texts: How can I translate the words for the two types of bathrooms found in Russia into English?

texts:
I work in real estate, and sometimes I have to translate respective inscriptions from my native Russian into English. I get stuck in some cases where not only linguistic, but cultural differences have an impact. I’d appreciate it if you would help me to sort out one of these issues.

When describing a property, we usually mention about bathrooms. But our conception of bathrooms often differs from yours. :-) For example, we have no need for specifying “2 bathrooms” or “5 bathrooms”, because most of our properties have only one bathroom. But there is another characteristic that Russian property buyers consider important: whether the toilet is separated from bathroom or combined with it. I fail to formulate it correctly in English.

Here are the standard terms that we use:

Совмещённый санузел (sovmeshchonny sanuzel), literally “combined sanitation unit”, means: “The property has one room containing all hygienic facilities, including bathtub, toilet, basin and so on.”
Раздельный санузел (razdelny sanuzel), literally “separated sanitation unit”, means: “The property has two separate rooms, one with a toilet bowl, and another with a bathtub.”

Please help me to understand how to convey these terms in British English reasonably. I apologize if my inquiry seems foolish or is phrased awkwardly.


texts: Importance of writing down Mission Statement in improving English proficiency, Do I really need to?

texts:
The Asahi, one of leading Japanese newspapers carried a half page feature article titled “Brush Up Your English Proficiency This Year!” on its January 5 issue.
In this article, a well-known English teaching expert emphasized the importance of setting the goal and roadmaps to reach the goal for mastering English, which sounds reasonable to me. And he also stressed importance of writing down a “Mission Statement”, for an example, “So little done, so much to do” which is a quote from British politician, Cecil Rhodes, and very similar to Japanese old saying, “The sunset is near. Yet there’s long way to go.”

What is the difference between “Goal” and “Mission Statement”? What does “Mission Statement” exactly mean? Can an epigram or axiom like “So little done, so much to do” be a mission statement at all? Maybe I should ask this to the English teaching expert, but can somebody give me the definition of “Mission Statement (I thought it a marketing term),” how effective to have it in improving English capability, and propriety of using somebody’s witty phrase as a mission statement?


texts: Present perfect continuous in passive voice

texts:
As I was teaching to my students the passive voice, we were talking about  present or current problems in a  company,
I said to my students as follow:

e.g Management have been ignoring complaints/suggestions.

but one of my students argued that this is not passive voice.
What is the explanation for this case?


texts: How would Anglophones judge the rhetoric that was typical of 1600-1900?

texts:
My question is related to the Irish orator, politician, lawyer and judge, John Philpot Curran (24 July 1750 – 14 October 1817)

Source: p 54-55, The Art of the Advocate (1993) by Richard Du Cann QC (called to the Bar of England and Wales).

  Here he [Curran] attacks the English idea of freedom
  which gives liberty to its colonial subjects immediately they land
  on English soil but keeps them in their own subjugated territory
  in a state akin to slavery:

  CURRAN: No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion incompatible with English freedom an African or Indian sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the
  altar of slavery, the first moment he touches the soil of Britain, the
  altar and the God sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad
  in his own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of the chains
  that burst from round him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and
  disenthralled by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation.

  This is eloquence of a very high order and of another age. [1.] There is not an advocate in practice at the Bar today who could
  formulate and then deliver a sentence of this kind.
  [End of 1.]  John Buchan
  recognized that eloquence is rarely found in those who practise law.

In [1.] the modal auxiliary verb 'could' appears ambiguous. Does the author intend that advocates lack the intellectual linguistic capacity to produce eloquent speech, or they are restrained somehow (e.g. Judges in the 21st century disfavour long speeches, or lay juries nowadays cannot follow)?
What rhetorical devices did Curran use in his speech?
How would Anglophones in 2016 rate or view the rhetoric I cited above? Writing in 1993, the author judges it favourably because he describes this as of a very high order and of another age.


texts: Word that means going along with something you know is wrong in order to get ahead

texts: I am looking for a word that means going along with something you know is wrong in order to get ahead or stay in the good graces of a superior.  This could mean knowingly supporting a false interpretation of a situation such that it injures someone else, but not caring because you come out ahead.  The word is not "venal," because venal implies bribery.


texts: How to explain this sentence:"The summer of 2012 was the warmest in 170 years, records show."

texts:
The summer of 2012 was the warmest in 170 years, records show.

I encountered this sentence in a passage from the SAT Practice Test #1, being totally confused. Are there inversion and omission in this sentence? Is it just a strange form of this sentence:

  Records show that the summer of 2012 was the warmest in 170 years.


texts: I heard someone the other day describing how their son "interfaces with others." Is that a correct usage of interface?


texts: "North Building" or "the North Building"?

texts:
Our company has two buildings and they are referred to in internal communications in various forms. e.g., "the north building", "the North building" and "the North Building". I am aware that "north" as a direction is not capitalised. In our case the building names are North Building and South Building so both words should be capitalised.

Should the definite article be dropped? e.g., "Please proceed to North Building." vs. "Please proceed to the North Building."

Any examples?


texts: What is the best phrase or word thad descibes that bidding has started?

texts:
My native language is Swedish. And I work as a webdeveloper. And at the moment I am working on a real estate website written in English.

So I would like to know, what is the best word or phrase that describes that bidding of a property has started, when it is writen as a "status" of the object.

Could I use

  "Bidding has begun"

or is thera a better word or phrase?


texts: Meaning of "...went as bad as you can go"

texts: In the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Hagrid says: "A few years ago there was one wizard who went as bad as you can go." What does "went bad as bad as you can go" mean? Why does he say "as bad as you can go"?


texts:
Which one is correct:

Good to hear you enjoyed the radio show.

or:

Glad to hear you enjoyed the radio show.


texts: What is the determiner in "the little girl's pink dress"?

texts:
The little girl's pink dress.

Is the determiner "the", or is it "the little girl's"?


texts:
This might be silly to ask, and possibly more theoretical than anything else, but it's something I've always pondered.

My first name is Hope. When I was in Elementary School and first learned about abstract nouns, I fell in love with the idea of having such a name - it feels almost magical to me. However sometimes I wonder, does my abstract name technically become a proper noun because it's my name? Or am I still allowed to keep some of that magic and call it an abstract noun?

Thank you!


texts:
While studying one word substitution I came across these two words, what I understood till now is like this:

Emigrant: One who leaves his own country to reside to another.
Immigrant: A person who comes to one country from another to settle.

For example: "A Swedish woman decides to emigrate to America. To herself, and to the country of Sweden, the woman is an emigrant to America. To her new American neighbors, the woman is an immigrant from Sweden, implying she has been somewhere else, and now is here, wherever here happens to be. So she has been an emigrant, in coming to America, and now she is a Swedish immigrant." (Quoting from here.)

Now what will be the one word for:

  A person residing in a country of
  which he is not a citizen

To my understanding it seems immigrant should be the correct word, but the answer given in my module is emigrant. Please help me understand whether I am wrong or not.


texts: Single word to express "all around support"

texts:
If somebody helped an author in many topics, how to express this with sincere gratitude?
SENTENCE
It is a genuine pleasure to express my sincere gratitude and appreciations to people supporting me during the studies:

Professor Xin Ho for inspiring positive attitude, all-round support, and extensive personal and professional guidance on research, orthopaedics and life in general;

support in many topics

all-around support

support in numerous issues


texts: What does it mean to move with silver feet?

texts:
While reading Oscar Wilde's, The Picture of Dorian Gray, I came across this:

  There was a silence. The evening darkened in the room. Noiselessly and with silver feet the shadows crept in from the garden. The colours faded wearily out of things.

I tried searching for what it meant to move with silver feet but found only discussions of Bush having a silver foot in his mouth. On this site I found mentions of clay feet, but nothing of silver feet.


texts: Is there a word for someone who wants to die?

texts: I am looking for an existing word or even a new word formed from latin/greek/french/etc. roots that means "someone that wants to die" or "someone that wants to be killed" or something along those lines. Thanks!


texts:
I saw this dictionary entry, and it says "discretion" could mean approximately either 1) the right to choose what to do or 2) the quality of being careful what you do.
The dictionary has these two example sentences illustrating those two senses:

The coach used/exercised his own discretion to let the injured quarterback play. (for sense 1)
He always uses care and discretion when dealing with others. (for sense 2)

Assuming "practice" (US verb) = "practise" (UK verb).    If I write this:

  He practices discretion when dealing with problems.

should "discretion" have the "right to choose" sense or the "being careful" sense?  Or is it ambiguous?


texts: What does “double-down” mean when used in a context other than Blackjack?

texts:
I saw the phrase “double-down” in the following sentence of the Washington Post article (June 28, 2011) titled “Why Michele Bachmann is no Sarah Palin.”

  “Palin is notorious for doubling-down on perceived missteps, typically blaming a biased media for not telling the whole story.”

I know "double down" is a term of Blackjack meaning the players’ option of doubling their bet and receiving one more card, but what does the phrase exactly mean in this particular context?

Does it mean Sarah Palin makes most of her missteps or gaffes to turn into her political (or campaign) advantages?

Is the use of "doubling-down" like this a casual usage to be applied to anything else, or a kind of "purple prose" that I recently learned?


texts: Is a hyphen necessary in the compound adjective "the already quite surprising idea"?

texts:
[I just wrote]: The expression "you may/might (just) as well + infinitive" can be used sarcastically and emphatically to introduce a more exaggerated, extreme example than the already quite surprising idea mentioned in the preceding sentence.

In the case of a more-than-two-word compound adjective, the choice of whether to link some part of it with a hyphen(s) or not does not always come easily...


texts: What is an appropriate word/phrase for the feeling one has when doing something that feels sort of disagreeable, even though it is good

texts:
All I can come up with is "it felt so wrong, like using a Coca Cola to take a vitamin"

Edit:
In that example, it's not so much the idea of "cancelling out" the benefit of the vitamin, it's more doing something that feels sort of yucky even though it is good. Even if the act of taking the vitamin and drinking the soda is a net benefit, it still makes people feel like they are doing something wrong.


texts:
I’ve had this personal hypothesis in the back of my mind for many years now about the etymology of the word “broker”.

