texts: What's the best way to tell if an adjective is being applied to one or two conjuncts?

texts:
For e.g, is blue ice and tea, just normal everyday tea with blue ice, or is it blue tea with blue ice?

This issue of mine actually came up in a real life scenario (well, many actually):

''singular verbs and pronouns are normal: The team is away this weekend; they have a good chance of winning.''

I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out how on earth 'they' is a singular pronoun, then I realized it actually meant a singular verb, and a plural pronoun, because it wouldn't make sense otherwise (hence my confusion).

Whilst obvious to me now in this case, sometimes it's virtually impossible to tell the difference because both scenarios seem equally likely. This is especially true in complicated writings, where you have to rely less on human context and more on logic and reason.


texts: Expression for when something "hits you", but in a positive way?

texts:
I'm trying to express being shocked in a good way, but all I can find are negative phrases such as:

"It hit me like a ton of bricks."
"It hit me like a bucket of ice cold water."

I would like to know if there are some ways to say it in a positive way, as in being shocked in a good way. Thank you so much!

Edit: Pardon me, I should've added context before! I'm translating a sentence in Spanish, in which someone is saying they were shocked (they describe it as being hit suddenly) and very touched (therefore, it's in a positive light).

The answers supplied by Dan and J O S H are exactly what I needed, both "It took my breath away" and "It blew me away" work perfectly.

I'd still like to thank you kindly, all of you! I appreciate your help immensely, having found this forum feels like a blessing. However, I'm not certain as to how to proceed now, do I delete the question? Once more, thank you for all your help!


texts: -able & -ability usage: Why can't "searchability" be a word? (Or can it?)

texts:
Sometimes I edit a question title on Stack Exchange in order to make it more clear and easier for users to find it when searching. In the comment field I usually enter: "Title edited for clarity and searchability." I think it gets the point across succinctly, and I don't really feel compelled to change it to something like: "Title edited for clarity, and so that the question can be found more easily by search engines." That just feels unnecessarily verbose and forced.

I realize that searchability is not in any official dictionaries (to my knowledge), and that I'm taking a liberty here. But what is puzzling to me is that there does exist the root form "searchable".

I suppose what I'm really getting at is: Why can't -able suffix words automatically be converted to -ability words? It seems to me that any -able word could, as far as meaning is concerned, have an -ability counterpart and this would still make sense. Or is there a rule that prohibits this?

I finally got curious enough about this that I had to ask. Thanks for humoring me.


texts: The term for the person/group a political party aligns themselves with to appear concerned about the general public

texts:
A good example would be a president bringing iron workers onstage at a rally to show that he has the workingman's interests at heart.

Sentence: the workers were the president's ____ in attempt to win over public support.

Sentence: the president used the workers as a ____ to win over public support.

"Uncle tom" comes to mind, but it is too specific and implies fault on the group being used. I would prefer a term describing the appropriation going on.


texts:
Which sentence is correct:

It would be a good idea if you work hard.
It would be a good idea if you worked hard.

Thanks in advance for help


texts:
I've just seen a sentence like the one below and couldn't understand its grammar.

Three controlled animal clinical trials were found that supported the use of decortication prior to performing GBR.

And I couldn't understand the usage of "to" in the sentence below.

The literature addressing the capacity of decortication to affect only grafting or wound healing also provided mixed results.

Can someone please explain to me what kind of sentences they are?

Thanks!!


texts: Can "a" be used with a superlative adjective?

texts:
The Wikipedia article for Drum Machine contains the phrase

  an earliest fully transistorized rhythm machine

Is this grammatically correct? Is it any different from the phrase

  an early, fully transistorized rhythm machine

I always assumed that superlatives may only be used with "the" but never "a" or "an".


texts: What is another word for severe consequences?

texts:
I am trying not to overuse the words "severe consequences". I am describing how different entrepreneurs are responding to a crisis differently.

For example in this sentence:

  An entrepreneur was forced to recognize the severe consequences of knowledge-shortage and act accordingly.

What do you think another word for severe consequences is?


texts: "Some researches show" or "some research works show"?

texts:
Which one is more idiomatic? Can research be pluralised?

  Some researches show that ...

or

  Some research work show that ...

Or other more idiomatic suggestions?


texts:
I've seen the word vitativeness used in a book about the history of writing, referring to a list of descriptive words written in 1900.
Vitative(ness) is not in my Oxford dictionary, nor dictionary.com.  What does it mean?


texts:
I have two sentences:

I ran long distances to the point where I hurt my left knee.
I ran long distances as to which I hurt my left knee.

What I'm trying to see that I was running heavily which caused a harm to my left knee. Which one of these two sentences above (assume that two expressions are correct) does describe this better?


texts: Difference between facetious, frivolous and flippant?

texts:
These three words have nearly identical meaning. The meanings of these words according to Google are

Facetious: treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor; flippant.

Flippant: not showing a serious or respectful attitude.

Frivolous: not having any serious purpose or value.

If I take these definitions, the words "Flippant" and "Frivolous" seems to be used in a pejorative sense, while Facetious seems a bit "lighthearted" type of characteristic.
I am not a native speaker. Are these true of the words or am I over-analyzing similar words. Are there any differences between them?


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "to take a rain check"

texts: I know what it means, but can't really see the reasoning of this phrase. Anyone with an insight?


texts: Is there an English verb that comes from the Greek ἀσθενέω (astheneó: to be weak or feeble)?

texts:
From Wiktionary: 3. (with infinitive) to be too weak to do a thing, to be unable

Sample using this definition:
This friction <astheneo-s> to resist the force.

An answer in the negative counts.


texts: What is a word for the act of preparing a home for first/new occupancy?

texts: Not necessarily the absolute form - as in a brand new house - but just the act of doing any final prep work in anticipation of a new occupant for a home. 'Housewarming' comes to mind, but that seems to be something that occurs post-occupancy.


texts: What to use for 'first unimpressive but later better'?

texts:
I will explain a few situations :

It is often the case that I listen to a song which doesn't impress me in the first minute or so but as it progresses, I like it
A trained batsmen struggles in the initial overs to score, even to hold the wicket but as the game progresses, he 'sets' himself on the pitch and then is invincible

So if I take the situation 1, how would I say :

"That song is ...."

The above situations, logically, seem unrelated so we may not have same/similar phrase or idioms.


texts: A question about 'reptiles and volatiles' to describe creatures

texts:
I noticed in the Wycliffe Bible, in early Genesis, that the description of 'creeping creatures' and 'flying creatures' was 'reptiles and volatiles'.

I had not heard or read of bird species being called 'volatile' before. Apparently it is from the Latin volare, to fly, and comes through the French volatil.

'Reptile', I understand, comes from Latin, repere, to creep or crawl, then through Late Latin, reptilis.

I have not been able to find a similar -ile ending category for fish or for land animals which do not 'creep' or 'crawl'.

Can anyone help?


texts:
Is it considered correct to use "no" like this :

  I loved the fair. It was fun, no?

This is the way people speak in Hindi, so converting it to English literally would not be right I guess.


texts: Is there a verb which means *do nothing*, but uses only a single word?

texts:
I would like to express the following:

  Do X, and if it fails, do nothing.

For reasons that are out of scope here, I need it to be in the following form:

  Do X or do nothing.

Now while this actually reflects what I want to say, I need the do nothing part to be only a single word. This means that I need a verb that expresses do nothing, but only uses a single word. Basically, something such as:

  Do X or idle.

But "to idle" feels too weak here, as being idle is something different from explicitly doing nothing. Is there a word I might use?


texts: Is the second "to" needed here? "I am going to listen and (to) read"

texts:
Which one is correct? Can I use both?

"I am going to listen and read."
"I am going to listen and to read."


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "a penny for your thoughts"?

texts: Googling for the origin of "A penny for your thoughts," I have only found the origin of a likely-related phrase "my two cents" and simple dictionary entries for "a penny for your thoughts." What is the exact origin and meaning of this phrase?


texts: How to say meeting is about my questions?

texts:
I want to ask my supervisor for a meeting. I want to say meeting is about my questions about the approach. Can I use discuss for asking questions?

  I would be grateful for an appointment, at your convenience, to discuss my questions.


texts:
When learning English I was told that ordinal numbers should always be used with "the" before them. But I often see that this is not always so strict, for example I heard the phrase "April first" instead of "April the first". Or when installing OS Windows we could see "Setup is preparing your computer for first use" phrase on a screen.

When should I use the definite article "the" before "first", "second" and so on?


texts:
She possesses many other qualities prized by the superficial man.

My understanding is—whoever says it, doesn't refer to himself by the superficial man. The superficial man is some hypothetical person that represents all superficial men in the society. In the same fashion you say "The activities associated with the common man."
There are three ways to say this:

She possesses many other qualities prized by the superficial man.
She possesses many other qualities prized by a superficial man.
She possesses many other qualities prized by superficial men.

Are any of these sentences incorrect? Why is the first one preferable?


texts: Trying to pair amid/among properly with sound/sounds

texts:
I want to make sure that I'm using amid and among properly. As I understand it, amid is for uncountable nouns, and among is for countable nouns.

My sentence was originally:

  The three enjoyed their drinks for a moment amid the sounds of the crowd.

I believe sounds in this context is countable. Is this correct?

If so, I think there are two ways to fix my error.

1) Change the sentence to use an uncountable noun: sound.

  The three enjoyed their drinks for a moment amid the sound of the crowd.

2) Change the preposition to be the proper one for a countable noun: among.

  The three enjoyed their drinks for a moment among the sounds of the crowd.

Are these last two variations correct in their preposition/noun agreement?


texts: What's the proper way to use English grammar for morning greetings?

texts:
Please advise me on the correct usage of the words sleep and slept.

How was your night?
Did you slept well?

