texts: I have a form with mandatory input field for Phone Number or Account Number. Would it be correct to name this fields as 'Requisite' ? Is it correct to name PhoneNumber/AccountNumber as Requisite ?


texts:
I have seen shameful and shameless being used interchangeably, but it is surprising that they would mean the same.

Is there a difference?


texts: Recommend something "better" or "more" than

texts:
I've been wondering what would be more grammatically correct to say:
I recommend this better than this.
Or
I recommend this more than this.
Are there better (colloquial) ways of expressing this sentence? Thank you.


texts: I was reading a book written in the UK and a character stated that speaking to her sister made her "feel Humpty". I am not sure what she was feeling, as the rest of the dialogue gave no clue. Can anyone help clarify this?


texts: Word for: powering up an electronic prototype for the first time

texts:
I'm looking for a technical term for performing the following activity.
In electronics, when a person designs a device (or a circuit board) and has it manufactured, the next phase is to:

Perform preliminary checks before connecting it to power for the first time.
Sometimes power only parts of it, incrementally, making sure it doesn't burn out, etc.
While at it, checking that various parameters are within specifications.
Find and fix any minor issues or parts that are not working as intended.

In my native language (Czech), there is a word for this (oživení), roughly translated as revival.
Is there a matching term in English?


texts: How to break direct speech into two parts right?

texts:
This is what I'm writing:

  "Let's go," she says, "before it's too late."

Should I do this instead ("B" is capital):

  "Let's go," she says, "Before it's too late."

Which one is right?


texts: Usage of the definite article when citing laws

texts:
I have noticed that when articles of a law are mentioned in a text there is no definite article. For example, it is usually "Article 4" and not "the Article 4". Would some please explain me the rule? I am also wondering for chapters of a book. Should I write "Chapter 4", or "the Chapter 4".
Thank you in advance!


texts: What do you call something that makes you feel empty?

texts:
Sometimes there are some thoughts that make you feel so empty that when you deeply think about it it's like you are a plastic bag that all the air goes out of. It's a combination of fear, sadness and uselessness (I mean philosophically not emotionally or psychologically like how people have less self confidence). I personally find myself having that feeling sometimes when I feel so deeply like I understand death. And it takes me with it. But I don't know how to describe it in English. I first thought of "voidening" but I don't think that is even a word. And also I think it's actually totally something irrelevant :)). So how one would describe it? I want to use it in a context such as:

  It doesn't always bring the same emptying feeling with it.

But emptying also doesn't feel right. It doesn't express it the way I want. I'm looking for something more poetical that can deliver my feeling better.

Another example of that feeling is when I imagine myself all alone in the middle of space far from every other planet or living organism. Cold, dark, and silent.


texts:
I have encountered the term "get out and about", in one of Oxford's books. It seems to be quite a problem to conclude what exactly it means. I have not found this phrase neither in my national translator, nor on the internet (cambridge, oxford, idoceonline websites etc.)
There is an explanation in my Oxford textbook:

  "go to places where you can meet people"

Example:

  There is an old lady who does not get out and about much.

But does this phrase (for example) include even meeting other people and get to know them? Or is it only about going to a place where we expect some other people?


texts:
The results of the niche equivalency showed a significant difference
(p < 0.0001) between each clade in a two by two comparison: D.
immaculatus–D. suweonensis: D = 0.147, I = 0.417; D. immaculatus–D.
flaviventris sp. nov.: D = 0.140, I = 0.354; D. suweonensis–D.
flaviventris sp. nov.: D = 0.425, I = 0.714). These results of the
niche equivalency tests show that the overlap between clades is less
than would be expected by random chance, wherein the absence of
difference would assume that two populations are the same species with
the same ecological requirements.Yellow sea mediated segregation between North East Asian Dryophytes species

I have no idea what the "wherein" clause is modifying/supplementing.
1.Is this modifying/supplementing "random chance" in front of it? or is this rephrasing the previous sentence (These results of the niche equivalency tests show that the overlap between clades is less than would be expected by random chance)?
2.And is this writer saying the two populations are the same species?


texts: How to say "nonconfluence" in context of God and man?

texts:
I'm writing about a union between man and God in Christianity. And this union has a property of not being confluent, meaning that the person of man doesn't dissolve in the person of God but they exist together in the union "not confluently but not separately".
What is the best noun to describe the property of "nonconfluence" or maybe this term fits well into this context?

To put it another way, I'm looking for a specific antonim of "separation" which means 2 become 1, like 2 rivers merge into 1 or salt dissolves in water. And then I need to negate this antonim. Negation is important, because I'm describing union between God and man by saying what it is not.


texts: Which of these sentences is correct? Is or Are?? simple... but I've confused myself

texts:
All I watch is crime documentaries.
All I watch are crime documentaries.

I mean, I know "is" refers to one and "are" is for multiple, but does the "All I watch" at the start mean "is" makes more sense, seeing as that's what comes first. I think it would make more sense using "are" if you said: "Crime documentaries are all that I watch". I know you could rephrase the sentence in question, but for the two I have mentioned, which one is correct?


texts: "A crop grows" vs. "A crop is grown" — which is preferable?

texts:
Consider following sentence-

Tea grows both in Assam and Ceylon.

It can be made better as-

Tea grows in both Assam and Ceylon.

Or-

Tea is grown in both Assam and Ceylon.

I am confused to decide which of them is best. According to text book answer-
Passive voice is used when the subject does not do something himself. Active voice is used when the subject
does something himself. Here, Passive Voice should be used. Hence, tea is grown will be a correct usage.


texts:
I'm writing to enquire whether there is a need for ...
Wishing to be a part of your team thought the best way to go about it
was to ask you directly.

My background is mostly with ... but my interests lie with ...

My question is about the second and third sentences - I don't know how, or if at all, they can be rewritten to match the tense of the first one.


texts:
Any ideas about what the "slap yourself five" means in the following context?

  "When someone says something you disagree with, before you call that person names and slap yourself five for your brilliant rebuttal, take a second to consider it fairly on its own terms."


texts: Word for sarcasm/facetiousness where the core statement is true

texts:
For many years I thought the difference between facetiousness and sarcasm was that sarcasm meant the words were literally the opposite of the intended meaning and facetiousness referred to a statement, that at face value seems like sarcasm, but the words taken literally are still true.

Example:

  Person A: "Oh yeah, loading the fridge on top of the car will definitely work."
  Person B: "We're gonna need some really strong ropes."

In this scenario, Person A is being sarcastic and doesn't support the decision to load the fridge on top of the car.  Person B is being (what I used to understand as) facetious in that they are voicing disagreement with the idea, but making a (jokingly) true statement about the ropes needed for the idea to succeed.

According to dictionary.com:

  Facetious:

  not meant to be taken seriously or literally: a facetious remark.
  amusing; humorous.
  lacking serious intent; concerned with something nonessential, amusing, or frivolous:

What is the word for when a statement isn't meant to be taken seriously, but is literally true?


texts: How do you address people at the beginning of a conversation?

texts:
I will have a visa interview (for the US) in a few days and I would like to know how I address people in a conversation.

Especially, I would like to know the differences between the following:

Sir
Madam, Ma'am
Miss
Misses
Mister

I have read the following questions/answers, but they don't explain the terms in context. I would like to know what the differences are:

Disrespectful use of “mister”
Madam vs. Ma'am
When is Mr/Mrs appropriate?


texts: Word for "to direct attention away from"

texts:
I'm looking for a succinct verb for "to direct attention away from" or "to cause others to ignore" something.

Example:

  The regulators' own report contains a clue to the fraud, which they
  not only ignored, but actively [XXX].

Undermine, undercut, discredit, suppress, bury, and cover up are too strong. In the hypothetical, the regulators weren't trying to gainsay or hide their own fact (which after all they didn't need to include). They were just effectively saying, "move along, nothing to see here!" In other words, they were comfortable with the clue, but perhaps not what the clue might lead to.


texts:
In Britain (and perhaps former British colonies) the term "whip" is used in a number of different ways in politics. The following article, in particular, talks about "losing" or "removal" of the whip. There are 3-line whips, and other references to the term common in British politics.

Can someone please explain the origin, etymology, and the variety of usage of the term in common political parlance?


texts: Is "apropos" commonly used in everyday life?

texts: Would I be understood, if I used apropos in my speech for typical New Yorker?


texts: Cockney accent: "a" or "an" before words starting with h? How about "the"?

texts: How do you say "a help" (or the indefinite article followed by another word that starts with a normally non-silent h) with a Cockney accent, which drops word-initial h's? So would you say a elp or an elp? How about "the help"? "Duh elp" or "dee elp"?


texts: What do "the best of both worlds" and "young minds" mean?

texts:
The following is an excerpt from a newspaper article.
What do "the best of both worlds" and "young minds" mean in this context?

Not only do these standing desks improve focus but they can also have positive health benefits as well, which really brings the best of both worlds when it comes to young minds.


texts:
I know that a climbing wall is a wall with parts to hold onto, usually inside a building, for people to practise climbing on, but is the activity that people do on a climbing wall called "wall climbing" or "indoor rock climbing"?
Which one sounds more natural?
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.


texts: What do you call a woman who is crafty, employs ingenuity in a general range of things like sewing, baking, paper crafts, etc

texts: I'm trying to find a noun that embodies a range of crafty skills. This word would ideally follow my adjective "craftiest" and would describe someone (typically a woman) who could be seen as someone who covers range of titles such as seamstress, homemaker, baker, and general crafts like that. Is there any such word?


texts:
I was always taught never to sign a letter, note or article I'd written as Mr. John Smith.

It was ingrained into me that my my name was plain John Smith and it was for others speaking or referring to me in some manner to use the title of "Mr" if they so wished.

I now find teachers from my old school referring to themselves in the school magazine as Mr XYZ!

