand the following. I have difficulty with the passage that appears between the two dashes.

  Gutman argues convincingly that the stability of the Black family encouraged the transmission of—and so was crucial in sustaining—the Black heritage of folklore, music, and religious expression from one generation to another, a heritage that slaves were continually fashioning out of their African and American experiences.

PS: if I ignore the passage between the two dashes, I can understand the meaning of this paragraph.


texts: Registration for talks "is" or "are" free?

texts:
Which is the proper usage in this sentence:

  Registration for talks is free.

or

  Registration for talks are free.


texts: What would be the correct article in this sentence?

texts:
What would be the correct article to use in the following sentence?

He proposed a ML-based parameter selection method

Should I use 'a' or 'an' ?


texts:
I may need someone knowing about accounting to answer this for me:

On the contract,the show fee I should pay to a artist is$10,000.
20%($2,000) goes as withholding tax and 80% ($8,000)goes as the exact transfer amount received .

under this circumstance,the note I put behind the show fee($10,000) should be "tax-inclusive" or "tax-exclusive"?

Thanks again!


texts: Is there an antonym (a complementary antonym) for "spicy" or "hot" regarding food (I DO NOT mean "seasoned", but "hot")?

texts:
I’m talking about the burning feeling you get when eating chillis,
raw onions, and other food. I’m looking for a way to explain that I do not like that burning feeling, be it onions, chillis, a spicy sauce or anything else that burns in my mouth. I will refer to this feeling as spicy-hot even though some of you might disagree, but I am looking for a better way to call food which gives me this feeling.

And if there isn’t one word for this, how could one phrase a sentence
explaining that one does not like food to be spicy-hot  AT ALL, no matter how
little. Some people refer to a little bit spicy-hot as not spicy-hot at all,
because they are used to such very spicy-hot food so they do not consider some
food as being spicy-hot even though others do.

I found this quote in the Wikipedia article on
pungency:

  The pungent sensation provided by chilli peppers, black pepper, and other
  spices like ginger and horseradish.

That article also mentioned piquancy:

  The term piquancy (/ˈpiːkənsi/) is sometimes applied to foods with a lower
  degree of pungency that is “agreeably stimulating to the palate.”
  Examples of piquant food include mustard and curry.

I found this
article
about pungency that isn’t related to capsaicin, but it still didn’t give me
a specific word or phrase I could use to explain it with. I also found a scale for onions and garlic on Wikipedia, the pyruvate scale.

Here are places I would want to use this word I don’t have:

  A guy working at a falafel store: Would you like your falafel with wasabi?
  Me: No thanks I would like it completely _______ (not burning my tongue).
  The guy from the falafel store: onions?
  Me: No thanks I would like it completely _______ (not burning my tongue).
  The guy from the falafel store: chillis ?
  Me: No thanks I would like it completely _______ (not burning my tongue).

Is there a way to say "I'm a wuss and can't take anything spicy not even the mildest stuff NOTHING"? (Pardon my French.)

I have tried looking up hot and spicy on thesaurus, but I found nothing
satisfying. I think “mild” is not a good fit, because one person’s “mild”
is another’s “spicy”. Also negating is not good, because people use “it’s
not spicy” as “it’s not that spicy”. Negating is also not perfect, because people do not consider many things as spicy and assume I mean no spicy sauce when I mean I want  NOTHING that's going to burn in my mouth.


texts: Is there a proper term for "mid-course students"?

texts:
I'm looking for a proper term for students that join a class mid-course. The suggested term I found was "mid-course student," but that doesn't seem to be an actual term.

"Transfer student" would be the perfect choice, but I'm looking for a term that doesn't include transferring, just late joining.

Newcomer is another term that seems to fit, but it doesn't necessarily refer to students.

Any ideas?


texts:
Quotation from The Pastyme of Plasure
Especially，I don't know "sprynge, ryall, chefe and orygynal".

  "O Mayster Lydgate! the most dulcet sprynge
    Of famous rethoryke, with balade ryall
    The chefe orygynal."
    —"The Pastyme of Plasure," by Stephen Hawes, 1509.


texts:
Literally as above, I encountered those sentences in my reading.
I wonder about difference between them.

Is 'You need a rest' a more emphatic suggestion than 'You need rest' in spoken English? As I read those sentences in the book it sounds almost no difference in a general meaning.

is there any difference in nuances (or nuance?) between them?
[nuances vs nuance is complicated for me as well.]


texts: What would be a better part of a sentence besides "is because"? I am writing and my teacher has said that "is because" is not allowed in our persuasive piece. What would be better in this case than "is because"?


texts:
What does one call the desire not to be too close to other people, and further, the aversion against that - on the street, on the beach, in public transportation, etc?

(What is considered "too close" may well depend on culture and the individual.)

Edit: This is an example of a "gapped sentence":

  CO2 emissions are too high because too many people in
  northern countries go to work with their own car. This is partially due to a
  stronger [desire not to be (too) close to other people] than in
  southern countries.

I admit that one could rephrase this by "due to a desire for more interpersonal space" or "due to a stronger desire for interpersonal space" - but that's what my question is about: Is there a single word for "desire for interpersonal space". A pathological form of this desire might be some kind of "social claustrophobia"


texts: Word for the inability to do simple things when you don't look at it

texts:
Well, the title says it all. I'll add an example:

You try to put a plug into a socket which is under the table and you're too lazy to stoop down.
To my mind this sounds like a very simple task and still I sometimes fail to get it in and I eventually bend my head down and once I look at it, I can immediately plug it in.


texts:
The quote would be

  "Every man is like the company he is wont to keep."

What is the meaning of "he is wont to keep" in this quote? Merriam-Webster translates wont as accustomed, used or inclined, apt, but it still doesn't make sense to me.


texts: Confusion about characters in a dialogue: I can't fathom who spoke what from the punctuation

texts:
I am reading The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Conner (The Noonday Press). In the second story, there's a conversation going on between Rayber and the barber. The barber starts saying something about politicians at the end of the first page and goes on till the beginning of the first page. Then the quotation marks close, and the next paragraph starts in quotation marks, which is

  "You hear that, George?" he shouted to the colored boy wiping the
  floor around the basins.

Here is a google books link pointing to what I am talking about.

Which also seems to be said by the barber. My understanding of English language's punctuation was that when a dialogue between two characters is written, the paragraph is only changed when the turn of the first character finishes, and the turn of the second character begins. In cases where there is paragraphing within the quote of the first character, the double quotes do not close at the end of the first paragraph, but do start at the beginning of the next one, signifying that the text is still in the quotation of the first character. Am I missing something? Can somebody point me to a punctuation guide in this regard?


texts: Trump's use of "our" when "the" would do

texts: Mr. Trump and his spokesperson seem to favor the word OUR, as in our great military or our nation when THE nation might do. Is there a signal or purpose for this usage?


texts: Idiom that means trying to save something that is beyond saving

texts:
It's on the tip of my tongue.

