texts: Definite article or none in "...at Taipei Zoo" or "... at the Taipei Zoo"?

texts:
"Come see the baby panda, Yuan Zai, at Taipei Zoo"
  "Come see the baby panda, Yuan Zai, at the Taipei Zoo."

In my opinion it should be the second choice. It belongs to a specific location and also follows what I would classify as an enclosed garden like environment, which are typically fronted by an article: e.g. "the botanical gardens". I can find examples of websites using both structures. In America there are also a number of examples of zoos following both patterns: Brookfield Zoo, also known as the Chicago Zoological Park.

Is there a pattern to follow here?


texts: What would you call the "colleagues" of someone in a cohort (specifically educational context)?

texts:
If the cohort was an employer, colleague would be correct, but what might the equivalent for a cohort in an educational sense?

  "I find the degree's coursework challenging, as do my ______________ (colleagues?)."


texts: Correct preposition to go with "inquiry"?

texts:
I'm trying to figure out which preposition to use together with "inquiry". For example, take the following sentence:

  I have asked Bob, but he doesn't know.

Now I'd like to express the same using "inquiry":

  A previous inquiry [insert correct preposition here] Bob did not yield any new insights.

What is the correct choice? If the object was an institution I'd probably use "at", but that doesn't sound right for a person.


texts: I have a problem but don't know how to ask for help

texts:
There are lots of words that I could use here.  Flummoxed, Stuck, Perplexed, Lost, etc.

But is there a word or short phrase that actually means (or is a good fit for): a situation where in attempting to solve a problem, due to a lack of understanding, big-picture-clarity or knowledge-of-subject-specific-terminology, you aren't yet able to articulate/express the problem well enough to effectively seek or ask for help?

Person 1: Why don't you just google it?

Person 2: Because I'm still [fundamentally stuck for reasons I don't understand and can't explain]

I have a few perfectly cromulent Geordie phrases for this but they are little known, and not appropriate for polite conversation.


texts: What is the term for when somebody answers your question with the same phrase as your question

texts: For example, I would say "Why is this thing popular?" And someone else responds with "Because it is popular." What is that type of answer called? I've heard the term before but I can't remember. Another example is "How do I operate this machine?" Response, "By operating it."


texts: Expression/idiom for lecturing an expert as a novice

texts: As in the title, I'm looking for an expression/idiom where a novice tries to lecture an expert on their field of expertise.


texts: Where is the term "Mate" from, and why is it used only in certain areas

texts:
Also any linguists approaches or theories on the lexical term mate will be appreciated.
When I say mate I am referring to the term when speaking of a friend.


texts: Question from Lesson 24, A skeleton in the cupboard, New Concept English 3

texts:
In the Lesson 24, 'A skeleton in the cupboard', there is a question in the Structure section.
The question is:

The only person I have ever known ___ a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton.
a) he had
b) of having
c) that he has
d) to have

The only relevant content is 'The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very proud of the fact.'
There's no explanation about the answer. I think:
a) Wrong. There will be two subjects, 'the only person' 'he'. This is a typical error in writing.
b) I don't understand it. The word 'of' seems unnecessary here.
c) It's a that-clause and modifies 'person'. However, 'he' makes the clause fail to meet the purpose.
d) The only expression I could recall is "be known to do sth." But there's no 'be' in this opinion.
The answer is d) to have.
I don't get it. Why d is the right choice? Please explain this to me.


texts: What is the top of a pearl pendant called?

texts:
For example the top of the pendant in the link below:

top of a pearl pendant


texts: What is a phrase for movie theaters that show few-month-old movies at discount rates?

texts:
These are theaters that charge maybe $3-$5 for tickets and show movies that are 3-6 months old. I don't know of any that are "big chains" like AMC.

I've heard them described as "discount theaters", but I also feel like (or remember?) there's a slightly more poetic, wistful term for them. Almost as if you were describing the location of your first date in the beginnings of high school


texts: When is the omission of relative pronouns acceptable?

texts:
So I learned that I tend to forget and unconsciously omit relative pronouns from my sentences, because apart from the fact that the meaning of some clauses without them remain clear and obvious, I find that relative pronouns make sentences superfluous.
Instead of writing “the meat that are chilling in the freezer are spoiled”, I write “the meat chilling in the freezer are spoiled.” Or, “I believe it's true” instead of “I believe that it's true.”
I find that many people do this, too. At first, I thought it's grammatically incorrect and is not acceptable in formal writing, but I recently came across a professional article that did the same thing. I'm just wondering whether it was a mistake or the editors deliberately left it that way because it's not really incorrect.
So my question is, is the omission of relative pronouns acceptable? Or better yet, are relative pronouns always necessary?


texts: What are other ways to express "something becomes more and more important"?

texts: For example, if I would like to use the word "importance", how can I make the sentence?


texts: What date range is being referred to when someone says {date} is in the first week of {month}?

texts:
Conversely, what about: {date} is in the last week of {month}?

Is the first week of April the first week that is entirely in April or is it the first week that contains the first of April? Of course this all changes when considering whether the start of the week is Sunday or Monday.

There may not even be an "answer". In that case I'm interested in the most common usage.

Edit:

This SO post and this mailing list are what have caused me to call the meaning into question in the first place.


texts: Going to the seaside and going to the sea

texts:
The British say "go to the seaside" (meaning I'm going to spend some time at the beach, swim, sunbathe etc.) It's like "going to the mountains" or "going to the lake."
However, I once heard an Aussie saying: "I'm going to the sea" not the "seaside" meaning the same.

My question: Are both possible and common?
How about Americans?
As far as I know Americans don't "go to the seaside" because they do not live in a small seaside country.
So an American would say "go/take on vacation at the beach" or just "I'm going to Hawaii" "I'm going to the lake and so on.
Am I right?
Or maybe "going to the sea/seaside" is a phrase used by Americans as well?
I remember I read a Canadian text once that used this phrase.
Please leave your comments.


texts: I cannot understand "saying mass" means in the sentence "Pope Francis conferred sainthood on Óscar Romero, an archbishop who was murdered in 1980 while saying mass by an army-backed death squad in El Salvador."? Can anyone help explain it? Thanks!


texts: Is there a term for a group 'owning' a previous insult?

texts:
Is there a term or word for the process of a group of people taking (or attempting to) an insulting word/phrase and making it their own? I'm thinking about something more than normalization or desensitization but more of a process of almost making it part of their identity.

For example, 'queer' and 'gay' used to be insulting terms for homosexual people. However now it is included in the LGBTQ acronym. On the flip side, 'Faggot' is still insulting and no attempt has been made to 'own' it.

To a lesser extent the word 'nigger' has been taken on and used by various people in songs etc. I believe someone tried to trademark the word 'nigga' as a brand name for genuine business purposes. The attempts to 'own' this insulting word have been less successful than 'queer'.

What is the word or term for this process?


texts: Dangling Participle? Confusing parenthetical commas? Incomplete sentence?

texts:
In this excerpt, is the second sentence grammatically correct?

  The painting, Woman In Red Hat, was inspired by her son's art selections while on a trip to Vancouver together. Which particular artwork it was an interpretation of, however, is lost to memory.

(Woman In Red Hat was introduced earlier as an artwork with that title.
The entire subject of the article is about the artist who made the painting, so 'her' is pretty well understood. Sorry for not making the context clear.)

My critics are ok with the ambiguity of who was on the Vancouver trip, but have some qualms about a 'dangling participle' in the next sentence that I do not see.

I changed it to the following. I like the first version, though.

  Woman In A Red Hat was inspired by her son's art selections while on a trip to Vancouver together, though which particular artwork it was an interpretation of is lost to memory.


texts: What's a word for a thing that something can be an instance of?

texts:
Think parent, or meta. Something along those lines. How can the relationship between production and product be described?

You could write an article about a specific product, or production in general. Or bananas and banana trees. The difference between thinking about an apple and thinking about thought.

In other words, if a is an instance of b, what is b of a? Parent comes to mind, but that's from programming. What word could you use that's immediately obvious and understandable to non-programmers?


texts: Is there an idiom for "Your decision can change at the last moment"

texts:
In Turkish there is an idiom for this that says:

  When the bride is going to wedding place, she says "let's see what happens"

This means people's choices can change at the very last moment and that this is normal.

Is there an English idiom for this?


texts: In the 2011 film “bad teacher”, there is an exchange between several characters

texts:
Squirrel: I am so excited we're gonna be across-the-hall mates. But I'm so sad… it's because your relationship ended.
  Elizabeth: Who are you again?
  Squirrel: Amy Squirrel.
  Elizabeth: Squirrel?
  Squirrel: Yeah, you know. Don't worry, you were… kind of a lone wolf last year and so… busy planning the… wedding…
  Elizabeth: I found him in bed with somebody else.
  Squirrel:  Oh my Gosh!
  Elizabeth: It was a another man.
  Squirrel: Shut the front door! Look… I know you kinda skated by last year, doing the bare minimum thing… but I just wanna say, now you're back, I just know you are gonna get your teaching on.

So what does Squirrel mean by “Don't worry, you were… kind of a lone wolf last year and so… busy planning the… wedding”, and “Look… I know you kinda skated by last year, doing the bare minimum thing”?


texts: How do I correctly place "the" in the following sentence?

texts:
Which of the following two sentences is grammatically more appropriate? If the sentence needs commas, do also let me know.

"The analysis shows that the most important parameter affecting conductor temperature and hence power was the ambient temperature."

"The analysis shows that the most important parameter affecting the conductor temperature and hence the power was the ambient temperature."


texts: How commonly used / understood is the "BR" signature?

texts:
In Finland, in informal correspondence over email in English I often see the acronym "BR" or "Br" used in the signature before the name, and I've seen some people from at least Germany do the same. I believe this is an acronym for "Best Regards", but many acronym lists omit it. 1

How widely used / understood is this acronym? Are there specific geographical regions where it's common? Does usage of it in a signature stand out as weird for some audiences?

Br,
Sampo J.

