texts: Is there a word for a character being a number, letter, or underscore?

texts:
Edit: Close this question as it doesn’t relate to English.
I know the term "alphanumeric" means a character is a letter or number, but is there a term that includes underscores? So _, A, and 9 would all fit this definition.
The exact characters that fit this definition are as follows: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _ (and no non-English letters like â, é, ł, or anything else that isn’t in the normal English alphabet)
The following characters do not fit this definition: &, /, ~, â, +.
The following characters do fit this definition: A, b, 4, _, 9, z
Example context (missing term is x):

"_ah7" contains all x characters.
"hg8&" contains non-x characters.

I've tried searching this up, but all the results are irrelevant garbage.
Quick thing to add: Yes, it is reasonable that a term like this exists because almost every single programming language that is based on English allows identifiers to be alphanumeric characters or underscores where the first character is not a number. This is consistent among thousands who know different languages- the better question would be why isn't it a term already (if it isn't)?


texts: Is "would you be keen to consider___?" too cheesy to use?

texts:
On a formal / professional email, is the following question acceptable, or is it too much politeness it looks unprofessional?

The intention is to ask someone, who is not a subordinate, to do something. To be used in England.

Would you be keen to consider _________?


texts:
I know that the participle can be part of a verb to express continuous tense, perfect tense, passive voice. And it also can has a separate line as an adjective. The participle adjective have either active meaning or passive meaning. Ex : I am tired. ( I receive the adjective ) The book is interesting. ( I think the book is interesting, so I'm interested in reading the book.)

Recently, I have been learning the participle phrase which includes the participle and the object of the participle or any words modified by or related to the participle. The participle phrase does the whole job as an adjective. It can have either active meaning or passive meaning( like above ). Ex : Shocked at the size of the giant, she quickly ran for her life. ( she was shocked ) Having realized there is no hope for his job, he gave up. ( He had realize ) Looking at the hills, she remembered her childhood. ( she was looking at the hills )

Question 1 : Is there amy relation between participle adjective and participle phrase? (Though a participle phrase looks like a verb with object, it can function as an adjective.)

Question 2 : When do we use the present participle phrase? (at the same time as the action in the main part of the sentence?)

Question 3 : What can the present participle phrase reduce? (the continuous or simple tense? Or all of the active verbs can be reduced? )

Don't tell me it can reduce the relative clause. I know that.

Question 4 : Why do some grammar books and websites say that the participle phrase can also function as an adverbial? (Such as : After he had passed the exam, he went to study English abroad. > Passing the exam, he went to study English abroad.) What is that? It seems like an adverb being reduced to a gerund phrase with "after".

Question 5 : It is obvious that I'm confused. I wonder that either participle phrase or participle adjective do not show any tense right? (A phrase is a group of words without a finite verb, so I suppose that it does not show any tense as a non-finite.)


texts: What is the difference between "to oblige" and "to obligate"?

texts:
What's the difference between oblige and obligate?

Speculating, is the latter an Americanism of the British former? Or is there any distinction about what/who has caused someone to be oblig(at)ed to do something?


texts:
What kind of person it has to be to have no doubts about your choice?

Aren't there too many infinitives in one sentence? I'm asking about syntax.


texts: What rules of English allow the first t in “patient” to make an sh sound?

texts:
What rules of the English language allow the first t in patient to make an sh sound?

Why is it /ˈpeɪʃənt/ and not /ˈpeɪtənt/?  Are there any other words where t behaves in this way?


texts:
Which one is correct or is preferable in this context:

We want to be free... and we wait/we've been waiting for that moment our whole life/our whole lives.
We want to be free... and we wait/we've been waiting for that moment all our life/all our lives.
We want to be free... and we wait/we've been waiting for that moment all of our life/all of our lives.

Is there any difference in meaning between them, or they can be used interchangeably?
Is the word "of" optional in this instance?


texts: Is "three point ish" an acceptable use of ish?

texts:
I recently overheard someone estimating a number as

  three point ish million

when discussing the maximum damages in a law suit.

Do native speakers use "ish" in this way? (My gut tells me no.)


texts:
Did I use the adverb correctly in the following sentence?

  Marriage is one of almost global human institutions, and no institution has affected human beings this closely.

Is it correct to use "this close" in the sentence above?


texts: why do we use "were" instead of "was" in second conditional sentences?

texts: I have usually noticed that often in second conditional sentences "were" is used instead of "was". After trying to understand some concepts I couldn't understand its reason .I will be glad if you guys could help me understand it.


texts: Is there a word for fan reaction at the sight of their idol?

texts: Like the screaming, screeching, swooning, fainting and crying reaction of fans at seeing a pop star?


texts: Word for using extra line breaks to improve readability

texts:
I just got a copy of Royal Skousen's The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (Yale, 2009),
and was immediately struck by his implementation of what he calls "sense-lines":
that is,
the editor adds extra line breaks
--sometimes mid-sentence--
to improve readability.
For example, instead of:

And it is I that granteth unto him that believeth in the end a place at my right hand.

he prints:

And it is I that granteth unto him that believeth
in the end a place at my right hand.

The line break between "believeth" and "in the end"
makes it clearer to the reader
that "in the end" goes with "granteth",
not with "believeth".
It does it in a way that is relatively unobtrusive.
Skousen, referencing Alberto Manguel's A History of Reading,
says that "sense-lines" were used by pre-Gutenberg scribes
as a primitive form of punctuation called per cola et commata.
More recently, they were used by Bradbury Thompson
in his gorgeous The Washburn College Bible (Oxford, 1979).
Wanting to learn more, I tried Googling "sense-lines",
but I wasn't able to find anyone else using this term.
I looked up some more info about The Washburn College Bible.
The description calls it a "phrased" version,
but that didn't improve my Google search results, either.
Googling per cola et commata did turn up lots of info about the ancient practice,
but not about its modern use.
It seems programmers are encouraged to implement this practice when writing documentation.
Their word for "sense-lines" is "semantic linefeeds".
This term doesn't appear to be used outside the industry, though.
In education,
a similar practice
is the reading strategy called "chunking".
Chunking sometimes uses line breaks,
but more often uses slashes.
I'm hoping to find a copy of one of Charles Dicken's books
re-typeset with sense-lines:
"pre-chunked", if you will.
I have trouble parsing his sentences,
but I don't want to read a paraphrased version.
I haven't been able to find anything like this
and I think it's because I'm not using the right terminology.
What is the term for the version of a book
where the original text is unchanged,
but extra line breaks have been added to make it more readable?
Examples:

Audiobook narrators prefer to read from the ______ edition of a book, as it reduces the number of times they have to repeat a sentence to get the emphasis correct.
Our study found a 23% increase in reading comprehension in the group with the ____ version of the essay.

Bonus question: Do you know of any other books typeset this way?


texts: Difference between "Shut the door will you please" and "May we have the door shut please?"

texts:
To whom do you think a speaker might use the following requests to have the door shut?

Shut the door will you please.
May we have the door shut please?


texts: In the United States we have a saying, "your mileage may vary", which means "your experience may be different".  In English-speaking countries that don't use Imperial miles, is there an equivalent expression?


texts: Is the sequence of words "modulus like parameter" meaningful?

texts: Does the sequence of words "modulus like parameter" mean that the involved parameter can be considered as a modulus even though it can be something different in some cases ?


texts: What is the grammar role of "in" in "What consideration do you make in leaving your desk..."

texts:
I am totally new here and I am sorry if I set the title wrong. Back to my issue, I am applying jobs and I was asked:

  Confidentiality is crucial in this job. Can you describe your knowledge of handling confidential information such as maintaining electronic files and accessing records on a database. What consideration do you make in leaving your desk or handing this information over to other members of staff?

The question above makes me really confused. But I guess they want me to let them know what would I do when I leave my desk or pass confidential information to my colleagues. If I'm right, would you please help me to explain what the grammar role of the word "in" here (the bold one above)? I thought it should be "when" instead? Thank you.


texts: Current day phrase meaning "incredibly unpleasant auditory experience"

texts: I'd like to use the phrase "fingernails on a chalkboard" in a simile, to describe something as being similar to an incredibly unpleasant auditory experience, except that chalkboards aren't as commonly used as they used to be; "audio feedback screech" is also something that (in my experience) doesn't happen as often in the current day.  Is there a phrase that the most recent generation would be familiar with that conveys the same meaning?


texts:
Why is the phrase "paint the town red" used to mean go on a colossal drinking spree? Does anyone know where it came from?

Green's Slang Dictionary tentatively suggests a famous toot by the Marquis of Waterford in 1837 may be the origin, but the earliest citation for the phrase given is 1884.


texts: which is better, "We hope our close partnership can continue or can be continued well into the future"?

texts: which is better, "We hope our close partnership can continue well into the future" or "We hope our close partnership can be continued well into the future"?


texts: Is the expression "in seek of" acceptable?

texts:
Is this sentence correct, or are there better ways to express it:

  In seek of an ideal start for my career, I am applying for the PhD program at your school.

Am I using the wrong verb here, should I use instead, in search of ?
What formulaic expressions or phrases could I use in place of in seek of?

I am looking for something formal, but also native-like.


texts:
If you are in a quiet place and someone wants to get your attention by making the 'psst!' noise, how would you write this?

Does the following work?

  "She heard a soft 'psst!' from somewhere in the basement shadows".

Is there a verb which properly articulates 'psst' without having to write it out?


texts: How does one use multiple "by"s for nested descriptions?

texts:
The software peeps at our company make these neat reports for our business peeps. For example, we might have a report called "Sales by Day":

Sales by Day Report

Day
Sales

Monday
$100.00

Tuesday
$200.00

Wednesday
$450.00

Thursday
$250.00

Friday
$120.00

Another report may be Sales by Store (for all time):

Sales by Store Report

Store
Sales

San Diego
$10,000.00

Boston
$30,000.00

Salt Lake City
$25,000.00

Gotham
$45,000.00

Now, if we wanted to show a breakdown per store mixed with per day, as in the following example, which title would be correct, and why?

