texts: Can anyone translate the language of Mrs Cameron's diary?

texts:
There is a spoof column in The Guardian every Saturday called Mrs Cameron's diary. It purports to record the thoughts of the Prime Minister's wife, Samantha. However it is written in a language which to a person of my age is unintelligible - I am supposing that it is largely a texting form.

I am recording below a few sentences from last Saturday. Could anyone possibly translate them into standard English, please?

  Sarah's like hey bff -
  where r the bongos?

  Well I said to Mummy at a guess Sarah Govey has now sent 50 texts that go hey Sam I do hope our boys won't spoil our friendship, u R my
  bff for ever, Sam I promise I am not really bffs with Marina, just
  pretending until June 23rd, btw you look super gorge on the FROW do
  you get a discount at Burberry, Marina's clothes are well tragic!!!!
  If you see the stuff in the Mail pls tell Dave soz Dacre made me, so
  blame him, btw Sam if you have last week's Grazia can I have ur free
  gift plus Michael needs his bongos back, Mr Lebedev luvs bongos PS his
  beard is real he says he luvs my work!!! luv u lots Sarah.

I am of course aware that Sarah Govey is the wife of Michael Gove, a Conservative politician, and colleague of Cameron, who has joined the campaign to leave the EU - and that their two wives are very good friends. I also realise that Marina is the wife of Boris Johnson, who has also joined the leave camp.

In particular, can anyone translate bff; FROW;Grazia; ur; bongos?


texts: What's the point in saying "I could care less"?

texts: To care less would mean the caring is more, having room to care less.


texts:
I have a problem with this situation. Would you mind helping me?

To what place (does/do) either the man or his sons wish to go?

Can you show me which is correct? do or does is correct?


texts:
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, afford has two meanings:

to be able to bear the cost of
to make available, give forth, or provide naturally or inevitably

In what contexts are the two meanings appropriate?

Is the use of afforded to in the following phrase correct?

  Growth prospects afforded to employees of your firm


texts: Roz, I'm just trying to find my true north


texts:
Let's consider this situation. A mother asks her child, "Who ate this apple?"
Then her son replies, "I didn't eat." In this situation, is "eat" an intransitive verb when "the apple" is omitted? I think "eat" is transitive verb originally. What do you think?


texts: "If you are not [a] vegan" - should there be an article?

texts:
I'm not sure about the sentence in the title.

I feel like there should be an article, but I often see how people write "I'm vegan" omitting the article.

Why do they omit it?


texts: What is a word for using an attribute of a thing to refer to the whole thing?

texts:
For example, when counting a group of people, you may take a "head count" wherein the head is used to refer to the entire individual. I used to think the word was eponym for some reason, but after looking at the definition

  a person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named or
  thought to be named. a name or noun formed after a person.

that does not seem to be the correct word.


texts:
Merriam-Webster defines "systemize" as an alternate spelling of "systematize." Is there any reason to choose one over the the other (besides "systematize" sounding a little weird to my ears)?

I did notice that the spell checker in my browser is marking "systemize" as incorrect, though Word says it's fine (U.S. English).


texts:
In this Guardian article

There is this sentence

  No one was onboard the Dragon capsule that launched on Saturday on its
  first test flight, only an dummy .

My question is why it is written "only an dummy " instead of "a dummy"?

Edit: Only words with first letter as vowels (if)will be having "an"?


texts: Order of adjectives: why is "This is a hot, tasty, Indian curry." wrong?

texts:
It seems that the correct form is "This is a tasty, hot, Indian curry."

I don't understand why you cant reorder "tasty" and "hot". It seems to me that they both reflect the gustatory sensation of the subject and  are not giving opinion.

Is "hot" always about the temperature (discussed in  How to say that food is hot (temperature) without the listener thinking that I mean "spicy"? ) and not about the capsaicinoids contents?


texts: Is there a word or idiom for the phemonon of conflating the definition of a word with its connotation

texts:
Suppose that a person(Person A) gets attacked, and they kill their assailant in self defense.

Another person(Person B) who this considers killing to be bad, but they consider this specific circumstance to be justified, therefore, they say that the Person A did not kill.

This is wrong, because the definition of "kill" does not have an exception for when it is justified.

Is there a term for the kind of fallacy where someone affirms or denies a label to something because of an emotional reaction, and not because of the actual meaning of the label?


texts:
Which is more natural between the two of these sentences?

  I plan to move house next month.
  I plan to move houses next month.

Are there any places where move houses should be used over move house or vice versa?


texts: Is it correct to say: “ to better understand this concept we bring another example”?

texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct:
A. To better understand this concept, we bring another example.

B. To understand better this concept, we bring another example.

C. To understand this concept better, we bring another example.


texts: The word "Fighting" to give encouragement

texts: We Chinese people used to say "fighting" to give encouragement like "Good luck" or "Keep it up". I just talked with a foreigner he seems didn't understand what I said. So, is this word not commonly used or is it a correct word I using it?


texts: What does "not the least of which" mean?

texts:
I think "not the least of which" means "one of the biggest" or "one of the
important".
Is it right?


texts: Overlapping grammatical interpretations with the verb "to be"

texts:
Consider these sentences

The table is clean.
The table is cleaned.
The table is painted.

As I understand, there are two types of sentences here. From the first example, we have a subject the table, the verb to be, and an adverb clean. In the second example, we again have the subject the table, the verb to be and the verb to clean as passive construction. So my question is: for the third example, should the grammar be parsed following the first example (i.e. an assignment of the state painted to the object the table) or the second example (i.e. a passive construction)?

A second (slightly more philosophical) question I have on this matter, does the grammatical interpretation in this case actually change the meaning of the sentence? Is this perhaps just a pseudo-ambiguity as a result of trying to classify everything?


texts:
I am a student of functional English. My teacher told me to search a difference between two sentences that have almost same structure except the article "THE". And because of this article the meaning of both sentences differ. I have searched many websites but i don't find the appropriate answer. So help me to find the appropriate difference between these following sentences:

1: He goes to School.

2: He goes to the School.


texts:
I'm not a native English speaker and I see a sort of striking contradiction in the use of the expression in the passive voice

    something can/can not be + past participle

e.g

    the problem can not be solved

or

    I can't be killed

or

    the door can be opened

I know what the English native speakers want to say with this expresion but I see it weird to attribute "can" to an object ; then "can" and the passive voice are contradictory - isn't it like saying :

    the door can undergo to be opened

Can is bound to all what relates to ability,action...while the passive voice is bound to the passivity,non action...thus the expression is like

    the door is active to be passive

1)"can" and "undergo" does not go together !

2)It's human that can,not objects (such as "doors") or abstract things (such as "problems")

I know ,maybe, I have not well explained my idea - but is this a legacy from an old language or just an habit that became a rule ?


texts: A word to describe a task becoming "easier but more dangerous"

texts:
I need to find the right word for a situation I am writing. The idea is that as your score increases, you automatically gain more points on top of this. The goal is to avoid reaching the maximum, but as you increase your score, it becomes easier to accrue these points.

The phrase I currently am using is:

  Embracing becomes easier over time, where it becomes dangerous and risky to try and collect more.

I feel that "easier" is the opposite of what I want, because collecting the points towards your score is easier, it's not what you want to do; making it more dangerous as your score increases.


texts:
When I write : My parent never told me that some criminals are being executed,

Do I add a quotation mark before some and after executed when I am using "that"?


texts:
In my test work, I had such a question:

  Children who (to come) to the cinema tomorrow
  [pick a form of the verb "to come" to make a correct phrase]

Which tense is right to use, the Future Simple or the Present Progressive? I mean, should I use will after who? Will it be right if I use the Future tense, or is it better to use the Present progressive?

As I remember, our teacher explained to us that if we have WHO in the sentence, we can't use the Future tense; it's better to use progressive one.


texts: Word for "A Song that Sets a Scene in a Particular Region or Culture"

texts:
This is a technical term in theater and movie arts for a stereotyped piece of music that is played to cue the audience that a scene is set in a particular location.

E.g.

London --> Rule Britannia
Italy --> O sole Mio
German --> Oompah music
New York/Broadway --> No Business like Show business


texts:
I wanted to add a poem to my book but I can't manage to convey my meaning in the right words. The first sentence was about bells that indicate _____. That was where my sentence end. The meaning that I want to express was something unpredictable happened but no one knows whether it is good or bad. I've been trying to find a word for this meaning on the internet and it doesn't give much help except for giving me Ambivalent and Agathokakological. I asked many people but they keep giving answers like Uncertain and doubtful, which did not help at all because I wasn't putting the 'feeling' words in the poem since the poem itself is hinting at the theme and mood.
If you don't understand what I'm talking about, feel free to ask questions so I could clarify my question.
Edit: I think I'm looking for a phrase that isn't too long.


texts:
Maybe I'm being too pedantic for my own good, but here's the thing. There is in Mark Twain's short story titled Journalism in Tennessee a passage in which, if you take a good close look, the simple past and past perfect seem to be mixed up. Here's the passage:

  At the end of the next three hours I had been through perils so awful that all peace of mind and all cheerfulness were gone from me. Gillespie had called and thrown me out of the window. Jones arrived promptly, and when I got ready to do the cowhiding he took the job off my hands. In an encounter with a stranger, not in the bill of fare, I had lost my scalp. Another stranger, by the name of Thompson, left me a mere wreck and ruin of chaotic rags.

And here's the (seeming) problem:

The entire story is related in the past tense. The first sentence of the passage is in past perfect, since events that took place earlier than the present chronological point of the story, are discussed, hence "I had been through perils ...". The second sentence is in keeping with the first one: past perfect, and so is the fourth one, but NOT the third one, nor the firth one (simple past tense is used in both).

How come?


texts: What's the name of the job that is about "typing really fast to write instant subtitles"

texts:
Tom is a fast typist. He's a [...]. He watches talk shows and transcribes each sentence under five seconds. Although five seconds might sound disturbing, the viewers are not annoyed by little delays.