Example: "Replacing the hard drive of this computer would be [idiom]. It's going to fail completely soon enough."


texts:
Increase the font size by 2 pixels or Increase the font size to 2 pixels?
Which one is correct?
Please let me know.


texts:
Look out! That tree _________ (fall).

According to the teacher, the correct form is "Look out! That tree is going to fall" and not correct is "Look out! That tree is falling" There is no context information.

Why the second form (is falling) is not correct (if it is not correct)?


texts: Tense usage in relation to date of birth of deceased individuals

texts: Let's say Bob passed away. Would we say, "Bob's birthdate was xxx" or "Bob's birthdate is xxx"? Birthdates don't change, which makes me inclined to use 'is', but sounds a little weird if the person is deceased.


texts:
I used the phrase the other day and it struck me as odd that out is needed. Wiktionary cites the following etymology of sorts:

Disputed. Three schools of thought exist:
From "This will eat your heart out.", suggesting that the recipient of the taunt will have their heart, the core of their being, eaten out with desire, bitterness, or pain.
From the 16th century "to eat one's own heart" (to suffer in silence from anguish or grief), possibly from the Bible "to eat one's own flesh" (to be lazy) The phrase "to eat one's heart out" appears as a formulaic phrase in the Iliad, meaning to experience extreme grief. (For instance, Iliad.24.128, many other locations.)
When used as the taunt "Eat your heart out, [someone]!" a suggestion that the recipient of the taunt "eat up" as much as they like. (From the same construction as "dance your heart out," etc.) Literally, similar to "have all you can eat!" Figuratively more akin to "experience me besting you."

The only one that seems relevant here is the last one which compares the phrase to dance your heart out. I am not familiar with that idiom and, according to this Ngram, it is far less common than eat your heart out:

The only other eat X out idiom I know of is the sexual meaning of eating someone out.
So, why out in eat your heart out? Why not just eat your heart? The out does seem to make a difference, but I don't know if that's just because I am used to the phrase. Is there an explanation for what the out confers to it?


texts: Dialectical differences in pronunciation of the 't' sound in “it”, “its”, and “it's”?

texts:
There are many cases where different words are pronounced differently in some English dialects, but not others. A commonly cited example is -- Mary, marry, and merry.

In English, the letter 't' may be pronounced...

Aspirated.
Unaspirated.
As a glottal.
Voiced (like a 'd').

I noticed that "its" and "it's" feel different in my brain.  (Consider the phrases "it's home", "its home", "it's its home".)  So I wonder whether there might be a corresponding pronunciation difference, where the 't' in "it", "its" and "it's" (and perhaps other words ending with 't') may be pronounced differently in some dialects. Perhaps it is a glottal in one, unaspirated in another, and aspirated in the last? Or perhaps it could be pronounced similarly to different unaspirated consonants, which English speakers normally have difficulty distinguishing, but which form minimal pairs in other languages.

(It occurs to me there may be a difference in stressing, rather than pronunciation.)


texts:
Is there a difference between loving someone and being in love with them?

I sort of think that being in love with someone might imply that there are reciprocal feelings, but I'm not sure. If someone loved someone from afar without them knowing, would this still count as being in love with them?


texts: What is the difference between "information on", "information of", "information about"

texts: "Information on something", "information of something", "information about something" — these three usages all sound having the same meaning for me. Are there any differences?


texts: Do "at least she thought that" and "at least that was what she thought" convey the same meaning?

texts:
Example sentence:

  She thought she could do anything.

  At least, she thought that.
  At least, that was what she thought.

Is the meaning of the two phrases the same?


texts: An orphan is a child whose parents have died. Is there a single English word to describe a parent who has lost all their children? If not, what is the most clear and concise description for this condition?


texts: How do I refer to a person who loves to plan every minute?

texts: Not sure how to phrase it exactly. It's the opposite of spontaneous.


texts:
The following is taken from the novel Frankenstein:

  At that age I became acquainted with the celebrated poets of our own country; but it was only when it had ceased to be in my power to derive its most important benefits from such a conviction that I perceived the necessity of becoming acquainted with more languages than that of my native country.

I'm wondering what  such a conviction refers to. The context doesn't make it clear to me.


texts: Why are bacteria referred to using botanic terms (flora, blooming)?

texts:
I've seen a lot of information lately about intestinal flora or gut flora but I was under the impression that flora refers exclusively to plant life.  So how did bacteria come to be called flora?  I am aware that they aren't really animals either, but naming them after plant life seems... wrong.

To confuse matters further, aquariums often suffer from a condition called bacterial blooming which has nothing to do with flowers.

P.S. There is indeed a Yahoo Answers! post about this topic, but it would be nice to have a more language-based discussion.


texts: Do the spaces between the teeth of a comb have a name?

texts:
According to Google, they are called "Umpernaters," but I can't find that word anywhere in dictionaries, so I'm tempted to think it's just a legend.

Is there a real term?


texts: Repetition of the same word in a sentence

texts:
Pouring the water on the flower, Jenny admired the flowers just beginning to open.
In the above sentence, the word "flower" is repeated once. Is  repetition of the same word in a single sentence ok or is it necessary to avoid repetition?


texts: Single word request for "that have to be returned to"

texts:
I would like to shorten the following phrase: "pension fund holdings that have to be returned to the government." Can you think of any expression meaning something along the lines of "that have to be returned to" to modify government or another way to simplify my phrase?

Thank you,
Martin


texts: Proverb saying that one attack a problem from different angles

texts:
I want to say that one can attack or slice a problem from different angles. Vaguely I recall that there is some German or English saying for this and I am not sure how exactly it goes.

I'd prefer one with the word “slice” or other synonym for dividing. I want to write about an approach to a large problem and in the introduction state that there are different ways to slice it into pieces and the slicing I chose also has certain disadvantages.

Does something like this exist in English or am I just thinking of a German one?


texts: Translating a text that requires 'T-V distinction'

texts:
I'm translating a historical fiction novel set in Medieval times. The formal and informal forms of treatment (T-V distinction) play an important role in the plot so I considered the best option was to use 'thou'-'ye'. However, respecting the verbal conjugation:

I start
Thou startest
He, she, it starteth
We start
Ye (or you) start
They start

... make the dialogues a bit difficult.

Would it be acceptable to use 'thou startest' and 'ye start' but 'he starts'?
How appropriate would it be to keep 'you' instead of 'ye'?

CLARIFICATION

In the original text, there is a sharp contrast between two couples of different generations, with the older couple using a formal registry and the younger couple (incidently, the son of the older couple) preferring a more informal registry. This is part of the generational conflict (traditional and conservative vs. modern and liberal) that moves the plot. There are two particular instances where the sentence (in modern English) would simply be 'you, madame', but one character says 'thou, madame' while the other says 'ye, madame'. Hence my decision to use these forms.

