texts: Adjective to describe "just because... doesn't necessarily mean..."

texts:
This is one of those phrases used very commonly (and apparently subject to lots of scrutiny on this website), but is difficult to define and also far too long to submit to a reverse dictionary.

Let's say there's a situation with two outcomes. If outcome Y occurs, this means X must also have occurred. However, if we're only told that X occurred, we know nothing on whether outcome Y occurred or not.

The specific example for which I need this adjective is describing venom in spiders:

  All spiders are venomous, but not all spiders have lethal enough venom to kill humans.

In this case, “lethal to humans” is outcome Y and "venomous" is X: if you're told that a spider is lethal to humans, you know that it must be venomous, but if you're told that the spider is venomous, you have no idea whether or not it can kill humans.

I can also word it as “Just because a spider is venomous, does not necessarily mean it kills humans.”

This "just because... doesn't necessarily mean..." phrase is used so often in common English that I'm convinced that there has to exist a one-shot adjective to describe the entire situation.

Following is a list of words that others have suggested that I think aren't accurate - if I was interpreting any of these incorrectly, please let me know.

mutually exclusive: would be correct if X and Y were traits that never occurred together
syllogism: describes a different logical scenario (3 statements: major, minor, conclusion)
modus ponens: only describes half of the relationship, the "Y implies X part"
prerequisite: only describes X, I want an adjective that describes X and Y's relationship
necessary and sufficient: only describes half of the relationship, the "Y implies X part," plus both words have different meanings in statistics and colloquial English
co-dependent: only has an irrelevant definition in psychology
converse implication: only describes Y, I want an adjective that describes X and Y's relationship
materially conditional: only describes half of the relationship, the "Y implies X" part

Question
What is the adjective?

TL;DR: "Individuals who value honesty above all tend to come off as insensitive to their peers, but just because I am honest does not necessarily mean I am insensitive. Thus, honesty and insensitivity are _____ traits."

What is the adjective that should fill in the blank?


texts: "Going down the rathole" vs. "Going down the rabbit hole."

texts:
I hear/read the phrase "going down a/the rathole" used as a synonym for the phrase "going down a/the rabbit hole," the later taken from chapter 1 - "Down the Rabbit Hole" of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.
For example, "let's not go down a rat hole," "that topic is a rathole," etc.  I've often encountered this in meetings where a topic or past event is brought up and is then responded to with "let's not go down that rat hole," or a similar variation used to state that a topic, or issue is so confusing, complex, or outside of reality and reason that it would be impossible or at least not beneficial to discuss.  There could a time component, but the main point is being unable to reason about something.
Google's definition of rathole is

noun: rathole; plural noun: ratholes; noun: rat-hole; plural noun:
rat-holes

informal a cramped or squalid room or building.
NORTH AMERICAN informal used to refer to the waste of money or resources. "pouring our assets down the rathole of military
expenditure"

One of Wikipedia's explanations of rabbit hole is

"down the rabbit hole", a metaphor for an entry into the unknown, the
disorientating or the mentally deranging, from its use in Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland a slang expression for a psychedelic
experience, from the same usage.

I cringe when I hear rathole used instead of rabbit hole, because of two issues:

What exactly is a rat hole (is this really a widely known fact or idea)?
The deeper idea (e.g. magnitude of the confusion) trying to be conveyed seems to be lost with rathole because the reference to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is at worst lost, or at best greatly degraded. Consider vanity versus narcissism -- the later having a mythological aspect which communicates a larger idea in a single word.

My question is this, are both usages correct/synonymous to state that discussing an issue or past experience would be so disorienting, complex, or confusing, so as to not be beneficial?


texts: What can come after a Possessive Adjective?

texts:
This sentence:
"Today's my breakfast"
means:
"Today is my breakfast"

But if it is written like:
"My today's breakfast"
it would mean:
"The breakfast I eat today" (literal).
"Today" then acts as an adjective in the sentence, right?

Can a possessive adjective come before an adjective (such as listing adjectives: big, wooden, colorful chair)? Or is "today" in all of these sentences acting as a different part of speech?


texts: Is there an antonym for "dim"/ synonym for "lighten?"

texts: I'm looking for a word that refers to when a dark room is slightly lightened- for example, by a candle or a weak lightbulb, but not so much that I could use "brightened" to describe the action. "Lighten" works, but I'm wondering if there's a word that fits better in this situation.


texts:
A new study has shown that millions of pieces of junk floating in  space could be a big hazard for satellites orbiting Earth.

Is there an implicit 'which are' in front of floating in space? Why is 'which are'
 not written?


texts: Whoever or whomever: 'happy for ___ has the pleasure of working with you next.'

texts: So sad to lose you, yet happy for whomever has the pleasure of working with you next.


texts: All outputs from Cambridge Dictionary, Merriem Webster Dictionary and others like oxforddictionaries state it as an adjective. My question is can it be used as a noun? If yes, could you provide examples?


texts: What do all the ways to express past events mean, and when is one better than the others?

texts:
I’d like to clear convey that the documents were all “sent on this day, the twenty-third of August”, which is today as of this writing. When would you use each of these constructions?

I sent all the documents 23 August.
I have sent all the documents 23 August.
I had sent all the documents 23 August.

Or is there a better way to write it so that it reads more clearly and will be better understood?  What about:

I did send all the documents 23 August.


texts:
From the perspective of grammar, the female equivalent of son obviously is daughter.

But here's my question: It seems to be some kind of cliché that some people (Priests, wise men, or even real fathers)  refer to young boys by "son" when speaking directly to them: e.g., "Son, you know that..."

Simply putting it in the correct female form "Daughter, you know that..." feels wrong, somehow. How would a person often calling young boys "son" call young girls?

What about - Again, we're talking about some kinds of stereotyped clichés here - a priest with an adopted daugther? I could definitely imagine him calling an adopted son son, while I don't know what such a person would call a daugther.

Asking because I am currently practicing my English by writing a small story.


texts:
The oxford online dictionary defines the word abound as follows:

  abound: Exist in large numbers or amounts.
  abound in/with Have in large numbers or amounts.

but, today I came across the following statement:

  Generally in life you have to learn to abase and abound.

I am familiar with the word abase, it's meaning is apparent. But what does it mean to "learn to abound"? I certainly don't suppose it means to learn to exist in large numbers.


texts: Is there a simple word for "increasingly/decreasingly frequent"?

texts:
Let's say I'm creating a mobile questionnaire for people in which I ask about their usage patterns of some tool.  The user can specify a period of time in which they used a tool, so perhaps between February and March they started to use a hammer, and as they got more confident with it, they ended up using it more and more frequently, then between March and today they used it every day.

I want to represent those choices with a nice label off to the left, and a SegmentedControl to the right, as there are only three options.

My problem is I can't come up with descriptions more concise than "increasingly often", "even throughout" and "decreasingly often", and so I come here to find out the obvious thing I've forgotten.

(I of course can rearrange the layout so the label is on top, or switch to a different input method, but I'd prefer to change the words if possible).


texts:
Have you ever heard someone pronounce Saturday as "Sara-day" or maybe "Sair-day"?

I’ve an in-law who does this. His parents were New Englanders, but by the time he was born, they lived in New Jersey and later, Ohio. He continues to reside in Ohio to this day and is about 70.


texts:
What does crowded out mean in the following sentence?

  Adultery and theft of food or animals were crowded out by highway
  robbery, pickpocketing and other crimes common to an increasingly
  industrial and urbanized center.


texts: Past Simple/Present Perfect. Result or fact?

texts:
The Oxford English Dictionary chose/has chosen the neologism 'omnishambles' as its Word Of The Year for 2012.

It's a result. It was chosen. And is true now. In my opinion it's better with Present Perfect. But my private tutor says it's a fact about the past, so it should be Past Simple. I need opinions of English gurus.


texts: What's the meaning of the expression "pinstripe rodeo"?

texts: What kind of a situation or event might be described as a pinstripe rodeo?


texts:
It is not that I hated meeting him, but it wasn't a "pleasure" either. Not because I have some problems with him but because I don't get usually enchanted when meeting someone for the first time.

I don't want to lie by saying "Same here"!

How to respond to someone who says "Pleasure to meet you", but you don't feel the exact same thing?


texts: how to say "people who live near the sea, on the coast"

texts:
How could you describe the population who lives in a seaside town?

For example, in a sentence like:

  We _________ [people who live near the sea]  love to walk on the beach even in winter.

Or something like that


texts:
Suppose Jeff was born on 1/1/1982.  He went missing a long time ago.  At the present time, he could be either dead or alive, but nobody knows for sure:

1 "If Jeff is still alive today, he is 30 years old."
2 "If Jeff is still alive today, he will be 30 years old."
3 "If Jeff is still alive today, he would be 30 years old."

Which one is standard English?


texts: Is “the One” self-explanatory in the line, “If 2008 was about exalting the One, 2012 was about the disenchanted Democratic base.”

texts:
Subsequent to my question about Club’s telephone tips in Maureen Dowd’s article, "Mitt Romney is the president of white male America” in New York Times (Nov. 10), I was interested in the usage of “the Ones” in the following sentence:

    “Just like the Bushes before him, Romney tried to portray himself as
    more American than his Democratic opponent. But America’s gallimaufry
    wasn’t knuckling under to the gentry this time.

  If 2008 was about exalting the One, 2012 was about the
  disenchanted Democratic base  deciding: “We are the Ones we’ve
  been waiting for.”

There is no explanation about “the One" and "the Ones” in this paragraph, and before and after this sentence. Although I surmise “the Ones” means We, awaken populace – middle class, colored, ethnic, college students, working females, and you can name it, I don’t know what it exactly mean.

Are “the One" and "the Ones” self-explanatory to native speakers, when “one” and "ones" are written with the capital O.