What is Tom's job called?


texts: What do you call a question where you don't expect a response?

texts:
When I ask a person a question such as, "When did you last go to church?" I am not asking them to give me an answer ("Last August"); but I am expecting them to answer the question within themselves, to stimulate their thinking about whether they are doing something we both agree they should be doing. Is this a rhetorical question, or is there a better definition for this type of question?

A better example would be posting this type of question on social media, such as Facebook.

UPDATE: It has been suggested that the answer is a rhetorical question. But my understanding of a rhetorical question is that it has no answer. There is an emotional context to the question: "What, are you stupid?" The person you are addressing is made to understand they are DOING something stupid, an actual answer is not necessary or even wanted. I THINK that my type of question is different, but I am not sure. My question is intended to make the person ask themselves. If the answer is "last week", it isn't necessary to tell me "next week". My purpose of reminding them that they should be attending church regularly is achieved, and an actual answer is not required. If that is still a rhetorical question, so be it, but the definitions I found didn't suggest that it was. I would prefer to be precise, so if there is a better term for that type of question, that is what I want to know.


texts: Why is a comma used before "too" in this sentence?

texts:
Why is there a comma in the following comic?

  You were planning on sleeping insider the deer for warmth, too? Shit. I didn't want it to come down to this, Joseph, but we're going to have to have a dance-off.


texts: What is "rose up" here, and what does it mean by "out of it" and "pantomime demon"?

texts:
From The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis:

He never finished what he was going to
say for at that moment something
happened. The high-backed chair in
front of the fire moved suddenly and
there rose up out of it - like a
pantomime demon coming up out of a
trapdoor - the alarming form of Uncle
Andrew. They were not in the empty
house at all; they were in Digory's
house and in the forbidden study! Both
children said "O-o-oh" and realized
their terrible mistake. They felt they
ought to have known all along that
they hadn't gone nearly far enough.

I've looked up in the dictionary:

out of it:
English Adjective (comparative more out of it, superlative most out of it):
(idiomatic) Not participating in some trend or group.

When my old friends turned up, my wife felt quite out of it.

(idiomatic) Disoriented; not thinking clearly.

Having the flu all week left me pretty well out of it.

(idiomatic) Drunk.

It's not quite right no matter if it is talking about the chair or Uncle Andrew.
And the pantomime demon?


texts: What exactly does "The numbers are in" mean?

texts:
The numbers are in

Below are what I think the expression might mean. Are they correct?

"The processed statistical datas are now available"
"The numbers are increasing"?

Usage Example that I found.


texts: What is the difference between "an essay on something" and "an essay in something"?

texts:
In most cases you write "an essay on something" but recently I came across some "essays in something"

Is there a difference in meaning? Is the "in" more formal?


texts: "He was getting beaten" vs. "he was being beaten"

texts:
I would need to understand the difference here:

  He was being beaten.
  He was getting beaten.

I know "get" + ppt can be either passive voice or a change of state. What is that in this example? I guess this is the passive voice.
But what about this:

  He is getting ready.
  He is being ready - obviously wrong but I cannot say why.


texts: "Vintage" is close to what I'm looking for. Maybe "anachronism" is too strong, but I'm looking for a word that describes something that becomes desirable since it is no longer in use, like receiving a letter in the mail.


texts: Name of a particular type of verbal riposte

texts:
In this type of riposte, you use your opponent's words, but rearrange them to be in your favor. For example, the story about Diogenes eating lentils:

  Aristippus: "If you would learn to be subservient to the king, you wouldn't have to live off of lentils."
  Diogenes: "If you would learn to live off of lentils, you wouldn't have to be subservient to the king."

I think the name has something to do with "Pyrrhic", but I'm not sure.


texts:
Is there a single word or very short phrase to describe the act of contemptuously referring to someone by using a diminutive "nickname", with which that person is not normally associated?

For example, referring to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as Hank Longfellow?
Or William Penn as Billy Penn?


texts: Word for excessive use of adjectives or a long stream of adjectives

texts:
I was tasked with analyzing an article, and I encountered within the text a long sentence with a stream of adjectives, e.g.

  Gove and all the other know-nothing know-it-alls happily continue to peddle their sneering, condescending, dismissive, misanthropic, elitist, made-up twaddle.

Is there an appellation for such an occurrence? In addition, is there a specific word for excessive use of adjectives? I know circumlocution may be appropriate for the second question, but I was hoping there was a word specific to adjectives or adverbs.


texts:
Would it be appropriate to use the verb skyrocket in an academic paper?
 It sounds very colloquial to me, but as I'm not a native speaker I'm not sure.

If not, what is a good synonym I could use?

This is the sentence:

Managers’ decisions can be effective, and make profits and productivity skyrocket [...]


texts: I think otherwise, but I am told the semicolon is used correctly. Help

texts:
Like all text mediums where written words may have different
  structures, tones, and noteworthiness; dictionaries provide you with
  meaning intended for indicating those distinctions.

I will listen to grammar masters and learn from them, but I don't agree that the semicolon is being used correctly here. I am told that these are two independent clauses that could be their own sentences.

Could someone please educate me. I think the semicolon is used incorrectly.


texts:
I'm always confused how to write a "something of something else" in English, especially when plural is involved. For example, what would be the correct way to write the following sentences in English:

There are three phones, each phone is of a different type:

Three types of phones?
Three phone types?
Three types of phone?

Similarly, there are several doctors, and each doctor has a car:

The doctors' cars?
The cars of the doctors?


texts: How to qualify a critic's comments which lead to improvements?

texts:
I would like to include a sentence in a response to a critical reader thanking him for his "fertile" comments, in the sense that they lead to improvements of the text he read. "Fertile" in a figurative sense would seem to me appropriate, however the dictionary entries for this word don't include a figurative meaning going that far (an investigation may be fertile, but not something that a comment or an idea it seems — and a google search seems to agree with that).

What word would you use? 'Fruitful' does not sound appropriate either, because it is not the comment that actually "bears the fruit", but only the work initiated by these comments. I would like to avoid less focused qualificatives as 'intersting comments'.


texts: "The man who lives in the house likes watching TV all day." when omitting "who", should it be "The man in the house likes watching TV all day" or "The man being in the house likes watching TV all day? Thanks


texts:
Which case is correct? I'm writing like some kind of fanfiction, but I really want to know and get better in grammar.

  "He had been unable to sleep well the night before to the morning where he had to go away."

  "He had been unable to sleep well the night before to the morning in which he had to go away."


texts:
G.B. Shaw (the playwright) campaigned for a "universal alphabet," on and off, throughout his career. He (and some others) did have a point when they said that the English alphabet is anything but English (ancient Greek and Latin-based), is quite foreign to the language, and cannot be reformed sufficiently to reflect all the nuances of pronunciation and usage; and that it was high time someone came up with a PHONETIC version that everyone would agree on, accept, and enjoy. It is said that Shaw went so far as to invent his own version of such an alphabet which he used to write plays. Maybe he did. Who knows. My point here is that he also made it a point to spell certain words phonetically in the print versions of his plays (Shakespear rather than Shakespeare, etc).

It's mostly great fun, but the one word he used that I still find a bit puzzling is "shew" (instead of "show"). At first I thought that it was some kind of turn-of-the-century-Belle-Epoque-British thing. However, the dictionary flatly states that it is a variant of "show," and is archaic.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shew

What gives? Why would Shaw, who believed himself to be one of the most advanced, progressive, and modern people of his epoch, use an archaism (in a play about language, of all things, i.e. "Pygmalion")? What am I missing?


texts: Is there a special name/word or popular phrase for the students who work part-time/full-time to generate income?

texts: Is there a special name/word or popular phrase for the students who work part-time/full-time to generate income while at college or in school?


texts: A rhetorical question which the author then answers

texts:
What is the name of the question which is bold in the following?

  I want to shift the discipline from physics to biology. Why? Because, …

You ask it not because you don't know something, but because you think that people will ask it right after you state something. Its appearance is not required; you can get rid of it without changing the meaning.

Note that this kind of question is not necessarily short:

  I want to shift the discipline from physics to biology. Why would I want this? Because, …


texts: What do you call a maker of wind instruments?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that means "a maker of wind instruments". Something to the same effect as a luthier to stringed instruments.

  The local __ fixed the trombone as good as new.


texts: What is difference between present perfect and present perfect continuous?

texts:
I've been studying English by the book "English Grammar in Use" for a month.
There is a Unit about present perfect and - continuous, also Exercises.

Please check the below exercises...

A. You meet a woman who tells you that she teaches English. You ask her:
(how long/ teach / English?)

B. You are talking to a friend about Joe. Joe now works at the airport. You ask your friend:
(how long / work / at the airport?)

According to the keys exercises on the book, we can use either usages 'present perfect and present perfect continuous'.

But there is other case,

C. You have just arrived to meet a friend. She is waiting for you. You ask:
(wait / long)

the key says the answer is present perfect continuous.

My book says, usually to express 'how long' we use present perfect continuous.
I can understand about that. But we can use also continuous for Exercise A and B.
I can't understand why I can use that even though they say about 'How long'.
If it is not too important, why should(or must) I use 'present perfect' for Exercise C?

summary,

what is really different point between 'present perfect' and 'present perfect continuous'?


texts:
Recently, a woman I know who lives in England (OK, she's my fiancee, if you want to know), wrote to me and described someone she knows as "a bit of a tartar".  Now in context it seemed like a friendly jibe, but it I wasn't familiar with this particular construction, as an American.

Yes, yes, I could ask her what she means, but I wanted to ask it here and contribute to the knowledge base!

I found one dictionary definition in which it said that as an adjective it meant "of, relating to, or characteristic of the Tatars".  Which of course explains everything.  Not.

Edited to Add: Since this was posted, my fiancée has become my wife, whoo hoo!


texts:
What is the exact meaning of "the last thing that counts" in the following passage? It is from the book “Persian Gulf Command” by Ashley Jackson, p. 346.

