texts: Descriptive word for someone who sees the world in black and white

texts: Trying to think of a characteristic trait for someone that sees the world in black and white...almost like decisive / moralistic / ethical but not quite. Things are black and white, there's no gray area, something is either wrong or it's right. Their opinion on what is right vs wrong isn't necessarily correct (this person actually has a very skewed perspective on morality) but they stick to their own convictions.


texts:
I have the following sentence:

  Since that experience, I have made changes to how I address all of my courses.

Should I use "to how" or "in how" for any grammatical reason(s), or is it simply a matter of personal preference?


texts:
I just came across on lyrics of Eminem's "survival" which confused me. Here is piece of song which confused me.

  Throw me to them wolves and close the gate up on me.

I thought that correct phrase is their wolves instead them wolves. Am I right?


texts: A single word for someone who is not pleased no matter how hard you try

texts:
I'm looking for a word that means

  someone (especially a boss) who is not pleased (with your work, attitude etc.) no matter how hard you try.


texts: what's the meaning of 'would' in this sentence?

texts:
In friends, the drama, I heard this sentences. but I couldn't understand what 'would' means.

I can't believe you would have a 30 year old daugther!
And you! I can't believe you would have a tux that's 30 years old!

Having a 30 year old daugther and tux was already true. Then, why did he use 'would' in this sentence?
Is this like meaning of 'might'?


texts: What's the etymology of 'of' after verbs?

texts:
(TL;DR) While reading about preposition of on OED (eg avail of, enquire of), I encountered a possible explanation: quoted below, OED claims that the postverbal of originates from the genitive case, and from Old English. Would someone please explain? Or does a better explanation exist?

How did the genitive case (which concerns nouns) affect verbs, and produce this postverbal of?
Please expose, explain, and bridge all hidden, missing semantic drifts and links.

  [Optional Reading] 39. In the construction of verbs.

  a. After transitive verbs, the person or thing affected (‘secondary object’) is often introduced by of (representing an original genitive).
  Such are balk, cheat, defraud, disappoint, frustrate; accuse, arrest, blame, convict, indict, suspect; possess, seize (a person of); avail, bethink (oneself of);
  also with verbs with non-referential it as subject, as it repents me of;
  and formerly with ask, beg, beseech, thank (a person of), etc.

  b. In many verbal phrases, as
  to have (also get) the advantage of ; to get (also have) the better of ; also formerly in to have compassion (also mercy) of ; to have (also take) pity of ; to keep watch of , demand or do justice of (= on), have the victory of (= over).

  c. After intransitive verbs. Many of these in Old English took the genitive, and are found with of in Middle and Early Modern English, but this is now rare, except where of falls in sense under one of the branches already treated; instances are
   to reck, repent, rue, beware (orig. be ware) of.
  Verbs of sense,  e.g. feel, smell, taste, touch (still with of in regional or colloquial use),
  verbs of asking,  as ask, beseech, demand, desire, entreat,
  and others,  e.g. distinguish, esteem, forget, like, seize,  formerly construed with of, now take a simple object;
  some, as accept, admit, allow, approve, conceive, recollect, remember,
  still have both constructions;
  with others, as hope, look, thirst, wait, etc.,
  of has been displaced by for or some other preposition.


texts: Where can I find a list of capitalisation rules for pure British writing?

texts: Is there any quality English orthography book that contains rules for capitalising in pure British English? I’ve noticed that an American newspaper capitalises every word in the title of an article (except special words like “to”), but a British newspaper does not. I’m pretty confused. I’ve managed to find just an orthography book which apparently describes American rules. Where can I find a British version?


texts:
Is the phrase

Tips on how tell the difference.

Grammatically correct?

Should it be

Tips on how to tell the difference.


texts:
If I were to use the sentence "There are lots of John Smiths" in the world, would that be the correct use for saying that there are a lot of people named John Smith in the world?

I don't think there should be an apostrophe as that would imply ownership of something.

If my first example is correct, then what would you do if the name referenced already ended with an 's'?


texts: Origin of "More X than you can shake a stick at"

texts:
What is the origin of the phrase "more X than you can shake a stick at"?

Every website I've seen on this basically says the same thing (e.g., http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sha2.htm):

Recorded history since 1818 - Lancaster Journal of Pennsylvania dated 5 August 1818: “We have in Lancaster as many Taverns as you can shake a stick at”.
Other early examples:

Davy Crockett’s Tour to the North and Down East of 1835: “This was a temperance house, and there was nothing to treat a friend that was worth shaking a stick at”.
A Book of Vagaries by James K Paulding of 1868: “The roistering barbecue fellow swore he was equal to any man you could shake a stick at”.

Only guesses as to the etymology for the phrase:

Maybe it's Native American?
Maybe it's military?
Maybe it's from a form of a boys' game "playing" military?
Maybe it's from counting herd animals?

Does this community have any ideas (and support for those ideas)?  Also, is this solely American?  Solely North American?


texts: Is there any difference of meaning between “take aim at” and “turn its sights”?

texts:
I noticed two different phrases were used to express the same or similar things in the article reporting Rick Perry’s recent campaign in New York Times (November 19).

Under the headline, “Perry Ad Seems to Take Aim at Republican Rivals,” body copy immediately follows:

“Rick Perry‘s poll numbers may be lagging. But he still has millions of dollars to spend on ads and that effort now appears to be turning its sights on his Republican rivals.”

Is there any difference of delicate nuance between “take aim at” and “turn its sights”? I’m curious to know why the writer rephrased the words. Simply for avoiding redundancy?


texts: Usage of -ist and -ian, when to use which?

texts:
This is a question bugging me for a long long time, especially for a non-native speaker like myself.

We have physicist standing for the people doing physics research, as is linguist, chemist, etc.

But for math, the counterpart of "-ist" suddenly becomes "-ian": I call myself a mathematician.

What bugs even more is that we have physician as well, yet representing a totally different occupation with physicist.

This is not the end, in mathematics, we have so many adjectives derived from the names of mathematicians. Through some wikipedia-fu I learned they are called eponymous adjectives, most of which I used often end with "-ian": Newtonian potential, Cartesian coordinate system, Lorentzian transformation etc. These words often indicate somewhat the relationship of possession.

Yet again, not all possessive relations are represented using "-ian", there are: Maxwell's equations, not Maxwellian equations; Gauss's divergence law, not Gaussian law (even though there are tons of things with Gaussian in it).

What confuses me even more, is that "-ian" after people's name can not only represent "of someone", it also can stand for "a believer or supporter of someone's theory". For example, I call myself a Kantian. There is Leibnizian as well, the supporter of Leibniz's philosophy.

Now my questions are:

Is there a standard rule to decide which one to use, "-ian" or "-ist", when describing an occupation?
For eponymous adjectives, my vague impression is that: when something is derived not by that specific person, but rather whose derivation bears the spirit of that someone's theory, then we use "-ian". For example, Newtonian potential is not invented by Newton, yet Maxwell's equations are unified by Maxwell. But another example is that Descartes invented Cartesian coordinate system, but the system is not called  Descartes'  coordinate system...How to tell if we want to invent some new terms? For example, if I proved a new theorem using some idea from Newton, do I call the proof Newton's argument or Newtonian argument?
Can "-ian" be used interchangeably in "I am a Kantian" and "This is a Kantian style argument."? or there is some tradition for each word ending with "-ian"? i.e., Some words ending with "-ian" can be only used as noun or adj.


texts: "In the process" VS "During the process"

texts:
Below are some sentences involved these two phrases. Could "during" and "in" be replaced by each other?

During the process

the permeability damage to coal reservoirs caused during the
development process is one of the most important factors affecting productivity
The temporal gene expression profile during the entire process of apoptosis and cell cycle progression

In the process

exposure to avoided material, affective arousal, and emotional tolerance are important components in the process of change in therapy
In the process, each stalemated the other while demeaning itself.


texts: Word/phrase for taking offense but not showing it

texts:
I'm looking for a word or a phrase that means taking offense but not actually showing it.
Example:

Mary was selfless, affectionate and ______ towards criticism/offense.


texts:
Which one is correct:

  Submit your work in time.
  Submit your work on time.


texts: When someone states "I have a Masters in Computer Science" should the word masters have a capital M?  I've seen arguments for both and can't determine which is correct.


texts:
I am confuse with the use of 'Not that'.  When we say "Not that I like bread, but I don't like to eat more carbohydrate." It means to me that I like bread and I don't like to eat more carbohydrate. Is it correct? Or it means that I don't like bread?
Please explain the meanings of these also,

Not that he is a bad boy ...
Not that rain is good ...
Not that I say that he is a bad boy ...


texts:
I really get confused about using 'a' or 'the'.

In this definition taken from Cambridge dictionary

  Average: the result you get by adding two or more amounts together and
  dividing the total by the number of amount.

can I use 'A' before 'result' instead of 'THE' ?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Changing subject and verb positions in statements and questions
  Why do we put the verb to be at the end of these questions?

Is the expression

  I don't know what is an amplifier.

incorrect?

If so, is the correct version

  I don't know what an amplifier is.

and why is the first variant wrong?


texts:
I know the word exists, as I've used it before. It's essentially an element added to a book, piece of art, or even software that serves as a nod to information shared between two people. It's an element that would only be understood by the author and a specific member of the audience. I'm also fairly certain that this specific word was used almost exclusively with literary works.

As an example, when programming I'll often add an "easter egg" to my code. Sometimes it's a variable named after a girlfriend's dog, or a comment containing an inside joke, or even an anagram that only a certain sly colleague will find.

The word is not:

"inside joke" - It's not always a joke.
"easter egg" - It's not always meant to be found.
"nod" - It's a bit more personal.
"hidden message" - It's specifically related to literature, and I'm pretty sure it was one word.

I've been going crazy trying to remember. I'll look for some examples.


texts: "She had assigned" vs "She has assigned"

texts:
Our teacher assigned topics for a class project several weeks ago. Which is the correct sentence to use to convey this to a classmate? Why?