1 For example AcronymFinder has it (among 123 alternative definitions), while Wikipedia doesn't.


texts: Omitting "that is/that are" and "its/their"

texts:
The two works are similar and it is not just because they are both
from franchises (that are) notorious for (their) poorly-written
characters.

Is it acceptable to omit the "that are" in the above sentence, and if so, what is doing so called?
Similarly, is it acceptable to omit the "their", and if so, what is doing so called?
My gut tells me yes to both, because it "sounds fine." However, why then does omitting those words sound so wrong in the following examples?

The two works are similar and it is not just because they are both
from franchises (that are) notorious.
The two franchises are notorious for (their) badness.


texts: Where does the phrase “run code” or “run software” come from? Why “run”?

texts:
Historically speaking, it makes sense to me someone would say run "the computer". Early computers (not a human computer) were mechanical machines with moving parts that could achieve a velocity deemed "running" from the perspective of a human being. I don't know for sure if that is the reason why, but that seems plausible.

But why run the "program", "code" or "software"?


texts: Is this phrase gramatically correct? [sb] found [sb]to not only have a [] but able to [] due to [] and []

texts:
For example: [Amy] found [Bob] to not only have a [good sense of humour] but able to [do other impressive things] due to [Bob's personality] and [wealth]

The above is just a random example where I filled in the blanks. The structure I wanted to ask if it was grammatically correct is in the title.

See, I'm a native speaker of English and I used this structure in passing when writing to a friend (ESL learner) who says I'm wrong to use it like that, whereas I think it sounds right, but can't explain why.

Help pls? Thx guys.


texts: Is the word "midst" still in common usage?

texts:
In written and spoken English, including today's publications and everyday conversations, is the word midst still in common usage, particularly the phrase, in the midst of? Or has it been replaced by middle (at least in common usage), such as the phrase, in the middle of.

Are there any meaningful distinctions between midst and middle, or between the phrases I cite above? Or is it mostly a matter of style? Is one more dated and old-fashioned than the other? Is midst no longer fashionable?

I notice that the ESV uses midst in Genesis 1:6, so this is at least one piece of evidence that the word is still fashionable, at least in written documents that are relatively recent. But I would be curious to see its usage elsewhere.


texts:
I am reading the following article:

  Nelson, T., Maxfield, S., & Kolb, D. (2009). Women entrepreneurs and
  venture capital: Managing the shadow negotiation. International
  Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 1(1), 57–76.
  https://doi.org/10.1108/17566260910942345

One of the persons interviewed in the article said

  For Jenny: (Among men with a certain, shared background), There is a
  certain uberbond.

What does "uberbond" mean? I searched on Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, Merriam-Webster dictionary with no avail


texts: What is the word which is used as a verb which describes the action where a superhero, such as Batman, stands on the top of a building and watches over the city, so that he can find out where crimes are taking place?


texts: Is there any alternative word for "sex" other than "gender"?

texts:
So, I tried looking up synonyms for "sex," and it's a good laugh. But in all seriousness, I'm looking for a word to indicate a persons biological sex (as in chromosomes) which will not cause confusion.

The problem with the word sex is that it really reads like intercourse a lot more than chromosomes.  It's also prone to creating distraction in the reader.

The problem with the word gender, is that it's kind of in a grey zone where it can (and historically was) used to mean sex, but now it's sort of confusing and touchy to many.

There are ways to use extra words to clearly get the idea across (ie "Biological Sex").  This is really wordy after a while.

Another thought was to use "M/F," but it reads pretty technical. (eg. "Her M/F was F").  Also, in the context of transexual people, the terms M2F and F2M are already in use... so I can see more confusion coming in there.

Is there any alternative word for [biological] "sex" other than "gender"?

My particular example is that I have a form with big bold words above each field.  One of the fields is:

  Gender: [ some input   ]

I tried changing it to sex, and it becomes confusing and I don't like have the word "Sex" in big bold letters, standing alone on the page.  It really does not read right.

  Sex: [ some input ]

While the confusion from Sex is not okay to me, confusion from a new word is.  New word confusion may pass, but context defined words are always going to be a hassle.

EDIT: I should also mention, beyond using it in the form, I'd like all of my code to be able to use the same wording.  So while "Biological Sex" would work for just the form, it's not great for naming a column in a database and typing over an over again.  For what it's worth, I'm currently using sexes and singular sexe in the code.  It works, but sexe is not a real word.

EDIT 2: Please attempt to imagine a scenario in which needing this word might exist.  Not everybody will agree on what scenario would, but from my perspective, it would be really helpful to have a word.


texts: Can "Chauvinists" and "elitist" be same?

texts:
I was going through GRE vocabulary on magoosh app and it is stated that both have same meaning but clearly

  Chauvinist : a person displaying aggressive or exaggerated patriotism.

And

  Elitist: relating to or supporting the view that a society or system should be led by an elite.

which doesn't feel same to me.

Can someone please clarify?


texts: Meaning of "How'd you know?": "would", "did", or "do"?

texts:
Does the question "How'd you know" mean:

  How do you know?
  How did you know?
  How would you?


texts:
time-sensitive documents, goods, articles or cargo

In the phrase reproduced above, does it mean that only documents are time-sensitive or does time-sensitive apply to goods, articles and cargo as well?


texts:
I'm translating an English book into my native language. I've come across a sentence which I can't seem to understand (the part in bold). I'd appreciate it if you could clarify it for me.
Reference: A Literature of Their Own by Showalter Elaine

By eliminating from his definition of the novel all the qualities he could not bring himself to see in women, Ludlow could accept even his
own response to women's novels without having to modify any of his
stereotypes. So intent was he on showing the perfect compatability of
the stereotype and the product that he could dismiss the question of
"expressing feeling in written words" as the merest trick of the
literate.

Link to the original text: https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/womens-literature-19th-century-british-women-writers


texts: There are words where we say A as  Ai, and say A as Ah. First I thought there were some sentences where it sounds better then the other. However, when Koreans say Amen they say it as "Ah-men", and I keep hearing Americans say it as "Ai-men". What is the reason for this?


texts:
What is the difference in meaning between these pairs of sentences, if any?

He had his wallet stolen in Barcelona. (Active)
His wallet got stolen in Barcelona. (Passive)
Have you ever had your car broken into? (Active)
Did your car ever get broken into? (Passive)
He had his driving licence taken away (by the police) (Active)
His driving licence got taken away (by the police) (Passive)
They had their house burgled while they were on holiday (Active)
Their house got burgled while they were on holiday (Passive)


texts:
“The control and discipline of being a mother came so hard to me, that I can’t delude myself that if I’d been a man, and not forced into self-control, I’d have been any different.”
Could anyone help me understand the meaning of the word “hard” in this sentence?


texts: One word for playing on the violin with a bow

texts: When one is playing on the guitar, one is strumming. One can strum on the strings of a violin too. But most of the time, one uses a bow to play on the violin. Is there a single word for that?


texts:
I am working on a piece of writing where a character dies and death comes and takes him to the afterlife. But my question is, is there a better word for Death—as a character— or Grim Reaper.

I would like something similar that means death bringer. Preferable something on the evil side, not an angel or something.

It is sexless and not an angel but not exactly the devil but feared and "scary" since they bring death. The character appears when someone or something dies and takes them and their soul


texts: Can the bold word "from" here be replaced by "with"? If so, does it sound idiomatic/natural?

texts: The original sentence: "Some of his relatives would occasionally come to seek employment from him, but he would always turn them down out of principle."


texts:
Do Americans pronounce "Ellen" and "Alan" in the same way? I am especially concerned with the first vowel.

EDIT:

Here is a quote that may be a case in point:

  Being a Brit also, the names "Ellen" and "Alan" tend to sound the same
  when spoken with an American tongue. It was just unfortunate that the
  child was very tom boyish and had an ambiguous sounding name

Context: discussion on why they chose a boy-looking girl for the movie "Fatal Attraction"

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093010/board/thread/186160978?d=186229310&p=1#186229310


texts:
The Starbucks Rewards program has this tagline:

  You look like you'd love a free drink.

Is this grammatical? I couldn't quite understand how the clause "you'd love a free drink" act like an object. Or is this a phrase which means something like:

  You look like someone who would love a free drink.

?


texts: What's the opposite of "at the expense of"?

texts:
They're doing X at the expense of G's lives

implies there's some unfair trade-off happening, focusing on the unfairness of the cost.

Is there a complement to this that focuses on the unfairness of the benefit instead?

Something like,

  They're doing X to the benefit of G's health

but that makes clear the unfairness of the benefit?

Things like "to the advantage of", "in order to siphon for themselves", "to enable the", don't seem right.


texts: I'm looking for a word that refers to someone subservient in an overly attentive or annoying way.


texts: What is the term used for saying if something increases/decreases it has no effect on another thing

texts:
What is the mathematical term used for saying if something increases/decreases it has no effect on another thing?

I was thinking along the lines of "X is not linear with Y" however it seems to give the sense that if X increase, Y will increase (though not linearly). This is not the idea I want to convey.

I want the reader to know that an increase/decrease in X does not necessarily mean an increase/decrease in Y.

Well, if you've read the above paragraph you know what I want, but I need the whole idea of that paragraph packed in a single phrase. (I'd have thought a mathematical term would be useful in this sense (since those words are cool), but that's not compulsory of course).

To be sure, I'm not asking for a mathematical term. I'm asking for a catchy term.


texts:
What's the difference between:

I will be eating cakes tomorrow.
I will eat cakes tomorrow.

And, when should I use the first form?


texts: Where to put apostrophe after "their" when referring to plural noun?

texts:
Which one is correct? I'm not sure where to put the apostrophe on "phones":

This software allows iphone users to remotely access their phone's settings.

vs

This software allows iphone users to remotely access their phones' settings.


texts: "She has" vs. "she had" been trying to give up smoking for years

texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct:

Cindy's very pleased with herself. She has finally given up smoking. She's (she has) been trying to give up for years.
Cindy's very pleased with herself. She has finally given up smoking. She'd (she had) been trying to give up for years.