Sales by Store by Day Report or Sales by Day by Store Report
San Diego

Day
Sales

Monday
$20.00

Tuesday
$25.00

Boston

Day
Sales

Monday
$35.00

Tuesday
$45.00

....


texts:
How are we to understand whether present perfect progressive implies that the action is still in progress, versus implying it has stopped just now or recently?

In simple sentences like these two,

  • I'm tired [now] because I've been running.
  • Why is the grass wet [now]? Has it been raining?

it's obvious that the actions are complete, but not in the following five sentences:

  • I have been living in Paris for two weeks.
  • I have been reading for two hours.
  • I have been talking with Jane on the phone(since 5:30 for ten minutes).
  • I have been doing my homework.(For an hour)
  • I have been working in the garden (for two hours).


texts: What does “cement-mouthed” governor mean?

texts:
There was the word “cement-mouthed” to describe Texas governor, Rick Perry in the following text of the article titled “The Republican brain drain” appearing in today’s (September 25) Washington Post.

  “The list of Republicans who looked at Iowa’s daunting demographics and did not run is more distinguished than those who did. At one time or another, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain were front-runners. Can you think of any two people less qualified for the presidency? How about Ron Paul, another front-runner, or Mad Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry, the cement-mouthed governor who would eliminate three Cabinet offices, if only he could remember them?”

I cannot find the definition of the word, “cement-mouthed” in any of English dictionaries of Cambridge, Oxford, and Merriam-Webster, nor does Google Ngram register this word.

What does “cement-mouthed” mean? Is “cement-mouthed” a neologism invented by the Washington Post Opinion writer, Richard Cohen?

Is the meaning of “cement-mouthed” automatically communicable to most of Americans?


texts:
Let's suppose a guest brought something inappropriate, like maybe a polo mallet and helmet, to an informal beach party (presumably to show off), and I made a snarky remark to my companion: for example, "And me without my jodhpurs."

Is there a literary term for this kind of humor or device? I'm not sure if it fits the definition of sarcasm. Could it be characterized as satire, or something else?


texts: What does "surrender" mean in this context?

texts:
In the short story "A Worn Path," the old woman Phoenix Jackson says:

  I never did go to school—I was too old at the Surrender.

Per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "surrender" is defined as

  to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand,

but since "surrender" is clearly used as a noun in this case, what would be the correct definition in this context?


texts: What is the meaning of "previous 12 months " in the clause below?

texts:
for two years after separation of your employment, you shall
  not solicit, entice away, offer employment, or employ directly or
  indirectly (as employees, contractors, consultants), any employee,
  subcontractor or other agents of "Company Name" who is then working
  with "Company name" or who has worked with "Company Name" in the
  previous 12 months

Does this mean that I can't offer a job to any person who left the "Company Name" but not completed one year if it is not 2 years since I left my job from "Company Name"?


texts: On pied-piping in direct question and indirect question vs. relative clauses

texts:
I am Miguel, whose first language is Japanese. This time, I have very naive or trivial question on pied-piping in English.

It seems to be said that the pied-piping takes place more often in relative clauses than in question sentences. My question is to what extent English native speakers allow pied-piping in wh-questions. I made several examples. If possible, could you grade these examples?

I heard bad information according to which my grandmother passed away.
I don't know the picture of who(m) John likes.
I don't know of whom John likes the picture.
I don't know whom John likes the picture of.
I wonder after which party John went to the hotel.
I wonder which party John went to the hotel after.
The picture of whom does John like?
Of whom does John like the picture?
Who(m) does John like the picture of?
After which party did John go to the hotel?
Which party did John go to the hotel?

If the sentence is completely acceptable, grade it as 5. If it is totally unacceptable, assign 1.

example: (1) 5, (2) 2, (3) .....

This question asks your acceptability, but not formal grammaticalness. Even if you think that is prescriptive, as long as you can accept the sentence, grade it higher.

I am very looking forward to hearing your answer!


texts: What is the correct usage of contractions like "isn't" and "wasn't"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Do contractions (e.g. “don't”) and full phrases (e.g. “do not”) have the same meaning?

I frequently see contractions such as "isn't" and "wasn't" used in sentences such as:

  Why wasn't she there?

Which would be equivalent to:

  Why was not she there?

Which doesn't make any sense. Considering how often I see this used I thought I could find something online about it, however I haven't had any luck.

Is it grammatically correct to use "isn't" and "wasn't" in sentences like the one above, and the one below? If so, why?

  Why isn't Dad home yet?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  'Which', 'whose' or something else?

Of course there isn't a word whichs (as far as I know), but I am talking about the possessive form of which.

Sometimes I use 'whose', but sometimes it just seems inappropriate and that 'who' seems a bit unnatural when being used for inanimate things.

Is it only me who thinks this?

Other times I use 'the X of which', but that can seem a bit convoluted sometimes.

Any other suggestions?


texts:
One quite often sees the phrase 'Swiss made', so one assumes the following are also idiomatic: 'French made', 'Italian made', 'German made'....

But what is this construction? Simply an adjective used as adverb?

Like "perfectly done"?


texts: Is this sentence grammatically correct? "Isn't it only you who have that book?"

texts:
Instead of saying:

  "It's only you who have that book, isn't it?"

can we say,

  "Isn't it only you who have that book?"


texts:
Having dealt recently with materials translated from Hebrew, I noticed that references to deceased individuals throughout the materials were made with the usage of the letters "ZL" after the person's name (apparently a transliteration of an acronym for the Hebrew expression "of blessed memory").

Seeing how that's not a common thing (as far as I know of) in US English, and the items in question were intended for common readership from what I could tell (in other words, not just Jews/Isralies familiar with that), would it not be more appropriate to change it to a form such as "the late John Smith" for example, or other alternative forms, whatever they may be, rather than preserve the exact form of the non-English source?


texts: How do you call the largest unsigned item in a list?

texts:
What is the clearest way to refer to -10 in the example vector v; v = (1, ⅔, -10)?  I initially was going to refer to it as the largest entry of
v but don't want to run the risk of having the reader infer that I'm
implying 1 (obviously, in this paragraph I'm talking about the 'largest' of a non-specific vector, so I can't refer to it as the third entry).

Here is the context:

  […] we use the convention of flipping the sign of Pq so that
  it's largest unsigned entry is always positive.

Pq is a matrix with many entries (some positive, some negative).
It turns out that the only the magnitude of these entries matter in this
application. Still, to compare two such matrices (say Pq and Pqʹ), we need to impose a sign convention.


texts: Is there a term for words that are sounded out initialisms?

texts:
The words "okay" and "emcee" seem to both be somewhat widely accepted (at least, I can find both in several dictionaries). But it seems to be agreed that these are simply sounded-out spellings of the initialisms "O.K." and "M.C." respectively.

Are there any other words like this, and is there a general term for them?


texts: "My father's hands" vs. "the hands of my father"

texts:
My father's hands → modified by a possessive noun
The hands of my father → modified by a preposition

When is "my father's hands" preferable over "the hands of my father", and vice versa?


texts: Full-stack vs Full Stack, Back-end vs Back end, Front-end vs Front end

texts:
Software Developers use the dash interchangeably for these terms.

Front-end meaning one works on the "Front End" of an application (e.g. HTML), Back-end meaning one works on the "Back End" of an application (e.g. PHP), and Full-stack meaning all of the above.

Is there a proper spelling of these terms? Or does it matter?


texts: What is the difference between the phrases below?

texts:
He dies.  ( On the TV screen I saw. "Mandela dies at 94 "  )
He died.  ( On another canal simultaneously it was written " Mandela died at 94. ")
She / he has died vs he died vs he dies
When they want to say someone just died they use all forms above in the first day of his or her death. It is confusing.


texts:
Are all the sentences below correct? Do they mean exactly the same?

You can download the latest version of X from this link.
You can download the last version of X from this link.
You can download the newest version of X from this link.


texts: Why do we say a "hotel room" and not a "hotel's room"?

texts:
I would like to know what the rule is to explain why we do not use the genitive construction hotel's room. Instead, we say "a hotel room".

Other examples:

a hospital bed
a bike stand

Would it suffice to ask "What kind of..."?


texts:
So I'm writing an essay , and have inserted the following phrase in it :-
" .... to correct any spelling mistakes or grammatical erratum".
Is it alright to use the word 'erratum' in this context? If not , any other suggestions if it isn't?


texts:
I want to emphasize a question from a poll in my project thesis for university.
However, I´m not certain with the usage of "above all" in the following example.

  Last but not least, the participants were asked [question and result here].
  Above all, this question displays the necessity to implement [...].

There were some questions before as you might have noticed (Last but not least), but I want to highlight that this question shows the consequence - to implement something - better than any other question.


texts: One word to describe a person who fights for a righteous cause

texts: I'm looking for a word to describe a person who fights for a righteous cause. There is patriotic but that is a person who fights for ones country.


texts:
I have consulted many punctuation guides, but I am still uncertain on which to use when writing instructions. For example:

Pick a player: she cannot participate in the first round.
or
Pick a player; she cannot participate in the first round.
or even
Pick a player, she cannot participate in the first round.

Personally I feel the version with the comma is weird, but I always hesitate between the other two options.

Edit: I would like this strategy to be versatile enough that I can use it with many different instructions, so I'm adding another example:

Pick a team: join it in two rounds.

In this case, I feel that punctuation is essential because something like

Pick a team and join it in two rounds.

makes the timing more ambiguous.


texts:
Disposition: a person's usual way of feeling or behaving; the tendency of a person to be happy, friendly, anxious, etc.

I just want to ask if  native speakers use this word in daily life? I want to use it, but I do not want to sound weird if it is not common to use.