Am I correct?


texts: "for about one year" or "for around one year"

texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct or better?

I have been using this software for about one year.
I have been using this software for around one year.

Searching in Google gives 14 million hits for "for about one year" and 1.5 million hits for "for around one year". Seems that "about" is better, but my test is not very conclusive.


texts: What would an appropriate fourth title be in the set "page, squire, knight"?

texts:
At work we have training levels for technical skills that are assessed by qualification tests. Currently there are three levels: page, squire, and knight. I need to add a new level, but from what I understand the path to Knighthood only has those three levels.

What word could be used as an appropriate additional skill level keeping this theme? It could be inserted at any location, before or after any of the three words.


texts:
Well, I listened to a song and heard it's said in the text "He don't know how to..." I think a song artist used this phrase for better sounding. Am I right? Correct me if I'm wrong, and please explain to me what the difference is.
Upd.  skilled users gave me an advice to give more examples for for better clarification . so I do.  This phrase was taken from lyrics of song by Billie Eilish (my boy). Here is a part of this lyrics

My boy's being sus' and he don't know how to cuss
He just sounds like he's tryna be his father (Who are you?)
My boy's an ugly crier but he's such a pretty liar
And by that I mean he said he'd "change"


texts: Meaning of "post" in the Word of the Year 2016 "post-truth" politics

texts:
The following extract from "en.oxforddictionaries.com" comments about the meaning and origin of the expression "post-truth politics".

Post-truth Politics:

  After much discussion, debate, and research, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is post-truth – an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

Post-truth:

  The compound word post-truth exemplifies an expansion in the meaning of the prefix post- that has become increasingly prominent in recent years. Rather than simply referring to the time after a specified situation or event – as in post-war or post-match – the prefix  in post-truth has a meaning more like ‘belonging to a time in which the specified concept has become unimportant or irrelevant’. This nuance seems to have originated in the mid-20th century, in formations such as post-national (1945) and post-racial (1971).

The ODO and most main dictionaries define the meaning of the prefix post- as:

  After in time or order:
  ‘post-date’
  ‘post-operative’

The usage of post- in "post-truth politics" appears to be convey a different nuance, it seems to suggest something opposite to real fact rather than post real facts. The examples given above, post-national post-racial still convey a notion of time in my opinion.

It is clearly a usage that has become idiomatic, but is it semantically correct? Are there other previous usage examples which are close in meaning to post- as used in post-truth?


texts: According to the OED a 'son of a gun' was a child born to a woman who accompanied her husband on a Royal Navy gunship. However I distinctly remember hearing on a BBC Radio 4 history programme that the 'sons of guns' were children born to 'ladies of easy virtue' with whom British sailors frequented in foreign ports. They would be allowed on to any subsequent ship to give birth, which happened on the gun-deck between the guns, and the ship's doctor would attend them. As no one took responsibility for fatherhood the child would be known as a 'son of a gun'. Wikipaedia is clearly unsure concerning these two possible origins. Does anyone know anything about this?


texts:
Which is correct:
"What's a nice place to go shopping?" or "Where's a nice place to go shopping?"

Why do we use "What's?" and not "Where's?"


texts:
What is the correct way to direct a request:

"Would you please e-mail me the check?"

or

"Would you please e-mail to me the check?"

And why?


texts: Single word for the height above something

texts:
When we talk about height, usually we mean the distance from an object to an external zero reference such as the ground.  I'm looking for a single word that describes how much height is resting on or hanging from an object, where the object itself is the zero reference.  For example:

  If the top floor has a ____ of zero, then the third floor of a five-story building has a ____ of two.

If there's a word for this concept in mathematics, that would be ideal.  Or a word from genealogy expressing the number of generations of descendants a person has.  A word from architecture or shipbuilding might also fit.  I considered the word freeboard, which is roughly the height of a ship above the waterline, but the reference always seems to be the waterline.  I don't think you'd speak of the freeboard above a particular deck.  I also thought about the word load, but I don't want to express the total mass or volume of stuff, only the dimension of height.


texts: Is there a term to refer to movies in which one or more actors died during production period and stand-ins were used?

texts: The best I can think of is "movie with late actors", but it sounds weird and not very concise. I wonder if there's a technical term to refer to that type of movies.


texts: I was watching a movie last night and a character, when asked a question, replies, "God only knows". Is that the correct usage? It sounds to me as if God just knows stuff and can't do anything about it, if you know what I mean. Isn't "Only God knows." more appropriate?


texts: What is an adventurous term for "housekeeping"

texts:
I'm working on setting up an adventure based metaphor for my son's chores, and one of the categories of "challenges" he'll be tasked with completing is housekeeping (making his bed, washing the dishes, vacuuming, etc.). Only I don't want to call it housekeeping. Is there are more adventurous term I could use with a similar meaning?

The only thing I've been able to come up with so far is "castle maintenance", but I'm not in love with that. Any other suggestions?


texts:
The same level of detail between the 3D models and the real objects
  has been achieved.

In formal language, does this sentence make sense? I'm not sure about the use of the preposition "between" in this case.

It should mean that level of detail of the 3d models and level of detail of the real objects is the same.


texts: I was corrected that funner is not a word. After looking into it, it seems that it is a word in the sense that it is frequently used and people know what it means. Since a word is a sound with an associated meaning, can one ever conclusively say anything is not a word? If no, then what can be said about words such as "hommie" or "dethaw" (or "bestester").


texts:
I can't understand the meaning of the phrase "I'll have it nicely dried".

Does it mean the same as
"I'll dry it very well"?


texts:
I'm wondering if net is a suitable abbreviation for network. On the one hand, it sounds fine for me (maybe because I'm used to this terminology from the internet or similar). Apart from that, common dictionaries list different meanings for net (like woven material). Since English is not my mother tongue, I would be interested to hear how your perception is if you read net without reference to the full text (like at a title or logo). Does net directly let you think about e.g., a fisher net, or could it be a network too?

Thanks for your help


texts: How to distinguish between "document" and "documentation"?

texts: I am wondering when we could use documentation instead of document?


texts:
I am looking for a minimal triple for a particular set of phonemes.  By minimal triple, I mean three actual English words that differ in one and only one phoneme between them.  Examples therefore include:

phony, tony, pony
swim, swam, swum
bad, bat, bath

The three phonemes that must appear one apiece in each of the three words are: /ɑ, ɒ, ɔ/.  I can get pairs, but no triples, and I wonder why.

Length doesn’t count, so for example /aː/ counts as /a/ and /ɔː/ counts as /ɔ/.

If such a triple exists, what is it?

If no such triple exists, could it?  Or do the various mergers preclude a threefold phonemic distinction here?

These have all to be in the same accent, of course.  And preferably a rhotic one, too, because I’m trying to figure out something in particular about phonemic perception in rhotic speakers of North America, and non-rhotic accents will not further that goal.

As a last resort, if the only such triple you can find is a non-rhotic one, then go ahead and offer that one, perhaps along with some suggested explanation why there “can’t” be an equivalent rhotic triple.


texts: why are Plurals for thousand, million and such unit are not used commonly, like in amount description?

texts: why don't we say 2 thousands instead 2 thousand (just an example) in spite of it being more than a unit amount and neither is it an uncountable noun.


texts:
When using the word "incarcerate", how are you supposed to say where you incarcerate people?

You can say something like this, using the word "confine".

"I confine a bird in a cage."

"His parents confined him to his room for a week."

And I assume that you can use "to" or "in" to specify where when using the word "incarcerate" just like the examples I gave.

I've done my research. But it seems that it's not common or even possible to specify where when using the word. Maybe I haven't done my research enough to find out though.

Can you specify where you incarcerate people with "in" or "to" or any other prepositions?

I was told that I should include the research I've done.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incarcerate

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

https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/incarcerate

And Google's Dictionary Search Box of the search results that appears at the top.


texts:
Sometimes I see the sentence

  Have you done something, yet?

Is it correct to write it that way? If not, what would be correct? If it is correct, why is it?


texts: Can a noun be supported by 2 prepositions?

texts:
See this sentence:

  Partner A will have a contract with our company with following missions:...

It can be written into two separate sentences:

  Partner A will have a contract with our company.
  The contract has the following missions:...

If I write

  A contract with our company with following missions

like as in the first sentence, then would it cause a certain ambiguity or not?


texts: Should 'Today' and 'Tomorrow' be capitalised?

texts: I always wonder whether 'today' and 'tomorrow' should be capitalised. Can anybody help me?


texts:
Sample Conversation:

  A: How are you?

  B: I am mad.

  A: How come?

I thought that how come was a logical word choice but upon speaking with somebody for whom English is a second language, I found that they did not understand the meaning. I am wondering if using how come in this manner is a form of slang.

For some reason saying "How come you are angry?" sounds like bad grammar.

I can imagine the use of "How come, when I talk to you, you are angry?" to be correct with that added phrase in the middle.

So my question is, is using how come as in the example conversational slang?
And also is "How come you are angry?" proper English?


texts: Are there any words I can use to disambiguate "biweekly"?

texts:
We have two words for events occurring in periods of years - biannual meaning twice a year, and biennial meaning once every two years.

However, my colleagues talk about having meetings biweekly. This causes a lot of confusion, since it can mean either once every two weeks or twice a week.

We can use fortnightly to indicate once every two weeks and help disambiguate that way. Are there any other words we could use which could help, particularly words which mean "twice a week"? I'm looking particularly because some of my colleagues speak English only as a second language, and find fortnightly difficult to remember.


texts: What type of word is SeQueL called, when you pronounce the abbreviation SQL as "SeQueL"

texts:
In database technology there is a standard called "Structured Query Language", which is abbreviated as SQL. However, some people pronounce SQL as "SeQueL".

