texts: What do you call a person who uses vulgar words too often?

texts:
Is there a word which has this definition:

  usage of vulgar or abusive words too often especially while chatting or talking to someone or while giving a speech.

What do you call a person who uses abusive words too often without needing to.


texts: What does it mean when someone always wants more? Of anything

texts: Always wanting more , of anything, never has enough,never contented with what they have


texts:
I am wondering whether the article "a" is correctly used in this sentence.
The context is the following:
Line 1: mystringexample = "Hello, world"
How to read line 1: it has a left had side, a right hand side and the equals sign connects them.
Is it correct to use article "a" in the above sentence? If yes, in what sense?


texts: Should I use cache partition or cache partitioning to name a technique

texts:
The "cache partition technique" is a technique that divides the cache into the equal-size cache partitions.

I'm not sure if I should call it "cache partition technique" or "cache partitioning technique".

My intuition told me I should use "cache partitioning technique" but I'm not that sure.


texts:
It’s pity to learn our own country is viewed as a bad example for other countries not to follow. I found the word “Japan-lite problems” in the article of Time magazine (August 25 issue) titled “Six lessons Japan can teach the West”. It goes as follows:

  “We have consistently taken the view that the Western world was suffering from ‘Japan-lite' problems: weak money supply growth, high levels of debt, lots of deleveraging, structurally weak growth and a rapidly deteriorating fiscal position. Given recent economic developments, perhaps ‘lite' should be replaced with ‘heavy'…The West is increasingly looking like a bad version of Japan. And, like Japan, our political leaders are offering few answers.”

I understand “-lite” is used as a suffix. But I don’t understand what “Japan-lite”really means.

COD (10th Ed.) defines “-lite” as “suffix forming names of rocks, minerals and fossils. From this, I hazard to guess “Japan-lite problems” implies petrified economic status of the country i.e., the quagmire Japan has been bogged in for a score of years without finding the exit, but I’m not sure.

The author says “’Japan-lite’ should be replaced with ‘Japan-heavy.’” It could be banter. But beside “Japan-light (heavy)”, are there such word as “Greece-lite (heavy),” “Italy-lite (heavy)” or even “America-lite (heavy)”, “German-lite (heavy)” and “China-lite (heavy)”?


texts:
I’d appreciate a second opinion on an exercise I’m doing, that is, to determine whether the main verbs of sentences are transitive or intransitive.

The sentence is as follows:

  The teacher decided against doing karaoke.

I took the main verb to be ‘to decide against’, and tagged it as transitive, on the basis that its action is transferred to ‘doing karaoke’. ‘Doing karaoke’ here being a verb phrase (or I think, more specifically, a gerund phrase), and functioning as the direct object of the main verb.

However, I’ve been advised (i) that the main verb is actually 'to decide' (rather than 'to decide against'), which can be used transitively or intransitively, and (ii) that in the sentence above, it is intransitive, on account of there being no direct object, the teacher having decided against the action.

I am maintaining that the negation of a transitive verb’s action within the context of a sentence does not somehow make the direct object, as a grammatical constituent, disappear.

I thought the presence of “against” might be complicating this, but any way I turn it, the main verb still seems to be transitive.

Thank you in advance for any help.


texts: Is the construction, "He is a great player, is Tendulkar" grammatical?

texts:
I came across sentences similar to the following in a cricket commentary.

He is a superb timer of the ball, is Cook.
He is a great ambassador of the game, is Tendulkar.

Are these sentences grammatically correct or do they belong only to informal English? Is it stylish to use the pronoun before introducing the noun? Is the usage archaic or poetic?


texts:
Is "Glasgow area" a compound noun? Can we write "Glasgow Area"?

Glasgow area is in lower case in the Oxford Dictionary in the definition of confine:

  The work will not be confined to the Glasgow area.


texts: Word for describing the situation of caring about nothing but one thing

texts:
I want to describe a situation in which someone gets interested in something/someone to such extent that he forgets other activities and normal life, and just cares and thinks about the beloved activity/person. This is the sentence in which I want to use this word:

  I devoted myself to this/her/him so (the word) that ... .

One word that comes to my mind is to use the adjective form of ascetic. But I'm not sure it's the best or even a correct choice.


texts: How to deal with parallel structure where the plurality of the nouns changes?

texts:
This is the intent of what I want to get across:

  You are participating in a discussion with the moderators and as a moderator.

I want to emphasize in particular that he is not only speaking with the moderators, but as a moderator as well. I wrote it as follows:

  You are participating in a discussion as a and with the moderators.

Is this correct? The issue is that "as a" expects "moderator" while "with the" expects "moderators". This sounded less strange than the other way:

  You are participating in a discussion with the and as a moderator.

This one sounds totally wrong, in fact.

There are other cases as well. I can't think of any that arose naturally right now, so here's a contrived example:

  He can choose to eat a or throw out all the hot dogs.


texts:
Should I use "are" or "is" in this sentence?

The technical work done at these meetings is an import precursor to the...


texts:
What is the correct word for "dependee"?

In other words, what is the word for something that is depended upon? The relationship here is in the context of software engineering


texts:
I recall reading once that the "smith" in some surnames stood for something like "the one who works with". For example: Coppersmith, the one who works with copper or deals with copper; Wordsmith has to with an individual that make a living by dealings with words (a poet?).

Is there any evidence on the validity of this "explanation"? When and how did surnames ending with "smith" originate?

Do you know of a good source (article, textbook, manuscript, papyrus) on the origin of some of the more common surnames in the English speaking world?

For instance, I believe that the suffix -son was intended to express the son of "name preceding son": for instance, Johnson (son of John), Nicholson (son of Nicholas?), etc.


texts:
is there an idiom sounding like "monkey dies" or "monkeys died"? What does it mean?

I've been wondering since I heard Robert Plant song "Monkey":
Tonight you will be mine |
Tonight the monkey'll die.

and I also came across it in Friends when zoo manager said to Ross that "They say, sometimes monkeys die" — and the phrase apparently was not used in its literal meaning.

Thanks for help!


texts: In navigation, what's the difference between bearing, heading, direction, and course?

texts:
Specifically, in real-world use, I would think that "course" and "heading" tend to imply a vector of movement, while "bearing" and "direction" might refer only to which way one is facing.

I am looking for two words to correctly assign to these physical components of a vehicle. I suppose I may be looking for military, or naval terminology.

For example, if you were in a submarine, being buffeted by currents, so your vessel was being pushed sideways, how would you correctly say, "we are being pushed east but we are facing north?" Would it be correct to say "we are bearing 0°, but our heading is 270°?" It doesn't sound correct.

Edit

As I note in a comment below: when I clumsily wrote that I was "looking for two words to correctly assign to these physical components of a vehicle," what I meant was, single-word attributes to distinguish between the direction a vehicle was facing, and the actual direction the vehicle was moving in, voluntarily or not.


texts:
Human tests—called clinical trials—are the gauntlet of drug
  development , and have three phases

What does "gauntlet" mean in the above context?

"throw down the gauntlet" is an idiom "to issue a challenge" where gauntlet refers to a type of glove. In the above extract the word gauntlet alone has been used as a noun, what does it mean there?


texts: word order in superlatives: "She booked the earliest flight to London she could." or "She booked the earliest flight she could to London."?

texts:
What is the correct (Ooops, I'm afraid it's me again! rule-o-cratic French speaker), preferred, then, word order in a superlative?

"She booked the earliest flight she could back to London."

or

"She booked the earliest flight back to London she could."

Or neither, the sentence sounding awkward anyway… How would you put it then?


texts: Synonym for 'recipient' (of an email/letter)

texts:
As communications habits shift in favor of digital media such as email, text messaging, chats or instagram, it's increasingly common to need to describe the parties involved in a message exchange.

Generally, an exchange involves a sender and one or more recipients.

There is a decent set of nouns one can use to describe the sending party:  author, sender, poster.

I'm looking for a simple word that can be used to describe the receiving party.  Alternatives include recipient, addressee, and receiver, but I would much prefer an alternative that has fewer than 3 syllables and is not as long.

I haven't found anything shorter than 'receiver'.  Does anyone have suggestions?


texts: What's the difference between "management", "administration", and "moderator"/"mediator"?

texts: It looks like "moderator" is mostly used for online forums, whereas "manager" and "administrator" are used interchangeably. Please correct me if I'm wrong.


texts: What does Mitt Romney aide's remark "keep Boston off message all week" mean?

texts:
Mitt Romney seems to be haunted with the plague of gaffes of his own and his aides’.

Time magazine’s (August 4) article titled “Worse gaffe than Etch-A-Sketch” reported another gaffe that Romney’s aide, Eric Fehmstrom, made and the author Mark Halperin says it could derail the campaign and "keep Boston off message all week".

I think I know the idiom, “keep sb/stg off,” but I’m not clear with the specific meaning of “keep Boston off message all week” in the article.

Does this mean (1) Fehmstrom’s gaffe keeps Romney's right and intended message from reaching Boston voters, or (2) it keeps Boston voters absorbed in the gaffe all week (thus making them forget about Romney’s campaign message), or (3) otherwise?

What is the exact meaning of ‘keep Boston off message’?

FYI. The episode goes like this:

When Fehmstrom was at his desk at an ad agency working on a press release for a new menu of Popeye’s’ Fried Chicken, he received a phone call from Romney asking for help on his gubernatorial campaign; he said:
“I said to myself, there has to be more interesting things in life than spicy fried chicken, I hung up the phone, walked down the hall and quit.”


texts:
I am looking for an abbreviation for delimiter word (meaning separator). It is quite long to write and I would like to shorten it (e.g. in the programming code, like variable names).

What is the abbreviation for delimiter word?


texts: Does "up to [date]" include the end date? What about date ranges ("the week of...")?

texts:
The quiz covers all the material up to the week of the quiz Sept.30 - Oct.6.