Is this sentence correct?


texts: What is the origin of the term "crash hot"?

texts: The term "crash hot" is often used in the negative, such as "I'm not feeling too crash hot today". I am trying to find out when the term was first used and why. I have used Internet search but have not found anything about its origin.


texts: What does "a grand scheme of themes" mean?

texts:
Here, from "The all-conquering Wikipedia?" in the Times Literary Supplement, is the sentence, with context provided by the surrounding paragraph:

  Equally seriously, a listicle with entries of near-uniform length (five or six pages) has, by definition, no sense of proportion. I am delighted that Lynch has found space for Wisden, Liddell and Scott’s Greek–English Lexicon, and the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, estimable works all (or at least the first two). My concern is that by granting them the same amount of space – half a chapter each – as Samuel Johnson or the Oxford English Dictionary, Lynch ends up engaging in a kind of historical reverse discrimination.  In the grand scheme of themes, as the most sectarian Classicist would acknowledge, Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon is just nowhere near as interesting or important as the OED. To take an even more extreme example, is it not perhaps a shade melancholy to find Edmond Hoyle’s Short Treatise on the Game of Whist receiving more attention (six pages) than d’Alembert and Diderot’s Encyclopédie (four-and-a-half)?

I found "the scheme of things" in the dictionary, but not "the grand scheme of themes."

I understand that the former is frequently used. But I wonder how "the grand scheme of themes" is related to "the grand scheme of things"? What exactly does "the grand scheme of themes" mean?


texts: Question using this structure "Since ... is ...., could we ...?"

texts:
I want to give a fact and then make a question. like this:

  Since this info is important for investigation, could we store it for later use?

Is that correct?


texts: Does "end up with something" always mean possession? (Harry Potter spoilers)

texts:
Does "end up with an object" always mean possession? Can it possibly mean destruction?

Here is the context.

Source:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K.Rowling.

Characters: Harry Potter, Dumbledore, Snape.
Object: the Elder Wand.

The first passage:

  Harry: “If you planned your death with Snape, you meant him to end up with the Elder Wand, didn’t you?”
  Dumbledore: “I admit that was my intention,” said Dumbledore, “but it did not work as I intended, did it?”

Does it mean that, according to Dumbledore's plan, Snape would have become the master of the wand?

The second passage:

  Harry:  “Snape was never the true master of the Elder Wand. He never defeated Dumbledore. ... Dumbledore’s death was planned between them! Dumbledore intended to die, undefeated, the wand’s last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand’s power would have died with him, because it had never been won from him!”

(Harry explains that, according to Dumbledore's plan, the power of the wand would have been destroyed.)

If "end up with an object" always means possession, don't you think that the passages are contradictory?
If not, how we can possibly distinguish which of the two possible meanings is applicable: possession or  destruction?


texts:
I've got a sentence: "Му sister's got five lessons today". I'm asked to put a special question to the predicate. I wonder, how I can do that! Can anyone?

Thanks in advance, Vic.


texts: I was trying to think of a verb today that means "to advance multiple developmental paths to the same level."  An example of a context in which this would be useful is in data storage.  I have two harddrives with much of the same information, but both have been modified separately.  I want to "merge" their paths in Git terms.  However, does anyone know a more general term for this?


texts: What structure does "We're having relatives to stay" follow?

texts: I thought the structure was "have someone do something". So why is it "having relatives to stay" in this case?


texts:
How do you refer (informally) to someone that is missing (1) one eye (2) a leg / foot or an arm / hand. ??

Am looking for something that I can use in a translated expression... For example...

We say in Spanish:

The amputees like to meet up to scratch each other's backs...


texts: why we say"over in the meadow"? meanning | grammar

texts: what is the grammar of "over in"?I can not understand.I know over means being up to something,but what about "over in "?


texts:
User A goes to the web page and clicks a menu called 'Submit Request', where User A will fill out a form request and submit it to his/her Supervisor.

Then User A's Supervisor will go to the web page and click a menu called 'Approve/Reject Request', where User A's Supervisor will either approve or reject User A's request form.

Now, I was wondering if there is a term or word to describe 'Approve/Reject' collectively.

I had a term in mind, which is 'Inspect Request' but I don't think it's perfect in our case and so would like to hear more suggestion from the ground.


texts: 'Per' vs 'by' - as in 'interactions by/per post'

texts:
I'm attempting to get a title for a list of interactions made on posts by users.

"Interactions by/per post".
Are by and per interchangeable? Is one more formal than the other?

I feel that by might be easily misunderstood as interactions made by the posts itself instead of interactions with the posts by users. Is that a correct assumption?


texts: "It is two teachers' birthday today" or "It is two teachers' birthdays today"?

texts:
Apparently I've been involved in a debate in the Duolingo forums for about a year on whether when two possessors in a possessive construction possess the same shared/common object, whether the object should be in the singular or in the plural. At least in this particular construction.
People there have been discussing more than one aspect of the Korean and English versions of the same sentence, including previous versions of the sentence which may no longer be shown.
But this one point seems to have people defending both views:
It is two teachers' birthday today.
vs
It is two teachers' birthdays today.
Depending on how my brain is working, both can sound right or one sounds right and the other sounds wrong. In the thread linked I defended the position that both should be regarded as acceptable.
Right now I have convinced my brain that only the first is correct due to agreement between the Singular pronoun It, singular verb is, and singular object of possession birthday. Is this correct?
(The thread can be confusing as to which person is debating which point of grammar in some comments and replies.)


texts: Is agreement required between subject and prepositional phrase?

texts:
Which is correct (and have you got a source)?

"Animals store vitamin C in their liver."

"Animals store vitamin C in their livers."


texts: What is the difference between "don't care" and "don't mind"?

texts:
From an English Help Online blog post:

  “don’t mind” sounds very polite and gentle. It’s like the person is
  saying “It’s ok with me.”; however, “don’t care” sounds stronger and
  it’s like the person is saying, “It doesn’t matter to me”.`

I'm curious: is it really just a matter of stronger emphasis, or is there more to it?


texts: Is there a term for when people group 2 unrelated things they dislike into one entity?

texts:
I have seen this fallacy a lot of times when I'm having conversations with people.
For example - when someone assumes a person who leans towards the right on the political scale will definitely be misogynistic as well.
Conflation is somewhat correct, but it doesn't really include the 'dislike' aspect of it.
Is there a term for this phenomenon?


texts: What is the meaning of "watered down" in this context?

texts:
What is the meaning or an appropriate synonym for "watered down" in this context?

  Here is the typical usage of Twitter by a brand that doesn't understand the medium:

  •   Posts once a day with bland content that's created on the hoof or watered down by legal team.
  https://econsultancy.com/blog/67464-why-email-is-the-king-of-one-to-one-marketing

Merriam Webster offers: cut, dilute, extend, lace, sophisticate, thin, adulterate, weaken.

In this context, it sounds like the connotation is more along the lines of "deprived of expression"...

What do you think?


texts:
Do you think two sentences following are the same?

(1) He wears baggy shirt and trousers with small holes

(2) He wears baggy shirt with small holes and baggy trousers with small holes.


texts:
Normally I ignore the formalisms of rhetoric, but I'm curious:

When the question, “Are you calling me a liar?”, is used to “defend” a point of opinion or interpretation, would it best be classified as an ad hominem argument, or something else?

Having just refused to play that game with someone, I'd like to know what flavor of trouble I dodged.

(In this case, it was a matter of someone having built up an incorrect memory of an event in order to justify having reacted inappropriately at the time. Not lying, not untruthful, simply mistaken, defensive, and trying to argue by assertion, intimidation, and emotion. I actually have some sympathy for their having painted themselves into a corner, but I'm not going to accept "because I said so".)


texts: What's the difference between "shrouded with" and "covered with"? Any different hues of meaning here?


texts: What is the correct plural form of an abbreviation whose last word starts with 'S'?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the correct way to pluralize an acronym?
  Plural of an initialism that ends with the letter S

What is the correct plural form of an abbreviation whose last word starts with 'S' (thus making the last letter in the abbreviation an 'S')?

The example I keep running into is "CMS", an abbreviation of "Content Management System".  How would I refer to a group of these beasts?


texts: Term for something similar to vetting, but when a decision is not necessarily involved

texts:
Whats the term for profiling someone or doing background research on somebody before you meet them.

A reference to the behavior is Gary Walsh in the TV show VEEP where he whispers seemingly random information about somebody into the Vice Presidents ear before she meets the person. Then she is able to talk to them about their kids, dogs, hobbies, etc.

I imagine diplomats are briefed like this before they meet other foreign dignitaries.

I think it's both a verb and a noun, but I'm not sure.

It's not vetting, but it's something similar. Vetting happens before a decision, this would be just to gain knowledge about the other person.


texts:
If i have a site where people can hire professionals like carpenters, bricklayers etc, do I ask
"What" will you like to hire or "Who" will you like to hire.
Im asking because what feels to me  like I am objectifying the hiree like what would you like to buy.On  the other hand, "Who" sounds like you know exactly who (ie the particular individual) you want to hire.


texts: Does the term "within 7 days" mean include the 7th day?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is “in [some period]” different from “within [some period]”?

The title states it all: When an author says "within 7 days", does the author mean include the 7th day?  Or, does it mean up to but not including the 7th day?


texts:
I have heard a number of people refer to the "Utah accent."  What is it that distinguishes a Utah accent from others?

I have noticed that, in some cases, people from Utah omit the 't' from words such as 'Layton' and 'mountain.'  In other cases, it seems like they pronounce 'milk' with an 'e' instead of an 'i.'  'Creek' sounds like 'crick.' 'Mormon' like 'Marmon.' I am not sure if any of these are specific to Utah.

Finally, what about differences between regions, for example, what is a Cache Valley accent?


texts: Saying "gate 'ooks" instead of "gateaux"

texts:
My father-in-law will say "gate 'ooks" instead of "gateaux". He claims this is a regional/dialectal thing and that it was common in the part of Sussex where he grew up.

