texts: Where does the expression "to shine someone on" come from? And does it have racist origins?

texts:
Someone suggested to me that the idiom "to shine someone on" is racist in origin.
I'm not talking about shine on or shine or any of those other uses. What I'm referring to is shining someone on meaning in either of its meanings listed here, but mainly the first one:

shine (one) on

To deceive one or to tell one a lie, especially in order to deflect or avoid responsibility for something.
He told me he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol, but I think he was shining me on.
Don't shine us on, Marty. We know you're the one who screwed up the accounts!
To insult, provoke, or aggravate one.
After the neighbors complained about my Christmas lights, I decided to shine them on a bit by adding even more to my house.
If you really want to shine him on, you should bring his sister to the Christmas party as your date.
Don't shine the immigration officer on, or you very well might get booted out of the country!
TFD Online, Farlex Dictionary of Idioms

I can't find any etymology for this. I'd like to know when and how it came about because if its roots are racist (shine being an offensive term for a Black person), I want to avoid it.


texts:
"There’s two different but related frameworks..."

Above is a quote from a Kindle book. How come it is "is" instead of "are"? Isn't it grammarly wrong?


texts: "I refer to him by, what I assume, is his nickname" vs "I refer to him by, what I assume, his nickname is"

texts:
I'm confused with the following sentances:

I refer to him by, what I assume, is his nickname: xxxx.
I refer to him by, what I assume, his nickname is: xxxx.
I refer to him by, what is his nickname: xxxx.
I refer to him by, what his nickname is: xxxx.

Which one is correct?

The reason that I'm confused is that I think it is uncommon to use what/who as the subject of a noun clause. And I don't know if it will be affected by introducing "I assume".


texts: Term for creating a fantasy word from all letters of two existing words?

texts:
If I have two words - let's say "lamp" and "vampire" and I put all of their letters together to form a new fantasy word. e.g. "vapamlimper" does this process have a name?

I already considered terms like portmanteau or blend word but they don't quite hit the spot.

This is also not a pure neologism as there is an additional rule to it (must be all letters of two existing words).


texts: Reader's choice to interpret the story as he wishes to

texts:
Many times stories end in a way that the reader has a choice to decide which interpretation he'd like to follow. What is the word or phrase one should use to describe this situation?

It is analogous to the poetic liberty that poets have to coin new words and stuff.


texts: Inserting meaningless phrase in sentences

texts:
Consider the following sentences:

  The solution to this differential equation, you know, must be correct.
  He is usually, you know, very crazy.

What is such phenomenon (inserting meaningless phrase in a sentence) called?


texts:
I am going to meet with someone in the future to discuss something. In an email I sent to this person, I wanted to tell him what I wanted to talk about. In my head

"I was hoping to talk to you about..."

sounded right, but "was" is past tense, so I was confused whether this was correct or not. I changed it to:

"I am hoping to talk to you about..."

What is the correct way to say this?


texts: Is there a word for someone who is a killjoy yet also "The voice of caution?"

texts:
I am trying to find a word/phrase that describes someone who performs a "reality check" every time people suffer from misconceptions or over-exuberance. He/she is the "voice of caution" that prevents "fools from rushing in." A sage with a sobering influence.

What I'm looking for could be an eponymous adjective such as panglossian (though obviously panglossian is nearly an antonym for what I actually want). It could be a noun - such as Cassandra - if such a character personified the above traits. Any idiomatic expression or slang that might also fit the above criteria would also help.

The closest I have gotten so far: pessimist, skeptic, realist.

I want to use the word/phrase in a sentence such as:
"I hate to be a realist/prophet of doom/Cassandra/killjoy, but there is no way we can hit these goals in just a week!"


texts: Noun for something that was superseded or replaced

texts:
I'm looking for a noun to describe an object that was superseded.

For example let's say you have a health insurance policy. We will call it policy 'A'. Your insurance company cancels that policy and issues you a replacement one. We will call the new policy 'B'.

Policy B superseded policy A.

Is there a noun that describes policy A in this context?

Another Example:

Didi Gregorious superseded  Derek Jeter as the NY Yankees shortstop.

You can use the noun replacement to describe Didi Gregorious. As in
"Didi Gregorious was Derek Jeter's replacement".

What noun could you use to describe Derek Jeter in this context?


texts: Odd British pluperfect subjunctive construction?

texts:
I read this sentence in the Guardian today, and I couldn't figure out if it was an error or a regionalism. (I did, however, figure out that I don't know my grammar too well!)

  [the mid-18th century] court...had insisted that everyone kept a straight face.

To my ear, keep seems better than kept, but is one more right than the other?


texts: Is there a concise English translation of the Russian word and concept samochuvstvie?

texts:
I am rereading accounts of the 1996 climbing disaster on Everest.  Two books by Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb and Above the Clouds put emphasis on a climber's samochuvstvie.

  Above 5,000 meters the participants' good form was reassuring.  They
  had a fighting spirit and, from their external appearances, didn't
  look as if they had any serious problems with their health or
  samochuvstvie.

The translator says this word has no equivalent in English, and explains it as:

  A Russian concept. An impression of a person's state of being, the
  combined and observable aspects of a person's mental, physical and
  emotional state.  (The Climb, Chapter 6, Doing the Details)

A Google search pulls up an entry from Bab.la Russian-English Dictionary

  general condition

This may be the best one can do for a concise translation, but it doesn't adequately describe what an Everest guide is looking for in a wanna-be Everest climber.

I'm not looking for a single word, but a concise translation that captures the spirit of the Russian. If the translator's note is as concise as it gets, that is an answer.  Please note: this Q is purely curiosity-driven; I'm not looking for a free translation service.


texts: Why, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, does "square" mean "quarrel"?

texts:
When referring to dictionaries, there seems to be no such meaning as "quarrel" under the word "square", only "in agreement".

But in II 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream, "square" in the following text means "quarrel":

  And now they never meet in grove, or green,
  By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
  But they do square, that all their elves for fear
  Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

Where does this meaning come from?


texts: Is there significant difference of meaning between ‘Stop-and-frisk ‘and ‘Frisk and stop’?

texts:
There was the following sentence in New York Times (January 4th) article titled “The commish, the 2nd time around”:

  "On the eve of leaving office, Bloomberg, defensive about the scar on
  his legacy, noted to Capital New York that in L.A. Bratton —
  considered the godfather of the sort of aggressive policing tools that
  have come under fire — was just as much a proponent of stop-and-frisk
  as Kelly was. “Bratton did more stop and frisks per capita than Kelly
  did,” Bloomberg said. “They’ll call it ‘frisk and stop’ instead of
  ‘stop-and-frisk.’”

  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/opinion/sunday/dowd-the-commish-the-2nd-time-around.html?pagewanted=2&hp&rref=opinion

I understand ‘stop and frisk’ as a flow of in investigating action, but can’t understand how you can physically ‘frisk someone, then stop him.’ Though I may be too literal, it sounds somewhat illogical to me.

What is the difference of meaning here between ‘stop-and-frisk‘and ‘frisk and stop’?


texts: What does "to put a bit of stick about" mean?

texts:
I have heard this phrase in the House of Cards (1990`s) TV series, and Google does not lead to any good explanation.

To my mind, the main character is using this phrase when he intends to make the things go as he wants to.


texts: Word/Phrase for a laughter-like reaction

texts:
I'm trying to find a word or phrase for a particular type of reaction similar to a laugh. The reaction is hard for me to describe, but an example of it can be found in this video. The reaction is actually before the list begins, around the 0:08 second mark.
The reaction I'm after is sharper and quicker than the one in the video: a short, semi-sharp breath out through the nose, usually accompanied by a very slight nod of the head. It's not a true laugh, but does show amusement/appreciation.

"They're not that bad. Once you get over their endless search for assassination plots, they're a good group to hang out with."
Dave grinned. "You have my condolences," he said, ____-ing. (meant to show light sarcasm)

Most of the synonyms for laughter suggest loud or prolonged sounds, neither of which fits the reaction I want. One word which comes close is snort, but that suggests something a lot louder and less controlled than I want. The closest I have come to a description is:

He suppressed a laugh.

Still not quite what I want, since the character isn't really suppressing anything.
What is a good word/phrase for this reaction? I'm after a word to describe the reaction to something which is only mildly funny or perhaps sarcastic, and does not induce full laughter.


texts: The professor and chairman - are they the same?

texts: "The professor and chairman"- in this sentence fragment, are the professor and the chairman the same person or 2 different people? I've been told that they are the same. How???


texts: How would you write the name and aspiring title for someone in an enterprise environmemnt?

texts:
How would you write the following (name, aspiring title) pair in a company context:

John Smith, to be Specialist

"To be" here is meant in the sense of TBD (to be defined or to be done) or TBC (to be confirmed), etc.

Would it be more correct to use one of the following:

---, to be assigned Specialist
---, candidate for Specialist
---, to be assigned the Specialist grade

or another form?


texts: Is the word “borderline lunacy” a ‘stand-alone’ phrase or just an accidental combination of ‘borderline’ and ‘lunacy’?

texts:
I saw the word borderline lunacy in the scathing comment of a Republican strategist on Mitt Romney’s statement en route to London, Israel and Poland in Washington Post’s (7/31) article titled “Does Mitt Romney’s bad tip matter.”

“I find this entire trip borderline lunacy,” said one senior Republican strategist. “Why on earth is he seeking to improve his foreign policy cred when there will not be a single vote cast on that subject?”

I assume borderline lunacy simply means “crazy” or “almost insane,” and I was able to find many examples of usage of this word in Google, e.g.:

I understand that many may interpret this as borderline lunacy to suggest the fall of such an important and successful tech company. —connectedmonster.com
Nicolas Cage is on manic form as a degenerate New Orleans cop whose back injury leads him into a spiral of drug dependency and borderline lunacy. —skymovies.sky.com

However, this word is not registered in any of Oxford, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster Dictionary, nor is there entry in Ngram.
Is the term borderline lunacy a psychiatrist’s terminology? Or is it acknowledged as a popular “stand-alone” phrase, or just an accidental combination of borderline and lunacy, like a “borderline dirty joke”?
I’m tempted to use this word to some of right-wing Japanese politicians once.


texts: Does "triple-degree heat" mean the same as "triple-digit heat"?

texts: I just saw the phrase "triple-degree heat" in a news script. I am more familiar with "triple digit" and i am wondering if "triple degree" is frequently used or an incorrect use of "degree" in terms of semantics.


texts:
So, I've read that questions "what kind of" are about characteristics:

"What kind of game is it? - It's an exciting game." But "What game is it? - It's Warcraft."