Does this mean that September 29 is the last date, or that the week Sept.30 - Oct.6 is included in this span?


texts: What would be an appropriate opposite of "exceed"?

texts:
Exceed is commonly used, but when I found myself wanting to use the opposite I couldn't really find a single word that would do it.

fall short of and inadequate are a little off.
How about deceed?


texts:
I want to find the exact/literal/detailed meaning of the phrase "sense of well being". Not just "well being", but "sense of well being". (What exactly is meant by "sense"?)

Note: I understand what the phrase means. But how will I write/describe the meaning in English? (I need this for some literary work.)


texts: What's the meaning "certainly ends there"?

texts:
In fact, it is hard to predict how many firms might struggle. The
  current levels of corporate debt are not inherently unsustainable, but
  certainly ends there. -Economist-

What's the meaning of "but certainty ends there"?

I understood it as 'the current levels of corporate debt are sustainable at its uppermost limit, and no more debt is possible. Is this correct?


texts: Can a gunfight happen when only one person has a gun?

texts:
Dictionaries (M-W) commonly define a gunfight as an exchange of gunfire.

However, the OED defines a gunfight as "a shooting affray".  {paywall link}

Several stories & film describe or depict a gunfight where only a single combatant possesses / uses a gun, such as in the 'classic' scene from Indiana Jones.

Given such stories, is it reasonable to assume that a gunfight can involve 2+ people, where only one (presumably the winner) has a gun?  Would this be a euphemism for a certain kind of gunfight?


texts: What is a word to describe a person who mischievously and annoyingly refers to his/her friend as arrogant when that person is not?

texts: I encountered this person (guy) who mischievously and annoyingly refers to another person (girl) as arrogant when that person is not. I suspect that the guy is trying to tease the girl but in doing so, he made himself appear as childish and I am trying to find a word to describe this kind of character.


texts: How to compare frequency of word use over time between British and American English?

texts:
Google Ngram viewer allows one to compare the frequencies of a set of phrases over time. It even allows you to restrict that comparison to an American corpus, or separately to an English one.

What I am wondering if there is any way to compare the frequency of one word/phrase over time between American and English? Either through Google Ngram or something else. I couldn't really find anything on google (itself or by using it).


texts: “Terrified, John locked the door” — Is the comma necessary?

texts:
Which one would sound better?

Terrified, John locked the door and switched off the lights.

OR

Terrified John locked the door and switched off the lights.


texts: Which word is the closest in meaning to "insouciance" in the given context?

texts:
Insouciance: His insouciance, which was kept in check by the law of custom, had its root, like most other evils, in selfishness

  (a) apathy   (b) lassitude   (c) deceit   (d) indecision

To me it apathy seems to be correct, but my instructor is of the opinion that lassitude is the correct one. Please explain.

Please Note: This sentence is taken from The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of Custom,  chapter XIV, Page number -228, however we don't have access to this source at the time of solving.


texts: What's an example of a 'cheville' word in english?

texts:
The dictionary.com word of the day is 'Cheville' and it explains it as such: A word or expression whose only function is to fill a metrical gap in a verse or to balance a sentence.

Can anyone give some examples of these words?


texts: There is a phrase for a group of people who don't hold any actual power but are put together, like in a committee, to seem powerful. But they are only a symbol... A something something. Two words. Can't for the life of me remember it.


texts:
When reality agrees with my prejudices, they get __. What's the right word?

For example: "I had long been prejudiced against city-dwellers as wayward and spendthrift; and when I saw the lust and lucre of New Delhi, my prejudices were __."


texts: What (if any) is the proper hyphenation for the phrase "it's all too easy"?

texts:
Are any of the following correct?

  It's all too-easy
  It's all-too-easy
  It's all too easy

Explanation/citations would be greatly appreciated


texts: Is there an idiom to describe something that is given under the pretenses of kindness (e.g., as a gift), but which is actually not good?

texts:
For example, when you get those weird chewy caramel things on Halloween; given out of kindness but really no good. I'm thinking of something that is a "false gift", almost like the inverse of a blessing in disguise (which this thread discusses, but none of those are what I'm thinking of).

The intentionality of the giver is not so important as the properties of the thing itself: it is supposed to be good, but really isn't.


texts: Is there a word for my ex-spouse's new spouse?

texts:
With modern high divorce rates, a lot of people get married more than once in their lives. Saying "my ex-wife's new husband" is a bit awkward. Is there anything more graceful?

I came across it in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqXGxLWPWMQ. They proposed "ex-in-law" and "outlaw", mostly in jest.


texts:
I'm a bit confused as to the difference between arrogant and conceited.

From my understanding, arrogance is the equivalent of being confident and letting everyone know how great you are. For example, achieving the top of a leaderboard and then boasting extensively about the victory.

Conceit, I believe, is similar in that you may be boasting, but it's based more on unfounded measure. For example, they may make third place in the a race against the arrogant man, but they feel they would have gotten first place if only they had gotten a little more sleep. Conceit comes in their coping with not being so great, while the arrogant individual will at least admit defeat and be unable to rub their greatness in someone's face.

What are the exact differences between these words?


texts:
I am puzzled about the word choice, namely the verb "to eliminate". Can we say that the person eliminated documents or an electronic database because they were of no use anymore or outdated.

If no, which word is natural to native English speakers in this context?


texts: Which sentence is grammatically correct?

texts:
I need to say that something is of the same material as ash but not in a phrase. I'm looking for a short adjective and noun combination. Which of these two is correct?

  homogeneous to ash

or

  homogeneous with ash


texts:
In this sentence, should I use "trouble" or "troubles"? I thought that I should use trouble because it is after the word "any", but my tutor changed it to troubles. Which is correct?

  If you dare to create any trouble(s) during the trip, ..."


texts:
Is there a word that means: someone or something that can be known by multiple names? A few examples:

Rooster can also be referred to as a cock
Soft drink also known as a soda, pop, Coke, etc.

A synonym is the closest descriptor I'm aware of, but it appears to apply to words, not people or things. Likewise, an alias refers to the name, not the person or object itself.

Thanks for helping me solve this!


texts: What's that word where one is so absorbed into the environment around them?

texts: What's that word where one is so absorbed into the environment around them and is unable to think, judge and decide as they would normally do by themselves? And no I'm not talking about indoctrination or brainwashing; more like going to a party and doing crazy shit because others are doing it without second guessing yourself, even when you're sober. In reality, when you look back on it, you realise how subtly but potently influenced you were by your friends or the atmosphere. Encapsulating that psychological phenomenon, what word sums that up in and of itself?


texts:
I've by chance learned the following sentence:
Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world?
It confuses me a great deal,as I think that it should've been 'loom so largely'. Could you please tell me if the usage of 'verb + so + adjective' correct?


texts: How did "beest" become replaced by "are"?

texts: An example from Milton's Paradise Lost: "If thou beest he (...)". The similarity to the German word bist is something that I found really interesting. I was wondering when, how and why the word got pushed out of the language.


texts: Why is it "The King's Speech" but "Le Discours d'un Roi"?

texts:
In the movie's Wikipedia article, there is a French poster of the movie, which says "Le Discours d'un Roi". This is interesting to me because the French title uses the indefinite article "un" to refer to the king, which in my view makes more sense because he's just a king and from the title alone it's not obvious which king we are talking about.

Is it more appropriate that the English title use the definite article? Is it because the king is British?


texts: In talking about someone, perhaps an artist, who has the ability to find or see beautiful things in everyday settings. Is there a word for it ?


texts:
I have heard some people utter "Marco Polo" in distress or shocking cases. Is it slang? Or is it used as something else?
Can someone great as Marco Polo be used as an abusive word?


texts: "Fixing to" at the beginning of a sentence

texts:
Use of fixing to at the beginning of a sentence is prevalent in the southern states of Amerca. Is this the right usage?  And is this only a southern US thing?
Examples:

Fixing to call her.
Fixing dinner.
Fixing to leave the house.


texts: How do I reply? 'It's time you started [to trust me]' or 'It's time you started to [trust me]?

texts: Given the following sentence: 'I don't trust you' - what's the proper way to end the following reply:'It's time you started' or 'It's time you started to'? Is there a rule governing the inclusion/omission of 'to'?


texts: Is it offensive to refer to women as "a female"?

texts:
It was claimed in this comment on this meta thread on The Workplace SE (referring to this Workplace question) that it is insulting to refer to women as "a female", instead of "a woman".

  She's female. She's a woman. She's not a female. Google "women
  females" for further details.

The poster then later posted an answer to the question, which ended with this comment:

  All this in mind, I've reverted JakeGould's edit. And please remember
  that the OP is a woman or female but she's not "a female"

However, there appeared to be significant disagreement with the poster in the threads on the offensiveness of the phrase.

Is it considered insulting in general to refer to women as "a female", and if so, under which circumstances is it so?

Additionally, would the degree of offensiveness change if the implicit noun was added, making the phrase "a female person"? Would any offensive implications be changed, if the masculine versions were used instead (e.g. a male or a male person)?


texts:
(I'm guessing this is some British slang for being in jail or dead?)
From the lyrics of Mika's "Dr. John":

I look for joy in a strange place
From the back of the bar
From afar I see the look on my mama's face
When her son's in the corner, undone
She says that my life is over
"Boy, you don't know what you got till it's gone
Come put your head upon my shoulder"
She gave me her hand, but I ignored her


texts: A question regarding colon usage twice in a title

texts:
In the article title below, can the second colon be replaced with some other punctuation?

  Description of the eurotarget cohort: A european collaborative project on targeted therapy in renal cell cancer: Genetic and tumour related biomarkers for response and toxicity


texts:
My teachers said that they couldn't do anything for me. That no matter
  how many times they added and rounded up my scores, the result was
  still zero. Moreover, if they let me pass the other students would protest
  . They would consider it unfair.

Not sure if I'm mistaken but I think moreover has a more formal overtone. What's a more informal option?


texts: Is there a word for someone born in the UK?

texts: While watching the World Cup game a few minutes ago, I was wondering what if the United Kingdom - and not England - had a National Team, with English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Ireland players included. Is there a word we could use to refer to their nationality ? I'm not looking for the word "British". Instead I'm trying to find out whether there is a word derived from "United Kingdom".


texts: "First part are [plural]", or "first part is [plural]"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  [Singular] Is/Are [Plural]?