I think #1 is correct if Cindy has just given up now - the present moment. #2 would be correct if she had given a few days ago (in the recent past). My student disagrees with me and I can't convince him. Am I correct?


texts: What do you call the process of processing data before triggering an event?

texts:
If I have a process below in an Event-Oriented System, Pub-Sub System, or etc:

Receive Input -> Process Data -> Decide if to Trigger Event -> Trigger Event

what word or process can I call this part of the process:

Process Data -> Decide if to Trigger Event


texts: Cause vs Causes - subject-verb agreement

texts:
A student wrote the following sentence in an essay:

  Things such as software and workbooks are included in the textbook
  packages, which causes a significant increase in price.

My question is regarding the verb causes.

My opinion is that the sentence should read "...which cause a significant increase..."
One of my peers disagrees with my assessment.

My reasoning is that the subject in this sentence is things, therefore the verb should reflect that.

Am I wrong?

Also, please ignore any other issues the sentence may have. I'm simply concerned with this one point.

Thank you in advance!


texts: Not shifting the adverbial of time in reported speech

texts:
I know that generally, in reported speech e.g. tomorrow shifts to "the following day". But I also know that in some cases it can remain, e.g:

  He said he would do that tomorrow.

That one should be correct if I say that on the same day (tomorrow has not begun) but he e.g. changed his mind and I know this is not gonna happen.

But can it be also with another expression of future?

  He said he was coming home the next week.

Can it be correct? E.g. he says that and dies the same day in the car accident. So would be correct to  keep "next week" in this reported speech, because it is still the future?


texts: Is there a better alternative for "remainderless"?

texts:
I want to express in one word whether a number has a remainder or not.

as an example:

3.5 is not remainderless
3 is remainderless

It might seem that something like "3 is whole" or "3 is an integer" fits better but it is important that remainders, floating points or decimals are directly adressed.

Why I require this: I have a scenario where I want to express in a C++ function whether

yields an integer or a decimal. This is constant compile time arithmetic which I have implemented to solely work with integers - so actually asking if an result "is an integer" is superfluous as every result is always an integer.

The intent for this function is to stand out by actually talking about floating points. Since this is impossible to execute it behaves on a more hypothetical level as in saying: "would the result log(a, b), hypothetically, have a remainder".

As for a function that stands out in an "integer saturated environment" I find it to be a necessity to include unorthodox, contrastive wording - like remainderless.

Which made me wonder is there is a better, mathematical adequate synonym for remainderless while still talking about decimals.


texts: is there a word or expression which describes a mapping between the same thing?

texts:
For example, if I map 4 to 4, 4000 to 4000,
is there a good word or expression which describes this kind of mapping?

Perhaps identity mapping or something else?


texts: What does "an adverb tells us something about the sentence" mean?

texts:
Wikipedia states :

  In grammar an adverbial is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial phrase or an adverbial clause) that modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb.

I understand that an adverbial usually tells us something about the verb; I just don't know what the something about the sentence is.


texts:
How can you get rid of something you’ve already lost?

If the phrase means to stop the cause of the losses, from where did the idea of cutting originate?  Why not “stop the bleeding” or “plug the hole.”

It seems like one cannot cut a loss, for the same reason one cannot hit nothing; if he hit nothing, he really has not hit at all; he may have swung, but he did not hit.

So from where did this phrase originate, and is it based in some historical action that might make sense of the strange soundingness of it.


texts: I was reading this book Gujarat files and suddenly I came across this word Narendra Modi’s Man Friday (describing Amit Shah) What does this title mean? And also is the word 'title' I used correct word here in this context?


texts:
I am often bump in the "of" preposition in different sentences. Here are some of these:

The new professor is of Turkish descent.
He is a citizen of Russia.
I dream of visiting Europe.

Here are examples when you wish to use the "of" preposition but need to use another one:

The new computer from the tech giant.
The Nile is the longest river in the world.
The girl recovered from her illness.

What the global rule one can follow to not make mistakes in speech construction?


texts: Origin of "Caught between a rock and a hard place"

texts:
caught between a rock and a hard place

Where is this expression coming from? I understood the meaning but, for me, literal translation doesn't make sense. Can you give me some image?


texts: Using differential as a synonym for difference sounds wrong to me. Am I justified or also wrong?

texts:
I hear the term "differential" used in many cases where it seems like "difference" should be used instead. It is especially common in sports, some examples are run differential which is the difference between runs scored and runs allowed in a baseball season. Or points differential which is the difference of the average points per game scored by a team and the points scored by an opposing team in the NBA. Based on google's definition of differential, its essentially a synonym of difference.
Adjective (seems ok):

  of, showing, or depending on a difference; differing or varying
  according to circumstances or relevant factors.

Noun (seems sketchy):

  a difference between amounts of things.

The term seems to be used interchangably with difference and that seems incorrect. The definition of differential as I understood it in school is referring to an infinitesimal difference between successive values of a variable, which is commonly associated with the linear operator, the derivative operator, and which also has other related definitions in different contexts in mathematics. But, it all works well with the adjective definition, since all of these measures do indeed depend on a difference, specifically infinitesimal difference.

So is it acceptable to use it as a synonym for difference? The definition from Google seems like, since enough people use it that way, it was just accepted. Or perhaps, historically, differential really did just mean the same thing as difference, and Newton and Leibniz borrowed the term and give it new meaning when they invented Calculus?


texts: What is a good phrase to name a periodic excellent employee award?

texts:
My company has annual work performance awards with typical names like "Excellent Employee/Team" (3~5 recipients) and "All-star Employee/Team" (1 recipient).

We're looking to create a smaller award program designed to be given on an as-needed basis for spotlighting individual acts of excellence, as opposed to the consistent excellence necessary to receive an annual award.

An example situation would be an employee who is pretty good all the time, but during a moment of crisis goes well above and beyond what is expected of him to get the job done. These sorts of singular events tend to get forgotten by late December, or are overruled by predominantly mediocre performance, but when viewed in isolation are clearly meritorious.

So we have this new program, but we're having a hell of a time naming the damn thing.

Complicating matters is that there's no fixed period for award allocation. There might be 2 in one month, then none of 5 months. It all depends on the work at hand.

Help? :-)


texts:
History is an inevitably important and compulsory subject in the
  curriculum of many countries, and some people argue that learning
  about local history is more crucial than memorizing historical world
  events.

Am I right to write "History is an inevitably important..."? , or should I just need to write:" History is inevitably an important subject..."?

I am confused with the position of words in sentences. I really appreciate for your help. Thank you in advance!


texts: Possible exception to the subject-verb agreement rule

texts:
Slight movements in the resonant peak are attributed to the changes in the refractive index.

I know that normally, are is correct since movements is in plural, but I wonder if I can use is instead? (with movements) The reason I ask is that I kind of prefer saying is, since I want to refer to the (event of) movements happening, which would be singular, but I don't know if this is grammatically acceptable, or if this is done in practice as an option.


texts: Word that describes a sentence which deals in absolutes

texts:
I'm looking for a word that can describe a statement that uses words (or sentiments) like "all" or "never" and applies to a wide domain. There is no implication of validity or accuracy, but I would be welcome to those suggestions as well.

"Sweeping" is as close as I can think of, but it feels like there is a better word for this.

Some examples:

  Policemen are suspicious.
  No children like broccoli.
  All music is banned.

Thanks!


texts: That-clause (content clause) as an adjunct?

texts:
According to CGEL, that-clause can function as an adjunct.
The following sentence is an example from page 952 of CGEL.

  He appealed to us to bring his case to the attention of the
  authorities that justice might be done.

But I can not find any explanation about that-clause as an adjunct.
What is the semantic function used in the above example sentence?

Any explanation and example about using that-clause as adjunct is also appreciated.


texts: What's the word to decribe someone's voice when they talk with their nose closed?

texts:
I have a scene where one of my characters talk with a clothes peg on their nose. I'm trying to find the correct word to describe the way someone's voice sounds when they talk like that.

It's the opposite of "nasally", but apparently the opposite of nasally is "orally", and no reader is going to understand that meaning.


texts: How to join two phrases sharing a common ending

texts:
One of my professors asked me if I would be working on an assignment alone or in a group. I responded by saying:

  I was looking at the assignment and I feel that I am capable of, and therefore would benefit more from, doing it on my own.

The second comma feels a little out of place, yet I think it is necessary because it denotes the point at which two threads join together:

  I am capable of doing it on my own.

and

  I would benefit more from doing it on my own.

If I were speaking, it feels natural to pause at that point, but the comma still seems odd. Am I structuring this sentence properly or is there a better way?


texts:
I have a following write up and I feel there is a room to improvise on the usage of words to better deliver the message:

  This will allow a maximum of 40 batches per second. If the rate exceeds 40 then the "overdue" order will result error.

What can be a better term for overdue?

"word in quote needs to be improvised"


texts:
I have noticed these two phrases appearing more and more often and I can't for the life of me figure out what they mean!

They are "off of" and "on me"

For example:

(Taken from HBO's Silicon Valley and Reddit)
1. Going off of what you just said.
2. Piggybacking off of that.
3. The apps just keep quiting on me.
4. My dog ran off on me.

Could anybody explain what "off of" and "on me" mean?
Specifically what they mean and how to use them.

Thank you!


texts: Suggestions for a word meaning both testimony and reminder?

texts: What is a word that means both testimony and at the same time reminder?


texts: What is a single word that describes the back and forth way a leaf falls to the ground? I don’t think float or flutter quite capture the movement. Does ‘sway’ or ‘oscillate’ convey the image?


texts: How did "lobster" mean two different species?

texts:
This live crustacean is called astice in Italian. The one on the right is aragosta.

They look very different from one another. The Italian dictionary describes the astice as having a deep (intense) blue colour (turchino) with yellow splotches and large claws, whereas the aragosta has a reddish body, five pairs of legs, long antennae and an incredibly hard shell that covers its body and head. To me it looks like a giant insect. In English, however, they are both called lobster and if you eat lobster in either a British or an American restaurant, they will often present you with an astice. An article in the London Evening Standard clearly shows the restaurateur (an Italian!) with two large ‘astices’ in his hands. :))

I don't care which species they give me, frankly they're both delicious, but if I were to invite an Italian friend to a Boston restaurant and order lobster for both of us, she might be dismayed at seeing an astice on her plate.