She has assigned topics for everyone

Or

She had assigned topics for everyone

Which of the above two sentences is correct? Or is it better to just drop the has/had and say

She assigned topics for everyone


texts: Is there an equivalent of "monetize" for data?

texts:
According to the OED, to monetize is to

  Convert or adapt (a society, economy, etc.) to trade based on the exchange of money.

There are similar conceptualisations, like gentrify, gamify, and so on, which refer to process of conversion of something into something else.

Is there an equivalent for data? I want to express the fact that technology is "converting many of the things we do into data", like our trips to the supermarket, our TV selections, our supermarket basket, our mobile phone applications, etc (the Big Data phenomena).

Something like to datify? I don't think I have come across any related term.


texts:
What is the best way to indicate that a certain model is aware of time or exploits the time dimension?
Would you call it "a time aware model" or "a temporal aware model".
Or is it better to directly call it "a time model" or "a temporal model"?
Any advice is welcome.


texts: Is it possible to put the word 'to' following 'avoid'? (avoid + to-v / -ing) which is the correct one?

texts:
I wonder the word 'to' can follow avoid as an grammatical order.

For example,

We avoided going to school together.
We avoided to go to school together.

Is the second sentence wrong?

I googled it and I found many sentences using 'to' with avoid.

ex)
1. Living alone to go to outside.
2. avoid to go this place
3. How to avoid to go back..

I am confused which is the correct one.


texts:
This song is fun to sing.

This pizza is too hot to eat.

Is the infinitive there considered a complement of the predicate adjective?


texts: NORMINAL — normal or with nominal mistake?

texts:
At the very end of the live-stream for the nominal SpaceX STP-2 mission, the presenter places what appears to be a baseball cap onto the table. It reads "NORMINAL" (sic).

My first thought was how embarrassing, they mixed up the spelling of "normal" and "nominal", but as English is clearly harder than rocket science, I'm turning to the appropriate authority on such matters.

Is "norminal" a normal word? If so, what does it mean?


texts: How to explain the phrase of "Shakespeare’s trifling does indeed tread upon the very borders of vacancy"

texts:
All we then want is to proclaim a truce with reason, and to be pleased
with as little expense of thought or pretension to wisdom as possible.
This licensed fooling is carried to its very utmost length in
Shakespeare, and in some other of our elder dramatists, without
perhaps sufficient warrant or the same excuse. Nothing can justify
this extreme relaxation but extreme tension. Shakespeare’s trifling
does indeed tread upon the very borders of vacancy; his meaning
often hangs by the very slenderest threads. For this he might be
blamed if it did not take away our breath to follow his eagle flights,
or if he did not at other times make the cordage of our hearts crack.
By William Hazlitt (1778–1830) via bartleby.com

Above sentences are extracted from William Hazlitt's prose. You can click the link above to read the whole passage.
I have no idea when reading the phrase of "Shakespeare’s trifling does indeed tread upon the very borders of vacancy";
I try to understand it as: when Shakespeare talked (or wrote) in a jesting, he did all his best, and used all his energy to make it more funny.
Is my understanding correct? Anyone has different opinions?


texts: What do we call a verb which is used to make a noun more specific?

texts:
Can anyone please advise what is the name of a verb which is used as a prefix to a noun to make that noun more specific..
Examples..
Roasting pan,

Baking tray,

Frying pan,

Assault rifle,

Walking stick,

Reading glasses

Thanks for your time


texts:
Let's say there's an article or a book titled solutions for ad hoc problems in foobar. How is ad hoc title-cased? As a preposition ad with a pronoun hoc or as an adjective? I mean, which of these four is correct?

Solutions for Ad Hoc Problems in Foobar
Solutions for Ad hoc Problems in Foobar
Solutions for ad Hoc Problems in Foobar
Solutions for ad hoc Problems in Foobar

I see that English dictionaries tend to list is as adjective/adverb which suggests Ad Hoc. But also, if treated as an adjective, it shall have a hyphen, which is clearly wrong.

(Note that I just copy-edit other people's work so I can't remove the phrase from the title, which could be an option...)


texts: What would you call something that you learned?

texts:
I need a word for an incident that you've read, I don't really know how else to describe it. But here's the context...

  I connected this book to the world when I learned that this character had been raped at the summer break party. I connected this ________ to the world because I've heard about the rapes that happen around the world, especially in colleges where women are raped, and don't speak up about it because they are afraid that it will hurt others or that they will be looked at different.


texts: If USA is referred as "The USA" ,  why not "The India" ??


texts: Is this sentence correct with the usage of 'and'?

texts:
I really need to get these documents copied and in the mail but i have a meeting in an hour.

In this sentence, is it correct to connect 'copied' and 'in the mail' with 'and'?


texts:
... but it’s over now.

I remembered one episode which took place 6 or 7 years ago. I was at the English class, and the teacher was an American student who had been asked to be a teacher just for one lesson, as a treat.

So, for some reason she mentioned this song (‘It must have been love’ by Roxette). Maybe the topic was about modal verbs. Then she said (I think, to herself rather than to students): “This phrase ‘it must have been love’ sounds so nineteen eighties. I wouldn’t say like that.”

And I never had chance to ask her WHY. Why does it sound nineteen eighties? What would she say instead? Can grammar get old-fashioned in this short period of time?


texts: When writing a title, do you capitalize "the" in names like "Boris The Animal"?

texts: When writing a title, do you capitalize "the" in names like "Boris The Animal", "Mike the Bike Guy" or "Tom The Dancing Bug"?


texts:
Is one more correct than  the other?

Make sure the part is connected to the widget.

Make sure that the part is connected to the widget.


texts: Short human descriptions for logic's AND, OR and NOT

texts:
In a user interface, we are offering the user to combine searches using either AND, OR or NOT

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/logic-gate-AND-OR-XOR-NOT-NAND-NOR-and-XNOR

We have little graphics explaining the effect, but what would be good, laymen, human words to describe these operations in english as separate items in a menu list ? Short sentences like 'combine searches','intersect searches','exclude from previous search' spring to mind .. but I'm not a native speaker.


texts:
I want to know the meanings of the following sentences:

John missed at 50 yards.
John missed by 50 yards.

Does #1 mean that John missed (a mark? or what?) at the place 50 yards in front of something (a mark?)?

What does #2 mean?

According to one explanation I read somewhere, #2 means “how far I am to the side of something”. But I don’t know what they mean by that.

Does #2 mean that John missed something at the place 50 yards away from something?


texts: What does 'dispensation' mean in this particular context?

texts:
I was reading this article and stumbled upon this line

  First, presidential dispensation is useful, but it's not remotely permanent. White House occupants change. A more authoritarian chief executive than Obama won't be bound by what he does.

The author comes up with this statement while discussing about a draconian and outdated law which many feel can be "overturned" by President Obama.

I looked into the dictionary meaning of the word "dispensation", but nowhere it means "overturned". The dictionary quotes that dispensation means to make special exemption for someone or distribution of stuff.

Can someone help me clarify the meaning of dispensation in this context and is it an oft used meaning of the said word?


texts: Construct or build a mathematical model?

texts: What is the proper verb to use when I want to say that I "made" a mathematical model? I would love to hear more than one answer. Are construct \ built OK?


texts: Term for seeking to reaffirm your existing beliefs

texts:
The word I'm looking for is similar to 'circlejerk', but rather than it being the participation of multiple people, I'm meaning one person seeking out studies/reading etc, for the sole purpose of reaffirming their existing beliefs or position on something, rather than to get to the truth of a matter.

The context this word would be used would be:

The article about messy desks being associated with genius, was a bit [word].

Similar to how you might say:

The atheists in the pub meet up, was a bit of a circlejerk.


texts: If X is resistant to Y then Y is what against X?

texts:
In pokémon there are 18 elemental types which have various strengths and weaknesses. For example, consider the following three statements.

Steel is immune to poison.
Steel is resistant to ice .
Steel is weak to fire.

Thus "weaknesses", "resistances" and "immunities" are plural nouns used to describe the defensiveness of an elemental type. On the other hand, consider the following three statements:

Fire is strong against steel.
Ice is ??? against steel.
Poison is ??? against steel.

Thus "strengths" is a plural noun used to describe the offensiveness of an elemental type. However, I need two more adjectives to replace the question marks in the aforementioned sentences.

For the opposite of "resistant" I thought of using "weak". For example, "Ice is weak against steel". However, the plural noun "weaknesses" is already used to describe the defensiveness of an elemental type.

For the opposite of "immune" I thought of using "ineffective". For example, "Poison is ineffective against steel". However, the noun "ineffectiveness" doesn't have a plural. Can you think of single word adjectives and plural nouns for these two cases?


texts: looking for a certain quote/saying about winning, luck and practicing

texts:
I'm not sure if this the correct forum, but I can't seem to be able to google it so you guys are my only hope.

I know there is a saying that means something like "you have to be lucky to win, but it's usually the people who train a lot that win" or "the winner got lucky, but unless you practice a lot you won't get lucky", but I don't really recall the exact wording or who said it.


texts:
Is it correct to say "What was your name?"? The reason I am asking this is, generally the name of the person will not change. One should say "What is your name?"

http://variationsonnormal.com/2010/05/26/sorry-what-was-your-name-again/


texts: Is this a dependent or an independent clause?

texts:
This is the second half of a sentence that uses a semi-colon, and it appeared incorrect to me because I thought this part was a dependent clause. But I am not sure.

  They launched into a war that shaped America to be what it is today; a strong powerful country, who will fight for their rights.


texts: Is a determiner a complement or a modifier of a noun?

texts:
The determiner such as the definite/indefinite article can come before a noun.

Is  the determiner a complement or a modifier of a noun?


texts:
“Well then, Jane, call to aid your fancy:—suppose you were no longer a girl well reared and disciplined, but a wild boy indulged from childhood upwards; imagine yourself in a remote foreign land. . .” (Jane Eyre)

What’s the meaning of ‘call’ in the highlighted part? Does it mean ‘come to aid your fancy’?


texts: Differance in the usage of the verbs "hear" and "listen to"

texts:
How is it correct to use the verbs "hear" and "listen to" when we talk about attending some events such as performances, concerts, public speeches, etc.?
Is it possible to say: "Let's go and hear the Royal Orchestra at the Albert Hall this evening."? Or is it correct to say: "Let's go and listen to the Royal Orchestra at the Albert Hall."?