Is that likely, or is it more plausible that it was just him and a few of his friends mocking the spelling? My googling can find nothing useful on the subject.


texts: Is the phrase, “Let ‘em up easy” Abraham Lincoln’s one-off phrase or an obsolete idiom?

texts:
I came across the phrase, “Let’em up easy,” in the following sentence in the section of “1864 Reelection” of “Abraham Lincoln” in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

  "Reconstruction began during the war, as Lincoln and his associates
  anticipated questions of how to reintegrate the conquered southern
  states, and how to determine the fates of Confederate leaders and
  freed slaves. Shortly after Lee's surrender, a general had asked
  Lincoln how the defeated Confederates should be treated, and Lincoln
  replied, "Let 'em up easy, General.”---Determined to find a course that
  would reunite the nation and not alienate the South, Lincoln urged
  that speedy elections under generous terms be held throughout the
  war."

As I was unable to get an idea of "Let 'em up easy,” I consulted English dictionaries at hand. None of them registers “let sb / stg up easy,” nor did Google Ngram show the incidence of the phrase since 1840, more than a quarter century earlier than the President used it.

Is this famous line, “Let’em up easy,” inscribed in the history, a just one-off phrase used by President Lincoln, or then-current-but-now-an-obsolete phrase?


texts: What is it called when someone argues with statement's that only ever imply they said it?

texts:
Example.

Person A. % + # is 2

Person B. I'm not so sure it is.

Person A. So you don't think it's 2?

Person B. there are a lot of factors we don't know yet.

Person A. All the evidence is inferring its 2.

Person B. But it could be 3 or 4 we don't know yet.

% + # is proven to be 2.

Person A. See it was 2.

Person B. I never said it was not 2.

What do you call person B, or what is it that they are doing?


texts: Any word (adjective preferably) that used to describe an achievement of pulling off something big out of the blue and not due to his abilities

texts: For example, someone managed to make a basketball half court shot but it was him trying a thousand times not because he is that good. "Lucky" could be used as the word but I wonder if theres any word that emphasises on the great quality of the achievement, with negative connotation or an undertone of it being something that only happens once in a lifetime and shows the person doing it is not really that impressive.


texts: "Pre-diction" for future, "Post-diction" for past, is "Diction" for present?

texts:
This may be a meaningless issue, but I'm trying to think if the root "dicere", rendered as "-diction" as explanation in English, is flexible enough to admit the whole spectrum of temporal meanings by changing the preposition. At present there are two, for future and past (postdiction seems to have been coined in the 80's). The one that seems to be missing is the term for the present. Has anyone seen Diction used to accomplish this task? What do you think?

Any ideas?

Thanks!


texts: Term for composing/melodizing a fictional song

texts:
Is there a special term for composing/melodizing a fictional song?
Some novels have songs with made-up lyrics written by the authors; and sometimes, music is composed for those songs in real life.
For example, there is a fictional song called The Bear and the Maiden Fair from the novel A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Later, for the TV show Game of Thrones, they composed music for the song.

The producers of Game of Thrones enlisted Brooklyn indie rock band The Hold Steady to record a version of the song, with music composed by Ramin Djawadi. Their cover of the song plays during the end credits for episode 3 of Season 3, "Walk of Punishment".
gameofthrones.wikia.com

I did some research and couldn't find a term for what I am looking for; but I found something different (almost vice versa) but related:

In Elmegreen’s novel “Reveille,” written as his thesis project, the thoughts and emotions of the main character, a musician named Spencer, and others sometimes emerge as musical notes rather than words.

princeton.edu

It is described as writing the melody of a novel and composing the soundtrack of silent reading.


texts: What is the correct usage of a charged-off or charged off loan in the Financial space?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When is it necessary to use a hyphen in writing a compound word?

Does proper grammar dictate a preference towards using "charged-off" or "charged off" to describe a loan that a financial institution is not going to recover funds for?


texts: Most appropriate phrasing of a sentence containing an exception

texts:
Consider the following two paragraphs:

The data was compelling. It appears that all of the companies abandoned that manufacturing method - with one exception - when it was determined to be less efficient.

The data was compelling. With one exception, it appears that all of the companies abandoned that manufacturing method when it was determined to be less efficient.

The idea being conveyed is that one company did not abandon a manufacturing method upon studying data. Both paragraphs convey this information, but in two different ways. I am curious as to which one is more correct if the criteria is proper English.


texts: Is it impolite to say hello to a doctor as "Hi, First Name"?

texts: I'm based in Canada and I'm not a native English speaker. Is it impolite to call doctors and dentists by their first name instead of "Dr. Last Name" when answering a phone call?


texts:
We all know that Americans say:

  Sara is going to the hospital

While in the UK, they would say (and Americans would never say):

  Sara is going to hospital

I'm wondering what the history of this difference is given that in AE, the usage of the "the" modifier seems extraordinarily arbitrary: Americans would say:

  Sara is going to school

to mean that Sara is going to be enrolled in school. While they would say:

  Sara is going to the school

to mean that Sara is going a particular school building (not enrolled).

To me this intuitively suggests some sort of lack of "personal" connection with the concept of a hospital which is not there when it comes to concepts like "school" or "church".

Now for the leap: does this perhaps have anything to do that in the US, healthcare has been a private entity (until recent occurrences), and not generally regarded as a personal right (but rather, a privilege)?  I know this is a stretch, but this could be an explanation for the "impersonal" way in which AE uses the word — unless my history is all wrong here?  No politics here, just curious about the root of this difference.


texts:
I came across a sentence in a Wikipedia article that went like this (MEMRI stands for Middle East Media Research Institute):

  In 2006, Finkelstein accused MEMRI of editing a television interview he gave in Lebanon in order to falsely impute that he was a Holocaust denier.
  MEMRI article

This sounded strange to me as I think I've always heard it as imputing 'something' to 'something/someone', meaning it's transitive. I know anyone can edit Wikipedia, so I didn't make much of it. However I did try to search for more instances of an intransitive use of impute. None of the dictionaries I've seen list "impute" as intransitive, but it is used in this way (relevant parts have been made bold by me.

  If a tweet advises readers not to leave their wallets lying around if John Smith's in the room, the meaning on which Mr Smith's lawyers will fight the case is that the words impute that he's a thief.
  Defamation law in the online age: for beginners - Sydney Morning Herald article

  A statutory audit results in the auditor giving either an unqualified audit opinion so that the reader can impute that the entitity's financial statements reflect a 'true and fair view', or on the contrary an audit opinion that indicates...
  Health and Safety, Environment and Quality Audits: A risk-based approach, 2014

  I will not single out any of the many individuals who have been helpful, and, most importantly, I do not mean to impute that the contents of this work have passed their final muster.
  Stone Tools: Theoretical Insights Into Human Prehistory, 1996

  It stated that a defendant will have a ‘non-delegable’ duty of care when: ... There is a pre-existing relationship between the claimant and the defendant which places the claimant in the care or custody of the defendant and from which it is reasonable to impute that the defendant owes the claimant a ‘positive duty’ to protect him or her from harm;
  Boys & Maugham Solicitors website, a UK a law firm

  The  Fifth  District  court  now  has  the  latitude  to  impute  whether  the  legislators  believed  they  were  taking  “the  only  course of action which appeared open” in adopting a piece of legislation, or it can impute that the legislators had no other options open to them.
  Analysis of a Florida Supreme Court decision in 2017

  Plaintiff first contends  that  the  statements  in  the  article  are  defamatory  per  se because they  impute  that  the  Plaintiff  has  committed  a  crime,  namely  the  illegal cyberattack.
  UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS, Memorandum opinion and order.

  Here, Dziagwa's alleged statement did not
  fairly impute that the plaintiff had committed a car theft or any other indictable criminal offense.
  Illinois Appellate Court decision, 1997

I'm just wondering if this use is acceptable or standard.


texts:
Here has some examples:

... inet_connection_sock.c in the Linux kernel through 4.10.15 allows attackers to ...
... Linux kernel 3.12 through 3.15 ...
... io_ti.c in the Linux kernel before 4.10.4 allows local users to ...

What does "through/before" mean here?

Does 'through 4.10.15' mean all version before 4.10.15, including '4.9.0 - 4.9.27(without 4.9.28+)', '4.8.0 - 4.8.17' and so on?
Does '3.12 through 3.15' mean all of '3.12.0 - 3.15.10'?
Does 'before 4.10.4' mean '4.10.0 - 4.10.4' without 4.9.* or another main version?


texts: "You have until X to do Y" — is this grammatically correct?

texts:
I have a question regarding the following sentence:

  You have until June 6th to go there.

Is it grammatically incorrect?

Consider the following:

You is the subject, have is the verb, until June 6th and to go there are both adverbs. Does this make have not have an object?


texts:
My post on another site has prompted me to ask this question. What is the rule of using 'last' in a sentence?
For instance:

When did you revise this rule last?
When did you last  revise this rule?
I last revised  this rule three days ago.
I revised this rule last three days ago.
I revised this rule  three days ago last.
I revised last this rule three days ago. (I think here it is at a wrong position)

Are there any other possible versions?


texts: Does "you don't want X" mean "I don't recommend X to you"?

texts:
Quite often I read exchanges like this:

  — I want [something], I tried this and that but still no luck, how can I do that?
  — You don't want [it].

An example: example.

I'm Russian, and this kind of statement at first sounds strange and even a bit offensive. Like, who are you to tell me what I do or do not want?

Am I right that in English it's just another way of saying "I don't recommend you [something]", or is the meaning (a bit) different?


texts: When did the word "snafu" enter the colloquial vernacular?

texts:
Roughly when did the word "snafu" enter the colloquial vernacular? It was a military term, but at some point it came into fairly common use among the general population. If you can narrow it down to a decade or so, that's good enough for me.

Additionally, if you could, tell me how you figured out the answer (teaching a man to fish and all...)


texts: How can I understand "could have been reached had Nazi discipline?"

texts:
While I was reading a book, I found a sentence incomprehensible.
It reads,
"A danger point could have been reached had Nazi discipline and its totalitarian control been relaxed."

I can understand the meaning only vaguely through the context, though, still I'm not sure what the "had Nazi discipline" is meant to be.

And what's the exact grammatical structure of it?

Thanks!


texts: How would I write that a threshold is being used on something?

texts:
In an algorithm I'm using a threshold to discard certain data samples.

The industry refers to this practice as thresholding, which is a neologism and not regarded as an actual word in the English language as far as I know.