Is it okay to say, "Depending on people's dispositions, they interpret the events different?" Or is there a sentence that makes more sense by using this word?


texts: more fair or fairer - Is "more fair" an acceptable alternative to "fairer"

texts: Is it acceptable to say "more fair" as opposed to "fairer" ? Is one more appropriate than the other?


texts:
Say you're a teacher and for the summer you need a job... to "supplement" your income? I'm helping a friend with her résumé (under reason for applying) and any help would be appreciated.

Definition of supplement: Add an extra element or amount to.

Doesn't seem right, so I'm just making sure.


texts:
In the following, which is better to write between two sentences: ". Also" or ", and also" :

  Another drawback in the convenient setting is that operational vector fields do not have integral curves. Also, for kinematic vector fields integral curves do not need to exist locally, and if they exist they may not be unique for a given initial value.

Are there any grammatical errors?


texts:
I am reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, and I came across this paragraph

  There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from one's fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live, undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet.

I could not comprehend the meaning of this paragraph, I know that the gist of it  is something related to "ignorance is bliss" but the beginning of this paragraph is perplexing me.

Can somebody help me understand with an example, “the fatality of physical and intellectual distinction” and how it is related to “the faltering steps of kings.”
Oxford Dictionaries tells me that the noun fatality has two separate meanings

  An occurrence of death by accident, in war, or from disease.

and

  Helplessness in the face of fate.

What did the author mean by “fatality of physical and intellectual distinction”? Was Wilde referring specifically to death or to destiny?


texts:
I was jumping about up to my thighs in the waters.

Is a comma necessary after "about", or in another place in the sentence?


texts:
On the Genealogy & Family History Stack Exchange I asked What might 'pitt Zink' in 1873 South Australian diary mean? and the first answer I received more or less aligns with my thinking that Zink is being used where today we would (in Australia) write Zinc.  The writer was living in South Australia, but prior to emigrating had been a school master in Staffordshire, England for at least the period 1821-1827.

Was Zink ever considered to be a valid spelling of Zinc and, if so, when might it have ceased to be used?


texts: What is an adjective to describe something that caused a problem?

texts:
I have an error message that describes the cause for a problem/crash in my application. What is an adjective I can use to refer to that error message?

I would like to say something like this:

  This is the [adjective] error:

To mean this:

  This is the error that caused the crash:

Is there a good adjective that clearly indicates that the noun it is describing to is the cause of the problem the speaker/writer is referring to?


texts:
I’m really confused about the meaning of otherwise in this sentence. From my understanding, otherwise is used to express what would happen on the contrary. However, in this context, the clause following otherwise conveys the same idea of the previous sentence.

So, what does otherwise mean in this context?

  Recycling has been relentlessly promoted as a goal in and of itself: a public and private virtue that is indoctrinated in students from kindergarten through university. As a result, otherwise well-informed and educated people have no idea of the relative costs and benefits.


texts: "The Sultan of Swat" is to nickname as "Babe" is to what?

texts:
Trying to name things in a computer data model.

People have a variety of name roles, such as legal name, maiden name, etc.

"The Sultan of Swat" is a nickname or pseudonym of George Ruth. It seems to stand alone. You don't often see him called "The Sultan of Swat" Ruth.

"Babe" is also his nickname, but is often used together with other parts of his name, as in "Babe Ruth". It's more like the "Bobby" in Robert "Bobby" Kennedy.

I've seen "diminutive" as well as "appellation" used.

Are the two kinds of nicknames actually different? And if so, what terms to use?

Update. A few more examples for clarification:

Is Malcolm X a sobriquet, pseudonym, or just his preferred name?

If an Asian student at a western college takes a more western name is that a sobriquet or preferred name?


texts: Word for a topic with an unreachable conclusion

texts:
What would I call a topic or question with an unreachable (or almost so) conclusion? Example:

  It is difficult to write a paper about the meaning of life because the topic is so _______.

or:

  Political discussions at the Thanksgiving table are ________.

A similar term is a metaphysical question, but I am looking for a word/short phrase that more conveys the unlikelihood of coming to a definitive answer/conclusion. I searched Google and came up with nothing.


texts: Wanting to be more Californian and trying to correct my accent, I'm looking at the sound for mother, in the North America column. What is the difference between IPA symbols for ɚ, ɹ, and ɝ. (ɝ is not on the page but the difference between ɚ and ɝ is what I was looking for in the first place.) I cannot really hear a difference between Standard Canadian and Standard American, for example.


texts:
Does 'real time indicator' mean collecting data:
-over time at specific period, for example of the year/month etc, or
-as it happens, for example, in very short intervals, like a month, week, day or hours?
Below is original body of text:
'Given the highly-fluid situation, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) is tapping on high-frequency and real-time indicators, in addition to traditional indicators, to monitor the latest economic developments and assess the impact of COVID-19 on the Singapore economy. Apart from monitoring the real-time economic indicators that have been developed in-house, MTI has also worked with public and private sector partners to obtain new sources of non-traditional high- frequency data such as daily data on credit card spending, online food orders and electricity consumption, which can provide an indication of the health of different aspects of the Singapore economy on a more timely basis'.


texts: Hypernym for "team member" and "contributor"

texts:
I work on a web app where the users make forecast of people.

They have to inform for each person with forecast if it's a "TEAM MEMBER" (i. e. the user is the manager of the resource) or a "CONTRIBUTION" (i. e. the user ask the resource from another team).

I don't know how to name this "status" of the people. Do you know any word describing if a person belongs to the team?


texts: Why and when did people start omitting "The" from "The United States"?

texts:
From federal officials to NPR news hosts (and at many points between), I'm hearing American people (who should know) refer to our country as "United States", whereas I was taught (about 40 years ago) to call our nation "The United States". Why and when did people start dropping the article?

I don't need convincing that it sounds wrong. I'm on board with that. I'd like to know why educated people started choosing to drop the definite article. Is this a thing worth keeping or even caring about--like whether you put your comma inside or outside of a quotation mark? I'm ready to be convinced that I'm the one doing it wrong, but you'll need to make a strong, sound argument.


texts: "If you don't have a fresh chicken, I'll take a frozen (one)." – When can an adjective act on behalf of a whole noun phrase?

texts:
Consider these sentences:

  If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take a frozen.
  If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take the frozen.
  If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take canned.
  If you haven't got (any) fresh cream, I'll take some canned.
  If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take the canned.

As you see, frozen and canned are adjectives that are used attributively but their accompanying nouns are left out. Is it grammatical to do so? Under what conditions? Does the phrase remain a noun phrase?

Of course, the problem can be detoured by adding back the omitted nouns (frozen chicken/one, canned cream), but the question is, cannot the adjectives do alone?

You can also share your native impression and tell us (preferably in the comment section) which of the sentences above you find acceptable and which unnatural.


texts: Does this paragraph contain a comma error?

texts:
Should there be a comma before the coordinating conjunction 'and' in this paragraph?

"The High court determined that no contract
existed between the two parties because under an objective
standard, a reasonable person could tell that no offer was
intended and the alleged contract was void because it was
for goods above $ 1200.00 and not in writing."


texts:
Can "chalkboard" and "blackboard" be used interchangeably? If I have a green chalkboard, can I still call it a blackboard, or would that be incorrect?

Also, I have heard that "blackboard" is used more than "chalkboard" in certain areas, and am not sure about how true this is.


texts:
What do you call a person who pays another for protection, travel, or both?  Vassal and thrall don't quite fit and I have been stuck for ages.  The way I am using it is basically like this:

""I heard your ship is heading to the Yeäl Islands, specifically to the island Guy. I would like to board your ship as a passenger, and would like your protection on the way there."

The person who is asking, what would he/she be called?  I'm not certain if there is even a word for this.


texts:
In school, we were taught to end each list item with a semicolon. But I have never actually seen this. Can somebody please confirm this? Should we end each list item with anything at all?

I've seen people use periods after each list item, colons, and even commas. But I've never seen a semicolon at the end of each item — and even if I have, it would be that rare that I've forgotten.

Example:

item;
item;
item;
item


texts: Which modal is correct when attached to a present perfect construction?

texts:
In the following sentence are may and might interchangeable? There is no question of permission here, only possibility. The modal leads into a present perfect construction, which means the action begins in the past. It's been noted in other discussions that might is the past tense of may, but that is usually met by the denial that modals have a past tense. Are both may and might indisputably grammatically correct in the sentence?

The police then grill Philip about his involvement with the young woman and imply that the fight may (might) have been a setup.

.


texts: When we ask for permission, what shall we use "May" or "Can"?

texts:
Can I give to them your emailaddress
May I give to them your emailaddress


texts: Dealing with usage where nouns or pronouns are treated as adjectives

texts:
"That is so Dave!"
I had a discussion of this on another forum where I said that 'Dave' is being treated here as an adjective. The only responses I got were on the lines of "'Dave' is a noun."

And to complicate the topic, I got to the point in the original 'discussion' of saying:

  And here's the perfect counter-argument to what I've been saying:
  "That is so you!"
  It wouldn't make sense to say that here 'you' is an adjective. 'You' is inflexibly and indisputably a pronoun. It is standing in for a noun. It would make more sense to say that here 'so' is being used like an adjective, as a kind of stand alone quality, or as a stand-in for 'typical' or 'classic'.

  And the counter-argument to the counter-argument: If I say "That is such a you statement!" then 'you' is definitely being treated as an adjective.

So to pose this as a question, rather than a discussion along the lines of "Is!"-"Isn't!"- "Is too, the dictionary says so!", can I ask simply -
Is there a line of linguistic thought that treats this kind of usage insightfully? That is, usage where one part of speech is shoehorned syntactically into working as another part of speech, with all the layered meanings and fruitful ambiguities that result?


texts: Characterisation, characterization or charactarisation?

texts:
Basically, I would like to know which of the above is correct, and in what type of context.

From what I understand, the difference between characterisation and characterization might be that one of them is used in American English and the other in British English, but what about charactarisation? Is that written incorrectly?