Is it right?

But what about "What (kind of) key is on the table?" - "It's my key".

Should I use "What key..." or "What kind of key..."?
Have I to use "the" before "key": "What (kind of) the key..."
Is it correct to answer such questions as "What (kind of)..." by "It's my, his..."


texts: AmE/Writing: AN _hors d'oeuvres_ tray, or A _hors d'oeuvres_ tray?

texts:
The general rule I was given as a youngster was that if the initial sound of the noun is that of a vowel, the correct indefinite article is “an”, while if it started with a consonantal sound or ‘y’, I should use ‘a’. However, I’m writing an article for a magazine (I’m the editor, too, so telling me to check the ‘house style guide’ is not going to work...), and I find that the rule described and Microsoft Word seem to disagree with respect to the borrowed term hors d’oeuvres. I learned to pronounce it (pardon the lack of IPA) roughly as “OR DERVZ”, which would imply the use of “an”; Word seems to want me to use “a”. Should I accede to Word’s correction, or did Microsoft goof on this one?

The problem with the proposed duplicate and the other relevant questions linked to it is that none of them seem to give an authoritative answer; the general weight of opinion confirms my early education, but while I will not hesitate to disagree with Microsoft’s algorithm and stick to my own inclinations in most cases, this particular case - a borrowing from French that has not been fully Anglicized - plus my lack of exposure to French to understand where a partial Anglicization may have altered the pronunciation (so that I may be pronouncing it “wrong” even for what American standard may exist) leaves me with little enough confidence that I’m not comfortable with accepting either alternative unsupported by some sort of authoritative citation.


texts: Please put the cup there. Is "Please" an adverb in this sentence

texts: As per my understanding there is adverb in above sentence, but my English teacher is saying Please is the adverb in this sentence. If Please is the actual adverb in the sentence then what there will be?


texts: What is the connotation of the noun "steam"?

texts: The noun steam refers to water in its gaseous form, but does it connote only the hot gas achieved (for example) from boiling, or does it equally connote the vapour that rises from an open body of cold water in colder temperatures?


texts: What is the name of this thing like a building on top of a roof?

texts: It's like a building on top of a roof. I don’t know how to describe it too well, but you can walk out of it and be on the actual building's roof. This building thing is always on a roof, and can have AC coolers on top. Sadly I’m ill so  the name is lost to me. Help?


texts: A word/phrase for a day when you must be extremely cautious

texts:
I'm looking for a word or a phrase which would mean a day when you have to be extra cautious because you know something bad might happen to you. For example:

Today is Friday the 13th - ___ (the word/phrase), so we have to exercise extreme caution. - Don't be so superstitious!

According to my horoscope, today is ____ (the word/phrase), so I'd better watch out for something bad.

Thank you!


texts: Are there one or more words that take only a singular form?

texts: In a Cambridge dictionary, it distinguishes a singular form from a countable form, but, in an Oxford dictionary, it only says the word is uncountable or countable.


texts: Why is 'very + ungradable adjective' used more often lately?

texts:
Excellent, wonderful, terrible, superior --- these normally do not come with the intensifier 'very' before them. But the results of the Google Ngram show recent acute pick-ups, such as below:

What do you think triggered this trend, and is pulling it up?


texts:
The NOAD reports that '' (two single quotation marks) is a symbol used to mean ditto.

When is it used? Should it be used to replace the same word that appears in the same position but in the previous line?

  I always thought it could be a dog.
  I then discovered it is all but a ''.


texts:
How does "would" work in the following sentences?

Any food would be better than nothing at all.
Any advance you give me would be greatly appreciated.

Does it show a certainty?


texts: Word or phrase to describe slacking because you think you already know everything

texts:
Let's say a student studies his curriculums earlier than his peers. When the contents are officially taught, he thinks he knows everything and therefore slacks. As a result, he performs worse than his peers.

In this example, early study causes low motivation and eventually result in poor performances. Is there a written word to describe this causation chain as a phenomenon, particularly an academic word in education domain?

Thanks!


texts: Possession in Business Name With Apostrophe

texts:
In the following sentence, how would I indicate possession if the word "business'" were replaced by the name of the business: like "Fry's" or "Wendy's"?

  Some business' employees are happy.

It seems strange to say that Wendy's employees are happy, since I'm referring to the business, and not just Wendy.


texts: What is the difference between "none of ..." and "neither of"?

texts:
What's the difference between the following examples:

Neither of my teachers are mathematicians.
None of my teachers are mathematicians.


texts: Are derived class and deriving class interchangeable terms?

texts:
Consider the following statement that I quoted from Inheritance and Derived Classes (C# vs Java)

  You can extend the functionality of an existing class by creating a
  new class that derives from the existing class. The derived class
  inherits the properties of the base class, and you can add or override
  methods and properties as required.

Now, let's compare with the following that I quoted from a book.

  Abstract classes are similar to interfaces in many ways. They can both
  define member signatures that deriving classes must implement, and
  neither one of them can be instantiated.

Shortly speaking, are derived class and deriving class interchangeable terms?


texts: Difference between "delete" and "remove"

texts: I am writing a mobile application that will, as a part of its functionality, display a list of recorded thoughts. Now I am deciding the textual content of the menus and that left me thinking whether there is a logical difference between words remove and delete. Which one is more appropriate when speaking about taking an item off the list? I guess remove is, but why?


texts: Why is "late" used in reference to a deceased person?

texts:
I get how and when it's used but what is its origin?

Why the word "late"?


texts:
Recently I had a discussion with someone and the following examples were brought up. I was told that I was wrong, but as a native speaker I don't think any of my explanations of the meaning were wrong, regardless of whether they are classified as adverbials. If I am wrong, can you explain why, preferably giving evidence showing that native speakers do not conceive of these adverbials in the way I claim?

  A few days every month, she goes to the park while he stays at home.

The adverbial "a few days every month" modifies the whole sentence "she goes to the park while he stays at home", because it is incorrect to split it into two as in "She goes to the park a few days a month, and he stays at home a few days a month." So the adverbial must be modifying the concept as a whole and not the two verb phrases separately. This is in contrast to the adverbial prepositional phrases "to the park" and "at home", both of which modify only the corresponding verb. Specifically I would parse it as follows:

  ( A few days every month ) { { she { goes ( to the park ) } } while { he { stays (at home ) } } }

Similarly:

  Once a year, a new guard takes over.

The adverbial "once a year" does not modify just the verb phrase "takes over", since it is not that the new guard repeatedly takes over every year (from himself!?). Instead, the adverbial modifies the entire sentence "a new guard takes over.", specifying how frequently that event occurs.

Also:

  John rowed, and Jill walked, slowly.

I said that it is possible for "slowly" to modify only "walked", and also possible that it modifies both "rowed" and "walked". The reason is that the two commas allow the sentence to be split in two different ways, resulting in the two different interpretations. My interlocutor, however, did not agree that "slowly" could modify just "walked" alone.

And for:

  A few days every month, he goes cycling.

I would say that it is likely in the mind of a native speaker that the adverbial "a few days every month" modifies the whole sentence "he goes cycling", but it is also possible for it to modify only the verb phrase "goes cycling". My reason is that in the first two examples above that is clearly the default way the adverbial is mentally processed since it is set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma/pause. In contrast, when we want the adverbial to modify only the verb phrase, we usually put it right next to the verb phrase, unless we want some special effect such as in the third example.


texts:
I have never come across a good explanation about when to use, let's say:

the door of the house or the house door

In the plural, I get even more confused:

the doors of the houses or the house doors

Is there a difference in meaning? Are there cases in which I must use the construction "the house of the door"?


texts: Proper response to "Do the needful", when the "needful" might not be clearly defined

texts:
I have worked in various places where "do the needful" is quite the common idiom. However, in some situations, both parties might not be quite aligned precisely with what falls under the scope of "needful".

Is there a concise idiom that one can respond with to clearly convey that, while it may be blatantly obvious to the requester what classifies as "needful", it is not so clearly defined to the party who the request is directed towards?

Edit:

For those of you unfamiliar with the idiom, it is an Indian English phrase which loosely translates into something along the lines of, "I assume that it is clear to you what needs to be done as well as how to do it, so kindly do so." Essentially, what I am looking for is a proper response that is along the lines of, "Sorry, but your assumption(that either I know what needs to be done or how to perform it) is invalid."

Edit:

This question is simply out intellectual curiosity as to whether or not a concise, idiomatic response exists.


texts: differences between different noun forms of same adjective

texts:
What is exactly the difference between nouning an adjective different ways? Some only have one form, but others have both. Examples:

hilarious: hilarity vs. hilariousness
virtuous: virtuosity vs. virtuousness
clandestine: clandestinity vs. clandestineness

As an aside, what causes some to only have one form, like cheap --> cheapness, and what causes others to have two? And some have none, it seems. For example, accomplished --> * accomplishedness.


texts:
Would you please help me with this sentence:

where you can cast yourself as an extra in (somthing), (by doing something).

I could not fine the meaning of (cast yourself an extra..) by searching..


texts: what is a word for a person who is scornful?

texts:
I am looking for one word that can be used instead of "scornful person". The only word I can think of is "superior" as a noun.

Edit from comments:

I can find tons of adjectives with no noun forms. I guess I am looking for a word that is a little more dramatic, more insulting [than scorner].


texts: Should you always start a new paragraph when starting a new speaker even if the sentence directly before that is directly related?

texts:
When a new speaker starts a new line of dialogue you start a new paragraph at the same time. Does this rule still hold true if the sentence before the dialogue starts relates directly to the dialogue?