Or: "Let's go and hear the speech of the President." vs. "Let's go and listen to the speech of the President."

In Collins Dictionary it's put that:
"2.
verb
If you hear something such as a lecture or a piece of music, you listen to it."

What is the criteria of choosing the right verb "hear" or "listen to"? As I understand while attending the performance we're paying attention, focusing on music, enjoying it? More appropriate is "listen to", isn't it?

The matter is about using these verbs talking about attending public occasions - concerts, seminars, speeches, etc. Is it correct to say: "Yesterday we went and heard the concert/speech/etc...." or it's better to say "...listened to....". Or the same in present: "I'd like to hear Mozart concert at Albert Hall tonight".


texts:
While reading a recent Ken Follet novel, I came across the following, spoken in a gay bar set in early sixties London:

  "I am queer as a clockwork orange, a three-pound note, a purple unicorn, or a football bat."

Previous to this, I had thought that "clockwork orange" was a phrase made up by Anthony Burgess to describe something that is impossible as a title for his 1962 novel.

Checking further, I found that Burgess had actually borrowed this phrase from something he supposedly overheard in a pub.

From the 1986 introduction "A Clockwork Orange Re-sucked"

  I don’t think I have to remind readers what the title means. Clockwork oranges don’t exist, except in the speech of old Londoners. The image is a bizarre one, always used for a bizarre thing. “He’s as queer as a clockwork orange” meant he was queer to the limit of queerness. It did not primarily denote homosexuality, though a queer, before restrictive legislation came in, was the term used for a member of the inverted fraternity.

(my emphasis)

Ngrams would seem to indicate that the phrase was never used before the publication of the novel.

Does anyone know the origin and first use of this phrase? I suspect the answer is hiding behind a pay-wall.

[EDIT]

I should warn everyone that anything that references directly to Burgess´ explanation is suspect: like many authors of fiction, he is a notorious prevaricator who often has difficulty differentiating between his novels and reality. A recurring theme in his books is the "unreliable narrator". He is in a class with Len Deighton, Mark Twain, Geoffrey Chaucer, Vladamir Nabakov, Agatha Christie and Jack Higgins in this regard.


texts: What does ‘The show is all pump-up, no narrative” mean?

texts:
If you didn't know, Charlie Sheen recently kicked off his 20-date tour in Detroit on the evening of April 2nd “to a slew of walkouts and boo.”
As the Guardian commented:
“Charlie Sheen's remaining credibility was blown out of the water as fans booed him off-stage on the first night of tour."  The result seems to have been terrible.

Not only the Guardian, but many other press reviews lambasted Sheen’s poorly organized stage and his performance on it. Looking through these critical comments, I stumbled on a phrase, “This show is all pump-up, no narrative,” appearing in a review.

What is the exact meaning of “pump-up” and “narrative” in the following by-minute description of the show? Does it simply mean shallow and empty contents? Can somebody translate it for me?

  9:13 – Sheen: “They took my awesome children… They took my sometimes bitchin job… And when they thought there was nothing left, they tried to take my titanium heart and brain and spine. But they could not.” Audience growing restless. This show is all pump-up, no narrative.


texts: What is the difference between 'I almost completed...' and 'I have almost completed...'

texts: While having a conversation, my friend said 'I almost completed...', but when I heard that line, it sounded to me like 'I nearly did something, which I should not have done, and thank god for that' although what he actually meant was he had little work left to do then. Am I missing something? Or is 'I almost completed...' grammatically incorrect?


texts: When did the word "demon" (for evil spirit) come into popular usage in the English language?

texts:
The English word "demon" has been found throughout the New Testament in modern bible translations since the 19th century.  However, in the 16th and 17th century and earlier (Tyndale Bible, Geneva Bible, King James Bible, Douay-Rheims Bible) "demons" are not found.  They use "devils" rather than "demons".  (the Tyndale Bible and Geneva Bible use "deuils" rather than "demons"). This is where the Greek Versions and Latin Vulgate indicate "daemonia".
As expected, "diabola" from Latin, and Greek, also gets translated as "devil" in the old English versions, which is still done in modern translations.
There is one peculiar exception, the Douay-Rheims Bible does use "demons" just one time: in Isaiah 34.14.  That verse seems to be referring to wild desert animals rather than evil spirits, and modern Bible translations don't use the word "demons" in that verse.  In the Clementina Vulgata, "daemonia" is used in that verse in Isaiah, but in the "1979 Nova Vulgate" the verse specifically refers to wild desert animals (rather than demons) making it compatible with modern bible translations modern translations.  Otherwise, "daemonia" is repeated in a number of verses in the New Testament in both (old) Clementina and (new) Nova Vulgate editions.
The King James Version has zero references to demons.  They are always mentioned as "devils" when the Greek and Latin indicate daemonia is used. However, the word "demonstrate" is found in the King James version, so the root word was in use.
I'm thinking that "demons" did not enter the English vocabulary (as an evil spirit) until the 19th century.  In 1833, Noah Webster translated the Bible using "demons" rather than "devils" (for evil spirits in the New Testament) for the very first time in a signification Bible translation (that I can find).
I'm thinking that "demon" and "demons" were introduced into the English language as a wild animal, probably wild desert goats, which in the Gospel, were inhabited by "demons" according to Modern Bible translations. (they were inhabited by "devils" according to King James and Douay Rheims, and "deuils" in Tyndale and Geneva Bible translations.  I'm trying to find out when demons were first used to refer to evil spirits in popular English, because it doesn't appear that it was in popular use back in the days of King James.


texts: What's it called when you use a hypothetical claim to disprove another claim?

texts:
So what I'm asking is probably niche, but it's one of those things that I'm not sure what to call it by, so apologies if the title seems off.

I think the best way to describe it is to use an example: Say in a courtroom, you (a defense attorney), assert that a witness is incorrect as even though they said they saw the defendant with greasy hands before committing murder, their fingerprints on a weapon are clean. However, the prosecutor counters by saying that the defendant could have washed their hands before they handled the weapon, aligning the witness' testimony with the evidence. While the prosecutor does not have any evidence to prove their claim, they have successfully shown potential ambiguity in the defense's own claim, derailing it.

I think the closest thing to describe this is a hypothetical, negative claim combined with absence of evidence (since negative claims don't require evidence) —but I'm not entirely positive on that and I'd like to be certain. Thanks for any help!


texts: Word to describe policy that attacks the environment?

texts:
I am putting together a presentation, and for the life of me I am unable to think of the word which describes this situation.

I am discussing policy promoted by the US in Latin America during the 60s which stated that people's land property should be cleared by 80% of natural forest cover to show that it is being utilised.

I am trying to describe how this sort of policy is "hating the environment", has complete disregard, and is driven by capitalism.

Cheers


texts:
I am writing an article on "God, Types of Worship" and I'm looking for a term which describes worshiping a single god at a time.

That is, given that different gods exist, the practise of worshiping only one of these at a given time, then moving on to worship another god. The focus of worship changes, but the worshiper's overall religion remains the same.

Monotheism is not the word I am looking for. I know the term but I can't recall it.

____ is the practise of worshiping one god of many extant gods, one at a time.


texts: Why is "data," of all the abstract nouns in English, considered plural?

texts:
Most, if not all, of the abstract nouns I've come across are singular.

Examples:
1. My love for him is great.
2. Peace is very difficult to achieve.
3. The temperature of that pot is very high.

So can somebody please explain why out of every abstract noun, data is the one people think is plural? Of course, I realize this is because of the whole "it's plural for datum in Latin" argument, but I see two flaws in this:
1. nobody uses the word "datum," and
2. this is English, not Latin.

Please, I beg of you, prove me wrong. I want to know why this is.


texts: I have the following sentence (with a noun substituted for "something"): "It's easy to show how something is terrible." This is awkward. I feel like there's a word or elegant phrase for "to show something is terrible", but I can't come up with it. Any ideas?


texts: Is the sentence "we grew warmer and warmer" grammatical?

texts: I did a Google search on the the sentence, "We grew warmer and warmer," and it only came up with a few hits, not even one page worth. So is this grammatically incorrect? Is there a better way to put this?


texts: The meaning of the following Sentence --- "Learning disabilities are immutable irrespective of time and nature of interventions"?

texts:
Can anyone please explain to me the meaning of the following sentence?

  Learning disabilities are immutable irrespective of time and nature of interventions.

I am also not sure whether the structure of the sentence is correct.

Thank you in advance.


texts:
Which one would be correct?

I wish it weren't raining today.
I wish it wasn't raining today.
I wish it were raining today.
I wish it was raining today.


texts:
Why can't "asleep" be classified as a verb?
English verbs include first of all the general implicit
meaning (the lexico-grammatical nature) of the verb which
serves to convey verbiality, i. e. different kinds of activity (go, read,
skate), various processes (boil, grow, obtain), the inner state of a person
(feel, bother, worry), possession (have, possess), etc.
The meaning of word asleep is also connected with action and process. Why can’t it be classified as a verb?


texts: Phrasing of "What knowledge is required [at/in] [a] university?"

texts:
In British English, how should I properly write a sentence like

  What knowledge is required at university?

Basically, I want to ask what knowledge is required for study at a university or in a university, or in university, as appropriate to the sense  of being a student at the university.


texts: What is the difference between “rethink” and “think again”?

texts:
I find that many people use:

  Please think again.

But there is already the word rethink, so why do they use think again?


texts:
there is a famous proverb in Nepal, i.e. कागले कान समात्यो भन्दैमा  म कागको पछि लग्नु. The meaning of this proverb to believe other blindly.  For example: "The man said someone that the crow grabbed his ear, and he without checking his ear chases the crow."
The moral is we should not believe what other people say immediately. And I want proverb in this.
Is there some PROVERB in English related to this scenario?
Thanks


texts:
What's remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact.

I am confused by “most of them plant based”

Is the word plant acting as a verb in this sentence?


texts: “For all that” as subordinating conjunction?

texts:
In the sentence, “For all that they complain, they do nothing,” is the phrase “for all that” a subordinating conjunction akin to “notwithstanding”? Also, can “that” be omitted with no loss in meaning or grammaticality?