I'm currently writing my master thesis on Bitcoin and I'm not sure which version of this sentence is correct:

"The first most important part of the Bitcoin infrastructure are all applications that communicate with the Network."

"The first most important part of the Bitcoin infrastructure is all applications that communicate with the Network."

Or perhaps both of them are wrong?

EDIT:

Finished sentences.


texts: Using commas to connect independent clauses

texts:
I know that it is correct to connect independent clauses using a comma and a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) as in "He rides a bike, and she drives a car."

But is it correct to connect 3 independent clauses using only 1 conjunction?

"He rides a bike, she drives a car, and I just walk."


texts: Why are there multiple prefixes for the same root word?

texts: The root word I'm thinking of is comfort; two types of prefixes are applied to it, in the words discomfort and uncomfortable. Why is this?


texts: What is the meaning of "challenge" in this sentence?

texts:
Here is the quote:

  "There is a native trust in the system amongst those who have grown up with it. In contrast, many of the expat community feel that the strategy has neither been communicated clearly nor robustly challenged in the Swedish press. They are deeply worried."

Is it correct to assume "challenged" refers to the noun "strategy" meaning "the strategy was not challenged enough [by the Swedish press]"?

If I'm correct, then what does "to challenge a strategy" mean?

I'd understand if "challenged" referred to "population" like in "to challenge the population to adopt the strategy" (to summon the population to adopt the strategy).

But I can't get the sense of "to challenge a strategy". From this entry for "challenge" could it maybe mean "to call for"? Like "the strategy hasn't been robustly called for by the Swedish press"?

Or maybe "to stimulate"? Like "the strategy hasn't been robustly stimulated by the Swedish press"?

Thanks!


texts: English letter sequence with most pronunciations

texts:
The letters -ough- can be pronounced a ridiculous number of different ways in English.  Here is a possibly incomplete list:

tough, enough
cough, trough
bough, plough
though, dough
thought, bought
through
thorough, borough
weirdos like hiccough, hough, lough.

Are there any other letter sequences in English near this crazy? How do non-English speakers cope with trying to learn a language as messy as this?


texts: Why the indefinite article in "my son has a swollen left eye"?

texts: "My son has a swollen eye." is correct English, meaning only one eye is swollen, out of two. But why do we say "My son has a swollen left eye" rather than "the swollen left eye", even though he only has one left eye?


texts:
I'm looking for a specific verb that mean 'giving people shit' (as in teasing them, keeping them honest).

It needs to capture that the teasing is warranted, and that the criticism is correct.


texts: Can "nude" or "naked" to refer to a half-covered body?

texts:
From my knowledge of the definition is that one has to be completely uncovered to use those two terms.

However I have seen it being used in shows (and maybe books) where a half-covered person is referred to as naked/nude, e.g. only topless or pantsless.

Is this an erroneous colloquial English usage whose proliferation is improper, or is this actually permissible as proper English?

If it is proper English now, then was there ever a time when it wasn't, since proper language is fluid with the times)?


texts: How can I cover past, present and future in one statement?

texts:
I can make statements about rain in the past, present and future:

"it has rained" covers the past, as does "it has been raining all day today"
"It is raining" covers the present
"It will rain today" covers the future

How can I cover all three time periods with one statement? That it has rained prior to the moment, in the current moment and is expected to rain after the current moment.
Is there anything syntactically or grammatically wrong about the sentence "It is raining the whole day today", which I believe covers all bases? If so, what rule does it break?


texts: "in any situation" vs "in any situations"

texts:
I am writing an affirmation to motivate myself to be more assertive.

Choice 1:
"I am assertive in any situation."

Choice 2:
"I am assertive in any situations."

The question is:
Should I use the word situation in singular or plural form?


texts:
Sometimes people use this on me, instead of asking me question directly, they ask it with a statement.

For example, instead of asking me

  Do you own a car?

They will state

  Wow, it must be nice to drive around town with your own car instead of a bus

If I object to this statement, I imply that I don't own a car. If I don't, they assume that I own a car.

Is there a technical term in rhetoric or English syntax for a question posed as a statement?


texts: Does this multiple-choice question make sense?

texts:
Last night, my son came across the following question while doing his homework:
He acquired a lot of debts at.......
a. play
b. prose
c. novel
d. poem
He asked me about the meaning of the question. Unfortunately, l couldn't answer him. I looked up all the entries in the question in a number of dictionaries, but it seems that the meaning is vague. I think the whole question doesn't make sense, does it?


texts: Why is World Championship abbreviated as Worlds?

texts:
I have noticed that competitions such as

  European Championship, World Championship, National Championship

are commonly abbreviated as

  Euros, Worlds, Nationals

Is there a logic/grammatical rule for arriving at these specific short forms? Are apostrophes not usually used for contractions? For example, I have found this site with abbreviations for British town names, which includes

  C'bridge for Cambridge


texts: Can organisations personally determine pronunciation of their own brand name?

texts:
In fact, question from the title.

Are there any traditions, customs about stressed syllables of brands?

The problem is - many of brands contained fictional words, which, of course, have not been used ever before.


texts:
I would like to use a word or phrase to describe a situation where one has a goal in mind and  access to all the resources(Connections, Money, Knowledge) but isn't working hard to achieve its goals. Therefore he should be feeling guilty.

Is there any word to describe that "guiltiness"?

One Usage of the would in the sentence would be like " I am feeling xxx, I need to start working towards my goal"

Thanks.


texts: Why "Present Simple Tense" not ''Present Perfect Tense''?

texts:
I give a review here from the film "X-Men Apocalypse" below

"This is Bryan Singer's fourth X-Men film (fifth superhero film overall). This breaks the record set by Sam Raimi and Christopher Nolan, who managed to direct three superhero films (Spider-Man and Batman, respectively).

Here I don't understand the part above "This breaks the record set by Sam Raimi........."

It should be present perfect tense such as ''this has broken the record....'' or it should be in the past simple tense such as "this broke the record......"

a. Is there any rule in English that I can use "present simple tense'' instead of ''present perfect tense"?

b. If it is, then when to use them? (in which situations)

c. Do they carry the same meaning sometimes?

Please see the part no.12 in the site given below
source:http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/X-Men:_Apocalypse_Trivia


texts:
I know that cynical means something along the lines of believing the worst in people, but how does this word coincide with confidence? For instance, what would this line mean?

  The witness had a cynical confidence.

I'm lost on how to interpret this phrase.


texts: (Edited) What is the noun for ''the way of thinking about what could have happened in the past all the time''

texts:
in short the noun defines 'thinking and talking about what ifs a lot'

Edit: Unfortunately none of the answers came with the word i'm looking for and I'm sorry I was not fully prepared when I first asked the question.

Context:

Counterfactual history uses hypothetical thought-experiments to imagine the probable results of changes in the historical record. The hypotheses are two-part conditional statements, consisting of an ‘if’ and a ‘then’ clause: if the Luftwaffe had won the air battle, then the Germans might have successfully invaded Britain. Military historians have used counterfactual analysis for centuries. Among professional historians, they are still the most consistent practitioners.

So now the question is 'what could we call those particular military historians?'
Bear in mind that they do the counterfactual analysis excessively.


texts: Word for "surround in such a way as to reduce the prominence of the surrounded object"?

texts:
Example:

  [...] between taller, more impressive architecture, the building
  looked nondescript.

I'm pretty sure there's a word for that. A word that has hide and surround mixed together. The only word I can think of is enveloped, but enveloped between buildings sounds strange.

Any suggestions?


texts: This needs to be reprinted vs. this needs reprinted

texts:
What is the difference between using:

this needs to be fixed; and
this needs fixed

Can they be used interchangeably?
Is the second one grammatically correct?


texts: Why must you capitalize the first word of a sentence?

texts: My suspicion is it provides more visual indication that a new sentence is starting, but it bothers me because I think a period / exclamation / question mark seems sufficient to me. Plus, if a proper noun begins the sentence, then it's not as obvious it's a proper noun. Are there any problems if the convention of capitalizing the first letter of each sentence were eliminated?


texts: Combining two sentences into a single one for a title

texts:
I would like to combine two sentences that describe two distinct applications of a tool into a single sentence. This sentence will be used as a title. A reader should be albe to take out of the title that this tool has two applications which refer to a system.
Here are the sentences:

This is a tool for assisting engineers in the process of building up a system.
This is a tool for assessing automatically the quality of a system.

Combination: This is a tool for assisting traffic engineers in the process of building up and automatically assessing the quality of a system.

Is it clear from the sentence above that the first application is "assisting engineers in the process of building up a system", and the second is "automatic assessment of the quality of a system"?
If "build up" and "assess the quality of" refer to the same noun, can they be combined as above?


texts: 1 sentence, 3 tenses, 1 infinitive, 2 voices, 1 giant headache

texts:
Help me parse this sentence. I feel like it is not correct, but I cannot figure out a different way to express the thought.

  Therefore, it is my sincere hope to hear that [he] was accepted to the Masters of Public Affairs program.

I know we can change tenses if the timing changes and I know there is future perfect to describe future acts that have been completed. However, was accepted is simple past tense in passive voice and thus shouldn't be used to describe something that will have happened. However, passive future perfect is doesn't make sense either because, relative to the time that I would hear this, he would have already been accepted and thus it's not describing a future act.

The way I see it, there are three verbs with three tenses describing three acts in three times.

is - present tense - present time
to hear - infinitive form - future
was accepted - past simple - future relative to verb one, past relative to verb two.

I realize that I switch voices midway through, that is for stylistic purposes. The issue I'm having doesn't go away if I change it to active voice.