I have gathered a few pieces of the puzzle (many of them in French and a few of them in English) but I have no firm evidence to back it.

Now that I've come across EL&U, with its high concentration of English Language enthusiasts of all horizons, I’d like to request some assistance, especially regarding the English side of the story.

Many English etymological dictionaries qualify the origin of “broker” as uncertain, and others are just content with mentioning immediate ancestors of the modern word.  But there is possibly a more captivating story to this particular word.

In my opinion broker comes from brooch/broach.  Here is why.

In French the word for “broche”
covers 2 English words: “brooch” (the
jewel) and “broach” (roasting spit).
In a larger sense, a “broche” is any
spiky tool used for piercing.
One of these broaches, shaped like a
“T”, with a drill-bit like end, was
used during wine auctions to pierce
sample barrels so that potential
buyers could taste the wine and make
their best buying offer according to
the quality of the beverage.
Incidentally the French term for the
pitcher that would be placed below
the subsequently inserted tap is
“broc” (nb, origin: uncertain in the
wiktionary
entry).
Also well documented is the fact that
the person in charge of piercing the
hole is the “brocheur” (or
“broceur”).

My conjecture is that this man was also in charge of the auction, hence the “broker”.  He would serve as a “broker” between the seller and the buyers.  Although it seems logical, I've found this explanation nowhere.

So my questions are:

Could you please provide some English words, idioms, citations or
reference that could possibly back
this conjecture?
Or do we have an altogether
completely different etymology, I might have missed ?

That's the main question.  However I have also a couple of secondary requests, that could actually help reaching a conclusion.

I’ve also tried to find some genre
paintings (in the taste of
Netherlands Golden Age genre
paintings) but with no success so
far.
Also of interest would be to know
whether there were English wine
brokers (medieval England had a lot
of vineyards) or whether the
“broker” meaning was imported from
the French “brocheur”, in which case
one would have to admit that this
meaning was lost, since French eventually
borrowed the English word.


texts:
What does "sanding a doorstep" mean?

Does it mean polishing the doorstep?  Or filling it in with sand?

I read this expression in Charles Dickens' book, The Haunted House where it says,

  I found the landlord of the little inn sanding his doorstep.


texts: A word... for determination? Or stubbornness

texts:
I'm looking for the word that means: someone told you that you'd fail, so you did it.

Like... someone says you'd be a horrible father, and you become one and become the best father ever. Someone tells you that that they would never imagine you as a tattoo artist, and you become one and become very successful.

Like, being determined to do something and succeed, only because someone said you wouldn't succeed in it.


texts: How should I refer to a number paragraph or section of a contract? Do I include the decimal after the section number?

texts:
Which is the correct sentence for referring to a section of a contract that is labeled 13?

In this regard, the relevant terms of paragraph 13 state....

OR

In this regard, the relevant terms of paragraph 13. state......


texts: Should I keep the second "than" in "A is better than B and than C"?

texts:
I'm comparing an object A to 2 other objects B and C.

Objects names are somehow long so It seems to me that adding another "than" makes the sentence clearer:

  A also had a significantly better predictive value on these outcomes
  than its simplified version B and than the alternative version C.

A colleague told me I should remove the second than.

Is there a rule stating I should remove it ? Else, is the sentence really clearer this way ?


texts:
Somebody said this phrase in some political conversation on the radio, and I can't find the definition of what does the word caché mean in English.

If you search in the google books, you will find a lot of uses of the phrase without an acute accent. But it was pronounced as if it had an accent.

The dictionaries have the meaning of cache as store of things, but this isn't it.

The French word caché means hidden as a verb form.

What does the word caché mean in English?
Can it be used in the contexts other than political caché?
Is political caché an idiom?

I think, the word means behind the scenes. But I couldn't find the definition.

Here is where the term is used: This was certainly an indication that her political caché still had viability.


texts: Why is there "Germany National Team", not "German National Team"?

texts: Why is the team from Germany called "Germany National Team", not "German National Team"? On official Internet sites, it is the same for every official national team; Germany National, France National, Poland National, Russia National etc. etc. What truthfully bothers me is why not German, French, Polish, Russian etc?


texts: What's a word for navigating through a labyrinthish group of obstacles to a goal?

texts:
For instance:

  "I ______ to her, (pushing by the wavy maze of people between us)"


texts:
Can 's be used as a contraction of was?

For example, can "maybe she's born that way" mean "maybe she was born that way"?


texts: Is it acceptable to make a question by adding "or" at the end?

texts:
Example:

"It is unacceptable for young ladies to put up their bare feet in public railway carriages, or?"

I only ask because the germans do it all the time as in:

"Ich habe dir schon einmal darum gebeten, oder?"
Literal translation - "I have already asked you once not to do it, or?"

and i find myself tempted to use the same form in denglish, excuse me english :-)


texts: "Boys will be boys!" Is 'will be' a future simple of 'be' or a present simple of modal auxiliary 'will'?

texts:
In the proverb:

Boys will be boys!

is 'will be' one verb or two?

the future simple of 'be' (one verb)?
or

the present simple of modal auxiliary 'will' + the bare present infinitive of 'be' (two verbs)?


texts: Does the word "female" have a pejorative connotation when applied to a woman?

texts:
I recently watched an interview where the interviewee (a native speaker from the US) used the word female to refer to a woman. Instead of describing the context of this word usage, I will point you to directly to the source (or more precisely to the last minute of it): Henry Rollins: The One Decision that Changed My Life Forever

Why did he use the word female instead of woman when he said "…maybe I would have gotten some female pregnant"? Could it be that it is meant to be understood in a (slightly) pejorative way?


texts: Until I do shopping or Until I am doing shopping?

texts:
e.g

Until I do shopping, you can get a coffee.

Or

Until I am doing shopping, you can get a coffee.

Please tell me which one is correct?


texts: "Punctuality is the politeness of kings."

texts:
Can someone please explain the meaning of:

  Punctuality is the politeness of
  kings.


texts: If the word "dataset" is already included in the acronym, should I still include the word to describe it?

texts:
Sorry if the title is a little hard to understand. I'm trying to wrap my head around what the proper usage of a word would be.

I'm writing an academic paper right now regarding COVID-19, and there happens to be a dataset named the "COVID-19 Open Research Dataset," which is "CORD-19" for short.

When I refer to the dataset, I say "the CORD-19 dataset" but what I'm wondering is if the word "dataset" is already included in CORD-19, would it be inappropriate to say "the CORD-19 dataset"since it would technically be "the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset dataset?"

If that were the case, would it be more appropriate to say "the CORD-19?" Thanks.


texts: You are all "but" forced to do something instead of something else

texts:
What is the grammatical usage of "but" in this sentence?

  You are all but forced to use them instead of standard C++

Could we ignore "but" and yet convey the same meaning?

  You are all forced to use them instead of standard C++


texts:
I was translating this poem by Lord Byron:

If, in the month of dark December,
Leander, who was nightly wont
(What maid will not the tale remember?)
To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont!

Actually I have more questions regarding the syntax but I don't think it's allowed to ask multiple questions here. so here's my question:
The wont in this poem, what does it mean?
I thought it means will not... to cross thy stream, but it looks like an older usage.


texts: Origins of UK/US difference in pronunciation "herb"

texts:
I travel a bit, and have noticed that people from the US pronounce "herb" without the aspirated "h" at the beginning, while seemingly everyone else pronounces the "h".
Interestingly, this answer points at a 1911 UK pronunciation without the "h", so perhaps the UK pronunciation changed after that time.
How did it happen historically that the US now has a different pronunciation from the rest of the world?


texts:
If I want tell about something to somebody, which phrase is correct:
"I want to tell you" or "I want you to tell"?


texts: Name for the future time period with the creation/surpassing of artifical intelligence?

texts: I need to know the term or time period to come that means the creation or surpassing of Artificial Intelligence. I know that there are different time periods humanity has gone through like the stone age, the bronze age but I need the term for a future term. I know it is out there because I watched a scishow video (youtube channel) and saw the time periods and there was a time period that is to come. It means the surpassing of artificial intelligence. I just forgot the word/term but I know what it means. I need this for a project, thank you!


texts: "I don't know" is to "agnostic" as "I don't care" is to what adjective?

texts: Atheists reject that God exists and agnostics do not know if God exists. What is the word for people who do not care if God exists? Does some word moonlight for that or is there a specific term (apart from the usual adjectives like indifferent, etc.)?


texts: A non-native English speaker asked me whether referring to a person as "large" was "normal". Eg. That guy is large! It sounded odd to me so I said I wouldn't. Is there a rule about this? Eg It's only used for objects and not humans? Or is my hunch wrong?


texts: I work "at" registrar's office or "in" registrar's office?

texts: I am confused about whether I should write "I work at registrar's office" or "I work in registrar's office"


texts: Usage of Distribution and alternatives/synonyms

texts:
I want to use the word Distribution as it is used normally in the English language in a text where Distribution refers (also?) to the technical (Statistical) term. How can I do so while also marking the different use of the word, what is (functionally/semantically) the best alternative/synonym?
An example being the "Distribution of wealth" in a text discussing said distribution but employing the word Distribution as a tecnical term distinct from the way Distribution is usually used. Like Probability Distribution (also simply Distribution).
Distribution: The result of distributing; the allocation/the division of something with exactitude and methodicity.
Allocation: The result of allocating; the segregation of a set of things and their placement or establishment in a defined space.
The meanings of Distribution and Allocation seem to be different even if thesauri list them as synonyms and the defintion of Distribution employees Allocation. I am really straining at a gnat but I would like the nuances and the feelings evoked by a synonym to be as close as possible to Distribution.


texts: What do I call physical quantities if they are not physical?

texts:
I have the following in a form on a computer. This is where a user can enter a measured value.