It was a question of robbing Peter to pay Paul – but Paul kept coming back for more. Given this situation, Kennedy understood that patience was a virtue, and that not losing in the most strategically important regions was the key to ultimate victory. Though the idea might have brought colour to the cheeks of the notoriously impatient prime minister, the secret was to ‘hold our own and gradually harbour our resources which were slowly growing’. ‘It is unfortunate,’ Kennedy continued, ‘that so much time is
required for the development of the full power of the British Empire and of America. But this has to be accepted. And we must find consolation in the fact that it is the last battle that counts.

Many thanks in advance.


texts: Looking for a term that is the opposite of "location-based crowdsourcing"

texts:
When referring to services that provide access to crowdworkers to perform tasks to be done on a computer with an internet connection (e.g., Amazon Mechanical Turk), in contrast with those that allow for tasks to be performed in the physical world (e.g., TaskRabbit), how would you call one vs the other?

I'm set on using the term "location-based crowdsourcing" for the type of crowdsourcing that is performed in the physical world. I am trying to use "online crowdsourcing" for the type that is done only online. But part of the problem with that is that, both are facilitated by online technologies.

Another option is to call it "virtual crowdsourcing."

Any other suggestions?


texts: Is it true that iambic pentameter is "natural" to English? If so, why?

texts:
When I first read Dante's Divine Comedy in high school, I remember once being puzzled at what I thought were strained rhymes in the translation, and mentioned it to my English teacher.  In reply, she told me that it had to be so, as Dante wrote in a terza rima rhyme scheme that was much more easily accommodated by Italian, and that writing in the iambic pentameter that English poetry "naturally" favored required breaking some of the very easy internal rhyme presented in the original.   I left it at that then, but afterwards she repeatedly invoked the same idea of iambic pentameter's "naturalness" to English when we read Shakespeare and I think William Blake.

Is she correct? Is iambic pentameter indeed "natural" to English? What linguistic characteristics of English make it so?  I know many of these things boil down to, "that's just the way it is", but I guess in this question I'm just looking for a deeper explanation than just giving the simple fact.


texts: Elucidation of: to immolate (to) one's manes

texts:
Sentences:

(1) "Do thou, brave wolf, avenge our queen, by immolating this traitor to her august manes."
(2)  "[...] whence he received the order to immolate his mother to the paternal manes."

[(1) Jean de La Fontaine : "The obsequies of the lioness" _ Google Books

(2) 'Le Antichità di Ercolano' Esposte; Google Books]

After long ratiocinations, I settled upon the following meaning: to seek revenge upon someone. I would nevertheless like an explanation of the different idiom's uses enclosed (i.e. gramatically, and meaningwise).

What does august refer to? The way the retaliation should be committed? The manes, i.e. the character of the person that should be avenged?

What does paternal refer to? The person that shall be revenged?

Thank you very much for your time & help !


texts: Do I use italics on subsequent occurrences of this word?

texts: I'm writing a formal essay about the Greek concept of xenia. I know I have to italicize it, but when I use this word in subsequent sentences and paragraphs, do I still italicize it? Or is it fine to leave it as I italicized it at the beginning already?


texts: What is the difference between " hold the book with both hands" and " hold the book with your hands"?.Also, what is the differnce between " when both you and the person you're talking about" and " when you and the person you're talking about" ?


texts: A phrase for "to get heavily involved in something"

texts:
I'm looking for a phrase or an idiom meaning "to get heavily involved in something" or "to become passionate about something" where "something" could be a hobby, lifestyle, a music genre etc.

One possibility would be simply "to get into something" but this doesn't seem to convey being passionate about the thing in question. Another one is "to get sucked into something" but a Google search indicates that this tends to mean "to get involved in something against one's will" which is not what I am after.


texts: What's a word for avoiding a question with a generic (fake) answer?

texts:
Examples...

  Q: Why is the sky blue?
  A: Because God made it that way.

  (A kid to their parent)
  Q: Why do I have to clean my room?
  A: Because I said so.

What is it called when someone answers a question this way? I've said "That's not an answer, that's a 'cop-out'" but that's not right.


texts: What verb to use to describe "a tucked hair returning to its original position"?

texts:
Popped out? Sprung out? I can't find the correct word.

Example sentence:

  She tucked a strand of her chin-length hair behind her ear, only to __
  again.


texts: Understanding the purported ambiguity in “Every boy didn’t run”

texts:
I am a computer science professional.
I am reading the book Natural Language Understanding by James Allen where he writes:

  “Every boy didn’t run” which is ambiguous between the reading in which
  some boys didn’t run and some did and no boys ran.

As I am not a native English-language speaker, I couldn’t understand
the ambiguity here. Please explain how the meaning can ever be some boys
didn’t run and some did here.


texts: Is there a word ___phobia that means "fear of being burned"?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that means the phobia "fear of being burned."

"Pyrophobia" is fear of fire, which is close, but not quite it. I'm not looking for a fear of fire itself, but actually a fear of being burned, either by fire or by anything hot, like the heating coil on an electric stovetop.

A Google search found a phobia wikia with "encavmaphobia", but I'm skeptical. Neither it nor any similar word is in the OED, and there are no hits in Google Books; and I can't think what that encavma root might refer to. (The closest nearby word in the OED is "encave",  marked Obs. and meaning "to put into a cellar; to hide"; no apparent relation to burning.) I see a few (very few) uses of it on blogs, but they're all within the last year; and this entry was added about a year and a half ago. If it were a real word, I'd expect to find some instances that date from before that wikia page was created; I suspect those bloggers found the same wikia that I did.

(Update: I see that έγκαυμα (énkavma) is apparently the Greek word for "burn", which explains the encavma- root. But I still suspect the Wikia editor was making up his own word.)


texts: What is the equivalent of a "Good Watch" for an audiobook or record?

texts:
We say that a movie is a "good watch" and a book is a "good read".

Somehow, to say that an audiobook or an album is a "good listen" doesn't sound right to my ears, but perhaps that's only because I've never heard it.


texts: "Double Clicking" to mean, going in depth

texts:
I have been recently hearing the expression "double clicking" to mean 'going in depth'.
For example:

  We will double click on this topic later on when required.

I have never heard of such a usage before. So, I just want to know if it's a common phrase? Any other details regarding its origins, usage etc. will also be helpful.


texts: "... just sounded..." What does the phrase mean in this context?

texts:
It is difficult to understand what it means.

  Many of the themes just sounded have been confirmed and amplified in
  more recent work.

I suspected it could be replaced by "just mentioned" but I don't remember having seen "sound" used in that sense. So the alternative that comes to my mind interprets "have been..." as the other predicate of the subject and renders "sound" in its usual sense of "appear" or "seem" which means the sentence can just as well be rewritten as this:

  It just sounded that many of the themes have been confirmed and amplified in more recent work.

But with this interpretation the original sentence still "sounds" awkward to me or I may be wrong. Help appreciated.


texts: Who originally said "A film is made/written three times"?

texts:
A movie is made three times: it’s made when it’s written, it’s made in production, and it’s made again in post.

This is a very well known saying within the film industry, essentially explaining how a project can transform over the the three main stages of production (pre, shooting, and post)

Who originally coined this saying, or what is the earliest reference we have of it?


texts:
While reading the Jack Higgins novel “The Eagle Has Landed” (1975) I came across the phrase “Judas gate”. Research on-line indicates he is rather fond of the word, going to the point of naming another book by it. His fascination with the word is discussed in a letter.

  "Judas gates constantly surface in my book and people have often commented. There is a painting, I think Victorian, which shows a very large double gate. Inset in this gate, is a small door or gate which you can open and step through without the inconvenience of opening the larger double gates. In the painting, Judas is seen stepping through on his way to betray Christ. So, in English factories, you find such a small door set in most big factory gates and they were traditionally known in Yorkshire, a very industrial area where I grew up, as JUDAS GATES..."

I have not been able to identify this painting on-line, and a search of Bible texts mentioning Judas does not render any references to gates as supposedly depicted in the painting.

However, I did find the phrase in earlier books in a Google-books search going back to 1780, while ngram shows a spike in the usage of the phrase around 1981.

The closest I can find on Etymonline only has Judas goat.

If they were called Judas gates before the painting, and there is no mention of Judas going through a gate in the Bible, how did this type of entrance come to be called a Judas gate? Is there an oral tradition in England to explain the name?


texts: Use of "that" in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

texts:
I am seeking a grammatical explanation for the usage of the two instances of 'that', which are emphasized in bold, in the following excerpts from "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner.

  What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the night-shirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.

  Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.


texts:
I am reading some technical documents and there is a list of items that make up the product. Throughout the document where there are multiple items, they are listed as 2 off, 3 off and so on.

For example it would be similar to this:

My product comprising of:

2 off card 1
1 off card 2
1 off transit case

Is this correct? I thought it should be 2 of, 3 of and so on. I would like to know if the usage is correct and if possible why off is used in this context.


texts: Can I put the job position in front of the name?

texts:
In military contexts you often see sentences like this one:

  "General Montgomery decided to..."

I am now writing an evaluation about a sale my company had had, and I want to credit several people while quickly mentioning their role in the operation. So, is this...

  "We sent an email to Store Manager Kenneth Johansson in order to..."

...or that...

  "Thanks to Booking Coordinator Elin Dansbo's work we were able to..."

...readable and grammatically correct, or should I instead put their position in parenthesis after their name, or use some other kind of structure?


texts: Which is correct: "in twos" or "by twos"?

texts:
I am confused about the preposition in this sentence:

  The students left the classroom "in twos" or "by twos".

Which form is correct?


texts:
We have software which currently has these menu items: Map, Talk, Inspect, Analyze, Report, Team. We realize that the word Inspect word is not clear enough for most people. We have all the raw data shown on that part, plus filtering and some other features. It's not a log viewer or audit. It is somehow raw data, but in an organized way.

We are looking for a good replacement. We have options like "Input/Output", "Data and Traffic", but unfortunately none of them looks good enough in our case.