On the other hand, I do not wish to burden the text with more archaisms, hence the idea of maintaining the verbal conjugation as modern as possible.


texts: What is the difference between 'I have problems sleeping' and 'I have sleeping problems'.

texts: I feel 'I have problems sleeping' looks wrong and it should be 'I have sleeping problems'. But I saw the structure many times in news. What is the difference between them?


texts: "The University of X", "University of X", or "X University"? Is there any rule?

texts:
I cannot understand that why the name of some universities starts with "The University of....", in some cases we see "University of...", and finally we see ".... University"!!!! Some examples are as follows:

University of Oxford
McGill University
The University of
Manchester

QUESTION: Is there any general rule on using the above three options? Or it has been chosen by chance? At first, it seems to me that when we are talking about a university bearing the name of a city or province, we should use "The". But this is not the case in general. For example we have "University of Alberta", without "The". What is going on here?


texts: I'm just curious if the word "holiday" is derived from "holy day".


texts: A weird usage of "were" instead of "was"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “Was” or “were” in subjunctive clauses
  “If I was” or “If I were”. Which is more common, and which is correct?
  Why have the subjunctive and indicative converged in Modern English?

I've been reading Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold and there is a strange phrase in chapter 2:

  "Not much." She shrugged. "He just mentioned it. I wish—I don't know.
  I wish my mother were alive."

That "I wish my mother were alive" really confuses me. Why is "were" used instead of "was"?


texts: What can I do to make this sentence perfectly parallel?

texts:
In editing the following sentence, I would like to use perfect parallel construction for the latter part of the sentence — that is, ideally I’d like to get rid of "in." But that would make the sentence grammatically incorrect, right? Or do you think it’s okay as it is? Any suggestions?

  Only a few have the goal of becoming the best on their team, company, or in the world.


texts: Present participle with adverbial meaning in a past continuous sentence

texts:
I was leaning against a tree on the hill , sitting.

My query is whether or not we should treat "sitting" as present participle with adverbial meaning, or as past-continuous tense.

To clarify , I want to show them in example

  I was leaning against a tree on the hill while sitting.

or

  I was leaning against a tree on the hill and I was sitting.

What meaning does "sitting" in the original sentence ascribe to the overall meaning of the sentence?


texts: What is meant by 'intestinal fortitude'? 'ovariological fortitude'?

texts: Is a good example of 'intestinal fortitude' when someone faces his/her fair share of adversity and bounces back from it? Or when a boxer is repeatedly pummeled and knocked down in a fight, and he keeps returning to his feet to continue notwithstanding the beating endured (he's showing a lot of heart, internal strength and 'guts')? Can you say 'He had the intestinal fortitude ('guts') to call me a buffoon'? Is 'ovariological fortitude' the female equivalent of this term?


texts:
I am looking for a synonym for the word application as in mobile application.

In Spanish I would use programa but I am not sure if English speakers would understand me if I use program to refer to an application.


texts:
Until recently I assumed that “racism” simply meant a belief that there are innate and meaningful differences between races.

I thought that the common practice of using "racism" as a stand-in for hatred against other races, a discriminatory/segregationist political agenda, etc. was mainly a colloquial simplification meant to ease/influence public discourse. I was surprised to find that indeed, Wikipedia defines racism as primarily related to certain political stances (with the belief in innate differences between races and ethnicities only listed as common justification). Whether this was always the case or is just an example of a colloqualism becoming a norm, I cannot say.

Still, now I am left to wonder: How can one refer to the belief that there are innate and meaningful differences between races - independently of any political stance?

Examples of using such a word:

My recent studies indicate that racial provenance is a good predictor for performance on tasks A and B. I am convinced of the quality of my research but not apt or willing to make political recommendations based on it. I do not believe that races are equal in their capabilities, I am a proponent of “Y”. I am a “y”-ist.
I believe that my racial group is innately less capable than other races at C, but I do not think this is a compelling argument to deny us a fair chance at C. I do not believe that all races are equal, I believe in “Y”. I am a “y”-ist.


texts:
Is there a specific grammatical term for the substitution, in non-formal contexts, of an adjective where strictly speaking, an adverb is required?
For example:

That would sure be a fun trip to go on!
My week has been going good, thanks!
He's been looking at me funny.

... instead of surely, well, and funnily, respectively.
My understanding, which could always be wrong, is that these are not flat adverbs, because a flat adverb is one in which the adverb form is invariably the same as the adjective form:

She ran as fast as she could, hitting her stride hard.

... as opposed to *fastly or *hardly. Here, the choice of fast and hard isn't based on register; those forms do not ever vary from the adjective forms.
There are many questions on this site about adjectives being used in place of adverbs. Here is an example. But as far as I can tell, that question and similar ones ask for usage guidance rather than for the actual name of the grammatical phenomenon itself.
By contrast, I am not asking about when or whether to use adjectives in place of adverbs. I am asking what this feature of the language, that enables adjectives to stand in for adverbs in non-formal contexts, is called. So I do not believe my question is a duplicate, though of course I may have missed something that's exactly on point.
Pointers to scholarly sources that analyze this phenomenon from a linguistic point of view would be gratefully received.


texts: How to punctuate lists that are nested to three levels?

texts:
A basic list is punctuated like this:

The park has some bears, deers, and other animals.
(bears) (deers) (other animals)

When commas appear inside the items of a list, or when lists appear inside other lists, I often see semi-colons used, e.g.:

The park has: some bears; many deers, which are quite friendly, like to eat camp food, and watch visitors; and other animals, most of which live in the trees.
(bears) (deers (friendly) (like to eat) (watch visitors)) (other animals (live in trees))

When semi-colons appear inside the items of a list, or when lists appear inside lists of other lists, what punctuation can be used?

(bears) (deers (friendly) (like to eat (popcorn) (marshmallows) (chips)) (watch visitors)) (other animals (live in (tall trees) (short trees))

Update:
To clarify, I am not looking for a way to reword the sentences. I am looking for a way to punctuate the lists in these situations.


texts:
Tone-deaf, in the figurative sense, refers to saying something without considering how it will land with your audience:

Wishing your vegetarian colleagues in Mumbai "Happy Turkey Day!" came off as a little tone-deaf.

However, in these politically correct times, the expression may cause offence to people with actual hearing loss and is apparently best avoided.  Is there a good alternative that would work in the phrase above?  (Words or short phrases are both fine.)

A couple of synonym sites I consulted were not very helpful: synonym.com offers "deaf" as a synonym (uh, no), Wiktionary offers "out of touch" (better, but not quite?) and most other major thesauruses don't seem to have it.

And a final vain plea: let's please try to avoid the discussion of whether this expression actually is or "should" be considered non-PC.


texts: Use of "respectively" in "both these localities are on the banks, respectively, at 12 km and 20 km upstream"

texts:
Both these source localities are on the banks of the Rhine, respectively, at 12 km and 20 km upstream from Bonn.

In the above sentence, is respectively needed, and if so, is it properly used?


texts: What is the appropriate opposite or antonym word for sweet?

texts:
A part of my brain says, this is a flavor, how can an opposite exist?