The Italian term astice is derived from αστακός (astakós); Greek for lobster. Astakos is also the name of a Greek fishing bay.

The Online Etymological Dictionary says (emphasis mine)

  lobster (n.) marine shellfish, Old English loppestre "lobster, locust," corruption of Latin locusta, lucusta "lobster, locust," by influence of Old English loppe "spider," a variant of lobbe. The ending of Old English loppestre is the fem. agent noun suffix (as in Baxter, Webster; see -ster), which approximated the Latin sound. [. . .]
  OED says the Latin word originally meant "lobster or some similar crustacean, the application to the locust being suggested by the resemblance in shape." Locusta in the sense "lobster" also appears in French (langouste now "crawfish, crayfish," but in Old French "lobster" and "locust;" a 13c. psalter has God giving over the crops of Egypt to the langoustes) and Old Cornish (legast).

Questions

Why is there only one term in English for these two different species?
To me the Boston "black" lobster (astice) looks more like a scarab beetle or a crab than a locust. How did this crustacean get its English name?
If I wanted to order aragosta in an English speaking restaurant, what should I ask for?

images: Così cucino io; Alimentipedia and The Food Almanac


texts: Word for applying heavenly arguments to terrestrial issues

texts:
Is there a word for the process of applying heavenly-derived arguments to terrestrial issues? For example,

"John Doe argues against abortion because his Catholic faith says it's wrong. John's argument is X-ical."

Where X is something like tautology. I feel the word "religious" doesn't sufficiently convey the incongruity of using out-of-this-world logic to this world.


texts: Is the word "should" superfluous in this sentence?

texts:
"That you should behave like this is strange".
Will this sentence be grammatically correct if I remove the word "should", from it ?


texts: Why does 'coed' only mean female coeducational students?

texts: As an adjective, the word coed, short for coeducational, indicates an institution that teaches both males and females. However, as a noun, it can only mean "a young woman who attends college". Why is this so and how did this come about?


texts:
I have a report that is creating a list of customer visits, with the goal of breaking customers into "Active, With Future Appointments", "Active, Recently", "Recent, No-Show", "Not seen in 90 days", etc.

Given a list of customers, I'm listing the "Most recent" visits. But that includes scheduled/future appointments. "Max", "Top", "Current"... doesn't seem to fit either. The terms just seem — if I'm considering a conversational tone — off.

Is there a word/phrase that would capture the prominent, highest visit in common English? (not database/programming languages, since "Max Visit" just doesn't sound right in documentation to the non-programming layperson).

Edit: Looking at this question, and I don't see anything that seems to sound easy on the ears either. Soonest? Immenent? Impending? "Most Recent or Impending Visit"? Doesn't seem to condense "max visit" into English with sounding weird to me...


texts:
A little bit of context, I read the sentence below after the system - a computer application - has been subject to a certain kind of update:

  The system will be able to not create a record of that movement
  anymore.

I think they are trying to stress the new behavior of the system compared to the previous one, hence that sentence construction.

Firstly, would it sound better if we changed the sentence for something like this where we get rid of the split infinite:

  The system will be able not to create a record of that movement
  anymore.

At least for me that sentence construction seems a little bit odd and something an English native speaker would not say, do you agree with me or is it perfectly acceptable?


texts: Question about the use of "in this spirit" expression

texts:
Is the use of "In this spirit" correct in the following context?

Marcel Proust wrote ``Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom". In this spirit, I would like to express my gratitude to all my fellow students.


texts: How do I punctuate a question with a guessed answer in it?

texts:
How to punctuate a question directly followed by the asker's guess at the answer? E.g.

  What's in here? Your books?
  What's in here, your books?
  What's in here; your books?

Which of these (if any) is correct?


texts:
PER (Price Earnings Ratio)

How would you say this out loud?

Pee-Ee-Ar or just 'per'?


texts: What are the verbs that need a gerund after “to”?

texts:
So could someone tell me what the verbs are that must have “ing” (gerund) after “to”? (a small list)
I know we have :  “look forward to”, “admit to”, “be opposed to”... but are there other verbs?


texts: Word for future income that will no longer come

texts:
Let's say I rent out a property for $1,000 a month.

If it is now June, my expected income through to the end of the year is $6,000.

But the contract will end prematurely at the end of September. Which means that the last three months of the year, which could have earned me $3,000, will not.

What is the proper word to describe this sum ($3,000) which had been expected, but is not anymore?

Note: I need a way to describe both July-Sep, and Oct-Dec.


texts: Difference between "The car is" and "The car is blue" in the word "is"

texts:
I, being a native English speaker, and having snoozed through some of my grammar lessons in elementary school, sometimes cannot express differences that I feel exist in certain grammatical constructs. Here is such a  case:

  The car is.

and

  The car is blue.

What is the name for the word "is" when used in the first sentence, and in the second? I feel that these two sentences have different semantic meanings for it, the former being "exists" and the latter not being "exists".

While the second sentence could be rephrased as "The property of blueness exists in the car" I think that that is a completely different way of stating the thought, not an equivalent.

I think the latter is called a "copula" perhaps? No idea for the former.


texts: Adjective that describes a person who does not care, but with a hint of malice to it

texts: I cannot think of a word that means to deliberately not care. I thought ambivalent might fit; however, that means having conflicting feelings about a person or subject. I am searching for a word that means to not care either way something happens, almost as if this person thinks so lowly of another (perhaps considering them obsolete), they do not subject themselves to any involvement in that persons life. Any help is appreciated.


texts: The subject is after the verb in this sentence?

texts:
"Please hand me the comb."

My textbook says to identify what 'me' is, I was able to do that for sentences in which the subject before the verb but I cannot do that for this sentence?

I know that hand is the verb, and the comb is the object but what would me be?

The indirect object?


texts: Is 'more later' grammatically incorrect?

texts:
I've just stumbled into "We’ll cover this idea more later" in a book. Is it a widely used form? and if so, what's the difference from plain 'later'?

To me it sounds weird, even ungrammatical, but I'm not a native English speaker.


texts:
What does the emphasized part of the following excerpt mean? It's from an edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

  She had been assembled in orbit around the Earth, tested on a translunar maiden flight, and finally checked out in orbit above the Moon. She was a creature of pure space -- and she looked it.


texts: What does the complementizer "that" accomplish in terms of style?

texts:
I've always refrained from using words that weren't necessary to conform with grammar rules and didn't add to the meaning of a sentence.  Being a fan of brevity, I don't use the complementizer that unless it is necessary for the sentence to be grammatical or it clears up an ambiguity within the sentence. But I've been told the complementizer that serves a stylistic purpose as well. Exactly what stylistic purpose it serves has always been a mystery to me.  Whenever I ask someone, they respond with the frustrating answer "sometimes it sounds better". So what exactly is the stylistic end the complementizer that accomplishes?
For instance:

Raines said (that) this incident was "uncharacteristic of most interactions" between the U.S. and Iranian navies. CNN
Col. Steve Warren said (that) 10 senior ISIS leaders operating in both Iraq and Syria, "including several external attack planners," with designs on attacking western targets, had been killed in airstrikes. CNN

If the complementizer that were inserted into the above sentences, how would that affect the way the sentence is read?
This question is related to another question I asked yesterday,
Does using "that" to introduce a subordinate clause serve any other purpose but to eliminate ambiguity?


texts: What’s the difference between “Go all out” and “Go all in”?

texts:
There was the following sentence in August 12 Time magazine article titled “Why Germany save the Euro,” which deals with the Germany’s roles in restoring the momentum of Euro economy:

  “There are those in Europe and beyond who’d like to see Germany go all
  in and write a blank check to the euro zone in exchange for greater
  fiscal and ultimately political power in Brussels. But Merkel and her
  team argue that it’s not possible to make the required financial
  commitments without a new European constitution that allows Brussels
  the power - - -.”

Both Cambridge English and OAEL Dictionary define ‘go all out’ in the same way as an idiom to mean “to put all one’s energy or enthusiasm into what he/she is doing,” but neither of them includes “go all in” as an idiom.

Google Ngram shows the usage of “go all out” which surfaced in circ. 1900, peaked to 0.0000125730% incidence level around 1960, and then dropping down to 0.0000079294% in 2008. On the other hand, the usage of “go all in” is almost insignificant level (0.0000003849 in 2008) throughout its tracking record.

Ngram Go all out vs. go all in

What is the difference between “go all in” and “go all out”?

Can we use “go all out” in place of “go all in,” of which currency appears to be very marginal as observed in Google Ngram, in the context of the above quote?


texts:
How would you say in short that this question or point is no longer actual and you did not think about it.
Something like "out of the agenda?"


texts: how do I interpret "for all but writing this book for me"?

texts:
The full quote comes from a book dedication:

To every man and woman in the world,

for all but writing this book for me

Is it saying

'Thanks everyone for everything except for writing this book, which I did myself'?
'Thanks every man and woman for virtually writing this book for me'?
Something else


texts: Why not pronounce single characters the same way as they are pronounced in words?

texts:
We pronounce most of the characters as if they were words and not characters. For example,"C" is pronounced as "See" but when used in a word, we pronounce it as "K". This is the same case with other characters too.

So my question is, why not pronounce single characters the same way as they are pronounced in words?

In this question, it is answered how we started to pronounce single characters differently. Why not pronounce them in a similar way? It's thus easier to learn for children. Also many(or maybe most) languages use similar pronunciation.

Does anyone know why it evolved in such a way?


texts: Should I add a "the" before "headmaster" here?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “To be elected chairman” vs. “to be elected the chairman”
  Omission of “the” in “elected him president” and “made captain”

  Dr. Peter Spence, ______ headmaster of the school, told us, “a fifth of pupils here go on to study at Oxford and Cambridge.”

Does it matter whether I add a "the" before "headmaster" here?


texts:
If booklets are little books, what are pamphlets?

Little "pamphs"?


texts:
I could have sworn that I have heard/read the word "steward" in a context similar to the following:

"His precise measurements of the motion of mercury, made over the course of eight consecutive years, made him a steward of science."