Does anyone have an idea what to replace the word Inspect with? Something more straight-forward, and more user-friendly (by which we mean that e.g. "Data" is good, but it's somehow scaring off users).


texts: I am looking for a phrase/idiom that expresses the risk of unforeseen consequences of an action. Fake context: someone develops a treatment for cancer that is later found to cause Alzheimer's. So far, I have found "better the devil you know..." and "robbing peter to pay paul." Neither quite get this right. Thank you


texts: What does 'culture' mean in this sentence?

texts: ...which is often used when the physician does not (or cannot) perform a culture to determine the actual bacterium.


texts: Changes in meaning of "bad" and "bad ass"

texts: How did the definition of bad change over time? When did it change to mean good?


texts: When writing instructions, is it OK to leave "and" out of a quick chain of commands?

texts:
I'm editing a series of instructions, and I keep stumbling over this issue of whether using "and" in a chain of similar commands is necessary.

  From the Start menu, select All Programs, then Quicktime Player.

Is that line fine as is? Or should I add "and"? Maybe take out the comma too?

  Select All Programs, and then Quicktime Player.
  Select All Programs and then Quicktime Player.


texts: Noun to use for a person who has commissioned work from a contractor

texts:
Let's say I'm an independent software developer who gets paid, by the hour, to create tailored software for solving one person's particular problems; I'm a contractor and a service provider.

What's a good noun to use for the person who commissioned work from me? Employer came to mind, but that sounds very… "permanent," and client is a very loaded word in software development. Customer could work, but is there a more accurate noun that I could use?


texts: What does it mean "Within everything are meanings crystallized from the hues in the corona of that magnificent artwork-the human and her dignity."

texts:
I am reading the following paragraph and I can't quite understand what the bold text means.

  And the depth of the inner world of a person has such rich potential
  to develop, and the potential to keep developing dimensions within; a
  complicated brain and a spirit with an elusive essence that evades
  material measure; and then the perfectly harmonious relation of these
  two phenomena-the physical and the spiritual together. . . mysterious
  beings... Within everything are meanings crystallized from the hues
  in the corona of that magnificent artwork-the human and her dignity.

It starts with "within everything" but continues with "are meanings crystallized" and that's the place I failed to understand since I don't know which type of grammar rule I should follow to decipher what it means.


texts: Is it not advisable to start a new paragraph with conjunctive adverbs?

texts:
I'm writing my thesis now and my advisor told me that I made many mistakes by starting new paragraphs with conjunctive adverbs such as "since", "yet", "indeed", "except", "in general". If it is not advisable to use them at the beginning of the paragraph, what alternatives can I use? I am trying to link the first sentence of the new paragraph with ideas from previous paragraphs so they transition better.
For example:
"Since the first discovery by LLL that X is able to catalyzed the transformation of aldehydes into alcohols, many similar catalysts have emerged, examples include..."
"Except for X and Y, virtually all alcohols consumed are produced industrially through fermentation of feedstock, principally using Z...."
"Instead of ZZZ-based catalyst, John Doe et al. introduced YYY as a simple and convenient catalyst for XXX..."
"Since the revelation that oxidation by X-based catalysts proceeds through bidentate coordination of alcohols to N intermediate, subsequent generation of catalysts of this type began incorporating multiple Xs into the catalyst structure..."
"Indeed, uncatalyzed ZZZ formation is possible simply by heating alcohols and NN mixture at >400°C..."


texts: benefits and impacts "in" or "on" the agriculture sector?

texts:
Currently writing a paper but I keep asking myself if to use 'in the agriculture sector' or 'on the agriculture sector'. I googled this but both are used, not sure which is correct. But some websites and journals use 'agricultural sector' instead of 'agriculture sector'.

For example:

  The potential benefits and impacts in (or on) the agriculture sector
  are.....


texts:
Can I use the contraction after a proper noun? Please look at this sentence.
Anu'd been living with her parents and two elder brothers. [For Informal Context]


texts:
Algeria, Algerian.  Bolivia, Bolivian.  Canadia, Canadian, just to emphasize the preference for -ian.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_words_suffixed_with_-ian has 2,269 entries, while ...-itan has 4.

So why Samaria, Samaritan?


texts: Idiom or slang to show you're scared and/or sorry

texts:
Is there any idiom, phrase or slang you use when you have done something wrong and you want to show you are really sorry?

Whether you are deeply sorry or you're just saying that because you are scared? Something that means "I'm really sorry and it won't happen again".
For example:

  A: Not again! You used my car?!!! I'm gonna kill you!
  B: (scared) So
  sorry! It's not gonna happen again.

Something to use in B


texts:
Which sentence is correct, and can I use such a sentence is narrative reports?

Sports have become part of school’s time table, and teachers give time to children for play and sports in school timing.
Sports have become part of school’s time table, and teachers gave time to children for play and sports in school timing.


texts: words for a "family" member, in relation to myself

texts:
How would you introduce a "family" member, without using outdated terms (ie kith or kin) or words that i will have to explain the definition every time i use it.  ie. this is my _________, susan.

I've found a few i like, but i cannot find a word for a member of that group in relation to myself. "This is my tribe, susan" alludes to that person being the only other tribe member and it doesnt roll of the tongue very well.

Some of these words are: tribe, people, village. Tribesperson, villager and person do not really fit for a word in relation to myself.

Dictionary/thesaurus searches:
Shmoop,Thesaurus.com, synonyms.com, macmillion dictionary, urban thesaurus. I have bean searching off and on for a year now and nothing seems to fit right.

I am open to compound words or phrases, however something like "This is a member of my tribe/fellow "family" (I dislike that "word")member/fellow villager" is too formal. I am also open to another introduction sentence that can incorporate the above.


texts:
In the following, can I omit the hyphens in "%-a-year" and "million a year"? I cannot recast. This is nonfiction.

Joe said, "Mike received a 10% a year increase."

Gary said, "The figures reflected a
5% to 7% a year increase in net profits."

Gary said, "The figures reflected a
5–7% a year increase in net profits."
(Or, for variation, we can drop the first percent sign and insert a dash as exampled above. Good?)

Frank said, "Brad's grandfather once owned a $200 million to $250 million a year business."

Dana said, "My husband and I have a $500,000 to $700,000 a year joint income, depending on the frequency of our bonuses."

Do all look good – minus the hyphens – in terms of clarity and readability?

Thank you.


texts:
An immersive photo-driven experience of the beauty of XXX's motorcycle design supported by real riders stories.

I'm not convinced of the beauty of XXX's motorcycle design

what I'm trying to say that an immersive experience, composed by a beautiful photo gallery can help the user appreciate the beauty of manufacturer XXX design

can somebody help me rephrase it?


texts: Is there a word or short phrase, which describes or implies the destruction of books or libraries?


texts: An appropriate single word or phrase for "life-saving moment" please?

texts:
This is my first question ever. Sorry for the lack of brevity. What word would describe a life-saving moment?

When my father was taken prisoner in WWII, he was prodded, by a soldier's bayonet in his spine, into a large tent. His arms were high in the air. A young private who looked very stressed was standing 10 feet in front of my father. He suddenly charged towards my captive father with his rifle's bayonet aimed at his abdomen. A sergeant quickly raised his leg and kicked the private's rifle aside so the bayonet missed my father's body by a couple of inches.

Decades later, as he held an infant, his first grandchild in his arms, my father muttered something about, "That sergeant's big boot." If not for that life-saving moment, not my dad, nor his son, nor his grandson would exist.

What word is appropriate for such a life-saving moment? Thanks very much.


texts: Word/Phrase to Describe Colin Kaepernick Pile-On

texts:
I imagine the word I am looking for to be related to Social Sciences.  I am looking for the word describing brownie points that one receives from her peers for expressing outrage at a socially frowned upon act or fact.

The word should express that the person casting aspersions does so without thought, experience, or consideration for the subject they rebuke.  This word would identify the fuel for mob mentality and behavior.

Example Sentence:

Jane is simply ___________ in her repudiation Colin Kaepernick.


texts: What does "have no serious doubts about..." mean?

texts: Does it mean to have "reasonable doubts", or "no doubt at all", or "a little bit doubt"?


texts: What is the difference between the adjectival usages of "determined" and "determinate"? Are they interchangeable when used as adjectives?


texts: Is it correct to say "work twice as hard than"?

texts:
The full sentence is:
I worked at the very least twice as hard to close sales than back then [two months before].

If it's incorrect how do you say it then — "twice as hard as [at some specific time]"?


texts:
How did "fraught" come to include the second definition? What is the connection?

  FRAUGHT adjective:

  1. (of a situation or course of action) filled with or destined to result in (something undesirable). "marketing any new product is fraught with danger"
  synonyms: full of, filled with, rife with; attended by, accompanied by

  2. causing or affected by great anxiety or stress. "there was a fraught silence"

  synonyms: anxious, worried, stressed, upset, distraught, overwrought

  Etymology:

  fraught (adj.) 14c., "freighted, laden, loaded, stored with supplies" (of vessels); figurative use from early 15c.; past participle adjective from obsolete verb fraught "to load (a ship) with cargo," Middle English fraughten (c. 1400), which always was rarer than the past participle, from noun fraught "a load, cargo, lading of a ship" (early 13c.), which is the older form of freight (n.).

  This apparently is from a North Sea Germanic source, Middle Dutch vrecht, vracht "hire for a ship, freight," or similar words in Middle Low German or Frisian, apparently originally "earnings," from Proto-Germanic fra-aihtiz "property, absolute possession," from fra-, here probably intensive + aigan "be master of, possess" (see owe (v.)). Related: Fraughtage.

From etymonline: fraught


texts:
While reading a book, I found:

  Objective-C supports the same conventions for specifying strings as does C.

I've thought "... as C does" is correct.
For example,

  As time goes, we come to forget almost everything.

Why were subject and verb replaced in the first sentence?


texts:
I have heard of the expression mugging up to mean study intensively as before an exam, but would like to know if it can also be used to investigate a hobby. For example, could I use something like:

  I spent my summer mugging up butterflies.