For example, can you write:

  Simon stared at her.
   "Are you serious?"

like this:

  Simon stared at her. "Are you serious?"

instead?

Is this a simply style choice or an error?


texts: Can "earlier this year" be used in the present perfect?

texts:
Is "earlier this year" a specific time reference?
i.e. Can you say (A) is definitely wrong and (B) is right?

  (A) Earlier this year, ABC, Inc., has conducted a survey.
  (B) Earlier this year, ABC, Inc., conducted a survey.


texts: What are the differences between 'grow' and 'increase'?

texts:
With a growing population, many canals and ponds are getting filled in with soil and sand.
With the increasing population, many canals and ponds are getting filled in with soil and sand.

Please say, which one from above is correct? If both of them are correct, please say the differences of meaning between them.


texts: I'm looking for a metaphor or analogy for experiencing more and more difficulties (after getting more familiar with a certain teaching or art). I think I have seen a few in the past but I can't think of them right now.


texts: "the performance of A, B, and C *is* studied" vs "... *are* studied"?

texts:
I generally pride myself on having the solutions to grammar questions like this one, but I can't figure out what is right.

I am writing a sentence about evaluating three different options for some task:

  "In this chapter, the performance of the first choice, second choice, and third choice __ studied."

Should "is" or "are" fill in that blank?

Now, clearly the subject of the verb is "the performance." The different options are objects of the preposition "of." By that logic, "the performance...is studied" makes sense.

Nevertheless, saying out loud: "the performance of the first choice, second choice, and third choice is studied," just doesn't sound right to me.

What's the correct solution here?


texts: Have vs. Has in third person of unknown gender?

texts:
Let's take the sentence "Have they entered their password?", where we use "they" meaning "he/she", a third person of any or unknown gender. If we replace the pronoun "they" with a more specific noun, e.g. "the user" we'll also need to replace "Have" with "Has" — "Has the user entered the password?".

For some reason I'm thinking that there's a rule in English that say that pronouns can replace nouns without changing the structure of the sentence. Since using "they" as "he/she" is relatively new, does this mean that that old rule is no longer universal? Or is the sentence "Has they entered the password?" now grammatically correct?


texts: Single word meaning 'funny if it weren't so sad'

texts:
'Funny if it weren't so sad' is used to describe situations which are very sad, for example because of utter incompetence in a serious situation, so sad in fact that one goes on to say it could be deemed funny.

I am specifically looking for a word which emphasises that the funny or comic part follows from the sad or tragic part. Full disclosure: this clarification was added after the first answer. This is also where the question differs from this question about something funny and sad at the same time.

One word to describe this is pathetic, however I feel that word isn't quite strong enough. The definition by CB:

  "causing feelings of sadness, sympathy, or sometimes lack of respect, especially because a person or an animal is suffering"

Example sentence (the bold is to be replaced by another word, the [would be] could be left out or replaced for a form of to be):

  So at that point we lost the nuclear football, apparently it has been put on some commercial flight and it's now travelling at 10 kilometres over the Atlantic, this situation [would be] funny if it weren't so sad.


texts:
Why is this a fragment sentence?

Indicate that antibacterial soaps may wash away useful bacteria.


texts:
“You want a baseline of fairness and decent terms and conditions, then
you want work that is flexible, so you can balance work and the rest
of your life."

To me, the bolded part could be interpreted in two ways.

want to set a baseline
want to keep a baseline

I'd like to know how does it sound like to native English speakers.


texts: Singular or plural verb form with 'What Ø the cause, progress and result of your actions?'

texts:
What is the cause, progress and result of your actions?

Which verb should be used here, is or are?


texts: Is it would had been or would have been?

texts:
Im not sure i understand the correct grammar for this sentence:

Yes, it would have been very awkward.

or

Yes, it would had been very awkward.

it's referring to a time in the past.

What are the rules when using have or had in this situation?


texts: Should I use the word lore when speaking about knowledge that is connected to a specific domain, or would it be better to use the expression "professional knowledge"?


texts: Why is saying "cr@p" more socially acceptable than saying "sh!t" is?

texts:
I know shit is generally considered vulgar swearing in any context, while crap (though it's normally used as a swear word) is often used and allowed in decent contexts.

How did this happen, since they both refer to the same thing?


texts: When can we change the order of the particle and the verb in a phrasal verb?

texts:
My textbook says this:

  Be careful with word order when using phrasal verbs. The
  verb and particle cannot be separated:

  when it is a three-part phrasal verb
  I caught up with Jack further down the road.
  if the phrasal verb is used intransitively (without
  an object)
  All my hard work paid off.
  when the particle is a preposition
  Sally jumped at the chance of visiting Rome.

I'm confused because I thought this last topic was always true.

When is a phrasal verb not followed by a preposition?

All the phrasal verbs I can remember use a preposition.


texts: Tense when talking about people's actions in a film or a novel?

texts:
According to the Oxford Dictionary, present simple is used to describe the story in novels, but does that also apply to actions being done by characters at a precise moment?
Now I know that present continuous is used to talk about actions happening at the moment, so why shouldn't that apply to actions in books and films as well?
Unfortunately, the examples I found in the Oxford Dictionary didn't help much to answer my question since they all refer to events rather than current actions.

When Catherine's father adopts the starving orphan boy, Catherine's brother feels deeply hurt and resentful. She, on the other hand, develops an immensely strong bond with Heathcliff, which becomes an all-consuming love.
Upon her father's death, Hindley becomes the head of the family and forces Heathcliff to assume the position of a sevant. [...]

What if the characters were, for example, talking and laughing about something at a very precise moment, which tense would I have to use to describe that?


texts: If "Literally" now means "Figuratively," Which Word Can Be Used for the Previous Meaning?

texts:
I have been irked by the trend to use the word "literally" to mean "figuratively."

The most recent offense to attack my brain and ears was someone introducing a series of videos filmed around the world by saying that the viewers would "literally travel around the world" while viewing these!

I have read that through the common misuse of the word, it HAS become accepted for "literally" to mean "figuratively."

Call me an old fuddy duddy stick-in-the-mud, but I have a hard time accepting this perversion of diction in allowing a common misuse of a perfectly good word to mean something completely different.

And, if "literally" is now allowed to mean something for which there is already another perfectly good word ("figuratively"), what word can be used to mean what "literally" really means (or, at least, used to mean).

Must we say "Literally literally" to get the point across that we really do mean "literally"?

Maybe we can blame this trend (partly, anyway), on Rob Lowe's character in "Parks and Rec," who often (mis)used the word "literally" (which he pronounced "LITT-rul-e!")


texts: Is Hyphen Really the Longer – line instead of the shorter dash - line?

texts:
I had a discussion with some people today on hyphen and dashes. They had concluded that hyphen, which is used to link two connecting words (book-bag) is the longer line – instead of the shorter line -, and that the shorter line is for the dash, which is used to continue an argument/show something within a passage.

Is this true? Is there really a difference between the line length in the hyphen and dash symbols? I had always thought that they were of the same length.

Supposedly:

Hyphen : –
Dash.... : -

(Dots used to space out to show the difference in length.)


texts: What is the word for a statement which most probably is wrong but is said to convey a different meaning?

texts: Example : Paul McCartney said "If Slaughter Houses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian." Now, it also means that everyone who works at a slaughter house is a vegetarian. But, what Paul actually wanted to convey was that slaughter houses are so cruel that you'd feel like quitting non-veg completely. Is there any word for such statements?


texts:
I learned that the comma is used before a coordinating conjunction that links two independent clauses but in this sentence, one clause is an incomplete sentence, lacking its (obvious) subject. Is this still acceptable or is an exception to the rule?

  The students were highly engaged in the revision process, and commented on
  the benefits of giving and receiving feedback through the system.


texts: What do references like "Docc Rom." and similar mean?

texts:
In the book Giordano Bruno: His Life and Thought, by Dorothea Waley Singer,  references often have a form of

  18 Doc. Ven. XV.

or

  49 Docc. Rom. XX, XXI.

How to decipher them?


texts: "He is an opportunist, there's no need to give him more excuses or opportunities!"

texts:
We have a saying in my country:

  He doesn't need music to start dancing. He is already dancing without music!

Which figuratively means:
He doesn't need any special, real, or necessary excuses for taking advantage of a situation or to interfere in other people's affairs. He uses the smallest pretext for his unwanted intervention/taking advantage.  Let alone you encourage him with more excuses or opportunities.

The saying expresses one's disapproval: He is ready to use any excuse, even the smallest one,  for doing something, and this behavior really bugs me! This sarcastic observation is in fact criticizing the person's behavior. And we're also warning the listener not to give that person any excuse.

Here are two scenarios which illustrate the saying:

A: Suppose that my son doesn't like studying math, he continually postpones doing his assignments, and uses any excuse to avoid doing them. For example, his father asks him to help with some chores in the garage when he has lots of math homework to do! The next day he goes to school with his unfinished assignment, and when I ask for an explanation, he replies: "I had to help Dad!"; in this instance I might scold my husband like this:

  "He already dances without music! Why did you give him an excuse to escape from doing his assignment? You should have asked for his help after he had done his assignment."

B: My mum has diabetes, sometimes she doesn't follow her diet plan and eats sweet food in secret. Whenever there is a family gathering, everybody feels sorry for her and tells me: Don't tell her not to  eat this, not to eat that, so often! Let her eat anything she likes just this time! At which point, I reply:

  "Sorry, but you don't know something, she is already dancing without music!

by saying this, I mean that she is already eating everything she wants (secretly), let alone I actually give her permission to ‘bend the rules’!

(Actually when we say "he dances even without music", it implies that he knows how to dance, even without the music, so if you play music for him, he will dance better.-[he knows how to take advantage even there is a small chance, so if you provide him with more chances, he would/might take even more advantage.]

Question: Is there any word, term, idiom, expression, saying, quote, or proverb that conveys the same meaning, when talking about someone with this * opportunistic* character?


texts: Is there a single word descriptor for a plan, document, or process that is formalized only after its execution?

texts:
Examples:

After much pressure from their constituents, the committee finally published their [blank] plan on how they lowered taxes.