In the sentence above, it's clear that steward is taken to mean, roughly, "One who upholds core values". However, the word as per the Merriam-Webster dictionary is,

Steward  [noun | stew·ard | \ˈstü-ərd, ˈstyü-; ˈst(y)u̇rd]
(1) a person and especially a man whose job is to serve meals and take care of passengers on a train, airplane, or ship
(2) someone who protects or is responsible for money, property, etc.
(3) a person whose job is to manage the land and property of another person

It seems like the definition I am thinking of can be thought of as a mild contortion/stretching of the standard definition.
Can "steward" take on such a meaning that I have outlined in my example sentence, or am I gravely mistaken? Regardless of whether or not it is, could you give me words which match my hypothesized definition (i.e. words that mean "One who upholds core values")?


texts:
I was watching some cartoon show with a bunch of rugrats over the weekend and the term clockwork toy was used.  It seemed to be referencing a wind-up toy.

Is there any part of the English speaking world that uses clockwork more commonly than wind-up?  What is the normal term outside the US?

  Example:  I could walk into a toy store in my area and ask if they
  have any wind-ups?  It might take the kid working there a few seconds
  to process it but he would understand wind-up toy.

  If I walked into a store and asked if they had any clockworks, I am
  positive they would take me to some clocks/alarm clocks.

  I want to know where the term clockworks is common enough to be used
  without major context.


texts: Is there a name for laughter that happens when you're infuriated?

texts: I listened to the Comcast representative call on soundcloud recently, and although it was infuriating, I couldn't help but start laughing out of sheer disbelief. Other things that seriously aggravate me may lead to me laughing in exasperation, but I don't think of "exasperation" as necessarily including laughter. Is there a word for this kind of laughter, or for anger that is so intense that it causes laughter?


texts: why is an infinitive used in "copies of his own previous writings, **to include** Summary View, "?

texts:
From American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis:

Even if we take Jefferson at his word, that he did not copy sections of the Declaration from any particular books, he almost surely had with him copies of his own previous writings, to include Summary View, Causes and Necessities and his three drafts of the Virginia constitution.

I don't comprehend the use of infinitive "to include" here. Shouldn't it be better to substitute it by "including," which sort of like a reduced relative clause—which includes?


texts: Is it common to vocalize syllabic L, but use dark L as a coda consonant after unreduced vowels?

texts:
This question is about words that end in a syllabic L like

  little /ˈlɪtl/ capital /ˈkæpɪtl/ able /ˈeɪbl/ bible /ˈbaɪbl/ syllable
  /ˈsɪləbl/

Question 1:
Is it common for people who usually pronounce L as a dark L in the syllable coda to make an exception when the word ends in a syllabic L, and to then vocalize the L instead?

From observing my own speech I notice that when I say "ball" or "call" the L is a dark L.
But, when the L is also a syllabic L, e.g. little or capital,
the tip of my tongue does not touch the roof of my mouth behind my teeth – so I assume it is vocalized. (I am a native English speaker)

An extract from rachelsenglish.com:

  http://rachelsenglish.com/syllabic-consonants/

  To make the Dark L, pull the back of the tongue back. Uhl, uhl. Leave
  the tongue tip forward and down, the middle down too. Uhl, -uhl. So
  that’s the sound we want when we see schwa-L.

Question 2:
Rachel says "leave the tongue tip forward and down"
i.e. the tongue tip does not touch the roof of the mouth. Does this mean she is saying "vocalize L"?

Question 3:
 Is an L where the tip of the tongue does not touch the roof of the mouth a vocalized L?


texts: had to have been vs. has to have been vs. must have been

texts:
At 4:18 of this video titled "Trump's UN Speech Advocates For Both Peace And Nuclear War", Stephen Colbert said:

  Now, the most awkward moment had to have been when he brought up Venezuela.

And then he showed a clip of Trump's "most awkward moment" at his UN speech.

I wonder if it has to be had to have been instead of has to have been or must have been.

I'm pretty much sure that you can easily use must have been there without any problem. But I'm not quite sure why Stephen used had to have been instead of has to have been in this context.


texts:
There is nothing quite so vexing to the author of a scathing indictment as having the primary target of his venom offered up in his support.

It is from the book "A Mathematician's Lament" which is a criticism of math education in school. The writer criticises lack of reasoning, argument, aesthetic point of view and such things in teaching math in school and talks about his opinion that how a good teaching should be; Then he says some believe that high school geometry consists argumentative method and is a great part of school math curriculum, and then he starts a new section named "high school geometry: instrument of Devil" and criticises high school geometry. The sentence above is the first sentence of that section.

What does the author mean by the part "primary target of his venom offered up in his support"?


texts:
It is the onset of rainy season in this part of the world.
It happened I reported in a Whatsapp page that "Some rain in ABC place."
Is the usage of the "some" + "rain" correct in English?


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "great minds think alike"?

texts:
Upon using the phrase "great minds think alike" in chat today, I was informed that it is really a shortened version of "Great minds think alike, small minds rarely differ" or "Great minds think alike, and fools seldom differ." (Source)  This longer phrase would seem to suggest the original meaning was a bit different than the current usage.

However, doing some research, I found this website which traces it back to 1618 in the form of "Good wits doe jumpe" (jumpe having an archaic meaning of coincide) attributed to Dabridgcourt Belchier.  Elsewhere, I found an unsourced claim that the thought originated with Confucius.

What is the true origin of this saying/idea?


texts: What's a word used when you don's see flaws on a person, even when they are there?

texts:
I'm trying to remember a word, which definition I found on a movie if I remember correctly. The idea is to see someone as almost free of defects, even if those defects are there. It is what happens when someone is in love, thinking that everything the other person do is great. It is similar to bedazzled, but a false sense of it. I've been looking all over the internet and I just can't find it.

Thank you.


texts: What is the real meaning of the expression  Poetic Justice? My dictionary (WordWeb) does not give exact definitions of the work,can any provide me with a definition, an example and the context in which it is used?


texts:
Jesus was a carpenter. According to some sources, when his dad couldn't fit a board for a bed, the young Jesus just stretched them to make them the same length. Still, he is called a carpenter.

If Jesus was an archivist, and could perform similarly superhuman feats (such as re-filing all the records in Library of Congress with simply a spoken command) -- would he still be called an "archivist", or something, how should I say? Grander sounding.


texts: How to express the idea "up to a certain age" in poem

texts: I am not a native speaker, but I am writing a poem, where on a certain line the main character expresses the idea that he wants to reach an age of at least 90 and a couple of years more (not specified how many exactly). I used dictionaries and Internet but cannot find a clear answer. I am thinking of the following line: "It's ninety plus to which I strive".  I want to use the word "strive" because of the rhyme. Rythm and metre are also important for me. Some fitting alternatives for "to which" might be: "for which", "whereto", "wherefore". Which of these four is correct (or the best)?


texts: Word for when someone says they are good at something they know they are terrible at doing

texts: I usually find contractors who do this and I am looking for a word to explain it. They are stating a claim, they know they are terrible at doing in order to get your business.


texts: Another meaning of the vulgar word "slut"

texts:
I guess people who speak American and Philippine English will unanimously agree that the word "slut" is a very offensive term referring to a promiscuous woman. However, Merriam-Webster and Oxford Advanced Learner's also attach another meaning to the word--a slovenly woman--and this is supposedly chiefly British.

slut:  a lazy, careless, or slovenly woman :  slattern (that slut of a housekeeper — Margaret Kennedy) --Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary

To speakers of British English: how often would one use the word "slut" in reference to a messy or untidy woman? Is this usage current or obsolescent?


texts: Can "from on something" be used as "from under something" is used?

texts:
I encountered this sentence last night

"Mr. Shin looked up to her from under his head lamp and replied with a simple but empthatic "yes" "

I know, if it were the other way around, I could use over, as in "he looked at her over the top of his newspaper" but I was wondering if I can use "from on" with the word, look, when I want to say I look down from on something, as in "I looked down at the people from on the skyscraper (or from on top of the skyscraper" ?


texts:
1.Which of the sentences below is best, and why?

  People are saying that this is great about X (for example: our new product).
  People are saying about X that this is great.
  People are saying great about X.

2.Is the 'about X' phrase an adverb phrase?


texts: "How did your life change if you have as much money as Bill Gates?" Is this sentence correct?

texts:
I am a teacher of English in Japan. I happened to see a weird sentence from a notebook of my student.
It says,

  "How did your life change if you have as much money as Bill Gates?"

And my fellow teacher approved this sentence.

But I think I should say like,

  "How would your life change if you had as much money as Bill Gates?"

Is the sentence on the title correct?
I need your opinion please.


texts: Why is it that the plural of goose is geese but the plural of moose is moose? The same goes for mouse and house. Mouse becomes mice, yet house becomes houses.


texts: you’re more than due a vacation - due without for?

texts:
I do not understand how this sentence makes sense:

  you’re more than due a vacation

Should it not be "due for"? If not, why? What dictionary entry (e.g. Oxford) would that be?


texts: "funny that he should say that" vs. "funny that he said that"

texts:
It is funny that he should say that. I was going to say the same thing

What is the meaning of should here , and why didn't we use 'the past simple' instead of should in this sentence ?


texts: A term for an end-user's device other than "endpoint"?

texts:
In my organisation, the encryption software of choice is McAfee Endpoint.

In this multi-cultural multi-national company, using the word "endpoint" to refer to an end-user's device(s) is confusing to many IT colleagues, thinking the reference is to the encryption software. Is there another word or portmanteau that can be used for this purpose, other than "endpoint"?


texts:
I don't know what this sentence means:

  I want to catch up with all of you.

Could you give me the example situation that this sentence is used in?


texts: What's the opposite of "further down" in "further down the road"?

texts: Suppose that there is a road which is 1000 meters long. I enter the road and after 500 meters I see Matthew. Matthew says: "James is walking somewhere further down the road". Then I drive further and see James at 800 meters down the road. I want to tell him that I have seen Matthew on the road before him. What phrase should I use? "Hi James. I saw Matthew higher up the road"?


texts:
How do you divide the syllables of plurals whose singular ends in "-e"?