  I spent my summer mugging up on the topic of butterflies.


texts:
I am having trouble phrasing some of my thoughts into a decent sounding sentence.  I particularly do not like the use of and twice: I believe this may make the sentence a run-on.  Also in previous English classes I have been advised against using and twice in one sentence.  Can anyone suggest how to express the same thought in one sentence without creating a run-on?

  Growth of the Hispanic population within the US will increase their presence within the workforce, creating new opportunities and challenges for Hispanics and their employers.


texts: Word meaning "open to being persuaded by a strong argument"?

texts:
To be used in a phrase like

"especially civil, thoughtful, and ___ expressions of differing beliefs" (this is closest to the primary use case)

or

"especially civil, thoughtful, and ___ attitudes toward disagreement"

Edited in from comments below:

"Reasonable" would more likely be interpreted as logical/valid in the phrases above, though in another context it would fit perfectly as meaning "open to being persuaded".

"Approachable" is very close, though I'm looking for something with a more natural hint toward persuasion rather than just friendliness.

"Convincible" is in the right direction, but perhaps a bit too far. I want the understood meaning to be that the person welcomes differing perspectives and is open to changing their mind, but isn't very easily persuaded because they have good reasons for their position. (Rather than because they're stubborn, or because they are very highly educated about a subject.)

I looked through similar questions and did a few searches on Google and on here, and asked on reddit, but haven't found what I'm looking for.

I'm not looking for "open-minded" (too broad) or "tentative" (too uncertain of oneself). "Open-ended" conveys something similar, but applies more to processes or decisions than to beliefs/perceptions. "Flexible" is too "open" for what I'm aiming for.

"Persuadable" is closer, but not quite what I'm looking for I feel like there's another "p" word that has a closer meaning. "Pluralistic" as a description of decision-making is also along the same lines, but I don't think it's the word that is trying to get my attention from somewhere inside of my brain.

I suppose that I could make up a word, like "paritous" (meaning "treating things equally"), but I'm still hoping that there's someone out there who has a better word, or who can provide the "p" word I'm thinking of (if it actually exists, rather than being a vague mis-memory in my brain).

"Receptive" is closer to what I'm after than "amenable" or "suggestible" are. I'm looking for "potentially open to being persuaded" more than "easily persuaded" or "readily yielding" or something similar.


texts: A Word/Phrase Meaning Something Complex and almost Un-Understandable

texts: I am looking for a world/phrase that describes something that is really complex, and is complex to the point where it could be un-understandable.


texts: What is the term for replacing a name or brand with a funny pejorative / sardonicism?

texts:
What is the term for when one replaces a well-known name [(Proper) noun, company, brand, etc.] with one that tries to be funny yet pejoratively descriptive, different but similar enough that one's audience can likely understand the replacement?

For example: Whole Foods ===> Whole Paycheck; Comcast ==> Scumcast; Starbucks ==> Charbucks; Kinko's == Stinko's; eBay ==> Evil Bay

I tend to use sobriquet don't believe this explicitly implies funny as well as insulting. Moniker again is close but not specific to the above description.

There is a similar question which proposes tortonym and malapropsim, but it does not seem to settle the argument definitively: Is there a term for pejorative parody names of people or places?

Another answer here proposes dysphemism, but to me it isn't a full fit:
What do you call it when a name/word is better known by a pejorative? because it doesn't cover the humor aspect.


texts: Can 'too'be used immediately after the subject?

texts:
Let her too wake up to a hot coffee.

(or)

Let her wake up to a hot cup of coffee too.

Here I am trying to convey that what she does for you everyday, you do it for her too.
I want to use the first sentence because the usage of 'too'after subject emphasizes more on the latter but I don't know whether it is grammatically correct.


texts: What do you call these long rectangular tables you usually find at McDonald's?

texts: What do you call these type of tables? Bar table? Joined table?


texts:
What's the meaning of this sentence below from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English?

  ▪ Blow me down if she didn’t just run off!

http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/blow-blow-me-blow-it-etc

The Longman Dictionary says you use 'blow me' to show annoyance or surprise and is usually used in British English.
But I still cannot figure out what it means and in what situation it can be used.


texts: In Czech, we have a special word for "leaving a field (agricultural) without seeding, resting." I wonder if English has such a word.


texts: As if + would is correct as in idiomatic use?

texts:
Is the second sentence grammatically correct?

"- I want to drive a Ferrari"
"- As if you would be able to drive it"

I know the sentence "As if you were able to drive it" is correct, but can I use the other one instead of "As if!", for example?

Thanks


texts: Can I use the phrase 'nigh-on-impossible' in a report?

texts:
I'm currently writing an academic report and I began to write out the phrase 'nigh-on-impossible' without a second thought. It then occurred to me that this phrase may actually be slang.

I did a quick Google search and someone on Yahoo answers stated:

  Nigh is the Old English word for "near". The phrase means "nearly
  impossible". There is an alternative: "well nigh impossible" Source

With this in mind, would be it appropriate to use a phrase with such origins in an academic report?


texts: "Steamroller" to describe a person as very determined

texts:
Can "steamroller" be used to describe a person like in the following sentence?

  He is like a steamroller; nothing will stop him from getting work done.

Or are there any other meanings to the word I don't know of? (English is not my mother tongue.)


texts: I haven't been sleeping vs I haven't slept

texts:
I've been awake for 3 days. I want to paraphrase this sentence:

I haven't been sleeping for 3 days.

I haven't slept for 3 days.

Do these sentences have the same meaning ?

Thank you.


texts:
This is a line from the Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare

  Grumio [to Hortensio]: Marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby . . .

Although 'aglet' is an extremely uncommon word, its meaning can easily be looked up. Apparently, it is the sheath  wrapped around the end of a shoelace, keeping the fibers from unraveling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aglet

'Aglet-baby' is much, much more uncommon, if not actually completely exclusive to Shakespeare. It means, according to few sources, a figure or image drawn/carved into an aglet. Here is one source:

https://www.wordnik.com/words/aglet-baby

Although I found the definitions, the line (which is, I think, an attempt to ridicule) does not make sense. "Marry him to a puppet" is understood; but, "marry him to a 'aglet-baby'"?—what does Shakespeare mean exactly?


texts: What does H/F, M/F and M/W abbreviation in job titles mean?

texts:
If you look at some job titles on Stack Overflow Jobs you can come across several abbreviations: H/F, M/F, M/W. It does not look programming specific (excuse me if I'm wrong). E.g.:

  Ruby-on-Rails or AngularJS developer for Open Source project
  (m/f)

  Senior PHP Developer (m/f)

  PHP Softwareentwickler (m/w)

  Team Leader Web .Net (H/F)

What is their meaning?


texts: Is there a word for fake kindness or hospitality?

texts:
Is there a word for faking kindness/hospitality to sound more tactful and decent than you really are (which could be categorized as some sort of hypocrisy)?

For example, saying: Pay us a visit sometime! when you don't really mean it (you are just trying to sound hospitable).

I know this is not a nice thing to do but sometimes people tend to do it, so I thought it would be useful to know if there is a term for describing such an action or to find the closest possible word or phrase in case there isn't one.


texts: Name for the practice of composing sentences for ease and clarity of pronunciation?

texts:
Is there a name for the practice of composing sentences in such a way that they don't contain proximate consonants which cause difficulty when read aloud?

For example: Under this criteria, "dogs and cats" is preferable to "cats and dogs," because the consecutive d s in the latter are difficult to pronounce clearly and distinctly and will force the speaker to either interrupt the flow of speech or elide the first d.


texts: What is the tipping point for "non sequitur"?

texts: What is the point at which a non sequitur morphs into the incongruous?  Is it predicated upon contextual ideas leading up to the statement, or is it subjective based on the conclusion of the idea being propagated?  I'm just curious if there are any hard/fast rules, or is it subjective -- like finding something funny or not?


texts: Is this phrase grammatically correct -- I have been tempering with the idea that ...?

texts:
I thought I have heard of this expression before somewhere a couple of times. If it really means something like "tinkering with the idea"?
Or maybe I remembered wrong?


texts: Is there a technical term for an idiomatic phrase that originates from words that closely resemble each other?

texts:
In the question "History of the phrase 'break wind'" I noted in the comment that the word "break" might have originated from

  the Middle English blowe, blaw,
  northern variant of blēwe, from
  Proto-Germanic ****blewwanan*** 'to beat'
  (compare Old Norse blegði 'wedge',
  German bläuen, Middle Dutch blouwen).

(see http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blow) where blow could mean blow/strike/beat while the "wind" part comes from the word "flatus" which can be traced back to the the OE "blawan" since

  There are three distinct blows in
  English. The commonest, the verb ‘send
  out air’ (OE), can be traced back to
  an Indo-European base *bhlā-. It came
  into English (as Old English blāwan)
  via Germanic *blǣ-, source also of
  bladder. The Indo-European base also
  produced Latin flāre ‘blow’, from
  which English gets flatulent and
  inflate

(see http://www.word-origins.com/definition/blow.html). The words blewwanan and blāwan are so close to each other and I'm guessing that each could have contributed to the coining of "break wind". Is there a technical term for this kind of coinage? If there is, can you give an example?


texts: Describing something which is simultaneously boring and depressing

texts:
There is a special kind of experience which is not only boring but also depressing. However, I don't mean things which are so boring that they are depressing, i.e their depressing nature stems from just how unbelievably boring they are (I suppose I'd describe something  like that as "depressingly boring").

Of course, not all things which are depressing are boring (cf. Requiem for a Dream, American History X). However, there are some things which are so boring and depressing that each quality seems to amplify and feed off the other in an unholy symbiosis. This is the difference between e.g. listening to a sad, boring person drone on for two hours about accounting practices and listening to said person drone on for two hours about accounting practices used by some government to launder money which is used for torturing and killing people.

How can I describe something like this (e.g. with a particular adjective, phrase, whatever) without writing a whole paragraph like I just did?


texts: Etymology of the phrase "Twenty-three Skidoo" as used in "Hey Arnold!"

texts:
The phrase “Twenty-Three Skidoo” has a very interesting and mysterious history described very thoroughly by the wikipedia article on the phrase.