I assume the above example sentence is grammatical. If it isn’t, please explain why.

Thank you!


texts:
This article on BBC website has the sentence

  Who goes on a job interview, gets hired, and commits suicide in a jail cell after being arrested [sic] for a routine traffic stop?

As I understand [sic], it's meant to imply there's an error in the original text that the reporter is stating verbatim.

Arrested is spelt correctly, so is the [sic] unnecessary in this instance, or does it refer to something else in the sentence?


texts: The meaning of "practice" in the mentioned text?

texts:
There is a special sense the word "practice" is used for that I have problem understanding. Following is the title of a book:

  Food Sovereignty in International Context: Discourse, politics and
  practice of place

What is the meaning of "practice" in this title? For me, as far as I could search and find, "practice" when used as a noun can mean one of the following (American Heritage Dictionary):

  A habitual or customary action or way of doing something: makes a practice of being punctual.
  a. Repeated performance of an activity in order to learn or perfect a skill: Practice will make you a good musician. b. A session of
  preparation or performance undertaken to acquire or polish a skill:
  goes to piano practice weekly; scheduled a soccer practice for
  Saturday. c. Archaic. The skill so learned or perfected. d. The
  condition of being skilled through repeated exercise: out of practice.
  The act or process of doing something; performance or action: a theory that is difficult to put into practice.
  Exercise of an occupation or profession: the practice of law.
  The business of a professional person: an obstetrician with her own practice.
  A habitual or customary action or act. Often used in the plural: That company engages in questionable business practices. Facial
  tattooing is a standard practice among certain peoples.
  Law. The methods of procedure used in a court of law.
  Archaic. a. The act of tricking or scheming, especially with malicious intent. b. A trick, scheme, or intrigue.

Then what it means when we say "practice of place"?


texts:
I see this sentence "In order to explore this city unencumbered, I left my luggage at the station"
Why is an adjective "unencumbered" used here? I think it should be changed into "uncencumberedly" because adverb grammatically follows verb.


texts: Trump is the 45th US president. How do you ask a question to get this number?


texts: I often use the pattern 'I appreciate your noticing this' but recently decided it sounds strange, and switched to 'you'. (I do this with different verbs; this is just an example.) Are they both valid?


texts:
I am just wondering which pronunciation of the two below native speakers of North American English would prefer to use for the word during.

  /ˈdəːrɪŋ/
  /ˈd(j)ʊriŋ /

Most of the EFL dictionaries published in Japan list No. 1 as the recommended pronunciation for the word.  Do you have any comment about this information?  Do you think this reflects the facts about the English spoken in North America?

Your feedback is very much appreciated.


texts: How do you use foreign and English phrases together?

texts:
Writing in English, if I use a foreign phrase and wish to translate it, what's the standard way to go about it?

In my example below I use a comma:

  "Ces't vrai, it's true!" he enthused.

Is this correct handling? Or is a period or semi colon, or some other punctuation required?


texts: What does “The training camp in [X] was deep inside ” mean?

texts:
The training camp in Balakot was deep inside

Can someone please explain what the phrase above means? Here what does deep inside mean?


texts:
It seems like "A European" is the correct one but why ?

Is this a general rule about Capitalized words?


texts:
I am curious if "humbleness" is a word that can be used in place of the word "humility."

Example usage: A certain amount of humbleness is necessary to fit in with the office environment.


texts:
I've written this sentence, but it seems a little bit intricate.

  This leads to imbalance data, a well-known problem to which the
  inference algorithms are sensitive.

I don't know how to make a sentence with the same meaning but less intricate. Maybe you can give some advice or alternatives.

Thanks!


texts: Why is a rhyming word beginning with "h" put before another word to create a new term?

texts:
I recently learned a new phrase: "herby-kerby," which is regionalism from the Kalamazoo, MI area for a wheeled trash bin placed at the curb for trash collection. I've found several uses of the phrase:

In planning commission minutes for a nearby township:

  "Mr. Hill also said the Best Way Disposal was going to supply one Herby-Kerby for each office site, which meant that there would be four Herby-Kerbies within the garbage enclosure."

In a blog post by someone from Kalamazoo:

  As long as the bed gets made, the checkbook is balanced, the muffin tin is clean and the Herby Kerby is wheeled to the curb before 7am on Friday, how important is it in the long run to disagree about how it got done?

This regionalism is probably from a product name: Herby Curby.

Since encountering "herby kerby,"  I've also seen "herky-jerky," which Merriam Webster defines as "not smooth or graceful : marked by sudden movements or changes."

Then there's herp-derp, or harp-darp, defined at knowyourmeme.com.

Finally (or not? perhaps there are more?), there's hurdy-gurdy, the musical instrument. The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests this term may have originated from another reduplicative phrase, "hirdy-girdy," meaning "confusion or uproar," dating back to c. 1500.

As a speech-language pathologist, I see the phonological process of reduplication in young children's speech, but the entire syllable is reduplicated, without changing the initial consonant to "h:"

  Billy says "baba" when he wants his bottle.

The phrases I've commented on above have two things in common: they all have a reduplicative rhyming word starting with "h" in the first position, and they all have either -er or an r-colored vowel as the syllable nucleus.

Does anyone know (1) why there are so many reduplicative phrases where the first word starts with "h," and (2) whether there examples without "r" in the syllable nucleus? Is there some reason behind these patterns, or am I just noticing a meaningless pattern?

EDIT: User Peter Shor commented on some without the "r:" hankdy-panky, hocus-pocus, higgledy-piggledy, hodge podge. Then there's also "helter-skelter." So I suppose the second point in the paragraph above is unneeded.


texts: Does the phrase "locker room talk" have precedent?

texts:
A video from 2005 (transcript) was recently released wherein Donald Trump made vulgar comments about women. In his effort to downplay/apologize for his remarks, he has repeatedly labeled  his comments as "locker room talk" or "locker room banter". Articles, like one from the NYTimes, have since tried to explain what "locker-room talk" is, but these are from the perspective of what is literally said in a guys' locker room--as opposed to addressing the phrase from an English-language usage perspective.

Does the phrase "locker room talk" have any precedent? If so, has it historically been used to mean what Donald Trump is using it to mean? And what is its history?


texts: "Effective" in the beginning of a sentence?

texts:
What does "effective" mean if used at the beginning of a sentence?

e.g. "Effective ____________________    , your child may not return to school until proof of immunizations has been sent to the school nurse."


texts: Is there some guideline that I can point to about the overuse of bold and underline?

texts:
I am getting really tired of getting emails and PowerPoint presentations in which half of the words bold and underlined. There is also excessive use of exclamation points, all caps, and overly strong wording.

I would like to send them a link to someplace authoritative that states that their writing style is tacky. Is there anything like that out there?  I would even settle for a blog post somewhere so long as it argues the point well.


texts: How old is the expression "to travel by [means of transportation]"?

texts:
A friend of Mari-Lou's has told her that in the old days, people traveled "on foot" or "on horseback," and the preposition "by" only entered the fray with the advent of trains and cars ("How are you getting there?" - "By car"). As she pondered on it, as is her commendable habit, she came to the conclusion that, perhaps, no one ever used the expression "by ship" until then.

This, of course, is wrong on so many levels. Long-distance horseback travel was not for everybody. No woman traveled on horseback unless she was insane; and no man chose to ride for more than an hour if he could avoid it. Couriers did when the matter was urgent; a nobleman's or king's escort did spend a lot of time in the saddle, traveling slowly, in the wake of their employee's carriage, on the chance highway robbers might attack, or petitioners annoy, the traveler. Cowboys did, too, when they had to move cattle over long distances - again, very slowly (at said cattle's pace).

People who have watched way too many musketeer and/or cowboy movies should ask themselves this simple question: what do you think will happen to your buttocks and your groin if you spend eight to ten hours in the saddle (with no bathing facilities awaiting you at the end of the ride) and then have to do it all over the following day? And the day after that? I mean, even in Dumas' very romantic first novel of the series, it did take d'Artagnan five days to reach the Channel (from Paris), and he was in a hurry (and an excellent rider).

In the 15th Century, Louis XI of France established the first European post office, called la Poste Royale; the main post office building in New York (a.k.a. the Farley Building, built in the style of Academic Classicism) has a sign on the facade giving old Louis credit:

The expression "to travel by post" meant one could, for a fee, use the system to get from point A to point B, with fresh horses awaiting the harried traveler at every relay station, fed and ready to be harnessed. "Voyage par la poste" it was called, unless I'm much mistaken.

The fabled American equivalent came a few centuries later: the Yankees and their grumpy reluctant southern compatriots traveled by stagecoach (average speed: 4 mph; fees: moderate; audacious highway robbers and belligerent Indians, I mean, Native Americans, everywhere).

Most European countries, from Russia to Spain, established their own versions of this system in between. People traveled by post.

Now comes the hard part.

"By ship," "on board ship," "by sail"? None of the above?

To be sure, the phrase "to travel by sea" (as well as its overland counterpart, "by land") was very much in use. Here's a passage from Byron's Don Juan:

  The approach of home to husbands and to sires,
  After long travelling by land or water,
  Most naturally some small doubt inspires—
  A female family 's a serious matter

And here's another one:

  She had resolved that he should travel through
  All European climes, by land or sea,
  To mend his former morals, and get new,
  Especially in France and Italy.

Well and good, but did people also say "by ship"? That, I'm afraid, is the question.


texts: What is the meaning of this joke: "Oklahoma Pronounced Success."

texts:
I have tried my best, I absolutely don't understand this joke. ( Found on language learning sites). And it puzzles me so much... I don't even grasp what can be laughed about, I'm just completely intrigued:

It's about a man, Japanese, or Russian according the case, learning English all his life. One day it comes to London. While wandering he reads on a newspaper, (or on a theater bill board): "Oklahoma Pronounced Success."

And he shoots himself (if Japanese), or err aimlessly drunk and arrested by police (if Russian).


texts: Are types of phrase named after the elements from which they are constructed or after their grammatical function?

texts:
For example:

  They swam in the river.