Choose Physical Quantity: Length, Weight, Speed
Choose Quantity: NNNN

What do I write it if I also want to include balance of an account (USD) or amount of data (kB)?

Choose Physical Quantity: Length, Weight, Speed, Data Volume, Account Balance

The latter two are not exactly physical.

Choose ??????: Length, Weight, Speed, Data Volume, Account Balance

Someone suggested "measure", but I would like that confirmed.

Choose Measure: Length, Weight, Speed, Data Volume, Account Balance

Wikipedia seems to like "quantity".

Choose Quantity: Length, Weight, Speed, Data Volume, Account Balance

How about "element"?

Choose Element: Length, Weight, Speed, Data Volume, Account Balance


texts: Usage of the word 'as' meaning 'considering'

texts:
Will they accept his invitation, unsociable as they are?

Does the last clause mean, "considering how unsociable they are?"


texts: Why are plurals ‘*humen’ and ‘*Germen’ not conventional?

texts:
Studying English in school as a second language, I learned that human being would be the proper noun to describe a member of the Homo sapiens species, but it seems human is perfectly acceptable in English nowadays. It can even sometimes substitute (supposedly gender-specific) man where that was used in a gender-neutral way, e.g. in humankind, but not in *chairhuman, *firehuman etc.

The gender nouns man and (derived) woman, however, have their plurals as men and women, respectively, so why is umlauted *humen not acceptable at least as an alternative to the regular plural morphem +s which is used to form humans? The same question applies to some peoples or tribes, e.g. the Germans and Normans, not *Germen and *Normen.

The question even applies if human and man have different actual etymologies (Romance vs. Germanic), because perceived or folk etymology is often at least as important.

Also, does this effectively render these words gender-neutral, although they seem to contain the gender-specific morpheme man (in singular)?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a single term for “nieces and nephews”?
  Is there a gender-neutral word for [aunts and uncles], parents' siblings?

The non-gender name for 'mother' is 'parent', for 'son' it is 'child'. But is there a non-gender word for 'uncle' or 'aunt'? Or is there no better definition than 'parent-sibling'?

If there is a word I would like to know the inverse as well, i.e. for 'nephew/niece'.


texts: When uncertain if refering to multiple or single should the plural form or singular form be used?

texts:
If asking a question or giving instruction towards a group of objects where the number is unknown (and possibly could be one) what is the correct way to phrase the sentence? Which of the following sentences are more correct:

  Has there been any studies regarding this and if so what has been the
  conclusion?

OR

  Has there been any studies regarding this and if so what have been the
  conclusions?


texts: An adjective for two things that have bearing on each other?

texts:
A has a bearing on B.
  B has a bearing on A.

Now I want to say the above 2 sentences in the following single sentence:

  A and B are ------ .

I thought about words such as "interrelated" or "interconnected", but they are basically about "relation" or "connection", while "bearing" has a nuance of "affecting" or "influencing".


texts:
"This took place in this hour."
"This took place during this hour."

Is there any difference between the phrases "in this hour" and "during this hour"?


texts: The use of article when an element is defined before

texts:
Assuming that a function f is defined, which one of the following statements is correct
with respect to the use of article for "call"? I know that i is already introduced,
but how about the call?

For any tuple of the form (i, j, k), a call f(i) is made.
For any tuple of the form (i, j, k), the call f(i) is made.
For any tuple of the form (i, j, k), call f(i) is made.
For any tuple of the form (i, j, k), f(i) is made.


texts:
I had a question, which of the sentences is correct? If both please explain the usage of each.

’Attitude’ is referred to as how a person thinks or feels about someone or something
’Attitude’ referred to as how a person thinks or feels about someone or something


texts: For the verb 'focus' why is the gerund form 'focusing' with a single S, instead of 'focussing' with a double S?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “Focussed” or “focused”? The double consonant

The rule that I learned was that when you have a short vowel in the last syllable, you double the last consonant before adding the ending.  Thus "cut" becomes "cutting",  or "beget" becomes "begetting".

According to this rule, "focus" should become "focussing".  But the spell checker in my browser wants me to change that to "focusing".   This bothers me because I would think that would be pronounced something more like fo-kyoo-sing.

I looked this up, and apparently the Brits follow the rule, but Americans don't.  Any idea why?  And what is the rule, then?


texts: Expression for "resource paralysis" - can't do anything because you have too much?

texts:
Is there any word, expression or proverb for the condition or state where you can't do anything because you have too much? I have heard a professor of English refer to this as "resource paralysis" when he was trying to explain why Nigeria is not moving forward fast, but this is obviously not a dictionary term.

Just to explain further, this condition is found for instance in the scenario where a boy born with a golden spoon has no drive to be as successful as his father because he already has it all. In short, the reason for this is that contentment is a strong inhibition to change and when you have so much, you are likely to be content.


texts: Word that indicates that you played an important role, but were not the leader

texts:
Is there a word that is somewhere between "participated in" and "led?"

For example, last year my company created a new team and assigned me to lead it. I contributed significantly to the formation of the team, but I was not actually leading the effort to create it.


texts: Word for introducing people without knowing their names

texts:
I have heard that English has a word for the situation in which you are talking to an acquaintance when another acquaintance walks by whom you greet. Neither knows the other so you are about to mutually introduce them, but you suddenly realize that you do not remember either of their names!

What is the word or phrase for that? I have consulted books of idioms, a thesaurus, and multiple search engines without any luck.


texts: What does "someone figures someone" mean?

texts: What does "he figures you" mean? I mean in this sentence: "He figures you get more overtime that way, being at a cheaper rate or whatnot."


texts: A word that describes the property of which indefinite article to use for a word

texts:
Is there a word that describes the property of which indefinite article ('a' or 'an') to pair with a word?

For example,

  Hey guys, is the word 'animal' ______ or not?

  Yes/No, it's 'an animal'.

or alternatively,

  Hey guys, what ______ is the word 'animal'?

  It's 'an animal'.


texts:
Please read the following sentence:

  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is planning his retirement in the next nine months from the software giant he helped build.

Would you consider "helped" a Non-Modal verb?

If yes, then would you please tell me why?


texts:
Could "wrench" mean something different from a torque wrench?

Would the meaning here be vague if I left off the word "torque" in the following passage?

  The biggest difficulty in giving
  instructions is, as already noted,
  over-estimating what your audience
  already knows. Telling someone to
  remove a part on their car using a
  torque wrench doesn’t help much if
  they don’t know how to use a torque
  wrench, or even what one is. Problems
  can also arise when you fail to
  adequately describe a point — it often
  is not clear until several steps later
  that a failure has occurred, and the
  only thing to do for it is to trace
  your steps backwards until you find
  the error.


texts: Which of the two sentences below is more gramatically correct?

texts:
I'm having difficulty choosing between the two sentences below. Which is more grammatically correct? Can anyone suggest a more succinct way of articulating what I am trying to say?

While donning his personal protective equipment a loose strap flew up and hit him in the head.
While donning his personal protective equipment a strap connected to his respirator flew up and hit him in the head.

Thanks!

Alex


texts: What's the formal name of single cell in a parking lot?


texts: What's the difference between perimeter and circumference?

texts: What's the difference between perimeter and circumference when they mean the total length of the boundary of a two-dimensional geometric shape?


texts:
Whether it 'be' or 'is'?

  Whether it be comedy, action, or pure narrative, he surgically hones pictures and sound to that perfect place.


texts: Is this sentence in the Future Continuous?

texts:
Would be obliged if someone could clarify whether the following is in the Future Continuous tense.

  The Earth will be three degrees hotter by the year 2050.

It seems so but I need to be absolutely certain.

If it is the case, what rule would I use to describe the tense? So for Future Perfect I could say "The Future Perfect links a time in the future with a time before that". I'm looking for something along those lines if possible.


texts:
This good answer ended up with a lot of comments about whether the phrase is "close-minded" or "closed-minded."  Since this debate seems to have reasonable arguments on both sides, I thought a new question would be prudent.

Personally, I think it is close-minded, the opposite of open-minded, and that both of these (open and close) use the intransitive forms of these verbs.  In another words, I think the mind opens or the mind closes, as opposed to the mind being opened or closed.

But I thought the comments raised some interesting points about the word formation, and I may have to reconsider my opinion.

Is it "close-minded" or "closed-minded"?

EDIT:
The NGrams are nice to demonstrate usage, but what I would like to know is more along the lines of why rather than which.


texts:
Is it

  Who are the main competitors?

or

  What are the main competitors?

The word `competitor' is referring to a firm / company here. If it were referring to a person, then I would say the first version is correct. However, in the current case I am doubting if the second option would be correct.

Related question.


texts: Idiom for finally seeing something for what it really is

texts:
I realized my moms cooking was actually quite basic. _________
I grew up speaking Spanish & find it difficult to retrieve English idioms sometimes. I want to say that I’m looking for a phrase akin to Dorothys feeling when the curtain falls on the wizard of oz.


texts:
I'm motivated to ask this question because of this other question on ELL SE.

It seems to me that that's a prepositional phrase, but I don't see 'once' in any lists of prepositions, and the only dictionary I found listing it as a preposition is Simple Wiktionary.

So, consider this sentence with 'once':

  Once I get home, I get hungry.

and compare to this sentence which definitely has a prepositional phrase:

  After I get home, I get hungry.

Is 'once' a preposition in that sentence? Is it ever?


texts: Is it correct to say that someone "emptied" or "drained" a wine?

texts:
Example sentence:

  She got so close I could smell the French wine she'd emptied/drained
  alone.

Is this verb choice correct? If not, what are more suitable verbs?


texts: Can the word "Phoenician" be reasonably used to denote "of a phoenix"?

texts:
I'm trying to write a webnovel that involves mythical creatures. I want to include Dragons, Angels, and Demons, and the problematic Phoenixes.

The problem I am facing is that there is no corresponding word that means "of a phoenix", like how the other three have the terms "Draconic", "Angelic", and "Demonic". The first word that came to mind was "Phoenician", but an online search gave vague results.


texts:
Is it correct to say that a bid is "big"? What connotations does the phrase bidding big come to the average native speaker's mind?