However, this article seems to indicate it’s usually used as a phrase to mean “Let’s get out of here in a hurry!”

The place where I have heard this expression used first, and most firmly in my memory, is from an episode of “Hey Arnold!”, involving the passing of a comet, and the declaration, upon seeing it, of said phrase.

This confuses me, and a number of my friends who have seen this show, since it seems to suggest a very positive or excited expression, when the actual expression seems to be one of fear or distress.

So where does this more positive use of the phrase come from?  And is there a more definite origin of “Twenty-Three Skidoo” that goes unmentioned by the wiki article?


texts: If the direct object is also doing an action can it be a subject?

texts:
For example in a simple sentence such as:

  Jim saw another man eat a cow.

I know that "Jim" is the subject, and "another man" is the direct object. But then is "another man" a subject as well because it "eats" the cow (making the cow a direct object as well)?


texts: Past or present tense in relative clauses in the present

texts:
Which one is grammatically correct? Can we use the relative clause in the past tense, when the main clause is in the present?

Close relatives and friends who moved to other countries, are no longer resorted to spend their money on international calls.

Close relatives and friends who have moved to other countries, are no longer resorted to spend their money on international calls.


texts: Is “ no news is good news” of Italian origin?

texts:
According to Phrase Finder, the origin of the famous proverb “no news is good news”:

  The earliest version of this familiar saying was attributed to the English King James I, who wrote in 1616, 'No newis is bettir than evill newis.'

but they add that:

  Virtually the modern saying appeared some years later in James Howell's 'Familiar Letters' (c. 1645) with the line, 'I am of the Italians mind that said, no news, good news'." From "Wise Words and Wives'.

According to BookBrowse.com, the Italian expression which James Howell referred to was “nulla nuova, buona nuova”:

  The first recorded use of this exact expression in English is by James Howell in 1640, who wrote, "I am of the Italians' mind that said, 'Nulla nuova, buona nuova'.

Italian sources say that the expression “nulla/nessuna nuova, buona nuova” (and all its dialectal variances) derives from the Latin saying “nulla nova, bona nova”.

I could not find other evidence on James Howell in that respect, but I found a 1645 quotation of the exact saying from:

Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae: The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie:

  ... and yet I cannot but find a fault of omission in most of thy latter " dispatches, there being nothing in' them concerning thy health. For though I confesse , that in this no news is good news, yet I am not so satisfied without a more perfect assurance ; I hope thou wilt ...

Ngram appears to suggest a consistent increase in usage of the proverb only from the early 19th century.

Questions:

Is there actual evidence that James Howell really contributed to the usage of the proverb in England drawing on the Italian version, (probably Florentine at that time)?

Or was it just a direct English translation from Latin (quite still in vogue in England at that time) to which probably referred King James I?


texts: When and where was the word "backup" used in this form for the first time?

texts:
What is the etymology of the word "backup" (in the meaning of "a file copy" in computing)? I can't find the origin and the first using of this word in this very meaning. Why is "backup" so called?

There are some sources like this which writes about the first using of "back up" in 1767 and this which writes about the first using of "backup" in 1775 or 1952 (this). But there are no text examples.


texts: What is someone who makes a testimonial called?

texts:
In the context of  advertising/marketing  a testimonial is:

  Written recommendation from a celebrity or satisfied customer affirming the performance, quality, and/or value of a product or service. Testimonials are one of the most potent tools of marketing. (Business dictionary.com)

What is the term used to refer to someone ( generally a celebrity) who makes a testimonial?


texts: What verb to use to denote researching something informally?

texts:
The verb "research" generally fits into academic or otherwise professional settings. As Oxford English Dictionary defines it, research is

  Investigate systematically

    1.1 Discover or verify information for use in (a book, programme, etc.)

With this in mind, what verb can I use to describe the research that I did in a setting similar to the following:

  I just found out that we can go to St. Clements during our visit to London.

Would I say

  I was looking into where we could visit and just found out that we can go to St. Clements during our stay in London.

or is this acceptable

  I was researching about where we could visit and just found out that we can go to St. Clements during our stay in London.

Alternatively, you may also consider this

  I was investigating where we could visit and just found out...

Here is the definition of "investigate" in Oxford English Dictionary:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/investigate


texts: What is the structure of the sentence below?

texts:
What is the structure of the following sentence?

The chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known, a hint she was open to more drastic steps.

In particular, what do "a hint" and "she was open to more drastic steps" do here?


texts: Which phrase is correct, "dependent on" or "dependent upon"?

texts:
Which sentence is correct?

  My project is dependent upon your project completing.

  My project is dependent on your project completing.


texts: Is "Do you got Insurance?" technically correct?

texts: I've been hearing a lot of complaints about this in relation to the Thanks Obamacare campaign in Colorado, but trying to look for information on "Do you got xxx" I don't find too much to actually show that it's right or wrong, no matter how it looks.


texts: Referring a particular website, should I use the noun adjunct or the genitive/possessive?

texts:
I'm wondering if there are any guidelines about using the noun adjunct or the possessive with a website and a company.

Should I write: go to the Twitter website or go to Twitter's website?

AFAIK both are grammatically correct, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, if it does come down to a stylistic choice, is there any reason to pick one camp over the other?


texts:
For example "party"(as a group of people) and "company".

"The company is fine."

But then I've seen people referring to company as "their".

Which it's correct?

"This company is fine, therefor I'll join them". Is this grammatical correct? Or should be "it"?


texts:
I just finished reading K-PAX and I'm looking for a noun to describe the main character prot, a compassionate being who helps people work through their issues. Idiomatically I might say prot leaves things better than he found them.

One word that came to mind is do-gooder, but this unfortunately has an informal, derogatory meaning.

A good opposite for my word is trouble-maker, someone who intentionally (and possibly habitually) stirs up trouble. So I also looked at peacemaker; the definitions I found, though, tend to relate this word more to settling interpersonal conflicts than personal, which is prot's specialty.

Words like humanitarian, philanthropist, and altruist capture the character's desired end-result well but have a more missional tone than what I'm looking for. Although prot was summoned here to help a specific man in need, his kindnesses to others appear secondary (like a hobby, almost) to his goals of researching Earth or waiting for a viable time to return to his home planet.

Is there a better word to describe what I see in prot?


texts: What is the name of the horizontal bar that intersects a window mullion?

texts: Mullioned windows are windows divided into panes by inner frames. The vertical frames are called mullions. What do we call the horizontal frames?


texts:
I'm confused what structure should I go with and why ???
1- I think the existing rules in Africa should be changed.
2- I think the rules existing in Africa should be changed.


texts: Numerical difference between Birthday and Birth Anniversary

texts: My father's DOB is 17.08.1928. Numerically what is his birthday, 89th or 90th.


texts: [Subject pronoun], not [Subject pronoun or Object Pronoun] + predicate

texts:
I know first pronoun is Subject, but what about second pronoun after "not"? Is it subject too like these two quotations? In first, not "he, not her"? In second, not "he, not me"?
Richard Buckham. Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels, p. 1

1. The Female Voice in Ruth

André Brink's novel The Wall of the Plague is written in the first person. The
novelist is a male Afrikaner, the Of the narrative is a "coloured" (mixed race)
South African woman. The thoroughgoing adoption Of a female character's
perspective is intensified by vivid accounts even of distinctively female physical
experience. But in the concluding short section of the novel the voice changes.
The woman's South African white male lover speaks, and in the last two pages
Of the work reveals that he, not she, has written the Story, as an attempt to
"imagine what it is like to be you." As he approaches the task of writing the nar-
rative the reader has just completed, he fears failure: "how can I, how dare I pre-
sume to form you from my rib? ... To do justice to you an essential injustice is
required. That is the heart of my dilemma. I can never be you: yet in order to be
myself I must imagine what it is to be you."2 By this ingenious device of two lev-
els Of fictional authorship, the real author distances himself from the attempt

Andy Rotman. Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism, p. 79

"The householder's son has profited and gained much," he said.
"He, not I, has satisfied the community of monks led by the Buddha
with food and drink. "69


texts: What does this mean: 'Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink'? Why is it funny?

texts:
Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water and make it drink.

I read this on http://chucknorrisfacts.com.  What I think this sentence means, is: Chuck Norris can take his horse to where the water is and then his horse will drink the water. So, what is funny about this? Isn't it something pretty normal?


texts:
In looking at the answers for this question, Using "quite" with a noun, it occurred to me that "quite," although having a dictionary definition, might be used differently by AmE and BrE speakers such that it is not correct to speak about "the correct" use of "quite."

Case in point, WS2's example sentence:

  There were quite a few hundred at the gathering

to my ear (AmE) sounds "wrong," but in the UK this might be everyday usage.

Also the following:

  There were quite 50 people at the house

is something I would express using about / actually / around instead of quite.

Is there a significant usage difference between BrE and AmE usage of "quite?"

This could be viewed as "opinion based" but perhaps there is an objective answer.


texts:
Could “let alone” be used as in the following sentence?

This benefit should not be rejected, let alone  hastily.

Here the “let alone” clause does not mirror “be rejected”; instead, it only has an adverb.
Is it grammatical or not?
Does the second clause forcefully need to say: "be rejected hastily"?
I thank you for your help.


texts: What does the phrase "What you failed to take into account" mean?

texts:
Have you ever made a bad decision?
In hindsight, it’s plain to see what you failed to take into account.

What does this phrase mean?


texts: What does “draw something within something” mean?

texts:
From page 228 of Thinking Like a Lawyer by Frederick Schauer:

  The law is presumed unconstitutional,
  but the state may rebut that presumption by satisfying a
  heavy burden of justification. Conversely, when a statute draws a classification
  within this category of “suspect” classifications, it is presumed to
  be constitutionally permissible and will be invalidated only if the challenger
  meets its burden of proving that the classification is irrational.