Would 'in the river' be a prepositional phrase due to the preposition 'in' or would it be an adverbial phrase because it adds information to the verb 'swam'?


texts: Anyone ever heard of something being above discussion?

texts:
Has anyone ever heard of the phrase, "that is something above discussion"?

It came to mind today, but I couldn't find anything over the Internet. Maybe it sounds like that, but is something else, in fact, the way the words of a song can go misheard.

The meaning I expected it would be is when something has been decided out of another's reach.


texts:
I read a story which used "From here, to there" as a love measurement. Does it mean distance or time period.

In the story "From here" was used when they where happy, with no worries in their life. As the story moved on they had complications, they lost trust for each other and they parted ways. After half a year the one who said "From here" was depressed and on the brick of no returning when she wrote "To there" to the other person.

What does this quote mean ?


texts:
Is the word order in the quantity correct in the following sentence?

  The boy is 3 years and a half old.

If not what would be the right way to say it?


texts: Changing meaning with subsequent phrases

texts:
From a recent conversation at work:

  "Whoever is responsible for interface design at Microsoft should be
  fired."

  (some pause)

  "Out of a cannon."

  (further pause)

  "Into the sun."

Each subsequent phrase modifies the meaning of the one before it a little bit more.

  Whoever is responsible for interface design at Microsoft should be
  fired.

(lose their job)

  Whoever is responsible for interface design at Microsoft should be
  fired. Out of a cannon.

(Farcically, placed into a cannon and ejected out of it)

  Whoever is responsible for interface design at Microsoft should be
  fired. Out of a cannon.  Into the sun.

(Maximum absurdity: The errant developer is now consigned to death by plasma.)

We've added two phrases, drastically and absurdly changing the meaning of the original sentence.

My questions:

Are there other examples, or a name, for this type of construct?
Is this form of adding sentences. Like this. And this.

...considered legal English when used for emphasis or example?


texts: Why does Semitic refer to several groups of people, including Babylonians, Assyrians, Arabs and Jews, whereas anti-Semitic only refers to Jews?


texts: The phenomenon of walking backwards to remember a lost thought

texts:
I used to have "senior moments" long before I actually became a senior, such as walking from one room to another and forgetting what I was...
An older friend advised me that in moments like these I should  go backwards and catch the moment in which you lost the thought. Her suggestion seemed to mean actually walking backwards...careful that step. But since then, I have found that while thinking back in time can help,  just walking back in your steps slowly to the actual physical location where you lost the thought will bring the thought back.
It's the opposite of Déjà vu.
Déjà vu implies a circular short circuit of the brain.
You cannot control Déjà vu.
Is there a name for this phenomenon?


texts: Question about "between" vs. "among" - generic group or distinct members?

texts:
I have read Grammar Girl's excellent post on the difference between "between" and "among", but I've run into a scenario that has confused me.  I used the sentence "Compare heights between these people." for a specific set of people, but someone told me I should have used "among".  His explanation was that "these people" is a generic list and thus "among" is the proper choice.

I thought that the one-to-one relationship between a height and a person was central, as we are comparing people with one another based on this attribute.  Are we then treating the group as distinct members, and would this make "between" correct?


texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct:

I've just uploaded the photo I had taken on Monday.
I've just uploaded the photo I took on Monday.

I guess that this sentence

Yesterday I uploaded the photo I had taken on Monday.

is correct but has different meaning than the first two.


texts:
If I had a NP such as

Thousands of lives
Millions of people

which noun would be the head noun? I could make a case for each, but I assume there is a correct answer.


texts:
I want to say something like: from now on I will work on my second task.

Is it correct to use "onward" (just onward) at the beginning of the sentence to replace "from now on"?

Onward, I will work on my second task.

Edit: To give context to this sentence (requested on the comments) - the sentence should express future plans in a sequence of events (which is tasks completions). By future plans I don't set a specific time in the future but wish to imply to the near future - in  an hour, by tomorrow etc.

Something like: "I have now completed my first task, and I am about to start my work on the second task."


texts:
I am not an English native, so maybe the question is trivial. In case you're confused why I even ask: the German "tauschen" has no direction included.
You shouldn't have both CDs and DVDs, please swap CDs for DVDs.
Is it clear from this statement if you should have only CDs or only DVDs?


texts: A word that describes a smooth and feel-good transition

texts:
Is there a good adjective that describes the experience of entering from one magical world to another as a very smooth, magical yet almost like real and feel-good way?

I thought of a few like say "sleek" experience between the two worlds, "neat" experience between the two worlds, etc. But all of these words sound not enough to give that smooth and feel good effect.


texts: Referring to someone using their current title when discussing them in a past context

texts:
Do I refer to a currently knighted individual as Sir when discussing them in a past context (before they were knighted)?

This has never occurred to me until I had to specifically discuss usage and I wondered if any convention exists.


texts: Is the archaic meaning of "exact" different from how we use it today?

texts:
In the poem On his blindness by John Milton, we find these lines

“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”

Keeping in mind the lines above and lines below the quoted line, the quoted might mean that if God accept/want service only from who have light in their eyes?
So, keeping the probable meaning of that line in mind, I feel that "exact" might have some other meaning in archaic sense. I want the confirmation (or denial) of this and it's archaic meaning.


texts: Common term or single word for someone who is embarrassingly over-complimentary

texts:
Does English have a word for someone who compliments another person in a way which is awkward or even embarrassing?

Someone who uses compliments which are overly-familiar and all but inappropriate, and praises someone they barely know in over-the-top fashion?


texts: Pray as if he sees you vs. Pray as if he is seeing you

texts:
When we want to write or say about something general as in the following, which sentence makes more sense over the other? And what could be the differences?

When you pray to God, pray in a way as though he watches/sees you.
When you pray to God, pray in a way as though he is watching/seeing you.
When you pray to God, pray as if you see him.
When you pray to God, pray as if you are seeing him.


texts: "nutrition-free food" - I saw such expression twice recently - but unfortunately do not understand its meaning. Could you please help?


texts: Non-racial alternative for "Chinese fire drill"

texts:
A "Chinese fire drill" is an activity that involves a lot of bustle and chaos but achieves nothing.  This term could be considered insulting due to its association of Chinese people with unproductive activity.  Is there an alternative term without the racial connotations?

Edit: This was mistakenly flagged as a duplicate of this question, asking about a Japanese proverbial reference to one of Aesop's fables: "The mountains labored and brought forth a mouse".  The expression refers to "speech acts which promise much but deliver little".(1)  In this case the emphasis is on the chaotic execution of a pointless exercise, not on the difference between promises and results.


texts: How to use of present perfect or present simple in future time clause?

texts:
I don't understand how difference is  between present simple and present perfect in future time clause?

For instance,

  I will go out when I finish my assignment.
  I will go out when I have finished my assignment.


texts: What is the term for 'sympathetic' when speaking of the ability to appear sympathetic rather than express sympathy?

texts:
Writing a fictional story, I have this little beat:

She found her talent there for presenting herself as sympathetic, even though it was completely uncalculated and she wasn’t consciously aware of the effect …

The term in question is ‘sympathetic’. I’m not looking for a synonym. ‘Sympathetic’, referring to a person, typically means ‘one who is compassionate to the feelings of others’. That’s not what I’m trying to say.

What I am trying to say by ‘presenting herself as sympathetic’ is ‘presenting herself as someone who would likely draw sympathy’, not speaking about her capacity to express it.

So it’s the wrong word. I’m stumped. Prof. Google is, too. Can you think of a word? Or a better way to say this?


texts: Is this translation of a joke grammatically correct?

texts:
I'm trying to translate this Dutch comic to English. I want to say that the probability of rain turns out to be higher than predicted, but that this probability is not of such magnitude that it actually rained. This is mathematical nonsense ofcourse, but that's the punchline of the joke.

My first attempt is: "The probability of rain turned out to be higher than predicted, but not of a magnitude such that it actually rained that day."

I can't figure out if this is grammatically correct or not. Does this make sense? Is there an easier, more concise way of explaining the joke in English?


texts: Looking for a word that would describe how excited a child would be meeting their hero and so overcome with the excitement they cannot form coherent questions or sentences.  That the child would not understand the complexity of their hero's life.


texts: Is there an antonym to 'hypochondria'/'hypochondriac'?

texts:
Hypochondria is defined as

  an excessive preoccupation with and worry about one's health

Is there a word to describe the opposite reaction, as in a word to mean 'a nonchalant attitude towards one's health'? I thought about hyperchondriac but I don't think that word exists. Is there such a word in English?


texts: How do we form the possessive of a noun that is possessive in form?

texts: Bloomingdale's has a summer collection. Whose is it? Bloomingdale's's?


texts: I want to write letters with the same content but addressed to religious authorities of different religions and levels, from the local Christian priest to the Dalai Lama. Is there a greeting I can use for all of them or must I research the title for each letter recipent to ensure I am not offending them?


texts: In formal writing, is there any difference between "couple" and "some"?

texts:
For example in a résumé, are

  Experience in a couple of rendering tools

and

  Experience in some rendering tools

the same from the point of view of formality?


texts: Does "apropos" take a preposition? How do you use this word, anyway?

texts:
Which is more correct:

  Apropos of your earlier comment, I decided to....

or

  Apropos your earlier comment, I decided to...

Actually, apropos is so fancy a word, even I, a word maven if I do say so myself, am not entirely sure when to use it.  If I may add to my preposition question, are there any constructions where it would be appropriate to use something like with regard to and not apropos?


texts: What is something called that has a deadline?

texts: As the title says, just one word that describes something with the attribute of having a deadline. For example "Please don’t feel rushed to RSVP as I have no ******". Is there a word that works in this context? I thought about appointment, and that would work, but I'm looking fora  word that is a little more general, because a project, for example, has a deadline, but is not an appointment.


texts: "All there is is light" - repeating the word "is"

texts:
The sentence in question:

All there is is light.

The sentence appears in a context of a novel, where a great flash of light is described. "All there is..." is meant to describe the fact that the "light" has replaced all other things in the world. This sentence is also in a single paragraph populated by itself alone, and this is meant to create an impressive effect.