The comedy troupe had a [blank] rehearsal after the comedy show.

Six months after construction completed, critics panned the architect's [blank] design.

I was thinking post-iterative, but that may imply a follow up is expected whereas the execution should imply finality. I was also thinking posthumous but it seems incorrect to use it outside the context of death.


texts: Why didn't English judges break their paragraphs?

texts:
Weren't unbroken "pages of type" even more unreadable back then? If so, why didn't judges break their paragraphs with one blank line? At least in 2018 (year of publication of book below), paper and print quality is higher...no ink streaks or smudges.

      The final point has to do with the visual layout of the paragraphs
on the page. Most of you have read older decisions that seem to
be one long paragraph. Nothing is more daunting than facing an
unbroken
page of type, and few things are harder to read. You all
know that you should begin a new paragraph every time you begin
a new idea, but there are times when you may end up with one very
long paragraph. Even though the paragraph may be correct as a matter
of grammar, you should consider breaking it up into two or more
paragraphs as a matter of style and thus increasing the amount of
white space on the page. Doing so will undoubtedly increase your
reader’s understanding of your discussion and thereby increase the
possibility of your receiving a higher mark.

Stacie Strong. BA English literature (UC Davis 1986), MPW (USC 1990), JD (Duke 1994), PhD Law (Cambridge 2002), DPhil (Oxford 2003). How to Write Law Essays & Exams 5th Edition (2018). p 163.


texts: Single word for quiz competition participant

texts:
Is there a word for a person who is interested in / regularly participate in quiz competitions (e.g. pub trivia nights)?

A sample sentence: My skills: Web development, UX design, (quiz wiz?), ...


texts: What does the "it" replace in this passage from a Murakami short story?

texts:
I would like some help with what the word it in the paragraph below (with emphasis added; the word is not emphasized in this way in the original). Does it refer to the TV or the antenna outlet?

The passage is taken from Haruki Murakami's TV People.

  Everything gets removed from the sideboard to make room for the television. The TV people plug it into a wall socket, then switch it on. Then there is a tinkling noise, and the screen lights up. A moment later, the picture floats into view. They change the channels by remote control. But all the channels are blank---probably, I think, because they haven't connected the set to an antenna. There has to be antenna outlet somewhere in the apartment. I seem to remember the superintendent telling us where it was when we moved into this condominium. All you had to do was connect it. But I can't remember where it is. We don't own a television, so I've completely forgotten.


texts: Can I use 'Prof.' for an educator like lecturer or assistant professor?

texts:
What does 'Prof.' mean exactly?

Is it merely for professor(as job title), or for any educator with higher education background?


texts: How do I make this sentence sound right?

texts:
Alan Bradley used many events and moments to show the protagonist's, Flavia’s, development and precocious personality in his novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Is it ok if I put this:

Alan Bradley used many events and moments to show the protagonist, Flavia’s development and precocious personality in his novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.


texts: appropriate phrase for expressing close distances toward a person

texts:
Imagine this scenario: You are having a conversation with someone about a tropical fruit which you have seen the picture of (on the internet or something) and do know the name of; but you have never seen or touched it in your hand or in a fruit market.

He: "What do you think of the papaya?"

You : "Oh... ?".

oh, I've never seen it before
oh, I've never seen it closely
oh, I've never had it before

Which clearest answer emphasizing on just you have never seen in front of you(or touched) would be okay in this situation?


texts:
I'm not sure I can elaborate much more than what you already know from the title of this question - I need a word that means, or almost means, 'temporary storage space'.

Is there a word for a place where things are stored temporarily?


texts: Is it weird to a add ", please." at the end of a sentence in emails?

texts:
I have recently joined a new company and realized that there are some employees fond of adding ", please" at the end of a sentence in emails, e.g.

I would like to send you the files in PDF format for your easy reference, please.

For your information, please.

Although I think the usage is weird, I did send "FYI, please." to my boss one time because it seems more polite to me than just "FYI."
Still, the whole please thing seems weird to me. Is it grammatically incorrect?


texts: Why is the word "bench" used specifically to describe a judge or the judicial process?


texts: What is the origin and meaning of the suffix -late, as in "isolate" and "desolate"?

texts:
I am sure that the word late as in tardy does not have the same origin. It certainly does not correlate with the terms.

I wonder if the actual suffix is closer to "olate" given my aforementioned terms.


texts:
I don't know if this belongs more to User Experience. Pardon me if it does.

Which is more suitable for kind of a slogan:

Less for more - The word less refers to the prices and money, more refers to the quality and amount of the product. Can be understud as that less refers to quality and amount of the product and more refers to prices and money.

More for less - Same as above, just inverted.

Which would be the clearer one, that more likely wouldn't be misunderstud?


texts: How to word "...but with whom we shared..."

texts:
I just told my life's story to someone I've known for only two days, but with whom we shared an instant, platonic connection.

I know that we in this sentence "should" be I, that this phrasing is correct if the group I belong to collectively felt a connection to her.  However, I want to take a little poetic license in order to emphasize that the sharing was two-way.
Yes, sharing already is two-way, but I feel that in the "correct" sentence, using I shared, feels mono-directional; to me it feels like saying that I feel this connection to her, but that it may not be shared--or at least not necessarily as strongly felt--by her.
Is there a better way to word my phrase (or sentence)--that may or may not bend the rules--that emphasizes the bi-directionality of the connection but which is less awkward than "with whom we shared"?


texts:
In my impression, there is one word means the time is almost exactly, like "almost exactly 1 hour".

It is less precise than exactly. (Is "punctually one hour" a right term?)

But more accurate than about 1 hour. (How to say "about one hour"? 1-hour-ish?)


texts: "the school was set in a little pray house with hardly any walls/without any walls..."

texts:
"the school was set in a little pray house built with bamboo and straw with hardly any walls".

Is it grammatically correct? Since I don't know that "with hardly any walls" modifies "the school" or "a little pray house".

And if it is wrong, can I change it into:

  the school was set in a little pray house with hardly any walls/without any walls, built of bamboo and straw.


texts: "There is no man who has never looked upon a woman WITH/WITHOUT desire"

texts:
In Atticus's closing speech he argues:

  “Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson’s skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.”

Should the last sentence end with:

  "... and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.”

OR

  "... and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman with desire.”

I have two copies of "To Kill a Mockingbird". One book has the first line, the other has the second line.

I would like to know which sentence would make most sense in this context. Which one is correct?


texts: Can I say eight-gon, nine-gon and ten-gon instead of octa-, nona-, and deca-gon?

texts: As a non-native English speaker I struggle with Greek prefixes. Am I allowed to use just normal English numbers in place of them? Is it natural? Or do I have to learn how those Greek prefixes work at the end of the day?


texts:
I have looked up the proper way to punctuate place names (for example San Francisco, California) and am wondering if they can be used to modify something else.

Here is what I have so far:

The “Spicy Ramen Festival” of San Jose, California, was held on April 7th at the Johnson Community Center.

But it sounds better to say verbally:

San Jose, California's "Spicy Ramen Festival" was held on April 7th at the Johnson Community Center.

It this grammatical?

Thank you.


texts:
What is the difference between "tribute" and "homage"? Pay tribute and pay homage.
Here are the definitions I found in LDOCE:
tribute:
1- something you say, do, or give in order to express your respect or admiration for s/one
homage: something you do to show respect for s/one or sth.


texts: Is there an adjective that can be used for "increased storage capacity"

texts:
If something becomes faster, we say this is an improvement in speed.

If something becomes lighter, we say this is an improvement in weight (assuming that a low weight is desirable).

If something becomes smaller, we say this is an improvement in size (assuming that smaller is better).

But how do we best describe, using an adjective, that there has been an improvement in storage capacity? That is, computer hardware has become more ____ (what, exactly?) "Capable" does not sound correct. I am looking for an adjective meaning "having capacity," such that the phrase

  improvements in speed, size, weight, and storage capacity

could be replaced with

  have become, smaller, faster, lighter, and __________ (new word here)

EDIT:

The difficulty here seems to be the context. I'm talking about computer hardware. The computers themselves have become smaller, but the storage capacities have become larger. If I say "computers have become more spacious" it sounds like the hardware takes up more space. There's something tricky about the container becoming smaller, but the internal storage elements becoming much denser. I don't know how to add a suffix or choose a word for this. "Memory denser" is not good English.


texts: Verbs that describe user Do's and Don'ts

texts:
A lot of websites have code of conduct that describe user do's and don'ts. For example:

"Stack Exchange <verb1> users to post relevant and constructive answers and <verb2> users to post off-topic discussions."

In this context, what should be appropriate for verb1 and verb2? I have come up with the following candidates but none of them seems right:

verb1: enforces, verb2: forbid  (These verbs seem too serious)

verb1: recommends, verb2: discourages


texts: Meaning of the phrase "survived the Constitution"

texts:
What's the meaning of "survived the Constitution" in the following phrase?

  Moreover, of this list only “the never-ending appeals to the people by competing public officials” survived the Constitution.


texts: "What might have appalled us when we'd started our trip just a few days ago no longer impressed us much"

texts:
I came across this sentence from a book about a journalist:

  What might have appalled us when we'd started our trip just a few days ago no longer impressed us much.

It is confusing for two reasons. It isn't clear how the different clauses fit together. Secondly impressed seems like an odd word to use here. It doesn't seem to fit according to the definitions from Google:

  1.
      make (someone) feel admiration and respect.

    Their performance impressed the judges

  2.
      make a mark or design on (an object) using a stamp or seal.

    The company should impress the cards with a stamp

... or the definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online:

  to cause someone to admire or respect you:

Maybe it does fit, but it is not clear how.

Can you explain this sentence?


texts: A word or phrase meaning the utter failure of a work product

texts:
What are some alternate ways to describe a work product that is an utter failure, plus the additional connotations of:

Low quality; of little or no redeeming value; completely botched
Doomed from the start
Ugly to look at; atrocious; abominable; vile

One way might be "it was an abortion of a report," but while this has most of the connotations I'm looking for, I think it is too offensive. I'm looking for something that has the same punch without the loaded word (that to some is fairly obscene itself).