Is the sentence grammatically correct, or is there a different, more proper, way to say it?


texts: What do you call the center of a fruit that you eat?

texts: I was wondering if there is a word or phrase for the central part of the fruit that you eat. You don't eat the core of the apple. And you eat the centers of bananas and oranges but not the peel. I tried Googling and searching on this site but to no avail.


texts: Rachel often gets really bad headaches. She is afraid of having a brain tumor. I know that she does not have other symptoms, which are common in brain tumor so I do not think it is likely that she has a brain tumor. But I would like to reassure her completely. I would like to say to her, that a brain tumor can be excluded/ruled out by a brain MRI. Which is more understandable for her?


texts: "I would give you all the help you needed" vs. "would need" vs. "need"

texts:
If you were ever in trouble, I would give you all the help you needed.

Can you explain the tense choice for the bolded verb?

How about "all the help you would need" or "all the help you need"?


texts: A formal written or spoken statement, esp. one given in a court of law


texts: English equivalent of the Italian "Mannaggia!", "Che peccato!"

texts:
What is the English expression or exclamation to refer to something that has gone wrong or a missed opportunity, or something that we could have done better than we actually did?

I'm specifically wondering about an English equivalent of the Italian interjections “Mannaggia!” and “Che peccato!”


texts: What's the word for prefacing an attack with "I'm sorry for having to do this, but"?

texts: There is a single obscure word whose very definition is when one says "I'm sorry for saying this, but" or "I hate to tell you this, but", and then proceeds to do the very opposite and attacks or lambasts the person they're talking to. For the life of me I can't find it and I've searched high and low. Can someone please help me? Many thanks and cheers!


texts:
Fat lot of good is a phrase that I grew up with and continue to use occasionally as in the following:

  He is working hard to fix the problem, but a fat lot of good it will do him without the proper tools.

Which means that despite his best efforts, he is not likely to fix the problem until he starts using the proper tools.

I've only heard the phrase used with a sarcastic tone as if the phrase is supposed to mean that it will do a lot of good.  (Similar in tone to when someone says I could care less when they really mean I could not care less.)

What is the origin of fat lot of good and was it ever in common usage with a positive meaning?


texts: What did it once mean to "get up" a chapter of history?

texts:
In John Henry Newman's article (circa 1854) entitled Discipline of Mind, he writes

  "what a lesson in memory and discrimination it is to get up, as it is
  called, any one chapter of history"

What did the expression "get up" mean for Newman?  Was it to master a subject?  Or to memorize a document?  Or otherwise?


texts:
What is the origin of the phrase "and nothing of value was lost"?

Is this from a movie, book, or show, or did it get its start on Slashdot or some other online forum?


texts: Adjective to describe people being over cautious to be polite or considerate

texts:
Looking for an adjective or noun to describe people being over cautious to be polite or considerate to others, and often expecting or causing others to respond or act in a similar way.

For example,

Holding door for people behind while the other is still meters away.
While walking on the road, constantly check behind and pose to give way to others while people behind have no intention to overtake but stressed to do so due to the pose.

Edit

Normally these people see themselves very positively. They believe they are behaving at a higher social moral standard than others, and expect others to behave accordingly too.

The word I'm looking for should be:

Negative, as the behavior is not very pleasing.
Reveal the undesired expectation imposed on others to behave equally polite, considerate or even "elegant".


texts: Should Philip have P. or Ph. as an initial?

texts:
In the context of scientific articles and technical white papers, references to other publications typically include the author’s surname with, depending on the format of the specific publication, either their full first name or (most commonly) their initials.

In such cases, I sometimes see “Ph.” used instead of “P.” as initial for people named “Philip”. This does not seem linked to specific journal policies, but rather uncorrelated to the format of the references themselves. My questions are:

How common is it? Is it considered standard practice?
Are there other such examples in addition to “Ph.”?


texts: Whatever/everything/anything..how to find out?

texts:
I am desperate because I just cannot find the way how to know which one is correct.

E.g.:
 Do whatever/everything/anything you like.
 Do your best whatever/everything/anything you do.
 Stop doing whatever/everything/anything I do!

I am particularly interested of explanation - I somehow feel what fits (usually)


texts: "5 weeks pregnant" or "5 week pregnancy?"

texts:
From my understanding both "5 weeks pregnant" and "5 week pregnancy" are grammatically correct but I don't know when to use one instead of the other and which one sounds more natural for native speakers.

For example:
I would say "She is 5 weeks pregnant" but not "she is 5 week pregnancy." The first one just sounds right to me but I don't know any grammatical rules behind it.


texts: Did 'courgettes' ever have an English name?

texts:
Americans call them 'zucchini', which I assume is the Italian name, whilst we in Britain use the French name - courgettes.

But I am wondering if the vegetable ever had an English name. The earliest quotation in the OED is from 1931.

Did the Victorians not eat them? I have to admit that they were never part of our diet until the late 1960s.  But they grow perfectly well in the English climate, provided you don't plant them out till after the frosts have finished.


texts: Word for "willing to try new and unfamiliar things"

texts:
Example:

A: Hey, do you like to do bungee jumping?
B: Um, OK. Haven't done it before, but let's try it.

I'm not looking for adventurous or something similar. That word should also fit in less action-packed activities:

A: I have a new board game. Do you like to play?
B: I don't know this game and, actually, I don't like these varieties of games but I'll play. Maybe it's fun.

First I thought about open-minded but I think this means more willing to listen to people, think about their ideas, arguments, ... and accept them (not necessarily agree).
What word describes person who is willing to try activities he doesn't know or hasn't experienced before?


texts: I'm writing an informational essay that includes a description of an organization called Shepherd Community Center, and they say they work primarily in the "near Eastside of Indianapolis." I'd like to include this phrase in my essay, but their punctuation, capitalization, and/or spacing doesn't look right. What is the proper way to capitalize, punctuate, and space the phrase "near east side?"


texts: Determining the role of "to" in these sentences

texts:
This situation has been confusing me for a long time, and I can't define the difference in the meaning of them. For instance:

  I suddenly realized this is going to be far more fulfilling if I spent my life creating mazes.

I wonder may I use that one by another way, like:

  I suddenly realized this is going to be far more fulfilling if I spent my life to create mazes.


texts: is it "mice infested" or "mouse infested"?

texts:
You would say "rat infested" but would you say "mouse infested" or "mice infested"?

Sidenote: I think we would say "mouse infestation" so I'm assuming we would also say "louse infestation" as opposed to "lice infestation" as well.


texts: A word for a person who is made a villain by their circumstances, not necessarily by their actions

texts:
I was watching the movie Leon: The Professional. The protagonist, Leon, is a hitman — not somebody we traditionally sympathize with. The antagonist is a crooked DEA agent, pretty despicable himself.

Near the end, Leon is gunning down dozens of DEA agents who've been ordered by the antagonist to kill him. As the viewers, we're supposed to support Leon as he kills cops who have done nothing wrong themselves — they're just following (presumably reasonable, and since Leon is actually a hitman, perhaps actually reasonable) orders. Just because the person giving the order is the villain, they end up dead, merely doing their usually noble job (and honest cops generally have the viewers' sympathy).

I'm asking specifically about the DEA agents here: Is there a word or a phrase for this situation or literary device — where I'm made to feel that somebody is evil because of their association, where they've done nothing wrong, and they could even be considered the heroes from a different viewpoint? (Say, Leon were the villain and the cops had finally cornered him — I'd feel bad for these cops as they were gunned down). I checked the movie's entry on TVTropes.org and I don't see anything that seems to describe this situation accurately.


texts:
Would you feel that it is acceptable (in academic writing) to use "Files" and "Lines" instead of "Number of files" and "Number of lines" in table headings when horizontal space is scarce?
Or would you use an abbreviation for "Number of"? If so, which abbreviation is preferable?
Edit:
This question is about cardinal numbers.


texts: Are these two totally synonymous? Can one be used in place of the other anywhere? Are there any differences in nuance, or anything at all?


texts:
Are there alternatives to "is of the opinion ..." in the following sentence?

  He is of the opinion that there is a something upon which we depend.

Because I am not an English native speaker, the expressions like "is of + noun" are ambiguous a little bit.


texts:
When two multiplicands are multiplied, we get a product. But when we factorize the product, we split it into factors.

Similarly, when we add two addends, we get a sum. What do we call the resulting numbers when we split the sum? definitely not addends.

Taking a little further, what do we call the numbers which are result of splitting a difference, I wonder.


texts: A word for picking out minor mistakes in a discussion

texts: The act of picking out minor mistakes in a discussion, it is being "xxxxx".


texts: What is the verb form of 'to apply sequins to'?

texts:
I was talking with my boyfriend today about getting an altar cloth for some tarot cards and he said, "Good, you can bedazzle it yourself!"

To which I said, "I wouldn't bedazzle it, I would sequent it...or is it sequin it?....I would apply sequins to it."

What is the correct verb form of 'to apply sequins to'?


texts: Is there a single English word meaning, “Deep, introspective happiness”?

texts:
I’ve been searching for a word, similar to melancholy, in that it is a deep inward feeling, but instead of sadness, a word that implies the same deep inward feelings - but of happiness.

So in context, imagine that a person is having an overwhelming moment of reflection on the wonderful things that happened today, simple things like having the truck you always wanted, or a daughter that married a man you loved adding to the family.  A “good job, good health, good day” kind of a moment.

Words like “joy” don’t quite express it, just like sadness doesn’t quite capture melancholy.

I’ve searched, and I’m not sure there IS a happy equivalent to melancholy, but I’m posting here in hopes that you all can find one.


texts: What is the word or term used to describe doing an activity or work with a high level of concentration and intention, trying your best?

texts:
It would be similar to trying to be extremely careful or precise.

In French it would be "application", For example: "Qui est fait avec application".

Example usage:

John worked with ________.
or
...it was done with _______.


texts:
From the last line of About Me page of Martin Fowlers' website :

  I enjoy living in the US even though I miss the beer, the deep
  pointlessness of Cricket, and the English countryside.