The structure of the sentence necessitates the immediate repetition of the word "is" which seems to be grammatically disputable.

I am asking to see if there is any rule that explicitly mark this sentence as incorrect, or if there is any alternative to the sentence that is similarly succinct.


texts: It is well known that understand is a stative verb. But it can also mean "in the process of understanding". So "I am understanding it" sound ok, which suggests that understand is dynamic as well. Any idea on this?


texts: What is the term for making a cross in the air (like when passing a cemetery)?

texts:
Is there a word for making a cross with your hands in the air? It's a four point motion that goes from head to chest, then shoulder to shoulder.

An example situation where someone does this might be a funeral procession passing by.


texts: What does "of such" mean in this sentence?

texts:
My mother language is not English, so please give me a clear explanation of what does "of such" mean in this sentence? I could not find an equivalent in my language. The sentence is:

  encourage humans to overeat and sells them pharmaceuticals to alleviate the negative consequences of such a gluttonous diet.


texts:
Who verbally uses the title "Miss" with a female's first name (regardless of the female's correct title) and why? Example:

  Meet with Miss Debbie in the conference room at 2 o'clock.


texts: What function does shall and must serve?

texts:
I've been taught that the word "shall" represent obligatory or mandatory. On the other hand, I was taught by another lecturer that "must" represent mandatory.

Which one of the two represents obligatory. When I asked a teacher this question, he told me "shall" is also synonymous to might or maybe.
Is this true?

As an example, consider;

He shall report the case to his senior officer.

He must report the case to his senior officer.


texts:
Which is the correct sentence?

  1) This is the first time that I have ever eaten mushroom soup.

  2) This is the first time that I have ever drunk mushroom soup.


texts: Adjective going with two examples that represent opposites

texts:
I would like to know if there is a good adjective that can be used to describe two things that represent opposites. E.g.

  Anorexia and bulimia are two [INSERT WORD HERE] examples of eating
  disorders.

Or maybe something less controversial:

  Two [INSERT WORD HERE] examples of colours are black and white...

Words that could make sense would be "polar" or "antipodal", but I am not sure if they can be used in this context.


texts:
I saw the following sentence:

  Sally, who I saw in town yesterday, is a friend of my sister.

But I think it should use whom instead of who, since Sally is the guy I saw, so why not use whom?


texts: Is there a way to say what a letter "states?"

texts:
I understand that one could write, "In the letter, the author clearly stated that he found his red hat."

But is it possible to say what the letter stated, or says? Both "stated" and "says" sound like something a person does. Is there a word for saying what a letter has written upon it? (e.g. "the letter reads that..."


texts:
Is the following sentence grammatically correct?

  I like how when Katy asked "Is everything okay?", Lilly asked "Is it not?".


texts: Could you pass me the salt? or Could you pass the salt?

texts:
Which of the following more common?
1) Could you pass me the salt?
2) Could you pass the salt? (without "me")

What's the difference,if any?


texts: Appropriate use of the term "transversely"

texts:
In the following paragraph, is it appropriate to use the term "transversely" to describe something that has the opposite effect?

  Tests have shown that the lower the range, the more likely that a submatrix will
  be singular.  Transversely, the larger the range, the least likely that a submatrix
  will be singular.

If not, is there another word that I can use instead?  I know that, in this instance, I cannot use the word "conversely" as this means something totally different.


texts: "Without further adieu" vs "Without further ado"

texts:
I have just seen an email containing the phrase "Without further adieu"; I always thought it was "Without further ado."

Which is it?


texts: A subordinate clause beginning with "if"

texts:
Should this sentence have a comma: "It was dark, if you recall."
It's a dependent clause so it should not need one, but it doesn't sound right without it.


texts: Should I use "still" or "yet" in the following sentence?

texts:
The atmosphere had relaxed a bit. Still/Yet, I couldn't stop thinking how
  strange it was to watch my brother being insecure.

Which on is the correct choice? I often get confused about which one to use. They seem interchangeable to me most of the time.


texts: article "the" needed in this sentence or not

texts:
"I feel very sorry for people who have to live in cities which they absolutely hate because they have no choice."

"I feel very sorry for the people who have to live in the cities which they absolutely hate because they have no choice."

These two sentences which one is right and why?
Is there any subtle difference between them?


texts:
I saw an article on CNN use the phrase "Narnia-like" to describe the town of Dixville Notch in The effort to save New Hampshire's midnight vote.

The most characteristic aspect of Narnia is talking animals. I don't think Dixville Notch is full of talking animals.

What did the author mean by that? Is this a term used by others to mean the same thing?


texts: What is the word for when a behavior is disliked in another because a person sees the behavior in themselves

texts:
I need a single word to describe someone who doesn't like the behavior of someone because that same behavior is in them

e.g. "I hate my tendency to refuse social interaction, hence I also hate other people who act the same way"


texts: Why use 'step down' instead of 'resign'? Is there any difference?

texts: Ozzie announced his plans to step down from his role at Microsoft on October 18, 2010


texts: What does "state" in "State University" refer to?

texts:
There are many universities and colleges in the United States with names such as "... State University".

The word state has many distinct meanings, but pertinent to this question are:

government, ministry, administration, executive, regime, powers-that-be: The state does not collect enough revenue to cover its expenditure.
One of the more or less internally autonomous territorial and political units composing a federation under a sovereign government: the 48 contiguous states of the Union.

(from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/state)

Thus, it is possible to take the name to mean "university belonging to one of the 50 states", eg Arizona as opposed to Alabama. It is also possible to take it to mean "university owned and operated by the state", as in, not privately funded.

The distinction is a bit pointless in English because of homophony, however other languages have different non-interchangeable words for state in the sense of "administrative subdivision of a federal government" (Russian, for example, calls the US states штат -"штатный университет"?-, with obvious etymology, and even Russia's own states get a different term, область, meaning roughly "region") and in the sense of "government-operated" (again, in Russian a state university in this sense would be государственный университет - eg Moscow State University, Московский государственный университет).

So in which sense are American state universities, "state universities"? Especially when translating, into languages such as Russian above, which meaning is more appropriate for selecting word choice?


texts: "Themselves" or "Themself" in a singular context?

texts:
I have the following sentence:

  In order to read the remainder of this book, the reader is advised to familiarize themselves with the concepts contained within this Chapter.

I want to put:

  In order to read the remainder of this book, the reader is advised to familiarize themself with the concepts contained within this Chapter.

In this very great article here, it explains why you should use themself only in an informal context, and the sentence they gave supports this, however; In the sentence I have, it sounds plain wrong (as sometimes proper English tends to sound, admittedly), despite what they say. Should I still use themselves, because it is in a proper context, or am I able to use themself instead, despite its proper context?


texts: A phrase starting with "In a..." and ending in "...minute" that means 'without hesitation.'

texts: I am missing the single word in a common phrase that starts with "In a..." and ends with "...minute" that means 'without hesitation.'


texts: What is the English word for this big pipe?

texts:
In Cellular (2004) movie, There is a scene at the top of building construction, Ryan jumped into some big sliding pipe to escape from the Ethan.

Is there any English word for this big pipe ?


texts: How to use possessives apostrophes when the word ends with a symbol?

texts:
For example, if I want to say an account of Google+, is it the same as say a Google+'s account?

In other words, are   possessives formed in the same way as always, no matter whether the word ends in a letter or a symbol?


texts: phrase use to I want to know is there any phrase use to in english if yes then how to use it


texts:
Is 2/3 always, sometimes or never plural?

E.g.

  1a) 2/3 of the pizza were eaten.
    1b) 2/3 of the pizza was eaten.

  2a) 2/3 of the visitors were men.
    2b) 2/3 of the visitors was men.

I feel that example 1 could go either way but example 2b sounds very wrong.

Is there a rule for this?


texts:
I'm not sure if this belongs on math.stackexchange, but If I were to write:

We know a > b,    c > d,   e > f,     and f>g.

without the extra space,

We know a > b, c > d,   e > f,     and f > g

it becomes confusing as whether I mean a is greater than b and c which are both greater than d and e which are both greater than f.  However I'm told it's bad to have additional space.


texts:
Should agreed or agreed to be used in the example below?

The member countries agreed the bailout package for the sovereign.  NATO will enforce the sanctions agreed in May.
The member countries agreed to the bailout package for the sovereign.  NATO will enforce the sanctions agreed to in May.

Is one more popular in some localities than others?
EDIT: While the answers posted thus far seem to make it cut and dried that the first usage is simply wrong, I am hearing it an awful lot on BBC television news.  And I note that in the Telegraph (UK website) Sep 9, 2011, we have:

I haven't ever believed that a single euro cent of the €109 billion agreed in the Greece II bailout would ever change hands.

From Reuters on Sep 28, 2011:

If deemed adequate by the inspectors, the new austerity drive will secure an 8-billion-euro loan Greece needs to pay bills and salaries in October and bring it closer to starting a second bailout agreed in July.

This seems almost prevalent I am tempted to say it is a phenomenon.


texts: How do I cite a line of poetry that is repeated throughout the poem? Should I just cite the first time it occurs?

texts: The line is repeated several times throughout the poem


texts: What is the correct method to write measurements in English?

texts:
Should it be:

1KG or 1 KG?

1M or 1 M?

1PM or 1 PM?

1GB or 1 GB?

1Kmph or 1 Kmph?

1Kbps or 1 Kbps?

or anything else?


texts: Difference between the two similar senses of about as a preposition

texts:
Oxford Living Dictionaries defines the preposition about in sense 2 and 3 that are quite similar; their similarity disabled me contradict between such senses.

Sense 2. [British] Used to indicate movement within a particular area.

‘she looked about the room.’

Sense 3. [British] Used to express location in a particular place.

‘rugs were strewn about the hall’.

Though saying ‘rugs were strewn about the hall’ is passive but has about the phrase similar to that of sense 2 that says ‘she looked about the room’, which is not passive. I imagine here that the distinction is the passivity of the sense 3, but I am not sure about that . . . and need some rhymes and the reasons behind saying '...about the room' and '...about the hall' in a similar way. So, I explicitly ask here that how to capture the meaning of such similar sentences as location or movement?
I wrote one sentence myself which I could not decide wether it's about location or movement?