This doesn't appear in the legal dictionary or at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/draw?q=draw or Google.


texts:
As far as I'm aware, titles are supposed to be italicised if Rich Text Formatting is available but wrapped in quotation marks if in a plaintext environment.

So, what is the correct way to show a title's possession in plaintext?

Consider the following example:

  The 2nd Law's Animals

The following just doesn't seem right:

  "The 2nd Laws"'s "Animals"


texts:
What is the metaphorical meaning of "olla podriga" in this context?

  Civilisation and barbarism, crudity and culture, the latter depending
  on the European occupant individually, for collectively culture is
  conspicuous by its absence in Ceylon—ancient and modern, everything
  antithetical and anachronal arranged together in a delightful olla
  podriga of the Orient and the Occident.

  Ceylon : The Paradise of Adam - by Caroline Corner - 1908 - pg 7

Edit: According to comments, I guess, as the authoress is a British author, she had misspelled the spanish word "olla podrida", the spanish dish.


texts:
I am confused between these two

Our teachers were not in the school yesterday
Our teachers were not at school yesterday

Similarly

My mother was in the temple yesterday evening
My mother was at the temple yesterday evening


texts:
Innards is defined as "the internal organs of an animal".

Then shouldn't "innard" denote a single internal organ? Or is this a case where a singular noun looks like a plural?


texts:
Is there anything wrong or just clunky about the following sentence:
Consequently, a heated debate ensued on the nature of the monument, receiving varied assessments at the hands of different scholars.
I'm not sure about the gerund but I don't want to use a relative clause either.
Any suggestions?
Thanks a lot.


texts: A phrase to replace "you use" in this sentence

texts:
I'm trying to ask a question to a student, but I really want to avoid using the phrase "you use". I still want to address the student directly but "you use" just feels awkward and clumsy. The sentence is below:

  "Which CSS property should you use to change the color of text?"

Like I said, I want to address the student directly so I wouldn't want something like

  "Which CSS property should be used to change the color of text?"

It's also important to note that many kids will be reading this sentence, so I have to use very accessible language. Any suggestions? (Awkward alliteration is a valid concern to have in writing)


texts: sudo up to root -- I'm not sure if I understand the phrasing correctly

texts:
Source: The Official Ubuntu Server Book, 3nd Edition by Kyle Rankin and Benjamin Mako Hill (2014)

Example:

  This way you force users to log in with their regular accounts and sudo up to root, and you also prevent a user from being able to guess the root password and gain access.

Is sudo up to used as a phrasal verb there? sudo is the name of the command on Linux systems that gives you elevated rights over the system (actually, what it really does is it makes you the root user for a very brief period of time). And root is the default system administrator account on all Linux systems.


texts: Does the arc have to do with the evolution of justice?

texts:
What does "the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice" (said by Martin Luther King) mean in terms of the actual meaning of the word "arc?" I mean, I understand that Dr. King meant that justice was a long time coming more or less but would arrive eventually.

What I don't get is why this hypothetical path of evolving justice is an arc, that is, a portion of the circumference of a circle.

If you started at the beginning of any arbitrary segment of a circumference the curve would begin at a low point, rise to a high point, then descend to the identical original level, if you consider the arc to have been cut out of the circumference and examined on a line with which it intersects only at its beginning and ending point (like a rainbow on the horizon). This configuration is typically the conception of an arc, for example, in cathedrals, in bridges (if you will allow that an arch is the architectural implementation of an arc).

This would be a metaphor for a world beginning with no justice, rising/evolving to widespread justice, then descending to chaos and brutality again.

Am I being obtuse or is there some problem with the metaphor and it is simply not mentioned?


texts: A word for someone who comes from one city but supports a team from a different city?

texts:
Is there a word that describes someone who, for example, supports Manchester United but was neither born nor brought up in Manchester but comes from another city in the UK?

I'm not looking for a rude or humorous word but rather a descriptive one.


texts: What is correct: "I am an account manager" or "I am the account manager"?

texts: While introducing oneself, which should one say, "I am an account manager, or "I am the account manager"?


texts:
How does it sound to an English speaker if no articles are used?
How is it perceived? What do you feel when you are reading it?
What do you feel if adjectives used instead articles?
For example: not "the house is big" but "your house is big" or "this house is big"
In general. Without any specific context.
Thanks!


texts:
The "Deutsche Bahn"  - our German railway exmonopolist - is driving me nuts each time I ride the train, when the conductors tell us

  In 5 minutes, we arrive Bremen

consistently in all trains and from all speakers.

In my young days, I learned it to be "arrive at" or "arrive in" or "reach" ... did I miss something, or is this a coprorate-language-school-quirk?


texts:
Today I listened to a song, Penny Lane.

Today I listened to a Beatles song, Penny Lane.


texts:
I am an English teacher. While teaching my students l am often asked about English idioms and their etymologies and meanings.
As a rule, I can find the answers to their questions.
But there's an idiom which meaning, but not the etymology, l  know:
'Husband's tea'.
It means 'very weak tea'.
At my English classes I often ask the students about their associations with this idiom.
Nearly always they say, 'it's a hot, strong  tea'.
Does anybody know the etymology of this idiom?
I would really appreciate your help.


texts: Is there a grammatical difference with this IDO pronoun then possessive pronoun, or vice versa?

texts:
There's still time to make this a rewarding experience for you and your clients!

There's still time to make this a rewarding experience for your clients and you!


texts: What word would I use for things that are bad for you?

texts: I need a single or double word for a category name for my blog that means: Things that are bad for you, such as smoking, drinking, etc. when you have diabetes. The word must be for all things that can be bad for you.


texts: Is this correct: "[x] is where [explanation]"

texts:
When explaining a concept, for example, recursion, is it valid to use a construction such as:

  Recursion is where a subroutine calls itself.

To my ear, "is where" sounds somewhat weird. Do you think that this is acceptable or should another construction be found?


texts: Meaning of "misuse of the word 'only'" in context

texts:
I am reading the book Learning Python by Mark Lutz, in which there's a passage I don't understand:

  I also want to thank my original editor at O’Reilly, the late Frank Willison. This book was largely Frank’s idea. He had a profound impact on both my career and the success of Python when it was new, a legacy that I remember each time I’m tempted to misuse the word “only.”

Emphasis added. What does he mean?


texts: "She doesn't like fruit" vs. "she doesn't like fruits"

texts:
In the following context, which do you use and why?

  Helen doesn't eat apples or bananas. She doesn't like [fruit/fruits].

I think it is fruit but I'm having a hard time explaining to myself why it isn't fruits. What is the reason?


texts: What do you call the land area around a pond?

texts: Usually "shore" and "beach" are used when talking about a large body of water. But what if we talk about a pond? Is the area around it still called a beach/shore?


texts:
Two's company; three's a crowd

I have checked here

"(Often implies that you want to be alone with the person because you are romantically interested in him or her.)"

My question: Could you say that to elderly people? Is it polite?

Excuse me, but this question really appears from me as a non-native speaker, thank you.


texts:
I am a little confused about the following sentence. And I have just two simple questions about it:

It is been an honour for many individuals to attend such workshop.

1) To what tense this sentence belongs?

2) when I pronounce honour I pronounce h like a ... so should I add an or a before it?

My resource: It is been a pleasure for me to work with him ...
https://youglish.com/search/It%20is%20been%20a%20pleasure?


texts: Official term for “at large” or “on the loose”

texts:
When a convict is illegally out of prison – either escaped, or didn't get to the prison after his conviction – what is the right expression to describe this?

I want the term that is used in official documents, like court files, court orders, etc.


texts: word to make someone feel bad or insulted

texts:
I am looking for a word that can correctly interpret a situation like this

You boss constantly insults you, make you feel like you know nothing or if you are some idiot may be, has no empathy for your feelings, basically insults you around verbally and even in front of others, is bossing around and ordering things like "Go to your pc, find this and come back to me right now", "I am saying, do it right now" etc.

What is the correct word for this situation. I am looking for more than one word.


texts: Is "really" in the sense of "very", American English, or British English?

texts:
Or is it both? If it is American English, what would be the British English equivalent, or vice versa.

"I really like this dress" as in "I very much like this dress"


texts: What does it mean to be "creative along practical lines of endeavour"?

texts: A long time ago I received career guidance and that(the quotation withing the question) was advice given. I am a software developer and I always wanted to understand that statement and whether I am actually following that advice I was given decades ago.


texts: Is it correct to say we have five sense organs?

texts:
There is a difference in type of something and actual number of that thing as per my understanding.
Saying, we have five senses or five kinds of sense organs is okay, but when I say we have five sense organs, that seems incorrect. Eyes should be counted twice.
Consider the following examples.

We have five sense organs

from link.
From yet another link, we get the following sentence.

Names of 78 Organs of The Body

They have counted the organs which come in pairs like eyes, kidneys, etc. only once.
Again if they were to say we have 78 kinds of organs, that would have made sense.
I believe there is something quite wrong in my usage of English language as there are so many examples which go against my line of thought.
English is not my primary language so there is a high chance of that happening.
I would however like to learn and understand where I went wrong, and would like to know which grammar topic should I refresh to understand this better.


texts: Is there a semantic difference between "manipulable" and "manipulatable"?

texts:
In all the sources I can find, the terms "manipulable" and "manipulatable" are both defined as some form of "able to be manipulated". But depending on the source, one word seems to be related to mechanical motion whereas the other is related to the act of persuasion. None of the sources I can find list the two words as actually equivalent to each other, so I can only assume the mechanical/persuasive split is intentional.

Is there a common understanding or historically-supported difference between the semantics of the two words, or should a dictionary list them as alternate forms of each other?


texts: I have named him/he who shall not be named?

texts: I have named him/he who shall not be named. Which of these is correct? I think it should be "him" because "him" is a direct object in this context. In this context, "him/he who shall not be named" is not a proper noun.


texts: When did ‘above’ and ‘below’ start referring to things preceding and succeeding in a written work?

texts:
TL;DR contemporary writers use ‘above’ and ‘below’ for intratextual referencing—how long has this been the case, and did this usage coincide with the introduction of PC publishing software?