What are the exact definitions of “the One / Ones”? Is the difference (upper case O vs lower case O) discernable in audio, i.e. when they are read out?


texts: What does the word, “blond” in “Donald Trump gets more chesty. And more blond” meean?

texts:
Maureen Dowd’s article in New York Times (August 22) under the title, “Donald Trump Struts in His Own Pageant” starts with the following lines;

  “SOME blondes have all the fun. As Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush get
  more testy, Donald Trump gets more chesty. And more blond.”
  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-donald-trump-struts-in-his-own-pageant.html?action

COD (10th Ed.) simply defines ‘blond / blonde’ as (1).adj. fair or pale yellow, having fair hair and a light complexion. (2). Women with blonde hair.

OALD defines ‘blond / blonde’ as (1). adj. (of hair) pale gold in color. (2.) n.(of a person) having blond hair.

I can easily understand Mr.Trump's hair gets grayer (or whiter). But can 69-year old man go 'more blond'? Actually his hair looks whiter than before.

What does “Donald Trump gets more blond (or darker)” mean? Does it have special connotation more than COD and OALD's definitions?


texts: Which preposition is correct for this sentence?

texts:
The metropolian museum is located in new york city and is among the most visited art museums ---- the world
     IN the world or OF the world?
I just had exam and im so nervous that i got this one wrong.


texts:
When we are not playing competitive games, our three touring teams play against three exhibition teams.

What do the bold terms mean?


texts: Which tense is appropriate? Simple or Perfect?

texts:
Consider the following two sentences:

Many buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.
Many buildings had been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.

Which is appropriate, and why? I think both the sentences are right.
Could someone please clarify?


texts: How to differentiate agents that cause harm but may or may not have the intent of doing so?

texts:
If I harm someone/something without having the intent to do so, am I being aggressive, hostile, or something else? What if I had the intent?

I'm looking for ways to describe and differentiate agents which cause harm without intent (sometimes without even consciousness, e.g. a disease) from agents that cause harm with intent (e.g. me, hitting someone because I'm angry at them).

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Background information:

I'm writing an article about the risks of a possible emergence of artificial intelligences with human-level intelligence or beyond. One important part of it is explaining to the author that an AI could cause harm to humans without any intent to do so (much like I do when I accidentally step on ants during a walk in the park). Alternatively, it could also decide to harm humans and then act accordingly. I consider both cases fundamentally different, and I refer to them throughout the case, so it would be convenient to have an adjective that summarizes those alignments.


texts: What is the difference between "proven" and "proved"?

texts: "Proven" and "proved" both seem to mean the same thing. Are there any differences in meaning or usage between them?


texts: What are the letters that are pronounced as 2 letters?

texts:
I have noticed that there are letters embedded in other letters once pronounced.

I noticed that in these words:

Numb: b is silent but when you finish pronouncing the word with M letter, lips will be closed, whenever you open them again the letter B comes

Try that, say Num (without B) once finish lips will be closed.
Open lips, then you can hear a soft B when lips got open

Thomson: similarly after finishing the first part Thom, then start saying the next part, you can feel P in between making it sounds like Thompson.

Jail: it will sound like Djail.

Are there any other letters that have any other letters embedded in it?


texts: Pronunciation of "Wales" and "whales" in Scotland

texts:
I was brought up in Japan and I was taught that w and wh are pronounced differently. But after I came to the US I learned that they mostly sound the same.

Now I watched this Youtube video where Craig Ferguson apparently misspoke Prince of Wales as Prince of Whales and the audience laughed.

It looked like Craig (who is from Scotland) was comfortably distinguishing two sounds. Is it a trait of Scottish English that it distinguishes w and wh? Or is it that even in the US the sounds w and wh are distinguished when they form a minimal pair like Wales and whales? (i.e. in the case of what, there's no word wat, so you don't have to pronounce h in what; but to distinguish Wales and whales you need to pronounce h.)


texts: I've heard meelee, meyley (maylay), and mehlay. Is there any "correct" way to pronounce it in the U.S.?


texts: "to prefer something over something" or "to prefer something to something"

texts:
Which syntax is more correct:

  to prefer something over something else

or

  to prefer something to something else

or maybe both are correct?


texts:
What rules are there for when you have three sets of quotation marks?

“I saw that Julia was really annoyed when Mike answered, “‘Blade Runner,’”” John said.

(‘Blade Runner’ in singles. Mike answered in doubles. John said in doubles.)

“I saw that Julia was really annoyed when Mike answered, ‘“Blade Runner,”’” John said.

(Mike answered in singles. “Blade Runner” in doubles. John said in doubles.)

Rewriting might help a little.

“When Mike answered, “‘Blade Runner,’” Julia looked really angry,” John said.

(Mike answered in doubles. ‘Blade Runner’ in singles. John said in doubles.)

Basically, I’m wondering whether you alternate, or start small and get bigger until you can’t get any bigger.

The conventions may vary according to British or American usage, so please state which one you are refering to.


texts: The word 'nuance' used in context of politics/politicans

texts:
I often see the word 'nuance' used when describing a politicians views. One example of this in a sentence is that "This person lacks nuance." I'm having trouble understanding this in the context of the main definition which is "a subtle difference in or shade of meaning, expression, or sound." Is there a separate meaning when used in this context?

Here are some other examples: https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+nuance


texts:
I've checked in LGWSE by Douglas Biber, Stig Johannson et al (2004) but failed to find the explanation as to what the cases of usage of the comparative degree are.

In all Russian grammar texbooks of the English and Russian languages that I referred to is mentioned that "we use a comparative degree when we compare two people, animals or things" while "we use the superlative degree when we compare three people, animals or things or more".

Does it mean that we can't use a comparative degree when we compare three people, animals or things under any circumstances? In New Round-Up #3 there's a sentence that goes like this: Jill's older than Pedro and Nora. It contradicts the rule, doesn'it?


texts: Origin of "Don't ask the question if you're not prepared to hear the answer"?

texts: It is a saying, or life advice perhaps. Not everyone is taught it. Where did it come from? The Bible? A philosopher? Literature? Does it have a canonical name?


texts: What is the word for cronyism based on favoring an ethnic or religious background (not friendship)

texts:
Is there a word, similar to cronyism and nepotism, that means “favoring people of a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity, regardless of their expertise”.

I was thinking racism, but I’ve always understood that as the belief that one race is superior to another. But cronyism isn’t the belief that your friends are superior to others. They just get preferential treatment. So racism doesn’t seem right.

For example: a Russian person gets appointed as a hiring manager, and over the next year 60% of the staff have been replaced by Russians.


texts:
To his amusement, Jason realized that the words Madam Curie anagrammed to Radium Came.

Is the above sentence idiomatic? I am not sure if I can use anagrammed to. If this is inacceptable, what is the best verb or verb phrase to express the desired meaning?


texts: "You may tell a man thou art a fiend, but not your nose wants blowing; to him alone who can bear a thing of that kind, you may tell all"

texts:
You may tell a man thou art a fiend, but not your nose wants blowing; to him alone who can bear a thing of that kind, you may tell all. – Johann Kaspar Lavater

Could somebody explain the meaning of the above aphorism, here thou art that relates to "Tat tvam asi" of Upanishads, fiend refers to enemy but still the meaning is not clear.


texts:
Sometimes "missing from" feels appropriate - e.g. "...was missing from the answer key."

Sometimes "missing in" feels appropriate - e.g. "...was missing in the answer key."

A search for guidance didn't yield much.

How to decide when to use "from" and when to use "in" in this context?  If the answer is that it depends, please provide examples to clarify on what the (more) appropriate choice depends.


texts: Knowledge Triumphant or Triumphant Knowledge?

texts: Franz Rosenthal has a philological monograph on the historical meaning and usages of the term 'ilm in Islam. It's called Knowledge Triumphant (1970). Now I don't understand if this is the the correct sequence of adjective and noun in English. If Triumphant is an adjective, should't it be reverse: Triumphant Knowledge?


texts:
What's the difference between résumé and CV?

When is résumé used? And when is CV used? Are they equivalent?


texts: Is the term "fire and forget" well understood?

texts:
When referring to people's skills, my (IT) circle sometimes refer to a person as being "fire and forget." This would indicate that you could tell such a person to accomplish a task, and they'd work it out themselves without constant supervision. The (to me) obvious etymology would be a fire-and-forget missile where the operator simply needs to target the weapon once as opposed to, say, a wire guided missile that requires needs to be manually guided to its target.

Is "fire and forget" widely understood in this context or is it just a geek thing?


texts:
What is the difference  between term and period in meaning distance in time?

Is it possible to use one or both of them when we describe a point in time (We have time till 1st of December so we have to finish the project within this term/period) and when we describe duration (We have two weeks so we have to finish...)?


texts: A more formal way of saying "pointing out"

texts:
The goal of an edge detection algorithm is identifying pixels that
  belong to an edge of an object in an image ...

The rest of the sentence should say something along the lines of "and point them out by ..." - but "point out" seems too informal.

Pointing out is also the wrong phrase because the pixels don't need to actually be "displayed" to some user at all, and most likely will just be used as information for some next step.

So the word/phrase I am looking for should not imply something visual, but informative.


texts:
Is the word best monomorphemic?

I'm not too sure about this. Can someone please help?


texts: "Do you ever see him anymore"—can "ever" and "anymore" be used in the same phrase like this?

texts:
In a group chat today, I wrote "Do you ever see him anymore" and one of my peers pointed out it wasn't grammatically sound. I found nothing wrong with that statement, but he went on to state the issue was with my use of ever and anymore in the same sentence. He was unable to explain any further why it would be wrong, and I can understand that since like most people, I can usually identify poor grammar simply because it does not "sound right" while unable to explain why.

If there is something wrong with that phrase, can someone please explain why?


texts:
I am doing homework and I got confused about this phrase when I was writing. I am not a native English speaker.

  (...) and the only way to do this was taking control of everything and being authoritarian towards the people who/that could not do anything about it.

I would be grateful if you help me clarify which word should I use.


texts:
I want some example sentences with each of the words (used as adjectives) to better understand how I can use them! The sentence I want to write is:

  The actual culprit is portrayed as a well-educated scientific man, which makes him less _____.

Should I use suspectful here? In my understanding is someone suspicious when they suspect something, and a thing or a person can be suspectful when they are suspected. Am I right?


texts:
Take these sentences which make use of the noun advantage:

  There are advantages and disadvantages to working in this industry.
  The advantages and disadvantages of working from Home.