I didn't think of botched until I wrote this question, and it is close, but doesn't have quite the same impact or have all the connotations I'd like.

If you need more specifics about what's being described, then focus on a piece of computer program code as the item that was an utter failure.

Otherwise it could be almost anything: a report, a speech, a theatrical production, a TV show, a presentation or performance, an art or craft, etc.

10 months later

A single word is not going to be possible. So, I'm leaning toward something like:

This report is a vomit-inducing bowel movement.
The code is a misbegotten pile of vomit.
A well-polished, repulsive, smelly turd.

And to intentionally mix metaphors:

A festering train-wreck of an ill-conceived abomination.
A misbegotten, putrefying emetic.


texts: "Encapsulated by" vs. "encapsulated in" vs. "encapsulated with"

texts:
I am writing some text wherein I have to mean "wrapped with double quotes". Would any of the following expressions be correct?

  encapsulated with double quotes
  encapsulated in double quotes
  encapsulated by double quotes

Or is there another way to phrase this?


texts:
Most people would refer to computers as being electronic, whereas a flashlight would be described as electric.

I know the general difference (electronic devices use transistors?), but what is it exactly, and how did the second term even come into existence? Why not just use electric for both?


texts:
I know that "'s"means a possession, but I can't get its meaning in this sentence:
And yet as my hip flexors and back muscles went from on fire to completely numb, the monk’s around me began to hum.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/zen-art-email-design-cameron-conaway


texts:
Why do we sometimes pronounce t as /t/, whereas other times we pronounce it as /ʧ/ or /ʃ/?

/t/ in town,
/ʧ/ in natural
/ʃ/ in hamartia/tertiary

Is there any special rule for these?


texts: I have read in the news recently the expression"bruised Trump". Can you paraphrase it for me


texts:
Moore and Noyce shared a vision, recognizing that success depended just as much on intellectual pizzazz as on Intel's ability to deliver a product.

What does this sentence mean? The part "depended just as much on .... as on..." is so confusing. I would be grateful if someone could clarify this part for me.


texts: Does this statement talking about agriculture or resource management?

texts:
How to simplify the last statement which highlighted of this paragraph. I'm in doubt about the meaning of the word "husbandry" in here.

  "In carriage and behaviour they are very grave and stately, like unto
  Portuguese ; in understanding quick and apprehensive ; in design,
  subtle and crafty ; in discourse, courteous, but full of flatteries ;
  naturally inclined to temperance both in meat and drink, but not to
  chastity ; near and provident in their families, commending good
  husbandry."

  From Adam’s Peak To Elephanta : Sketches in Ceylon (1892)


texts:
Is this sentence punctuated correctly?

  Not only am I a wife, but a mother; not only a daughter, but a sister; not only a coworker, but a friend.


texts: What is the etymology of the word clout when meaning influence?

texts:
Merrian Webster defines clout

4 : PULL, INFLUENCE
political clout
She parlayed her box-office clout to wealth and independence
— B. S. Pierre

Etymonline explains that clout:

Sense of "personal influence" is 1958, on the notion of "punch, force."

When and where did this sense first emerged?


texts: What is the right way to say "I've heard recommendations about you"

texts:
I am going to write to one person on LinkedIn (to/on/about/for?) whom I've got recommendations from my ex. colleague and I'd like to refer to that.

I'd like to say something in a sense: "Hello I've heard Peters recommendations on you so I have decided to..."


texts: Is the word "Communiqué" an English word? It originated from French but does it have mainstream English usage? I have used it in my scholarship essay for an English writing course - Well I intend to (use it).. I won't submit unless I know it's appropriate.


texts: What is a positive word for "deadline" that's < ~10 characters?

texts:
What is a more positive word for "deadline" that has also comparable length as "deadline" (~8 characters) so it's easy to type (hence more likely to catch on)?

I'm a fan of positive reinforcement if I can be, and I think using the word "deadline" negatively reinforces the "due date" (though "due date" doesn't inspire any sense of hurry).

Personal Choice:  "finish line"  as in "When do we have to reach the finish line?".  It sounds like a place that if I work real hard and fast get to it, there will be rewards there (and maybe snacks).

If that remains a top choice, I'll write that up as the answer, but I'd like to see other ideas.


texts: Food with a bite that's referring to texture?

texts:
My mother refers to a "bite" as in something to bite on, say raw carrot bits in a stew.

Cambridge only refers to the food sense noun as a strong taste, though:

  bite noun (STRONG TASTE) › [U] If food has bite, it has a sharp or
  strong taste: I like mustard with bite.

That still applies if it were pickles in a tuna salad, but can "bite" also refer to food texture alone? I think it might be more versatile than "crunch" or "chewy".

What is the best word to describe under-cooked carrot bits in a stew, as well as pickle bits in a tuna salad?


texts: Correct term for having lost (not cut) one's hair

texts:
Is bald more correct than hairless when referring to someone who has lost their hair? Dictionary.com states that bald means

  having little or no hair on the scalp

and that hairless means

  without hair, bald

Both terms imply that a person has lost their hair or has just cut it.

Is there an unambiguous term that specifically means having lost one's hair in the sense that it will not grow anymore?


texts:
We know phenomena is a plural whose singular form is phenomenon. However, I have seen frequent of use of phenomena itself as singular, as in 'this is a phenomena ...', 'this phenomena is ...', etc.

This Google Ngram shows such use may also have been present in literature, 'this phenomena' being more frequent.

How do we explain this discrepancy and suggest that the usage is wrong?

[Edit 1]: Will usage eventually redefine grammar in such cases as 'phenomena' and 'criteria' then? (inspired by @Barrie England 's comment.)


texts: Use of “f ” instead of “s” in historic, printed English documents

texts:
I was at a museum in London yesterday, and one of the items on exhibit is a document from the eighteenth century. It uses the letter f a lot where s should be used—for example, in Majefty.

Did the letter f once have the same sound as s today, or were some of those words actually spoken with an f ?


texts:
eSwatini (officially the Kingdom of eSwatini) is the new name of Swaziland. What should one call a citizen of eSwatini in English?

  A citizen of eSwatini is called a[n] _____.

I can think of the following candidates: a liSwati, a Swati, an eSwatini, a Swazi.

I'm not asking for an invented word. Just for the word that is appropriate now (after the country's name-change).


texts: The omission of articles before the last two nouns in 'There is a missing bridge between business and technology'

texts:
I came across the following sentence in an article:

  "There is a missing bridge between business and technology"

To the best of my understanding when a noun is used, it should have an article (a, an, the) before the noun. I found a Grammarly blog on the omission of articles, which suggested that certain nouns allow the direct use of singular nouns without an article. To me, the reason of why "business" and "technology" can be used is that they are under the special case of academic subjects. Is this correct?

Would it be correct too if I were to write it as:

  "There is a missing bridge between businesses and technologies"

Another case I have in mind is this sentence:

  "This allows the direct use of singular noun."

Is this correct? Or is an article ("a") needed before the word "singular"?

Another way to avoid the use of articles would be making the word to plural form (i.e. "nouns"). Is this correct?

It is my first post in StackExchange. Sorry in advance if I violate any rules or formats of posting. Thank you very much!


texts:
Is it "time off of work" or "time off work" without 'of'?

Ex: I need to take some time off (of) work next month.


texts:
How else can you refer to an audience, beside as audience, when you mean people who are reading a book?

I have thought of:

  audience

  readership

  readers/reader

etc

To clarify: I want words that refer to the audience of a text - doesn't have to be a book per se. So, in this sentence it would be "The simile makes the _ feel happy" where _ is replaced with audience, readers, us, etc..


texts: Idioms to say If there is something needed to be done, then do it today?

texts:
My friend try to use idioms/parse to express that "If there is something has to be done, then let's do it right now, not postpone to other day."

She was trying to use "One of these days is none of these days", labelled on her product package, trying to be cool :)

But I felt that sounds weird... The parse itself doesn't make sense alone by itself...
Its make sense during conversion like here: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/One+of+these+days+is+none+of+these+days

So is there any other idioms that can be use alone, a parse on the product/poster/shirt itself that sounds cool?


texts:
I believe there is an expression to refer to a part or an act of a story/movie that is not used for anything later, that does only exist and not used to built anything else on it. It's something like "lost unit/part". Is that it?

-- edit

In a movie case, I'm talking about scenes that ARE in the final product but adds nothing to the plot, as @RogerSinasohn said in their comment. For example, when a character steals a pen or something from a meeting table, you know that this will be used to develop other events on it. But what if no further events are even related to it, what would that scene be called?


texts: Do I use the plural or singular form of a noun when saying "zero or one"?

texts: E.g. Do I say "I have zero or one child" or "I have zero or one children"?


texts:
A gold digger is an informal term for:

  A woman who associates with or marries a man chiefly for material gain

What would the gold digger's man be called? A mark? A sugar daddy?

Edit: I'm editing after my sugar daddy term has been reposted a couple of times, strangely with great success.
I'd like a term for a man being targeted by the gold digger. So obviously as I listed sugar daddy in the question I felt that it was unsatisfactory; for example it works poorly here:

  He's her sugar daddy.

While this is very accurate for a gold digger's man. You cannot take from this that he's being targeted, it even sounds like he's doing the targeting. This is closer:

  He's her mark.

It's clear that he is being targeted. But unless the gold digger is also an assassin it seems a bit unclear what he's being targeted for.


texts: Usage of the definite article with the abbreviated name of an equipment in a user's manual

texts:
As part of my translation studies, I have to detect anomalies in a user's manual. This manual refers to an equipment whose full name is Compuwash Commander Controller - Model CC-64. Lack of coherence is considered an anomaly in technical writing. My problem is that the manual is not constant in the use of the definite article.
It sometimes refers to "the controller CC-64", sometimes to "CC-64 Controller" only:

The CONTROLLER CC-64 is the brains of the system and contains the following major components: [...]
The ROC-16 Relay Centers
communicate with CC-64 Controller via a 4 twisted pair shielded
wire [...]