I just found charactarisation in the title of a thesis, and I find it difficult to believe that they may have made a mistake in such an obvious place as the title. Maybe it has a different meaning? The title was this:

  Charactarisation of submillimeter galaxies in the field of a protocluster around the high-redshift radio galaxy MRC1138-262

Is that correct, and if so, does it mean something specific?


texts: Meaning of "I'm not your friend, buddy", besides the literal meaning

texts:
Does the expression "I'm not your friend, buddy" have a colloquial meaning?

I've now seen it used twice. I am guessing it has more than just a literal meaning.


texts: What exactly does the string of words functioning as a preposition "all up in" (many many Google hits) mean in modern American slang usage?


texts:
Recently I posed this question:

I want to express at the beginning of the lesson that I hope that all my listeners will enjoy my speech. Can I use the causative structure? I hope I will have you enjoying this lecture.

The answer was as follows. My sentence is allegedly inappropriate because in the case "you describe, you cannot make the listeners enjoy the speech, so you can't use the causative form above". Why is it so? I think that if I am a good speaker, I can make the listeners enjoy my speech.

In addition,  in Oxford Dictionary I came across this sentence: If you play your radio on beach, you'll have everyone complaining. – I am not able to find out the difference between my sentence (I hope I will have you enjoying this lecture) and the one from OD.


texts: The meaning of "if you can't make it anymore"

texts:
When I was reading Twitter, I found the sentence using “can't make it anymore”.
I could get it out what the sentence means but I couldn't get any result in google about the meaning of “can't make it anymore”.

  If you can't make it anymore, you can get a refund from your ticketing agent.

Is the sentence commonly used?


texts: Is it 'sleep-induced coma' or 'coma-induced sleep'?

texts:
I had originally written coma-induced and was told it was 'sleep-induced coma'.
Which one is correct?

sleep-induced coma
coma-induced sleep


texts: What does the phrase "tell us what you really think" mean?

texts: What does "tell us what you really think" mean? It seems to be used when someone is telling us what they really think...


texts: 'Boring' is to 'bores' as 'tedious' is to what?

texts:
I've always found myself unable to find any information about this...

If a boring action bores me, then what does a tedious action do? I am inclined to say "it tedes me", but I am almost certain this makes no sense. Does such a word exist? Can someone shed some light on this?

Thanks.


texts:
GMCR paid high prices to avoid having to compete with licensees post patent expiration.

Is post a verb here, or is it a part of post patent expiration? What does it mean?


texts:
At first glance you'd think the correct use of the expression "too bad" would be in a conversation like this:

  Sure stealing candy would be bad but stealing candy from a baby is just too bad.

But instead we more often use the expression either sarcastically in cases like this:

  Yeah, I got it first! Too bad. You lose.

or as a synonym for "unfortunate" such as in:

  It's too bad that you can't come to the party.

But why did we come to use "too bad" in this way that seems to be little related to the literal meaning of the words?


texts: Similes and Metaphors - are similes a subset of metaphors?

texts:
I've always been taught that metaphors and similes both draw a parallel between two disparate ideas/thoughts/objects, but that a simile is a more explicit comparison using the word "like" or "is", whereas a metaphor's connection is more implicit. For example, "His injured ankle burned like a hot stove" is a simile, where as, "His injured ankle was a hot stove of pain" is a metaphor.

However, I recently heard a colleague note that similes are nothing more than a special kind of metaphor. In other words, all similes are metaphors. This seems to contradict what I was always taught (and what I've read online, for what that's worth). Can anyone straighten me (or my colleague) out?


texts:
Which sentence is correct:

  As many as 6% of US consumers say they are vegan, compared to just 1% in 2014. source
  As much as 6% of US consumers say they are vegan, compared to just 1% in 2014.

I know that before percentages we put as much as, for example: Sales amount to as much as 40%.


texts:
Ok, Here is the tricky ones.

Googling "The concert's sold out" returns no result, whereas googling "The concert was sold out" returns a lot of result.

Also, I don't see anyone say "the tickets're sold out" but most people say "the tickets were sold out", so "were" in this case can not be contracted.

Also, "Bob is a dog" could become "Bob's a dog" but then people may confused because it could mean "Bob has a dog".

What are the contraction rules for noun such as Bob, tickets, concert, etc?


texts:
Does the plural include the singular? And if so, in what sort of cases?

This question has arisen because of the example sentence below.

Amendment shall be permitted only in cases of:
1.  deletion of claims
2.  correction of error

My co-worker, who is not a native speaker of English, insists that if only one error is corrected (or if only one claim is deleted), then amendment will not be permitted. Is this the necessary interpretation?

Is there a specific name for this issue? And if plural does include the singular, what are some less legalistic examples that can be used to explain that the plural form is not necessarily, well, plural?


texts: What's the best term for "geographical level"?

texts:
I'm creating an interface where users can choose which geographical level to report on. I.e., they're choosing between "Country", "State", and "City". Is there a better term than "level" to describe these choices?

UPDATE: as noted in the comments below, the "geographical" part of this label will actually be "Geo" because that's a standard term in online advertising, FWIW. So I'm looking for something better than "Geo Level", and probably something that tends toward the colloquial, rather than the formal or technical.


texts: "in the year 1908" or "in the year of 1908"

texts:
Do we need preposition "of" after a year?

  Freud is a visitor at James’s Sussex residence, Lamb House, in the year 1908


texts: Single word for a person who want to learn new things

texts: What would you call a person who always want to learn new things (new skills/informations)


texts: A term that can be used to group towns and provinces together

texts: I've been given some names of towns and provinces for a tourism web-site. Is there a hypernym that could categorize both of them together? I've been thinking of the word "locality" but I'm not sure if that's suitable.


texts:
One of the meanings of umbrella is a term for other things.

So, is it possible (yet) to use umbrella as a verb? To umbrella something? Perhaps an umbrella'd issue? I saw someone used "umbrellered" and aside from disagreeing with the spelling, I was curious about the acceptance of a verb form.


texts: How to determine what part of the sentence a gerund phrase is modifying?

texts:
Most of us fall between the two extremes of Psalm 22 and the
  anti-psalm of the man facing Nazi oppression.

  Welch, Edward T.. Side by Side (p. 39). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Take this sentence for example. Does "facing Nazi oppression" modify "the man" or "the anti-psalm" or "Most of us"? My intuition says it should be the nearest one, which in this case is "the man". But is there any occasion where the gerund phrase modifies a farther object?

By the way, feel free to correct me if there is any misusage of grammatical terms.


texts: Word to indicate a project or endeavor whose benefits are insubstantial (particularly in relation to it's costs)

texts:
Many programming languages are routinely created with promises of a new sort of paradigm that will eliminate inefficiency from the process of creating software. Like most of us who set out to change the world, they frequently find it difficult to manage their own and their solutions frequently create larger problems.

What is a good word or phrase that describes these sort of "Pyrrhic quagmires" that are "not worth the effort"?


texts: Are there any national spelling styles of English that use decimal commas?

texts:
It's a very simple question, and I think the answer's "no, except for countries that do, and even then it's frowned upon", but I can't find any sources. When I google this question, I get articles talking about the countries, but not the languages.

The closest I can get is this article which states that the Francophone part of Canada uses the decimal comma while the standard in the rest of Canada (i.e, the Anglophone parts) is the decimal point.

It also states that:

  "Australia, New Zealand, as well as the islands and archipelagos close to them, use the same system as the rest of the Anglophone countries. Therefore, the decimal separator they use is a point." (emphasis added)

This seems to support my claim, but it confused the matter because, last I checked, "Anglophone country" means "country that speaks English", which includes South Africa, which they had just stated uses the decimal comma.

There was also this Quora post (Thanks @Hachi) that says only three Anglophone countries use the decimal comma: Canada, South Africa and Namibia. However, all three countries use both the point and the comma. It also clarifies that Canada only uses the comma when using French, and the point when using English.

Further research indicates that South Africa, like Canada, is officially multilingual, with no less than ten official languages. This implies that South Africa could be like Canada and use the comma in its other languages but not in its English.

That said, according to the Wikipedia article on the Decimal separator (Thanks @Xanne), South Africa adopted the decimal comma when it adopted the metric system, but "some English language [publications] continue to use the decimal point" (this, unfortunately, needs a citation).

Meanwhile, Namibia, although officially Anglophone, is almost entirely ESL, and was originally a German colony, which is important because Germany has always used the decimal comma. This seems the most likely source for an English dialect that prefers the decimal comma to the decimal point.

So, to reiterate, are there any (native, standardized) styles of English writing that use the decimal comma rather than the decimal point?


texts: Locally (western United States), a town where the businesses have closed for the evening, particularly if they closed unusually early, is described as having "rolled up the sidewalks".  What is the source of this phrase -- actual removable sidewalks, or merely figurative ones?


texts: Usage of 'and' between more than two items

texts:
Beijing will face trade sanctions from the United States, which brought the case, and the European Union and Japan.

vs

  Beijing will face trade sanctions from the United States, which brought the case, the European Union and Japan.

Which one is correct?


texts: "I was going to be called Kate if I was a girl"

texts:
This is an excerpt from a grammar book by Longman. It was discussing tense and time distinctions and the excerpt is about future time.

As you can see in the next example, the reference can be to a situation that never actually occurred:
'I was going to be called Kate if I was a girl.'

What I get from the example is the impression that the narrator is a man and before he was born his parents decided upon the baby's name if it were a girl. What I want to know is shall I use the subjunctive form were instead of was in "...if I was a girl."? Or is the sentence correct?


texts: Should "shape" be plural in "the shape and dimensions of the skyscrapers"?

texts:
In the following sentence:

  The great cities have been built with no regard for us. The shape and dimensions of the skyscrapers depend entirely on the necessity of obtaining the maximum income per square foot of ground.

Should "the shape" be changed to "the shapes", since "the skyscrapers" each have different shapes?