My question is:
What is the difference between the use of prepositions 'to' and 'of' after advantage?

Also, sometimes people use phrases with 'to' like in the following:

  there are a couple elements to this process

Would it be correct to use 'of' (a couple elements of this process)?


texts: What does "Chugger" mean [in American English]?

texts:
I guys, I've come across a video on Youtube and I didn't understand what does Chugger mean in this conversation :

Guy 1: What do you name it (the car)?
Guy 2: I'm thinking about naming it Chugger, it looks like a little Chugger.

Thanks.


texts:
If I was to be asked a question like: "What will the witches look like?", how will I respond to it would I say The witches would look like... or The witches will look like....

The example shows someone asking me how I will plan for something, so surely if your planning something you would be be doing it in the future (tense). However why does would sound right in my head?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Which is correct, “you and I” or “you and me”?

When I was in primary school, I was advised by my English teacher to use "you and I" instead of "you and me." I know some people out there still use "You and me." Can anyone explain why we should use "you and I" and what is wrong with "you and me"?


texts: Is a comma still required between "said" and a quote if no one actually says anything?

texts:
For example

He gave me a look that said "Don't you dare."

Should a comma still be placed after said?


texts: What does "prophetic pins" mean in Dickens's David Copperfield?

texts:
This is from the first chapter:

  My mother was sitting by the fire, but poorly in health, and very low
  in spirits, looking at it through her tears, and desponding heavily
  about herself and the fatherless little stranger, who was already
  welcomed by some grosses of prophetic pins, in a drawer upstairs, to a
  world not at all excited on the subject of his arrival...

What are those pins? How do they look like? Why are they called like that? Why pins? Why prophetic?
Then there is another mention of them:

  ‘Bless the Baby!’ exclaimed Miss Betsey, unconsciously quoting the
  second sentiment of the pincushion in the drawer upstairs, but
  applying it to my mother instead of me, ‘I don’t mean that. I mean
  your servant-girl.’

So there were also some words there? What words and why?


texts: What is the origin of the expression "I'm a fast read"?

texts:
I have encountered the expression "I'm a fast read" in recent American literature, articles and blogs. I understand the meaning, but given its unusual phraseology (using read as a verbal noun), I  am curious about its origins. Google turns up nothing substantive regarding it.

Usage examples:

  If I were you I would get ready to implement this proposal, the President is a fast read.”
  From Genetic Swaps an Ethical Dilemma
  By Nickolas Bay.


texts: "First thing I did" vs "First thing I have done"

texts:
What is the difference between the simple past and present perfect in the following?

When I first got here, I bought a car. [Assuming I still own the car]. This is the first thing I have done.
When I first got here, I bought a car. [Assuming I still own the car]. This is the first thing I did.


texts: What is the process called to change "fire" → "fiery"?

texts:
It's clearly not "conjugation", and I'm not even sure which keywords to use for google to help on this. Without having time to dedicate my next few days to read though linguistics textbooks, I thought the experts here might know.

Is it just "the adjective form"? There must be a name for the process that takes a noun and turns it into an adjective.


texts: Word for the point where you can feel the music throughout your body

texts:
When you are listening to music and you continue to turn the volume up, there is a certain point where you just sorta feel "full" of the music. It is a fabulous feeling. Is there a specific word for this?

I thought nirvana may apply but I wasn't sure.


texts: Is “Waste ‘much time’ and ‘many trees’” a set phrase?

texts:
I saw the phrase, “Much air time and many trees have been wasted” in the article of New York Times (March 24) titled, “The Outsourced Party.” It begins with the following sentence:

“Who speaks for the Republican party? The answer is that everyone does — and therefore, no one does.
Much air time and many trees have been wasted trying to explain the division, rancor and lethargy that have beset the Republican nominating campaign, now into its second year and threatening to run all the way to the party’s national convention in late August. But it’s no great mystery.”

I am amused with the combination of “air time “and “trees.” I can understand “waste (air) time.” I can relate 'time' to 'money', but am puzzled why “trees". “  I checked GooglNgram and found no entry of “waste much time and many trees.”
Is “waste much time and many trees” a set phrase? What does “trees” represent for here?


texts: Is the repeated use of units in sentence okay?

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  Also on Fig. 2, is the estimated price of a pizza at five locations along the highway (z=0, 4, 6 and 8km).

or

  Also on Fig. 2, is the estimated price of a pizza at five locations along the highway (z=0km, 4km, 6km and 8km).

or

  Also on Fig. 2, is the estimated price of a pizza at five locations along the highway (z=0km, z=4km, z=6km and z=8km).

which is a proper way to present units?


texts: How does the hyphen change the meaning in expressions like "high performance" and "high-performance"?

texts:
I'm wondering about the distinction between expressions like "high performance" and "high-performance", or "high level" and "high-level" and other similar pairs of words which are sometimes used with a hyphen and sometimes not.

Am I right that without the hyphen, the first word is an adjective and the second a noun, whereas with the hyphen, the pair should be used as an adjective and would need a noun to go with it? Also, am I right that some expressions, such as "high-performance computing" have an established meaning and are usually used with a hyphen?

Examples:

High-performance is often desired ... (incorrect use)
High performance is often desired ... (correct use)
High-performance computing is ... (correct use)
High performance computing is ... (correct use but not following established norm)


texts: Why is the word "whatnot" a construction of "what" and "not"?

texts:
I've done some online etymological research on the word "whatnot", but I've been unable to figure out why it is a construction of "what" and "not".

How does the combination of the words "what" and "not" relate to the meaning of "whatnot" (simply, anything)?


texts: U-English of the 1950s: what was used instead of "ON holiday"?

texts:
I am reading U and non-U by Alan S.C. Ross, written in 1956. He wrote that the preposition on was non-U in the following sentence:

  She's on holiday

This made me wonder what the correct U preposition or other expression was. I tried some prepositions in Ngrams, like at, with, and in, but none made me any wiser; I saw mainly noun adjectives and other noise. Does anyone have an idea what other preposition or expression might have been used?

(Search words: on holiday, U, non-U)


texts:
I have been singing a lot of children’s songs lately, and this afternoon in the car I noticed three songs that add an ‑o to the end of words:

  “He had many a mile to go that night before he reached the town-o” from The Fox (no relation)
  “A rare bog, a rattlin’ bog, the bog down in the valley-o” from The Rattlin’ Bog
  “Day-o, me say day-o, daylight come and me wanna go home” from Day-o

This is not used for engineering a rhyme.  I had considered two other possibilities. One is that it is used to extend closed consonant sounds, but this obviously doesn't hold up for valley and day.

My other theory was that it was for fitting meter, but this seems doubtful.  You could substitute a comparable word to fit the meter (village instead of town, for instance).  Also, valley could easily be stretched to fit. And finally, in the song “Day‑o”, there is a part of the song where the ‑o is dropped, but otherwise the line is the same: “Day, me say day, me say day, me say day‑o...”

Aside from the song lyrics, it seems there are examples of this phenomenon in spoken language that may be related.  For example, boyo, bucko, kiddo, daddy‑o, and various nicknames like Rocko, Jacko, and so on.

So where does this ‑o come from, and what purpose does it serve?


texts: What is the meaning of "Who has taken you from crayons to perfume?"


texts: What does "P.U." (in reference to stinkiness) stand for?

texts:
"What does {holding nose} P.U. mean?" my son asked me tonight. I told him I didn't know, and he laughed and said "It means stinky, Mommy!"  Very funny and well said, but it left me wondering.

A search of Wikipedia and Etymology Online came up wanting and my etymological dictionaries are packed in boxes.  What does this abbreviation stand for and why does it mean stinky?


texts: What is a word similar to FYI but not objective/neutral

texts:
FYI can be used in an email to inform the person reading the email about some information. It is comfortable using this between peers. But what if the mail is intended to inform someone higher in the hierarchy(manager or director of a group) about something. Is there a short phrase instead of writing "Just want to inform you, ...", etc.

FYI, sounds a bit bland and too neutral. I want the word to convey some respect too.


texts: "used force to arrest" vs. "used force in arresting"

texts:
I came across this sentence from a news article, saying "Police used force in arresting protesters." And I thought that this sentence should be like "Police used force to arrest protesters."
After a brief survey, I realized that both are grammatically correct. Could anyone tell me about the differences between "to arrest" and "in arresting"?
Thank you for your help.


texts:
Which of these is correct?

  Our company has a philosophy that "People Matter".

  Our company has a philosophy that "People Matter."

Does the period go inside the quotes here or outside?


texts:
What is the meaning of "number 12" in the below sentence:

  You keep it up you're gonna put your number 12 down on a still some day an' git [sic] your head blowed [sic] off

EDIT: For more context, I've typed up the entire paragraph.

  "Understand you're quite a dancer," he informed me after waiting to see if I was going to continue. I wondered how much of his tomato face was due to weather and how much to alcohol. Around us the little bar-room conversations had died out. He wasn't satisfied to accept my silence. "I see you peart [sic] near ev'y [sic] day out thumpin' [sic] around that bresh [sic] out yonder," he said to me. "You keep it up you're gonna put your number 12 down on a still some day an' git [sic] your head blowed [sic] off."

  "I carry a spare."
  He didn't get it for a minute. When he did he clouded over. "You in town for long Arnold?"

Arnold is a 'tree surgeon'. So now that I looked at it, it may just refer to one  of his tools (maybe an axe?). The author hadn't once mentioned a shotgun, although that does seem to make sense.

My original guess that that 'number 12' was a body part of sorts.


texts: Word for something that is either transparent or opaque, but can describe both

texts: This word would cover everything from completely transparent glass to the kind of opaque glass that you would get in a bathroom. I first thought that opaque would cover the definition, but it appears to specifically apply to a material that you can't see through.


texts: Alternate phrase for "be damned" to avoid profanity

texts:
How could you rephrase something like this usage of "be damned" to avoid profanity, but without losing the emphasis conveyed by the idiom itself?

  I'm going to ask this question on StackExchange, moderators be damned!