Similarly, it sometimes refers to "the CC-64" and other times to "CC-64" with no article, such a in the examples below:

The memory and clock/calendar that is resident in the CC-64 has battery backup [...]
Position the DT-32 Dumb Terminal on a table top next to CC-64 or office [...].

Which of these sentences are faulty? Should I just find out which usage is more frequent in the manual and consider it the correct form?

Thank you for your help.


texts: Word for "best person in a group of bad people"

texts: What do you call someone or something that is the best in a group of bad people or bad things? For example, a prisoner who is the best in terms of behavior in the prison, even though we know that all prisoners (including the best prisoner) are bad people.


texts: Use of prepositions and plurality with the verb "separate"

texts:
Which of the following is correct or best?

Please separate each word with a comma.
Please separate each word by a comma.
Please separate words with a comma.
Please separate words by a comma.

This is for a form field description where the expected user input would be

  this, is, what, we, expect

Or does anyone have a better suggestion?


texts: Can we use both "gonna" and "wanna" together?

texts:
For instance, can we say "I'm gonna wanna do it".
or is it better to say "I am going to want to do it".
It shouldn't be grammatically incorrect, but can we consider this is not common even in informal way.


texts: Use of degree symbol for Latinate ordinal number shorthand

texts:
I remember often having professors in college use degree symbols to write shorthand versions of Latinate ordinal numbers.

For example:

1°    Primary
2°    Secondary
3°    Tertiary
4°    Quaternary

I have a few questions regarding this shorthand approach:

Does this approach have a name?
What is the origin of this approach?
Is it simply a shorthand developed by professors or is it
more widely used?

I thought I'd gain insight by exploring the use of superscript primes in the sciences, but I didn't find answers to my questions via that rabbit hole adventure...


texts: Is "newcomers" an acceptable synonym for "new arrivals" in a country?

texts:
I am looking for advice from native speakers of English on the following question:

Is "newcomers" a possible and acceptable synonym for "new arrials" in the sense of people who have come just recently to a certain country, usually not for tourism or other sorts of temporary sojourns, rather for long-term accommodation (migrants, refugees, expats... however you want to call them).

Reason for the question: I have to write a lot about such people, and I want to use a neutral term perhaps semantically less unwieldy than"new arrivals", and easier to grasp for people who are not utterly fluent in English.1

I find "newcomer" listed even in some dictionaries with a meaning like that (e.g. as English word for German Neuankömmling), but I think I have never met it in use in, say, British or US American newspapers or scientific papers, so I am in doubt. My feeling is that newcomer relates to  low level of expertise in some form of activity, not to some actual spatial arrival.

A sample sentence would be

  In August 2018 we started a new project to offer literacy training for newcomers from Bulgaria.

Meaning: people who have come recently from Bulgaria to this country.

1) Newcomers to English, so to say.


texts: Term to describe the mass changeover in land ownership

texts: I am looking for a word to describe the above. The context is where, after the Irish famine in the 1840's, entire villages were abandoned and the land was re-distributed to new tenants. This happened on a mass scale, and I was wondering if there was a term for such a replacement of population with the suitable conotations.


texts: "That my results are not reproducible" or "that my results are unreproducible"?

texts:
What is better to write?

  that my results are not reproducible

  that my results are unreproducible

How can it be re-written as positive affirmation (preserving the same meaning)?

Edit:
Do not I remember correctly that it is better to write negative sentence than positive but much more lengthy? This question is about technical copywriting.

Update:
When I was writing the question, I did not account for the fact that there are 4 "synonyms":

non-reproducible,
unreproducible,
irreproducible,
not reproducible

Update:
the post with this phrase that provoked this question


texts: is it correct to say "Start to looking"?

texts:
The first verse of the song "All that meat and no potatoes" by Louis Armstrong says:

A man works hard then comes on home,
Expects to find stew with that fine ham bone.
He opens the door, then start to looking,
Says, Woman, what's this stuff you're cooking?

"Start to looking" sounds wrong to me.

Of course he needs to rhyme with "cooking" so he could have used "starts looking" but then the sentence would be too short for the tempo.

So my question is: Is it actually correct to say "start to looking" or definitely not?


texts: When lac can be written as lakh or lacs?

texts: In India, 100 thousand is sometime referred to as 1 lakh, while sometime as 1 lac. I am not sure if lakh is correct. Sometimes, I find the people writing more than one lac (or lakh) as lacs (or lacs). For example: The seller has received a sum of Rupees three lacs seventy-six thousands five hundreds thirty-six. I am not sure if lac, thousand and hundred were correctly converted as lacs, thousands and hundreds, in the instant example. Can anybody shed some light?


texts: The length of subjects and complements when using a to-infinitive as part of a subject

texts:
@Kalenda gives explanations and some examples of using the to-infinitive in the post:
Can I start a sentence with To + verb?

To question one's existence would be natural
To start a sentence with an infinitive is bizarre
To talk to one's boss in the morning is every employee's desire

I wonder: Is the length of subjects before / complements etc after the 'be' critical here? Say,
To speak  of ... [long subject] ... is ... long complement.
Is this good in English? I met examples when the first complement in To speak of ... is ... was very long.


texts:
I recently watched A Series Of Unfortunate Events, and I was puzzled by the expression "Josephine, Schmosephine". The narrator explains that when you don't care about something or someone, you repeat their name, changing the first syllable by "schm-".

Is this a real thing? I haven't been able to find anything about that on the Internet (and it's not the easiest thing to Google).


texts: Word for something partitioned into 16 parts?

texts:
On a two-dimensional Cartesian plane we can naturally subdivide the space into four quadrants at the origin. In three-dimensions, the partition into eight parts are known as octants. In four-dimensional space we have sixteen parts; what is the corresponding name for each partition?

Wikipedia has an n-dimensional name:

  In geometry, an orthant or hyperoctant is the analogue in n-dimensional Euclidean space of a quadrant in the plane or an octant in three dimensions.

Even if it isn't common usage, what would the next term be for 4-dimensions (of sixteen parts)?


texts: What’s the diﬀerence between “to reduce ʙʏ one-third” and “to reduce ɪɴᴛᴏ one-third”?

texts:
A sample of fluorine gas occupies a volume of 600 mL at 760 torr.
Given that the temperature remains the same, calculate
the pressure required to reduce its volume by one-third.

I don't need an answer. I just want to know what operation the
question is referring to.
What confuses me is the part at the end of the question: does reduce its
volume by one-third refer to reducing the volume by one-third? Like you
subtract one-third of 600 into 600?
Or does it refer to reducing the volume of 600 into one-third
meaning that 600 should be divided by three?


texts: Which spelling is correct: "Re-order" or "Reorder"

texts:
I'm looking to label an action button that would allow a user in a software interface to enable reordering (sorting, not re-purchasing) of items in a list.

Re-order vs. Reorder

When first presented with a label of "Re-order" it looked weird to me but my Googling left me more confused that resolved on the matter.

Merriam-Webster indicates that "reorder" applies to both ordering again, and arranging in a different order.

however,

Dictionary.com has examples for the term "reorder" (at a url fragment titled "re-order"), spelled as "re-order"

Are both versions acceptable/interchangeable or is one more correct than the other?


texts: What is the synonym of the word focus here?

texts:
I wonder if there are any synonyms of the word focus here? As far as I get the phrase "bring into focus" means "draw attention to", but other sentences are not very clear to me.
 I guess the closest definition will be
 a :  a center of activity, attraction, or attention  OR
b :  a point of concentrationhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/focus

"Flow helps some of the world's most creative companies streamline their communication by bringing all parts of it into focus. This focus isn't just something we do, it's something we believe in—and certainly something I've been trying to practice on a regular basis since my time studying with Thích Nhất Hạnh".


texts: What is a word that means something which another thing is imported into?

texts:
For example, if I import goods into Botswana, then the goods are importees, I am an importer, and Botswana is the... ?

Does such a word exist?

My curiosity has been aroused because I am coding a thing that does data importing, and having to say "site which you are importing into" is making my code comments hellishly long.


texts:
Could someone please help me with a phrase or an idiom in this sentence - "When the UK voted for Brexit on 23 June last year, sterling took another big leg down."

I understand the overall message this sentence is conveying but it's the first time I come across the phrase "took another big leg down" so I'm not quite sure what context can be used in. Could someone please explain it to me? Thanks in advance!


texts: What does “Come-to Jesus (moment / stage / meeting)” mean? Is it a popular word?

texts:
There was the following passage in Maureen Dowd’s article titled, “The spies who didn’t love her” in The New York Times (March 11, 2014).

  Barack Obama, … vowing to clean up the excesses and Constitutional
  corrosion of W. and Cheney, will now have to clean up the excesses and
  Constitutional corrosion in his own administration. And he’d better
  get out from between two ferns and get in between the warring
  Congressional Democrats and administration officials … because it
  looks as if the C.I.A. is continuing to run amok to cover up what
  happened in the years W. and Vice encouraged it to run amok.

  Langley needs a come-to-Jesus moment — pronto.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/opinion/dowd-the-spies-who-didnt-love-her.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

As I was unfamiliar with the meaning of the word, “come-to-Jesus moment,” I checked CED, OED, and Merriam Webster. None of them carries this word.

However,
the online English-Japanese / Japanese-English dictionary site Weblio
provides the definition of “come-to-Jesus” as:

to experience or display a conversion or recommitment to Christianity or to undergo a related ritual, especially public confession of one’s sins or weaknesses.
to become committed or display commitment to a cause.

And Dictjuggler defines it as ‘unwilling / reluctant (to do),’ e.g., a come-to-Jesus meeting.

I understand Langley is the CIA headquarters. But what does “Langley needs a come-to-Jesus moment” exactly mean? Does it mean simply a ‘trial’ or ‘investigation’?

Is “come-to-Jesus” (moment / meeting / stage) a popular phrase? Can I say “I feel like come-to-Jesus meeting to present the annual sales plan to management for their review?”


texts:
Is the sentence

  I didn't hear what you've (just) said

a natural one? Some tell me that it's unnatural, but not ungrammatical. Others tell me that it's all right. I'm puzzled. What do you think? The trouble seems to be the usage of present perfect ("you've said") after past simple ("didn't hear").