On the other hand my other part of brain says, if opposites can exist for feelings why not for flavors?


texts: Why isn’t this instance of “so” preceded by a comma even though it’s beginning a new independent clause?

texts:
William Strunk writes in the 1914 edition of his Elements of Style:

  Place a comma before and or but introducing an independent clause.

  ...

  Two-part sentences of which the second member is introduced by as (in the sense of because), for, or, nor, and while (in the sense of and at the same time) likewise require a comma before the conjunction.

  ...
  Do not join independent clauses by a comma.

  ...

  If a conjunction is inserted, the proper mark is a comma (Rule 4).

Now more than a hundred years later, a grammar stylistic rule commonly taught by today’s writing-style guides categorically states that whenever the word so connects two independent sentences, a comma should be placed before that so. But in this example, so apparently connects two independent clauses, but no comma is placed.

  Fees for higher education are expensive and not affordable for everyone so according to some university should be free for all people, regardless of their background.

Why was that written without a comma before the so? Shouldn’t it have been written at least like this:

  Fees for higher education are expensive and not affordable for everyone, so according to some university should be free for all people, regardless of their background.

Or like this:

  Fees for higher education are expensive and not affordable for everyone, so according to some, university should be free for all people, regardless of their background.

Or even like this:

  Fees for higher education are expensive and not affordable for everyone, so, according to some, university should be free for all people, regardless of their background.

Why did the original leave out that critical comma? Is this not required? Any explanation on this strange lapse compared with what I thought the proper rule always had to be would be very much appreciated.


texts:
In French there's a saying mettre un peu de beurre dans les épinards which, literally translated, means to put some butter in the spinach. It's an idiom that describes money improving one's situation.

What idioms in English are there that describe this?

For example, greasing one's pockets can be interpreted as improving someone else's situation, but it wouldn't be used in a sentence like winning this bonus will ????????? and make you richer.


texts: How to parse this sentence (...because ...)

texts:
I have confusion on parsing of following sentence...

"There is no reason to be depressed or give up simply because you will make a few wrong choices."

The sentence was captured from an article and the context are as below.

The fact that failure will happen is not an excuse for expecting to fail

There is no reason to be depressed or give up simply because you will make a few wrong choices. Even more crucial, you must try your best every time because it is the effort and the practice that drives the learning process. They are essential, even if you fail.

Should I parse this sentence as "[There is no reason] [to be depressed or give up simply because you will make a few wrong choices]." or as "[There is no reason to be depressed or give up simply] [because you will make a few wrong choices]."

Thanks for your help ...


texts: Is it okay to use “doesn’t” twice in one sentence?

texts:
I wonder if it's okay to use "doesn't" twice in one sentece.

Example

  I think that she doesn't do something and it doesn't something...

Should I split it or it's completely correct? I mean two unrelated piece of information that I want to negate in one sentence.


texts: A lot has been happened this year. Is this grammatically correct?

texts: If incorrect, then what's the correct statement?


texts: Etymology and the solution to choose which definition of a verb (or a noun etc.)

texts:
I am currently writing my company's blog, using one of Sherlock Holmes series, Scandal in Bohemia.
In the course of reading, I encountered a sentence.

"The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia."

Here, I got confused about the verb "compromise" since to me it ordinarily addresses "some kind of mutual piece".
So I checked the dictionary, Merriam Unabridged.
Merriam Unabridged says,

transitive verb
1
obsolete
a of an arbiter :  to adjust or settle (a difference) between parties
b :  to bind by mutual agreement
2
of factions :  to adjust or settle by partial mutual relinquishment of principles, position, or claims :  settle by coming to terms
"husband and wife compromised their differences"
3
a :  to put in jeopardy :  endanger (as life, reputation, or dignity) by some act that cannot be recalled :  expose to suspicion, discredit, or mischief
"compromise one's conscience"
"compromise national security"
b :  to cause (a person) embarrassment, humiliation, or shame by improper sexual advances or by allowing the suspicion of such to arise
"in those days a girl was compromised if she danced more than twice with the same man"
c :  to reveal or expose to unauthorized persons and especially to an enemy (the nature, details, or workings of classified matter or a classified device)
"capture of a number of unenciphered messages will compromise the cryptographic system"
d :  to cause the impairment of
"a compromised immune system"
"a seriously compromised patient"
intransitive verb
1
a :  to come to a settlement or agreement by mutual concession
"union and employer agreed to compromise"
b :  to find or follow a way between extremes
2
to make a shameful or disreputable concession
"rather die than compromise"
— often used with with

Now, I understand the definition of the verb in the context falls under the transitive verb's 3 a considering the context.
However, if you look at the whole sets of definition by the dictionary, even the definitions within transitive verbs vary or moreover contradicts.
In such a circumstances, would the best way to solve to decide which definition (or meaning) be "just get used to" or "to memorize"?


texts: "Babies grow very quickly." In this sentence is "grow" a copula or a lexical verb?

texts: "Grow" is classified as a change-of-state copula but by definition, copulas may be followed by adjective phrases, noun phrases, or adverbial prepositional phrases. "Very quickly" is an intensifier (degree adverb) with an adverb. Does "grow" still fall as a copula or is it a lexical verb?


texts: What is the type of English used in the King James Bible called?

texts:
In the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, there is a distinct type of English present (this passage from Job 1:7-12):

And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

(source)
There are specific words used from (old? middle?) English, like unto, thou, whence, comest, fro, hast, and the ending certain words with -eth, like feareth, and escheweth.
There are modern writings that tend to imitate this style of writing, as an example, this "Ten Commandments of Writing an IMAP client":

Thou shalt not assume that it is alright to open multiple IMAP
sessions selected on the same mailbox simultaneously, lest thou face
the righteous wrath of mail stores that doth not permit such access.
Instead, thou shalt labor mightily, even unto having to use thy brain
to thinketh the matter through, such that thy client use existing
sessions that are already open.

Which brings me to my question: I'd like to critique this writing style and refer to it, but I don't know what it's called.  What is the type of English used in the KJV called, and (if it's the same — or even if it isn't), what's the writing style used to parrot the KJV writing style called?   It can be referred to in a single word or a phrase — I'm just interested in making sure I use the right terminology in referring to it.


texts: What's an adjective that means "has high expectations"

texts:
If you were to describe a person as someone who has high expectations or standards (of their work, peers, or subordinates), what word would you use?

"Demanding" is the closest I have come but that's not quite correct. That leads to words like "stringent" and "exacting" which also aren't what I'm looking for.

Context: the classic resume word-choice struggle

As always, when nothing comes to mind I'm tempted to head back to the drawing board. Resume writing is such a silly exercise.


texts: Pluralizing abbreviations where the noun is not the last word

texts:
For abbreviations - both acronyms and initialisms - where the last word in the abbreviation is the noun, I'm accustomed to adding an 's' with no apostrophe (e.g. ATMs), as described in the answer to this question: What is the correct way to pluralize an acronym?

But how do you pluralize abbreviations where the noun is not the last word? E.g. 'Point of Presence' (POP)

I can see how 'POPs' could read 'Point of Presences', when the intention is 'Points of Presence.'


texts: How is it called when one supress prepositions?

texts:
How is it called in English when one uses "Corruption patterns smart detection" instead of "Smart detection of corruption patterns"?