(Just kidding moderators, I love you!)


texts: Why is "soccer" pronounced with a hard "c"?

texts: I have seen that in "soccer", the 'c' is pronounced as 'k', though it is followed by 'e'. The word "soccer" comes from "(As)soc(iation football) + -er". But even in "Association", the 'c' is followed by 'i' and is pronounced as 's'. Then what is the reason for the 'k' pronunciation in "soccer"?


texts: -est vs. -st verb endings in Early Modern English

texts:
I've been Googling for a little while tonight, but I can't seem to find any rules on this.

Irregular ("strong") verbs seem to be pretty set in their endings: goest, dost. But when I get to something like "bring", it seems almost like "bringst" and "bringest" are equally valid, and I can't find any examples to lead me to one sort of rule or another. If anyone could shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it.


texts: How do you use the word "artifact" correctly?

texts:
I have heard the word artifact come up a few times in Computer Science parlance and have been bit confused surrounding its proper usage.

I have read in the dictionary that its second (non physical) definition is:

  artifact: something observed in scientific investigation or
  experimentation that is not naturally present but occurs as a result
  of the preparative or investigative procedure

To me this definition seems a bit abstruse and is not quite concrete.

I have heard it used in the context "that is an artifact of X" (X being some specific thing). What exactly does this mean and how should it be used? Any example sentences with a few more tangible usages would be greatly appreciated.


texts: What is an antonym for dense in the context of material properties?

texts:
I am looking for an antonym for dense in the context of material properties. Specifically, bulk materials which possess negligible porosity, i.e. sound materials.

An example usage sentence might be

  Steel is more dense than aluminum, but aluminum is more [_] than steel.

Naturally, one should simply say "less dense" instead of "more [_]" as the former is idiomatic and unambiguous. Still, there is a nagging curiosity of whether such an ideal antonym exists.

Colleagues and I have thought of several candidate words which do not quite have the right meaning, but might be close:

airy: implies porosity and/or the presence of air
light: not the correct semantics as this word applies to weight
sparse: seems to imply atoms are further apart, which is generally not correct (density has little or no correlation with interatomic spacing in homogeneous mono-atomic materials)

and for fun, a made-up word which immediately springs to mind: un-dense.

Are there any superior antonym choices for the desired meaning?


texts: Can an adjective be converted into a noun by '-s'?

texts:
I saw a passage "this doesn't mean to get riches and honors."
'rich' is an adjective but 'riches' is a plural noun according to the dictionary.
Are there any other examples where an adjective becomes a noun by adding suffix '-s' or '-es'? or 'riches' is the only case?


texts: What is the exact definition of the expression 'A Rat's Chance'?

texts:
I started to learn English.
Watching series like popular 'The X-Files' etc is very useful.
In the 6th episode of the 10th season I found the expression 'A rat's chance'.
What does it mean?


texts: Is "Dutch wife" one of those "Dutch words"?

texts:
The term "Dutch wife" is listed as having several somewhat related meanings. Wiktionary describes it as meaning 1) a body-length pillow, 2) a wicker or bamboo tube that someone sleeps in (also called a bamboo wife) 3) a prostitute and 4) a sex doll, and Wikipedia also mentions it being 5) a hot water bottle. Meanwhile, this page claims that a Dutch wife is a real wife, merely an unpleasant one.

The Wikipedia article on Bamboo wife claims without any citation

  The origin of the English term "Dutch wife" is thought to be from the
  Dutch colony of Indonesia where Dutch traders would spend long periods
  away from their wives.

But I'm a bit skeptical. It seems to be more like one of those Dutch words

  Since c.1600, Dutch (adj.) has been a "pejorative label pinned by
  English speakers on almost anything they regard as inferior,
  irregular, or contrary to 'normal' (i.e., their own) practice"
  [Rawson]. E.g. Dutch treat (1887), Dutch uncle (1838), etc. --
  probably exceeded in such usage only by Indian and Irish -- reflecting
  first British commercial and military rivalry and later heavy German
  immigration to U.S.

(See also this page for a list of them)

When did the term "Dutch wife" originate? Is it likely to have been a "Dutch word" (this isn't a real term, but apparently there's not really a term for putting a nationality in front of a word)? And what was the first meaning of the phrase?


texts:
I’ve been enjoying the BBC TV series Last Tango in Halifax, a show which regularly sends me to the dictionary in order to decipher certain inscrutable British-isms, the latest being “don’t get all shirty birty (?) with me.”

Oxford Dictionaries online defines shirty as an informal adjective which means: irritable; querulous, i.e., ‘don’t get annoyed or shirty on the phone’.

Etymonline has only this to say:
shirty adjective: "ill-tempered," 1846, slang, probably from shirt (n.) + -y (2), on notion of being disheveled in anger.

But where does shirty come from? And berty or bertie, is that merely decorative rhyming slang?


texts: Do reflexive verbs often evolve into intransitive usage?

texts:
With the relatively recent proliferation in the number and variety of genders that our contemporaries willingly proclaim themselves to be or belong to, a new intransitive sense of the verb identify, not yet registered by many dictionaries, seems to have emerged.
In the Wikipedia article on Transgender, for instance, we read

transgender people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, etc. (emphasis added).

I suspect that this usage evolved from a reflexive one. We can even see this evolution within a single article in today’s (or tomorrow’s) New York Times, “Asexual and Happy” by Kim Kaletsky:

¶15: It wasn’t until I spoke to a friend who identified herself as falling on the asexual spectrum that I realized how much the term resonated with me (emphasis added). . . .
¶26: I went on OkCupid dates with people who identified on the asexual spectrum.

(The usage of “on the X spectrum” to mean, presumably, “more or less X” is another interesting trend.)
Merriam-Webster offers only the following intransitive senses, neither applicable here:

intransitive verb
1:  to be or become the same
2:  to practice psychological identification <identify with the hero of a novel>

OED offers only this last as a non-obsolete intransitive sense. But it also provides the following as a reflexive sense, which seems far closer to the intransitive sense here in question.

II.5.b. refl. To prove, reveal, or declare one’s identity.

The Free Dictionary has an idiom entry for “identify as” but only as transitive, with a direct object between the two words.
Under the verb alone, it all too briefly notes an intransitive sense as

3. To self-identify

—which seems to suggest a kind of reflexive-to-intransitive evolution.
When, where, and why did this happen for identify, and is it a common evolutionary pattern for English verbs? One other much earlier example that springs to mind is bathe, for which the OED derives the intransitive sense “to take a bath” (“c1200”) from reflexive use of an older (“a1200”) transitive sense.


texts: What does Donald Trump's rule, “There can be only one No. 1, Two-Face.” mean?

texts:
Maureen Dowd’s article in today’s (May 7th) New York Times that came under the headline, “Donald Trump or Paul Ryan: Who’s King of the Hill?” portrays the argument between Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, and wraps up with the following paragraph:

  “For now,” Trump murmurs, taking out his hair spray for a spritz
  before he walks past the press octopus. “What I will remember is that
  you sabotaged me when I should have been savoring my success. And you
  should remember the No. 1 rule from “The Art of the Deal”: There can
  be only one No. 1, Two-Face.”
  (From The New York Times.)

I can’t understand what the last phrase, “There can be only one No. 1, Two-Face” means.
Of course, there is only one No. 1. There cann't be two No. 1s, but what is “Two-Face,” and it’s not “Two faces”?


texts: "I have already [seen]" vs "I already [saw]"

texts:
I have already (past participle)
I already (simple past)

I feel like when I'm reading literature or any serious writing, the present perfect is always used with "already". I would guess that this use is preferred, and I always make the effort to use it over the alternative.
However, I often hear the simple past used with "already" in conversation, as in "I already saw the movie." What is the status of this usage? Is it "acceptable", colloquial-only, really bad? It sounds really grating to my ears, but I'd like to make sure.


texts: One word, preferably an adverb, for "in one sitting"

texts:
I am a little tight on paper space and I need to write >in one sitting<, or something of the sort, down but >in one sitting< will not fit onto the paper. So I need a single, concise word that has the same definition of in one sitting.
Here is a sentence to help. I want to do all of my homework [in one sitting].


texts: What does it mean "to work out of our Atlanta headquarters"...?

texts:
English is not my first language, so I'm in a bit of trouble with the idiomatic meaning of this phrase: "All Web Developers must work out of our Atlanta Headquarters" .Does it mean that the developers must work at the Atlanta Headquarters, or very close to it, or very close to it but definitely outside, or  outside and anywhere in the world (i.e., literal meaning)?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Is "Fellow" informal? If yes, what's a formal equivalent?

texts:
In this article I read that:

  Fellow – Avoid using "fellow" when you mean "a person." Calling someone a fellow is more formal than calling him or her a dude, but "fellow" is still a colloquialism.

This question ensures that "fellow student" is correct, but I need to know whether it is formal usage or not.

I am writing a formal application and want to refer to a fellow university student.

Should I use "fellow student" or do I have a better choice?


texts: What's the origin of "water under the bridge"?

texts:
What's the origin/background of the phrase "water under the bridge"? To what does it allude?

I understand it means to let bygones be bygones--to move on from the past. But I don't think I understand what water and the bridge represent.


texts: Word for medical treatment gone wrong (not malpractice)

texts:
I am looking for a word (noun) or expression that describes medical treatment gone wrong, where the treatment was not the correct one, or where something else went wrong, possibly due to unforeseen complications, accidents, inaccurate test results, misdiagnosis, poor medical images, human errors, etc. Errors, independently of whether anyone is personally at fault.
I am not looking for the word 'malpractice', which to me indicates negligence, carelessness or incompetence, liable or possibly criminal. 'Wrongful treatment' also does not seem quite right.
An intended usage example is: "We believe this technology will reduce the risk of (medical treatment going wrong)."


texts:
I have recently read the following sentence

  Would have to collect it until Saturday

When I asked the author what they meant, they stated it is the same as

  Would have to collect it on Saturday

For me, this hurts my head and doesn't make sense.