Nevertheless, how would I say that thresholding has been applied to something in short form?

Would "This value was thresholded in the previous stage." be acceptable? Is there a better option that could be used in place of "thresholded"?


texts: Is "a ways to go" grammatically correct?

texts: In English we often say, for example, "he still has a ways to go before he's done."  Is this grammatically correct?


texts: What's a word for someone who enjoys pleasure, travel, food, thrill for new things

texts: I’m looking for an adjective/ noun that describes a person who loves life, traveling, great food, always doing things which gets adrenaline kicking and is a always ready for attempting things for pleasure only


texts: If he has come today or if he came today?

texts:
Which of these phrases below is more correct? And if both are correct, which one sounds more natural?

If he has come today?

If he came today?

Thank you in advance!


texts: I invite you to my daughter's wedding with Peter

texts: Is the sentence grammatically correct to convey that Peter is the groom, or does it seem to confuse whether Peter is an invitee or groom ?


texts: Does "nineteen-hundreds" refer to 1900–1909 or 1900–1999?

texts:
The words "nineteen-hundreds" to me mean strictly 1900–1909. I've noticed several times that people, invariably North American, use these words to mean "the twentieth century", or 1900–1999, or something like that. Similarly for "the eighteen hundreds" used to mean "the nineteenth century" and so on.

Is this an example of a misuse of words by people who have heard and then misunderstood them, or is this actually an established usage in America? Secondly, if it is not a misuse, how would said Americans refer to the period of 1900–1909?


texts: Can the word 'erroneous' be used to apply to a person, as in the term 'erroneous spouses'?


texts: Is there a word for the tangible equivalent of visualization?

texts:
The word visualization is often used to describe an image or interactive piece of media that represents a data set. I am trying to think if there is an equivalent for something that is not only visual, but also tangible. That is, an object that represents data and that people can touch and see. If there is no word for this, can you think of a neologism for it e.g."tangiblelization"?

EDIT: By tangible I mean an object that can you can youch with your hands.


texts: When did drowning men stop "catching at straws"?

texts:
‘grasping at straws’ vs. ‘clutching at straws’

Some sustain that the phrase “grasping at straws” has overtaken that of “clutching at straws”. I read that the former is American while the latter is British.

The American English  definition is

  trying to find some way to succeed when nothing you choose is likely to work

while the British definition is slightly different

  to be willing to try anything to improve a difficult or unsatisfactory situation, even if it has little chance of success

Oxford Living Dictionaries offer a more apocalyptic interpretation

  clutch (or grasp or catch) at straws
  Be in such a desperate situation as to resort to even the most unlikely means of salvation.

“catchest a stick”

The phrase is attributed to Sir Thomas More who used the metaphor in A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, 1534

  A man in peril of drowning catchest whatsoever cometh next to hand... be it never so simple a stick.

“catch at every straw”

The version with straw surfaced some fifty years later in John Prime's Fruitful and Brief Discourse

  We do not as men redie to be drowned, catch at euery straw

The straw version was used throughout the 18th and 19th century, and both American and British writers (and speakers) continued to use the dramatic metaphor of a drowning man fighting for his life. The following citations are taken from the Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases (1977)

1733 Belcher Papers 1.496:

  I see the party are still willing (as drowning men) to catch at straws or firebrands.

1758 Franklin Papers 8.75:

  This seems like a drowning Man catching at a Straw.

1771 New York Journal in Newspaper Extracts (I) 8.401:

  …like a drowning Man, willing to catch at a Straw.

1802 Chester Federalism 19:

  The adage of  “a drowning man's catching at straws.”

The British author Samuel Richardson in 1748 wrote

  A drowning man will catch at a straw, the proverb well says

The phrase appears in Charles Dickens' Household Words - Volume 9, page 529, 1853, who quotes

  “The drowning man catches at the straw. With no disrespect for your judgment, and with no doubt of your sincerity, excuse my saying that I cling to the belief that there is yet hope that I am not condemned to perpetual exile from that lady's presence.”

The English novelist, Mrs. Henry Wood, in her 1863 The Shadow of Ashlydyat, used the metaphor to great effect

  “I am engaged,” replied George, catching at the excuse like a drowning man catching at a straw. “That is” — taking out his watch — “I have not time now to see him. Tell Lord Averil I am particularly engaged.”

  […]

  Did he think Lord Averil would never favour Prior's Ash with his presence again? It is hard to say what foolish thing he thought. A man, drowning by water, does catch at straws: and a man, drowning by evil fortunes, catches at fantasies equally frail and hopeless.

As can be seen above, American and British English both used the verb "catch" in the metaphor of a drowning man. But at some point in the late 19th century or early 20th century, the man stopped drowning, and the verb “catch” was replaced with “clutch” in the UK, while “grasp” was preferred in the US.

Questions

When did this division, more or less, occur?
Why was/is “grasped” preferred in the US? Does the BrEng verb “clutch” have different connotations or meaning?
When did the drowning stop? In other words, in which year was the phrase first shortened?

Related: What does "clutching at straws" mean?

word or phrase for pursuing a losing argument in a certain manner


texts:
I am writing about a fantastical creature and was unsure of how to describe it grammatically. It is combination of two different animals and was wondering if I could use "and" repeatedly in this way:

"The creature had the body of a turtle and the head and legs of a lion."


texts: What is meaning of "Wrestling words into submission"?

texts:
I came across a sentence which goes "I knew I wasn't meant to spend my life locked away in a silent room alone and half-crazed, wrestling words into submission."

Can some please tell me what it means?


texts: Is it correct/preferred to use "present" as adjective instead of "this" when writing legal stuff?

texts:
Sometimes there are legal documents that, literally translated into English, contain the phrase "the present document/contract" whenever a reference to the document itself is made within the document.
Examples (formal/legal context):

The present contract describes 3 sections...
This contract describes 3 sections...

Questions (formal/legal context):

Is example #1 correct?
Which one is preferred?
Is there a better option like using "the current document" or hereby, hereon, etc.?


texts:
OK, so I'm trying to complete the following analogy:

  John ate the worms.

is to

  The worms were eaten.

as

  John tried to eat the worms.

is to

  The worms were tried to be eaten.

or

  The worms were eaten attemptively.

... ? I feel like such an inarticulate fool sometimes.

Edit: I'm not asking which of the two possibilities is better, but how I might complete the analogy, preferably with "the worms" as the subject. This is so that I can write something like

  The worms were stolen, taken to John's house, and [tried to be eaten].

Sorry if my question wasn't clear.


texts: "There is still no" vs 'There is still not a...'

texts:
Is there a difference between the following?

 1. There is still no good method...
 2. There is still not a good method...

Also, what is the correct usage of articles here (in singular).

Kind regards,
Dmtiri


texts: What are the rules for combining verbs with and?

texts:
I am curious what the rules for combining verbs into a "compound verb" are.  For example, is it proper to combine "guess and check" into a single verb as in:

  I guessed and checked that the answer is 42.


texts: "Leads ... to be" or "leads ... to being"

texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct?

  He recognizes his strength which, coupled with his naturally extremely short temper, often leads him to be rash with his words.

or

  He recognizes his strength which, coupled with his naturally extremely short temper, often leads him to being rash with his words.

I feel like the latter variant is correct but I'm not sure about it.


texts: What are the most common tense mistakes made in English?

texts:
I'm an ESL teacher looking for display board ideas. A lot of my students say things that just can't be said in English. So far I have noticed the following sometimes written or said:

did gone
is do

What other verb forms are semantically incorrect? I'm not looking for repeats of the same mistake, though, just some common ones using common verbs.


texts: Finding the extraposed subject in "It is plain to see that you don't like dogs."

texts:
It is plain to see that you don't like dogs.

Here, what does it refer to?
To see that you don't like dogs or that you don't like dogs?

If it refers to the former, then the sentence means:

  To see that you don't like dogs is plain.

If the latter, then it means:

  That you don't like dogs is plain to see.

Since both do make sense at least semantically, I wonder what would be the better syntactic analysis of the sentence. Or whether either would be an equally possible analysis.

Also, would your answer change if

(1) plain was replaced with easy in the original sentence?

(2) to see was replaced with seeing in the original sentence?


texts:
What is a word for someone jumping out of a sitting position, an alternative for saying "jolted out of their seats"?

Example sentence:

  The sudden interruption of his soothing music by the horrifying screech jolted him from his seat.


texts:
I am submitting an application and one of the requirements is:

  Copy of bank account statement in country of residence, duly attested
  by Indian Embassy/High Commission/Consulate/Apostille in the country
  where applicant is located

I don't know how to interpret this statement. The person is located in USA and it needs to be sent to India.

Does it mean Indian Embassy or Indian High Commission or Indian Consulate or Indian Apostille? Or does it mean Indian Embassy or High Commission or Consulate or Apostille? But then "Consulate" alone doesn't make sense, but neither does "Indian Apostille".


texts:
I (not English native) regularly write about crime cases in my area. The main source is usually a high-ranking police officer which I introduce along with the police station he works at. But in my article, I'm never sure about the correct preposition:

...said Mr Daniels, an investigator at Dungworth Police Station.

...said Mr Daniels, an investigator from Dungworth Police Station.

...said Mr Daniels, an investigator of Dungworth Police Station.

To me, some of these sound like I spoke to him at the police station itself, which in most cases is wrong. The questions are usually being asked on the scene.

What is the correct version(s) in British English?


texts: early this morning vs earlier this morning

texts:
I went jogging earlier this morning.

I think this just means he went jogging in the morning but it could be late in the morning.

  I went jogging early this morning.

I think this means he went jogging when it was very early in the morning.

Am I right?

PS: I wrote the sentence myself to contrast early and earlier.


texts: I'm looking for a word meaning "hard to pronounce"

texts:
I heard it from a radio station and just don't know how to spell it out.
It sounds something like "malfolk" and means words that don't know how to pronounce, szmczyk, for example.