If he feels that the game of cricket is pointless why would he say that he is missing it or am I missing something here ?


texts: What is the meaning of "Many a mickle makes a muckle"?

texts: I've heard this phrase, and don't know what a "mickle" or a "muckle" is. Hence I have no idea at all what the phrase itself is supposed to mean.


texts: Is it common to say 'Kilo' to mean 'Kilogram'?

texts:
In my language(Serbian) it is normal to say kilo and mean kilogram because the use is most common there and it is like a short version. I know that kilo means one thousand and that it is not correct because kilo is just a prefix but we do it.
My question:

Is it in English common (acceptable) to say kilo and mean kilogram?


texts: Can I drop the ‘in’ in this sentence. If not, why?

texts:
Gaming disorder is a severe addiction •in• which a person places far too much importance on video games.

I know in which can define a place, but addiction?


texts: What is the term for repeating the same word twice or more to create a new meaning altogether?

texts:
For example, "rabbit rabbit" is a phrase to be uttered first thing in the morning on the first day of the month for good luck all month long. The origin of the phrase has to do with rabbits bringing good luck. Directors on set instruct extras to say "rhubarb rhubarb" to one another during a party scene because of its lack of distracting, sharp phonemes. The repetition of the same word creates a new, unexpected, and unrelated meaning.

Would it be related to the term used to describe repeating the same word twice to create a new word? Dancing the can-can (or cancan) has nothing to do with cans though it might be an abbreviated version of scandal-scandal.

Epizeuxis is more like repeating the same word over again for emphasis or vehemence, like 'location location location!' to imply that the success of a business depends on where the shop is located.

Are the above examples different enough to merit distinction and a term of their own or would they be considered examples of epizeuxis?

(Not interested in grammatical repetition of words although the sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo," is really fascinating both grammatically and sensically.)


texts: Is "whomnot" a valid word, and if not, what is a valid alternative?

texts: It just struck me when writing a message, that I don't know of an analogue of "whatnot" for persons. Does such a word exist? If not, could a person hypothetically see about somehow creating it "officially", whatever that wouldn't mean?


texts:
Yeah, the cut throats and the pigs. But who wants all that blood spilled, judge, huh? Isn't there a simpler way of not pissing off the big vipers?” – Al Swearengen

From the show Deadwood

What does vipers mean here?


texts: parenthetical sentence with coordinate clause sharing the same direct object

texts:
Is this grammatical in English?

An Italian wizard named Mirkius has found, and managed to control, a ferocious creature named Onestus


texts:
What is a word that means pleasure derived from nature?

I'm working on an assignment where I need to identify my personal values. So I started by thinking about the non-material things that mean the most to me. I found myself thinking about was how nature makes me feel.

Have you ever been on a hike or camping trip and you have an overwhelming sense of happiness or comfort from being completely separated from man-made materials such as buildings, streets, technology, etc.?  I found a list of values that includes "nature" but I feel as if valuing nature and valuing the pleasure gained from being immersed in nature are two different values and concepts. One who values nature seems to have the connotation of preservation and conservation and while I personally value nature, I would also like to include a term with the sensation I have described that is brought from being outdoors.

An example of how this word would be used could be "I like to visit mountains because it gives me the feeling of ____, reminding me of other trips and times I have been away from all things man-made"


texts: Which word can I use to refer to pictures on the backside of the book covers?

texts:
Which word or words can I use to refer to picture on the opposite side of the book cover? I.e. in hardcover bock each double page/broadside behind the hardcover can have a picture on it. Is there a single word to refer these parts of book?
There is a list of book terms macmillandictionary.com, but I didn't find any term for this there.


texts: Is it suitable to use 'etc.' in an academic paper?

texts: I'm writing one of my first academic papers and I'm not sure whether etc. is too informal. Should I use et cetera instead?


texts: What does the word "mortability" exactly mean?

texts:
I've come across quite a few medical articles in which the word "mortability" appears.
e.g. In the National Library of Medicine : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=mortability.
As I strongly doubt that this word has ever existed, I've looked up a couple of dictionaries on line and at home, only to discover that none of them accepts such an entry and, as a consequence, I haven't been able to find any definition so far. Can anyone help?


texts:
I was wondering if there is a better alternative than the phrase "We speculate that this is due to the fact that..."

Because "speculate" sounds like a hypothesis and so I feel it doesn't match well with "fact". Is there a better word to replace fact ?


texts: Structure of this sentence is not clear to me

texts:
How can I change the structure of the last sentence?

  Ultimately, Spam is facilitated by the low cost of interruption.
  Unlike written mail and phone calls of the past, there is no postage
  or per-minute cost.  Because Internet access is billed by the month or
  the data pipe rather than the message, email can be replicated and
  broadcast to millions of addresses without marginal cost.

Source: Email Scammers: Why can't Google, Yahoo and similar public domain email services delete scam accounts, or report the owners to each country's police? on Quora

I understand the main idea of the sentence but I can't get the part "or the data pipe rather than the message."


texts: Idiom for unheard individual voices banding together to become a group with a voice that is heard

texts: Consider for example many tiny little charities that are too small to have their concerns recognized when there is a threat to them. They band together and create a bigger organization and through that, they are taken seriously and begin to be consulted. What is a quick and elegant way of expressing this strategy?


texts: Is there a negative word for an overt display of emotion?

texts:
I recently discovered a friend who always believed that cheesy, corny and tacky meant (to use their words) a "pornographic display of emotion".

As in: The end of a TV show where that Dad says to the son, "I love you and I want the best for you". To them such things are "cheesy" because they're too "explicitly emotional" -- but not because they're cheap or insincere.

So when they heard people say "that song is cheesy" or "the ending of that movie was so tacky" they thought it was referring to an exposed display of emotion which makes them feel uncomfortable. Not necessarily because the movie was trying too hard, and therefore coming across as fake or mawkish, but simply because the characters were sharing their innermost.

For example, this person could be at a wedding in real life, and watching a proud father welcome his new daughter-in-law to their family, describe it as "tacky" -- solely because his feelings are on display.

I've explained that corny, tacky and cheesy actually refer to insincerity and cheapness, much to their surprise, but now I'm wondering if there is such a word the means what they thought other people were referring to.

Is there a word that to negatively describe an overt display of sincere (ie. not mawkish, contrived or exaggerated) emotion?

Edit: I don't think this question can be answered, as I believe looking upon such things negatively is purely in the eyes of the beholder, and not necessarily something that is objectively appreciated by a large number of people. Happy to be proven wrong, but to restate: I'm not referring to exaggerated or overly sentimental displays of emotion -- just honest displays of deep emotion, period.


texts: For my project I need to write the initials DMRD which stands for discipline, maturity, Remember Death, (originally I was just going to use DMD for discipline, maturity and death- however it is a sexual innuendo) would it be appropriate to write it as D.M.RD. Or D.M.RD without the final full stop and also should the r be capitalised? Thank you :)


texts:
Which is proper grammar:

He argues that there is no binding contract, because, at any given time...
He argues that there is no binding contract, because at any given time...

Thanks so much!


texts:
SQUIRE TRELAWNEY, Dr Liversy, and the rest of these gentlemen having
  asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island,
  from the begining to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of
  the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet
  lifed.

Where is the predicate, why use having instead of have in the above paragraph?

Thanks.


texts: A word for "reaching the top of a hill or mountain"

texts:
Is there a word that specifically refers to reaching the top of a hill or mountain?

I want to describe the action of reaching the top of a hill and finally being able to see what is on the other side. Sorry if my explanation is not clear enough.


texts: Can the word "facet" be used in a sentence like this one?

texts:
Leadership skills are also a valued facet in a friend.

Can facet be used in this way?


texts: Word for non remembering a deceased loved one

texts:
Does English have a word for the experience of forgetting that a loved one has passed away, and being shaken when something reminds you?
For example, someone I know recently had a loved one pass away.  Their brother mentioned the other day that her car was still in the parking lot at work.  Their first response was, "wait, why would her car be at that particular parking lot?"  She then answered herself with "oh, right, she's dead."


texts:
I've just read this interesting article.

We were being constantly told back in school years that we couldn't use "more" to modify "perfect".

I kept feeling guilty using "more perfect" until I read the following idea from the article:

  Nothing is perfect. When we say "perfect man", it is an exaggeration.
  Using "perfect" for things that are not perfect opens the door for
  "more perfect" and even "most perfect".

This is really a sensible and convincing justification to me. Then I think of other words that our teachers wouldn't allow us to modify using "more". For example, people begin to use "more excellent" fairly frequently nowadays.

However, the use of "more excellent" might not be justified convincingly by the same logic that applies to "more perfect" above. The reason is people can absolutely be excellent while nobody can be perfect. If the justification logic for "more perfect" should fail to hold for "more excellent", what could a sensible way to justify the use of "more excellent"?


texts:
I've been listening to some music and I ran into this line of lyrics in a song:

  Mirror mirror
  On the wall
  Show me the truth:
  Of them all
  Which one am I?

I kind of get the meaning of the phrase, but somehow it seems gramatically weird. Could anybody please explain to me why this phrase is correct? Or incorrect?
Thanking you!:)


texts: When did "World War 2" start being called "World War 2"?

texts:
When did World War 2 start being called a "world war" and when did it start being called World War 2? Thurber's The Last Flower (copyright 1939) makes reference to World War 12 so I'm curious as to whether he invented the sequential numbering of wars. According to Wikipedia, the book was published in November of 1939 (so one would assume it was written earlier) and the conflict in Europe was still relatively young and had not developed into a "world war" yet.

Another Wikipedia page says that WW1 "was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until the start of World War II in 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter." But there is no citation so I don't know if Thurber was following a convention within 2 months of the invasion of Poland or was creating a system of naming wars that others then followed.


texts: Why don't English nouns have grammatical gender?

texts:
English nouns — other than those with natural gender, e.g. people or animals — do not generally have grammatical gender, and so are referred to as 'it' rather than 'he' or 'she'.

However, modern English has its roots in Norman French and Anglo-Saxon (Old English), both of which used grammatical gender for their nouns. In addition, other modern languages related to these continue to use grammatical gender today.