Or should we change "the shape and dimensions of the skyscrapers" to "the shape and dimensions of the skyscraper" if the original sentence means to be a general statement?


texts: Introductory Adverbial Elements - are these sentence adverbs or not? Also, commas

texts:
I am having a real brain fart here, and I would appreciate some help.
Now, I read this here - http://grammartips.homestead.com/adverbs2.html - but for some reason, in several cases my head just can't make the connection between the provided example for an adverb just modifying the verb and not the whole clause.
The example given:

Often the introductory adverb modifies just the verb, as does the word "often" in this sentence.

The cases my brain refuses to compute:

A) Usually it's the age that's a problem.
B) Finally he's had enough and stops me.
C) Eventually my eyes settle on a bottle of whiskey.

My purpose here is to know whether there should be commas after these words or not. And why.
My problem is that I could, possibly, see each of these as just modifying the verb:
A) it's
B) had
C) settle
And maybe I am stupid. Right now I feel stupid. Or is it: Right now, I feel stupid? I just don't know, anymore. Commas are really killing me. So if anyone could help me out here, in layman's terms, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks.


texts: Origin of the word "jack" to mean theft or to steal

texts:
This is my very first query/post.  I was attempting to find out the history in American slang for using the word jack to mean theft. In a sentence it might be Someone jacked my bike last night. I had it locked up but when I got up it was gone.

Or I'm gonna jack that camera when they're not looking.

When I started my web search I had no idea what a can of worms I was opening.  OED has two terms one dating back to 1841 I think was jacklight and the other was 1840 but neither had anything to do with theft.

I've tried many different iterations to complete a Google search and other search engines. It only seems to baffle to cyber world.


texts:
I understand the difference between watch and see and that's not what this question is about. My question is why does the choice seem to be driven by tense at times? Consider the following examples:

I saw this movie last night.
I will see this movie next weekend.
I have never seen this movie.
I am watching this movie right now.

As you can see, it's the same action in different tenses and yet see seems a better fit when it's in the past tense or future whereas watch sounds better in the present tense. I just want to understand what drives this. To add to the confusion, there's this:

I was watching the movie.

This one takes a watch despite being in the past tense. I know it seems stupid to think of watch vs. see as a tense-driven choice because no grammar book ever said that. But the pattern is hard to ignore, no?


texts: What are the terms for the 6 kinds of jigsaw puzzles pieces, based on their configuration of tabs (innies vs. outies)?

texts:
What are the terms for the 6 kinds of jigsaw puzzles pieces, based on their configuration of tabs (i.e. innies vs. outies)?

I am wondering what words jigsaw afficionados and competitors use when working as a team to quickly refer to the 6 configurations possible, when solving by shape alone.

The 6 configurations I speak of are:
4 tabs
3 tabs
2 tabs (side by side)
2 tabs (opposing)
1 tab
0 tabs

Note that the question What do you call the interconnecting bits of a puzzle piece in English? gives names for the "tabs" and the holes the tabs fit into. It doesn't name the pieces themselves. I'm after a word which will fit into a sentence like "I need a fribble" where fribble is a piece with a tab on opposite sides.


texts:
I know that "conservatism" is the more commonly used term, but is "conservativism" a less preferred, but legitimate word, or just a misspelling?

www.dictionary.com has "conservativism", but I'm not sure I view them as a credible source.


texts: A word that describes the reading experience

texts: I'm writing a short essay about plays and movies. In movies, the audience experiences the literary text in a sensory way. When the audience reads the play, though, they experience it in what way?


texts: Is there a difference between using "over" or "across" to cross a river?

texts:
We had to use the bridge to go _______ the river.

What should be the preposition: over or across?

People are divided in their opinion. Some say over, while others say across. Some even say that it could be both. What is the correct answer?


texts:
How would you call these kind of events organized by schools at the end of the year generally in June where children (6 to 12 years old) sing, dance or act?

In French we say :

"Fête annuelle de l'école"

"Kermesse de l'école"


texts: Word that means good deed, offering, contribution

texts:
I'm trying to find a word -- preferrably a short one -- that means:

Good deed
Help
Offering
Contribution

This word will be used as the name of a feature in a software app where a user helps another in a meaningful way. Not just answer a simple question but render a service such as design a logo for another user or help write a business plan or design a website. So, there's real time and effort spent by the user to help another and there will be no monetary gain for him/her.

Any suggestions for a word that we can use within this context? I've been using dictionary and thesaurus apps and these are the best ones I've come up with so far but I feel there's something better.

To clarify further, this will be the name of a feature. Think of it like “Search” or “Sent Items”. So, it could be the “Contributions” feature. Hope this clarifies it a bit more.


texts: Should I use [sic] when quoting the KJV 1611?

texts:
I am currently working on a project for my Grade 12 religion class, and it requires (surprise, surprise) Biblical quotations. I have decided to use the 1611 KJV Bible and quote verses with very archaic spelling and grammar.It's within the guidelines.

My question is, do I need to use [sic] every time u and v are switched, or i and j? Or every time an e is randomly thrown on the end of a word? I will be specifically citing the 1611 KJV parenthetically.

To illustrate, must I write like this?

  “Masters, giue [sic] vnto [sic] your seruants [sic] that which is iust [sic] and equall [sic], knowing that yee [sic] also haue [sic] a Master in heauen [sic].”  (Col. 4:1, KJV 1611)


texts:
While watching episodes of the old game show "What's My Line," circa 1957-1962, the very literate panelists regularly use the word "animal" to mean "mammal," as in "Do you work with fish as opposed to animals?"  (Similarly, "Do you work with chickens as opposed to animals?")

I've never heard this usage anywhere else and cannot find information on it.

Any thoughts?


texts:
Should the sentence be:
"What is this?" The man demanded.
OR
"What is this?" The man said demandingly.

I was under the impression that you needed to have 'said' in the sentence for it to be proper. You couldn't just have demanded. Is this correct?


texts: How do you pronounce "is there" in fast speech?

texts:
I'm not a native speaker of English, and I was recently puzzled with the question, "How can Americans put their tongue in z (is) position and then change to th (there) in such short time?"

May you explain to me how it is possible?


texts: a volcanic literature of the body as well as the heart

texts:
What does "volcanic literature of the body" mean in the text below?
Is the writer saying Charlotte Bronte devoted a great deal of her writings to describing body and sensations?

In rejecting Austen and deciding instead to write about "what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of life," Charlotte Bronte had chosen a volcanic literature of the body as well as of the heart, a sexual and often supernatural world. She was thus seen as the romantic, the spontaneous artist who "pours forth her feelings . . . without premeditation." George Eliot was seen as the opposite: a writer and a woman in the Austen tradition, studied, intellectual, cultivated.
— Showalter, Elaine. "The Double Critical Standard and the Feminine Novel," in A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists From Brontë to Lessing, pp. 73-99. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1977, via encyclopedia.com


texts:
Is the sentence grammatically correct:

  I do recall ever seeing my mother in the light of day.


texts: "Carved from the living rock" — since when was rock ever alive?

texts:
According to Etymonline, living dates to the 14th century, and refers to

  "the fact of dwelling in some place," from O.E. lifiende, prp. of lifan

But we hear the phrase "the living rock" used all the time. For example, in George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords:

  Down a twisting passageway he went, narrow steps carved from the living rock, down and down.

I get that this is used in the sense of dwelling, as in the rock dwells in some place, but it still seems curious to me, even though I've accepted it every time I've encountered it in print my entire life.

Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary gives the expression "living rock" to mean

  remaining uncut or unquarried: NATIVE <in places the track was hewn out of the ~ rock — Geo. Journal>

That just regurgitates what we all know it to mean. But can anyone shed some light on where this was first used, or how it came to be such a standard trope?


texts:
I've been watching a TV show recently and in one of the episodes the following is being said:

  I don't want half my army killed before I've crossed the Narrow Sea.

In the second part of the sentence, after "before", the Present Perfect tense is used, which made me think about the meaning of it.

How does "before" influence the meaning of this part of the sentence?


texts: Why a "chef" is a shef but a chair is not a shair"

texts:
I am unable to understand, why the sounds in english are not commonly spread.
I looked into the IPA on google and could not understand, why the sounds change.

e.g. chef vs chair.


texts:
Let's suppose my father was a good moral teacher to me. I say:

  "I learned my virtuous morals from my father."

This is a true statement, because he did teach me good morals. However the subsequent claim:

  "That is the reason why I am a moral person."

May sound suspicious. The statement may be only a partial explanation for my moral principles, ie., I also learned from my mother, siblings, friends, teachers, etc.

If it were the case that I had many moral teachers, and my father was only one among many, what do you call the statement:

  "I learned my virtuous morals from my father."

?
It's true, but is misleading because it makes a tendentious argument towards my father being the reason. I thought of the term half-truth, and in fact it does fall into the definition of half-truth. But I don't like this term because the above statement is FULLY true. I DID learn good morals from my father, so as far as I'm concerned it is FULLY true, and I don't like the term half-truth. Neither do I like "partial-truth", because as I said it's fully true.

Also, I'm aware that the second statement is a case of making a possibly wrong conclusion from a valid premise, I'm not referring to this as in the case of syllogisms. I'm specifically asking about:

  "I learned my virtuous morals from my father."

True in every way but sounds biased towards one particular cause. Maybe it's simply a case of omission: if there are my father, mother, siblings, friends etc., and I only mention my father, it may be simply a case of omission to persuade another that my father is the reason for why I'm moral.

Are there any terms that fit this? I've already considered half-truth and affirming the consequent and these don't fit. The best one word I've thought of so far is "omission", but that just means leaving something out, doesn't seem specific enough. Can be a word or multiple, preferable if it's a recognised term in the field of logic, rhetoric, or popular culture, or can be cited from a dictionary or anywhere else for that matter.


texts: Is it acceptable to say something has been "subject to a theft"? The only use case I can find is in this policy document from Lloyds Bank. Has it been adopted elsewhere?


texts: Where did the phrase " what price glory/fame" come from?

texts:
What' the origin of   "what price glory/fame" meaning:

  to suggest that glory/fame may not be worth what a person has to lose or give up in order to get it. (M-W)


texts: A word for someone who loves to travel with no plans but has an objective

texts:
I am a photographer and love to go out everyday, but I have no specific place in mind. But, I know I have to be out somewhere to take landscape photos (focus). So, I am looking for a word to describe myself like - Nomad, Wanderer, etc But, I feel none of these describe my spontaneous nature.
Only word closest to what I want is a French word called
Dérive:

Definition: A spontaneous journey where the traveler lets the spirit of the landscape and architecture move them.