The person could have written

  Would be available to collect until Saturday
  Would have to collect it before Saturday
  Would have to collect it after Saturday
  Would have to collect it on Saturday

We then asked some one else who also seemed to think it was good English but we all have doubts.

Is it grammatically correct to use the word until in this way?


texts: What are these statements called where 2 words are interchanged to give a different meaning?

texts: What are statements where same two words that appear initially are interchanged later to give a completely different meaning called? Eg: Eat to live, don't live to eat. Eg2 : don't love the ones who hurt you, and don't hurt the ones who love you.


texts: What does "I really cleaned out the place" mean?

texts:
In the comedy Weird Loners there is an exchange,

You guys eat up, that's plenty.
I really cleaned out the place.

What does it mean?


texts: Verb tense for anticipated future in the context of now-discarded hypothetical past

texts:
Further to discussion regarding this ELL answer...

  I [had] assumed I would go to Heaven when I die/died, but when I think about all the wicked things I've done, I'm now pretty sure I'll go to Hell [when I die].

My gut instinct is that, strictly speaking, "future present" die is "correct" above, and the only reason people might use died is by (incorrect?) association with the hypothetical (but now ruled out) past scenario (at some point before time of utterance, I did make that assumption, but I no longer do).

Can anyone either endorse or refute my preferred tense usage above, and/or give a more detailed explanation of what exactly is going on?


texts: History and meaning of the expression "gave at the office"?

texts: I recently heard somebody say that they "gave at the office" in response to a request from some charity.  It also seems to have a more general usage when refusing a request for help of any kind.  What exactly does this phrase mean, and what is its etymology?  Is it a very recent saying?


texts:
What is implied when this person says "like a golden thread"?
The whole context is as follows:

  “The Kingdom  theme runs through the Bible like a golden  thread. That
  is so, even though about 40 men wrote the Bible. And many of them
  lived at different times and did not know one another personally...."


texts: An antonym for "what you might have assumed"

texts:
It is right on the tip of my tongue, and I have searched the online thesauruses but I can't come up with it. What's the word that could fill in the blank:

  He came to the ___ conclusion that you must be willing to serve if you want to truly lead.

The best I could come up with is "non-intuitive", but that just doesn't sound right. I know there's a better one. I want a word that means "this is not what you would expect", "this goes against your intuition". Something that approaches "nonsensical" or "irrational" but without the disparaging overtones, yet more forceful than "surprising".


texts: Which English dialect(s) use "ennet" to mean "duck"?

texts:
Since at least Old English, the word duck has been used to describe the aquatic bird, derived from the verb to duck: Proto-Germanic *dūkaną. However, in most other Germanic languages, a word with a different etymology is used for the bird.

The Wiktionary page on Proto-Germanic *anudz lists the following descendants:

  English: ende, ennet, annet

The page for ennet says it's now chiefly dialectal. Which dialect(s) would still use any of these words today?


texts: Word order in question with very long subject

texts:
The normal word order for a wh- question in English is: wh- + auxiliary + subject + verb.

Hence the sentence below should be correct:

  What might the consequences of the loss of diversity of plant genetic resources be?

However, it sounds a bit strange to me (I am not an English native speaker).

The following sentence sounds better, although according to the rule above it is incorrect:

  What might be the consequences of the loss of diversity of plant genetic resources?

Which sentence is the correct one?


texts: How homogeneous was Old English spelling?

texts:
Are varying spellings available, or was Old English rather uniform, as far as the sources show?

Variant spelling may have indicated different verbal dialects, but written dialects, involuntary eye dialect, may allow greater insight into the pronunciation. Is this cleaned up and normalized in OE dictionaries?


texts:
Say my doctor tells me that my grandfather has only a few months to live.

What do we call such a prediction based on a medical condition?


texts: How to prevent a sentence beginning with the word "The"?

texts:
I am writing a technical thesis and find myself using the word the an awful lot.

Here are some examples (I spare the technical gibberish):

  The main purpose of the presented applications is to visualize roses in space. The user can run around and experience the roses from different angles. The position of the roses can be stored in the ROS-fileformat.

I tried to ask Google, but it filters out the main word the, which makes it impossible to find anything.


texts: Is "should" appropriate for polite requests?

texts:
I am placing request to a customer for a project and I want him to provide some information. I had worked with them in a previous assignment and they failed to provide me most of the details beforehand, so this time I am drafting a mail even before things start out stating my requirements from the customer's side.

Is it good practise to use the word "should"?

For example:

  You should give me A, you should give me  B to proceed with my work.

I for some reason am feeling this is little bit rude.

P.S. I know I could phrase my request using please send me but there are 15 things actually which I require from them. Would you suggest that I use "Please send" as a prefix to every statement?


texts: Less cliche way to say "hills and the valleys of my life"

texts:
I am trying to craft the following sentence in a way that sounds a lot less cliche.

Any ideas?

  "The ability to write has been a gift that has gotten me through the
  hills and the valleys of my life"


texts: Is there a better term to use in place of "gold standard"

texts:
It is common to see things described as the "gold standard". It means that something is the best and is the ideal against which other things are to be compared; it cannot be superseded.
I often see it used in the medical domain, where a certain diagnostic test (e.g., the nasopharyngeal swab PCR test for infection with the Coronavirus causing COVID-19) is considered the most accurate and then other tests (e.g., cheaper or faster tests) are then evaluated against this benchmark.
The etymology is covered in another question. In short, it is derived from the historical monetary system where the value of all currencies (e.g., US dollar) is pegged to the value of gold (i.e., the metal). Thus gold was the thing against which the value of all other currencies was measured.
I don't like this term and would like to avoid using it.
First, the desired meaning is not predominant; if you search the internet for "gold standard" you will mostly get results for the monetary system, not the more general phrase.
Second, the etymology is outdated; the original meaning of the term now has the opposite connotation.
The monetary gold standard was abandoned in the 1970s. Economists consider the gold standard to be a bad monetary system. Thus, if you are interested in economics and history, the term "gold standard" actually is associated with being outdated and flawed -- which is close to the opposite of the intended meaning. (Of course, many people are unaware of the original meaning of the term. But it could have a resurgance.)
(A note in response to comments: Why I want to avoid this term is relevant, but not essential, to the question. If you don't see a problem with the term, the question can be answered regardless.)
My question: Is there a better phrase to use in place of "gold standard"? For example, what term could be used in a medical study comparing a new diagnostic test against the gold standard test?
I'm not aware of any good substitute that has essentially the same meaning. Here are two example sentences where I would like a replacement:

A nasal swab is the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19.

The IPK served as the gold standard for all scales from 1889 until 2019.

The best substitute I can think of is "official," as in "a nasal swab is the official way to diagnose COVID-19". "Official" implies some form of uniqueness. But "official" implies the existence of some authority that gives it this designation (as opposed to scientific consensus).
A related question asks for a "perhaps humorous" alternative -- the suggestion there, "mother of all", is not appropriate here. (There is also a question about an antonym.)

In response to the answers and comments doubting the premise of this question: I personally have a negative association with the phrase "gold standard" because I know people who advocate for returning to the gold standard or its modern equivalent, Bitcoin, and have discussed the topic at length. Several prominent US politicians continue to advocate for a return to the gold standard. Thus asserting that no one will interpret the phrase in terms of monetary policy is simply not convincing.


texts:
What preposition should we use to start a sentence where we first explain a purpose and then a method to achieve it?

Example 1

Purpose = pass the exams

Method = study a lot

In order to pass the exams, you have to study a lot.
To pass the exams, you have to study a lot.
*For passing the exams, you have to study a lot. (incorrect - see accepted answer)

Example 2

Purpose = find an object in the database

Method = run a SQL query

In order to find the object in the database, users have to run a SQL query.
To find the object in the database, users have to run a SQL query.
*For finding the object in the database, users have to run a SQL query. (incorrect - see accepted answer)


texts: what's cooking -- history of the expression

texts: Does anyone know when the expression "what's cooking" began to be used in the United States? I'm interested because I'm writing a novel set in 1933. Thank you in advance for your help.


texts: Whet's the difference between way to tell and way to say?

texts:
What's the difference in meaning and intention between:
A) There's no way to say if she was poisoned.
and
B) There's no way to tell if she was poisoned.


texts: What does "way down the future" mean, in terms of the number of years?

texts:
When someone says "not in the near future, but way down the future" with particular emphasis on the word "way", does it mean 10-15 years down the line or 2-3 years down the future?

I asked someone about the future of a particular career and this is what they had to say about the future prospects of that particular field. "It will pick up, not in the near future, but way down into the future".


texts:
Where does the phrase "to get on like a house on fire" come from? (Meaning "to immediately get on very well with someone", particularly a new acquaintance.)

It's quite common here in the UK, but even as a native speaker it strikes me as bizarre.


texts:
"I take a bite off my pizza."
Or
"I take a bite of my pizza."
Or neither or both?
I am not sure how to use bite off/of correctly.


texts: The Use of the Modal Verb "Would" in a Certain Passage

texts:
Please consider the following passage from my English textbook:

  ...The commander of the troops called on his men to gather together on deck in proper drill order...Meanwhile, the lifeboats had been lowered. When all the women and children had filled the boats, there would be room for only a very few others.

This is a passage from the reading-text Birkenhead Drill. The lifeboats could only carry one hundred and eighty passengers in total, and there were one hundred, and seventy women and children. Hence, there was room for ten more passengers only.

I'm confused as to the sense in which would has been used in the passage, I have written that in bold. I consulted my Little Oxford English Dictionary to see the use of would, and it describes it thus:

  would (modal verb) - expressing an opinion or assumption.

Can we use 'might have been' in place of 'would be'? I have read that structures such as might/may/could + perfect infinitive are used to express something that we are not sure about in relation to the past. I have also read that we use modals would, could for a hypothesis about the future. However, the assumption "..there would be room for only a very few others." is related to the past. So why has 'would' been used here?


texts: Is there a single word for "not allowed to be released?"

texts: Is there a single word for something that is there but not yet released because it has not been allowed to be released? I am an artist interested in words having to do with the blocking, stifling  of a person due to oppression, violence and or fear. The oppression, violence and fear can also be internal due to learned behavior in an environment filled with these things.


texts: Etymology of "-by" suffix in proper nouns

texts:
I am curious to find out about the etymology of the suffix -by in proper nouns such as the following:

  Hornby, Gatsby, Bartleby, Barlby, Selby, Osgodby, Keisby, and Hanby


texts:
I want to say

We identified a protein molecule ABC, the expression level of which was significantly lower in cell X than (the expression level) in cell Y.