She walked about the park.


texts:
We had a chat while we waited for our flights.

Is Simple past also used after While? I saw it in a grammar book, and I'm not sure if it's correct.


texts:
When I search the definition of Caucasian in the NOAD, I find the following definition (it's the first of three definitions):

  (often offensive) of or relating to one of the traditional divisions of humankind, covering a broad group of peoples from Europe, western Asia, and parts of India and North Africa. [ORIGIN: so named because the German physiologist Blumenbach believed that it originated in the Caucasus region of southeastern Europe.]
  • white-skinned; of European origin.

In a note, the dictionary says also

  In the racial classification as developed by anthropologists in the 19th century, Caucasian (or Caucasoid) included peoples whose skin color ranged from light (in northern Europe) to dark (in parts of North Africa and India). Although the classification is outdated and the categories are now not generally accepted as scientific (see usage at Australoid and Mongoloid), the term Caucasian has acquired a more restricted meaning. It is now used, especially in the U.S., as a synonym for white or of European origin, as in the following citation: the police are looking for a Caucasian male in his forties.

Is Caucasian understood to have these meanings also in other English dialects?


texts: What is it called when you “refill” a debit card?

texts:
How it is called (in the US) when you go to the bank or an ATM to add cash to your VISA/MasterCard debit card? That is, when you add cash to the bank account which is tied to  that card.

Is it either of these two, or is it something else?

to refill my debit card
to add funds to my debit card


texts: Can we use "too to" together in a sentence?

texts:
Like in this sentence:

  'I don’t want to lose this double murder case too to them.'

Or do I need to use a comma?

  'I don’t want to lose this double murder case too, to them.'


texts:
Suppose today is 30th November. Today my friend (John) says to me on phone "I will definitely go to the market tomorrow".

Now if I want to report his speech just after a few hours on 30th November, "will" or "would", which one should I use?

Hey mom, tomorrow I will be very busy. I will have to have got ready by 10:30 tomorrow. John told me that he would/will definitely go to the market tomorrow. I can't miss the chance going there with him.


texts:
Are there rules of thumb for pinpointing British accents regionally?
What other accents do Americans tend to mistake for British?
Are there good online resources that can help with this? Audio samples would be essential.

EDIT:
Also, is there such a thing as a "neutral" British accent, analogous to American broadcaster's midwest pronunciation that is perceived to be the most free of regional characteristics.


texts: Help me understand the use of "would " in a particular sentence (in IELTS Book)

texts:
Examiner: Describe a place you have visited in the past.
Candidate: [...] When I was a student, I would go there all the time and hang out with my friends.

I don't understand what "would" means in this case. Please help me; thanks in advance.


texts: Help explain what “miseries were as vast as the sky” mean

texts:
I'm totally confused about the use of this phrase in this situation:

  After Margaret Sanger saw the worst of many women who had to do abortion with abortionists, they suffered from physical pains and even death. She wanted to find a way to help them, She said:
  'I resolved to do something to change the destiny of these mothers, whose miseries were as vast as the sky.'


texts: What is the most common colloquial name for the lifebuoy?

texts:
What's the first word that comes to your mind when you see this? Also, please mention if British, US or another variant.

As someone who didn't grow up in an English-speaking country, I really have no idea what to call these, and Wikipedia lists altogether too many names for them.


texts:
Imagine if I sit in the classroom and I want to say that some lecture is going in another classroom. I what to express that meaning using active voice, like

Lecture is happening now

But for me, it sounds too pathetic for an ordinary event. Can you give some hint on how to say that kind of thing?


texts: A word that describes someone who 'sees/brings out the good in others'?

texts:
The person doesn't have to be good themselves, but they can bring the good out of others. The word doesn't have to be an english word, I just want to know if such a word exists.

Ex. Beauty with the Beast. Durga with Asura(Asura's Wrath, not the religious scripture). The 3 ghosts in the Christmas Story with Scrooge.


texts:
I recently corrected

"ghettos, such as the ones found..." to
"ghettos, such as those found..."

Was I correct, or are both versions right?


texts: Is it ok to combine two independent clauses into just one sentence?

texts:
Is this sentence acceptable?

  You’re welcome, have a nice day ahead.


texts:
Recently, I was discussing something about open source software in the FOSS stack exchange and to explain a certain technical concept (permissive licenses), I made the analogy of dictatorship vs democracy.

Now, I don't know whether the word dictator itself is negative or it is the bad ruler who brings it a bad name, but people seem to be taking this word quite negatively. In fact, the WordNet dictionary defines the word as:

  n 1: a speaker who dictates to a secretary or a recording
       machine

  2: a ruler who is unconstrained by law [syn: {dictator},
     {potentate}]

I don't see any negative connotation there. In fact, in our software world, there is the concept of a benevolent dictator which implies that dictatorship can be actually very good.


texts: 'serve the best interest of' or 'serve the best interests of'?

texts:
The sentence is

  Our vision is to become an employer of choice where our employees
  serve the best interests of the residents of our County.

(Should it be interests or interest?)


texts:
I am facing problem regarding the usage of who and whom. So I want to know how to use those pronouns?
For example: who or whom do you think I met?


texts: "Compare the speeds of" or "Compare the speed of"?

texts:
What is the correct expression:

"Compare the speeds of the cars" or "Compare the speed of the cars"?


texts: If two or more nouns follow a single adjective, do they all share the same attribute?

texts:
In the following example,

  Our goal is to create an overview of this field of research and add
  our own perspective on the study of green crime, law, and justice to
  that literature. excerpt

Is green an adjective used only for crime, or for law and justice too?

Similar questions here and here ask about more than one adjective + more than one noun, and the answers seem to be "look at the context".

So, in the context mentioned above, how should we interpret it?


texts: What's the difference between bole, stem and trunk?

texts:
Are bole, stem and trunk exactly equal?

Or is there any difference in their usage? Like if one just refer to the main part and other includes the branches, stalk, etc.

Looking on dictionary.com, bole and trunk seem to be the same:

Trunk:

The main stem of a tree, as distinct from the branches and roots.

Bole:

The stem or trunk of a tree.

But stem seems to involve trunk/bole, the branches and the stalks supporting the fruits:

The ascending axis of a plant, whether above or below ground, which ordinarily grows in an opposite direction to the root or descending axis.
The stalk that supports a leaf, flower, or fruit.
The main body of that portion of a tree, shrub, or other plant which is above ground; trunk; stalk.

What is a little confusing is that bole also means stem, so I asked here to put the kibosh on it.


texts: Why can't we use "make" in this sentence?

texts:
How to cope when the news makes you feel depressed...

I found this sentence online but I am curious why we cannot use "make" here? Why is it makes when news is plural?


texts:
What is the business perception of identifying yourself as the Principal vs the Owner? I assume they are largely synonymous (please tell me if there are subtle differences, but in a small business sense, they seem interchangeable).  Using "Principal" to me has always sounded fancier :)

Also, as a small issue: Is "Principal" the correct spelling? It's not "Principle" is it? My spelling skills are terrible!


texts: Are vowel ligatures common in any disciplines these days?

texts: Are there any areas of writing, literature or science where æ or œ are still used?  Are there contexts where they are still considered mandatory?


texts: I'm a computer programmer and I'm working about this problem. I must say that I'm not very familiar with British English and I'd like to know when the word and is used in the numbers. The perfect answer for me will be something like "The word and is used with numbers not divisible by 10" (something mathematical). But all answers will be appreciated.


texts: What does "several states of mind away" mean? Does it mean a strange place or something else?

texts:
In this sentence,

  I met him at the coffee place where I was working after I’d dropped
  out of graduate school out West, many states and several states of
   mind away from the New England college town to which I’d returned.

I know "many states away" means that it really far from a place, but
what does "several states of mind away" mean? Does it mean it is a unfamiliar place or anything else?


texts:
Please take a look at this sentence:

There is a philosophical question and an issue of humanity "what are aliens?".

In this one, I want to express "philosophical question"(a) and "issue of humanity"(b) as one idea-a is b, and b is also a. I researched and found an example:

two singulars connected by 'and'become a plural, unless they present one idea as:
The needle and the thread are on the table (2 things)
The needle and thread is on the table (1 thing)

In my case, I don't know whether It's wrong or right to apply this example to my sentence.

There is a philosophical question and an issue of humanity "what are aliens?".

Help me!


texts: What do you call a past participle+noun construction clause such as “No offense meant” “Your point taken,” “With that said,” and “Given that”?

texts:
In reference to my question about the usage of “No offense meant/taken,” I noticed that there are a lot of shortened forms like “No offense meant/taken,” “Your point taken,” “That said,” and “Given that” used in place of statements like “I don’t mean to offend you / I don’t take it for your offense,” “I’d take your point (correctly),” “As I said that,” “Under the given situation (condition, statement, fact, story, and so on).” .”

When did these shortened forms come into currency or vogue? Did they surge because the tide of modern time requires speed and shortened form of expression?

Is there specific grammatical terminology to describe such a “noun+past participle (or passive verb form)," or vice versa contracted construction clause?


texts:
I would like to know if there is a difference in the following sentence depending on the preposition. Both seem to be correct.
I saw a celebrity while I was shopping in/on Oxford St.
Thank you!


texts: When reading aloud, how to read a parenthetical phrase?

texts:
I need to read a script for a kind of audition, and part of the script contains a phrase in parentheses.

Ie:
"To approve an Amended and Restated Investment Advisory and Administration Agreement (“Proposed Advisory Agreement”) between..."

I'm not sure if I should say or "proposed advisory agreement", or say AKA, or what.


texts: "Have permission" vs "have a permission"

texts:
We have a small discussion with colleagues regarding the article usage in a sentence "Make sure that the user has a permission to execute X".

Should I use "a" article there? E.g.

  Make sure that the user has a permission to execute X.

vs

  Make sure that the user has permission to execute X.

Is there any rule that permits to omit an article here?


texts:
If I use the word behoove in this sentence:

  I am sure I am behooved to the university's requirements with right goal.

Does it make sense?


texts: Is Midnight at the start or the end of the day?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  How should “midnight on…” be interpreted?