Is the phrase, "bidding big" positive or negative? Is it daring or stupid? Is it powerful or weak?

More information: Some people mentioned that my question suffer from lack of context. Here is the context: I want to start a real estate business and I am not sure whether the name Big Bid is the right name? I am thinking maybe it defeat the purpose. People might say they are not looking for someone who bid big, for example, because it is "stupid" and it might be more reasonable to bid small first and go with the flow.


texts:
For instance, you can tell them “I expect you to come to class on time,” or “Do not bully.”

Do I need a comma between "them" and "I"?

Why or why not?


texts: Why does "signature" have a "g" sound but "sign" doesn't?

texts:
The following words don't have /g/ sound: sign, resign, design.

But why is there a "g" sound in the following derived words? Signature, resignation, designate.

I searched their etymologies because I thought they would have different etymologies but they share the same etymologies.


texts: Why do strait-laced and straight-laced have the same meaning when strait and straight have different meanings?


texts:
Is the following sentence correct?

His selection was based solely on his grades and extra-curricular activities

(The context here is that I want to emphasize that this person was selected in a fair manner i.e. on the basis of grades and extra curricular activities alone.)

I'm confused because I do not know if I can write multiple reasons for selection if I've used solely.

I've looked at the definition of solely in Merriam Webster :
1. without another
2.to the exclusion of all else

So by definition 2, I think my sentence would be correct, but I'm not sure.


texts:
Lately I've been hearing friends talk about loving on people. Here's an example of the sort of thing they'll say:

We should be working in the streets and loving on the homeless.
Forge relationships and love on your friends!

You can find specific examples of this usage by typing "loving on" people into your favourite search engine.
I have done a bit of research on phrasal verbs and have read these two posts here on EL&U. While they are certainly interesting, they don't quite answer my questions:

What is the origin of loving on or to love on? Could it have been popularized by people who thought that loving or love weren't active enough for the context? (Loving on seems most frequently used in a religious context, especially when referring to good works.)

Of what use is the preposition on? It doesn't seem to change the meaning much—you can't physically love on somebody in the sense they're describing—and I've only seen or heard it used in contexts where love by itself would suffice.

I ran a Google ngram with input love_VERB on, although I can't say for sure whether that's helpful.


texts: Better phrase for "taking care of one's responsbilities"

texts:
I am constantly talking to my kids about taking care of their responsibilities. Sometimes, in the heat of an emotional lecturing, I shorten it to "meet your responsibilites," in the sense that one can "meet an obligation".

There has to be a better, shorter way to say the same thing. Some rejects:

Meet your obligation - Eh, an obligation is not a responsibility, really.
Do your duty - Not good for talking to kids.
'Tend ur rez' - No matter how many "z's" you use, dad, you will never be cool.

Can anyone suggest or invent a better way of hitting this bullet point for the attention-span challenged?


texts: Other ways to say 'more precisely' and 'more exactly'

texts:
I am writing an academic report, and I often need to provide more information about my previous sayings. I usually use the phrases 'more precisely' and 'more exactly' to do so. But you know, after some time, my text becomes really boring. I wonder if there are other scientific expressions to say 'more precisely' and 'more exactly.'
e.g., We use a refrigerator with the temperature set to -7C to freeze the solution. More precisely, we need to pour the solution into a special container to let its temperature become equal to our room's temperature before putting it into the refrigerator.


texts:
How can I use the verb "sad" in the past continuous? E.g.:

  I was crying.
  I was missing.

What should be the sentences for sad or upset in past continuous? Why do some words like the two above not follow standards? Are these exceptions?


texts:
I want to know what is pax count regarding to hotel search.
 I want deep meaning of pax count.


texts:
I know what I'm trying to get at with this sentence, but the punctuation feels a little off to me somehow. Is it correct? Or can it be improved?

  I was a little skeptical at first - what could be more straightforward
  than CSS? - but I use it in all my projects now.


texts:
discomfiture
anxious embarrassment
comfiture
a candy containing a nut or piece of fruit.

Are these two "false friends", words seeming to be related but of completely different origin, or do they share a common etymology?
If so, when did they diverge in meaning - what was the original word that diverged in one direction to sweet foodstuffs, and in other to negative feelings?


texts: Why is letter E the most common used letter?

texts:
It is well known that the letter E is the most common letter. In my corpus, I found 12.478% of letters is letter E. What makes me surprise was 64.219% of words contain the letter E. I also found that 12.384% of words end with a silent E.
Then I wonder why is the letter E so common in English spelling? Is it because of the silent E to some extent?


texts: Is there a word for a person or action where they no longer believe in something?

texts: I am not looking for "apostate". Rather, I am looking for the word (verb/noun) which means that someone no longer thinks along those lines as they did before. In short, they gave up their old ideas.


texts: Is there a word for “making two conflicting elements coexist together in a system”?

texts:
The conflicting elements are integrated into a system, but their conflicts are not really resolved. Instead they are somehow made to coexist with some hackish way.

Example:
Hypocrisy, both as a self deception and a social deception, is a mechanism to WORD the conflicting forces of self interests and the social interests demanded from oneself.

I tried "accommodate, cope, coordinate" but none of them seems right.


texts: Term for security checkpoints separated by sex

texts:
In some places, a security checkpoint has two areas, one for checking men, and another for checking women. I'm looking for the term which describes this segregation by sex. This would be the opposite of how "co-ed" is used for schools which allow students of both genders.

An example usage might be:

  Just inside the entrance, past the [multi-gender-word] security, sinks were placed for the washing of hands.


texts:
I (non-native) have a situation. I'm writing the following sentence, which I'm not sure is completely correct.

  "The cosmos: housing particles that, over time, formed complete galaxies"

I wonder if 'housing' is correct in this context or whether I should be using 'holding' instead. Do both words mean the same in this particular situation?


texts:
Do I use a forward slash or comma for my title and designations? I see both uses throughout my industry but which one is the correct usage, or could both be correct?

Broker/REALTOR®, CRS®, ABR®

Broker, REALTOR®, CRS®, ABR®

Thank you,
EM


texts:
I believe that the word "ick," and by extension "icky," is related to the word "ichor," or to a mispronounciation of "ichor" (the pronunciation of "ichor" is disputed).
Ichor is certainly icky.

: a thin watery or blood-tinged discharge

I found nothing on the web that etymologically links the two. Thoughts?


texts: Is it correct to say "John helps you talk with people"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the correct way to use infinitive after the verb "help": with or without "to"?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but English is not my first language.

For me it seems that it is incorrect and it should be: John helps you to talk with people.

But I'm wondering if it's correct without the to?


texts: What do you call a letter saying that you are amenable of a request?

texts: I am writing a letter to express my acceptance of a request from my employer. Their request is for me to stay longer in the company because the supposed effectivity of my resignation is 30 days from the filing date. In exchange of accepting the request, I don't have to pay the cash bond they imposed because of me not finishing the contract. What do you call this type of letter? And what are the usual content of the body of the letter?


texts: Are "on par" and "in parity" equivalent expressions?

texts:
In an unrelated reply to one of my questions, someone used the following expression type.

  x and y are on par while x and z are not

I use a similar expression (see below). However, I'm curious if they are equivalent with respect to colloquial meaning, popularity, etc. In fact, I'm a bit worried that the one I am used to is incorrect (or maybe archaic or confusing).

  x and y are in parity, while...

or

  x and y are of the same parity, while...

Are both ways on par with each other or are they of different parity (yes, the usage of both is intended)? In what why do they differ?


texts: It is correct and formal to include "of" when writing dates?

texts:
A friend of mine, native EN speaker, told me that the following is correct written like this:

  We met on the 1st of June.

Is that really true? I cannot see any reference that these are used in written text.


texts: Word or expression for someone who intentionally says false statements to bring someone else down?

texts: Someone who intentionally says false statements and/or facts about someone else (directly related to and/or about them) with whom that person is in a conversation (with or without other people around), in order to embarress that person, bring them down or prevent/break the peace.


texts: Is "you Chromebook" correct grammar in any dialect?

texts:
As a learner of English as a foreign language, I believe from what I learned that "you Chromebook" is not grammatically correct in "standard" English (as spoken in formal situations in the UK, US etc).  I'm not familiar with the less prestigious dialects of English, however, and I heard that English dialects can vary greatly in grammar.  Can somebody therefore give me an idea whether such a sentence is correct in any of the "nonstandard" dialects?

The context where I saw this is a Google commercial.

The title of the video is:

  If you’re tired of charging, You Chromebook.

And the tagline is

  If you’re tired of dying, You Chromebook.


texts:
I sought to learn more./I managed to get help./I hope to win./I can afford to rent the car.

Are the verbs after 'to' also verbs? Should we see these verbs as secondary verbs? I want to know exactly.


texts:
In this press conference held every day by Hong Kong Police, the police officer pronounced "protester" as "PRO-tes-ter". I checked the dictionaries such as the Cambridge Online and Longman Online and could only find it pronounced as /prəˈtestə r/. Did the native English officer with the British accent pronounce the word wrongly?

(Watch the part of the video that features the native speaker, who spoke from 29:09 to 32:37) www.youtube.com


texts: "I’d like to have the voice of Jim Morrison's." or "I’d like to have the voice of Jim Morrison"?

texts:
I’d like to have the voice of Jim Morrison's.

Or,

  I’d like to have the voice of Jim Morrison.

Which one is correct?


texts:
In the web design world a Landing Page is typically the first page that you land on in a website that is quite long and shows you the majority of the websites information. Typically used to sell a product or service.

I like this style for an Excel report in which all the analytics, tables etc are on one sheet which extends downs in a similar fashion to a Landing Page, I don't want to call it a Landing Page or Landing Page Report unless I really have to as the terms is linked to website. Is there an alternative or general such term.


texts: Word similar to "distraction" but with jokey connotation

texts:
I was wondering if there is a word that carries the same meaning as "distraction" but can be used for a comedy effect too.