Does anyone know the word?


texts: "will be ..." vs. "are presented in section ..." (tenses in scientific writing)

texts:
I'm writing my bachelor thesis in English in a German language environment so I was unable to get help from my supervisor on language related questions (neither of the languages is my first language). I am confused which tense should I be using when referring to sections of the thesis:

  Details are presented in Section 5.1. (present)

vs.

  Details will be presented in Section 5.1 (future)

It is obvious that the second option can only be used when the section describing these details is succeeding the current one and for consistency reasons, I should probably go for the first version (because I reefer to previous sections too) to avoid using past tense.

However, Google returns slightly more hits for the second option (44 vs. 36 millions). Which tense should I use when referring to other sections?


texts: "More acrid than" but "stupider than" Why is that?

texts: I've just read this quotation here at StackExchange: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."   I've checked a few online dictionaries and there seems to be nothing wrong with the sentence.  However, if we say "more acrid than" and "more valid than"; why not say "more stupid than" ?


texts: How to say 'Thirty minutes away by foot'?

texts: Can I use: 'Thirty minutes away by foot'? Or how should I write this sentence properly? I want to say that: 'I will be living less than thirty minutes away, by bicycle or by (foot/walking), from the college'?


texts:
As the day drew to a close, Norwegians continued to pay their tribute to the dead, adding to the carpet of flowers outside the cathedral.

I just read this and I wondered what adding to means here, or if it does not means anything, what's the function of this phrase in the sentence? How would one usually use this phrase?


texts: Term for an unevenly aligned street intersection?

texts:
I'm searching for a way to describe a street intersection where the lanes do not line up directly parallel from one side to the other.  I.e., if you were to drive through the intersection and maintain your lane, you would have to veer a bit to one side as you crossed to be completely within the lane as you exited the intersection.  The vertical slope or grade isn't the focus, but the horizontal alignment of the lanes.

The term does not need to be a technical one.  The best I've been able to come up with so far is "staggered."  All lanes need not necessarily be uneven (in case that matters).

Thank you!


texts:
Does anyone know an alternative (smarter) word for "parts of the day" ?
examples: afternoon, dusk, evening, morning, night, et cetera

My problem is I'm writing a form where I would like to ask what each person's favorite "part of the day" is, yet I feel the question may be confusing. For instance, someone could write "eating" or "going to the gym". I really feel there must be a word in English that will solve this confusion.

Any help would be appreciated.


texts: Why is "I" capitalized in the English language, but not "me" or "you"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Why should the first person pronoun 'I' always be capitalized?

I realize that at one time a lot of nouns in English were capitalized, but I can't understand the pattern of those left. Is there a reason why I still capitalized while you and me are not? Could it have something to do with hand writing rather than the printed page?


texts:
The Tomb of the Unknown Solider has the engraving "KNOWN BUT TO GOD", as presumably no man knows his name, but shouldn't it read "unknown, but to God", as the default for everyone is "unknown", with the exception "but to God"?

Is the construction older?  How should it be parsed?


texts: There is a select group of adjectives more commonly used in their negated form: 'inclement' and 'disfigured' are two examples. What explains their greater usefulness and longevity when compared to the original, positive, words from which they were derived? Are there any other words of this type you would nominate?


texts:
When this quote is used in a past tense passage, do we need to use past tense like
 "A new broom swept clean" ?

Or can it stay as "A new broom sweeps clean"? In this case, do we want to use open and close inverted commas?

My question is: should it correctly be written in present tense or past tense?


texts: Do I use semicolons to create a list where there are commas in the items?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is it proper usage to replace a comma in a list with a semi-colon in this situation (see details)?
  When should one use the comma versus the semicolon, and vice versa?

I have a list if items that contain commas - in this case city/state pairs.  A co-worker of mine claims that I should promote the list commas to semicolons in this case but I cannot find any style guide which lists this as rule. Is this just urban legend?

example:

  The sales team will visit Portland, Oregon; Portland, Maine; Spring Field, Ohio; and Spring Field, Massachusetts.


texts: What to call someone who doesn't like foreigners who lack manners and basic knowledge of the country and culture they are mixing themselves in?

texts:
For instance, a French person is coming from a different culture and hence may come across as being rude in a British person's eyes. Moreover, he is ignorant about the different culture in Britain and claims French superiority over Britain's present day culture based on events that took place in history.

I am not sure if, when I dislike this French person for these treats, it could be considered racism (because that's what I am being called all the time when I say what I don't like about that type of foreign people) or if there is a more accurate term for disliking these kinds of rude, ignorant and foreign people. They visit this country with a disrespectful attitude and indifference towards adapting or awknowledging Britain's own culture.


texts:
I am working as a translator and in one of my projects, which was about strategic management , I came across this sentence:

  " In scenarios that come straight from Kafka, the simplest problems take months, even years to address."

Could someone please tell me what this sentence means or at least simplify it? Is the phrase "in scenarios that come straight from Kafka" an idiom??


texts: Business model based on commission charging

texts:
I'd like to know the correct expression to point out the essence of this business model. I'm talking about web servers that gather users (offering and consuming services) and that charge them commissions based either on just having an account or per service provided.

example:

$10 a month for your membership - then provide you services on youtself
account is free, but we want 10% of your revenue from provided services

According to dictionaries, "commissioning" doesn't have the meaning coming from "commission" so that I can't call it "Models based on commissioning" . What is the right word/expression or name of this web business model?


texts: 19th century American equivalent of outlandish praise such as "crazy mf!"

texts: Is there an 1850's working-class and/or Black equivalent of "crazy Mf!" used as praise?


texts: "Linguistic experts" or "linguistics experts"?

texts: Which one would be the correct and more common usage? I tried googling for answers but realized that both of them are used. In my opinion, I think that "linguistic experts" is the correct phrase, but I would like to know why.


texts: Idiom for something that appears innocuous but is actually deadly

texts:
I'm looking for an idiom that describes a completely veiled threat, like when someone says something that seems perfectly polite, but a person who is familiar with the situation would know that what they are saying actually has a sinister double meaning.

The closest thing I've come up with so far is, "iron fist in velvet glove", but that isn't quite what I want. Cambridge Dictionary says

  used to describe someone who seems to be gentle but is in fact forceful and determined

I feel like I've heard an idiom that is something like "a velvet shrouded sword", and that it is a literary reference, but I can't find anything about it online, so perhaps I imagined it.

Edit

"put on hold as unclear what you're asking by MetaEd♦ 31 mins ago

Please clarify your specific problem or add additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it’s hard to tell exactly what you're asking. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question."

I am asking for any synonyms of "Iron fist in velvet glove" and to know whether the expression, "velvet shrouded sword" sounds familiar to anyone


texts:
I've been using "lay" but many people have looked at my sentence dubiously.

  However, while in secondary school, I abandoned my higher scientific aspirations because I became more focused on a career rather than finding where my personal interests truly lay.

I think I'm trying to use "lie" in past tense, so I used "lay", but is the "finding..." clause  present-tense, so does that clash?


texts: Is "a long way to go" the same as "you need to learn a lot"?

texts:
Today I cooked something, but the taste was not good (horrible, in fact).
When my roomy tasted it, she said

  You gotta long way to go.

I asked her what exactly it meant, she replied "You need to learn a lot".

But so far I only knew it meant "You will be successful in future".

So, can anybody tell me what exactly "A long way to go" means and where I should use this phrase?


texts: Is there a word for "under one's real name?"

texts:
I'm looking for a word that means an object of creation was made under the given name of the person who created it, as opposed to a moniker.

In this case, I'm a musician who used to release music under a moniker and now I'm switching to use my given name as the "artist."  I'd like if there was a construction parallel to when a musician breaks away from a band and starts a "solo" career.

  Though he's still recording with his decades long band Wilco, lead singer Jeff Tweedy released his first solo album Tuesday.

(I'm not Jeff Tweedy.)

So in this case the parallel construction I'd love would be:

  Three years after releasing his last album as Fakename Jones, John Smith released his first ____ album Tuesday.

I haven't been able to find a word that works quite this way.  In my research, the closest I've been able to locate is "eponymous," meaning, "(of a thing) named after a particular person." And it's not quite close enough to mean even remotely the same thing, unfortunately.

A compound word or phrase would be acceptable, but the purpose of seeking a word or phrase that functions this way is to achieve as much elegance as possible.


texts: How should I use "play roles", "play many roles" or somethings else?

texts:
If A has an influence on B, one can say A plays a role in B.
If A has no influence on B, one can say A plays no role in B.
What if A has two different influences on B? Should it be: A plays two roles in B?
And what if A has many influences on B? Should it be A plays many roles or play roles?
Thank you in advance!


texts: What is the best reply to accept an appointment of meeting to help

texts:
I was invited by email to a meeting to help the new excutive with my past experience
What should i say to accept this invitation?
Is "I am glad to be of help " is correct?


texts: Explain the meaning of the two sentences

texts:
I'm a bit confused by these two sentences:

  The general government consumption expenditures are used as another
  measure of government size, although they do not account for the full
  government size. As a component of the expenditure method'for
  estimating GDP, it is widely available. Data is taken from World
  Development Indicators of the World Bank. The sample consists of 81
  countries over the period 1961-2005. The panel is balanced and
  consists of 3645 observations.

It would be great if someone could rewrite them in other words :)


texts:
Is this sentence grammatically correct?
"If I were a flower I would bloom"
Or should it be "if I was"?


texts: What to say when someone is going to sleep during day?

texts: Usually, before going to sleep in night, we would say "Good night" to others but what to say when we are going to sleep for an hour or two during day time? It can be in morning or afternoon or evening.


texts:
The problem is that the huge sums flowing into alternative investments
  have given rise to a new breed of hedge fund, one that's a gussied-up
  mutual fund masquerading as a hedge fund to collect gaudier fees.

What's the meaning of "gaudier feeds" in this sentence? gaudy's dictionary meaning is showy. I guess it means very very expensive fees without much benefits or returns?


texts: Which is correct: "Somebody gets punished" or "Somebody get punished?" I have the same question with respect to "Someone gets" and "Someone get." Is there a rule which applies to this kind of sentences?


texts:
I have a vector of values and an operator affects these values by randomly adding small values in all of them.