Is this an example of direct versus indirect speech?


texts: indefinite article usage: "a thing of something can be found here" vs. "the thing of something can be found here"

texts:
I had an argument with my colleague about the usage of the indefinite article in this sentence:

  this system uses OAuth 2 as an authentication scheme, a documentation of the authentication service can be found here:

his argument was that the use of a documentation is wrong because we're talking about a specific one here, and that it should be the documentation

My argument was that we mentioned the documentation for the first time here, and it should be indefinite.

Which one is correct? please provider a reference/evidence if possible.


texts:
drip verb
  1. let fall or be so wet as to shed small drops of liquid. "the tap won't stop dripping" synonyms:    dribble, drop, leak More antonyms:  gush
  (of liquid) fall in small drops. "water dripped from her clothing"
  cause or allow (a liquid) to fall in small drops. "the candle was
  dripping wax down one side" display a copious amount or degree of a
  particular quality or thing. "the women were dripping with gold and
  diamonds" noun

I am confused with the definition let fall. Instead of tap, can I use water as a subject for drip such as

  The water in the tap won't stop dripping

or

  The water in the tap drips

?


texts: What are the functions of each part of the principal parts?

texts:
I'm having trouble understanding each participle. I also can't find an explanation that I understand.

I would like to know from you the function of each part of the principal parts:

Present
Present participle
Past
Past participle

PS
My native language is Dutch.


texts:
On a visit one evening to Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, Herman Melville, MobyDick author, told them a story of a fight he had witnessed on an island in the South Seas, in which one of the Polynesian warriors had wreaked havoc among his foes with a heavy club. Striding about the room, Melville demonstrated the feats of bravery and the desperate drama of the battle. After he had gone, Mrs. Hawthorne thought she remembered that he had left empty-handed, and wondered, “Where is that club with which Mr. Melville was laying about him so?” Mr. Hawthorne maintained that he must have taken it with him, and indeed a search of the room revealed nothing. The next time they saw him, they asked him what had happened to the club. It turned out that there was no club; it had simply been a figment of their imagination, conjured up by the vividness of Melville’s narrative.

Question: Why did the writer use "him", instead of "himself"?


texts: What makes something overrated or underrated?

texts:
I'm somewhat confused about what makes something either overrated and underrated. Is this completely subjective, and based only on personal opinion, or somewhat objective, based on similarity to other things or some other measurable criterion?  What kind of criteria should one use to determine that something is underrated or overrated?

For example, some people might say that Game Of Thrones is overrated because it's incredibly popular - is the fact that it's popular the reason that it's overrated? If that's so, shouldn't anything that's very popular be overrated? What is the difference?


texts: What is the meaning of "engage in a delicate dance"?

texts:
In many places, I have seen the phrase "engage in a delicate dance". But I don't know what this phrase means. For example:

  He engages in a delicate dance, trying to keep some children stable while treating the sickest.
  [Source: Nature]

  Preservation and Development, Engaged in a Delicate Dance.
  [Example source: New York Times]

  Senate and House committee leaders already are engaged in a delicate dance with Mueller to secure documents and public testimony from James Comey.
  [Example source: USA Today]

What does this phrase mean?


texts: Does this sentence mean word count is 900-1200 including references and appendix?

texts:
I usually get confused with the "plus" word.
The sentence:

The suggested word limit for the document is between 900 and 1200 words (3 to 4 pages), plus the reference list and the appendix.

I was wondering if the word "plus" means the word count is 900-1200 words, but it includes the reference list and appendix in the word count?
So "plus" is more like "includes" word?


texts: What is the third option beside 'accept' and 'reject' on a ballot?

texts:
Members of Parliament (MPs) in most countries have three options while voting for a law proposal. The third option means neither 'accept' nor 'reject', but recorded for quorum.

  'Accept'
  'Reject'
  'Abstain' or 'Neither' or else?

My web search returned 'abstain' and 'neither', but I'm not sure if they are officially used expressions in any English-spoken country.

What expression can be used as a third option on a ballot?


texts: British slang for "being reassigned to the unsophisticated and remote regions or villages"

texts: I am stumped in trying to remember the British expression used as a derogatory slant on being relegated, demoted, assigned to a lower position, reduced in rank, or (quite literally) being reassigned to the unsophisticated and remote regions or villages. I get stuck with "sent off to the 'colonies'," but I know colonies is not the term involved.


texts: Can I use a noun phrase with "after" or "before" to talk about specific past events or "past perfect" is required?

texts:
I know that gerunds can be used with before or after in the present tense when talking about facts:

  I always turn off the lights before going to bed.

But can I use a gerund with "after" or "before" to explain specific events that occurred in the past, or the past perfect tense is always required?

  After getting up yesterday, I brushed my teeth.

  After I had gotten up yesterday, I brushed my teeth.

If both sentences are grammatically correct, when should I use one over the other?


texts:
The word "shrinklette" is used in a book. I could not find its meaning in dictionary or Google. So I think it is not a common word. the original sentence is:

  I couldn't tell if they were curious, thirsty-for-knowledge students or garden variety shrinklettes-in-training.

It seems to have a negative connotation. I am interested in knowing what it exactly means.


texts: Last week I was attending a communications training program.  The trainer said that the term 'come again' has sexual meaning in American English.  I was surprised as I have seen many Americans using the term in movies and meetings.  Is there any such negative sense to the phrase?


texts: What is the proper interpretation of these two sentences?

texts:
There's little chance of rain.
  There's a slight chance of rain.

Do these two sentences have the same meaning?


texts:
I referred to the urban dictionary and it says meta means something used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential.
But I'm still confused. Cause I don't see any difference between English Language & Usage text and English Language & Usage meta


texts: Parallelism in "whether... or not" sentence

texts:
We have an exercise on parallelism involving rewriting sentences correctly; there's this one sentence I'm unsure as how to rewrite.

  Mother cannot decide whether she will allow Cecil to attend the party or not because of the bad weather condition.

Would the following be a proper correction?

Mother cannot decide whether or not to allow Cecil to attend the party because of the bad weather condition.

I honestly can't find faulty parallelism in the original sentence, so an explanation will be very much appreciated!


texts:
"Bum buddies", when I was young [over fifty years ago] was not considered wrong. It meant looking to someone else's back, protecting, hence bum buddy. You watch my back, I'll watch yours.

It's only in more recent times that it has been bastardised to be thought to mean something else. It is thought to have been a term used by soldiers who needed to try to protect each other.

Are there any other Australian oldies out there who can remember?


texts: What is an expression, phrase, or word that describes service being fast?

texts:
Basically, I want to say this:

  I went to that place for brunch with my girlfriend last weekend, the service was pretty fast, and the food was good too.