So, how come English doesn't?


texts: Why is "meta" pronounced differently to "beta"?

texts:
Is there an etymological explanation to this? Why is "meta" pronounced ˈmɛtə while "beta" is pronounced ˈbeɪtə or ˈbiːtə?

(Pronunciations taken from Cambridge Dictionaries Online)


texts: What does "if you were already set for life" mean?

texts:
From this blog post, the author writes:

  What’s your passion?  What would you blog about if you were already
  set for life?

I don't quite understand — what meaning is the author trying to convey? Can someone explain that sentence?


texts:
Is "potential candidates" a tautology?

I am not sure whether the potential of succeeding candidacy is implied in the definition of candidacy.

Usage:

If there are many potential candidates who applied for the job, the interviewing process may take weeks.

Research:

The definition of "tautology" is loosely the saying of the same thing twice over in different words. However, candidate seems to only loosely imply the potential of their candidacy. I wonder whether it is possible can have a potential-less candidate.

In my example, the candidate is definitely already a candidate. The potential applies to their chance of getting the job, which is the subject of their candidacy. So, is the use of "potential" redundant and tautological?


texts: "I saw Sue in town yesterday, but she didn't see me." Why is there no article before "town"?

texts:
From a Raymond Murphy book on English grammar, I saw the following sentence:

  I saw Sue in town yesterday, but she didn't see me.

Why is there no article before "town"?

Is the following incorrect? Why?

  I saw Sue in a/the town yesterday.


texts: Does "reinventing the wheel" have negative or positive connotation?

texts:
I've always assumed that the expression "reinventing the wheel" meant something negative. For me it means doing something that has already be done without making any improvement.

However, a few times I've seen the expression use in a positive way too. For example, in this article, it's written:

  Eminem's progressive rap style has raised the bar for Hip-Hop lyricism across the board. [...] he's continued to reinvent the wheel, putting his life on display, through a bevy of syllable-heavy, metaphor-driven cuts.

So it's clearly meant as a praise. Is this usage correct?


texts: Verb to describe witty use of word or phrase

texts:
I’m wondering if English has a verb or verb phrase that (in its transitive usage) describes the act of using a word or phrase with an intention of making a pun, double entendre, etc. in which that word or phrase creates a humorous or rhetorical effect with another, or one that (in its intransitive usage) describes the result of such an act in a word or phrase or a pair of words or phrases.
For instance, the following example (taken from the Wikipedia entry for word play) uses the word “sternly” with a double meaning of “stern” as “the rearmost part of a ship or boat”.

"Hurry up and get to the back of the ship," Tom said sternly.

I’m wondering whether this situation can be described in either of the following structures.

The author [transitive verb] “sternly” [preposition (e.g. with, against)] “stern”.

“Sternly” [intransitive verb] [preposition (e.g. with, against)] “stern”.

“Sternly” and “stern” [intransitive verb].

For those who understand Japanese, I’m looking for an equivalent of かける, as in なぞかけ, or its intransitive version かかる. (This meaning is not among the definitions in the linked pages.)
I already suspect there may be no exact match. In that case, I would still like to know how to concisely describe a similar situation.


texts:
Hello everyone! I have a very easy question. Why aren't these sentences correct?

-I haven't received an answer (on my mobile phone) for more than a week.

-This offence is called XxXxXx and occurs when you comment on a thread that hasn't received an answer for more than a week.

I'm using Present Perfect with the duration form: "for a week" but I found out they're not correct and I personally can't understand why.


texts:
Nothing comparesNo worries or cares Regrets and mistakes They are memories made. Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

These are some lines from the lyrics of "Someone Like You" by Adele.
At first, I must tell you my question isn't about some deep interpretation, but it's about the syntax it holds. I had a disagreement with my English teacher discussing the syntax of the fourth line.

Some days before, she brought the class the song in question and interpreted the whole syntax and translated the meaning in our language. She said that the line I've got problem with means, to put it back to English, "They're what memories made.";that regrets and mistakes are what memories made. After which, I asked the teacher, "Isn't it 'They're memories which have been made'?" She replied no. Should I interpret the line as "They're what memories made" or "They're memories which have been made"?

Thanks.


texts:
I often hear "that you" pronounced (roughly) like "thatch you".

I've taken on pronouncing it like that until my English teacher implored me not to do so.

Is there a consensus on whether this is rude (or incorrect)?


texts: What is the name of the property of "words with only unique characters"?

texts:
I am looking for the name of the property of words spelled with at most 1 of each characters.

Words like palindrome make me hope there is a single word for this but I would be satisfied with multiple words. I guess the negation of another property is also an acceptable answer. If no such category like this exist I'd like to know what would be the correct way to call them.

Examples of words with this property:

Albinos
Axe
Bear
Boat

Examples of words without this property:

Banana (three a and two n)
Beer (two e)
Bottle (two t)

Its common for kids to have A to Z letters to help them to learn the alphabet but then we can only create words with that property.


texts: Do we compile the source or the binaries?

texts:
When programming, we usually write text files in some programming language. These source files are fed into a compiler that compiles them into binary files.

My question is whether to say:

we compile the source files, or
we compile the binary files?

Is one of the two more correct than the other?


texts: "If" and "Whether" - Is interrogative IF always replacable by WHETHER?

texts:
I am asking here specifically about if and whether  when they introduce embedded questions (or to be more technically accurate, subordinate interrogative clauses):

I don't know if Bob's here.
I don't know whether Bob's here.

In the sentence above we can freely replace if with whether. There are some situations in which the reverse does not apply. We cannot always replace whether with if. For example in standard English, we cannot normally use if after a preposition:

The question of whether he is actually eligible didn't arise.
*The question of if he is actually eligible didn't arise.

We cannot usually use interrogative-if directly followed by or not:

It's unclear whether or not he's a real elephant.
*It's unclear if or not he's a real elephant.

There are several more examples. However, what I want to know is:

Are there any examples where we can use interrogative-if but we can't use whether?

Edit note: There is an if that we find in conditionals that can't be replaced by whether. However, this is conditional, not interrogative, if.


texts: Using "that" in place of "it" as an object is not always correct. How can I explain why?

texts:
A student wrote to me

  I'm sorry I was absent for class on Monday. What is the homework? I want to do that before the next class.

I prefer using it to that but am not sure what explanation I should give. Can you help?


texts: Word or phrase describing situation where adequately addressing "X is not harmful" involves a self-destructive proof

texts:
There's a nice cartoon on the web that epitomises what I'm trying to describe:

Another dimension of this behaviour, is that it is often used as part of a manipulation attempt, to get someone to do something they wouldn't normally do because of its potential harm:

A asks B to do potentially harmful act X (whether intentionally or out of ignorance).
B refuses, citing the potential risks from doing X
A claims X is patently not harmful and B's denial has more to do with ulterior motive Y
Since B cannot conclusively prove X is harmful until B has engaged in X and caused themselves harm, they are left with two equally bad choices:

either engage in X against your will, risking harm, to prove accusation Y is false, or
avoid X and give A the ability to claim accusation Y is true, opening B up to further manipulation.

Examples:

  A: Here, have some heroin with me.
  B: No man, heroin is addictive, I don't want to.
  A: Heroin's not addictive, you're just saying that to judge me.
  B proceeds to get addicted to heroin to prove friendship

  A: Come to my party! C is coming too!
  B: Sorry A, I can't! I have exams!
  A: Dude, nobody's ever had to study for that exam! You just don't like C, don't you! That's the real reason you're not coming!
  B skips party to study, A tells everyone at school B hates C

  A: It's a Tuesday, so let's not use a condom. You can't get pregnant on a Tuesday.
  B: What? Yes you can!
  A: ... omg, you don't trust me! You think I'm cheating and I have an STD don't you! That's why you refuse!
  B proceeds to prove their trust, as well as the fact that you can in fact get pregnant on a Tuesday

etc etc.

Is there a good word or phrase that describes either A's behaviour, or the situation B finds themselves in?


texts: "my chances of winning" vs. "chances of me winning"

texts: what is the difference between my chances of winning and chances of me winning? I've come across the usage of both.


texts:
I once knew a word that meant to mention something by announcing that you would not mention it. The word may be Greek; I encountered it in the study of poetry.

An example, then, from poetry, Edmund Spenser's Aegloga Quartet:

I will not match her with Latonaes seede.
Such follic great sorrow to Niobe did breede.
   Now she is a stone,
   And makes daily mone,
Warning all others to take heede.

Here the poet is publicly refusing to compare his subject, Elysa, with the goddess Latona, but in doing so (quite intentionally) makes the comparison.

This device is common in poetry, and I believe the term is most used in this regard, but is common in politics as well.


texts: Why does the author mean to say this? "If Mr. Erdogan loses, Turkey will be a difficult ally with a difficult future."

texts:
Does he/she mean to say, without a stronger president, it would be hard for the EU to deal with Turkey since the country is in turmoil?

Turkey will remain pivotal after April 16th. If Mr Erdogan loses, Turkey will be a difficult ally with a difficult future. But if he wins, he will be able to govern as an elected dictator.

The Economist, April 15, 2017, Turkey is sliding into dictatorship
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21720590-recep-tayyip-erdogan-carrying-out-harshest-crackdown-decades-west-must-not-abandon


texts: Why is my English "worlds better" than yours but never "the best by worlds"?

texts:
In speech when making comparisons we can say:

It is far better than
It's way better than
It's miles better than
It's worlds better than

For instance,

  British restaurant food is far/way/miles/worlds better than it used to be 20 years ago.

In the case of miles and far we can invert the order and say

  It is better by far
   It is better by miles

But the phrase: "It is better by way/worlds" sounds off key.

  British restaurant food is better by far/miles than it used to be 20 years ago. YES
    British restaurant food is better by way/worlds than it used to be 20 years ago. NO

In the superlative form, the dissonance no longer occurs with way.