Now when I refer to my resultant vector, is it correct to say:operator effected values
Because the operator has an effect on the values.

Hope it's not operator affected values

Hope my joining of this forum helps.


texts:
I don't know if it is still in vogue but ten years ago in South Africa the phrase "Is it?" was common.  It could be used as a response to almost any statement. Is it (ha ha) unique to South Africa or of Brit origin?
examples:
"I'm going to the movies" - "Is it?"
"Can't find my keys." -"Is it?"
"He's dead you know." - "Is it?"


texts: I'm writing a math paper, so it would probably be easier to answer this question with some background in math. Assume I have a set of "things" and some function turning these things into numbers. I'm interested in two values: the maximum value of this function and the "thing" the maximum is attained on/at. What's the right choice of preposition here? If there are multiple "things" with the same value, do I say "things the maximum is attained on/at" with the same preposition or change it somehow? Also, is this phrase "the thing the maximum is attained on/at" good enough or maybe I'd rather say "the thing on/at which the maximum is attained"?


texts: What do you call the green slippery thing formed, due to standing in water?

texts:
I want to know the term in English for the green slippery substance formed on things that are standing in water. I can only think of "algae" or preferably "green algae"; these are in the context of science.

But is there any other general word in English used for this green slippery thing? In Hindi we say, Kaayi, so what is Kaayi in English?


texts: How to understand "something agrees with someone"?

texts:
I was watching Friends S01E05. There is a piece of conversation i cannot understand very clearly - Monica Says,"Being dumped by you obviously agrees with her." Shouldn't it be "someone agree with something"? Can we say "something agrees with someone"?
Thanks,


texts: "Staying at my aunt's place" or "staying with my aunt"?

texts:
Are both of these sentences correct? Is there any difference in meaning between them?

"I'm staying with my aunt."

or

"I'm staying at my aunt's."

What I mean is "remain at her place temporarily." The "with" sentence does not seem to be very common and I would probably run across it mostly in British texts but maybe I'm wrong.


texts: A single word meaning to abide in a place for a long time

texts:
Can anybody give me a single word meaning to abide in a place for long time?

I'm thinking in the context of "to remain in prison" (or elsewhere, against one's will).


texts: What does "terrific rep" mean in this context?

texts:
I would like to know the meaning of "terrific rep" as used in the pilot episode of the TV serial "The Office."

Here is the context:

  Michael: Question. How long do we have to... [Telephone rings] Oh uh, Todd Packer, terrific rep. Do you mind if I take it? Jan:
  Go ahead. Michel: Packman. Todd Packer: Hey, you big
  queen. Michael: Oh, that's not appropriate. Todd
  Packer: Hey, is old Godzillary coming in today? Michael: Uh,
  I don't know what you mean. Todd Packer: I've been meaning to
  ask her one question. Does the carpet match the drapes?
  Michael: Oh, my God! Oh! That's... horrifying. Horrible.
  Horrible person.

(officequotes.net)


texts: Present simple form for City/group of people

texts:
Let's say we have a group of people who starts an activity together.

The name of group can be:
York speaks English! - as York is 3rd person singular.

But at the same time:
York speak English! - as York could be understood as a group of people, thus 3rd person plural.

The group is suppose to practice English together.

What is a correct form?


texts: Should I capitalize a word at the beginning of a sentence with a slash?

texts:
Sorry about the badly written title. Basically, I have this sentence:

Clicking/Tapping on the icons brings up the DNA selection menu.

Should tapping be capitalized in this situation?


texts: I knew him/know him/had know him already

texts:
Could anyone clear my doubt. I am very confused when to use KNOW and KNEW.

Suppose if there is a conversation between two people. A is introducing his new friend C to B.

A: Let me introduce my friend. He is XXXX.
B: I know(or KNEW?) him already before you even knew(or know? or had known?) him.

Anyone please correct the sentence.


texts: Distinction between "ambulate" and "perambulate"?

texts:
At a cursory glance, these two terms appear to be synonyms.  But that would strike me as unusual since one is a prefixed form of the other.  (Prefixes are used to modify a word in a specific and consistent way.  As a result, the prefixed form of a word has a different meaning than the word.)

"Per-" confers a quality of thoroughness or fullness.  But in the context of ambulation, this doesn't seem like a significant modifier (to me).

Am I wrong, or are "ambulate" and "perambulate" synonyms?


texts: Word for "a slight argument over different bets"

texts:
Explanation:

  I can't come up or think of a noun and verb that would
  describe a situation, where 2 or more people made different statements
  about some situation and both are not sure if their statement is
  correct, but they presume that it is.

Example:

  Two friends made 2 different statements about the opening time of
  a store. One stated that it opens at 9, another - at 8.

Specifications:

  They did not:

  have a quarrel
  make physical/monetary bets

  They just each claimed that their memory about the store's
  opening hours is correct.

Usage:

  Verb: "Me and John _______ whether the store opens at 9 or 8 and he won."

  Noun: "Our ______ with John about the store's opening time was won by John."

Question:

  How would you name the situation (noun) that they had and call the
  action (verb) that they performed?


texts: A word for the meeting place of opposites

texts:
I am in search of a word that represents a place or a situation where opposites meet.

The nearest word that I can find for it is the word horizon which according to oxford dictionary means "The line at which the earth's surface and the sky appear to meet". My concern here is that horizon signifies the place where they appear to meet, not the place where they actually meet.


texts:
I'm reading a technical documentation so every quirky detail, that a normal human being easily realizes to be a typo or just a less well chosen formulation, can, in fact, be a profound base for a concept and can fundamentally affect the future design.

In the said document I can find the term "numeric digit". What is this? Also, what is it not?

In my mind a digit is a character in the set of "0123456789", while something numeric is a a set of characters consisting of characters in the set of "0123456789" (yes, it's the same set).

Perhaps we can define the term in question by exclusion from all the other possible cases' definition. So what would be a good example of the following?

a non-numeric digit
a numeric non-digit
a non-numeric non-digit

My guestimation is this.

NST, unless we switch the base (which is too mathematical).
NST, unless we declare a string of a digit (which is too programmatic).
Anything sans digits (which is a superfluous tautology).


texts: What do you call a person who motivates or inspires?

texts:
My choices so far:

motivational source
inspirational source
source of motivation
source of inspiration

Being a non-native speaker, I don't know which one to use. What I want to say is that somebody has been motivating me since 2008, so the whole sentence would read:

  John Doe was motivational source since 2008.
  John Doe was the source of motivation since 2008.


texts:
So today, in an english lesson we got into an argument with the teacher wether both options of "got involved" and "getting involved" were correct in a workbook exercise.

The task in question was to fill in the blanks for the following sentence:

"Dennis started spending time hanging about on the streets and _____ (get) involved in gangs and street crime."

My own teacher told me that I didn't understand her explanation on why 'got' is correct. And I completely agree with that answer, however I'm fairly certain that 'getting' is also correct. My basis for this is that you can interpret the sentence as portrayed by these scemes: (started () and started ()), ((started ___) and (____)).

Another teacher said that 'getting' would be correct, however she doesn't believe that the concept of getting involved over time is a thing.

So my question is: Is 'getting involved' correct in this context?


texts:
It seems that the meaning of prank and mischief are same, which is chidlish trick

The boy just wants to brew mischief

The boy was playing a prank on us

I want to know the difference between them? and how to use them?


texts: Have American English speakers always used the term "last name" instead of "surname"?

texts:
surname
  noun [ C ] mainly UK  (US usually last name); (UK also second name)

  the name that you share with other members of your family; last name:

  Her first name is Sarah but I don't know her surname.
  Cambridge Dictionary

I am aware that speakers of British English generally use the term "surname" and AmE speakers use "last name." What I want to know is how long it has been this way, i.e. if AmE speakers ever used the word "surname" and if so, when did they switch to using "last name"?


texts: What is the opposite of a health benefit?

texts:
I am looking to write an online article about the negative effects of eating/drinking a certain item.  There are articles that have a title such as "Top Health Benefits of _____".    What could be used to describe the exact opposite?

There is a similarly titled question, "Antonym of benefit".  However, the content of the question is different and its answer is not helpful for my situation.


texts:
I reproduce below a question:

  "Which of the following is correct: 1. If you so desire, you may download the content. 2. You may download the content, if you so desire."

The question should take a question mark, as is usual with any question. I have no idea where the question mark could be placed in this question. Can anyone tell me where the question mark be placed in this question? Or, is the question okay without the question mark?


texts: "dis" and "un" prefixes for the word interest

texts:
For the word interest we can say:

  I am disinterested* in that topic.

And it is correct. To be correct again we must use the prefix "un" if we choose to structure the sentence this way:

  That topic is uninteresting.

Why is it like this? Is there perhaps an Old English rule that determines the negative prefixes that the common English speaker has since forgotten? Are there other examples? The Merriam dictionary linked to below says there is an argument over this particular word, so maybe this situation is unique to this word. Maybe the answer is in the exact purpose of "dis" and "un".

* It seems that uninterested is also a word but I never hear anyone use it. There is apparently an old argument over this too.


texts: "Have another think coming" vs. "have another thing coming"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the origin of the phrase “you’ve got another thing/think coming”?

If he thinks I'm going out with him, does he have another think or thing coming?


texts:
According to Collins English Dictionary, disemvowel is a transitive verb meaning 'to remove the vowels from (a word in a text message, email, etc.) in order to abbreviate it'.

Since the aforementioned dictionary says that disemvowel is informal: what is a formal word that has the same meaning?


texts: Use of verb "propitiate" in connection with something other than appeasing anger

texts:
A long while ago, in an Italian class we were discussing the meaning of the English verb propitiate. I tried to argue that a usage like "they propitiated Demeter with offerings in the hope of a bountiful harvest" was perfectly valid in English, but my classmates were adamant that propitiate in English always involves quelling or appeasing some angered party.

Some online definitions like that of the Cambridge dictionary support only my classmates; some like the Oxford seem to admit the possibility that the propitiated party need not be angry.