It seems that at least in common usage people understand midnight to mean the point at which the day ends, so if someone say that they'll meet you somewhere on Saturday at midnight, what they mean is Sunday at 12am.

I'm inclined to agree that this is how it is generally used, but that doesn't mean it's correct, and it seems to me that technically since Midnight happens at 12am and 12am IS the start of the next day, it *should technically mean the same thing. I'm curious if there's an official definition.


texts:
Farmers who grow major crops such as corn, rice and wheat,
  aware that new developments in agriculture production can result in millions of dollars in additional revenue, switching to newer,
  more efficient technologies. NO ERROR?

For the question above I was stumped at the fact of how aware can be correct, although, I do see another error at the switching to part too.

Anyway, why is aware correct and shouldn't it be changed to are aware?


texts: Must I "stand" in order to "stand still"?

texts:
When I tell someone:

Stand still!

do they need to be standing at that moment? When I tell someone:

Sit still!

do they need to be sitting at that moment?
If yes, is there a more general statement (edit: preferably including the word "still") that can include both?
Edit: I probably should have given a better context to my query. I am thinking of a situation when you tell someone to stand/ sit still, so you can do something:

Stand/sit still or I will pierce you instead of your shirt with this pin!

Does the reader guess from that the position the person spoken to is in?


texts: American vs British: a "conspiracy" question

texts:
This question has NEVER been asked, never mind answered, here. Goodness. Lighten up, people.

Again I must quote Shaw to illustrate a point or two before putting the question to you guys:

  The fact that English is spelt conventionally and not phonetically
  makes the art of recording speech almost impossible. What is more, it
  places the modern dramatist, who writes for America as well as
  England, in a most trying position. Take for example my American
  captain and my English lady. I have spelt the word conduce, as uttered
  by the American captain, as cawndooce, to suggest (very roughly) the
  American pronunciation to English readers. Then why not spell the same
  word, when uttered by Lady Cicely, as kerndewce, to suggest the
  English pronunciation to American readers? To this I have absolutely
  no defence: I can only plead that an author who lives in England
  necessarily loses his consciousness of the peculiarities of English
  speech, and sharpens his consciousness of the points in which American
  speech differs from it; so that it is more convenient to leave English
  peculiarities to be recorded by American authors.

Blah-blah-blah. You can't help loving the guy, even when he's talking nonsense. Note one thing here, though: while parodying American peculiarities more or less correctly ("cawndooce"), the intrepid "author who lives in England" fails to see (or simply disregards) the fact that American readers (rhotic speakers that we are) might be puzzled by his rendering of the English version as he presents it. Kerrrrrrrrrndewce? Really? Ah, those Brits ...

It invariably takes me a few moments to adjust when I'm talking to "those Brits," or watching a BBC show. The point is - yes, the two versions are different. Now, to business.

What puzzles me is the fact that at some point in the past (say around Shakespeare's time) all English dialects must have been rhotic (as suggested by, well, the sheer presence of the letter "r" in the English alphabet, for one thing. Wait ... It gets better ... Some British authors and actors make it a point, when portraying British aristocracy, to actually roll their r's (the way Italians, Spaniards, and Russians roll theirs)).

Wow. Please bear with me.

There is a theory (don't hold me to it; I can't remember where I read it; I am frivolous like that) that Byron and the Shelleys, as well as General Howe and General Burgoyne, spoke a version of English that was a lot closer to the American version of today than the British one. Some proponents of this theory maintain that some kind of high-brow conspiracy took place in England towards the middle of the Nineteenth Century whose purpose was to distance the aristocracy from the rabble - well, phonetically: hence the missing r's, and some h's, and the inexplicable French-like nasality of certain sounds. (I thought you guys hated the French).

Needless to say, any dialect, no matter how artificial in the beginning, will sooner or later take on life of its own and develop into something lively and natural-sounding: it's merely a matter of time, and not much time, either, only a generation or two. There isn't a shred of affectation in run-of-the-mill British speech today.

My question, though, is this: is there any validity to the theory? Does the author of the theory, whoever he may be, have a point? Is there any actual evidence to support it?


texts: Double acronym/initialism: acronyms and initialisms that stand for two things simultaneously

texts:
I am looking for a term that describes an acronym that has two possible expansions, but both expansions refer to the same thing. The term "double acronym" doesn't appear to be widely used and is confusing. Some examples:

In human-computer interaction, there is a single tool called CPM-GOMS, where the CPM stands for both "cognitive, perceptual, motor" and "critical path method".

Additionally, a popular cognitive modeling tool called ACT has both "Atomic Components of Thought" and "Adaptive Character of Thought" as its meanings.

In both cases, these are not two distinct tools that coincidentally share the same acronym. They are acronyms that purposefully have two distinct expansions that refer to the same tool.

The usage might also apply to companies who have changed the words in their acronym while keeping the original initialism, such as:

Marvel's SHIELD
the programming language PHP
the chain store TCBY
the college exam SAT

However in these cases one expansion is clearly non-standard. There are also unofficial acronyms, such as DVD, which appears to be used equally as "digital video disc" and "digital versatile disc", despite that neither is standard.

It may also apply to translations in which the initialism is preserved, such as the car company BMW which stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, but is often written as Bavarian Motor Works.

There is no wikipedia for "double acronym" and < 6,500 google results for the same search term. Is there a standard term for this usage that I am not aware of? If not, what short phrasing could be best used to describe this usage? Note I am primarily interested in a phrase that captures the first usage (e.g. CPM and ACT).


texts: Need a concise term to denote "request to borrow"

texts:
The context is that I am developing a web application, in which there's the concept of allowing one party to request to borrow items from another party. Up to this point, we have been calling it "borrowing request". I want to call it "borrow request" because it's short, but then it sounds a bit awkward to my ears.

Q: Can I call it "borrow request"? If not, is "borrowing request" as concise as it gets? Thanks.


texts: Would a semicolon be more appropriate here?

texts:
For the two sentences below, would a semicolon work better to separate these two sentences?

Circle graphs, often called pie charts, are used to represent data with a relatively small number of categories. They illustrate how a whole is separated into parts.

Is this a case where both a period and a semicolon can work? The two sentences are independent but still related, so it seems reasonable to put a semicolon between them.

Here are two more sentences where a semicolon seems to work:

Sometimes data are collected to study two different variables in the same population of individuals or objects. Such data are called bivariate data.


texts: correct usage - using was/am with "said"

texts:
Which one is correct:

  My manager told me that I was not doing great at work.

or

  My manager told me that I am not doing great at work.


texts: "I am not starving yet" is that correct English?

texts: I am trying to say "I am not feeling hunger at the moment, but I probably will in the nearest future." "I am not starving yet" - is that a proper English in general and particularly in that case of usage?


texts: In any way, is it acceptable for the first letter of each word in a web article's title to be capitalized?

texts:
We've all seen this at some stage on the internet, and are seeing it more and more recently.

Capitalizing is applied to the first letter of each word in a title :

  This Is The Title Of The Article

These are generally celebrity stories or ads for diets or other gibberish.

Is this specifically an online practice to grab our attention in some way?

Is it acceptable in any other format?


texts: What's the proper term for "Organize by subject, with a heading"?

texts:
I've noticed that people usually organize things by

Grouping things with the same subject/topic together, then
Putting a short heading at the top.

What's the proper English word for this kind of organization process?

Examples:

Newpaper sections   (business, sport, current affairs)
Stack Overflow Communities (Programming, English Language & Usage, Physics)
Libraries (science fiction, horror)
TV channels (movies, comedy, news)
Textbook chapters (intro, basics)
Computer folders (my pictures, my documents etc.)


texts: "The end of next week" or "the end of the next week"?

texts:
I wonder if there should be a the in front of week in "the end of next week". Context:

  I will give you updates on how things work out by the end of next
  week.


texts: Is it OK to add 'one' after the smallest? And what's the difference between adding 'one' or eliminating it?

texts:
The sentence is :
The red laptop is the smallest among the three.


texts: How come 'ou' was reduced to 'o' in the US?

texts: Americans write color and favorite, when others say colour and favourite. How/why did this happen?


texts: Sentence meaning (Story- The Tiger King)

texts:
The story The Tiger King,
ends this way:

  On that day father and son played with that tiny little wooden tiger. It had been carved by an unskilled carpenter. Its surface was rough; tiny slivers of wood stood up like quills all over it. One of those slivers pierced the Maharaja's right hand. He pulled it out with his left hand and continued to play with the prince.
  The next day, infection flaired in Maharaja's right hand. In four days, it developed into a suppurating sore which spread all over the arm.
  Three famous surgeons were brought in from Madras. After holding a consultation they decided to operate. The operation took place.
  The three surgeons who performed it came out of the theatre and announced, "The operation was successful. The Maharaja is dead."

How does the bolded text make sense?


texts:
Where does the expression far out come from?

As in:

  I had to phone someone so I picked on you /
  Hey, that's far out so you heard him too! /
  Switch on the TV we may pick him up on channel two

(This is a lyric from "Starman" by David Bowie)


texts: Word for a being smarter than a normal person

texts:
I'm looking for a word for sentient beings that are smarter than ordinary human beings. This word should at least include the following:

Geniuses with artificially enhanced intelligence
Alien lifeforms that are smarter than normal human beings
A.I.s that are smarter than normal human beings

The words "overmind" and "posthuman" have come to my mind, but "overmind" seems to be generally understood as "being controlling other beings", while "posthuman" doesn't include super-smart aliens.

Edit: Fixed misleading wording.


texts: Proverb to express this concept: foregoing immediate gratification in favor of long-term reward

texts:
In other words, if you forego getting X in the short-term, you'll get more X than you'd have otherwise in the longer-term.

I'm drawing a blank at the moment.  The proverb, "a penny saved is a penny earned", doesn't quite capture this idea but it's close.


texts:
A construction that I have been seeing a lot lately that seems surprising to me is "The  8-foot-long bridge ...," with two hyphens.

It seems surprising to me (or maybe I'm just noticing it) that there is a second hyphen between "feet" and "long".

Is this considered a common construction or is it more of an accepted though less common use?