  Of all the ice-creams we've tasted, Italian is by far the best
  Of all the ice-creams we've tasted, Italian is the best by far
  Of all the ice-creams we've tasted, Italian is the best by miles tfd
  ?Of all the ice-creams we've tasted, Italian is by way the best (dubious)

But the dissonance continues with "worlds"

  Of all the ice-creams we've tasted, Italian is by worlds the best NO

The expression "by far/miles/the best" is idiomatic, but the phrase by worlds the best sounds off, and Google agrees, displaying only seven results.

Is it ungrammatical? Is it nonsensical? Can you not measure something in worlds? Well... yes you can, because a person can do something worlds better than another person. How many worlds? Two, three, an infinite number? It doesn't matter, the term worlds is used as a form of measurement as proven when it is used in the comparative sense.

If neither "by way better" nor "by worlds better" is idiomatic, what happens with way when we use the superlative form in "by way the best"?

I did a little Google research and came up with these figures:

by far the best
215 results
the best by far
323 results
by way the best
143 results
by miles the best
330 results
the best by miles
275  results
the best by worlds (?)
8 results
by worlds the best  (?)
7 results

1) Does this type of construction and/or flexibility have a name in linguistics? I.e., It is miles better / it is better by miles

2) Why is "it is better by way/worlds" incorrect but not "it is better by far/miles"?

EDIT
Many thanks to @Mitch who pointed out that Google's declared results and the actual instances for "by way the best" were way off by miles—groan.

Consequently, I've clicked on the last page for each search and noted down the results. You'll see that on every last page Google kindly reminds its users: In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the XXX already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.

(I don't think I'll ever understand how Google calculates its results...)


texts: What are the differences between 'in front of somebody' and 'before somebody'?

texts:
Thanks to everyone to give  me a chance to say something in front of you.
Thanks to everyone to give me a chance to say something before you.

Do you think that the sentences stated above mean same thing?


texts: Conventions of abbreviations of pages (pp.), for academic/journal purposes

texts:
I am asking about the conventions of abbreviations of pages, for academic/journal purposes. For example, if one submits a paper on arXiv, you will see that some renown physicist/mathematician uses the conventions of:

120 pp. instead of 120 pages.

And if there are more comments like how many figures there are, one can use

120 pp, 10 figures. instead of, 120 pages, 10 figures.

It looks to me that from Usage of "p." versus "pp." versus "pg." to denote page numbers and page ranges,
the pp. actually stands for the range of pages, say pp. 10-12 means the page 10 to the page 12.

However, is it nd safe totally acceptable to write 120 pp to mean the 120 pages? How to justify its use? (It is not Latin. No?)


texts:
In the book I am studying I have found the following sentence:

  It is often easier to solve the equation by eyeball

What does by eyeball mean?


texts: Can a plural subject be followed by a complement beginning “a…”?

texts:
Can anyone kindly explain why this sentence is correct?

  Complex musical numbers are a defining characteristic of most Italian
  films.


texts: "With added bacon flavour and absolutely no horse meat" meaning?

texts:
So my mathematics lecturer sent the following message, and although it is not crucial I would like to know what "with added bacon flavour and absolutely no horse meat" could possibly mean? I understand that it's probably some kind of extended metaphor for "new and improved", but I have never heard the term before, and thought that some of you might have. Here is the message:

"Dear Student,
As has been pointed out to me, I made an error with regards to Assignment 2. But the good news is that Assignment 2 has been rebooted, new and improved (with added bacon flavour and absolutely no horse meat)!"


texts: Difference between “disbelief” and “non-belief”

texts:
How should one use the words disbelief and non-belief especially when it relates to the belief in god?
Consider these prefixes:

Disbeliever of god
Non-believer of god

Do they have different meanings?


texts: past continuous, future perfect, past perfect continuous, etc - Are they useful?

texts: I'm learning English as a ESL student. In addition, I have never been to English-speaking countries, so I couldn't learn which grammar is no more useful these days. In my memory, I haven't seen any sentences using past continuous tense and future perfect tense in the articles that I read except grammar books. So I wonder these tenses are useful when native users speak or write something or they are just old grammar that few people use.


texts: Should I capitalise "Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09"?

texts:
Please advise whether I should capitalise the following (in the sentence):

  ...Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09...

Since it seems to be a description of a globally recognised phenomenon/event, I thought it should be capitalised, but I'm not sure.


texts: What is the adjective for "awaiting opportunities"

texts:
I am searching for a word to describe a group of people who are ready for change but desperately need a catalyst.

  I understood that my country needs transformative economists just like a seed needs water to grow and decided to devote my life to being the water of my ____ people.

The ideas that I have are:"brimming with expectations" or "hopes". As you see, the words that I have come up with don't really encapsulate the connotations that I want to imply. If possible, I would like to use a single word.

Also, I think my sentence sounds a bit awkward. Can anyone suggest me better revisions of my sentence?


texts: As an adjective describing something that has been cooked in a microwave, would you say "microwaved" or "micro waved"? The dictionary says microwaved, but my autocorrect corrects to micro waved.


texts: What do you call a person who checks people in to a food pantry

texts: I work at a food pantry and all clients must be registered per government regulations.  I either verify they are registered and check them off or help them fill out the required paperwork prior to distributing food.


texts: What does "maintain a definition" mean in this passage please?

texts: The Census Bureau, the data angency charged with creating statistics on household incomes and their distribution, does not maintain an official definition of middle class status. This is because there is more to the definition than just strictly income; social factors also play a role. Thus, for its definition, the following six indicators are suggested to gauge whether you are middle class.


texts:
Is the word "lurn" in the phrase "It's time to lurn together" just an intentional misspelling of "learn" or does it have another meaning here?

http://beckyandjoes.com/kickstarter/


texts: Do onomatopoeias have more intrinsic meaning than other words have?

texts: I was taught that words are arbitrary sounds used to represent an abstract concept. In the case of onomatopoeias, are they not so arbitrary? For example the word "buzz" roughly sounds like a bee buzzing. Can the same be said for any other words, that their name does have a special meaning and isn't arbitrary?


texts: The way to understand the first paragraph in the Introduction of David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature

texts:
I don't really understand some sentences in the Introduction of David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, here they are:

  Nothing is more usual and more natural for those, who pretend to discover anything new to the world in philosophy and the sciences, than to insinuate the praises of their own systems, by decrying all those, which have been advanced before them. And indeed were they content with lamenting that ignorance, which we still lie under in the most important questions, that can come before the tribunal of human reason, there are few, who have an acquaintance with the sciences, that would not readily agree with them.

So my question is: I don't really understand what the grammar it used in those words which are Bold and Italic. What did Hume mean with "that ignorance"?

I do appreciate anyone who'd like to give me a hand! Thank you in advance!


texts: Why does the multi-paragraph quotation rule exist?

texts:
The answer to this question clearly explains the standard rule that when you have multiple quoted paragraphs, each new paragraph starts with an opening quotation mark, but only the final quoted paragraph has a closing quotation mark at its end.

This Wikipedia article on Quotation Marks agrees:

  Quotation marks are used for multiple-paragraph quotations in some cases, especially in narratives. The convention in English is to give opening quotation marks to the first and each subsequent paragraph, using closing quotation marks only for the final paragraph of the quotation [ . . . ]

However, neither explains why this is the standard practice.  What good does it do? What is it trying to avoid?  What harm would occur if it were ignored and people put both opening and closing quotation marks on each adjacent quoted paragraph?


texts:
I often heard people say the word "gotta". I have read in this web site that
gotta is a contraction of "I have got to" and that that phrase means "must",
is my understanding correct?

Regarding the use of "gotta", what does the following phrase mean:

I gotta get something

thanks.


texts: Meaning of "it would not be a crime to do sth." in nonlegal context

texts:
I recently had a discussion with a colleague regarding the exact meaning of the phrase "it would not be a crime to do sth." in the context of accepting a paper for publication. Specifically, a reviewer wrote

  "It wouldn't be a crime to accept the paper."

The argument was whether or not this simply means it would be OK to accept the paper, or if the statement had a stronger, negative connotation. Unfortunately, a google search mostly produced results with a legal context.


texts: Aptitude to learn proprietary systems/applications quickly and easily

texts: Updating my resume and I am trying to make this "resume highlight" make sense.  I originally had it written as "Able to learn proprietary systems/applications quickly and easily" but I was looking for a better word first or rewritten sentence.  I was researching this word/sentence using "Google search" and that is where I found you.  The Aptitude word was found on this website but I don't think it makes sense, but I need a word that looks good on a resume.


texts:
Is “need” different from “do need” in this sentence?

  However, you do need to create an action and associate it with the
  button, so that your app knows what to do when the button is pushed!


texts: I always thought that the opposite of postpone is prepone(also remember my english teacher telling me this). Today I realised that the word prepone does not exist in the dictionary. So is it used informally or does it exist?


texts: Old English sounds and Germanic languages

texts: What languages still use the 'ge' prefix that was part of the Old English grammatical structure?  I've searched and found German, but am not sure that is the only one which still does.  I'm interested, because I am involved in a conversation regarding how we know what Old English sounded like. (I've seen this question: What we've gelost — why doesn't English use the prefix "ge-"? but it didn't seem to provide the answer I'm seeking.)


texts: Term for someone/thing that is viewed strikingly differently by different people

texts: For example, Person X is viewed as a hero by Group X but a villain by Group Y. What would Person X then be called?


texts: Mr, or Sir? Which one to be used to call someone without mentioning the name?

texts:
Recently I watched many cowboy movies on Youtube. I then became familiar with gringo, amigo, muchacho, muchachita, and also mister. The latter should no more question as it supposed to be very clear. Unfortunately it is not. Those conversations mostly in the mid of 19th century to the early of 20th century in The United State and Mexico. Many times I heard, if someone saw or met a matured and unknown man, then he (the who saw that matured and unknown man) would call mister rather than to use Sir. For example, a cowboy was riding a horse met a man, then the cowboy would say, "Mister!" of course without mentioning the name as the cowboy didn't know him. In my school, was taught that to call someone in respect we must call Sir if he is quite mature. I used to do it, not to call him with mister. Of course I know how to use word mister, to call someone with his last name or his post, such as Mr. President, Mr. Smith, etc
Then my question, was that calling common in the old time? Or was it just affected by the cowboy culture?


texts:
What is the origin of the word boner? Trying to find the roots for its prevalent usage, especially in North America.