If SQL is an "abbreviation" or "acronym" - what could "SeQueL" be called. Ie. what is a word called that is an invented way to pronounce an abbreviation?


texts: Is there an adjective for "untruthful, especially when pretending to know more than one actually does"?

texts:
I originally thought of the word "disingenuous," except that my dictionary gives the definition as "not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does." I'm looking for a word that's similar in meaning, but with an emphasis on pretending to know something (rather than pretending not to know something).

Example sentence: Citing statistics he made up, the _____ salesman claimed that his weight-loss pills were miracle workers.


texts: What is the name of a small unluxurious restaurant?

texts:
Is there a name for this kind of restaurant? Searching Google, I can't find any synonym of restaurant. I've tried to search for images of unluxurious restaurant, small restaurant or mundane restaurant, with no satisfactory result. The restaurant I'm looking for is small, not so clean and definitely not a place that high class people go to eat.

It can be a house:

Or lie on a side of the street:


texts: How are 'them' and 'werewolves' placed together?

texts:
Should’ve thought of them werewolves before you got
  in trouble, shouldn’t you?

This is a sentence from Harry Potter I.  Would it not be appropriate to omit them from the sentence?


texts:
It seems that William and Susan aren’t getting along very well together, so one of them
  has got to go. Since William was there first, Susan will get the boot courtesy of the
  delete statement...

Could you please explain the meaning and usage of the idiom get the boot courtesy in this sentence and exactly what kind of aspect the noun courtesy adds to the phrase?


texts: I wanted to tell someone that my cat"is dead or was dead"i got flustered between the present or the past


texts: Word or expression to describe overlapping patterns?

texts:
I'm trying to characterize the appearance of two overlapping patterns. I'll try to describe the type of visual effect I'm thinking of with an example, but I don't have an actual image at hand.
The example: start by imagining a many-paned window that has strong sunlight coming through it. You would see the shadow lines of the panes (*) on the floor. Now place a tree outside the window. The tree would cast its own shadow consisting of branches & leaves. On the floor you have the mixed shadow lines from both tree and window.
Now this is just an example - don't focus too much on the exact window/tree specifics. The key is that the final impression (the shadow on the floor) has completely mixed together the two sources of the imagery.
What is a word or expression that would describe this mixing of patterns?

(*) actually the muntins / mullions of course, not the actual clear glass itself


texts: Is there a word that stands for, "someone who has bought this item"?

texts:
I am trying to differentiate between two different types of buyers that will show up in a website's search results. I have one type of buyer who purchases a large number of items but has not bought the specific item the website user is searching for. This customer is called a "Authorized distributor". However I need a way to describe, with one or two words, a buyer who has bought the specific item that the website user is searching for.

Is there a word that says this about a buyer?


texts: What is the subject of the relative pronoun of that?

texts:
'Featuring floral patterns, religious symbols, and messages of hope, the painted henna crowns are amazing substitutes for the hats and wigs that the cancer patients would otherwise use to cover their heads.'
1.What is the subject of the relative pronoun of 'that'? 'Substitutes' or 'the hats and wigs' ?
2.What does 'otherwise' mean here?
Thank you for the help.


texts: When do we're say " a few" instead of few?

texts: When do we use 'a few'instead of 'few'? For example, why is it incorrect to say "I have few dollars left" instead of "I have a few dollars left"? Most people reason it should be few dollars because "dollars" is a plural noun.


texts: Is there a way to contrast the words small/little and big to describe someone/something?

texts:
folks! How are you? :)

Well, here's my question: Is there a way to contrast the words small/little and big to describe the same person/thing?

I found a thread in which I think the question was not answered properly and the author's idea is the same that I have:

How to establish a paradox, in an ironic way, without being offensive, to say to a small man, he's a little big man?

Is that (little big) right for this purpose? Maybe little great man would be better in this case (not sure): little in terms of size and great in terms of heart, intelligence, responsibilities or something else.

Another exemple:

How do I tell to my friends that I learned a small thing in English but that that implies in a big difference to my life?

Thanks in advance.


texts:
In the beginning of a letter (or mail) , which is the correct method to address a person/friend..say for example which would be more perfect "Hi XYZ" or "hi XYZ"  ?

__Kanu


texts:
Disclaimer: I'm not looking for an antonym of "procrastination" or "procrastinate" (Noun for an action and a verb, respectively).

I am looking for an antonym to "procrastinator" (noun for a person) that could be used to fill in the blank in the following sentence:

"I am not a procrastinator, so I am a _______________."


texts:
I'm looking for the appropriate English term for what I'd call a "große Persönlichkeit" in German.

This is not about someone who is famous,
neither about someone who tries to appear superior than others by making them small
but means someone who is wise, reflected, (possibly brave), emotionally stable and independent (in the positive sense), superior (in a way that doesn't oppress but rather the opposite) and has a good influence on other people, also by being a good example
This rough translation of a more or less idiomatic rule of thumb may also help to explain: A "große Persönlichket" will help other people to grow, while a "kleine Persönlichkeit" (small? personality?) will keep people down/small(?)/oppress people in order to seem larger (?)

Actually the last point is the context I want to explain in English.

I'm really unsure which of the "groß" (great/large/big/?) terms is appropriate and whether to use personality or character or something else.


texts: Why does the Sudan have a "the" in the name?

texts:
I am endlessly perplexed why the country Sudan has a the in the name: "I am from the Sudan".  Why not "I am from the Kansas" or "the China"?

I understand the the in "the United States" because a non-personal noun "states" is part of the name. But why "the Sudan"?


texts: A common word for person/company/organization?

texts: As we can say principal for user/group/role, is there a common word for person/company/organization?


texts: Which is correct: "There are not any employees" or "There is not any employee"?

texts:
Sometimes I see two variants of following sentence:

"there are not any employees" in the department
"there is not any employee" in the department

What is the correct sentence?


texts: Word for an object that alters the course of your life?

texts:
When learning about people, either through biographic readings or in person, I'm very interested to learn which "object" has had the single greatest effect on them. For example, what has made an indelible mark that changed their life, or "altered the colour of [their] mind", or imputed unto them a goal or a passion they've been chasing ever since. I suppose a person can have more than one of these objects, but we usually have only one for any given context.

These type of objects are usually books or music albums, and I want to know which of them are esteemed in this way, because those are exactly the objects I want to add to my personal collection.

I liked "lodestar" for a bit, but it implies an everlasting guide that one can reliably call upon, or to extend the metaphor, implies something that one still necessarily believes in.


texts:
Is there a term for the concept of homo/heterogeneity of jurisdictions when it comes to legal status of a certain action? That is being illegal in all jurisdictions [limited to context] or being legal in some an illegal in others.

For example:

theft is illegal everywhere
being naked varies

Ideally a short expression, e.g. uneven legal status or something like that.


texts: can 'fall into oblivion ' be used to mean 'be forgotten' as in the sentence below:

texts:
Can 'fall into oblivion' be used to mean 'be forgotten' as in the following.

Even most popular sportspersons are likely to fall into oblivion sometime after their retirement from the sporting arena.


texts:
Is there a difference between I noticed and I have noticed? What is the correct use of each of these?

Thanks


texts:
Found in a book:

  Behind him was Sam.
  In a field was a big Group.
  To the left was a session of barracks.
  Next to the Corner was a woman.

Don't know why the word order isn't correct, it's like in German.


texts: Single word for old and many-times-seen content

texts:
Using old as a starting word, Urban Dictionary suggested:

Obsolete
Outdated
Archaic
Ancient
Retro
Passe

And I have to say that none of them really fit. The first two can describe software, but you don't update your old memes, they just get old and you rarely re-see them in a fit of nostalgia, deep inside your archives. #3 and #4 can be used in phrase describing how old is this post (e.g. ancient as mammoth's $#!@). But hey, that's a phrase, not a single word! #5 is about the style, not the freshness. #6 is completely about fashion (e.g. MySpace is so passe).
A friend of mine suggested retoast, but I'm unsure because I haven't really seen the usage.
Your suggestions?

Update: Very sorry to break the rules, adding an example usage now.

  Oh no, grandpa saw a pack of my business cards, and added me to his hilarious e-mailing list, consisting of ????? from 2007.

Also, if any of you guys surf russian internets, you may be familiar with баян. I need precisely that translated. It is a common (first) comment to many posts in social networks, as re-posting happens quite often

Update 2: The small thing that I forgot to mention is that it's a noun in russian, I will sure accept the fact that there are no such, but it would be much more familiar to talk of information units, calling them ????? than saying that they are bromidic, for example. I find bromidic kinda 30% suitable, but I guess I can't derive a bromid noun? So the speech contruction becomes longer, which is undesirable


texts: What does the idiom “funny as hell” mean?

texts:
I really don't understand this idiom, hell is supposed to be a horrible place. I understand the saying which is present in dictionaries  “hot as hell”, but I could not find  “funny as hell” in any online reference.

Can anyone explain this to me?


texts: Is there a single word for "one who feeds"?

texts: I am translating several titles of paintings from Ukrainian into English for an upcoming exhibition/publication. Is there a single English word that means "the one who feeds"? The original word in Ukrainian is feminine gender noun describing anything from fertile nature to a wet nurse, i.e. the one that provides food.


texts:
I'm looking for a word that fits in the same form, for example:

  Steve is exempt from the tax

To say the opposite I would need to say

  Steve is obligated to pay the tax.

I would like to be replace "is obligated to pay" with one or two words (plus preposition), to say:

  Steve is ____ the tax.

My searches for antonyms in Thesauruses didn't satisfy me.


texts: Confusing rule about subject-verb agreement

texts:
I am currently working through "The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation" by Jane Straus. In the section on subject-verb agreement the author describes a rule for sentences that begin with "there" or "here" which claims that the true subject in these sentences will follow the verb.