For example, is "fences" "fen-ces" or "fenc-es"?
Is "appliances" "ap-pli-an-ces" or "ap-pli-anc-es"?

The context is not linguistic theory, but publishing. It is for my work as a copyeditor in a magazine. Somebody suggested using a dictionary, but if Webster's was clear on this, I wouldn't be bothering you with the question.


texts: What does “I don’t think God’s through with me,” mean?

texts:
In addition to the comment, “I don’t have to go any further than the mirror. It’s me and me alone,” I was interested to find another repentant phrase, “I don’t think God’s through with me,” in John Edwards' remark after coming out of the courthouse that judged his campaign fraud trial.

In May 2nd New York Times article titled, “Mr. Edwards and the Shrimp,"

"Edwards thanked the jurors for acquitting him of one count of campaign finance violations and failing to come to a decision on the other five. “I don’t think God’s through with me,” he added. - - Although Edwards was appropriately vague about what he thought God had in mind. He did say he hoped to do something to help children “in the poorest parts of this country.”

As the writer says “Edwards was ‘appropriately vague’ about what he thought God had in mind,” I’m not clear with what is exactly meant by “I don’t think God’s through with me.”

OALD defines “through with sth /sb” as “Especially AmE. Used to show that you have finished using something or have ended a relationship with somebody.” So I guess “God’s through with me” means (he didn't think) “God abandoned (him),” but I'm not sure of.

Although OALD says it’s especially American, is “God’s through with me (us, them)” well-accepted in English speaking countries other than America?

Can I say “Voters are through with the candidate,” “It looks my boss is through with me,” “I heard she is through with her husband”?


texts:
I came across this on the internet. What is the correct form? Singular or plural?

"Here is a pen and a ball."

or

"Here are a pen and a ball."

And please give me your thoughts on the contradiction in 'Here's some ideas about what you can do:'

Does it mean 'here are' or 'here is'? Thank you.


texts:
Is there anything wrong, in terms of either grammar and/or usage, with the following sentence:
"The information age has ushered children into a global society, which is the cause of educators lamenting a lack of texts that explain the diversity of cultures."


texts:
This is his attitude toward general literature; as evinced by his cautious disparagement of mellowed, broadly representative books, in favour of modem, locally American, and potentially ephemeral writings.

This sentence is from an essay of Lovecraft about amateur writing. The article is titled "The Case for Classicism." The word "modem" seems very out of context here, not to mention the fact that there were no internet or modems in Lovecraft's time. I couldn't find any secondary meaning of this word other than the one related to internet connection. I thought it could be a typo and downloaded the article from different sources but all of them are the same. Does this word have any other meaning? I still think it's a typo and it's actually "modern" but I wanted to ask just in case.


texts: When you hear the phrase “Try and act”, How do you paraphrase it? Is this expression common among native speakers?


texts:
What is the best term that can convey the message that something is "undelayable":

"I had to work on tasks that can no longer be delayed/postponed "

Instead, I would like to say: "I had to work on undelayable tasks..."

UPDATE:

"undelayable" is not a word: according to multiple sources including dictionary.com, Merriam, and American Heritage. Articles and papers on the topic also never used it as an adjective.


texts: Confusion surrounding etymology of 'Burdock'

texts:
Arctium lappa; Common Name: Burdock.
Is it simply a coincidence that 'Arctium,' meaning 'Bear,' the animal, sounds like 'Bur' in 'Burdock?' (viz., NOT bear-dock, but bur-dock).
The etymology does not seem to link them.
What I can see:
'Bear' comes from brown.
'Bur' comes from bristle.
The jump to Arctium is simply a coincidence that the bear happens to bristle, and so looks like the small bur.

From Etymonline:

common name of a kind of coarse, weedy plant, 1590s, from bur + dock (n.3).
bur (n.): "prickly seed vessel of some plants," c. 1300, burre, from a Scandinavian source (compare Danish borre, Swedish hard-borre, Old Norse burst "bristle"), from PIE *bhars- (see bristle (n.)). Transferred 1610s to "rough edge on metal," which might be the source of the sense "rough sound of the letter -r-" (see burr). Also the name given to various tools and appliances.

From Etymonline:

bear (n.): "large carnivorous or omnivorous mammal of the family Ursidae," Old English bera "a bear," from Proto-Germanic *bero, literally "the brown (one)" (source also of Old Norse björn, Middle Dutch bere, Dutch beer, Old High German bero, German Bär), usually said to be from PIE root *bher- (2) "bright; brown." There was perhaps a PIE *bheros "dark animal" (compare beaver (n.1) and Greek phrynos "toad," literally "the brown animal").

From Botanical:

The name of the genus, Arctium, is derived from the Greek arktos, a bear, in allusion to the roughness of the burs ...

The plant gets its name of 'Dock' from its large leaves; the 'Bur' is supposed to be a contraction of the French bourre, from the Latin burra, a lock of wool, such is often found entangled with it when sheep have passed by the growing plants.


texts: Did this scan or rhyme when Coleridge wrote it?

texts:
The following five lines are from one of the most famous poems in history:

  A damsel with a dulcimer
  In a vision once I saw:
  It was an Abyssinian maid
  And on her dulcimer she played,
  Singing of Mount Abora.

"saw" and "Abora"? Was Abora pronounced ab-RAW back then?

Additional info: Mount Abora is purely imaginary. According to some rumors Wikipedia was thoughtful enough to include, Coleridge drew inspiration for parts of this poem from Milton's "Paradise Lost," in which said Mount is styled "Amara," with the main stress, humanely, on the first syllable (Milton always scans well; you can rely on him, all right):

...Nor where Abassin Kings thir issue Guard,
Mount Amara, though this by some suppos'd
True Paradise.

Thus, with Milton, at least, Amara is a three-syllable word, and is pronounced AM-uh-rah. The secondary stress (on the third syllable) can be used if one wishes to rhyme it.

More on the meter: If my (very tentative) assumption is correct, then the last line should consist of one dactylic foot followed by one anapestic foot. Like this:

SING ing of ... mount ab RA
(STRESS-no stress-no stress ... no stress-no-stress-STRESS)

I hasten to add that the first line (one of the participants suggested that the rhyming pattern is, in fact, ABCCA) is iambic throughout (i.e. every second syllable is stressed):

a dam sel with a dul ci mer


texts: Two subjects that are inextricably linked/bonded together

texts: I'm doing a piece where I am trying to state that a place is linked/bonded together with a river tightly. Just using "linked/bonded" as a term seems weak,  is there any phrase to replace them that showcases that the two subjects have to be together, that each individual may fail if separated.


texts: Word that describes control over opacity/exchange?

texts:
I'm looking for a word, could be a noun or verb or adjective, that describes something with varying degrees of opacity/exchange/transfer, possibly that could be controlled. An example that comes to my mind is, 'aperture', which could be opened or closed to either allow light/exchange. Or 'veil' which could either hide or reveal.

Thank you for your answers! I think 'filter' is quite nice.
To clarify, this is for an architectural concept. I'm looking for a one-word marketing-style concept for my project. I will be designing a gay space (a sauna) that challenges societal norms relating to sexuality and private/public by exposing some of the program to the public at varying degrees at different parts of the building (through varying glass opacities, etc)

Hopefully that makes it more clear what I'm trying to achieve.


texts:
Are both these sentences correct, do they carry the same meaning? Can I place the adverb now in these positions? If not, why?

Tensions submerged earlier have come to the fore, now
Tensions submerged earlier have now come to the fore


texts: What did Donald Trump mean when he said Hillary "had no game"?

texts:
In a tweet, Donald Trump said:

  "She spent big money but, in the end, had no game!"

I looked up the term game on the US version of Oxford Dictionaries but turned up empty-handed. Among many, it offered the following expressions: beat someone at their own game, game over, the only game in town, and ahead of the game.

I was wondering what did he mean by Hillary "had no game"?
And where does this slang derive from? What ‘game’ or sport does it refer to?


texts: Variations in meaning between "Last week" vs. "The last week" vs "The last n weeks"?

texts:
Similarly between "Last month" and "The last month".

Last week implies, at some point during the previous week. Not inclusive of the current week.

What exactly does the last week mean? Is that inclusive of the current time? Same question for the last n weeks?

Or are phrases ending with ago the only qualifier for being for being inclusive of the current week? A month ago pretty obviously implies a period of 30 days going back from current time.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Phone Conversation: "Are you going to hang up or will you .....?

texts: When, in the middle of a phone conversation, you should do something meanwhile the person you're talking to is holding, and you want to know if she/he would rather hold or hang up and call back sometime later, what phrases can you use to inquire this information? Or simply put, what's the opposite of the phrase "hang up" people use in everyday conversation. I'm basically looking for more of a conversational/informal way to ask this than Are you going to hold?


texts: When referencing attached documents at the end of a sentence in parenthesis do you capitalize the first letter?

texts: The aging reports are used by management to determine what files should be worked on first (see aging reports attached).


texts: Right Abbreviation for Length in garments

texts: I am creating a form for web, and the word Length is being again and again e.g Sleeve Length, Leg Length, Inner Leg Length. Making everything a bit too long. According to this website, the LEN is used for telecom industry and doesn't say what abbreviation can be used for Length in garment business.


texts: Since "400 level" should be hyphenated as "400-level", should "300 or 400 level" be hyphenated as "300- or 400-level," or is there another way to write this?


texts: Other words/expressions for "mathematical equation"

texts: Do you know any expressions that have the same meaning as mathematical equation? I search through list of synonym and I cannot find any replacement.


texts: What does "the bulls" mean in this context?

texts:
I'm reading The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut, 1647-1697 by John M. Taylor, (originally published in 1908, reprinted in 1971) and I'm not quite understanding what is meant by "the bulls" in this section of text on pages 10 and 11:

  …the famous and infamous manual of arguments and rules of procedure for the detection and punishment of witches, compiled by the German Inquisitors Krämer and Sprenger (Institor) in 1489, buttressed on the bull of Pope Innocent VIII; (this was the celebrated Witch Hammer, bearing on its title page the significant legend, "Not to believe in witchcraft is the greatest of heresies"); the Canon Episcopi; the bulls of Popes John XXII, 1330, Innocent VIII, 1484, Alexander VI, 1494, Leo X, 1521, and Adrian VI, 1522; the Decretals of the canon law; the exorcisms of…


texts: Can "to seed" and "to sow" be used interchangeably?

texts:
I'd never heard about "to sow" until recently, and I was quite surprised that I couldn't find even a connotation about the difference in meaning from "to seed."