I want to say that the service was good in that it was pretty fast, without a delay, etc.


texts: What exactly is a "principle of action" or a "principle of conduct"?

texts:
Initial Context

I was reading one of John Henry Newman's (Cardinal Newman for the non-Anglicans) sermons, specifically "Religious Faith Rational" from Parochial and Plain Sermons...

Near the beginning of the text he writes

  But it is not at all true that Faith itself, i.e. Trust, is a strange
  principle of action; and to say that it is irrational is even an
  absurdity.

Later in the text he echoes this, writing

  it is no irrational or strange principle of conduct in the concerns of
  this life.

I was intrigued by and confused as to the dictionary (or encyclopedia, handlist, glossary, etc...) definition of this phrase (term of art?). When I did a Google search I found the phrase in a not-insignificant amount of philosophy related texts (viz. those on Bentham and Kant)

Question

What exactly is a “principle of action” or a “principle of conduct”? Are these terms interchangeable? In what situations are the terms uses, historically or contemporaneously?

Visualisation of Frequency

I did an n-grams search and it looks like the term was in current use in 1829, when Newman wrote "Religious Faith Rational."

Sources

Michel, Jean-Baptiste et al. “Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books.” Science 331.6014 (2011): 176–182. www.sciencemag.org. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.

Newman, John Henry, and William John Copeland. Parochial and Plain Sermons. New ed. Vol. 1. London, New York: Longmans, Green, 1891. The Open Library. Web. 15 Nov. 2014. 8 vols.


texts:
I recently came across a situation where something was decreasing rapidly. My friend was led to say:

  The price of fuel has really skyrocketed downwards lately.

Something about this statement sounded wrong. Surely a skyrocket must always go up, by definition.

What would be a more suitable word or phrase to describe something that is decreasing rapidly?


texts: What to use for "rain" ? Set on, set off, set in, set down

texts:
I saw this in an English Level Test. I don't remember the complete sentence. It was like, bla bla bla (here there was something I don't remember) really rain ...
Three dots is where you will use one of the verbs on the title I wrote.

What to use for 3 dots in this case?
What do other verbs mean and how to use them in a sentence?


texts: Repeating words in enumeration: '... senior executives, decision makers and policy makers.'

texts:
Just got the comment from a co-worker that we shouldn't repeat the word 'maker' in the following enumeration:

  A unique learning experience for senior executives, decision makers
  and policy makers.

My gut feeling tells me this is the correct way to write it, but I'm not a native English speaker, so your advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!


texts: Is there any specific word for extra or unwanted word in a sentence?

texts:
There are certain words, if absent in a given sentence does not make any difference.

For an example,

Either today is Monday or Tuesday.

Can also be written as:

Today is Monday or Tuesday.

These two sentences are exactly same without any loss of meaning per se.

The only word that came across in my mind is filler. But, I am not happy with this word. It does not encompass entire meaning to what I am looking for.

If I want to say:

"Either is called ____ in above example. Its absence in the sentence will not make any difference in the meaning of the given sentence."


texts: My research has shown that hoofs and hooves are correct plural forms of hoof.  That being said, which is preferable?  Which came first in the English language?


texts: Adjective meaning 'interesting, but not relevant'

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe a podcast I was listening to. The podcast was interesting, but contents weren't relevant to my life or objectives, it was just an interesting story that you might recount later at a dinner party, but not something that you would ponder at night time. The second part of the podcast was relevant, and I'm looking for something to contrast this.

What I've got is:

  This Radio Lab podcast talks about liars and self deception. It starts
  off [platonically] enough, talking about everday lying and
  pathological liars. The final part of it is where it gets
  interesting – self deception.

Words I've consider are platonic, neutral. Platonic actually seems pretty reasonable here - it's usually used to contrast with romantic, but I think it can be used metaphorically here.


texts: Term for choosing to believe a falsehood

texts:
I was wondering if there is a term when you choose to believe something even when you know it is likely untrue?

The concept I'm thinking of would differ from cognitive dissonance in that you're choosing a theory to believe, so there is no absolutely right answer.  Or when someone has a pet theory that has little or no evidence for or against.

Examples I would give that might fall into this might be believing horoscopes/star signs, one religion over another.

"I have a pet theory, that honestly is likely false, but I choose to believe it, and almost actively would prevent proving it wrong."  Is there a term to describe that belief, or the act of holding it?


texts: Literary term for "I picked up my suitcase and convictions and walked out the door"? (intangible and tangible items together in a list)

texts: All! I've been stumped with this question for a while now. What do we call it when you use an intangible object and represent it as though it is tangible, usually coupled with tangible objects? Example: "Both my bike and my pride lay crumpled on the ground." I know there's a specific name for this literary device. Any ideas?


texts: Josh Earnest - Press Secretary or Oxymoron?

texts: Isn't the current Whitehouse press secretary's name, Josh Earnest, an example of an oxymoron? Can proper nouns even be oxymorons, and if so, could I (acceptably) refer to such as, oxymoronic? Can you conceive of any other colorful terms for a name such as the example?


texts:
As a foreigner, I have been confused with such a simple question:

How to pronounce "80x86", "Linux 2.6", and "Figure 3-1"?


texts: Word for a group of customers who only take advantage of company's services

texts:
I am looking for a single word to describe a group of customers, who merely take advantage of the company's services (they come only for free period and leave afterwards or take the gift and leave again).

So far I came up with a term Profiteers, but this is somewhat pejorative, which is not what I want.


texts:
If I have a list of n items and I want to refer to the item that is just before the end of the list, do I say "first to last" or "second to last"?

For example:

  First item
  Second item

  ...

  99th item
  100th (and last) item

How do I properly refer to item 99. In my thinking, item 99 is not the last, it is the first to last. But other are telling me that the proper way to refer to item 99 is as the "second to last item".

Which is correct?


texts: Figure of speech when referring to a person but meaning the object (being) used by the person

texts:
In the video for Adele's Hello, at the start, she says "I just got here and I think I'm losing signal already", she does not say her phone is losing signal.

Is that a figure of speech and, if so, how is it called?


texts: How to refer to one occasion of an interviewee talking?

texts:
For my thesis, I want to refer to interviewees talking for one occasion. The interview was not one-on-one, but conducted in a focus group. A focus group is a group interview without requiring consensus, where the group typically consists of 6 to 10 interviewees.

An example makes it much clearer, so here's a fictional transcript of a focus group:

A: Hello, what are your names?
B: My name is B.
C: My name is C.
D: And my name is D.
A: Next question, what is your opinion about SE?
B: Well, that asks for a long answer. I'm mostly positive. Some things can be better though.

My goal is to refer to one sentence here, like the last long one by B, both directly like on occasion X, B said that ..., but also abstractly like B talked on 45 of 399 occasions, where occasion[s] is replaced with the word I'm looking for.

It can't be called one sentence as such, because it consists of multiple sentences. Calling it a citation also doesn't cover it completely, neither does case or event. Occasion comes closest, but results in extra explanation, because occasion can mean a lot of things.