In the exercises, there are two sentences where I am supposed to identify the subjects and verbs as well as correct any issues. There is one sentence in particular that is confusing me. The sentence "There's lots of food left" has the subject "lots" and according to the rules given should have the verb "are" but the book states that this is incorrect. The correct verb according to the book is "is". Why is this the case when there is a plural subject?


texts: Is there a term for the type of misleading joke comedians such as Stephen Colbert often use?

texts:
The Late Show host, Stephen Colbert (an American talk show host, don't mind that, just think of him as some random guy you don't have to care about) quite often uses a type of joke whereby he describes one thing to mislead you, then name the other thing that you've thought the preceding description described but in fact didn't. For example:

"Some people are buying the wrong 'Fire and Fury'", instead picking up 'Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945' (...) One is a book about taking down a fascist regime, and the other's about WWII.

This is amazing, this is the meeting of Disney and Beyonce. The world's most beloved brand and... Disney.

Disney isn't buying all of Fox (...) "not included in the acquisition: Fox News," which really is surprising, cause you'd think that the masters of fantasy and imagination would want to be bought by Disney.

Is there a term for this kind of joke?


texts: Is it offensive to call a Jewish person a "semite"?

texts: Is it considered offensive to call a Jewish person a Semite? I've heard the phrase anti-semite or anti-semitism, but I've never heard someone call someone a Semite.


texts: I want to know when to use "has" or "have" with "who"

texts: In the sentence, "We want to know who have to pay.", why does "who have" sound wrong?


texts: Meaning of "Vanity is the greatest seducer of reason"

texts:
I was reading Meditation by Marcus. I do not understand this part:

  Vanity is the greatest seducer of reason: when you are most convinced that your work is important, that is when you are most under its spell. See, for example, what Creates says even about Xenocrates.

Can some please explain this paragraph?  I got the overall meaning but not seducer of reason.


texts: What's the meaning of "get one's finger in the air"?

texts: Could anyone give me an explanation of the meaning of "get one's finger in the air" and the usage of it?


texts:
I'm looking for a phrase similar to "representative". It may be a single word as well. I've been trying to think of it for days...

Example: A person is having the worst day at work. They get home and try to unwind by having a beer. When they take the beer out of the fridge, they drop it and it explodes making a huge mess. "Well that's just [representative/symbolizes/sums up] my day!"


texts: If I have to ask someone that "is it clear" then what word should I use?


texts: Why are pubowners called landlords in the U.K.?

texts: I just came across the fact that Brits call the owners\operators of their pubs landlords, (on the new show "The Reluctant Landlord"). Being from the USA I am only aware of the term landlord being used to refer to the person you pay your rent to if you are renting a house, apartment/flat or shop etc., not a hotel or motel (and I love British humor\television shows and movies). Anyway it got me thinking: why is that?


texts: Is it ok to use "finally" at the end of the sentence like this?

texts:
Is it OK to use finally at the end of the sentence like this?

I am a teacher finally.

Or are the below ones only possible?

I finally am a teacher.
I am finally a teacher.

Most people told me that only the adverb eventually could be placed at the end of a sentence, but I am just curious if I can place finally at the end.


texts:
"Yuppie" is just what I need - a colloquial, ironic, and somewhat condescending word to describe young, hot-shot finance-types. The only problem is that it feels dated. Is there another, more modern word I could use to describe the same kind of person, with the same negative and/or ironic connotation?

Note: "Hipster" has occurred to me, but it isn't quite right because it applies more to the alternative or creative crowd, and not so much to Wall Street investment bankers.


texts:
What does "lace-up", "open-throat or wide-set" and "closed-throat or close-set" mean in How to Select Shoes to Wear With a Man's Suit:

  Wear lace-up shoes for your most
  formal occasions. Open-throat or
  wide-set laces are less dressy than
  shoes with closed-throat or close-set
  laces.

In my guess:

"lace-up" is some style of shoes but
I am not sure what it is like and
what other styles it is opposed to.
"open-throat or wide-set" and
"closed-throat or close-set" are used
to specify other aspects of laces. I
am also not sure what they mean.

It will be nice if there are links to details and pictures.


texts:
I'm wondering about the origin of the phrase "darkest Brooklyn".

I imagine it is meant to suggest unexplored wilderness and perhaps also primitive social conditions. I've found a citation from the late 19th century:

[George B. Buzelle], The Third Annual Report of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities… presented May 1, 1884. District Conference of Wards 3 and 10, Secretary's Report, (Brooklyn: Tremlett & Co., 1884), p. 21.

  The end of another year finds us returning with our reports from Darker Brooklyn; not darkest Brooklyn; that region few of us have explored.

That makes it sound as though the author is nodding to "darkest Brooklyn" as an established phrase. It certainly predates the books In Darkest Africa (1890) and In Darkest England and the Way Out (1890).

How old is this expression, actually, and what associations of Brooklyn are being referred to?

Edit, 19:30 EDT: Contrary to some of the comments, this phrase is attested well before the 1970s:

Library of Congress possesses a 1958 work, "Through Darkest Brooklyn," by Gerson Lieber. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003668972/
Truman Capote (1946): "As you see, I have changed addresses, have moved to a little lost mews in darkest Brooklyn... for various reasons...". Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote, ed. Gerald Clarke, (New York: Vintage International, 2004), p. 39.
James Huneker (1920): "adjacent to all the cemeteries and frog ponds of Darkest Brooklyn", letter to Alice Wade Mulbern, Dec. 12, 1920, Letters of James Gibbons Huneker, ed. Josephine Huneker, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920), p. 308.
New York Times (1911): "Contrary to Eastern conceptions, he said, the only cowboys and Indians to be seen in the West nowadays are found in Eastern magazines shipped in trainloads out there; while Western gamblers make their habitat onIy on Broadway and take their money exclusively from 'citizens of Harlem and darkest Brooklyn.'" Article "WEST EXULTS OVER EAST. Gerrit Fort, Railway Man, Tells of Marvelously Superlative Attractions." June 01, 1911, p. 7.
New York Times (1908): "Sir Oliver seems to have told the Ruskinians nothing definite about the Myers messages. Instead he discussed the relation between the psychical and the physical, and his remarks must have had all the Intellectual vigor that marks the utterances old Uncle Peleg or Little Bright Eyes at a materializing séance in Darkest Brooklyn." Article "TOPICS OF THE TIMES. More Science from Sir Oliver." February 7, 1908, p. 6.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1901): "In that particular settlement the bath tub is a prime neighborhood attraction, and benighted visitors from darkest Brooklyn and Jersey City are escorted proudly to the settlement and given an opportunity to enjoy the tub as the greatest luxury of belonging to a woman's club in the city." Article "Hopeful Side of the 'East Side'." May 17, 1901, p. 4.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1896): "In the center of 'Darkest' New York and 'Darkest' Brooklyn is the home in which the sun never shines." Article "Christ in the Tenements." Jan. 13, 1896, p. 9


texts:
I've been reading Heinlein's Starship Troopers in which the crews of the starships are referred to by the Mobile Infantry as "Navy files". This appears to be an affectionately derisory term. I was wondering, is this name used by real members of the army or marines to refer to navy people, and if so, what it means?

Consulting the dictionary here suggests it might mean a line of persons or things arranged one behind another, or possibly

  Military .
  a.
  a person in front of or behind another in a military formation.
  b.
  one step on a promotion list.

I'm also guessing that this is an American or pseudo-American term as I'd think on the right-hand side of the pond the navy would more likely be referred to as the Andrew.


texts: Is "sweeping collapse" a natural expression?

texts: I know that it is natural to say "sweeping reform", which means a large scale reform. I wonder whether "sweeping collapse" is comprehensible and natural too?


texts:
Could it be that the 'k' in 'desktop' goes often unpronounced?

Listen to this example. Although the phonetic transcription clearly shows a k to be pronounced, it is not audible at all in the sound rendition.


texts: Jewish American word for stuffed cabbage

texts:
The word used by non-American and many American Jews for stuffed cabbage is 'holishkes'. There are a few variations.

But I heard someone use a word that sounds like 'hole-up-tious'.  I cheched numerous spellings such as holupzes, cholupzes, etc., but could not find anything.

I am assuming it is an American word used only in English because this family have been in the US for over eight generations (originally from Russia — but it is not a Russian-Jewish word).

Has anyone ever heard it before? There was one reference that looked similar in sound but it was quite obscure. I am wondering whether this is a regional word from a small group of Jews in NY, or perhaps just a family word.


texts: Using the word "coon" as part of a company name

texts: I'd like you to ask if it's ok to use the word "coon" as part of a company name? The website isn't related to racoons at all, but has a racoon head in the logo. Will it offend visitors? As a foreigner I don't get all the finer points of the English language.


texts: What does “with matters in this recumbent posture" mean?

texts:
I've never seen this phrase? Who wrote this? Did the authors just make it up? Google shows just one result, and it's from this same book.

Tailor the level of formality to your client and maintain that level throughout the letter. Don’t begin with “Dear Charlie” and close with “Very truly yours, Bickerstaff, Edgewater, and Ransom.” Don’t try to impress your client by using obscure reasoning, legal jargon, or hyperbolic expressions, like “preposterous on its face.” Eliminate stilted or verbose language, like “a date certain,” “purports to know,” or “with matters in this recumbent posture.” Remember that your client is paying for this letter and expects to have his or her time and intelligence respected.

Bahrych (PhD University of Washington in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, JD University of Washington), McLellan (JD Santa Clara University), Merino (JD Stanford). Legal Writing and Analysis in a Nutshell 5th edition (2017). 123.


texts: _ is to "momentum" as "speed" is to "velocity"?

texts:
Do we have a single word for the magnitude of momentum?
If not, would there be a way to construct one from the root of the word momentum? It's not coming up in my thesaurus searches, and I've never heard of it, but I don't think it's actually that uncommon a thing to have to describe, so it seems surprising it doesn't have it's own term.