Let me add a subquestion. Would you be likely to use the above-quoted sentence at all? I don't care much if it's grammatical or not, I would like to know if any native speaker speaks like that nowadays.


texts:
Can anybody explain me with an example for the above question?

I have been hearing this lately, but whenever I get to hear it. I am quite confused of its usage. After doing some research I figured out that its a famous dialogue/quote from the movie "Top Gun". But its usage confuses me, whether it is used in positive or negative sense.


texts: Why do we hyphenate between numbers? Example: twenty-six

texts: I have found many places that list the various rules on using hyphens in math, but nothing to explain why we have the rule.  I have some students who are asking and I would like to be able to give them an answer instead of saying it is just the rule.


texts: Adjective "displaced" applied to an object

texts:
Can I apply the adjective displaced to an object, when I mean it is being used out of its typical environment?

For instance: "the displaced ball floats around". (Assuming we're talking about a ball used in a football match played on the moon. Typical usage would be on earth, with gravity.)


texts: What's the meaning of "designs" in the clause below?

texts:
The undersigned agree that this Fee Protection is assignable and transferable to the
  beneficiaries, designs, heirs and assigns upon written notice of all parties, and shall not be amended without the express written consent of the parties.

Source: Irrevocable Payorder & Fee Protection

What's the meaning of “designs” in the above clause?

I searched its definition in the law dictionary and found the following:

  In the law of evidence. Purpose or intention, combined with plan, or
  implying a plan in the mind.

There isn't much difference between the common term 'design' and the legal term 'design'.

Considering this clause is used commonly, I doubt that design is incorrect or changed to designee.


texts: Preposition ambiguity and comma placement

texts:
1: They were running and jumping and playing in the field.

2: They were running, jumping, and playing in the field.

3: They were running and jumping, and playing in the field.

In which of these sentences does "in the field" refer to (modify?)...
A: All three verbs (running, jumping, playing)
B: Only playing
C: Either all three, or only playing. It's ambiguous.

Also, I assume all three sentences are acceptable in terms of punctuation, tell me if they are not.
And I'm sure you can rearrange the sentence or add/change words to make the meaning more clear, but for my sake, don't. Thanks in advance.


texts: Should I write "calling himself in this/that way" here?

texts:
In my text I am trying to say, that it is not clear what intentions the person had, by calling themselves in a certain way (let's say Foobar).

My question is should I use "calling himself this way" or "calling himself so"?

Here is my sentence in context:

  Many unsuccessful attempts have been
  made to explain the meaning of
       Foobar. To this day it is not clear what Mario meant by calling
  himself so.

Or:

  To this day it is not clear what Mario meant by calling
  himself in this/that way.

Is it clear what this sentence means? I am not sure if a person can "call" himself... Perhaps I am over-thinking it.


texts:
Consider the following statement (written in the context of marine cargo insurance):

  The insurers plead negligence on the part of the assured.

The writer is British.

Is the use of assured appropriate here? Or should it be insured?

The relevant definition of insure reads:

  arrange for compensation in the event of damage to or loss of (property), or injury to or the death of (someone), in exchange for regular payments to a company or to the state:

The corresponding entry for assure reads:

  chiefly British cover (a life) by assurance:
  we guarantee to assure your life

Does this mean that you can insure anything and assure only a life? What is the difference between life insurance and life assurance?


texts: Commas, commas everywhere and not a proper comma placed!

texts:
I'm a complete imbecile when it comes to grammar. Could someone kindly help me properly place the punctuation in this sentence:

Hi, I'm a lost cause, people!
Hi; I'm a lost cause, people!
Hi! I'm a lost cause, people!
Hi, I'm a lost cause people! (obviously not :)

Which one of those is correct (or best)? The third? The first one doesn't look too bad, does it?


texts: Is it always grammatical to omit "on" before days?

texts:
I've noticed in several online news articles lately that authors no longer use the preposition "on" for the specific day on which an event occurred. Take the following for example:

Despite impassioned pleas from several countries, the World Health Organization's annual assembly refused Monday to even discuss admitting Taiwan to the meeting, under pressure from China. Read the rest of the article here.

Is the omission of "on" in the given example grammatical?


texts:
An explanation for the English expression "sleeping like (or as sound as) a top" is here.
Apparently case closed. It derives from the Italian expression Ei dorme come un topo with topo being wrongly translated as top rather than mouse.

However mice aren't known for sleeping, only dormice are, and the Italian for dormouse appears to be ghiro. The expression Dormire come un ghiro (To sleep like a dormouse) also seems common. The root giro/gyro in English indicates spinning (gyroscope, gyrocopter, autogiro). Is this just a meaningless coincidence? That two words for mouse in Italian (topo and ghiro) are both cognate with spinning things in English? Or is ghiro involved in some way in the mistranslation?


texts:
The question goes as follows:

Make a sentence from the given sentences using 'although'.
a. We've known each other for a long time.
b. We are not very good friends.

The intended answer is 'Although we've known each other for a long time, we are not very good friends'.
Some of my students ask why not 'Although we are not very good friends, we've known each other for a long time.'
Do you think both are right?


texts: perfect continuous or simple perfect in negative sentences

texts: I want to know the difference between present perfect continuous and present perfect in negative sentences. My textbook says (namely, English Grammar In Use, 2nd edition) 'use simple for negative sentences'. Surprisingly, it does not explain the reason. After some googling I found that continuous forms are also used, but I couldn't get the precise distinction. Please help.


texts: Is it considered good style to use “relatedly” to start a sentence?

texts:
I sometimes like to start sentences with “Relatedly,”, as you might start them with “besides”, “however”, “furthermore,” and so on.  (“Like” in that I find the word practical and concise.  It could be replaced by something like “In a related question,”.)

However, it sounds a little strange to my own ears (I am not a native speaker of English).  Is this usage considered standard / good style?


texts: What is a word that is a feeling/emotion of releasing pent up anger against an inanimate object

texts: It is a word that you might say you felt after completing a challenge or something difficult that you invested a lot of time into and caused you significant frustration, and then going and destroying or getting rid of everything having to do with said challenge. For example, if you spent all year studying for a class and collecting notes and practice exams in preparation for the final exam and then at last when it's over you no longer need any of your notes and burn all of them. You might say "Ahh that was -------" And that burning your notes made you feel better. It's kind of like revenge against whatever caused you pain.


texts: Can “heart and mind” be applied to a person, not to a group of people?

texts:
I was drawn to the word, “hearts-and-minds diplomacy” in New York Time’s (June 8) article titled, “From China, With Pragmatism.” written by an American Fulbright lecturer living in Beijing:

  At a recent lunch with United States Embassy officers and local
  Chinese intellectuals, we had a complete cultural breakdown over red
  envelopes. When one embassy officer working his best “hearts-and-minds
  diplomacy” suggested that the Chinese switch the giving of hongbao to
  after the successful operation, rather than before, the Chinese were
  struck dumb with astonishment. Of course, you have to give the hongbao
  beforehand because it motivates the doctor.
  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/stephen-t-asma

I’ve been under the impression that ‘heart and mind’ can be used for personal emotions, like “I dedicated whole my heart and mind to her.”
But when I consulted “heart and mind” with online dictionaries, it came out mostly (if not always) in plural form as “the hearts and minds (of sb)” and was defined as;

The complete support of a group of people. example,
I thought the president could have done a better job of reaching the hearts and minds of the American people in his speech on television yesterday. – Free Dictionary.

And in Wikipedia;

Winning hearts and minds, the idea of persuading enemies instead of defeating them by force
Hearts and Minds (Vietnam), a strategy of the South Vietnamese and United States governments to defeat the Viet Cong insurgency during the Vietnam War.

Is the word “heart and mind” always used in plural form, and in predominantly in political or business context against a group of people (nation / enemies) like “Hearts-and-minds diplomacy / strategy/ operation” more than for the expression of personal emotion such as endearment and devotion to a person, or purpose?


texts: A word for the phenomenon of "right result with wrong reasoning"

texts:
Is there a word that describes the phenomenon or process that someone comes to a right conclusion through wrong reasoning? Thank you!
I'm writing an essay about a novel, in which the husband suspects that the wife has an affair. His evidence is wrong, but the wife is indeed having an affair, and I'm trying to come up with a word that describes this situation, if possible.
After some searching, I found no word that satisfies the meaning, and that's why I'm asking for your help. Thanks for @Tuffy's comment, but I guess that's a rather philosophical concern, i.e., the Gettier problem.


texts: Is "they sold the stocks out from under me" a common idiom?

texts:
They sold the stocks out from under me.

Is this "sold the stocks out from under me" common? It seems to mean they defrauded me.


texts:
What are the percentages of the parts of speech in English?

For instance, what percent of English is comprised of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.?

I have done an extensive web search using a variety of formulations of the question but cannot find this information.


texts: A word for someone who finds all things beautiful?

texts: I have yet to find an English word, or in any language, which translates to someone who appreciates the beauty in all things.


texts: Negating a raising verb vs its complement infinitive

texts:
Consider the sentence:

  I don't seem to have enough time.

Theoretically, it could be rephrased:

  I seem to not have enough time.

It seems to be grammatically correct, but it sounds a bit off. What is the problem with the rephrased version?


texts: What is the correct way to say "have a shot (of a drink) in praise of your youth days"?

texts: What is the correct, usual way in English to say "have a shot (of a drink) in praise of your youth days"?


texts: Is there a word to describe the smell of death?

texts:
Is there anything else that smells like something dead to even compare the "death smell" to?

The smell of death is called ___

Death smells like ___


texts: Possibly a slang word related to, but not quite synonymous with, "exposed" or "jinxed"?

texts:
There is a line in a wonderfully entertaining, though oddly obscure, movie with a star-studded cast and a fast-paced script whose meaning I can't quite catch.

All of the action takes place in New Orleans in the 90's. A motley crew of specialized felons kidnap a billionaire owner of a huge company for ransom. As the crew and the victim sit in an abandoned house discussing their next move (I'm simplifying), they suddenly discover they're on TV: the police know their names; their photos are being shown.