The question came up because we came across the Italian verb propiziare. According to our teacher, the Italian version of my Demeter usage above would be fine.

I'm certainly not denying that what my classmates insist on is the more frequent meaning. Are there more things between heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy, or am I clinging to at best a quite obscure use of the English word?


texts: Subject verb agreement for "A greater number of"

texts:
What is the subject-verb agreement for the phrase "A greater number of"?

I came across this sentence and am confused.

A greater number of cycles with paracetamol is associated with increased risk of ...


texts:
Is the plural correct in this sentence?

  It should cut the time between initial examination and diagnosis, reducing waiting times before treatment.

Can I just say waiting time instead of waiting times?


texts: What do you call someone who is able to learn the new technologies?

texts:
As I renovate my CV, I would like to find a word (or two) to replace this phrase:

Able to learn state of art technologies

So for example one would say:

  George is able to learn state-of-the-art technologies, because he
  knows the concepts well.

Now the questions asks for X, so that we could say:

  George is X, because he knows the concepts well.


texts: Can I say "acquiesce" and be acquiescent?

texts:
Can I say "acquiesce" and be acquiescent, or by saying the word do I then imply a protest, negating my acquiescence?

Example: "I acquiesce to your request."

To me, it seems that speaking the word is to do the opposite of the word's definition. Is this an accurate ascessment of what is going on?
If so, does the word "acquiesce" fall into a general category of words that share these properties?


texts:
Certain websites devoted to idioms claim that they--idioms-- are not used in formal conversations or writing; that is, they claim that these creatures are always used in only informal situations. As the site is a British website, is this a common belief among the British, or is this a mere hiccup in the website? For "according to" and "at first glance"
are far from "informal".


texts: Should I use "will" or "would" when I suggest that something will/would come in handy?

texts:
This second part would hopefully come in handy tonight.
  This second part will hopefully come in handy tonight.

Which one is correct and why?


texts: "Not as heavy as an elephant." Which literary device is this?

texts:
I was having a conversation with a friend today. He jokingly asked me to help him pick up a desktop printer later (he's obviously strong enough to carry one on his own - a typical desktop printer is usually quite light for a man of average size).

I asked him, also jokingly, how heavy the printer is (so much that it requires two people to carry). He replied (in his exact words):

  Have you ever seen an adult elephant? Well, it is not quite as heavy as that.

What sort of literary device did he use in the last part of this conversation? Hyberbole? If yes, what sort of hyperbole?


texts:
The woman states that on 3/23/20, her husband pushed her.

Does there need to be a comma between 'that' and 'on'?


texts: What is the meaning of 'That about covers it'?

texts:
I am reading a book titled Struts 2 in action, and there is this sentence:

  That about covers it for aspects of OGNL that are commonly used in Struts 2.

What I am confused by it is the structure of the sentence and the means of
'That about covers it'.


texts: Is there a more masculine way to describe a "petite" man?

texts:
What would you call a man who is short in stature and slight (or wiry) in body?

For clarity, these are not men with dwarfism. I'm also wanting a word that doesn't (or shouldn't) automatically be inferred as an insult to their "manhood."


texts: What is a synonym for murder that implies it is not murder?

texts: I am writing a story in which the government kills children to prevent overpopulation. I want to find a word that the government could use, because obviously, they are not going to outright admit to the killling of children.


texts:
If apostrophe + s is the acceptable way of denoting a genitive in English, is it possible that possessive pronouns, such as hers, ours and yours, started life as possessive adjectives with apostrophe + s?

E.g. her's, our's, your's, their's? Perhaps, even his' ?
Its and my obviously stick out from this tempting pattern.

Is there any evidence that this might be the case, or is the 's completely unrelated?


texts:
My professor incorrectly inputted a grade of mine and I emailed him to alert him of this error.

Context: In my experience, professors take an ungodly amount of time to correct a mistake.  I was expecting to not receive a response or a correction for several days or even weeks.

My professor within a span of three hours, emailed me his sincerest apologies for his error, corrected the grade, and assured me this would never happen again.  Another detail - we are on spring break.

I want to thank him for this, so . . . "Word/words to describe someone who completes a task in a very quick time, despite having no obligation to do so?"


texts: Use of the definite article "the" before "church"

texts:
I was in a Teacher's selection for a school in my country, and one of the coordinators said that she heard a mistake from another teacher that was unacceptable. I tried to figure out why was that, but I thought it was silly and forgot about it. Then I was asking about the weekend in my classroom and one of my Ss said the same sentence. I corrected him according to the coordinator, as she is way more experienced than me, but I couldn't actually explain why to him. The sentence was:

  I went to the church.

I can't see the mistake in this sentence if the church had been previously mentioned in the context of the conversation. I understand, as a non-native speaker, that if you are talking to a person that doesn't have any idea of where you were and doesn't have any previous information about the specific place, the article 'the' should not be used. Also, I am assuming church as a count noun. So instead, we would say:

  I went to a church.

Is it correct to use the indefinite article since I don't have any idea of which church he is talking about?

I made a research about it and found that places that people use in common (like school, church, hospital, work) but are not necessarily the same, we would omit the article, so we would use the sentence that the coordinator accept:

  I went to church.

Like this sounds strange to me, but since I am not a native speaker, I think that it is OK.

I really don't think that it was an unacceptable mistake, since the use of the article will depend on the context. So, if I am talking to my student, asking what he did last weekend and we were not talking about anything before, which one should he use?


texts: What would you call a former criminal who has been released from prison?

texts:
What do you call a former criminal who has served their sentence and been released from prison?

I thought of “convicted criminal”, but that might imply the person is still a criminal and/or serving a sentence.

Does “convicted criminal” fit this definition?
Are there other--better--words that are more accurate?


texts: Can "latter" be used to refer to the last of a list of names that is more than 2?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Equivalent of “former” and “latter” for more than 2 items

Can I use "the latter" to refer to the last name from a list of names that is more than 2? Or should there be only 2 in the list? I.e.:

  Paul, Nick, John. The latter is John.


texts: What is the opposite of the ending "-cide" (as in "suicide", "pesticide")?

texts: I'm looking for the antonym of -cide (as in suicide, pesticide, etc.). Essentially the ending to words that would mean "to create or embrace".


texts: When using a movie title as a phrase, is it still italicized? We were the Three Amigos, we were like Bonnie and Clyde, etc

texts:
Editing a work of fiction that uses the phrase,
"We were the original Three Amigos."
It is not literal; they are not the characters the movie is based on or anything. It's just an expression to show the narrator's trio is iconic and tight-knit.
But, this phrase originally comes from the movie Three Amigos I believe. So, should it be italicized as film titles normally would? Or is this an oddball exception?
Another comparable example would be
"We were like Bonnie & Clyde"


texts: Alternative Meanings of "Don't waste time with..."

texts:
Consider the phrase "Don't waste time with American literature." Is it legitimate to interpret it as meaning, spend your time cautiously while reading American literature, and don't spend too much time read it?

A definition of the word waste is "use or expend carelessly, extravagantly or to no purpose,"
 which lends some credence to the second interpretation. But, idiomatically, "don't waste your time" in my experience always means "don't spend any time on."

Am I properly understanding the idiom? Or can one simply use the words "waste time"  outside of an idiomatic context, valuing their denotations separately?--thereby making the above phrase a caution against spending time poorly, rather than not spending any. What would most listeners or readers understand the phrase to mean?


texts:
The appropriate preposition for the verb 'accuse' is 'of'. However, sometimes the verb accuse has three objects: when we accuse a person of a crime/sin/inappropriate behavior because something he has done. E.g., I can accuse my uncle of racism because he tells wicked jokes.

Would it be grammatically correct to use the preposition 'for' for the third object, e.g. "My uncle is often accused of racism for his wicked jokes"?


texts:
I know several words for the toilet, i.e. bathroom. However I want to know the colloquial word for the seat on which one sits while defecating. I have read john somewhere but never heard an American actually use it in real or on TV. How common is the word in real? If not, what's the most commonly used word or words throughout the United States?

And while we're at it, is commode itself used commonly in American English? If not, what's the American non-slang equivalent?

P.S. I understand there are euphemistic alternatives such as bathroom or lavatory while referring to the act of defecating itself. My question, however, is more specific to the bowl and not the act. For example, consider this statement: "My bowl/commode/john/etc. is broken." One cannot use bathroom here. What's the word (or words) a typical American is most likely to use in this context?


texts: Can you help me to figure out "that of"?

texts:
"English grammar has been closely bound up with that of Latin since the 16th century, when English first began to be taught in schools."

I have no idea of "that of" in this sentence.
Can anyone example the grammar and usage for me?


texts: Using the word "if" without having to use the word "then"

texts:
Is it acceptable to use the word "if" in the following reflection as in an oblique suspicion and not have to use the word "then"?

  One question is: with all the money he has saved so far in not using
  campaign money to gain public attention through the asininity of the
  MSM, ...the question is: if he did not use his campaign money to pay
  for people to attend his rallies, or at the least give out free
  posters, and free snacks and drinks, free transportation,... (and we
  all know how people love to get free stuff!)?

Doesn't the word "with" more or less imply the word "then"?


texts: Why is most North American speech rhotic?

texts: Most North American speech is rhotic—why is that? Does it come from the early English settlers or perhaps from the Irish settlers?


texts: usage of to-infinitive instead of gerund specifically after 'result in'

texts:
The largest known dead zone occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2002, when runoff from the Mississippi River resulted in over 20,000 square kilometers of the Gulf area to become uninhabitable for oceanic life.

I think 'becoming' is more proper instead of 'to become'. I found the sentence above.
If the sentence above is correct, I'd like to know why 'to become' is right.
because to-infinitive is representing future?


texts:
Apparently, both creable and creatable are used in English as adjectives.
What, if any, are the differences?


texts: Is there a phrase for "something good that doesn't last long"?

texts:
In Arabic, the expression "Summer cloud" is usually used to mean that "this is not going to last for a long time" or "it won't last as long as you think it will".