When we write it down it is "|p|", but it would be very useful to have a terse way to specify this verbally. This is often just referred to as "momentum", or if there is a need to distinguish "abs-momentum" or "magnitude of momentum", but does a single word representation exist?

Sample sentence; "The _ of the particle has a lower statistical error than its momentum."


texts: Repeating adjectives and adverbs after conjuctions

texts:
Do adjectives or adverbs associate with the second noun or adjective after the first one or do they need to be repeated?

  This dichotomy can at times be too inclusive or (too) exclusive?

Does the adverb need to be repeated, or does it also refer to the second adjective after the conjunction?


texts:
Here's the sentence:

"As the year was coming to an end, NEARLY anyone doubted that either William or Philippa would win the prize while the other would come in second."

I don't see why we use 'nearly' in it, I suggest 'hardly'.
Please help me with this, I'm really puzzled.
Thank you.


texts: Compound Sentences with an Absolute Phrase

texts:
I wanted to see if anyone could give an opinion on an absolute phrase at the end of a compound sentence. I've seen two definitions for an absolute phrase: 1. qualifies the entire sentence 2. Qualifies the whole independent clause

Here is an example:

  Ticket exchanges for the same game are allowed, and ticket
  salespersons can work with the venue to reschedule group ticket
  packages, provided there is no increase in compensation.

What I want is for the last phrase "provided there is..." to qualify the whole sentence (both ticket exchanges and rescheduling group ticket packages), but I'm afraid that some could misinterpret that last phrase as qualifying only the preceding clause.

I'm a bit ambivalent, because the definition I've known for years is that an absolute phrase qualifies the entire sentence (which would include both independent clauses of a compound sentence), but I don't think that definition takes into account the ambiguity that may arise with a compound sentence.

Thank you
Steven


texts:
Which of the two following sentences is or are correct?

Excessive logging of forests in the past century has resulted in what becomes known as deforestation.
Excessive logging of forests in the past century has resulted in what known as deforestation.

What is the role of what in these sentences?


texts: Why does the preterite of verbs such as "deal", "feel" and "dream" have a devoiced dental suffix?

texts: I am trying to explain the morphology of some irregular weak verbs. I could explain "leave-left" as the result of assimilation with v being originally intervocalic f, but I can't see the reason for the verbs as mentioned in the title. The only thing I notice is that they all have their stems ending in a liquid or a nasal. Any suggestions for this?


texts: Would you say that this line is an indirect way of telling someone they shouldn't come/be somewhere? Or if not indirect, maybe some other adjective?


texts: Looking for the name of a method of wilderness navigation

texts: What's the name of the method of navigation or orienteering in which you sight a landmark in the distance, work your way toward it, and then repeat with another landmark further off?


texts: Origin and meaning of phrase "cut the cheese"

texts: Where does the phrase "cut the cheese" come from? I understand it to be an idiom for flatulation. Is that the correct meaning?


texts: How to determine what a pronoun is referring to

texts:
Does the second "woman" in this sentence refer to a female supervisor?

  One woman, who had been working under an extremely verbally abusive supervisor, confronted the woman and was abruptly fired from her job.


texts: How can I phrase a question about a theoretical event in the past, which cannot happen anymore?

texts:
I'll try to give some specific examples, as this one is rather difficult to explain.
Example 1: Imagine you have been attending a kindergarten in Canada. Now you are 30 years old, so you won't go to kindergarten again, but I want to ask you whether you would be happier today, if you were attending a US kindergarten in the past. Would it be like this?

Would you like to have been attending a US kindergarten?

Example 2: You have been brought up by a stepfather. Now you are an adult, so nobody is, nor will be bringing you up anymore. But yet, I want to ask, whether you would be happier, if it were your real father who brought you up. Would it be like this?

Would you like to have been brought up by your real father?

Alternatives, or how are they different?

Would you have wanted to attend a US kindergarten?
Would you have wanted to be attending a US kindergarten?
Would you have wanted to be brought up by your real father?


texts: Could I say "I'm looking at the project"?

texts:
Someone is examining an Internet project at Codeplex.com.
Can he say "I'm looking at the project 'Project name'", or it is a mistake? What is the best way to say it?


texts: Is it correct using "even" and "still" together?

texts:
Is it correct using even & still in one statement?

eg:

  "even after a warning, he is still doing the same"

I think either is redundant, isn't it?


texts: Capitalize common noun when it follows a list of proper nouns?

texts:
If I'm listing a series of proper nouns (like the names of counties) that all require the same common noun to follow (like the word 'county') should I capitalize the common noun at the end of the list?

Some examples:

"I traveled to Cook, Fulton, and Columbia Counties" or "I traveled to Cook, Fulton and Columbia counties"
"I swam in the Pacific and Indian Oceans" or "I swam in the Pacific and Indian oceans"


texts: The word for the practice of manufacturing a plausible legal path to trapping a criminal using evidence gathered illegally

texts:
I'm taking an example from law enforcement, but the word I'm looking for applies more broadly.
Let's say that a law enforcement agency used illegal means to gather evidence of a crime, for example, illegal surveillance. The agency needs to come up with a plausible way they caught the criminal without revealing that their actions were based on illegally gathered evidence.
To give a pratical example: a police force tapped phone conversations without a warrant and figured that a person would be transporting drugs in their car. The police force can't stop the car based on illegally gathered evidence, so instead, they just happen to stop that particular car during a random "routine traffic stop".
In more elaborate cases, agencies build a legal path to "artificially" arrive at a conclusion they originally got to through illegal surveillance.
What is the word for this practice?


texts: What is a word for a very insignificant or small accident?

texts:
What is the word for very small bad luck or mishap or accident? An example would be like when you get a gravy stain on your shirt while having breakfast. Another example could be, a funny and awkward, you accidentally farted in public. Or maybe your phone crashed when you needed it or  the cap/lid accidently falls off and you ended ruining you dish with awful amount of salt.

  I had a _________ today when I accidentally spilled coffee over me.


texts: I tried to google the phrase "everything is everything" but can't find its origin. Where does this phrase originally come from? What does it mean?


texts: Can "e.g." be used to indicate that the preceding clause is an example?

texts:
I was advised not to use "for example" in academic work.

If I have the following sentence: "The state of New York, for example, uses Auctions to assign...", is it possible to substitute the "for example" with "e.g.", such that the sentence is "The state of New York, e.g., uses Auctions to assign..."?

I'm confused because "e.g." is usually used to indicate that the following clause is an example.


texts: Etymology of legal meaning of 'dispositive'

texts:
Since Prof. Eugene Volokh has observed its counterintuitiveness, what's an intuitive derivation?

Prof. Eugene Volokh: One way of remembering this is by looking at the stem, which turns out to be “dispose of,” as in “dispose of the question” (in the sense of “to deal with conclusively; settle”)
dispositive (adjective) = 1. Relating to or bringing about the settlement of an issue or the disposition of property
1.2. (In US law) producing a final settlement or determination.
Etymonline for 'dispose': late 14c., from Old French disposer (13c.) "arrange, order, control, regulate" (influenced in form by poser "to place"), from Latin disponere "put in order, arrange, distribute," from dis- "apart" (see dis-) + ponere "to put, place" (see position). Related: Disposed; disposing.

Since Etymonline lacks an entry for 'dispositive', and in view of Prof. Volokh recommendation above, I linked to 'dispose' instead, but it doesn't appear to explain this legal meaning?


texts: How many people are in the sentence "My friend, John, and I went shopping"?

texts:
My friend, John, and I went shopping.
  My friend John and I went shopping.

I believe we need to wrap our friend's name in commas (first sentence example), but wouldn't that make it three people?


texts: After starting a sentence with a name, do you capitalize the next part of the same sentence?

texts:
For example, in the case of the following sentence, do you capitalize the "Good Morning!" and the next part "It..."?

Mr. Smith, Good Morning! It was a pleasure meeting you the other day.

Please let me know.  Best, James


texts:
I'm doing review for a journal. There are many sentences which really confuse me.
For example:

  We employ similarity learning using Ranking-SVM to learn parameters

Is it better to change it like so?

  We employ similarity learning which uses Ranking-SVM to learn parameters

Another sentence

  The similarity measure incorporates special emphasis on spatial localization, by which the similarity between x and y decreases with the increase of their in-between distance.

The above sentence is kind of weird to me. Is 'by which' used correctly?


texts: Is "Race against the time" a well established motto?

texts:
According to "Your Time Starts Now" by Dr. Vijay Agrawal, it seems that "Race against the time" is a well established motto.

  Today 'Race against the time' is the motto of success and the
  parameter of ability. The expertise of a reporter is evaluated on the
  basis of getting such a news item first, 'Maharashtra's chief
  minister has been asked to submit his resignation.'

In that book, however, the author also uses "run against the time", whose meaning is perfectly understandable but it doesn't appear so common in the English language, at least in written texts.

So, my question is, are "Race against the time" or "Running against the time" well established mottoes?

For what is worth, a quick searching on Google shows that one can run against "the clock", rather than against "the time". Nevertheless, how can the clock version and the time version lead to different interpretations? What are the reason why one should be preferred on the other, if any?


texts: How did 'flapper' evolve from a derogatory term into a cultural identity?

texts:
The word "flapper," in popular culture, is most often associated with young, progressive, unconventional women of the 1920's in the U.S.
According to both the OED and Green's Dictionary of Slang, the word "flapper" appears to have been in its earliest form a derogatory reference.  In fact, the earliest meaning of the word with regard to young women was apparently "a teenage prostitute."
Per OED:

1893   J. S. Farmer Slang   Flapper..(3) A very young prostitute.

GDoS also offers an earlier definition related to prostitution.  The citations appear to suggest that the earliest derogatory uses of the term were British.
Yet by at least 1920 (and apparently earlier), the term seemed to have evolved into a cultural identity embraced by the "flappers" themselves, referring to young adults as opposed to children.