Is there an English word that is close to this french word?


texts: Using if-sentences for events that happened recently

texts:
I was surfing the web when I came across the first if-sentence structure being used to describe a recent event.
For example: 2 people are talking, person A says:

If you do that, of course he'll get mad.

The context given is that person B already did "that" recently, so to speak.
I found the structure to be a little bit odd, and wondered if this is a common use of the first type of the conditional sentence.
Thanks for the help!


texts:
Example sentence: "She screamed in a shrill voice, her head (...) from the force of which she had screamed."
I've searched the words shake, twitch, convulse, jerk. However, if any of these are what would fit in this kind of sentence, how would I use it in another in the same context? Any part-of-speech is fine. If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated. I will use it to write a horror story.


texts: A word for describing thinking of something as better

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes the action of looking or thinking about someone, and taking them as better than the subject is.

For example,

  I think you ______ him too much, he isn't really that good at math!

I thought about the word "overestimate", but its connotation is that thinking of the object as better is wrong (unjustly assuming that the object is better). I'm looking for a word that can fit into that sentence also (for example).

  Of course I ______ her. She's my teacher, and I think she's very wise!

Is there a word or a phrase to describe that?

Edit for clarification: I'm looking for a word that can serve as the word 'overrate' in the first example, and as the word 'commend' in the second example.


texts: When do we use this construction? Auxiliary verb + subject + verb

texts:
I was trying to find some info about this construction but couldn't succeed, although I happen to encounter it here and there almost every day. So the construction is: auxiliary verb + subject + verb. Noteworthy that it looks like a question construction, but it actually isn't.

Example: Very rarely does she manage to handle her work.

This sentence can be replaced with She very rarely manages to handle her work.

So in what cases should we use it? And when would it be inappropriate to do it?


texts: Meaning of "stub your toe" (apply too much cologne to oneself)?

texts:
I heard an older person say "Pheew! What did you do -- stub your toe?" The implied meaning was that when I put on cologne, I must have stubbed my toe. This caused me to pour an exorbitant amount on myself, thus causing a strong odor of cologne.

Has anyone out there ever heard of this phrase and that definition of it?

Ah yah.

Thank you.


texts: Why is "women" pronounced the way it is?

texts: As far as I know, it is the only word where wo is pronounced as wee. What is the reason for this? Does it have to do with the origin of the word?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “Literally” and “Decimate” misuse

I have seen a lot of backlash in internet media against people using the word literally to mean something not literal.
Something like "he was literally as big as a house" to mean someone was very big
I think this comic sums up the anti literal movement well
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally

Is this actually grammatically incorrect or can the word "literally" be a hyperbole strengthening a metaphor?


texts: Difference between Trade-off and Balance?

texts:
What is the difference between "Balance" and "Trade-off" ?
For instance at these two sentences:

Legal balance between rights and interests

And

Trade-offs between rights and interests


texts: Adjective for not first but either second, third, fourth, etc

texts:
What is an adjective for something that is not first but either second, third, fourth, etc? We don't need to know what position it is at; the only thing that matters is that it's not the first one.

EDIT:
After reading the comments/answers, I realized I didn't provide much context. Let's say I have a few words preceded by a prefix. The first prefix however is different than the others, so we say there are different prefixes for the first word and the XXX (later) words. What can we use for XXX?


texts:
The following sentence is from The Economist:

On March 14th concerns about China’s grip on Congo’s cobalt production deepened when GEM, a Chinese battery maker, said it would acquire a third of the cobalt shipped by Glencord, the world’s biggest producer of the metal, between 2018 and 2020.

At first, I thought The Economist made a typo: a comma should have been placed after the date "March 14th," which builds a better flow for the sentence in my opinion.

However, I encountered today this sentence from another article by The Economist that is also missing a comma after a date:

On May 23rd the Department of Commerce launched a probe of car imports.

Judging from the fact a comma is persistently omitted in articles by The Economist, I am starting to wonder if the comma usage hinges on stylistic choice rather than is a universal rule in English grammar. Personally, I am used to seeing a date set off by a comma and does not prefer The Economist way.

Let me know what you guys think. Thank you in advance.


texts: What's the difference between pigment, dye and colorant?

texts: For example, is 'pigment' always solid, 'dye' always liquid, and 'colorant' a general name for the both?


texts: I wonder if "more happy" could be used as a comparative. For example, "He is more happy than me". Is this sentence grammatically correct?


texts:
When the phrase "including something" is used, will the plural changed?
For example:
Everyone is required to wear shoes.
Everyone, including the staff, is/are required to wear shoes.


texts:
When you ask someone if your buddy Ken is at home or not, what is the correct question, "Is Ken home?" or "Is Ken at home?"?

I'm pretty sure both of those are correct, since I've seen a lot of times when this question was asked without "at" in it. Though, it seems the second choice is more correct in terms of grammar. Maybe the rules are different for British and American English.


texts: Latin equivalent for "case-by-case" phrase

texts: I would appreciate a reminder of the Latin-phrase equivalent, or alternative suggestions, for "case-by-case," specifically for language to be included in a public-private case-study.  Thank you.


texts: Is it "real-estate-specific" or "real estate-specific"?

texts: Which of the phrases in the title is the correct adjective? Do I need to concatenate "real" and "estate" with a hyphen before appending "specific" to the two-word noun?


texts: Can we use "Not only, but too" instead of "Not only, but also,?

texts:
I am wondering about the use of "Not only, but too" instead of "Not only, but also.?
For example:

The candidates campaigned not only in Perth but in Darwin too.

and is it formal to use it?


texts: When to use *throughout the years* and *over the years*?

texts:
When should I use throughout the years and over the years? This is my sentence:
"Use of migraine drugs remained constant throughout the years"
What I want to say is that the use of migraine drugs is actually the same year to year.


texts:
Is it okay to use Past Simple with Past Progressive for two consecutive actions?

For example,

"She added some water to the flour and was mixing  it until she got a lump of dough"

or should it be

"She added some water to the flour and mixed it until she got a lump of dough" ?


texts: What is a single word to call someone who adores you?

texts:
I want a word to describe person Y who adores person X. As in this case, person Y admire person X one-sided. So what would be the word to call person Y?
A more specific context is when this person Y, a junior of person X, fell gravely ill and the cause is partially because person X been ignoring Y, so person X said something like: I had overlooked the sickness of (the junior who adores me)


texts: A noun to be used for something normalized

texts:
I'm looking for a noun that can be used to describe some object that was normalized.

The situation is this - I have an original object (which I also refer to as original, as a noun), and I normalize it - so now I have normalized object, but I'd prefer to refer to the normalized object by noun too.

Some possible words that came to my mind were standard, regular, or even normal - but I think saying normal object would not explain the fact that the object went through a normalization process in enough detail.

Does English has any word that could refer to this? This is to be used during programming, so any term not common in general English but common in programming would be great too. Thanks!


texts: Distinguishing between types of deliveries

texts:
I am currently writing on a document where I would want to distinguish between types of deliveries rather than just use the general term. The distinction would be made by goods.

First, there are freight deliveries which usually cater to big and bulky crates, require the use of tools to move the freight around, and usually concern either large equipment or a multitude of boxed units. Then there are your typical parcel or document deliveries that courier services deliver. I would even go as far and include food deliveries in this category.

How could I express these differences in my document without explaining it? I considered qualifying delivery by using "large-scale" and "small-scale" but that doesn't sound right to me.


texts: In this sentence with multiple negations, should I use "is" or "isn't"?

texts:
My apologies, I’m having issues with a double negative sentence. Bear in mind I don't want to change the sentence structure around, I just want to know if at the end of the sentence, I should put the word isn’t or is:

  Just because you (A) don’t feel that she’s (B)  innocent doesn’t mean that she [is or isn't]

I want to infer that just because person (A) doesn’t think that person (B) is innocent, she might be so.

is it is at the end (which doesn’t sound right) or isn't?


texts: Just how is the the adjective "sanguine" used in current English?

texts: According to various dictionaries, sanguine means "(eagerly) optimistic, confident, cheerful, hopeful". Yet I always get the impression that modern writers intend a somewhat weaker meaning: more like unworried or unperturbed, perhaps expressing the tone of "it's going to be rough, but we can handle it" rather than "it's going to be good". What exact shade of meaning on this scale does the word express?


texts: What's the reasoning behind abbreviating hugs and kisses as X's and O's? Some say X is for hugs and O is for kisses, and some say the other way around; but why X and O, and why are they doubled?


texts:
I was listening to a Tripod song, an Australian comedy band, and they used the 'name' dax ipsa (spelled phonetically). It was obviously some sort of joke, but I have no clue what it actually means? Is this something specific to Australia?

Edit:

Adding some context from Russell's answer:

  Gatesy: I'm Batman.
     Scod: Really?
     Gatesy: No, I impersonate Batman, for photos and that, you know.
     Scod: I don't really get it. What's your real name?
     Gatesy: I can't tell you that. People used to tease me at school.
     Scod: Oh, come on.
     Gatesy: Okay. It's "Dax Ipsa".
     Scod: Do you mind if I call you "Batman"?
     Gatesy: Yeah, sure.

Edit 2:

Found the song on youtube, and linked to the start of the dialog in question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrlEWc72LWY&t=2m25s


texts: What is the word/phrase for someone between expert and novice?

texts:
I come across various people within my field (software developer) and people who are related to my field (the marketing/business people). Many a time when I want to opine or express my question/answer, I find that I need to tell them what my current position in the field is.