Is there an equivalent phrase in English?


texts: Population Percentage Singular/Plural Verb

texts:
Sixty-seven percent of the United States' population plays video games.
Sixty-seven percent of the United States' population play video games.
Which of these is correct?
I understand that I can write "Americans" instead, but I am curious as to which is the correct way.


texts:
I am trying to decide which slogan to go for?

  democratizing recruiting

or

  democratizing recruitment?

Which one makes more sense both grammatically, and logically.

My subtitle is the following:

  A platform that empowers its users to provide hiring recommendations

Essentially i am trying to make slogan so simple that a 5 year old can get it


texts: "Houston, we may have a problem here" - Meaning?

texts:
I have heard this phrase many times in movies and people who use it as a pun in forums.

What does this mean?
Where did it originate from?
When do we use it?

There is a Wiktionary entry for a slightly different form of the phrase that explains some of this ("Houston, we have a problem").  However, I feel that the wiki page has little information in it. Besides, it's not uncommon to get some other/additional interesting facts about such 'obvious' things in this community.


texts: Word for "letter or letter-like character"?

texts:
Is there a word for a "letter or letter-like character" in a writing system? With that I mean a grapheme that is not a number, punctuation, special symbol or space, but a letter (alphabet), consonant-vowel-unit (abugida), syllabogram (syllabrary) or a logogram (logographic writing system). Or in other words: A unit of text that is formed by a character of the Unicode category "L", maybe followed by combining marks "M".

edit:
I need the word for a user interface; it should be understood by the average user.

edit2:
To clarify the purpose: I have a system that learns word structures from user input. In the documentation I explain an algorithm that does some stuff with the input. This is the sentence:

  By default all letters and letter-like characters (such as the syllable symbols of a syllabary like Japanese Katakana) are included, everything else (such as numbers and punctuation) is excluded [from the alphabet].


texts: What's the literal meaning of "Real Estate"?

texts:
Today I realized that the word "Real" in "Real Estate" might be about "royalty" instead of "reality".

English is a foreign language to me, so I don't really know the literal meaning and origin of the term "Real Estate".

Might "Real" be an alternative term for "Royal"?


texts:
I understand that English speakers have dictionaries, manuals of style, and grammar books at their disposal to know how to write correctly, but is there the most basic book of rules on which all British or American spellings are based?

I have seen the list of most notable proposed reforms, but they all look like mere recommendations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_reform,

Some of which were accepted by people, and some not. And I don't really  understand why, for example, Americans suddenly changed their way of writing 'centre' or 'humour', just because Webster recommended to do so more simply.

For example, in Belarus during the previous century we have had three reforms of Belarusian orthography, each enforced by a government act accompanied by a guidebook with the basic outline of new rules and a set of various dictionaries. After a short transitional period all schools, newspapers, magazines, etc. had to comply with the new rules. As I know, Germans reformed their orthography twice, in 1901 and 1996, through the international conference of linguists, and implemented it in the same way. Russians did the same in 1918 and 1956. But what aboutEnglish?

And if today some simplification like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_Spelling or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board#Handbook_of_Simplified_Spelling were adopted and agreed to by all English-speaking nations, how would they make their citizens use this new spelling?


texts: What is the etymology of "board" as found in "room and board"?

texts:
How did board come to be associated with meals?

I am referring to this definition of board:

regular meals or the amount paid for them in a place of lodging (noun, Wiktionary)
daily meals, especially as provided for pay (noun, reference.com)
to furnish with meals, or with meals and lodging, especially for pay (verb, reference.com)


texts:
Theorem 1 states that "Under the assumptions H1, H2, H3, ... and H10, it holds that ...".
I want to write a theorem using fewer assumptions (all those included in Theorem 1, without H6). What is the best way to write it?
I thought of "Under the conditions of Theorem 1, except H6, it holds that ...", but I'm not sure if it is acceptable.
Can you give me feedbacks?
Thanks in advance.


texts: Using "to fix" as synonym of "to correct"

texts:
I often encounter the usage of "to fix" verb in the meaning "to correct".

Was this a widespread use before the computer age?

How would you conduct the other meaning of "to fix", i.e. to make something to stay in place strongly without moving or vibration in such a way so to avoid the confusion and ambiguity?


texts: What's the function of "as" in "rainforest as animal habitats"?

texts:
More girls than boys raised the idea of rainforest as animal habitats.

If I wrote the sentence, I would use "being", "More girls than boys raised the idea of rainforest being animal habitats. the words coming right after of should be a noun or a gerund, is that right? If putting "as" here, then what's the function of "as" serve? Is it a conjunction?


texts: "Who him?" as a stand-in for "Who is he?"

texts:
I'm curious: is this valid under some rule of grammar I don't know?  Was it ever valid, or was it slang or a personal idiosyncrasy?  Or (I shudder to think) was it invented by later authors, as a phrase that sounds sufficiently outlandish to add "flavor" to a novel?
I've run across this construction in several "period" novels set in the 18th century, most recently in The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian:

'I shall just have time to run up to
the House for the committee meeting,
deliver my thunderbolt, and then post
down to Torbay, where Heneage Dundas
will touch before the change of the
moon, landing Jenkins -,
'Who him?'
'My jobbing captain, my temporary
replacement,' said Jack, and from his
tone and the set of his face Stephen
gathered that he did not think highly
of the man.

I'd like to clarify: I am not talking about "Who, him?" ("are you seriously talking about THAT guy?"), nor am I talking about the poetic reversal of verb and object, as in Spenser's Faerie Queen:

At last, when as himself he 'gan to find
To Una back he cast him to retire:
Who him awaited still with pensive Mind.
Great thanks and goodly Meed, to that good Sire,
He thence departing gave for his pains Hire.
So came to Una, who him joy'd to see,
And after little rest, 'gan him desire,
Of her Adventure mindful for to be.
So leave they take of Caelia, and her Daughters three.

I ask because... well, I rather like the sound of it, and have been tempted to slip it into my own conversation.  But I'd like to have cover for the inevitable discussion afterward!


texts:
I want to know which one of these two sentence structures is correct grammatically:

  This book is, despite being dense, a good read.
  This book, despite being dense, is a good read.


texts:
I've noticed that some of my professors seem to like to use the term admit in the following sense (from the contraction mapping theorem):   "If F is a contraction from a complete metric space to itself, then it admits a unique fixed point."

I'm curious as to the word choice/usage of the term admit. It seems to be equivalent in usage, at least here, to 'has', but I see it in quite a bit of formal math from certain professors.

Does it have a particular connotation/meaning that has doesn't?


texts:
I was reading English news paper & I came across one word Feet Floating, What does it mean?

I googled but I didn't understand


texts:
I looked up unproduced in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)¹ and it gave an example quotation from the 1965 edition of John Ireland's 1490 compendium The Meroure of Wyssdome ("The Mirror of Wisdom"):

  It is better and mar digne and excellent to be a substaunce and natur wnproducit na to haue bene maid and producit of nocht.

I'm trying to learn how to read older forms of English (e.g. Old English, Early Modern English, etc.); but I'm unsure how to pronounce two words in that quote: digne and na. (I do know what they mean, though.) Based on the OED and Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) entries², I think na is pronounced /nay/, but I still have no idea of how to pronounce digne.

The English dialect these two words are a part of is Middle Scots, distinct from but roughly concurrent with Early Modern English.

Example Sentences for Context

"digne"

  OED Entry, sec. 1, quot. 6: a1450 Knt. de la Tour ii. 5   It is an higher and more digne thinge forto praise and thanke God.
  DSL Entry, sec. 1, quot. 8: 1567 G. Ball. 115. Thy nobill actis digne of remembrance

"na"

  OED Entry, sec. 1, quot. 5: [1533] J. Gau tr. C. Pedersen Richt Vay 94 Ramember that thy marcie and grace is..greittar nay al our sinnis.
  DSL Entry, sec. 2, quot. 2: Burgh Laws c. 77 (A).
  I graunt I dide other thing na I aucht to doo

Also, "na" has a second meaning—rather than than, it can also mean nor. Is this pronounced differently?

  sec. 1, quot. 4: 1398 Acts I. 211/1. That he sal nocht lette his office na the execucion of it
  sec. 1, quot. 15: 1453 Reg. Dunferm. 341. Neuer to be herd in jugement na vtouth

¹ Subscription required.

² Main Entries:

Digne: OED, DSL
Na: OED, DSL


texts: Single word Adjective or noun for a person who always toes the line (to irritating level)

texts:
Single word Adjective or noun for a person who always toe the line (to irritating level).
There is a hindi equivalent for it "Laqeer ka fakir" which is "marking line's beggar". The meaning is one who begs to follow the marking line which is equivalent to "toe the line".


texts:
Is the plural of "Tablet PC" "Tablet PCs"?
Is the phrase "There are many Tablet PCs" right?


texts: What kind of phrase is this? (adverb and adjective at the beginning of a sentence)

texts:
I just encountered this sentence in a passage, which begins with an adverb and adjective.

  Probably blind from birth, he was born into a noble family...

'Probably blind from birth' - What kind of phrase is this?


texts:
What is the proper use of the apostrophe in this phrase:

  The party is at the Johnsons's

Assuming, the regular form of the last name is "Johnson" and there are at least two people in the Johnson family.

I assume it should be possessive because it is implied that it is referring to their house.

What would the correct form be for a last name ending in an S in its singular form?


texts: "parochial interest" vs "parochial concerns"

texts:
Please tell me the meaning of "parochial" in the two sentences below:

The future of the Labour party is too important to be a matter of merely parochial interest.
Beyond parochial concerns, there are breathtaking battles ahead.


texts:
I have always thought the word annulus to be exceptionally awkward. I'd like to know the relation between annulus and anus.

Geometrically, an annulus is a disk with a hole in it. The anal muscle ("sphincter") has an annular shape.

I'm wondering how we got from annulus to anus.


texts: Do these two sentences have the same meaning?

texts:
(1) Advertisers are not getting as much value for the money spent with violent content as with non-violent content.

(2) Advertisers are not getting as much value with violent content as with non-violent content for the money spent.