According to Billie Melman's Women and the Popular Imagination in the Twenties: Flappers and Nymphs (1988), two early meanings arose around the same time, one referring generally to "sexually innocent youth," and another referring to very young prostitutes.

Around 1870 'flapper' acquired two novel meanings.  It came to signify a female adolescent on the eve of her début in society, recognisable by the mane flapping down her back.  The image this particular usage conveys is one of indecorous and sexually innocent youth...
At about the same time 'flapper' had come to signify a child prostitute - 'A very young girl trained to vice' (1899), 'a very young prostitute' (1893) - and, occasionally, the male sexual organ.  The two usages, the one celebrating sexual innocense, the other vice and deviance, are closer than they first appear to be...
The simultaneous emergence of the two meanings reflects the ambivalent attitude of the Victorians towards feminine youth and sexuality... On the one hand, the image of the socially segregated girl was one of perfect purity and chastity, the ideal of desexualised womanhood.  On the other hand, this very image epitomised illicit sexuality in one of its most sinister forms: a thriving trade in child prostitution...
After the First World War... it came to mean not so much an immoral young girl as, more characteristically, a disfranchised adult (i.e. a young woman past her twenty-first birthday).

Questions
Is it true that the early contradictory meanings mentioned by Melman arose simultaneously?  If so, did the more well-known meaning referring to women of the 1920s in the U.S. derive from one or the other of these early meanings, and how did the change take place?


texts: When did the terms prescriptivism/prescriptivist enter the English language?

texts:
Though the issue of linguistic prescription is a few centuries  old, the terms:

prescriptivism

  (language) the belief that there are correct and wrong ways to use language and that books about language should give rules to follow, rather than describing how language is really used.

and prescriptivist

  believing that there are correct and wrong ways to use language and that books about language should give rules to follow, rather than describing how language is really used.

( Cambridge Dictionary)

appear to be relatively recent, from the '50s according to   Google Books.

There are a number of sources that deal with this issue, but I was not able to find information about:

when the two  terms were  first used and by whom  they were introduced.


texts: Specific type or instance of something vs. the thing understood in a general sense

texts:
Can anyone explain the essential difference between situations where nouns are used in a general sense and where they are used to indicate a specific type or instance of something?

Specifically, I want to understand when to use a definite article and when to use no article at all.

Murphy (fourth edition) give as an example of the specific type:

  When was the telephone invented?

and as an example of the general type:

  Doctors are usually paid more than teachers.

In some instances, i get a sense of why the noun is treated as it is, but not always. Moreover, in the above examples, it isn't obvious to me that the author means "telephone" exactly as a type of communication, and "doctors" may be defined as a particular profession (not in general, but rather precisely this class of workers who are paid better than others).


texts: I've been asked to give lectures on electromagnetism in English, but I encounter many problems trying to express mathematical formulas since they are written and I do not know how to read them. Are there any references which elaborate the formulas and express what should we call any mathematical sign?


texts: How to use "critical" without it being mistaken for "crucial"

texts: I would like to describe a process (not a person) as being critical. For example, for a process that undergoes criticism, correction and scrutinization such as auditing and inspection. I found the word critical would fit in the context, but saying "a critical process" may be mistaken to be "a crucial or important process". How can I structure or add to the phrase to avoid that? Or is there a better word to use?


texts: Another way to say "Does not matter" in formal reports

texts:
The phrase "does not matter" sounds rather informal to me. I'm writing a formal report and would appreciate alternative suggestions.

For example:

"The residents of City X enjoy favorable living conditions. There is heavy precipitation from time to time. However, this does not matter because most residents have a habit of working from home."


texts:
What is the meaning of the following sequence of words: "adj or pp+as+pronoun+verb"?

Example:

  It is climate that largely determines the type of agriculture that may be carried out in a particular area, governed as that is by the overall prevailing temperatures, and the variations that may take place from year to year and over a longer term. Source

I simply couldn't find this structure in any English Usage Guide.


texts: Should I use a colon or semicolon in the following sentence?

texts:
The soup tasted odd, though Mark couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. Like when someone had spat in your food(:)(;) you knew something was off with the taste, texture, or temperature, but not exactly what.

Some people told me colons are better for lists, so the semicolon is a better choice. Is this the case? Why or why not?


texts: Are there any words in the English Language that have three of the same letters together?

texts: I was wondering whether there are any words in English that have three words spelt together like "eee" or "ooo". I'm not talking about abstract and meaningless words like "hmmm" or "zzz", but is there any other such word?


texts:
The conversation took a turn towards Monty Python yesterday, and in particular the Life of Brian. This film featured as a character (Brian's putative father) the Roman soldier Nortonus Maximus, a name derived from norton, a slang word for penis.

I was naturally curious as to how a penis could come to be called a norton, but when I went to look it up I was surprised to find the word doesn't appear in Farmer & Henley, nor in Partridge, nor in Green. It isn't even in Urban Dictionary, and I can't find this definition anywhere online. But I can distinctly remember using the word before the Life of Brian was released, and the scriptwriter clearly expected the joke to be understood by the audience.

So, does anyone know the etymology of this word? And does anyone know why it seems to have been overlooked in the standard references?


texts: Alternative phrase/term for 'middle men'

texts:
I head up a support team.

In some situations I refer to some issues where support act as 'middle men' between the clients and the developers.

This seems sexist (females in the team), but I cannot find a better term.
Any ideas?


texts: A word for "taking something/someone serious"?

texts:
So when you appreciate something/someone you call this appreciation.

So what you call taking something/someone serious? and what is this characteristic called?


texts: "He knows to draw very well" vs "He knows how to draw very well"?

texts:
Which is the more suitable/correct usage-

He knows to draw very well.

or

He knows how to draw very well

(I think it's the second one)

PS: Since I haven't found many comparing sentences type questions on the site it would be helpful if you could point me to useful websites/resources to check the same.


texts: A foreign student asked me (her teacher) what THRILLA WITH VANILLA meant. I haven't the slightest idea and when I go to Google, the only reference is the Romney-Obama debate, as though the expression was just invented for this purpose. Can anyone help define this (preferably out of this political context)?


texts: Why is a lieutenant general higher than a major general?

texts: Since in the military ranks, lieutenant is lower than a major.   Why is it that in the rankings of generals......major general is lower than a lieutenant general?


texts:
I'm writing a paper with a colleague and we are unsure if the grammar in our title is correct. I'd like to go with this variant.

Multiple Ways to Measuring Alertness

My colleague asks if we should change the title to

Multiple Ways to Measure Alertness

As far as I understand the Gerund, only the first variant is correct. Is that true? ;)
Edit: Based on the comments, would the word "approach" change the grammar in this case?

Multiple Approaches to Measuring Alertness
Multiple Approaches to Measure Alertness


texts: What is "embarrassing" about an embarrassingly parallel problem?

texts:
In computer science, a problem that is obviously decomposable into many identical but separate subtasks is called embarrassingly parallel.

An example is a cryptographic brute force attack, in which the algorithm is to independently try billions of random inputs until one works.

But why are they called embarrassingly parallel problems? The usual meaning of "embarrassing" doesn't seem to apply here. Wiktionary:

  causing embarrassment; makes you feel shy or ashamed; leading to a feeling of uncomfortable self-consciousness

Is high parallelism not a good thing, since it allows you to achieve arbitrary speeds just by scaling up the number of parallel processes? So what is "embarrassingly" supposed to mean here?


texts: Word for using example to refer to the whole

texts:
I was talking with a friend about the word "portmanteau", noticing that it is itself a portmanteau (making it autological), but in particular its meaning seems to have nothing to do with the concept other than being an example of it.  If history had run a different course, we might be calling "smog" a blaxploitation.

I'm wondering if there is a word for words in which an example of the concept is used as the concept's name.  Would "synecdoche" be appropriate?  It doesn't feel quite right.


texts: Responding with a basic fact to imply a point of view is clearly flawed or wrong

texts: What is a word or concept that describes a situation where one person puts forth a point of view, and another person does not directly address the position, but instead responds with an obvious, basic fact whose implications cast doubt on the correctness or strength of the point of view? This is intended to belittle the point of view.


texts: Finding out the proper word out of book-learned vocabulary

texts:
I've been learning English for many years now by using many resources available to me. It is mostly reading, as I have very few opportunities to use English to communicate. Due to this fact, my vocabulary is rather one-sided: I can read fast and without problems, but I have difficultly finding the proper word in real conversation. My live expressions are full of book-learned words and phrases. I guess I often use formal and archaic words instead of simple spoken ones. I simply don't feel the difference between them as a native speaker does.

Are there any online resources that could help find out the most appropriate words for the contemporary usage, helping to sound less artificial, formal and archaic? Or, maybe, other advices for the learners like me?


texts:
I'm looking for a literary word which means "to create laughter". Is there such a word in English?

I'm going to use this word in the following title:

  Philosophical Theories of "Creating Laughter" and Study of Adaptive Samples of His Humor


texts:
I have a few questions about the verb 'to languish.'

In the OED, it suggests that this word must be used for a living thing.  Couldn't it be used metaphorically for something like an idea or a literary genre that has a kind of "life?"
Most usage suggests that languish cannot have an object. Can't languish be used with a prepositional phrase (with an object of course), for instance?  Can something languish into a pale imitation of itself?  This usage (languish into) was more common 200 years ago but has almost died out according to ngram. Any ideas on why?

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated!