As an example, imagine a situation where my parents are away and I've been eating take-aways, but also created a mess in the kitchen just to give the impression that I was cooking. I'm looking for a light-hearted word to describe this action and "distraction" doesn't sound that great to me.

Another example could be when I like someone and want to invite her out, but I invite her friends as well so that she or anyone else will not suspect anything.

I'm a native Greek speaker and this word exists in Greek. I'm trying to approximate the word "xekarfoma" (ξεκάρφωμα). It's the opposite of the word "karfoma" (κάρφωμα) which in slang means give someone away. So I'm looking for the word to describe the actions one is taking in order not to give oneself away.


texts:
What does "corrective discipline" mean in the following passage?

Though the pleasure which works of art give us must not be confused with other pleasures that we enjoy, it is related to all of them simply by being our pleasure and not someone else's. All the judgments, aesthetic or moral, that we pass, however objective we try to make them, are in part a rationalization and in part a corrective discipline of our subjective wishes.
So long as a man writes poetry or fiction, his dream of Eden is his own business, but the moment he starts writing literary criticism, honesty demands that he describe it to his readers, so that they may be in the position to judge his judgments.
—From W.H. Auden, "Reading," in The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays (1956).

Does discipline here mean training or restraint/control or something else?


texts: What does “Logitem” mean on many freightliners?

texts:
What does Logitem mean that I see on the sides of many passing freightliners?

I wonder wether it’s a kind of clipping combining logistic with item.

I'm not a native speaker but I love English.


texts:
Is anything man a word (noun)?

Is there a synonym or a better word?

Context (my emphasis):

  After college he was working for Fawcette Technical Publications (as anything man - design, editing, helping plan the conferences like VBITS and VSLive!).


texts:
Is the word "of" optional in this instance? Is either of these considered preferable to the other?

  Taste all our delicious treats.
  Taste all of our delicious treats.


texts: What are the strings outside the baseball bat called?

texts:
So I found a cartoon;

There are some strings coming out from the end of the bat. What are they called?


texts: Looking for a word for something like “blind acceptance”

texts:
I am looking for a word for (the act of) someone accepting information as fact without ever checking.

For example, I read an article in newspaper and believe it without fact checking. I tell my daughter about the article and my belief, she in turn tells her son and he believes too. Now 3 people believe and none have checked.


texts: Who will say “Age before beauty” more often? Man or woman,  young or old?

texts:
We Japanese don't have the humourous and witty phrase like "Age before beauty," as you have. We only have simple and dry expressions, "Please" or "Please go first."

However, I recently noticed disagreements among  definitions of the phrase, “Age before beauty” in online English dictionaries as to the phrase being more often used in an exchange between a younger person and an elder.

www.phrases.org.uk defines the phrase as: "Older people should be given precedence over the younger, and by implication more beautiful. This is normally used jocularly, often by the older person in order to flatter the younger."
To me it sounds somewhat arrogant for the elder to manifest priority on passage to the younger, even if jocularly or in flattery.

Wiktionary defines the phrase as: "Most often used humorously or lightheartedly, and usually said by a younger person to an older friend or relative out of mock  pity. In most instances it would be considered rude for a younger man to say this to an older woman."

UsingEnglish.com defines it as: "When this idiom is used, it is a way of allowing an older person to do something first, though often in a slightly sarcastic way."
From this, I assume the phrase is more often given by younger person.

There is no entry for “Age before beauty” in any of Oxford, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster, though Google Ngram registers continued growth of the usage of the phrase since 1860.

Now the question: By which age (or sex) segment (whether  older or younger, male or female) is “Age before beauty” being spoken more often? Or is this phrase being used commonly regardless of age and sex?


texts: Where can I find a list of categorical words?

texts:
I have found a way to significantly reduce the difficulty of learning vocabulary words. It involves the concept of words that are defined in terms of other words.

Words belonging to a particular category can be listed under and defined in terms of one main (categorical) word. That way, the appalling number of vocabulary words present in the dictionary may be reduced to a much smaller number and studying becomes much more focused and robust.

Where can I find a list showing categorical words and their members?

Here is an example (definitions are from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary):

  Categorical Word: Place

abattoir: a place where animals are killed for their meat
abode: the place where someone lives:
accommodation: a place to live, work, stay, etc. in:
airport: a place where aircraft regularly take off and land, with buildings for passengers to wait in
apiary:a place where people keep bees, especially a collection of hives (= containers in which bees live) kept to provide honey
tannery: the place where leather is made
tavern: a place where alcohol is sold and drunk
tip : a place where especially large pieces of rubbish can be taken and left
.
.
.
As you can see, the words (abattoir, abode, accommodation, airport, and apiary, etc...) can be listed under and defined in terms of the word place.

Now imagine how easy it is to find words relating to place. Wouldn't that make learning vocabulary so much easier and more fun? What if we did the same for other words?


texts:
The online dictionary has the following to say:

Indicate >> to point out, show...
Vindicate >> to clear from censure or doubt by means of demonstration...

"Showing" is a means of "demonstrating" so is it reasonable to believe that "vindicate" is a form of "indicate?"
The word "re-enter" is derived from the preposition "re" and the root word "enter." What preposition (if any) would be represented by the "v" in "vindicate"? If there is none, how would the "v" cause "vindicate" to be a form of "indicate."


texts: What is the adverb "probably" modifying in this sentence?

texts: In this sentence, what does probably modify? "I am probably not going to the party." Also, do adverbs modify verb phrases or just the main verb? For example, in, "I am walking quickly." Does quickly modify "am walking" or "walking?"


texts: The grammar of "by as much" and "as much"

texts:
Which of the following is the correct sentence (maybe they are both correct):

Attacks are down as much as 10 percent.

Attacks are down by as much as 10 percent.


texts:
"It seemed the most spiritual of all the flower people I had ever met." (John Muir)

If so, what part? I know saying "flower people" makes it personification but there are a few other parts of this sentence I'm not sure would be counted.

Does calling the flower "spiritual" make it personification? I've heard of other inanimate objects called spiritual before (spiritual writings), but I'm still not sure.

Or does saying he "met" the flower make it personification?


texts: I'm kinda confused and can anyone say whats the right form and elaborate as to why


texts:
Which of the following two sentences is grammatically correct?

They did everything together, including fall in love.
They did everything together, including falling in love.

You could also tell me why if you want.


texts: Apposition, commas and clause/phrase definition

texts:
I am looking at some appositives with proper nouns and wanted to know how they are analysed. The sentence is:
"My brother, named John, is happy."

I am confused with the verb "named". Does it make the "named John" a separate clause? eg.

My brother, // named John, // is happy.

I know the relative clause "My brother, // who is named John // is happy." has a slightly different meaning. I want to know how the verbs before proper nouns are analysed (named, called, labelled etc.)

Thanks for your time


texts:
What is the Standard British English1 pronunciation of "again"? I looked in Wiktionary and it gives two UK pronunciations, /əˈɡeɪn/, and /əˈɡɛn/.

1 I mean Standard British English as in the tag description for received-pronunciation: "Received Pronunciation (RP) is the prestigious and non-regional variety of British English often considered to be Standard British English."


texts: Word for person interested in latest technology programming-wise

texts: What is a word to describe a person who is really interested in learning new aspects and new things in a specific programming language? (We could call this person a seeker.)


texts:
Does the word "indigenous" need to be capitalized in academic writing?
For example, mid-sentence, is it:
...Indigenous methodologies or indigenous methodologies
...Indigenous knowledge or indigenous knowledge
...Indigenous narratives or indigenous narratives
In a sentence:
This study sets out to explore the indigenous narratives of rural women as a type of indigenous methodology to obtain indigenous knowledge and gain local perspectives on...


texts: It is important that they "are" or "be"?

texts: I was reading Jeremy Harmer's book (how to teach), and i encountered the sentence "it is, therefore, especially important that they are both fully engaged with what is going on and also ready to listen". But isn't that a subjunctive? Shouldn't it be "it is important that they "be" engaged..."? He's such a renowned author, I don't think he would make such mistakes, but this is kind of confusing.


texts:
The actual sentence goes like this:

How easy it is to integrate the two applications? or How easy is it to integrate the two applications?

To my understanding 'How easy it is' wrong if used as a question. So, please clarify.


texts: Non-religious equivalent expression for "Pray for [Country X]" after a disaster

texts:
When a big disaster occurs in a country, you can often see messages saying:

  Pray for [Country X]

Are people really writing this to incite people to ask their God for anything?
For instance Japanese people (in majority non-religious) have started using this expression a lot.

Among similar but non-religious, politically-correct expressions, what would be the expression that most closely express the same feelings as "Pray for [Country X]"?


texts:
Due to the high density of questions related to the use of the ellipsis (...), I am not sure whether my question has already been adequately answered or not. However, in my research, I haven't found anything that address my specific question.

My question relates specifically to quoting a passage and using an ellipsis to avoid an embedded parenthetical phrase in the original text. I am specifically interested in the Chicago Manual of Style, but advice regarding other formats is welcome.

An example, pulled from Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals in which this sort of problem frequently arises:

  "For, all these effects (agreeableness of one's condition, indeed even promotion of other's happiness) could have been also brought about by other causes" (4:401).

As I have already explained the effects in my paper, I would like to eliminate the content inside the parentheses. My question is: do I need to use an ellipsis to show that I have taken content out of the original text, or does the fact that it is already parenthetical (i.e., not necessary for the structure or content of the original sentence) remove the need for an ellipsis?

My passage would thus either read:

  "For, all these effects . . . could have been also brought about by other causes" (4:401).

Or:

  "For, all these effects could have been also brought about by other causes" (4:401).

Which (if either) is correct?


texts: Correct way of saying "graphological" in stylistic analysi

texts:
Reading the wikipedia page for graphemics, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphemics I stumble across

"later some scholars suggested calling it graphology[1] to match phonology, but that name is traditionally used for a pseudo-science."