Now they have two (2) choices. One, they can simply walk away and disappear. Two, they can go forward with the original plan. Each member of the crew now describes, to the best of their ability, the pros and cons of either approach from his or her point of view.

One of the members is German (played by Til Scheiger in what I think is his best role to date). He submits (in a deliberately thick German accent, I think) that there's no original plan anymore, because everything has changed; he says:

"Nothing's the same, man. We're all ... what's that fucking word? ... hinked. We're hinked here."

Or at least that's what it sounded like to me. Now I'm not aware of any meaning of the word "hinked" that could stand in for "jinxed," "exposed," "derailed," or "marked." Maybe his accent has something to do with it, or it might be a New Orleans, or just plain old Southern, lingo of some sort - I don't know.

Any ideas?

Here's the sound file with just that line on it:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s07shGnVO77f


texts: "Good for Me!" as a response to someone doing something nice for you

texts:
I have done many nice things for a relative (e.g. reorganize the outdoor deck space) and upon seeing whatever I try & do nice for her she replies "Good for Me!"

I find this offensive—am I wrong?  What is she actually saying when she says "Good for me", so I can explain it to her?


texts: Is there a special term for an unintended oxymoron?

texts:
Merriam's online dictionary describe oxymoron as "the deliberate juxtaposing of seemingly contradictory words." Some of the examples given there, however, don't appear to be deliberate:

  "The phrase 'Broadway rock musical' is an oxymoron. Broadway doesn't have the
      nerve to let the really hard stuff in the house."

I would argue that "Broadway rock musical" isn't an oxymoron, because the term was not meant to be one.  If I am correct, and we are to take the word "deliberate" seriously as an element of oxymoron, what do we do call Thurber's "naive domestic Burgundy"? Is it just a "contradiction in terms," or is there a nice Greek word for it?


texts:
Illegal is to law as ______ is to regulation?

Laws are created legislative bodies, but regulations are created by organizations. It would be wrong to say

  It is illegal for servicemen enlisted in the US Army to have mohawks.

Because there is no law on hair dress. But there is a regulation.


texts: How do noun clauses work when they seem to leave no independent clause?

texts:
Another thing that was raised in conversation with my ESL friend is noun clauses.

I was aware of Adverbial and Adjectival Clauses and thought that the things he was demonstrating to me were in fact noun phrases, not clauses.

After a long discussion and some google searches, I had to concede that he was right to call them Noun Clauses, according to the entire internet. However, I can't seem to find anywhere a satisfying explanation for the fact that noun clauses often leave a sentence without an independent clause. For example:

  He only gave me what he already owed me.

Here, as I am led to believe, "what he already owed me" is a Noun Clause. In my understanding, this means that "He only gave me" would be the other clause that makes this a sentence. The problem in my eyes is that neither of these clauses could stand alone.

Somebody please explain how this sentence with two subordinate clauses can exist, or else tell me why I am wrong.


texts: Why do we use "dried up" instead of just "dried"?

texts:
The creek has dried up.

In this example sentence, you should say "dried up." If you say just "dried," it sounds incomplete. Is this an example of an idiom or is there a grammatical rule governing this instance? If so, what is it?


texts:
The BBC News website ran the following news article about the 'snow' moon and partial lunar eclipse that occurred on 10th February, 2017 (a snow moon is a full moon that occurs during February):

Spectacular snow moon regales world
February's full moon also coincides with a partial lunar eclipse.

Now, a lunar eclipse can only occur when the Moon is 'full', i.e. on the opposite side of the Earth to the sun. So, in what sense can they be said to coincide? The Cambridge Dictionary gives the following definition for coincide:

coincide verb [ I ]
to happen at or near the same time:

I timed my holiday to coincide with the children's.
If the heavy rain had coincided with an extreme high tide, serious flooding would have resulted.

Does it make sense to say:

February's full moon also coincides with a partial lunar eclipse.

The BBC seem to think so. Would it also make sense (or more or less sense) to put it the other way around, and say:

A partial lunar eclipse also coincided with February's full moon.

Does it make any difference, especially when one event cannot occur without the other?


texts: In the sexuality domain, are "heterosexual" and "straight" exact synonyms?

texts:
Even though heterosexual and straight are interchangeable in most contexts, there are times when I find myself wanting to distinguish between an attraction to the opposite sex which is exclusive and one which isn’t exclusive.
In my own experience, straight certainly means “exclusively attracted to the opposite sex.” Thus, a “straight” woman is attracted only to men and never to women. It would therefore seem to me incorrect to describe a woman who has been involved with both men and women as “straight”.
But couldn’t one rightly describe such a woman as heterosexual?
Given the literal meaning of that word’s roots, I feel as though one ᴏᴜɢʜᴛ to be able to use heterosexual to mean someone “attracted to the opposite sex” without implications about lack of attraction to the same sex.
The same thing goes for gay versus homosexual: one ᴏᴜɢʜᴛ to be able to use homosexual to mean someone “attracted to the same sex” without any implication about a lack of attraction to the opposite sex.
The Question
Is this idea backed up by usage? Do some people, sources, and so on make this distinction in meaning?  Or does English not have an easy way to express what I’m talking about here?


texts: Why some relative clause can be reduced and some can not?

texts:
I am learning the book named Grammar and Vocabulary for Advanced by Martin Hewings and Simon Haines. I am struggling with the grammar relating to relative clauses. Could you please help me clarify the relative clause in below two sentences?

Under the new government proposals, from next year electricity suppliers will have to provide the devices—which have cut power use by up to 6.5% in Canada—to all customers who want them. (Can this sentence be  written like this :  Under the new government proposals, from next year electricity suppliers will have to provide the devices— cutting power use by up to 6.5% in Canada—to all customers who want them.)
However, the monitors, which use microchip technology and a digital play, are intended to be placed in full view as a constant reminder of the electricity that is being used in a house at any given moment. (This sentence can be written like this :  However, the monitors, using microchip technology and a digital play, are intended to be placed in full view as a constant reminder of the electricity that is being used in a house at any given moment.)

Could you help me explain why sentence 1 "which have cut" can not be replaced by "cutting"? Is it because of the present perfect used "have cut". For sentence 2, "which use" is reduced by "using".


texts: Is this verse from Lady Gaga grammatically correct?

texts:
"I want your love and I want your revenge
  You and me could write a bad romance"

I have always seen "You and I", as opposed to "You and me". I rely on a rule of thumb that if we remove the other person ("you and"), then what remains (I or me) should make grammatical sense.

Here, "Me could write a bad romance" does not make sense, but who am I to question the grammar of an English-speaking singer?


texts: Can the double dash be used to embed a sentence within a sentence?

texts:
I was taught, perhaps erroneously, and certainly many decades ago, that the double (em) dash can be used to deal with putting one sentence inside another.

  "If f is continuous on the closed interval [a,b] and differentiable" – "Fire!" shouted Professor Smurdley's pet student, and sure enough the waste basket was ablaze – "and differentiable on the open interval (a,b)", continued Smurdley quite unfazed by the interruption.

Is this sentence punctuated correctly?


texts: What’s a word for someone who appreciates the little things?

texts: I’m looking for an adjective that describes a person who appreciates the little things in life: someone who takes life at a little bit slower a pace, who enjoys being outside  instead of forever inside, and so on and so forth.


texts: "It is about time I had a family" - Is this sentence grammatically correct?

texts:
Recently, I stumbled over a sentence that read: "I am 30. It is about time I had a family of my own". Is it grammatically correct?

Shouldn't the correct sentence be "I am 30. It is about time I should have a family of my own"


texts: What does "gold is where you find it" mean?

texts:
Gold is where you find it.

Can someone please give me an example of how to use this expression?


texts:
Is it past tense (/rɛd/) or present tense (/rid/)?

I can imagine rationale for either choice. Past tense because it's an acknowledgment that the message has been read, or present tense because it's an acknowledgement that the message has been opened and the recipient is thus reading it.


texts: What is it called when we follow an acronym with a word already in the acronym?

texts:
Example:

PIN Number (PIN=Personal Identification Number), no need to repeat number

RSVP please (RSVP=Answer please in French), no need to say please again

etc.


texts: What’s the origin of "arkees", the Rhodesian word for school toilets?

texts:
At the very British-colonial Routledge primary school in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1950s we were given breaks to run off to the toilets or "arkees" (I am giving the word a phonetic spelling).

Later in life men from other Rhodesian towns told me the word was also used in their primary schools, but with unknown origin. In those days local teacher training was in one college where the word may have been introduced as a euphemism, although some teachers migrated from UK and South Africa.

I have also hypothesised that the word may have originated from an abbreviation of "restroom" in those days when keys were not plentiful and often hung on labelled boards under the watchful eye of a custodian ("R-keys"), from "Ah-keys" indicating relief, or perhaps from the Afrikaans baby word "Akkies" (poo or pooing).

Any thoughts before all Rhodesians, with the exception of ridgebacks, become extinct?


texts: Indefinite article forming an adverbial or adjectival phrase

texts:
Consider the sentence "She's a little crazy", taken from Disney's Aladdin. The copula verb has been attached to an adjective (the other common thing it combines with is an object), in this case the phrase "a little crazy". Since "crazy" is an adjective, "a little" is a qualifying adverbial phrase, somehow formed by combining the indefinite article with an adverb, whereas normally it combines with a noun to form a nominal phrase. (Of course "little" can be an adjective too, but I think it's an adverb here as it is in "little bit odd", where "odd" is an adjective and so "bit" and hence "little" is an adverb.)

As a follow-up, consider "It's a little bit funny", from Elton John's Your Song (lyrics by Bernie Taupin). Here "little bit" is an adverb, but so is "a little bit".

I'd be interested to understand the beyond-school-syllabus grammatical theory that makes sense of how these constructions are possible. How can "a" combine with an adverb to form an adverb? Or, if we see the structure as a (little X) instead of (a little) X, how can "a" combine with an adjective to form an adjective?


texts:
Does the word "supplementary" have an adverbial form?

My first instinct is the word "supplementarily," but as far as I can tell that isn't a word.