(sorry, couldn't find any decent tags, no usage tag?)


texts: Is the phrase "tirade of" grammatically correct

texts: This question has to do with the phrase "tirade of". Can you say the following: "She commenced a tirade of yelling and screaming at her husband?" Or would it be more correct to say: "She commenced a tirade, yelling and screaming at her husband"


texts:
In Kipling's "The Land" he writes:

Then did robbers enter Britain from across the Northern main
And our Lower River-field was won by Ogier the Dane.

Here "main" seems to mean sea, i.e. the North Sea.
This seems to me to allude to the Spanish Main, but from what I can find that phrase actually refers to the mainland, not the sea.
The OED (1st ed) has "4. Said of a considerable, uninterrupted strech of land or water" (link) but the examples given mostly seem to be land.
Webster's 1913 has "main, n. 3 ... the high sea; the ocean" (link), but again the examples seem mostly to be of land, including "the main of Spain" to mean mainland.
etymonline doesn't have this usage of "main"
What is the etymology of this usage? Is it a corruption from "Spanish Main" coming to mean sea instead of "mainland"?


texts: plural noun/singular verb and vice versa

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  None as plural indefinite pronoun

In my work I am often exposed to sentences written by nonnative speakers of English.
I often come across sentences with a singular noun and a plural verb as in:

No error occurs when the file is loaded.

I know this is not technically wrong, but I am used to the general case being written

No errors occur when the file is loaded.

I suppose one argument could be that if you used the plural noun version, it wouldn't cover the case where there is one error. But to me, using the plural noun emphasizes "not even one" and so is the better choice. Are these sentences completely interchangeable? Is one preferred by native speakers over the other?


texts: Should a comma be used in "[...] other, more experienced teachers."?

texts:
I am writing a cover letter for a job application. The full sentence is

  I realise I have a lot to learn, which is why I am looking for a place where I will have the opportunity to work closely with other, more experienced teachers."

Do I need a comma separating "other" and "more experienced", like in a string of adjectives?


texts: What are the origins of the phrase "field day" as used to refer to cleaning of a military barracks?

texts:
Having served in the United States Marine Corps, I have often wondered about the origins of the word "field day," but I am not referring to its meaning as

1.a. a day for military exercises or maneuvers

1.b. an outdoor meeting or social gathering

1.c. a day of sports and athletic competition

or

a time of extraordinary pleasure or opportunity

(as in the newspaper had a field day with the scandal)

(Source: Merriam Webster.)

In the military, or at least in the United States Marine Corps that I once knew, "field day" also refers to (and much more frequently) that one day of the week when Marines clean the barracks.  The day used to be Thursday, but in recent times has moved to Monday by some commands.

I actually submitted this question to NPR's "A Way With Words" about a decade ago, but never received a reply back or heard the question answered on the radio.  I would love to know when it first began being used as a phrase to mean cleaning the barracks.


texts: What are the differences in meaning among 'aid', 'assist', 'help', and 'facilitate'?

texts:
Intro

The words aid, assist, help, and facilitate are all closely related. What do you believe the differences among them might be? My best attempt to make the differences explicit follows.

My Attempt

Aid, in modern English, is more appropriate for non-human help
Assist, would be help for something that someone could do themselves but because of the assistance is able to do that thing more efficiently, profitably, effectively, etc.
Help, is the most generic term and can refer to any sort of support.
Facilitate, is help that is necessary for a thing to be done or that improves the utility of that thing to such a degree that it would not be worth doing but for the facilitation.  In as much as facilitates is a word that refers to help that is necessary for a thing to be done, the word differs from 'enabling' in that the facilitating thing is not the only thing that could facilitate the thing in question. Whereas, the thing in question could not happen without the things that enable it to happen. E.g. In the 17th century, lumberjacks enabled logging companies to fell trees and convert them to logs, while rivers facilitated the transport of the logs to their buyers. Without the lumberjacks, the trees could not have been felled, but its conceivable they could have been transported without the river, albeit much less efficiently.

Question

What do you think are the differences among aid, assist, help, and facilitate?


texts: English equivalent for "Don't burn your house to smoke out a rat!"

texts:
In my language there's a saying which literally translates to

  Don't burn your house to smoke out a rat!

It advises us to use solutions that are appropriate to the magnitude of the problem.

Eliye pedichu illam chudaruthu! - in Malayalam/Indian.

What could be the English equivalent?


texts:
Researching another question, Takeout vs Pickup, is there a difference? - and at first I used "pick-up" - but it appears that pickup would be a better choice.

Is this correct, and how do you fit one of the three terms to its usage?


texts: Is it acceptable to omit "I" when it's the subject?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is it acceptable to begin a declarative sentence with “Am”?

Is it correct English to omit I from the beginning of a sentence when it's clearly implied?

For example...

  How are you? Hope everything's okay?

as opposed to

  How are you? I hope everything's okay?


texts:
I learned the asterisk character is the reason splatbooks are named such (from *books). However, I've been unable to find any specifics on who started pronouncing * as "splat". I know it's not very common now (more people, myself included, say "star"), but it was popular enough with programmers and gamers in the early to mid nineties, and was used in 1990 in the poem Waka Waka Bang Splat.

What group or groups started saying * as "splat"? When was this at its height?


texts: Usage of "been to" in perfect tenses and in other tenses

texts:
"been to" (be to) is used in perfect tenses - in sentences like the ones below:

  I have never been to the opera.
  I have never been to a baseball game
  I have never been to a Pentecostal Bible rally.
  I have never been to your house.
  I had never been to your country.

(Thanks to @Robusto for examples.)

Can I use "be to" in any other tenses? What would be the meaning then?

Thank you!

NOTE

This question is about verb of being + to + location: why this is only seen in "perfect" forms, not in simple present or past, such as "I am to Spain" etc.


texts: How do I interpret "emissions of car operated over" in this sentence?

texts:
I was trying to answer a question on skeptics.stackexchange.com, where we found this paragraph in a scientific report:

  This compares to 1,374 tons per day statewide for passenger cars.
  While reductions from gasoline SI marine engines are not included in
  California’s SIP as a planned measure for meeting attainment goals,
  the impact of outboard and personal watercraft engines on the state’s
  total emissions inventory makes control of this category of emissions
  necessary. Table 1 lists the relative contribution of outboard and
  personal watercraft exhaust emissions in California in tons per day.
  As a comparison to other sources, the exhaust emissions from two hours
  of personal watercraft operation is equivalent to the emissions from a
  1998 passenger car operated over 100,000 miles.

The sentence in bold created a lot of confusion, since Stienstra (1998) wrote an article, cited the report and paraphrased it like this:

  The state Air Resources Board is also considering taking statewide action against personal watercraft, after a staff report said that two hours of exhaust emissions from a Jet Ski is equivalent to the emissions created by driving a 1998 automobile 100,000 miles.

While users in skeptics.stackexchange.com interpreted as:

  Two hours of use of a jet-ski produces the same pollution as two hours of driving a 1998 car with 100,000 miles on the clock. (And not driving a 100,000 miles with that car).

Another user here found another interpretation:

  All the watercrafts operating in California together produce in 2 hours the same pollution as one car driven 100,000 km.

Is Stienstra (1998)'s interpretation the intended meaning and why? Could we be 100% sure?

Stienstra, T. (1998, Jul 08). U.S. park service seeks ban on jet skis 950 square miles of bay area waters would be affected. San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/270486538?accountid=8555


texts: Word to describe plants that are negatively affected by being smothered by other plants

texts:
Used in the sentence:

  There was no garden when they moved in, so they are not (???) any existing plants.

I wanted to say threatening, but I am curious if a word specifically relating to this phenomenon.


texts: Difference between “Generally, I am…” and “I am generally…”?

texts:
Revisiting my CV, I have stumbled over a small question.

I originally wrote:

  “I am generally willing and able to relocate worldwide.”

Today, I noticed I could also write:

  “Generally, I am willing and able to relocate worldwide.”

Now, I'm a bit confused which one to use. Maybe this origins from the fact that English is not my native language…

Is there any – no matter how subtle – difference in meaning when putting the word “generally” in front of that sentence?

As that line is part of my CV, I guess most important for me is to understand if there is any reason why I should prefer one version over the other. Or doesn't it matter which one I use?


texts: Which is the correct form? "solutions *for*/*to* exercises *in*/*from* [name of the book]"?

texts:
I am writing solutions manuals for exercises in Mathematics books, and I would like to know how to properly phrase the titles.

Which is the correct form? "solutions for/to exercises in/from [name of the book]"?

Thanks in advance and kind regards from Brazil.


texts: A phrase that means something like "special dispensation"

texts: I'm looking for a phrase that is like 'special dispensation', but I know that's not the phrase I'm looking for. I'm trying to say that work had to be done on object X that was different, and unique, for objects Y, Z and A.


texts:
Here is the sentence: "We go to the cinema every now and then, but only if there's something good on"

My question is: I don't know why the author had to put the word "on" after "good". What is the purpose behind this?

Can someone please help me answer this question.

Thanks.


texts: The slang term "scrub", when referred to a person, can mean several things. It seems like the original usage as an adjective is someone who is not good at something - video games, sports, etc. I am interested to know if the first time it was used to refer to a "guy who thinks he's cool but he's not" was in the TLC song "No Scrubs". I am not familiar with the term before that and it seems like an isolated usage.


texts: Differences between "Can you play the guitar?" and "Can you play guitar?"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Omission of definite article with musical instruments

Is there any difference between the following sentences?

  Can you play the guitar?
  Can you play guitar?


texts:
Can you plase help me to understand phrase "scrambled infant"? I can understand each word separately but not together at least clearly. This phrase is bolded below in subtitles of The Angry Birds movie.

  ...
  113 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:12,232 Your Honor, our family has always
  practiced natural childhatch.

  114 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:16,199 The risks of having a scrambled
  infant are too great.