So currently, I am attempting "graphological" analysis of a poem, in a stylistic sense. However, I want to steer away from the pseudo-science term, and I am not sure how to convert 'graphemics' to a 'graphological' equivalent so that I can write

"The poem contains graphological deviation".

I hope I am clear, thank you.


texts:
Is 'gloomy sunlight' an oxymoron?

I don't see how its an oxymoron. I am not sure how else to phrase this question.


texts:
The intentions change when the phone will ring.
The intentions will change when the phone will ring.

and why?


texts: all days vs ever day and all persons vs everyone

texts: Can I say "all days" instead of "every day"? And "all persons have the right to live" instead of "everyone" so as to emphasize in the first case and to refer to every single individual?


texts: Purpose of 'time' in sentences like this one?

texts:
In ten years time, you'll have forgotten about all of your "failures".

I've observed that in some constructions of the form "in [some amount of time]" (e.g. in the above "in ten years"), the word time appears at the end when apparently it doesn't change the meaning of the expression whatsoever.

What is its purpose?


texts: British and American slang words for immigrants?

texts: What slang words or phrases do British/American English speakers use for (poor) immigrants?


texts:
I recently had this question on a placement exam, and I got it wrong.
(I'm sorry it is a bit long question but it is not boring)

  The influence of technology on diplomacy can be illustrated by leaked
  and misunderstood telegrams, which shaped the history in unexpected
  ways. For example, the 1917 Zimmermann telegram (sent by German
  foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Mission in Mexico and
  intercepted by the British) instructed the German representative to
  start negotiating Mexico’s entrance into World War I as a German ally
  by offering Mexico control of the US states of New Mexico, Utah and
  California after the war. The Zimmermann telegram was leaked at a time
  when the American public were still neutral and not ready to join
  World War I. It prompted the United States to join the Allied forces.
  The most illustrative case study of the influence of the telegraph on
  diplomacy was the 1914 July crisis that led to the beginning of the
  World War I. Telegraph messages were being sent between St.
  Petersburg, Berlin, Belgrade, Vienna, Paris and other countries
  involved in the conflict. However, there was little awareness of how
  to use the telegraph properly. The Russian czar sent a conciliatory
  note to Germany, but the German kaiser had already sent a note that
  was not conciliatory at all, thus creating communication confusion and
  mistrust that contributed toward escalation and ultimately war. A new
  technology coupled with human failure led to an unfortunate outcome.

As it stated in the passage, the 1914 July crisis........................

I chose option D because I thought the telegraph system is susceptible to interception  and can cause misunderstandings due to lack of effectiveness  and frustration eventually.To me it seems to be a reasonable sentence and I don't understand why it was wrong, or what would make one of the other options better.
Can someone explain what the correct choice is, and why it is the best fit?


texts: Having a conversation for someone else's benefit

texts:
Is there a term for having a conversation within earshot of someone for their benefit? Kind of like an opposite of eavesdropping.
This topic came up as a coworker and I who are already on the same page on a topic started an email conversation on that topic including some managers. We ended up having a discussion on the topic over email for the benefit of the people who were just reading and wondered if there was a term for what we had just done.
EDIT: As people are asking for more details
We were discussing our future plans for keeping our tech stack current at work. The conversation went roughly like so (very much abbreviated):

CW (Coworker): The industry is moving in this direction and we should be thinking about what we do next.
Me: It's also relevant that these technologies are 20x faster than what we currently use.
CW: We should also look at these technologies being made by cloud services companies.
Me: These are called "Platform as a Service" (PaaS). PaaS is intended to provide the following benefits: ...


texts: What's a word for a statement that is either true or false?

texts:
"The Earth is big." is an opinion.

"Earth is 10 miles in diameter" is something that can be proven either true or false. It's not a fact, because facts are true. Is there a word for a statement that isn't an opinion? In other words, a statement that is either true or false.


texts: Is 'casing' a valid alternative to 'capitalization'?

texts:
Searching for a noun which describes the letter-casing of words, I came across casing (without a prefix) and capitalization.
Searching several dictionaries and translation services, casing seems odd to me, as it refers to other meanings.

As casing is commonly used here on english SE to ask whether a word is capitalized or not, I'm still asking myself:

Is casing a valid alternative to capitalization?

Can I say something like:

  Please fix the casing in your text

as alternative to

  Please fix the capitalization in your text

Which one is commonly used?

Here are some examples, where I found 'casing' as a word referring to the capitalization of words:

Who decides the casing of newly coined words?
What is the correct casing when there are brackets involved?
Title-Casing "ad hoc"
What's the etymology of English letter casing terminology?

EDIT:

Found this one on wiktionary:

  casing

  English

  Noun

  casing (plural casings)
  [...]

  (uncountable, computing) The collective states of upper and lower case letters.
  The replacement string should have the same casing as the matched text.


texts:
How do you define broke and broke into here?

OP: "If you're not making six figures by the time you're 40, you fail at life."

P1: "whew... I just made it... broke into 6 figures at 39."

P2: "I broke 6 figures at 29. Never got much past that though."


texts: Send and receive stuff? What to use in receiving in-from or in-to

texts:
hope you can help me.

I am not sure what should I use (or what is actually correct to use). I want to say that "I am sending stuff from one place to another" and at the same time "I am receiving stuff from other places to one specific place".
Specifically, I want to say that I am sending data from one processor to another, and receiving data from other processors to one particular processor. I am doing a Table where I am presenting the "amount" of data I am sending and receiving. Something like this

Sent           Sent stuff       Received     Received stuff
From 1 to 2       X Mb        In 1 from 2        X Mb
From 1 to 3       X Mb        In 1 from 3        X Mb
From 1 to 4       X Mb        In 1 from 4        X Mb
From 2 to 1       X Mb        In 2 from 1        X Mb
From 2 to 3       X Mb        In 2 from 3        X Mb
From 2 to 4       X Mb        In 2 from 4        X Mb

But I am not sure whether I should use "In # from #" or "In # to #" in the  "Received" column.


texts: Is there any difference between "anyone" and "any one"?

texts: When I read books in English, I see sometimes there is a space between "any" and "one" and sometimes there is not any space. So, what is the difference between "anyone" and "any one"?


texts: Where the sentence begins, “The portion of the Deposit, if any,” does “if any” apply to portion or Deposit? Emphasis in original

texts: Where the sentence follows an election to chose between the deposit or another mutually independent remedy, does the  wording “if any” in “The portion of the Deposit, if any, . . .” apply to portion or Deposit? (Emphasis in original.)


texts: Do we have "blades of hay" like "blades of grass"?

texts:
Grass comes in blades - the elongated foils, or leaves, growing out of the ground. Now, if we cut our grass and dry it, we've got hay. Obviously (?) there aren't "leaves of hay"; but what do we call the individual pieces of hay, which used to be blades/leaves of grass? Are they "blades of hay"? Something else?

Edit: I just can't decide between two quite reasonable and attractive options; I don't feel it's for me to choose one of these over the other, really...


texts: Which is better grammar: "courteous of" or "courteous to"?

texts:
I saw this in a document today, and was wondering about which usage is more appropriate.

  Please be courteous of others

vs

  Please be courteous to others

I've seen it both ways. Is one correct, or more appropriate for certain situations?


texts: I have confusion about “Present Indefinite Tense”. I have learned that in case of “He, she, it and name” we will add s or es to verb. In some sentences I see that for non-living things also s is added to verb and sometimes for non-living thing verb is without s. I have no clear concept about this point. your guidance will be appreciated thanks


texts:
The original text:

  A gentleman is, rather than does. He is interested in nothing in a
  professional way. He is allowed to cultivate hobbies, even
  eccentricities, but must not practise a vocation. He must know how to
  ride and shoot and cast a fly. He should have relatives in the army
  and navy and at least one connection in the diplomatic service. But
  there are weaknesses in the English gentleman’s ability to rule us
  today. He usually knows nothing of political economy and less about
  how foreign countries are governed. He does not respect learning and
  prefers ’sport ’. The problem set for society is not the virtues of
  the type so much as its adequacy for its function, and here grave
  difficulties arise. He refuses to consider sufficiently the wants of
  the customer, who must buy, not the thing he desires but the thing the
  English gentleman wants to sell.

My question are about the last sentence. I've numerated my questions as below.

  He[1] refuses to consider sufficiently the wants of the customer, who must buy[2], not the thing [3] he[4] desires but the thing the English gentleman wants to sell.

[1] He refers to the gentleman, right?

[2] "who must buy" is the non-restrictive clause for "the customer"

[4] "he" refers to "the customer" here.

[3] How is "not the thing he desires" related to other parts in the sentence (ignoring the parallel "but the thing..." part afterwards)?


texts: Does this sound natural? "We'd like to have any opportunity"

texts:
We'd like to have any opportunity we can to perform on stage.

Does this sentence sound natural and idiomatic?

And if you have any, please suggest me a better alternative. Thank you so much.


texts: Is this an inversion? To V should S be . .

texts:
As always, while reading through I found a sentence whose structure confused me.

What I want to know is whether the first sentence is the inversion form of the second sentence.

  1. If the reason was to avoid bad publicity should his error be discovered, then . . .

  2. If the reason was his error be discovered to avoid bad publicity, then . . .

If not, how should I interpret the first sentence?

Thanks.


texts: Example of a Verb that is NOT a participle

texts:
I am confused about what a "participle" is.   Wiki defines it as:  "A participle (ptcp) is a form of a verb that is used in a sentence to modify a noun, noun phrase, verb, or verb phrase, and plays a role similar to an adjective or adverb."  Quote is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participle.

My confusion is that I cannot imagine a sentence where a verb is not modifying a noun, noun phrase, verb, etc.

I think my confusion would go away if someone could give me a sentence where a verb is NOT a participle.


texts: What do they mean saying "thumping through the brush"?

texts:
I came across a phrase given by Lennon during his bed-in session. Here is the context

  Also, of course, we live with rattlesnakes.
  You just can’t go thumping through the brush, thinking of what
  you’re going to do tomorrow. You have to realize that you’re intruding
  on their territory.