The German word "säen" is translated with both "to seed" and "to sow", neither of them are marked dialect or old-fashioned or anything.

Wiktionary defines them as:

to seed: To plant or sow an area with seeds.
to sow: To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).

As a non-native speaker, I fail to see the difference here (especially when one is defined using the other).

In this sense, can they be used interchangeably?


texts: In search of an English word/phrase that describes the feeling when one feels stress from knowing important information that others do not

texts:
A friend describes this feeling when reading his fictional tales.

Key characters interact in a way that would be completely different if they knew something(s), but the only person who knows that information is not part of the story and is in fact the reader, who is omnipresent.

The best phrase I can come to is: 'stress from knowing the consequences and potential differences in reality from the ignorance of others'

I would go as far to say that this word would most likely need to be a phrase in English and could apply to any situation where one experiences stress from others being ignorant and/or experiencing the result of being ignorant, regardless of the context.

Additionally, I would argue that a secondhand emotion is not a likely choice to hold this description. The ignorant are only living the stress from the result of their ignorance.

The actors (fictitious or real) merely feel as they do under the spell of their own ignorance while the one experiencing 'stress from knowing the consequences and potential differences in reality from the ignorance of others' is third-person, omniscient OR universal omniscient (depending on depth of context) with or beyond the omniscient narrator.

In scope of time, the word/phrase would not necessarily be interconnected with foresight. Information is known at a moment of time that is relative to the information becoming of breath/thought to the actors. There would not necessarily be any form of knowing the future, merely knowing all perspectives of the focused actors collectively as a third, observing and unaffected party.

I would wager to say that this question is not a duplicate. I am in search of a word/phrase that describes the feeling, not the action/activity.

Appreciate the help!


texts: Can 'this', as in 'this day' or 'on this day' be used for future reference?

texts:
I have recently stumbled upon this sentence:

  5th June is perfect. Do you think you can come this day?

The time frame of the utterance was more than two weeks before the date mentioned. And I am quite confident that the author was a non-native speaker of English.

Now, I am aware that this can convey the idea of spatial and temporal closeness, yet for some reason, I cannot avoid the impression that that would be more appropriate in this sentence.

Am I on to something, or am I completely mistaken? Perhaps I have fallen victim to the sticky tentacles of my overthinking mind.

Many thanks for any enlightenment!


texts: Is 'a career advice' grammatically correct?

texts:
I understand it is an indefinite article, so does it really depend on how we mean 'career advice'?

I read an advertisement, "Need a career advice? - Contact ... " which I'm pretty sure is wrong


texts: "Without whom..." or "whom ... without"?

texts:
Is it more grammatically correct to move the preposition without to the end of its clause, or use without whom? Does the "in no particular order" change matters?

  I wish to express my sincere gratitude to people without whom it would
  not be possible to complete the work, in no particular order.

vs.

  I wish to express my sincere gratitude to people whom it would
  not be possible to complete the work without, in no particular order.


texts: Someone I know was talking about 600gb hard drives and his description of the cost was "salty". When I asked him to clarify, he told me it meant that they were expensive. I have searched and can't find any reference to it being used that way. Where does that definition originate? Is it a regionalism?


texts: Why is "feminism" good but "racism" and other "-isms" bad?

texts:
Feminism is generally seen as a good thing.  It means something or other about achieving equality of the sexes; of treating people of different sexes the same or as well as each other.

Racism is generally seen as a bad thing. It means something or other about not achieving equality between people of different races; of treating people of different races differently and badly.

Why is there this difference between -isms?  Where did it come from?


texts:
They seem to function the same. Manage is even "control in action or use" according to http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/manage. Control is a verb so isn't that in action as well? Thus, is it the same? I don't see them being listed as synonyms. If they are different, can anyone point out how they are different? This is driving me nuts.

It is here used in this context:  "You will have the capability to control the system." Compared to "You will have the capability to manage the system."


texts: What's the difference between "I want" and "I am wanting"?

texts:
What is the difference between the two?

Why and where is the latter very strange sounding variant used?


texts: Limitations of Subordination and Nested Clauses

texts:
I'm an English teacher who often has to grapple with explaining to students the complexity of clause structure in English, and after reading an article about various 'longest sentences' in fiction,  I got to wondering if anyone has ever done any research into the cognitive limitations or constraints on the amount of nesting an average reader can understand.
That's the basic question: is there any research on what our nested clause comprehension limits are?

But there are loads of related questions that might be relevant here,  too, like:
How many embedded clauses can you insert in a main clause before the latter element ceases to make sense?
Is there a fixed limit on the amount of nesting we can follow?
How different are English speakers in their ability to track meaning across clauses?


texts: In World War II slang, what does it mean to call someone "a crack"?

texts:
My students will be reading "The Price of Freedom", an essay by Noreen Riols about some of her experiences during World War II.  In it, Riols writes that she fell "in love with an agent. He was one of our best agents. A crack. He'd just returned from a very successful second mission..."
What is a crack?
Is he someone who cracks codes?
Is she saying he's a real "cracker jack"?


texts:
I've recently become aware that I use the word "that" way too much, especially in more academic writing.  I've noted in particular that I use "that" almost exclusively after words like "implies" (I've found that they usually require the usage of "that").

I guess it's pretty apparent by now that I have a problem with this word.  Unlike standard single-word-requests that have a particular description the word needs to satisfy, I'm just looking for a word that functions like "that" (or a combination of words that can replace "that").  Having said that, did I give anyone cancer?


texts: The origins of the North American glottalised stop in place of certain consonant groups

texts:
In some North American speech (not sure about Canada;), I have long noted the pronunciation of certain consonant combinations that seem to have drifted to what sounds like some form of glottalised stop. The most common example is in the second syllable of the word 'didn't ': the second 'd' sound to my ears is not the classical 'd' standardly spoken of English speakers, native or non-; it comes out as 'di'n't'.  What the hay???

As far as I can tell, it is not obviously regionalised to any particular geographical area, socio-economic sector or ethnic background. That is, it seems to be pretty pervasive across the States. (Hawaii I don't know about; I'm always busy at the luau).

I am very interested to note that Blacks and Hispanics are as likely to use it as N. Americans of European descent. That may be because I have not paid enough attention, or that these afford larger sample groups by far and swamp out the rest.

The literature - that includes disclosures/reports by non-academic speaker/users  and cross-generational accounts - surprisingly, contains lots of references to such changes right across the globe, including the States but none seem to touch on this particular glottalisation. What's the haps?


texts:
When I want to write that some something has been "taken to mean" or "understood" or "interpreted as" XYZ, I sometimes use the phrase "to conceive of something as XYZ, where XYZ usually is a longer and detailed explanation.

So, I often end up having a sentence like this:

  Something has been conceived of as XYZ.

My supervisor, when reading my drafts, always marks this as wrong and wants me to get rid of "of", so that the sentence would read:

  Something has been conceived as XYZ.

While trusting my supervisor with his native speaker intuition and his really good knowledge of grammar et al., I still feel that the sentence requires the "of". It sounds terrible to me.

Anybody in for a verdict on this?


texts: Why is the spelling of "pronounce" and "pronunciation" different?

texts:
Why is the spelling of pronounce and pronunciation different? If one originally did not know the spelling of pronunciation, one would when hearing it verbally deduce its spelling to be pronounciation, which is the incorrect spelling.

Why is the difference in spelling so? Also, are the two words pronounced differently? (I think I am using the American pronunciation for pronunciation (pro-noun-ciation), but according to howjsay.com, it's pronounced as pro-nun-ciation. Is this just for British English or universally?)


texts: What's the difference between prepositional phrase and adverbial complement?

texts:
“I try to give ‘em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can
  latch onto a reason.” (Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird)

When we say ‘prepositional verb’ and ‘adverbial complement,’ are they two points of view for one occasion: the former sees ‘latch onto a reason’ as [prepositional verb: latch onto]+[a reason], and the other [latch]+[adverbial complement: onto a reason].’ Or does the example show only the prepositional verb?


texts: What does ‘Irresistible mayhem’ and “I love you in 18 syllables.” mean in describing Elisabeth Taylor’s charm?

texts:
In the article of today’s New York Times praising Elisabeth Taylor’s beauty and her personal style titled “An Alluring Beauty Exempt From Fashion’s Rules”  I found two phrases unfamiliar to me, i.e. “She was irresistible mayhem, and “I love you in 18 syllables.” quoted from Joel Rosenthal, one of the actress’s closest friend’s remarks. Could you explain what these two phrases mean?

  “She was the only goddess I know who
  had a sense of humor and a gigantic
  heart,” said Joel Rosenthal, one of
  the top jewelers in the world, whose
  Paris-based company is called JAR.
  “She was irresistible mayhem,” he said
  by telephone from Basel, Switzerland.
  “And she was without vanity. She
  transcended whatever else she was
  doing, be it a mediocre script or a
  dress that didn’t look right. --- He
  could still hear the singing tone of
  her voice as she signed off a
  telephone conversation: “I love you,”
  he said, “in 18 syllables.”


texts: What is the purpose of using the word "automagically" when we already have "automatically"?

texts:
Is there a difference between the two? I see it used regularly in the tech community to mean automatically.

Has the word been adopted into any recognised dictionary?

For example:

  That was the day I officially stopped
  caring what version Chrome is. I mean,
  I care in the sense that sometimes I
  need to check its dogtags in battle,
  but as a regular user of Chrome, I no
  longer think of myself as using a
  specific version of Chrome, I just …
  use Chrome. Whatever the latest
  version is, I have it automagically.