Does anybody know the academic term used for this?


texts: How would you say a person has made a choice out of being of noble character?

texts:
Let us say a person is noble/of noble character/noble-hearted. As in, he isn't a person of a social rank of nobility, but rather is a good, selfless person.
I'd like to say that this person has done a great thing out of his noble character. Would I be able to say "He decided to stay out of nobility"? - or would that imply noble in the meaning of social rank?
If not, how would I say it?


texts:
There was the following sentence in today’s (June 4) New York Times written by its Op-Ed columnist, Nickolas Kristof under the headline, “There’s a Kind of Hush.”

“Aung San Suu Kyi should be one of the heroes of modern times.
Instead, as her country imposes on the Rohingya Muslim minority an
apartheid that would have made white supremacists in South Africa
blush, she bites her tongue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/05/opinion/kritstof-theres-a-kind-of-hush.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

I understand “ hero” here is used as a generic of brave or great persons to cover both male and female 'heroes' ?
However, OALED defines ‘hero’ specifically as male, as;

A person, especially a man, who is admired by many people for doing sth brave or good.
The main male character in a story, novel, film / movie etc.
A person, especially a man, that you admire because of a particular quality or skill that they have.

CED also defines ‘hero’ as;

A very brave person, often a man, that a lot of people admire.

The main man in a book or movie.

Can I apply ‘hero’ when I’m refering to Aung San Suu Kyi singly as “Aung San Suu Kyi is the hero of Burma”?


texts: A word that means "presenting something without context"

texts:
I think there is a word that means something is presented or said without context, like a statement that appears random. "Leftfield statement" comes close, but I think there's something more concise.

Some people malapropriate "non sequitur" for meaning this. (I'm basically looking for the word that means what those people think "non sequitur" means.)

I'll give an example of what I would describe with the word we're looking for:
Someone on Twitter posts the message: "Oh, not this again…”
No context (e.g. in previous tweets), completely leftfield.


texts: Rewriting a sentence to be more grammatically clear

texts:
I'm proofreading/editing a museum catalogue and I could use some help.

I found this sentence idiomatic;

"Around the beginning of the fourth century, extremely long chamber tombs emerged, a clear differentiation from the tombs of the surrounding regions."

The reason being that the part after the comma is made only with nouns.
So I rewrote it;

"A tomb that was distinct from the other tombs in the surrounding regions was found, having an exceptionally long chamber. It is estimated to be from the beginning of the fourth century."

My question is:
1. Is my assumption that the original sentence is not grammatically correct right?

Did I make it easier to read/understand rewriting it?

Thank you in advance.

Appreciatively,

Yeseul Shin


texts: Is "to do well" used more frequently in India?

texts:
When I talk to Indians on line, I have the impression that they use the expression (compound verb?) "to do well" a lot. Is it only an impression of mine, or is that expression more frequently used in India?

EDITION:

Apparently, the Indians I have read or talked to use it to mean "to be successful", "to grow economically", vel simila. Examples:

Indian shuttlers will do well at Rio
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/badminton/Indian-shuttlers-will-do-well-at-Rio-Prakash-Padukone/articleshow/49661452.cms

Will ISL and HIL help India do well internationally
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/sports/will-isl-and-hil-help-india-do-well-internationally/articleshow/49170068.cms

Indian market doing well, reflects fundamentals of cos, not economy: Adrian Mowat, JP Morgan
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-03-20/news/48402221_1_adrian-mowat-em-growth-indian-equities

Usually, I don't hear or read other English speakers besides Indians using that expression. I am not a native anglophone and don't have any idea if that is an idiomatic expression in the whole anglosphere (where I have been in person only during 3 or 4 days when visiting London).

Naturally, with "more frequently", I mean "more frequently than in other places".


texts: How do you say the verb run in a sentence as a noun?


texts:
The definition of fasteners as stated from Wikipedia is:

  a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together.

Is the definition of mechanical here sense 10 from Dictionary.com? I was confused because I figured the use of fasteners doesn't necessarily require machinery so if it's not the definitions related to machinery then it must mean the physical forces that you apply to the fastener when used to join things together?

  Me∙ chan∙ i∙ cal [muh-kan-i-kuh l]
  adjective

  having to do with machinery: "a mechanical failure."
  being a machine; operated by machinery: "a mechanical toy."
  caused by or derived from machinery: "mechanical propulsion."
  using machine parts only.
  brought about by friction, abrasion, etc.: "a mechanical bond between stones; mechanical erosion."
  pertaining to the design, use, understanding, etc., of tools and machinery:
  "the mechanical trades; mechanical ability."
  acting or performed without spontaneity, spirit, individuality, etc.:
  "a mechanical performance."
  habitual; routine; automatic: "Practice that step until it becomes mechanical."
  belonging or pertaining to the subject matter of mechanics.
  pertaining to, or controlled or effected by, physical forces.
  (of a philosopher or philosophical theory) explaining phenomena as due to mechanical action or the material forces of the universe.
  subordinating the spiritual to the material; materialistic.


texts: What is the female equivalent phrase to the slang phrase, "big dick energy"?

texts:
"Big dick energy" is usually a positive phrase about someone that they have a lot of confidence or energy. According to Urban Dictionary by user neptuneestate (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=big%20dick%20energy), the definition is the following:

confidence without cockiness. it is never misplaced and it cannot be simulated. it is the sexual equivalent of writing a check for $10k knowing you got it in the bank account.

Example sentence:

pete davidson is 6’3 with dark circles, exudes big dick energy , looks evil but apparently is an angel, and loves his girl publicly.

Alternative phrases are "big pp energy" which seems to a cuter version of "big dick energy", sometimes said by girls around 13-25 for fun/for confidence from my experience on YouTube and on friend/dating apps.
I'm looking for the female-equivalent of the phrase "big dick energy" What I mean by that is to replace "dick" with possibly a female body part but still used as a phrase that means the same thing.


texts: Third person singular verb for plural noun?

texts:
I recently saw the following image:

  Hipsters is what happens when you tell every child they're special.

I saw many people comment on the fact that it should be "are/happen" and not "is/happens," but I feel like "is/happens" is correct in this case because it's referring to the phenomenon of hipsters, and not necessarily the people. Some people said it should have been "hipsterism" for it to be correct but I wonder if that's actually needed.

Am I wrong in my assessment? Is there a grammatical rule for this?


texts:
When I was a little kid, I had an argument with my father about ELO's album title "A New World Record". What does the title mean:

Is it a new achievement(record), like in Guinness Book?
Or is it a global vinyl disk(record) that was just released(new)?

20 year passed by, and I still don't know what it is :)


texts: If I feel that an answer isn't relevant, how do I express that?

texts:
If I feel that an answer isn't relevant to the given question, how can I express it more clearly?

I am not able to come up with an appropriate word to describe what I wish to describe, a few alternatives including examples of usage would be helpful.


texts: Is "Next to that" really an alternative to "Additionally" or "Moreover"?

texts:
I see many of my compatriots using the phrase "Next to that" at the start of a sentence to mean "Additionally", "Moreover", "Furthermore" or "In addition".