Is this the correct to omit "the expression level" in ()?
Thanks!


texts: What is the meaning of the part in bold in the following sentence

texts:
The Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year.

I have seen the meaning of envisage, but I couldn't understand the meaning of last part of sentence.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/what-is-the-jan-lokpal-bill-why-its-important-96600&cp


texts:
A word processor is the machine equivalent of a typesetter; what is the human equivalent of a copier?

This word could describe the jobs of monks who copied the Bible, for instance; they did not author it, but they are writing it.  'Writer' often has the implication that this is original work.


texts: What is the meaning of this sentence in modern English?

texts:
It is a quotation of Hamlet in Act 5, Scene 2.

  If it be now, ’tis not to come.

What will be the structure of this sentence in simple modern English?

I am going to explain why it seems odd to me.

If something is supposed to happen now, then it will happen now, so one might say "'tis to come." (It is about to happen).
I don't understand why it is "’tis not to come." instead.

I am asking about the apparent meaning of this sentence, not why it was used in the play or any philosophical significance of it.


texts: How do I refer the next item after the top K item?

texts:
I have the following sentence

The top 10 most frequent item are {1, 2, ..., }

After the above sentence, what's the appropriate way to refer to the next item?

(1) The next 10 item are {,...,}
(2) The next top 10 item are {,...,}

Do both work in academic writing?


texts: "retrieval" without the notion of "putting it there first"

texts:
I'm looking for a word which describes the act (noun) of "retrieving" something which has not "been put there" by me in the first place.

English is not my native language, so it could very well be that I'm just wrongly interpreting the "re-" in "retrieval" to imply the above described notion.

Example: If I were to watch a video from some on-demand service, would it be correct to call that process a "retrieval" of said video?


texts: Is the word ''analyse'' a noun or a verb? A countable noun or an uncountable noun?

texts:
As we know, the word analysis is a noun, and can be used as both a countable noun and an uncountable noun; the word analyze is a verb. As I have known this word analyse can be used as a verb, but for its another use as a noun, I have a blurry understanding.

Can it be used as a noun, and if so, as a countable noun or an uncountable noun？


texts:
In mathematical and scientific research, people like to take and give credit for discoveries by turning names into adjectives.  This leads to sentences like

"Suppose the extension is Galois with Abelian Galois group."

To my eye, this looks strange, and I don't want my readers to do a double-take.  When I have found myself writing such things, I always reword it to avoid piling up the capitalized adjectives.  This invariably makes the sentence clunkier, e.g.,

"Suppose the extension is Galois and that its Galois group is Abelian."

My question is, would most people do a double-take at the pileup of capitalized adjectives in the first version? (Presumably, German readers would not...)  Is it worthwhile to trade away smoothness and brevity to avoid the pileup?

To make this question answerable, I would specifically like to know if style guides or noted authors or grammarians have had anything to say about this.  I couldn't find anything about it through a Google search.

(Interesting note: mathematicians have conventions to remove capitalization from some of these adjectives.  For instance, abelian is lower-case, while Galois is capitalized.  Many mathematicians, but not all, follow these conventions.  I could simply remove the problem above by making "Abelian" lower case, but I don't want to because I am against those conventions.)


texts:
Please, tell me the meaning of "to stall around" in the sentences, for instance:

I stall around outside the cafe.
He was stalling around her house two days ago.
She heard a click and the fighting stalled around her. (Marissa Meyer)

(added)

Two in the Saddle & Boone's Bounty by Vicki Lewis Thompson
Travis figured he'd stall around outside and ...
All at Sea: Twenty Years at the Helm of Tall Ships by Dominick Jones
Maybe we could ..., go straight out into the Channel, stall around outside for the tide to change...
Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters
And I stall around outside the restroom by the art studio so...

Thank you.


texts: I'm trying to complete my English coursework and cannot find a way around using 'is able to' in this context "Throughout the novel McEwan 'is able to' convey..." and I need to find another way of saying this.


texts: What's the part of speech for "having difficulty"?

texts:
Consider this sentence:

  I am having difficulty with the test.

Would "having difficulty" be considered an adjective in this sentence?
I imagine so as it describes the state of the person...


texts: "One-Day Only Promotion" or "One-Day-Only Promotion"

texts: A copywriter I'm working with wrote "One-Day Only Promotion" but my feeling is that "One-Day-Only Promotion" is correct. The first three words describe 'Promotion'. I know you don't hyphenate adverbs, but does that apply when one is part of a compound adjective?


texts: Singular/plural article for genitive noun

texts:
When we have a sentence like

  I can identify with a company's products

Does the plural form of the "a" depend on the "company's" or on the "products"? The latter would mean that it had to be a "the" instead but I am simply unsure what word to refer to here.

Bonus points if anyone could recommend me accurate terms to describe this problem because I simply didn't know what to search for


texts: How is the noun 'mosaic' being used in this sentence?

texts: If a landscape is described as ''a 'mosaic' of fields, heathland, villages and hills'', how is 'mosaic' being used here? Adjective? Collective noun?


texts: Is there a single word for the meaning of the phrase "unlikely but true"?

texts:
I am writing a formal letter and I am looking for a single word that represents or means "unlikely but true."
The context is that I want to reference a story in a book written by my recipient that fits this description of "unlikely but true."


texts: What is the plural for the Book of Mormon? “Books of Mormon” would be changing the title of the book. “Book of Mormon's” Would be possessive, and “Book of Mormons” sounds like it was as if it was a book of “Mormons”.


texts: Word for something that showcases all the idiosyncrasies of its time

texts: I can't remember a word which means something (a film or piece of art or anything) which showcases all the idiosyncrasies of that time.  We watched a 1960's film about our company and everything in it (hair styles, clothes, computers, style of furniture, style of dialogue, style of music) were so representative of that time period, that it actually seemed unreal!


texts: Quotation marks and italics in same sentence

texts:
I have a piece of writing about an orchestra, a choir and a conductor.  In the piece are numerous Italian words.

There is one sentence that reads:

  Singing fortissimo for a "Dies Irae" was tremendous therapy...

The writer has put Dies Irae in double quotation marks and fortissimo in no quotations nor italics.  Earlier on in the piece, there is mention of two pieces of music, which are both in italics.

So, I am confused as to which of these should be in quotation marks and which ones should be in italics.  Do the rules change when there is more than one instance that should be either italics or quotation marks, just for clarity?


texts:
Can "handmade" be used as a past participle?

I'm looking at this sentence: "… all of our organic products are handmade locally."

Is it OK to use handmade this way? I think of handmade as an adjective only, but since it includes "made," maybe this is OK as a past participle.


texts: How to use the title of an article in the same sentence as saying an article exists

texts:
Sorry the title is not ver well worded - but that is my problem.

Lets say I have a friend Jane who has written an article called 'How to Shop for Apples'. What is the best way to write something like:

Jane wrote an article, 'How to Shop for Apples'

Jane wrote an article: 'How to Shop for Apples'

Jane wrote an article called 'How to Shop for Apples'.

And should I be using single quotes ' ' or double ones " "?

Thank you


texts:
Suppose if a bottle broke such that its head shattered but the bottom survived, something similar to in this image. I'm referring to such a shard(??) in my sentence but am not able to come up with an appropriate word to represent it.

  e.g. sentence - Squatting, he picked up the broken remains of the
  bottle and raised the __________ as if making a toast

Searching has yielded the following options - cracked heel, shard, fragment but they do not feel fitting as they do not conjure that image. Is there a specific term that can be used ?


texts: The meaning of "be an account of something"?

texts:
I can't find the meaning of the phrase "be an account of something"! I saw it in the following text:

  This is the story of the marvelous land of oz, being an account of
  the adventures of the outlaw who came to be known as Jack Pumpkinhead.


texts:
I live in the UK and I mostly hear people saying Don't you..., but some people say: Do you not...? What is the difference and which one is more correct?

You can put any example really. Something like:

  Do you not like to come to school with me?
  Don't you like to come to school with me?


texts: If one presidential term is four years, how do you say two terms in terms of years? Two four years's? Two four years doesn't make a lot of sense but two four years's sounds weird.


texts: Why does "under the sea" mean "in the sea"?

texts: Why is it OK to refer to things in the sea as being "under the sea"? Wouldn't that really be the sea floor and below?


texts:
Where should the commas be in this sentence?

That was his sister Lucy's pet hamster.

Should there be a pair of commas surrounding 'Lucy's'? The possessive is throwing me off.

Thanks :)


texts: Preposition followed by pronoun and noun phrase

texts:
I am reading Scrivener's Plain Introduction to textual analysis, written in 1874, and was surprised by the following construction :

  It was presented to the University by Theodore Beza, for whom and his master Calvin the heads of that learned body then cherished a veneration.

I have never before read (that I can remember) a construction quite like this, where a preposition is followed by both a pronoun and by a noun phrase.

At first glance it seems wrong but the meaning is quite clear - the heads of the University had a veneration both for Beza and Calvin.

But I am still trying to get my head around what Frederick Scrivener has done here. Is he striking out on his own or would this be recognisable practice ?


texts: Which is correct: "as good as possible" or "as best as possible"?

texts:
Which one is the correct expression:

  as good as possible
  as best as possible

Both were suggested to be used in the following sentence:

  The activity has been performed as good/best as possible.

Spontaneously, I would have immediately said the first, but my friend that studies English is convinced of the second.


texts:
What does this mean, "apologetic question". For example in this statement:

  Speak in statements instead of apologetic questions

"Apologetic" sounds like apologizing for something,
but I don't understand how can you ask a question and at the same time be apologetic. I looked up apologetic in a dictionary and searched for example uses on Google but I couldn't find a good explanation.


texts:
I'm wondering what is the correct verb to describe when a someone causes an object like monitor or vase to fall on side from its upright situation?
Is overturn the correct verb for this circumstances?


texts: Where can I find a list of English paronyms?

texts:
Can anyone point me to a (more or less) complete list of English paronyms (affect/effect, farther/further, alternately/alternatively, interested/interesting, corrupted/corrupt, adopt/adapt, continuous/contiguous...)?