-- Jeff Atwood (The Infinite Version)


texts: Hyphenation: "I facilitated goal setting" vs. "I facilitated goal-setting"

texts:
I can see arguments for both—but is one overwhelmingly correct? Without a hyphen, it reads like I facilitated the setting of goals, where "goal" seems to modify "setting." With a hyphen it reads like I facilitated the activity "goal-setting," which is in fact what I did.
Thoughts? And reasoning?


texts: Difference between homo sapiens and homo sapiens sapiens?

texts: I know the Latin homo means "human being" or "man", while sapiens means "wise". So, homo sapiens means "wise man." What does our subspecies, homo sapiens sapiens, mean? Is it, "wise man who knows?"


texts:
Can a paragraph start with a sentence containing 'it' even when the sentence does not introduce you to the noun or pronoun that 'it' is referring to?

Like the jumbled sentences..

A. For the moment, Tanzania is one of the east Africa's  few good-news stories.
B. Development economists use it as a measure.
C. That isn't saying much.
D. If Tanzania can haul itself out of poverty others can too.
E. The country remains wretchedly poor, inefficient, with little medical care in its remote areas, even in Dar es Salaam, the largest city.


texts: Avoiding Soft skills and hard skills terms

texts:
I am looking for terms of single words which avoid "soft", "hard", "academic", and "practical" or "hands-on/off".

The following are [something] skills in that they are all in the head. I'm not going to call them "head skills"!

Risk assessment, decision making, situational awareness are skills; they are taught.
Leadership, communication, and command area skills; they are both taught and innate.
Compassion, empathy, and creativity are skills; arguably innate.

Conversely, cookery, driving, and painting are all handy skills, though should really be separated into groups. This is not required for the piece I'm working on.

The objective is to find a word for the mind skills.


texts: word usage Electricity charges or Electricity Rate

texts:
i am curious to know about how to use this word. like
should i go for electricity charges are high or electricity rates are high?
Thanks.


texts: Word for graph that counts backwards vs graph that counts forwards

texts:
Sorry if the title was confusing. I am having difficulty putting this simply, so let

Let's say we're graphing sales per week as a line graph.

You can count forwards, in which case, if viewing on a Sunday, it would appear as though sales are down this week, and through the week, it would move up until the end of the week.

Or you can count backwards. In this case, the last data point (this week) is exactly 7 days of data, and so forth all the way to the start.

What is the name for these two types of graphs?


texts: Early usage of Martian meaning inhabitant of Mars

texts:
Martian as an adjective meaning "of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the planet Mars" (originally in reference to astrological influence) is from the 14th century according to Etymonline;
curiously, according to the same source, the noun meaning "an inhabitant of the planet Mars" has a much later origin, that is attested by 1877.
Though the usage of Martians  to refer to an indigenous population of the planet Mars is quite logical, I wonder where its usage actually originated from. Probably by a 19th century author of a science fiction book, but  I couldn’t  find any evidence to support this view.
Where does Martian meaning inhabitant of Mars come from? Who first used it?


texts:
I 've seen several times "submatrix" in code and manuals. However, whenever I write in my Latex editor, it gets underlined in red, as a spelling mistake. Same things happens now, just as I am writing my first question here. On the other hand, 've gets the same treatment, but that should be just a failure in the spelling checker (because it's not a word).

So, submatrix or sub-matrix? Or none of them, but something else?

EDIT

A related question lies here, but it's content is general, so does the duplicate of that question too. Moreover, as explicitly stated there, it depends on the word.


texts: This has always confused me.  Dictionary.com doesn't help at all.  Candy and meat just don't go together that well.


texts: What does the word "pass" really mean in this context?

texts:
Philanderer is someone who makes love insincerely, someone who engages in passing love affairs.

NB I looked it up in dictionaries but there was no thing such as "pass love affair" in non of them. Does it mean ongoing ? or de facto?


texts: Difference between "habitable", and "inhabitable"?

texts:
Is there any difference between the words "habitable", and "inhabitable"?

As far as I understand they both mean:

  Suitable to be lived in or on.


texts:
As for an ad hoc single-direction train, the last station is called the "terminus", while the first station is called the ______.

A. origin

B. source

C. start

D. initus

E. ...... (other names)


texts:
Is this sentence grammatically correct?

I had felt a strange panic as I was parted from it. (Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller)

It seems rather strange to me to pair the past perfect with the simple past here. If it is ungrammatical, what would be a better alternative? Let me know if more context is needed.
Thanks!


texts:
I often hear people saying, it's no big deal, or I am no […], etc.
I was wondering if it is acceptable to say it is no calculus in a college essay.


texts: Another word for "A relationship of causality/ cause-effect relationship"

texts:
I am not sure if "cause-effect relationship" fits in this context. I have looked for better alternatives but I couldn't find one that fits here:

  So far, this chapter has provided an analysis of the dynamics of rape politics as far as the cause-effect relationship between the enactment of rape policies and the degree of their enforcement is concerned.

Basically, what I want to say is that the importance of enacting a policy/law is determined by the degree of its enforcement—i.e., what is the point of enacting a law if it is not being abided by.


texts:
I have recently discovered the words of José María Pemán from 1941 regarding the origin of the English word lunch. My translation (sorry):

  Wellington's Englishmen arrive in Spain, they fall in love with the Spanish custom of having a drink and some trifles at about eleven o'clock in the morning, that is why it was called "tomar las once"1, they make it their custom and take it to England, they disfigure the name omitting vowels, and from l'once they end up with lunch.

  1Literally, "to have elevens". To have something at eleven o'clock.

This tries to explain why in the last quarter of the 19th century the word lunch was adopted in Spain as an exotic custom, even though that custom was something we had been doing for centuries.

But my question is, do José María Pemán's words have any credibility? As far as I know, lunch is a shortened form for luncheon which is of uncertain origin but it was already used in the 17th century. I am kind of answering my own question, but is there any possible link between the two words, like a boost in the usage of "lunch" based on the Spanish expression or custom? Or maybe the Spanish expression gave birth to another English word apart from lunch?

José María Pemán's speech can be read here (PDF, in Spanish). See page 53 of the PDF (page 435 of the original document).


texts: Is "conquer fear" the same as "facing fear" in this example

texts:
The following dialogue is from the movie Batman Begins:

Ra's Al Gul to Bruce Wayne

  To conquer fear, you must become fear. You must bask in the fear of
  other men.

So when Ra's Al Gul asks Bruce Wayne to "become fear" is he suggesting that Wayne must face his fears?

Also, in this context what does "bask in the fear of other men" mean?


texts: Expression “if and when something happens”

texts: What is the level of formality in the expression “if and when” while referring to a possible happening? Googling “if and when X happen” gives me all sorts of entries, some formal some clearly informal.


texts: What's the origin of the word party pooper?

texts:
A party pooper is defined as:

  a person who refuses to join in the fun of a party; broadly :  one who refuses to go along with everyone else

(From MW)

I'm interested to know about the origin of this term and the person who first coined it.

Any idea?


texts: Is there a proverb/saying or idiom for insiders are always treated badly and outsiders and guest are treated unfairly well

texts: Is there a proverb/saying or idiom for insiders are always undermined and treated badly and outsiders and guest are treated unfairly well. Like in trivial dispute you wouldn't believe or treat your child justly over a guest or a neighbor's child. You tend to undermine your child and overrate your child's classmates.


texts:
My textbook says that you can use this construction "needn't have" if you want to say that something that you have done in the past wasn't necessary and you didn't know it was unnecessary, but you have already done that.
For example:

"You needn't have bought any eggs, we already have a lot in the fridge"

So I'm curious do you say that in American English? Or is there a way to say it in American English?


texts: Sentence with Relative Pronoun + Verb Be

texts:
These deposits were believed to be residue of liquid water breaking out of cliffs and crater walls, carrying sediment downhill through the gullies, and later evaporating.

This sentence is the original sentence announced by NASA. The issue here is that one teacher says you can insert "relative pronoun + verb be" before breaking as follows:

  These deposits were believed to be residue of liquid water which is breaking out of cliffs and crater walls, carrying sediment downhill through the gullies, and later evaporating.

I don't agree with the teacher because the water in Mars must have evaporated already and "is" is the "present tense".

Also, I don't see any reason why you would want to insert "relative pronoun" before breaking.

I would suggest changing "breaking / carrying / evaporating" as follows if you want to change the present participle into a coordinate or subordinate clause:

  These deposits were believed to be residue of liquid water, and it broke out of cliffs and crater walls, carried sediment downhill through the gullies, and later evaporated.

or

  These deposits were believed to be residue of liquid water, which broke out of cliffs and crater walls, carried sediment downhill through the gullies, and later evaporated.

What is your opinion on these changes? Thanks.


texts: Is there a word that can describe someone who says a lot but takes no action?

texts: I know that "doer" is used to describe a person who does things rather than thinking or talking about them. Is there any word opposite to "doer" that can describe someone who verbally protests something but never takes action?


texts:
Brie is defined in this Oxford Dictionary as follows:

A kind of soft, mild, creamy cheese with a firm white skin.
Origin
Named after Brie in northern France, where it was originally made.

Some relevant example sentences from the dictionary include:

Soft cheeses such as Brie, feta, and Camembert may have bacteria that can cause infections.
Creamy Brie, buttery croissants, indulgent pastries are just part of the French paradox.
It's not as soft as Brie, not as sharp as Bleu, and not as hard as Parmesan.
Tasty though Brie and other cheeses are, there is little to recommend them from a nutritional perspective.
The fastest growing varieties include Gorgonzola or Asiago, goat cheese or Brie.

Now, the term 'proper noun' is defined in the same dictionary as follows:

A name used for an individual person, place, or organization, spelled with an initial capital letter, e.g. Jane, London, and Oxfam.

I'm sure Brie in its original sense of a city in France is a proper noun, because it is a name used for an individual place, spelled with an initial capital letter. But how about Brie as a kind of cheese?
Is Brie as a kind of cheese also a proper noun under this definition?
If not, should the definition be modified to accommodate Brie the kind of cheese as a proper noun? Or is Brie the kind of cheese not a proper noun?