The reason for this, I feel, may be that the Dutch word "daarnaast" (literally: "there" + "next to" / "beside") can be used both as a conjunction referring to physical proximity and as a member of the "Additionally" family of words.

I believe this particular use of "next to" in English to be incorrect or at least uncommon, but I haven't found a good source to back up this opinion. Could someone enlighten me here?


texts:
should a comma be used before "then"?

  He went to the store then to the barber.

OR:

  He went to the store, then to the barber.


texts: A question about the proper usage of articles

texts:
I am working on my paper in English. It concerns the so-called problem of perception. The concept of the problem of perception is part of epistemological literature about perception; some argue that as long as we have illusions, hallucinations etc. our ordinary conception of perception is false. I am trying to show that the argument is incorrect itself. Since perception itself, as a phenomenon, does not 'suffer' from any such problem but, as I argue, the mentioned argument does, I think it would be useful to emphasize this in the title. This seems due for against the background of the 'infallibility' of perception itself the falsity of the argument will become more salient. So far I have had this version as a working one:

Is the "Problem of Perception" a Problem of Perception?

As I understand, article "the" supports there the meaning of a specific epistemological problem the reader is familiar with, and article "a" that of one problem of the possible many of perception itself. Yet am not sure that the articles actually support the meaning I would like to express by the title. So here is my question:

Does the above combination of articles, 'the' and 'a', respectively support the intended meaning?


texts:
The word order in this interrogative sentence does not convince me.

  'Le marteau sans maître' is a famous composition of which composer?

How can it be put in a clearer way?
What is the best place for a preposition in an interrogative sentence?
Can sentences begin or end with prepositions?


texts: "Make strong paper" or "Make paper strong?" Are these sentences both correct?

texts:
thank you for taking the time to take a look at my question!
I am currently a teacher of English and an ex-in-company translator in startups.
Now I am having a question about the correctness of a question in a test.
Here is the question as follows.

  Some people think that paper is too soft to make a box and that it is
  better to use plastic or metal. Actually, these things are stronger
  than paper, but we can make paper stong when we put many pieces of
  paper together.

The last bolded sentence is the issue.

I think we can rewrite this like....

  we can make strong paper when we put many pieces of paper together.

However, the answer booklet says (in Japanese),

  We cannot use the phrase  make strong paper because this usage weakens
  the implication that paper is originally weak until it is fortified by
  putting many pieces of it together.

However, I believe that it is such a tunnel-visioned and poor explanation.

Here is my idea. We can safely say,

  We can make a strong team when we work together.

instead of

  We can make the team strong when we work together.

And above two sentences mean something totally identical.

Please give me your idea or advice regarding the aforementioned problem.

  we can make paper strong when we put many pieces of paper together.

and

  we can make strong paper when we put many pieces of paper together.

Are both of them grammatically correct?


texts: Is there a single word that means bringing something up to standard?

texts:
To queer people for whom it is unsafe to come out, I say, I am so sorry.  You are beautiful, you are handsome, you are normal, you are wonderful, you are precious, and you are worthy.  Whether you are out or not.  The closet is the worst prison, and I my deepest desire for you is that your world is soon brought up to standard, that you will have the freedom to be who you were meant to be, the freedom to love yourself.

I'm looking for a word to replace brought up to standard.  The best I can come up with is cured, but cured means that it was once already in a healthy state, and is being restored to it; that is not the case in my scenario.
I want a word that means to mature and to make right something that has never been right.  The word might be rectify, but onomatopoetically, that sounds too ... mechanical?
Ideas?


texts: Confusion in usage of verb in interrogative past tense

texts:
I know that whenever we use "did" in any sentence, the following verb has to be in present form. But I have a confusion:-
In plain English it should be:- Did you forget switching it off?
But if we jumble up the words, should we write it like this:- Forgot switching it off, did you? or like this:- Forget switching it off, did you?


texts:
Now, say, I am talking to A about B's brother:

-He is/was a man of bad habits.

In English grammar, usually when referring to a dead person, or things related to him, we need the past tenses, but when I don't know whether the person in question is dead, like B's brother, what tense would native speakers use?


texts: Meaning of "the price we must pay for progress"?

texts:
In this sentence :

  The loss of biodiversity is the price we must pay for progress

"
Or another sentence :

  Part of the price we must pay for progress is to recognize the
  degree of pollution that our progress has brought into our water, food
  and air.

I think the expression  "the price we must pay for progress." is being used as an idiom, meaning  "have to accept". Is that correct?


texts: Origin of plurality of "wars" in phrases like "Star Wars"

texts:
There are a number of compounds in English of the form "noun wars," e.g. "Star Wars," "mommy wars," "culture wars." Why do these show "wars" in the plural? It seems like normally "wars" would pertain to a sequence of conflicts with more or less well-defined endpoints, whereas these phrases actually describe conflicts that have been going on more or less continually (I'd hesitate to say the conflicts are unitary since at least the latter two are quite complex and multifaceted phenomena; but then again actual armed conflicts are often complicated too).

I wonder if this is perhaps a snowclone; if so, what would the original member of the set be?


texts: What is the best way to punctuate titles that have subtitles with subtitles?

texts:
I am going through a few movies and I see Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions. Are that many colons appropriate? I am inclined to use em-dashes for the next subtitle, leading to Pokémon: Zoroark — Master of Illusions. This looks right to me, I'm happy. ...Until I go to the next movie.
What do I do here: Pokémon: The Movie: White: Victini and Zekrom? I am inclined to use an em-dash again for the first subtitle (as in, Pokémon: The Movie — White) but what about the next subtitle, another em-dash or alternate back to a colon? Or, possibly radically, another symbol altogether? Is there a suggested method?
Thanks, any thoughts are appreciated.


texts:
I have two people. Fred knows something about X. Jim is curious how much Fred knows. Fred has also made some wrong assumptions about X.

In describing the scene, I wrote this:

  Perhaps Fred didn't know as much as Jim hoped he knew, and had made some wrong
  assumptions.

Then I thought about whether the pronouns and ordering had made it ambiguous. In the sentence, is it clear that hopes are Jim's, but they are hopes about Fred's knowledge; and is it clear that the wrong assumptions are (a) part of the "perhaps", and (b) belong to Fred?

In trying to re-write it to make it less ambiguous, I lose some of the flow.


texts: Is "fatah" an alternative spelling of "fatwa"?

texts:
I've occasionally seen "fatah" being used instead of "fatwa" to mean Islamic religious ruling. For example, from Fear and Loathing of Sharks in Western Australia by Paul Watson (in an article which elsewhere complained about halal slaughter):

  This week, this same premier of Western Australia issued a
  shark-hating Fatah, calling for their total annihilation.

You can find more examples by googling for "issued a fatah" or "a fatah against".

When I looked up "fatah" in onelook.com, all the entries referred to the Palestinian militant organisation Fatah.

Is "fatah" a valid alternative transliteration of the Arabic word typically transliterated as "fatwa", or is it a mistaken use of the wrong word?