What does go thumping through the brush mean?


texts:
What is the etymology of dropped -n in ancient (Greek masculine) names ending with -on?
I mean Plato, Pluto, etc.

Curiously, the "n" is still preserved in derived words, like platonic or plutonic.

Another observation that may be related is that some non-Greek ancient names seemed to acquire -n in languages other than English, e.g., Cato becoming Caton.


texts:
Can tightrope be used as a verb? Or is it strictly a noun?

Example from my work in progress:

  As most young children do, I acted upon the irresistible urge to tightrope, on top of the cobblestone.

If so, is 'tightrope' the correct spelling for the verb form or should it be hyphenated, like 'tight-rope'.


texts:
Is there an English word that describes mentioning something just for the sake of mentioning it but it's completely impractical?
Like let's say I say, "we should probably take a more holistic approach, I think it'll give us a lot of new ideas." Except that holistic approach would take 10 more years so we just never end up doing it, and we know we'd never do it, but I mentioned it anyway just for "shoulda" purposes. I think I mention it because maybe we should consider some details from a more holistic approach, but not the entire thing.
Perhaps in simpler terms, mentioning something someone "should do" but knowingly that they would never actually do it to it's fullest extent, but should at least consider?
I hope my explanation makes sense, thanks in advance.


texts: Difference between contract and catch [a disease]

texts:
What could be the difference between contracting a disease and catching a disease?

I know there isn't any big difference. However, it looks like there are some diseases you can both catch and contract and others you can only either catch or contract.


texts:
Which one is the correct sentence?
Teaching maths at BSc level.
OR
Teaching maths to BSc level.
Edit:
Just to further clarify the situation. In my CV i need to write below job's responsibilities. Which one is the correct use
   Teach maths at/to BSc level
OR
teaching maths at/to BSc level.


texts: Am about to produce a series of videos on the same subject, but unrelated. Is it "#1 of a series" or "#1 in a series"? Or am I just over thinking this.


texts: What kind of rhyme is "pan" and "screen"?

texts:
I know there're various types of rhyme in English, such as slant rhyme.
There're also things called assonance and consonance.

I plan to rhyme "pan" with "screen".

Essentially two monosyllabic words ending with "n".

Obviously this is imperfect rhyme at best.

Is there a linguistic term to describe this type of pairing?
If so, what is it called?

Thank you.


texts: Word(s) describing the sound of wet snow flakes (slowly) falling on snow?

texts: Looking for a word accurately describing the sound of wet snow flakes (slowly) falling on snow? Here is an audio sample of a variation thereof(sound system warning: start with low gain or use headphones). Note this doesn't exhibit the same properties as sleet or small ice pellets falling, which is dryer and shorter a sound. I'm trying to make a sentence such as I'm listening to the ...ing sound of the snow falling... An adjective would also work.


texts: Why do we omit preposition before 'these days'?

texts:
We usually say 'in those days'. Eg: In those days, his life was miserable.
When we say 'these days', usually,  we don't use preposition before it.
Eg: These days he is very busy.
Can anyone explain accurately where we need to use preposition and where we need not.


texts: Any idea how the moderately gruesome phrase iron out bugs originated? It brings a wonderfully vivid picture to my mind's eye!


texts: I keep on hearing people referring to the 'hammer' in the chat rooms, and just generally everywhere (not necessarily on this or other SE sites, even in every day life), so what is this 'hammer'? I hear phrases being thrown around like the mod-hammer and give them the hammer, but what is this 'hammer'? I don't understand... Is there a general meaning for it? Or are there some common meanings for it? I really have no idea what this so called 'hammer' is about...


texts: Is "Onwards!" a correct single word sentence meaning "continue" or  "carry on"? Do you know any quotes with it?


texts: usage of "the" with non restrictive appositive

texts:
Why are "the" sometimes used with non restrictive appositive. For example:

  Kate, the well-known actress, has gone to Italy.

"The well-known actress" is additional information, so I supposse It has to be" Kate, a well known actress, has gone to Italy.


texts: Does one include a comma after the last proposition in a list of multiple preposition-verb pairs

texts:
Should I do this:

  The developers are less experienced in, or passionate about, UX.

Or should I remove the last comma:

  The developers are less experienced in, or passionate about UX.

This answer seems to imply that the latter form is best but I feel that the former reads better. Is this feeling mistaken?


texts: What's a sophisticated synonym for "cooking"?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that essentially means "to cook" but sounds fancy and sophisticated. What synonyms are there?

Edit:

As for context, I'm thinking of a restaurant setting.


texts: "...like traffic lights which had gone mad" or "...have gone mad"?

texts:
Shall I use "have" or "had" in this sentence:

  These lights flickered continuously like traffic lights which had/have gone mad.


texts: Rule for when to use "thin" versus "narrow"

texts:
My 5-year-old asked this morning if you would say a road was "thin" or "narrow". We had no difficulty telling her she should use "narrow" in that case, but couldn't explain why.

We found it impossible to come up with a definitive rule-of-thumb or set of rules-of-thumb that didn't have too many obvious exceptions. And yet it does seem like there is a reasonable general agreement on which adjectives are appropriate/best in which circumstances. Are people just learning every individual instance, or are there actual sensible correlations?

There are some interesting theories in this discussion but nothing citing any references, and no real conclusion was drawn.

So why might a thin person have a narrow waist? (ngram) *

Or why can pipes be either thin or narrow, but straws in general not? (ngram)

etc.

* I also wonder what happened circa 1980 that accounts for the huge increase in "narrow waist"!


texts: What is the etymology of the term "form factor"?

texts:
I'm a theoretical physicist, and am doing some work on quantities called form factors. To an expert, a form factor says something about scattering particles from fields. This probably originated from the idea of an atomic form factor encoding the size and shape of an atom you're trying to scatter particles off. This interpretation now corresponds to typical usage in the computer industry, where form factors refer to size and shape of components.

My question is this - who came up with the term "form factor", and why does it mean size and shape? I can't help thinking that it's a rather arcane name!

Edit

I've got a new theory - can anyone back this up? One of the first people to properly understand the transmission of light between surfaces was Lambert, in his book Photometria. In that volume (1760) he determined the fraction of light from one surface which was received by another surface, effectively a factor corresponding to the form (shape) of the surfaces. I reckon that some time after this the term "form factor" was used to describe this result, which would have been pretty famous. This became later corrupted by use in forestry, ballistics and high energy physics. Unfortunately I can't get hold of the book, nor (which would be more useful) the first English translation.


texts: Two cultures — "bicultural", one culture —?

texts: I am looking for a word that means that somebody only has one culture. For example, somebody immigrating from Country 1 to Country 2 would be bicultural. What is someone who has only one culture. I thought unicultural but I don't think that is correct.


texts: What do you call those high areas that give you a full view of the city?

texts:
A place where you could sit and see something like this (with a fall if you step further):

(Not looking for a technical term, just a common one).


texts: How to form possessive from "belongs to X (preposition) Y"

texts:
This is none's of us business.

Everyone's in the room pockets were empty.

The car isn't anyone's from this town.

Are the sentences correct? If not, how should they be phrased correctly?


texts: Is there any proverb in English for people that are friends with us in good moments of life but leave us alone in difficult times ?


texts: What do you call it when a belief or idea is held to be true only because it is repeatedly stated as true, whether or not it is true?

texts: word or phase for a belief or idea that is adopted or more firmly held based on hearing it repeatedly, as in an idea that is at first rejected and later adopted because the number of times the idea is presented.


texts: Familiar form of address for a young, subordinate, woman that connotes respect (Female equivalent to 'Son')

texts:
A(n often male) paternal figure could use the term 'son' in a fatherly way without referring to his biological Son.

Imagine a man has been verbally abused by a customer at work. His manger might say to him:

  Come here son, I have something to tell you
  about rude customers

Emphasis on the word I want gender-swapped

Is there a feminine equivalent for a subordinate that you respect?

From TFD

  son  (sŭn)
  n.
   1. One's male child.
   2. A male descendant.
   3. A man considered as if in a relationship of child to parent: a son of the soil.
   4. One personified or regarded as a male descendant.
   5. Used as a familiar form of address for a young man.
   6. Son Christianity The second person of the Trinity.

Is there an equivalent for talking to a woman in a fatherly way?

The equivalent for TFD entry for daughter does not qualify it as 'familiar'

  (often capital) a form of address for a girl or woman

Further more often such 'father-daughter' language patterns are negative, dismissive and lack respect.


texts: What is the origin of the idiom "tearing hair out"?

texts: What is the origin of the idiom "tearing hair out" or "pulling my hair out"?


texts: Iambic Tetrameter - does it pertain to poems? Or to lines?

texts:
I'm reading a poem in which the odd lines use iambic tetrameter but the even lines have only seven syllables. Each verse has four lines of 8,7,8,7.
Something like this:
De dum, de dum, de dum, de dum,   <— 8 syllables
De dum, de dum, de DUM DUM        <— 7 syllables

My question is in two parts.

When we talk of iambic tetrameter, can the phrase refer to a particular line or does it necessarily refer to the whole verse or even poem?
Would it be inaccurate to refer to this poem as in iambic tetrameter? Is there a better name for this rhythm?

Thanks!


texts: Is "Starts out/off well" an idiomatic expression?

texts: In the context of a greeting card, would it be idiomatic to say, "Hope [noun] starts out/off well," or is this awkward?


texts: What's the difference between notorious and infamous?

texts: Are these two words synonymous or is there any nuance between these two words? Though they are used synonymously in sentences and also followed by the same preposition "for". I want to be expertly responded to these nuances with reference to their adequate collocations.


texts:
When we use since and for in the present perfect and in the past simple
e.g. He lived here next door to me for three years.

why didn't we use has lived or has been living?


texts: Chomsky: "John is too clever to expect us to catch"

texts:
This is one of several sentences Chomsky uses to make a point. The point itself is not my concern, but something which is much humbler - how does the following interpretation come about?