Wikipedia has a list for everything, but not for paronyms. Google is not exceptionally helpful, either. After trying out half a dozen different search strings, I have learned quite a lot about French, German, and even Russian paronyms, but close to nothing about English ones.

Any pointers?


texts: "You're reading this because..[reason]..aren't you."

texts:
I came across an image of a toilet cleaning product, which had the following printed on the label:

  You're reading this because you forgot your smartphone when you went to the toilet didn't you

Forgiving the lack of punctuation, someone on the online forum pointed out that the correct format would be "aren't you", not "didn't you".

To me, both make sense, as you could be referring to the first part of the sentence ("you're reading"), or the middle part ("you forgot").
Could they both be appropriate?


texts:
Is there a preference between "in" and "among" in the following sentence?

  The data consist of test scores collected in/among students participating in an international survey.


texts: to have been vs. to be following past tense

texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct:

I was fortunate to have been selected for an award.

OR

I was fortunate to be selected for an award.

To be clear both event happened in the past, that is: I was fortunate 2 years ago when I was selected for the award...
Thank you!
Ferenc


texts:
Could someone explain me why we should use "Would" in this sentence instead of "will"?

  "April 1, 2014, the day which I would never forget in my life as Microsoft has awarded me with the Most Valuable Profession Award (MVP) for my Excelling skills".


texts: "in all occasions when" or "in all occasions where"? Or maybe both?

texts:
Which one is correct?

1) I do so in all occasions when A is the case.

or

2) I do so in all occasions where A is the case.

Or both?


texts: probable word overuse in an introductory clause

texts:
"So, first things first. Let's check out the . . .."

In the preceding example, is the first clause redundant?


texts: Does "use X, Y, or Z" mean use *one of* or *all of* the options?

texts:
This is the text supposedly providing the parameters for creating acceptable usernames for a particular website:

  The username is case sensitive. Choose a username that is 6-74 characters long and must contain a lowercase or capital letter, a number, or one of these symbols _.@/-

In other words:
A username for this site must consist of from 6 to 74 characters and
  must contain one of the following:

 -any upper or lower case letter
 -any 6 to 74 digit number
 -any one of the following symbols _.@/-

Therefore, any of the following should be acceptable usernames:

@@@@@@
99999999999999999999999999999999999
/////......///
dar2zen

None of those, however, are actually accepted by the website. Therefore, the parameters, as stated, do not state what they mean to state. What they do mean to state is not clear. When the system rejects a username, no feedback on what requirement that username is failing to meet is given.

My question here is whether I am correct in believing that the username requirements, as written, state what I say they state.


texts: what do we call small problems with others?

texts: Is there a specific word in English that is used to describe the tiny issues that you have with others? I've searched and find words such as hitch but not sure if I can use it in the social context (e.g., I have a hitch with my advisor).


texts: Is it correct to say "weather goes bad" meaning that it no longer keeps fine?


texts:
i came across this phrase while reading the novel The Death of The Heart by Elizabeth Bowen. I wonder what it means.
Does it mean literally she has a high forehead on her face or idiomatically means arrorgant, condescending like 'a big head'?

"She insists on our being something or other - what, I'm not quite sure."
"A couple of cads - What a high forehead she's got."
"All the better to think about better, my dear."
"All the same, I wonder where she got that distinction. From what you say, her mother was quite a mess.
......
"High foreheads suggest violence to me." (p. 33)


texts: How do I spell a word that sounds like "reh-par-tay" and often used with "witty"?

texts:
Clever conversation, aka "witty [reh-par-tay]" ... can't for the life of me remember how to spell that loan word, though I use it in spoken English from time to time.

I am pretty sure it's not repertoire.


texts:
I've noticed a shift towards a form of speech that I would love to know more about. It first showed-up in US TV dramas I think, but now it's common to hear it used in everyday conversation.

Here are some examples:

"My sister, she came over for tea"

"My father, he drove the car"

"Her friends, they came to her birthday"

"The sun, it is bright"

and common in US TV crime dramas, something like:

"The murderer. He dropped the gun."

Why did people stop saying "my sister came over for coffee" and started including the pronoun ?

(also, questions ending in "how" or "why" -- why ?)


texts:
Which of the following is correct:

  What a Weather!

or

  What weather!

This grammar app I have (for SATs) says that the right answer is the first one, but I've never heard it used in regular speech.  It also feels extremely awkward to say.


texts: Use of definite article before occupation

texts:
I often see the definite article being omitted in texts about famous people. For instance:

  Towards the end of his life, avant garde composer John Cage turned to visual art

But I also see that it is equally frequently not omitted:

  In 1944 the avant-garde composer John Cage wrote “Four Walls,” a 70-minute work using only the white keys of the piano

I am assuming that these are both valid. But why would you choose one over another? Is version 1 more "written" and version 2 more oral?

Edit: note that googling "by the avant garde composer John Cage" yields 3150 results and "by avant garde composer John Cage" yield 3760, so it's kind of inconclusive to say which is more common.


texts: "look-up tables", "look up tables" or "lookup tables"

texts:
Do you have any advice which version of

  "look-up tables" vs. "look up tables" vs. "lookup tables"

I should be prefer (in a scientific context)?

...which leads me to a [follow-up/followup/follow up] question: Is it valid to talk about

  "the build-up of a look-up table"?


texts: What do you call the thing you get at the hospital when you break your leg, etc.?

texts:
When you break your leg or any of your appendages you get a binding, you know, the white thing to fix your arm or leg. What is that called?

I find the words gypsum, cast and plastery in the dictionary but from searching pictures on Google these don't seem to be the right words. (Also, in what context do you use these?)

I want to find a picture on Google where a group of people got these bindings on their legs, arms, necks, etc. What is the right word?


texts: What's the word for comparing someone to a famous character or person?

texts:
For example, when someone dresses with colorful and flashy clothes and you say "Who are you, Liberace?".

Or when someone says something smart and you say "Woah, hold it there, Brainiac!".


texts:
which is correct to use a comma or not after Inc., when the sentence breaks after the word "Inc."?
John Company, Inc.,
Princeton, NJ
or
John Company, Inc.
Princeton, NJ


texts:
In general I do not understand the usage of "is its own" in a sentence. A sentence containing "is its own" immediately becomes unclear to me. For example what does "is its own" mean in the following context?

  since the hand of a clock is its own clearly definable concept, it is a good idea to create it an own class - BoundedCounter

Because a concept is an idea, my interpretation of the above sentence is that something (in this case the hand of a clock) is its own idea so it is a good idea to create a class for that something but that doesn't make sense so may be my interpretation is wrong.


texts: "What/When is the best time to callback?"

texts:
Which is better? I want to know the difference.

What is the best time to callback?
When is the best time to callback?


texts: Using "beyond" with nothing following behind

texts:
I wrote the following:

  Her words hung in the air as I gazed out of the hotel window. The
  mountain lay quietly in the dark, like a calm, sleeping giant. A
  cluster of city lights glittered beyond. In the forest nearby, pine trees bowed slightly in the wind, and the loud cries of cicadas reverberated among the trunks.

By glittering beyond I meant glittering below or on the other side of the mountain (but trying to keep the sentence short).

Something to illustrate what I want to describe:

Is it OK to use beyond like in the example above? Should I change it to something else?


texts: Which is grammatical correct "woke to the..." or "awoke to the..."

texts:
For instance, should I say:

  She woke to the rattling sound of the alarm clock.

or

  She awoke to the rattling sound of the alarm clock.

(If both are correct, which one is more commonly used?)


texts: Rhotic accent in London or in the rest of the UK?

texts:
Good evening or good afternoon for the American.

I read and it is known that most British accents are non-rhotic, but I’m now in London and I have the feeling that the Rs after vowels and before a consonant or at the end of the word are slightly pronounced. Can anybody explain it to me ?
Thanks


texts: Things saving the memory of gone people -- are called?

texts:
We all love to save things, collect items, items/things that remind us of departed souls or gone people. They're gone from life, but may or may not be dead. What are those things called?

They might not be expensive, but they are close to the heart. Whenever we see them they remind us of the people they belonged to.

What do we call these things? Do they have any particular name?

Examples:

A girl has saved her ex-boyfriend's written letters.
A daughter has saved her dead father's watch.


texts: What is a good metaphor for a person that is creative, or for creativity in general? I find nothing when searching and nothing really comes to my mind? Help appreciated!


texts: Word for reluctance or caution as a result of having already failed?

texts: I'm seeking a word or phrase that conveys a person's heightened caution or risk aversion regarding a task that stems from prior failure. Something like "gun shy," but perhaps more specific?


texts: What is the word for "being unaware" but which was not deliberate

texts:
I knew one person who was quite well known to me but was not my friend. I contacted him whenever I wanted to buy some components. My interactions with him were not regular but only when I required to buy something. My conversations with him were always courteous. Recently, I sent a mail to him asking for a quote. It was responded by his daughter. His daughter called me up and asked me if I was close to him. I said I did not have any answer to that question. Then I was told that he died eight months before. Now, if I say

[1]. Madam, I am sorry I was completely unaware of his passing away.
or

[2]. Madam, I was not informed earlier of his passing away.

This does not in any way convey that my being unaware was not deliberate at all and it should also not be related to my not being close to him.

Is there any word that conveys both i.e. being unaware + attempt to being unaware is not deliberate.

I saw some synonyms and the following words (these are my interpretations and I may be wrong !!!)
oblivious: probably gives an arrogant touch to the above sentence
unmindful: May show that the news does not have any significance/bearing on the current conversation.

do not convey the second part. Is there any word that describes both feelings.
thanks...


texts: What is implied in calling someone "Citizen"?

texts: In many dystopian stories, people call each other citizen. In other contexts too, I'm thinking Citizen Kane for example. Why? What is implied here?


texts: Should the possessed be singular or plural in this case?

texts:
"... making the life of millions of people happier ..." or "... making the lives of millions of people happier ..."