According to a dictionary it means an erect penis.


texts: Alternative to "with respect to" while preserving original meaning

texts:
Grammarly has pointed out that this sentence may be wordy:

  The goal is to tackle the classification of documents with
  respect to ICD.

due to the usage of "with respect to". It recommends me to change it for "concerning", "to" or "for" but I think the meaning wouldn't be preserved.

Meaning:

The "classification of documents" is an action that consists of tagging documents.

The "ICD" is the "Internation Classification of Diseases", that is, a list of codes.

The tagging should be made according to this codes. Namely, tag each document with one or several codes from the "ICD" list of codes.

Question:

What alternatives do you think are appropriate for this case?


texts: Is this compound sentence grammatically correct?

texts:
So, I’ve stumbled upon this really long sentence, and now I’m wondering if it is grammatically correct.

  So they figured since I’m a real person and I’m in the movie and I’m actually me and they wanted to use me as me in the actual movie and I didn’t even know yet that I was me in the movie although I did know I was me but I didn’t know I was in the movie, they had better let me know that I was in the movie as me and let me see if after I knew I was me playing me in the movie that I would be okay with being me in the movie as myself now that I knew there was actually a movie with me in it.¹

(I’ve counted 19 simple sentences.)


texts: What does this sentence mean? "Critics cannot appeal to neutral facts and remain loyal, because facts are not neutral"

texts: I came across this sentence in The Economist, but I do not quite understand what does it mean. "Critics cannot appeal to neutral facts and remain loyal, because facts are not neutral"


texts: Can I say "how many ones" to ask about quantity?

texts:
I feel like I have heard/read it in somewhere but I don't remember where. It is something like "how many ones were at the party last night?" or "how many ones are in the box?".

Do you think it makes sense? is it correct grammatically?

I will be glad to hear from you..


texts:
I was suggested to use the term bullet-proofed by a colleague. Someone else now pointed out that bullet-proofed might not even exist, because we can't build the past tense of an adjective.

Part one of the question is: can to bullet-proof be a verb which describes "making something bullet-proof"? And in consequence bullet-proofed then means "having made something bullet-proof"?

So far, that's just for me, learning about it. I actually have decided to replace the word by something else.

The word is intended to be used like "a bullet-proofed solution", which is close to foolproof or stable or tested. However, I would not use foolproof as a term here, because it might sound offending in the business context it is used.

Can you think of the correct term my colleague might have had in mind when suggesting bullet-proofed? Note that we're both non-native English speakers.

Update:

@skymninge hit the definition. The intended use is like "not subject to correction, alteration, or modification", so I am looking for a synonym of that.


texts:
Quoting from OUP blog (+):

  As noted above, sure and sugar are such conspicuous monsters because
  word initially su– designates sh only in those two words.

According to oxforddictionaries.com website (+), word-initially is an adverb. However, it seems to me that an adjective is the right choice to modify the noun su- in the above-mentioned sentence. Is that correct?


texts: Do you "call an audible" when you "play it by ear"?

texts:
I recently overheard the phrase, "call an audible" and mentally likened it to, "play it by ear." But when I went to look it up, I discovered that the general consensus is that the former hails from (American) football, whereas the latter takes its cue from music.

Surely two such similar phrases have common etymology! Alas, I cannot find any evidence of it on the Internet. Does anyone here?


texts: Word for someone who loves bright colours

texts: How do we call a person having deep love towards bright colours (like he loves to wear very brightly-coloured clothes)?


texts: Any similar idioms to the Arabic 'You don't fill my eye'?

texts:
"You don't fill my eye" is an Arabic idiom.
When looking at somebody, and if that somebody doesn't fill your eye (namely, doesn't occupy all the space in your eye in order for him to be seen clearly and well), that person is not someone you would deign to speak to or look at. He isn't at the same level of intellect or class as you. You see the person as trifling and contemptible.
This saying is patently degrading, however it used playfully.
Examples,

1: Why won't you talk to me, or don't I fill your eye?
2: Perish the thought! You know your value and worth to me, it's just I'm in no mind or mood. Forgive me.

1: Why are you looking at me like that?
2: You don't fill my eye.

In the second example, because the person doesn't fill his eye, occupy all his eye, axiomatically to look at something in more detail we look at length and closely at it. But here he's looking closely out of disgust and no matter how long or how close he looks he won't occupy all his eye space because he sees him as contemptible as it is possible to be.
Any similar idioms?


texts: confused over meaning of the word "unto."

texts: If "un" means "not" and "to" means in the direction of, then why doesn't "unto" mean not to or not in the direction of?


texts: Is there a verb that means "to typographically format a paragraph" the same way that paginate means "to typographically format a page"?  I'm inclined to coin paragraphinate.


texts: Is "everything but" here "nothing but" instead?

texts:
https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1359545601852071938 says

“You called Senator Sanders everything but an ignorant slut,” Senator
Kennedy said.
“That is not true,” Tanden said.

Does "everything but an ignorant slut" mean "not an ignorant slut"?
Did he mean to say “You called Senator Sanders nothing but an ignorant slut” instead?
Thanks.


texts: Does it make sense to use along with towards?

texts:
Recently I came across a statements which was hard to understand. It included the use of along with towards. The statement is like this

The fact that democracy is the only viable system that can preserve the Indian entity, constitute its whole beyond the sum of the various fragments that go into its making and promote its invaluable genius of stumbling along towards a humane order.


texts: "It was always" vs "I was always" vs "I would always"

texts:
No matter where I went with her, it was always the right place.

  No matter where I went with her, I was always in the right place.

  No matter where I went with her, I would always be in the right place.

Is any of the examples ungrammatical? Or they just emphasize different things? If so, how?


texts: Difference between "at rest" and "not in motion"

texts: Is it incorrect to say that a machine is "at rest" when it is not moving ?  I'd tend to use "at rest" for living organisms and use something like "not in motion" for machines and devices, but maybe I'm wrong.


texts: The word cycle itself is simple enough when used to mean something that returns to its beginning, something that loops. But how did it also gain the meaning of a literary cycle, defined as a collection of stories with the same set of characters? There doesn't seem to be any obvious link between the two meanings, and nothing I can find gives an etymology of the latter meaning in particular.


texts: How can I describe two things that constantly fuel each other? Example in description

texts:
The sentence I'm trying to write it

Focusing on xyz, where accomplishments and struggles [blank],

I'm trying to say, that as the person accomplished more, they would face more struggles, and as they had struggles, they actually flipped it into an accomplishment.

Ex: Because somebody was a certain race/religion, they can't buy a house. So the person bought out a hotel and didn't let the oppressing group stay there. (This eventually led to financial growth, etc).


texts:
There was the following passage in New York Times (April 13) article titled, “Philosophy returns to the real world”:

  “It was in one of Fish’s seminars that I first read
  arch-postmodernist, Richard Rorty, He convincingly defended himself
  against the charge of relativism – I know, having spent hours in his
  office, trying to make it stick — and yet he maintained that it was
  useless to talk about the world, or truth. It was impossible, he
  asserted, to try to describe reality outside of our linguistic
  practices, to describe it as it would be if it were not being
  described.”

What does “make it stick” mean here? Does it mean “correct,” “change one’s mind” or “fix the other’s mind rightly”? Is it a popular idiom?

I was unable to get an answer by Googling it.


texts: What do you call the fact of taking a personality test?

texts:
I am looking for a noun that represents the fact of a user taking a personality test.

I was thinking about examination, but it sounds like education/certification.

Context (unnecessary):
My website allows users to take personality tests.
It is a REST website, which means I have to use a noun for each type of data object.
The wording is quite important as it appears in the users' browser URL bar.


texts: I am unable to find out the parts of speech in following sentence

texts:
At what hour is the sun right above us.

Us = pronoun (object of preposition)

Above =. preposition
Right.  = Adv modifying the prepositional phrase

The    determiner
Sun      noun
Is.    linking verb
At what hour=???


texts: What is the history of using "Jersey" for "New Jersey"?

texts:
I have long wondered the origin of calling New Jersey by the nickname "Jersey".   To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever shortened New York or New Hampshire to "York" or "Hampshire",  or referred to the New England Region as "England".

Unfortunately, in the past I have gotten some ridiculous answers to this ranging from...  "it just sounds right", to...  well, York is in "England"....

Hint:   1) it "sounds right because you have heard it often enough",  2) All the locations with "New" in front of them are already locations in the UK,  that is why we prefix it with "New".

I am hoping this question generates a thoughtful response,  as opposed to 5th grade NJ jokes.  My answer so far, (that I made up)  is it may all boil down to one farmer’s sign,  somewhere in NJ,  where he advertised "Jersey Tomatoes" , ( or some such billboard,) and it was seen by enough motorists that it stuck.  But I welcome any intelligent income from such an esteemed bunch of readers.


texts:
I need to understand if I could say "As good a [noun] as it gets". Would it mean "the best [noun]"? E.g.

  You can buy as good a car as it gets in that store.


texts:
"Anything of interest?"
"No." He tossed a magazine on her desk and said,"This one is on the way. Could be fun."
The expression "on the way" baffles me. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.


texts:
There is a song called Toy Soldiers by Martika of which a part of the lyrics goes:

Step by step
Heart to heart
Left, right, left
We all fall down
Like toy soldiers
Bit by bit
Torn apart
We never win
But the battle wages on
For toy soldiers

This song was later remade by Eminem, retaining the original chorus lyrics, but being renamed to Like Toy Soldiers.
What does this phrase mean? Who are the toy soldiers? I know the literal meaning - the toys - small soldiers - with which the children play, but I believe there is a deeper meaning to it.