There are two sentences:

John is too clever to expect us to catch Bill.
John is too clever to expect us to catch.

Now, I understand (1), that "John is clever enough to think that we cannot catch Bill". But Chomsky says about (2) in his words, "John is so clever that an arbitrary person cannot expect us to catch him (John)".
How come? How does this arbitrary person get in?

I'm not a native speaker of English but I just don't get it. It's like some weird maths thing that I'm incapable of grasping; and that's scary.

Can someone give some other instances of the exact structure?


texts:
Which expression is better? Which is right? Why?

  A. Sorry to disturb you at weekend.

  B. Sorry to disturb you on weekend.

  C. Sorry to disturb you at weekends.

  D. Sorry to disturb you on weekends.

  E. Sorry to disturb you at the weekend.

  F. Sorry to disturb you on the weekend.

  G. Sorry to disturb you at the weekends.

  H. Sorry to disturb you on the weekends.


texts: What is a single word describing a person who opposes another, yet is of equal status to them?

texts: Can anyone give me a single word describing a person that is equal to somebody in status but an opponent to them at the same time?


texts:
I increasingly encounter people who misuse "whenever" when they really mean "when":

  Whenever I first came to St. Louis, I lived with my Aunt Judy...

Bugs me to death. Obviously they are talking about a one-time event, not "every time I visited St. Louis", which would be a valid use of "whenever".

Is this a common misuse? Is this a regional thing (St. Louis, MO, USA)? This isn't a valid alternate use, is it?


texts: When to use "pricier" and when to use "costlier"?

texts:
Pricier or Costlier?
Which is appropriate and for when?

Example sentence: The documentation says "managed disks" are costlier than "un-managed disks"
The documentation says "managed disks" are pricier than "un-managed disks"

The documentation says "managed disks" are more expensive than "un-managed disks"

Price in this example is per month instead of a one time payment, in which case I think "more expensive" might be the best fit.


texts: which of the following is correct to use?

texts:
I'm confused about which one to use. Is it the first or second?
Let's see exactly how this process is working.
or
let's see how this process is working exactly.


texts: Is there a hypernym for "horizontal" and "vertical"?

texts:
If I want to speak of North, South, East, West in a general sense I could, for example, use the term cardinal direction.

Which term is appropriate to sum up horizontal and vertical in the same manner?


texts:
Dear fellow linguists,

I have been researching the origins of the spurious word "yeet"

Various studies have returned the root word "yeetus," however this does not provide any further clarification

Please can you provide any background knowledge you have on the subject

Many thanks


texts: Origin of the idiom "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts"?

texts:
I’m interested in the origin of the idiom:

  If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

When was it first used? Is this the original idiom, or was there an older version? Furthermore, how should its meaning be interpreted?


texts: Is there a rule as to when I use "more" in a sentence or "-er"? For example, "I think it would be more fun/funner if we stayed home tonight." I know the correct usage in this sentence but is there a general rule to follow?


texts: I was answering a question at ELL and used the phrase "dead giveaway" and thought that it might not be clear to a non-native speaker. This thought lead me to wonder, where did we get that phrase. I searched a little on Google, but did not find an answer.


texts: What does the word "respectively" mean in software development?

texts:
C# Textreader and TextWriter are the another way to read and write file respectively...

  I added a text box and button I called tbUpdate and btUpdate respectively...

  In the right hand column, we’ll use three TextBlocks; the first and third as fixed labels (with the values Likeability: and % respectively)...

  WorkerSupportsProgress and WorkerSupportsCancellation which hold true/false values that let the backgroundworker report progress or cancel an async progress respectively...

While learning many the many different aspects of development, I have not come across a book or series where the word respectively is not used in explaining an example. Honestly I guess it's implied that we know what it means. To me I always kind of skim over it because I can usually figure out what they're saying through the surrounding context. Can anyone explain this?


texts:
How do I determine a statement versus a question in dialogue?
I wrote this sentence:"Brad, you know the rules for leaving your cabin at night.”

“How could I forget.”

The charming camp owner told campers that the quickest way to be sent home was so leave the cabin at night.

I meant to write it as more of a statement and not use a question mark, but I'm questioning whether it should have a question mark.


texts: Which is the correct preposition for the end of "pride myself" (is it "on", "at", or "in")?

texts:
as in "I pride myself on my ability to speak Klingon and Romulan in the appropriate accents."

Which is the correct preposition for the end of that expression?


texts: What is the expression for when somebody directs a question to you but somebody else answers before you?


texts: Do I use is/are with measurements and time?

texts:
EX:

There is/are 12 months in year
There is/are 60 minutes in an hour
etc.


texts: Use of the term "Cowardly Act" in regards to violence

texts:
I've noticed a trend for American leaders to use the word "cowardly" to describe acts of violence:

Obama: Navy Yard Shootings “Cowardly Act” - in reference to the Sep 2013 DC Navy Yard shooting
"Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts" - George W Bush, Sep 12, 2001; referring to the 9/11 terrorist attaches
"It’s such a cowardly act — whoever did this." - Tagg Romney, Apr 16, 2013; referring to the Boston Marathon Bombings

I'm trying to figure out what, exactly, is meant in this context. Let me make it clear that there is no doubt in my mind that the events referenced above are all horrendous and abhorrent. I'm just trying to figure out if describing them as "cowardly" is appropriate.

Cowardly (According Merriam Webster):

  afraid in a way that makes you unable to do what is right or expected : lacking courage

The part that jumps out at me is "lacking courage":

Courage:

  the ability to do something that frightens one.

Are we to agree that the perpetrators of the events lacked courage? It seems to me that they did not lack courage because each of the acts involved something that is likely to frighten the perpetrator (and therefore cannot be called cowardly).

Am I missing the real meaning of the phrase, or perhaps, just thinking about it too much? I'll admit that my initial interpretation is that it has something to do with being "unmanly" in that it could be perceived that the perpetrators didn't face their "enemies" straight on. But it still doesn't seem correct.


texts: The reasoning behind omitting "the" in "I'm (the) president of the United States."

texts:
I understand you can say either

  I'm president of the United States.

or

  I'm the president of the United States.

I also know of a rule that you may omit "the" in front of a title, position, etc.

Since the omission does not seem to depend on the style of the text, I'd like to know what is the reasoning behind such a usage and rule.

Is it because you tend to consider a title something like a proper noun?


texts: "You can pick up the keys on/at the reception desk"

texts:
You can pick up the keys (on/at) the reception desk.

The website where I'm learning English says it's at. But is it OK to use on here?


texts: What do you call something that's newly acquired but not new in general?

texts: If my friend recently buys a classic car, how could I say "this is his new car" speaking only of it as a newly acquired car and not giving the impression that the car itself is new (i.e., has 0 miles on it)?


texts: Adjectives after noun: " in a layer high"

texts:
I can't figure it out why we put 'high' after noun 'layer'. What does it mean? When can we use adjectives after nouns? Is there any difference in the meaning if we swap the position of the adjective and noun in the example above?

  ozone
  a form of oxygen that is found in a layer high in the earth's
  atmosphere.
  Merriam-Webster


texts: Adjective word or phrase to mean "We built it for ourselves"

texts: I'm having a bit of a block here. I'm trying to describe a piece of machinery. It doesn't exist anywhere else. We didn't build it, but we designed it to maximize our productivity. It only exists in our factories. How can I describe that machinery? I thought of proprietary machinery but it's much more than just proprietary. How can I refer to this concept?


texts: What does ‘Need a turn on the butcher’s block’ mean in cutting down the U.S. Government spending?

texts:
I came across a phrase a turn on the butcher’s block in the following sentence appearing in an article of Time Magazine (Dec. 19, 2010 issue) titled Can Washington Tackle Its Deficit Cows.
I know how butcher’s block looks like with pictures, and I understand Washington must touch on big chunk of deficit sources. But what does this figurative expression need a turn on the butcher’s block really mean?
Can somebody teach me?

  The list of reasons for our looming economic disaster is long: a tax-cutting and spending spree when economic times were good; the financial crisis, with its blow to tax revenues and massive spending in response; two long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are also plenty of ways we can get out of hock.
  The Bowles-Simpson plan has spotlighted some of our government's long-standing sacred cows — ones that may finally need a turn on the butcher's block. Here are three of the most expensive ...
   —Spending on Military Machine, Social Security, and The American Dream Subsidy


texts: Is the title "Born a crime" grammatically correct? I thought it should have been "Born a criminal" or "Born into a crime".


texts: I am knowledgeable about several topics - a phrase/adjective to describe this with respect to the topics?

texts:
I am writing a paper and I am lost for a phrase to describe the set of topics a person is knowledgeable about.
For example: "If someone knows about topic A and also knows about topic B, then topics A and B are [phrase relating the topics and the user's state of knowing]."


texts: The word you'd use to describe a 1940's middle school where kids would be spanked for not having the proper haircut or tucking in their shirts. Not "strict", because strict implies necessary discipline.


texts:
I'm trying to say something like "The liberals of US are in tears today over (a political news)".
I want to shorten it to "The left are in tears".
However when I google for that phrase, I see that nobody ever used this sentence. Could you please help me rephrase that?


texts: Technical term for "copy-catting nature"

texts: There is a term for copy-catting nature for practical situations such as cars, systems, etc. For example an engineering project where some part is designed according to bird wing. This methodology of using nature as a model for something has some technical name but I cannot remember it now. What is it?


texts: Is this correct way of replying with available dates for an interview

texts:
I trying to reply for an email with my available dates and times for the interview

"I'm available on the dates and times mentioned below. Please let me know if any of them works for you."

Does this suffice (or) Is there a better/shorter way I can reply?


texts: Is the following title correct? Document streams Segmentation and Classification

texts:
"Document streams Segmentation and Classification"

What I mean by this title is that i have a stream or a flow of documents and i want to separate these documents and classify them into for example insurance, receipt documents.

Does it sound correct in english?

Thank you.