Am I an expert? Am I complete novice("n00b")? But most, if not all the time, I feel that I am at an intermediary position between the two. A person who is familiar with the technical terms and has sufficient knowledge to talk about it, but not with deep understanding of each and every aspect of it. (To put it other way : I know what I am talking about, and I am sure the person in front of me has no expertise in the field, but I want to sound modest and keep a loophole by saying I am not an expert).

I find my self at loss to express this fact and I am afraid that without expressing this fact, the other person will not get the context and complete meaning of what I am trying to say/explain. (And might get back to me when things dont go as expected :P)

Kindly suggest a word or a phrase for this. It would be really cool if you can allow expressing different shades/colors to it (close to expert or close to novice)

Edit : I know the term 'intermediary' or 'intermediate' level, but I am looking for more expressive word than that (read the brackets, basically I want to sound modest by saying i am not an expert yet I want them to feel that I am an expert)


texts:
Given two sentences:

  If we goad him into doing what he should have been doing all along, then it will be a smashing success.

and

  If we goad him into doing what he should have been doing all along, then it will have been a smashing success.

What is the difference between?


texts:
Can I omit a 'that' from the sentence

I am confident that that can make me $50

so that it becomes

I am confident that can make me $50
Please and thank you.


texts: In my example, can I use As.... to introduce a sentence?

texts:
As proposed by the Amethyst Initiative, to lower the current MLDA is a difficult topic to discuss.

context: the Amethyst Initiative proposed to lower the current minimum legal drinking age (age-21) accompanied with educating young adults to drink responsibly.

Should I maybe revise the sentence like...  Lowering the current MLDA, as proposed by the Amethyst Initiative, is a difficult topic to discuss.


texts: Is there any other idiom for "Hundred blows of goldsmith is comparable to one blow of iron-smith"?

texts:
The idiom Hundred blows of goldsmith is comparable to one blow of iron-smith comes from a hindi idiom "Sau sunar ki, ek lohar ki". Literal meaning is

  One powerful blow is comparable to a hundred smaller blows.

The figurative meaning is

  One tactic from a smart man is equal to the hundreds tactics of an idiot.

Or can be used in a fighting/boxing

  One knockout is better than hundred punches.

I'm looking for another idiom or small phrase to use.


texts: What's the meaning of "you should worry"?

texts:
According to Cambridge Dictionary,

they should worry! (humorous)
said about or to someone who clearly has no need to worry:
She should worry! She hasn't a problem in the world.

How come? Is it ironic? Could you please give another example?


texts: Pronunciation and syllables of pre-Modern English "belewe"?

texts:
I know the word "belewe" from traditional astronomy as a precursor to the phrase "blue moon", also known as the "betrayer" thirteenth moon in one of every three years that would disrupt a lunar calendar lacking an intercalary unit.

I'd like to know how properly to pronounce "belewe" ("beh-LOO"? "BEHL-yoo"?).

I'd also like to know where to break its syllables when typing ("be·lewe"? "bel·ewe"?).

As possible clues:

From the Online Etymology Dictionary, Modern English "blue" was once spelled "blwe" (c 1300).
From A Concise Dictionary of Middle-English (by Mayhew & Skeat, Oxford), Modern English "blue" was also once spelled "blewe" (c 1150–1580).
From Old English Translator (compiled by a hobbyist), the associated (false-friend/pun, not derivative/ancestral) Modern English verb "to betray" can translate to the Old English infinitive "belæwan" (c 5th–12th century), a first-person singular form of which is given there as "belæwe", whose spelling matches "belewe", save for the Æ in place of the second E.


texts: Is "... his mother was possessed of a tyrannical nature and led her peasants and also her immediate family a miserable life." correct?

texts:
His early youth was spent on a country estate where he was able to observe the life of the
serfs and the relations between master and serf at their worst: his mother was possessed of a tyrannical nature and led her
peasants and also her immediate family a miserable life.

The sentence comes from Nabokov's Lectures on Russian Literature. Is the sentence correct? Can you lead somebody a miserable life? Or is lead used in the sentence as a verb that is pronounced /lɛd/?


texts: Is the use of swear words in a narrative piece considered a language technique? If so what would the technique be?


texts:
Can we use from when we are talking about the beginning of a period of time in Past Continuous but without indicating when that period of time stopped.

For example:

We were playing in the garden from 4 p.m. yesterday.


texts: Is there a term for 'every other other'?

texts:
When referring to something that regularly happens alternately with one other thing, you can say that one of the things happens 'every other whatever', relative to your current point in the pattern.

For example, if this week x happens, and next week y happens, and this pattern repeats each week thereafter, we would say that 'y happens every other week'. Next week, when y happens, we would say that 'x happens every other week' (from the week we are currently in).

How can we refer to when the non-other (i.e. the current) event will happen in future? I've heard 'every other other whatever' used (as in 'x happens every other other week'), but that sounds quite clumsy.

Is there a single term that expresses the same thing as 'every other other'?


texts:
Can would be used like this -
If you talk to him , you would find out how stupid he is .
This could have been - " If you talked to him , you would find out how stupid he is "
Second one is an example of second conditional and it's very less likely to happen . How's this sentence different from the previous one


texts: Need help about the meaning of a short paragraph

texts:
Does

  For, to some extent, Sokal and many in science and beyond felt justified in expressing a weariness for the obfuscation, self-reference and self-reverence evident in the worst excesses of postmodernist discourse, which, while apparently refusing to make absolute judgements, often unquestioningly accepts an underlying political agenda, with its origins in questionably outdated theories influenced by Freud, Marx and Foucault.

mean

  To some extent, because Sokal and many in science and other fields wanted to show their disagreement with obfuscation, self-reference, and self-reverence found in the postmodernist discourse; a discourse which, while apparently refusing to make absolute judgements, often accepted an underlying political agenda, an agenda that had origins in outdated theories influenced by Freud, Marx and Foucault."

or does it mean something else?


texts: What does the slang term "Joe Gland" mean?

texts:
In the 1985 novel Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle I came across the following paragraph:

  They took out identification cards. Clybourne glanced at them, but Jenny thought he looked at them superficially. He was much more interested in the visitors than in their papers. Doesn’t miss a detail. Joe Gland, thinks he’s irresistible.

Then a bit later:

  They both act that way. Of course. Not Joe Gland, just a Secret Service agent doing his job.

From the context I understood this "Joe Gland" to mean something of a self-important, maybe vain man attempting to look good in front of a woman, but I wasn't entirely sure (it doesn't really make sense), so I checked in Google, and found very little: facebook profiles, the book itself, a tweet and a forum post; so I thought I'd ask it here.

What's a Joe Gland? I suppose it's US slang, popular primarily in the 80s or earlier, or maybe never really widespread. What does it mean, when it was first used, what's its etymology?


texts: "British English" or "English English" or simply "British"?

texts:
Is it correct to say "British English" or "English English" or simply "British" when taking about the language used in the UK?

I've seen people write English English too somewhere. Do they refer to England when they say that or UK?


texts: Term for a trademarked word that is used as a synonym for the item it represents

texts:
Apologies in advance if this is a duplicate.

For instance, when I say, "I need a Kleenex" and by that I mean "I need a tissue regardless of the brand", is there a term for words like Kleenex in this context?

I could've sworn this word exists, and probably ends in -nym. For the life of me, I can neither recall it nor find it anywhere, including this forum where I did a search for things like synonym, hypernym, brand and trademark.

Other words like this include Band-Aid, Jacuzzi and Chapstick.

Here are some sample sentences:

  In the UK, Biro is a _____ that can refer to any ballpoint pen.

or

  The _____ windbreaker can mean a lightweight jacket of any brand.

or

  (InE) "Bring me some Maggi from the store."

  "Do you want Maggi noodles specifically, or did you use Maggi as
  a _______?"

For the record, I would settle for any word or compound word that fits; it doesn't have to end in -nym. I would prefer a single-word answer.

This article by Business Insider lists more words like this, and says the process is called genericization, but doesn't state a term for such words.

PS - I do not care about the part of speech. For example, I think that the noun Google, when used as a verb, falls under this umbrella. But even if it doesn't, is there a term that covers the other examples I mentioned?

Read more at:
https://www.businessinsider.in/strategy/34-trademarked-brands-that-have-become-household-names/articleshow/64376337.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst


texts:
In the poem "Reflections in a Forest", Auden writes

  To move about seems underbred
   / and common any taste for words

We can paraphrase it as "It seems rude to move and likewise to speak."

My question concerns this apparent use of common as likewise.

I checked ODO, and the closest sense I could find is:

  (3) Shared by, coming from, or done by more than one

I understand that the example comes from poetry, but my question concerns analogous uses in everyday contexts.

For example, is there a use of common on which the following are synonymous:

It seems rude to move, the same to shout.
It seems rude to move, common to shout.
The flower is red. The hydrant likewise.
The flower is red. Common the hydrant.

(1) and (3) sound fine to me but (2) and (4) sound strained. But it might just be my idiolect. What do others think? Is common regularly used this way, or is it an idiosyncratic use?


texts: Why is there no formal version of "you"? How does one get around it?

texts: Many languages, such as German (and Spanish), have "Sie" (you-formal) as a formal version of you. One can say use "Mr." and "Mrs.", but in a thank-you note / email, there is no formal word for English you can use to address your speaker. How does one get around it, to sound as proper as possible?


texts: How should I address this professor in the US?

texts:
Realted to this question How should I address a professor in the US?
I have a question how to adress the professor in the US in my concrete situation. In the last E-Mails I wrote "Dear professor ..." and "Kind regards, Aleksana last name", and he had always responded with "Dear Aleksana",..."Best regards, Marius."

What to do now? Shall I address him by his first name now? I.e. shall I respond with "Dear Marius,"...."Kind regards, Aleksana"? Or shall I continue adressing the professor by his last name?