I have noticed a number of paper and book authors referring to previous or upcoming parts of their work using the terms ‘above’ and ‘below’, rather than only using those terms for reference within the current page. In my (anecdotal) experience this usage seems to be the norm in contemporary writing.

It seems to me that it would have made little sense back when works were hand-composed into books, where a physical reference like ‘overleaf’, a temporal reference like ‘previously’ or an absolute reference to ‘§ whatever’ would be more intuitive. However, it makes sense conceptually when you consider how a document-in-writing is presented by default in desktop publishing software and LaTeX: as a continuous series of pages aligned top-to-bottom, or as a continual document of markup.

My theory, then, is that this usage of document-wide ‘above’ and ‘below’ references will coincide with the introduction of dekstop publishing and typesetting tools in the 70s/80s, and that before this point these would only have been used to refer to things within a given page. I am not familiar enough with Google Ngrams to determine this myself though.


texts: Was the word for the BDSM costume "gimp suit" coined by Tarantino in Pulp Fiction?

texts:
I recently read the opening chapter of Middlemarch and was surprised by the appearance of the word gimp in relation to articles of clothing.  In this context it meant

  twisted silk, worsted, or cotton with cord or wire running through it, used chiefly as upholstery trimming

However, I was only familiar with the gimp from Pulp Fiction. According to wiktionary this is :

  A sexual submissive, almost always male, dressed generally in a black leather suit.

This is apparently derived from another meaning of gimp that OED dates to the 1920s (origin unknown).

  a physically disabled or lame person

Wiktionary suggests that the word is a mutation of limp and therefore unrelated to gimp fabric. But what about the BDSM sort of gimp, when and where was the first such usage and which came first, the gimp or the gimp suit?  Does the 'sexual submissive' meaning originate from the Tarantino film?


texts:
This is another strange example from South Park I am posting : "How about you come up with the reason why we don’t break your arms?".
Why is the present used in the second part of the sentence? How is it called in grammar? Shouldn't it be "we shouldn’t/wouldn't  break your arms".

Thank you


texts:
Should the word 'squadron' be written with a capital? In some contexts it seems more appropriate than in others, but I'd like to do it consistently.

  The 12th squadron set sail.

versus

  The 12th Battle Squadron of the Imperial Navy

Sources seem a bit contradictory, and even the Wikipedia people have not agreed upon a consistent style, it appears.


texts: Which verb is the best for sending/extending/offering condolences?

texts: Which verb is the best for condolences: send, extend, offer? Or another?


texts: Is past perfect necessary in the following

texts:
I read the following on abcnews, but couldn't convince myself to accept the past perfect form the sentence. What is the action before which the 'had mailed' part has occurred and completed? And why would he use had given up?

  "Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, a Syrian man who fathered Jobs, had emailed his son a few times in a tentative effort to make contact. The father never called the son because he feared Jobs would think the dad who had given him up was now after his fortune."


texts: What is the plural of iPod Touch? Should it be iPods Touch or iPod Touches?


texts: What is a polite way to call something a conspiracy theory?

texts:
"Conspiracy" has acquired a negative connotation.
[Edit: As pointed out in the comments, it has always had a negative connotation.]

If you tell or even insinuate to someone that what they are saying is a conspiracy theory you can be assured that the conversation will soon be coming to an end and the person might begin to dislike you.

Perhaps there is a conspiracy in this, but the word itself has become tainted with terrible imagery. When you hear "conspiracy" you start thinking of a bearded crackpot wearing a tinfoil hat living in a cabin the woods with no internet connection and a shotgun by the bed.

If you tell someone that you think what they are saying is a conspiracy theory they will start to think you are seeing them as the bearded crackpot. They might think you do not respect them (who respects that type of character?) which can lead to resentment and eventually dislike. This is fine if you are talking to someone you don't like, don't know or have no intention of becoming friends with. But when you are talking to friends and / or family members this is not the desired outcome. Even when you don't think this about your friend of family member they can still become offended.

So the question is, how can you tell someone that you think what they are saying is a conspiracy theory without offending them?

Thank you.


texts:
Why do we refer to something related as

our sister_______?

For example:

Please visit our sister hotel
You can find that on our sister site

Why don't we use brother? Is it wrong to use brother?


texts: What "Extravagant culture" could be used as an antonym to "Spartan"?

texts: "Spartan" is an adjective derived from Sparta, an ancient Greek city-state famous for its austerity. The adjective is used today to mean basic and minimal. I'm looking for an antonym, i.e. a culture that implies ornate luxury. The antonyms I'm finding are words like "opulent" or "embellished", which aren't based on a culture or place. Is there an adjective based on a culture or place that implies the opposite of Spartan?


texts: What do you call someone who fakes their feelings?

texts: I'm working on a thesis and I want the thesis to relate to myself so that I'll be able to write a lot of things about it. However, I'm stuck here because I want it to be about my tendency of faking my feelings so that I can make my best friend happy, even though I'm not. Can someone help me?


texts: "The delegation will depart and will be accompanied" vs. "will depart and be accompanied"

texts:
(a) The delegation will depart from the embassy at 9 A.M. and will be accompanied to the airport by the Minister of Sports.

  (b) The delegation will depart from the embassy at 9 A.M. and be accompanied to the airport by the Minister of Sports.

I have two questions about modal-verb ellipsis.

Can we omit the boldfaced modal verb in (a), without changing the meaning of the sentence?
Which sounds more natural, (a) or (b)?


texts: Please explain "I Am America (And So Can You!)"

texts: As a non-native speaker, I found Stephen Colbert’s book title I Am America (And So Can You!) a little hard to dissect. Why so can you? Why isn’t it So Are You? What’s the full phrase that And So Can You implies?


texts:
First, I'm aware of this question: "Let's" vs. "lets": which is correct?

What I want to know is if there are other similar constructions formed by contracting a verb with "us".


texts: What are the differences between "shop," "shoppe," and "store"?

texts: What are the differences between shop, shoppe, and store?


texts: Word or phrase, containing another word or phrase that sounds exactly alike

texts:
I've been searching for this literary concept for two days straight, with no luck. So bear with me please as I explain. I'm looking for the correct term to use when wordplay is used in a way that's related to pronunciation. So, what is it called when you say a word, but if you were to listen to it again (exactly the same way) it could sound like a whole new phrase / concept?

Example 1 : Beyonce's song "in formation"
She sings it saying, "OK ladies now let's get 'in formation'," or one could have heard her say, "OK ladies now lets get 'information'." One could have heard it either way. One way with one full word in itself with no spaces, or another way with a phrase that requires spaces. The trick is both ways sound exactly alike.

Example 2 : the word "queso"
It could be said as "queso" as in the melted cheese, or "K, so?" as in the sarcastic gesture many of us use sometimes. (Another way they both sound the same but can mean two different things.)

Example 3 : "Lettuce Leave"
"Lettuce Leave" simply means a single leaf from a salad or such, or one could use it as a command in a group setting: "Let us leave!"


texts:
It’s commonly said that prepositions take declarative clauses without that. However:

The apartment is nice except that the rent is too high.

You can't always count on it that someone will help.

It seems that Prepositions "except" and "on" are both followed by that-clauses(serving as objects).
In the second example, why should "it" be used and placed between "on" and " that"?


texts: Is there a logical basis to the distinction between nouns and adjectives? Or can any noun function as an adjective (and v.v.)?

texts: In logic, the predicate calculus makes no distinction between "it is human" and "it is a human". Should we?


texts: Adjective meaning 'using creative prose/being poetic'

texts:
Here's the context, somebody has written this:

  Quiet workplace... then - all of a sudden, a loud voice; complaints,
  criticism, aggressiveness. Everyone's attention is drawn to an
  argument - and sometimes the spotlight is on the person being publicly
  executed.

And I want to say something like, 'That paragraph is a bit melodramtic and [uses creative writing for the sake of being entertaining to read], could you edit it to tell us what actually happened?'.


texts:
I am looking for a good resource that can give me some idea of how popular or commonly used a word is. Some of these may be:

WordCount.org -- Indexes the words based on the popularity count. For example, the first word is "the", and the word "amazing" has the rank 4459.
Urban Dictionary -- This does not index words, it just lets users propose their own interpretations of words. Sometimes those interpretations are funny, sometimes just plain absurd. But nonetheless, you can see how many responses a word has gotten and make some assumptions about it's popularity.

Can someone tell me something better?


texts: I want to say "My brother and I are twins" in another way. Is it right to say 'My brother is my twin' ?


texts: What does the word "enterprise" mean here?

texts:
"For now, the focus at Clear Labs is on indexing for the enterprise, one that includes creating a future where food brands can be proactive rather than reactive to outbreaks or recalls."

Here's the original article.

I suppose it can mean "project" but I am not sure.


texts: How did "chopped liver" come to mean "of little value"?

texts:
Where did the phrase "chopped liver" originate?

Why does it mean "of little value"?


texts: In the song Papa Was a Rollin' Stone, what does rolling stone mean?


texts: Vocabulary word for something sweet yet sour at the same time.

texts: Ok so I'm doing a Screen-write for a Romance-Comedy. It based of a "Sweet n' Sour" Relationship/Love.. But I need a Vocab word to title the story. Was thinking.... "Salted Love." but..... idk, I'm open for ideas.


texts: Are these two the same when used to express "keep it up" or "survive a little longer"? Also, I often hear people say "hang in there", but I rarely hear people say "hang on there".


texts: when you say "throw back" some drinks, is the word replaceable with "gulp"?

texts:
This is the whole sentence from the article:

"R went to the bar, where he and other friends threw back drinks, the photos show."


texts:
Which preposition, for or to, is correct in below sentence?

  It is less stressful [for/to] a child than an adult to learn a foreign language.


texts:
Which of these two are more correct?

  1) When clicking the Edit customer button, I would expect the changes be
  transferred to the edit view.

or

  2) When clicking the Edit customer button, I would expect the changes to be
  transferred to the edit view.