The first one could be interpreted as "every person lives one single joint life", while the second one could mean that everyone has more than one life.

But of course I would like to say the "third option in between", that is everyone has one life, but the number of lives equals to the number of people, so there is not only a single life everyone shares.

What is the correct structure for saying that? Can I pick one from the aforementioned two so that it won't be ambiguous, or do I need to use some different structure?


texts: Saint/St./St/ST in institution names in capital letters

texts:
When writing the name of an institution which is named after a saint (e.g. Univetsity of Mining and Geology St Ivan Rilski) in capital letters in an official document, should one use

UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND GEOLOGY ST IVAN RILSKI

UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND GEOLOGY St IVAN RILSKI

UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND GEOLOGY SAINT IVAN RILSKI

or something else?

Is the usage of the full "saint" totally incorrect?

(The Cambridge guide to English usage distinguishes usage of St(.) in names of institutions and in names of geographical places, like cities, which makes this question, I think, not a duplicate.)


texts: What is the phrase to use about reaching a topic while talking?

texts:
What is the phrase to use when you want to say that while talking we reached the topic blabla?
Can we say: while talking we came to talk about about blabla?


texts:
Bloodbath is a very common term used both literally and more often figuratively. Given its possible derivation from the images suggested by  wars and battles, I was surprised to see that its origin is relatively recent.

There is no entry for bloodbath in Etymonline and both  Wiktionary  and  Random House Dictionary date its origin around 1860s

  Coined in 1867. Compound of blood + bath, the latter used referring to a metaphorical deluge.

The following book from 1851 appears to suggest that the term was probably a translation from the  term "Blutbud":

The Life of John Sterling by Thomas Carlyle:

  He made a ' Stockholm Blutbad' still famed in History (kind of open, ordered or permitted, Massacre of eighty or a hundred of his chief enemies there), 'Bloodbath,' so they name it; in Stockholm, where indeed he was lawful King, and not without unlawful enemies, had a bloodbath been the way to deal with them.

But according to  Merriam-Webster the year in which the term was first used was 1814.

Questions:

Where does "bloodbath come from? Was it coined in English or was it imported and translated from abroad? What year does its first usages really date from?


texts:
What does "to be in a special unit on one's own" mean? Does it mean to be in a special condition? ( the text I am reading is about children suffering from disabilities)

Context:

The film makes use of public information voiceovers from old National Health Service documentary material, which give what we would now regard as highly patronising information about mental disorder (‘they’re in a special unit on their own with – deformities’, ‘the child’s parents must be encouraged not to aim too high’)

Art and Science (Sian Ede)


texts: Is there an American English equivalent of the British idiom "carrying coals to Newcastle"?

texts:
I'm an American living in the Netherlands who is learning Dutch. There's an idiom in Dutch that describes performing a needless/futile activity, "water naar de zee dragen," which literally translates to "carrying water to the sea." My Dutch parents-in-law asked me if there was an English equivalent, but I couldn't think of one.

In doing some searches online, I found that the English translation given for the this idiom is always "carrying coals to Newcastle." This was the first time I'd ever come across the phrase, and subsequent searches revealed that it was indeed of British origin, though one site I found did claim that it was an American phrase. However, neither I nor any of my culturally American friends have ever heard of this phrase.

Is there an American English idiom or phrase that carries the same connotations for carrying out a futile activity?


texts:
I saw a quote by Leonardo Da Vinci, but didn't catch the meaning of the last sentence which is given in the title.The full sentence was:

  “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” - Leonardo Da Vinci

What does 'they went out and happened to things' mean?


texts: Is this called a metaphor or how would you describe it?

texts:
I posted a photo of me on social media back when I was living in a different country, doing a different job, living a different kind of life.
So much has changed in my life since then that it seems like a different lifetime.
I posted the photo with the caption ''Me in my previous life''
Now of course I wasn't implying that it was literally my previous life. I was implying that so much has changed in my life since then that it's as if it was a different life.
One person commented ''You should say: an earlier part of my life'' and went into a big literal explanation of how my comment implied reincarnation.
I want to know what the grammatical term for what I was using here. Was it a kind of metaphor or something else ?


texts: How can I say strenuous/challenging without a negative connotation?

texts: I want to thank someone for a "challenging" semester - in the sense that it made me work really hard and was demanding, but in a good way


texts: What does "boogeyman for everybody" mean?

texts:
I was watching a TV show about an air crash where an air traffic controller was partly responsible for the crash. In an interview an official says:

  "You don't deserve to be a boogeyman for everybody."

I did a google search to see what that usage means, but I did not find any useful results.

What is the meaning of "boogeyman for everybody" in this context. Can you please provide some examples?


texts:
I believe there is a special term for words that convey relative position but I cannot seem to remember or find what it is.

For example Sam is behind Mitch in the queue.


texts: The quotation from a textbook : "The legend tells about three brothers, ..." Is tell about correct here? Can an indirect object be omitted after tell?


texts:
I hear three different sounds for the letter e in precious, bean, and Peru.

Is there a rule that covers the different pronunciations that a written letter e can represent in speech?


texts: Could "extraordinary few exceptions" be correct?

texts:
In his 1991 book, historian J.B. Russel writes:

  with extraordinary few exceptions no educated person ... believed that the earth was flat

Should extraordinary be an adverb, or could this sentence be interpreted as if there are few exceptions, and those are extraordinary?


texts: Are older senses of "anent" still alive in any dialect?

texts:
The obscure preposition anent has a long history, going back as far as Beowulf:

  him on efn ligeð ealdorgewinna [line 2903]
  ("beside him lies his great enemy")

It has carried many meanings, including "near", "beside", "toward", "against", "among" and "on behalf of". Today the usual sense is "about" or "concerning", as in:

  More movement on the seesaw anent the further transfer of powers to Holyrood - but no clear view yet of the endgame.

from the BBC's Brian Taylor. This meaning seems to remain alive in Scotland, and even elsewhere (though it may be seen as affected).

The OED has, as the only other non-obsolete sense, "Of position: fronting, opposite, over against, close against, close to" with the note that "many northern dialects now have fore-nent." Their most recent quotation is from The Dark Huntsman (Charles Heavysege, 1864):

  The huntsman came after, full fleet as the wind,
   Anent me a moment, tall, tarried behind

My question: Is this meaning of anent (or fore-nent) still current in any dialect of English - or should it now get the †dagger too?


texts: Use of proper noun District Attorney's Office or D. A.'s Office vs district attorney's office

texts:
Is it correct to use the lowercase for district attorney's office when a particular office (e.g., Shelby County District Attorney's Office) is not included?

Even if you're referring to a particular DA's office in ongoing text, is lowercase still used since Shelby County doesn't directly precede it?


texts: Question aboute a quote from a TV show where I've noticed two different tenses in the same sentence

texts: there is a famous quote from Game of Thrones Episode 10 season 3 where a character says "Any man who must say, "I am the king" is no true king. I'll make sure you understand that when I've won your war for you." I've noticed that there is two different tenses in the second part of the quote where we can see "I'll" which is supposed to refer to the future, and then he said "when I've won" which is supposed to refer to the past, so I'm a little bit confused, thanks in advance for your answer.


texts:
I thought that replete could be used as a verb meaning something like "refill" because of the other verbs sharing the same root plere, such as complete or deplete, which are used as verbs without question. But I found in the dictionary that replete is actually only used as an adjective, meaning "filled."

Do sentences like these make no sense to you?

  Please replete the bowl.
  The water was repleted in the pool.
  She repletes my empty heart.

How come replete works only as an adjective?


texts:
I'm trying to really understand how the word preclude differs from either exclude or include. Merriam Webster defines preclude as

  to make impossible by necessary consequence : rule out in advance

Which sounds a lot like either prevent or exclude. Does prevent block a future action from happening, while preclude eliminates the possibility of that action altogether?


texts: Are question words (when, where, etc.) adverbs?

texts: Are the question words, such as when, where, who, why and how, adverbs? If they are, can anyone explain why they are defined as adverbs?


texts: What is the scope of using shelved, postponed, adjourned, put off?

texts:
postponed
shelved
adjourned
put off

Exactly as in this question, I have a problem with choosing the scope of using those synonyms of postponed. What is the scope of using each of them?


texts:
Is this sentence grammatically and lexically correct?

'For me, foreign language is the stem of a teaching and translating career'


texts:
I have just come across this question when doing senior high school English grammar question.
The former businessman has gone on trial _____ of two million dollar investment fraud.
a. accuse
b. accused
c. accusation
d. accusing
I would choose b option without a doubt but I couldn't understand why there isn't extra words like "for which he was" before accused? what is the grammar based on? or was I wrong from the start perhaps the better answer is not b?


texts: expression or phrase using bridge noun and take verb

texts:
I would like to use 'be the bridge that takes someone' or 'be the bridge takes someone'.

i.e: Company A wants to be the bridge that takes you to success.

However, I am not sure if the expression above is natural or not. Could you please let me know if the usage of the expression/phrase is correct? Or are there any better expressions?

Thank you!


texts: What term to use to say "family" that includes relatives, not in same household sense but blood-connection sense

texts:
I am trying to write a sentence like the following:
"No one within my extended family has ever gone abroad for higher education." Here by family I want to mean my parents, siblings, uncles, aunts and other relatives. But the wikipedia page of extended family defines extended family in a way that needs all to be living in the same household:
"An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family, consisting of parents like father, mother, and their children, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, all living in the same household."
So, what term should I use here?


texts: Is the lyric " Tell them not to fear no more" wrong in expression？

texts:
When I listen to Oasis's masterplan and see the lyric 'And as they land upon the shore, tell them not to fear no more', I doubted whether it is wrong in expression.
Usually，If the sentence already has a negative in it for the verb, you cannot use another negative.
So，the lyric should be ‘ Tell them to fear no more’? I'm a lit confused.