Regards


texts: Is "planting tomatoes" a Metonymy or Synecdoche?

texts:
Planting tomatoes when one is planting seeds, appears to be a metonymy or synecdoche. Because the word “seeds” is replaced with the word “tomatoes”, a component of the plant could be a form of synecdoche.

But I believe it to be a metonymy. The tomato is the fruit of the plant Solanum lycopersicum, a member of the nightshade family,  the plant itself is poisonous but its fruit is edible.

In my limited knowledge, I found a parallel example in the phrase "making babies", for sexual intercourse where the "result of the action is stated in place of the action" which would be metonymy so comparing "making babies" to "planting tomatoes" appears to be parallel.

So I am caught between metonymy and synecdoche. Does what I am saying make any sense?

Thank you for your time and assistance.


texts: Easy interrogative garden path prevention

texts:
How do writers of American English inform the reader that the current sentence is a question (with all the assumptions and prosody that go with it) without sacrificing the content, format, impact, etc. of the sentence? (In Spanish the problem is alleviated by use of the inverted question mark.)

Examples:

  Running into a lot of trouble handling
  finances and balancing your budget?

  The fastest way to find the north pole
  is to run there?


texts: What is the difference between "pulse" and "impulse"?

texts:
Let's say you have a title to write, I wrote something like "the [adjective] pulse". Here what I mean by "pulse" is the noun to describe a "will" that "comes suddently in you" and makes you feel like you have to do something, often creative or reactive.

Now, in english, it seems that "impulse" would be more accurate, but it seems too that "pulse" can be used to mean exactly what I want.

So I'd like to have an explanation about if there is a real difference between both "a pulse" and "an impulse", and if there are cases, like my example, where it does mean "a sudden will to do something".

(I'm french, if that can help)


texts: single adjective capturing "unnecessary" and with the connotation of "dangerous"/"destructive"?

texts:
"Unnecessary" can refer to something that is unnecessary but harmless, or unnecessary and costly, but not inherently harmful.

I am looking for a word to describe a situation where there is a government or organization that has hired a person who does not actually add anything to the service intended to being provided (unnecessary) but simultaneously undermines the organization in the service of his own objectives (dangerous/destructive).

For example, a bureaucrat that doesn't do anything of value (could be fired without any needs of the organization being endangered), but uses his bureaucratic power to achieve his own political/financial ends while risking the organization he works for.

I'd really like a single adjective that describes this idea that someone/something is not only unnecessary but also dangerous.


texts: Word for suggesting solutions to a problem before the problem is even well-defined or well-understood

texts:
This remark was said to me awhile ago, perhaps last year, when I was asking for a help on a programming question on Stack Overflow.

The jist was: "you are suggesting a solution to a problem before you even understood what the problem is."

I have noticed that this is a common issue on Stack Overflow, with beginner programmers (like me) trying to suggest a solution to our issue before we even understand the problem we are having, like trying to solve world hunger before we even have the money to do so or the socio-economic knowledge.

What is this word/phrase?


texts: What article do we use before a symbol? Is it "an @" or "a @"?

texts:
I got a question when reading this text:

  The name of the decorator should be prepended with an @ symbol.

Should we write "a @ symbol" or "an @ symbol"? As "@" is in fact "at", I would think "an" should be used to avoid the coexistence of two vowels one after the other.

More generally, what is the general rule to know if we have to write "a" or "an" before other symbols like "€", etc.? Is it based on how the symbol is read?


texts: What is difference between "faulty" and "broken"?

texts:
I was working as an intern in Malaysia.

Once day, my advisor asked me to check some electronic device.

He said: "Can you check them for me if which one is faulty please separate it to another heap?"

I wander that why did they prefer to use the word of "faulty" than "broken"?


texts:
This should be an easy question to answer.

In my program, I am building a structure which will hold the symbol which identifies a string literal.  I want to give the element a meaningful name that will be clear to those coming after me.

My problem is that I can't recall what is the correct technical term for the symbol which denotes a string literal and servers the "quotation" mark function.

My mind keeps going to "delimiter", but I don't think that's correct since that specifies a separation in a list of items.


texts: "Don't you know" in upper class-British?

texts:
I have been reading Jeeves and Wooster recently, and the latter character says "don't you know" a hell of a lot. Eg. "He's my manservant, don't you know?" "Tea is very good after a journey, don't you know?"

I am interested in the origin of this phrase. I'm sure it is upper-class British but Googling this gives me no information.


texts: What is the word or phrase describing people with food requirements?

texts:
I'm trying to find a word or short phrase that generally describes people that have dietary requirements, food restrictions, sensitivities, and even preferences.  The phrase might apply to different kinds of restrictions, might include taste likes / dislikes, etc.

Instead of saying something like "we help people with dietary restrictions, allergies, and sensitivities" (which is verbose), is there a way to say "we help ______________" (where the blank is "people with dietary restrictions, allergies, and sensitivities")

Is there a word or short phrase that would make sense here?


texts: "Select parent set of selected items to change to"...?

texts:
I am writing a program where each item has a "parent set" attribute.

I am trying to create a function that changes the "parent set" value of selected items, and am having troubles trying to phrase two particular messages in the user prompts.

Currently for these two messages I came up with :

"Select quantity of items whose parent sets are to be changed".
"Select parent set of selected items to change to".

both of which sound extremely awkward and confusing.

Although English has always been my first language, I am starting to get a headache and a serious brainfart over how to phrase these messages properly. I truly appreciate any help in advance.


texts: What do you call someone who is constantly negative, cynical about the world around him and can't help but nitpick and find a way to insult everyone around him?


texts:
I was watching the 1989 movie "Bill and Ted's excellent adventure" a couple of weeks back and in one scene Bill replies to some statement (I forgot whom he is replying to) with just "Word."

What does the word "word" mean when used like this? Is it like saying "amen"?


texts: Can I address someone in an email with their first name if they sign with their first name?

texts:
I'm planning to do an internship and I usually address my supervisor as Mr. X, however, he signs his emails with his first name is that means I can address him with his first name ?

Note: I haven't met him yet.(if that's makes a difference)


texts:
The past tense of a number of verbs changes from -end to -ent:

bend → bent
lend → lent
rend → rent
send → sent
spend → spent
wend → went

However, most do not, notably end. Granted, I say “I ent up” (facetiously?), but how did this sound change come to happen to some verbs but not others? Of the examples above, all but spend come to us from non-Latin origins; but end and blend and trend and many others are all non-Latin as well, and don’t exhibit this change.

I gather that this happened some time in the transition from Old English, because (if I’m up on my Old English conjugation, which is questionable) these verbs all used to have regular past forms:

bend: bendan → (ge)bended
lend: lænan → (ge)læned(?)
rend: rendon → (ge)rended
send: sendan → (ge)sended
-spend: forspendan → (ge)forspended(?)
wend: wendan → (ge)wended

Can anyone offer some insight? Is this related to learned/learnt, dreamed/dreamt, &c.?


texts:
I am creating a table for managing my payments.
There is a column that will have one of two values: Incoming or Outgoing. Is there a suitable table header for these two terms, in relation to payments? My best answer would be something like 'Payment Direction', which feels clumsy.

Edit: I hope my question is suitable. This is my first time on your forum :)


texts: What does "breathing of the lighter elements" mean?

texts:
I'm reading Yelizaveta Bam of Daniil Kharms (tr. Neil Cornwell) and stumbled upon the following dialogue:

  Ivan I.: But who then lights the lamp?
  Pyotr N.: No one, it burns by itself.
  Ivan I.:But that surely cannot be!
  Pyotr N.: Empty, stupid words!
  There is an infinite movement,
  the breathing of the lighter elements,
  planetary motion, the earth's rotation,
  the crazed alternation of day and night,
  the combination of remote nature,
  the anger and strength of remote nature,
  anger and strength of untamed beasts
  and the laws of light and wave.

(I emulated the formatting used in the book)

What does "the breathing of the lighter elements" mean here (or in general)? Since it is supposed to be an "infinite movement" I cannot relate it to the breathing of a living thing.


texts: Is there a term for the convergent evolution of homonyms?

texts:
Some homonyms, like "punch", originated in different languages with different spellings. The violent act "punch" comes from the English word "pounce", while the beverage "punch" comes from the Hindi word "pañc" (citation).

Is there a name for this phenomenon? It seems like the opposite of polysemy, in which a single word from a common origin takes on multiple related meanings.


texts: How do I pronounce the combination of a regnal name/number and a dynasty name?

texts:
I know how to pronounce a regnal name with a regnal number after it, like Elizabeth I ("Elizabeth the First") or Charles IV ("Charles the Fourth"). But sometimes I see the regnal name/number followed by a dynasty name, like Elizabeth II Windsor or Nicholas II Romanov. There are also similar names that seem to be honorific, like Antiochus IV Epiphanes or Ptolemy VI Philometor, although maybe that's just a Greek thing.

My question is, how do I say these names when speaking aloud? For example, is Elizabeth II Windsor pronounced:

Elizabeth the Second Windsor?
Elizabeth the Second of Windsor?
Elizabeth the Second of House Windsor?
Elizabeth Windsor the Second?

Does the answer vary for different monarchies? Do honorific names like Antiochus IV Epiphanes work the same way?


texts:
In the TV show Inside Bill’s Brain there was a conversation between director and Bill Gates S1:E1:

Director asking: “Favorite memory from Camp Cheerio.”
Bill answers: “Uh, you know, having my dad... who’s the mayor...”

I found the meaning of “mayor” in Collins Dictionary:

  The mayor of a town or city is the person who has been elected to
  represent it for a fixed period of time or, in some places, to run its
  government.

What does “Camp Mayor” mean? Camp is neither a town nor a city.


texts: The meaning of 'fine-grained', 'fine-tuned' , 'fine-grining'

texts:
"The Portal provides fine-grained control over the window rendering"

what's the meaning of 'fine-grained' here?