  115 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:17,952 There was going to be music,

  116 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:21,231 the nest was going to be full of
  beautiful, fresh-cut flowers.
  ...


texts: Will definitely be Vs will be definitely

texts:
Why are we saying "There will definitely be some information", instead of "There will be definitely some information"?
Thanks,


texts: Quotation Marks Before and After Video-Game Titles

texts:
When mentioning the title of a video game, would it have to have quotation marks before and after it? Around published works, yes, but would video games also count as published works?

Would it be written like this:

  I stayed home and played "Halo."

Or would it be written like this:

  I stayed home and played Halo.


texts: I find teaching a new (young Thai) english conversation learner something like "he no like teacher" vastly easier than "he doesn't like his teacher" because that click of understanding and satisfaction comes much more easily. Of course to grammar purists this kind of bar girl english is scandalous  but the fact is that many bar girls communicate in english much better than native college grads who have studied english for 15 years. The issue is tied up with other questions of class,status, and native teacher inability to converse. Has a school of "simple english" ever been advocated and has any practical consensus reached on the matter?


texts: How to parse a sentence with verb 'bring'

texts:
“He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at
  Dudley.” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

I guess the sentence could be parsed as below:
[He] [brought] [A: the umbrella swishing down through the air] [B: to point at Dudley.]
(A: direct object of brought, B: result or aim of the previous saying.)
But, I cannot have confidence with the parsing. Could you show me how to see the construction?


texts:
Is warn a synonym of "let someone know"?

I want to say "te mando este mensaje para avisarte de que". Can I say "I'm writing you this email to warn you about"?


texts:
In the sentence

Both options compile and run without problems.

what is the correct version of verb: compile or compiles (run or runs) ?
On one hand we're talking about two subjects, thus plural ending needs no -s. On other hand we're talking about each option specifically, thus "option runS".


texts: Is there an English word or words close to Japanese “Sekoi”?

texts:
June 16 New York Times reported the stepping-down of Tokyo Mayor, Yoichi Masuzoe who was forced to resign on the allegation of mixing of “public and personal” in his spending, which was defined as “Inappropriate though not illegal” by the third party investigators.

His spending included reimbursements of a few hundred dollars for restaurant meals, a few thousand dollars for his family’s hotel stays and purchase of artworks and books including comics and games, tools for writing Chinese calligraphy and Chinese suit he wears when he’s engaged in writing, and so on.

New York Times wrote:

  The public’s antagonism appears to have deepened. The word that has
  perhaps been most frequently used to describe the episode is sekoi,
  meaning cheap or petty. “I’m angry. This is sekoi — too sekoi,”
  Shigeru Kamibayashi, a member of the assembly from the right-leaning
  Liberal Democratic Party said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/16/world/asia/tokyo-governor-yoichi-masuzoe-resigns.html

I think Japanese word, “Sekoi” is a conversion of the adjective “kose-kose,” meaning “fussy” according to Kenkyusha’s English Japanese Dictionary, and it connotes an aggregated attributes of meticulous but short-sighted, small-minded, pettily calculated, stingy, and selfish, as shown in the Mayor's behavior of reimbursing the purchases of anime books by public expense as well as his stays in a suite in de-lux hotels like the Waldorf Astoria, whenever he makes an overseas trip – He spent US$ 1.6 million of public money in the last six time gorgeous trips to five countries since February last year.

Is there a word or phrase close to “Sekoi” to describe the character as stated above other than “cheap” and “petty”?


texts: Are 'effectually' and 'effectively' completely interchangable?

texts:
In the OED:

  effectively, (adverb)—in such a manner as to achieve a desired result:
  make sure that resources are used effectively.

  effectual, (adjective)—successful in producing a desired or intended result;
  derivatives: [...], effectually adverb, [...].

In Wiktionary:

  effectually [...] Synonyms: completely, effectively.

In the Encyclopaedia Britannica I read:

  Though the designs of the Frenchs against Jamaica were now effectually frustrated, the victory was not followed [...].

Further, in the Guardian I read:

  Schools that had once been mixed were now effectually segregated.

So, I am confused if the above sentences would sound better as

  Though the designs of the Frenchs against Jamaica were now effectively frustrated, the victory was not followed [...]
  Schools had once been mixed were now effectively segregated.

Can you confirm whether effectually and effectively are completely interchangable or not?

Note: I read "'The team is moving around really effectively.' — Is this a correct use of effectively?", but there it does not answer my question.


texts: Word for when one uses the wrong word in a sentence

texts:
Specifically, I'm looking for the term for when a person uses a word correctly, but intends a different meaning.

For example:

  I empathize with you.

When the person really means:

  I sympathize with you.

Both sentences are grammatically correct.  They both have meaning, and as sentences they are both "correct"...they're just incorrect in this case.
This isn't a case of a malapropism where a similar sounding word is inserted with ludicrous results, nor is it a parapraxis, eggcorn, or mondegreen (as I understand them).  It's simply a case where a person either misunderstood the difference between the two and thus chose the wrong word or the person did understand but believed (in this case) they empathized when in fact they only sympathized.

I'd like to say something like "You made a grammatical mistake/error" - except in this case it isn't grammar...


texts: Subtle meanings of the noun 'stole', or am I reading too much in to it?

texts:
I'm referring to the item of clothing.  Not theft.

The definitions and descriptions that I've been able to find for the word 'stole' all have some indication of religious context.  It always seems to be made to specifications determined for religious reasons, or decorated with religious symbols, or worn only by individuals specifically designated for religious roles (especially, but not always, leaders), or only worn for specific religious ceremonies, etc.  Nowhere did I find any explanation of the word 'stole' that did not have some religious aspect.

Would an otherwise identical article of clothing, but without any religious connotation, still be called a 'stole', or is there another word for this item of clothing when no religious context is attributed to it?


texts: What is the english equivalant of Tamil saying 'pul thadukki bayilvan'?

texts:
In Tamil, there is a saying

  புல் தடுக்கி பயில்வான் ( pul thadukki bayilvan )

that translates to something like below:

  A person who thinks himself as a wrestler but falling down even his
  legs hit by grass.

  Or

  A person who is troubled by petty things

What is the equivalent word/phrase in english ?


texts: Grammatical explanation for a phrase "do as you think fit"

texts:
"Do as you think fit."

I feel like it's a incomplete sentence.

Shouldn't there be "it" put before "fit"?


texts:
I need to express how an event occurred before-or-at a certain time in the past (non exclusive or, which of the two alternatives is the actual one is left open).
For the future I would have used "by", but what about the past? "Until" is for prolonged actions/states only, just like "through", "before" excludes the cutoff moment, and an expression like "by yesterday" seems to me intentionally wrong (both syntactically and semantically).

Or can I actually say something like

  Last weekend we went skiing, we had bought the equipment by then.

This is still a special case, as it involves the completion of a "pending" action, not just an event. Does

  The concert was held by September.

make sense? What about:

  Please provide a list of all his books published before 2000 included.

or is it wrong: are "before" and "included" mutually exclusive?

Are there any other possibilities?


texts: Withholding information to protect someone?

texts: Not like a white lie, but rather in the specific interest of the person who is having information withheld from them?


texts: How to distinguish when the preposition "BY" refers to the object previously or the whole sentence afterwards

texts:
Example: The behavior of a resource is determined by
which HTTP method the resource is responding to.

Is the part "which HTTP method the resource is responding to" the object of by?
But it seems to me also understandable that the which in by which refers to the part "The behavior of a resource".


texts: Why do you say "friend of mine" instead of "friend of me"?

texts:
I think friend of mine can be translated to my friend.
In that case, doesn't friend of me make more sense?

If we translate friend of mine to one of my friends then I guess friend of mine makes sense for my friends being mine.

Is there a difference?

When do you say ... of mine instead of my ...?

Is there a specific situation when you use one or the other?


texts: How to express reduction from 10 or 100 billion to 1 billion

texts:
What word or phrase would correctly describe the reduction of 10 billion to 1 billion, and from 100 billion to 1 billion?

I need to have it sound scientific: Reduce an amount from 1010 to 109, and from 1010 to 108.


texts: sorry that I did something, sorry for doing something, or sorry to have done something?

texts:
Should it be:

1) "I am sorry (that) I did this to you."

2) "I am sorry for doing this to you."

3) "I am sorry to have done this to you."

From what I have learnt about 'sorry', I would exclude 3) 'sorry to have done this to you' because 'sorry to do' is like 'regret to do' – with the regrets coming before the deed – as opposed to 'regret doing', where the regrets come after the deed. Consequently 'sorry', like 'regret', shoud not be used with a perfect infinitive. Am I right?

Then, which to choose between 1) and 2), and why?


texts:
When there is the word "and" before a who clause, should I interpret that the who clause applies to all the subjects before the clause or just to the one right before the clause? For example,

  We may disclose this to the following recipients: to our group companies, third party services providers and partners who provide processing services to us.

Does it mean

"to our group companies who provide processing services to us, third party services providers who provide processing services to us, and partners who provide processing services to us"

or

"to our group companies, third party services providers, and partners who provide processing services to us"?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Why doesn't “its” have an apostrophe?

Generally, there is an apostrophe when someone possesses something:

  That's Gerald's cat.

  Gerald's cat is dead.

But when it comes to the possessive of it, its is correct, and not it's.

  The common house cat is endeared for its ability to land on its feet.

Why is this? If Gerald's is correct, why is it's not correct?


texts: What are differences between "let", "allow" and "permit"?

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Dad doesn't let me watch that program.

Can we use "allow" or "permit" instead of "let"? What are the differences in grammar? Which one is common use?


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Which preposition should I use in the following context:

    She always finds herself at the centre of awkward situations.
    She always finds herself in the centre of awkward situations.

I feel 'at' should be used in this instance, although it's just my feeling and I can be wrong. Also, is there a general rule which one of 'at' and 'in' should be used while talking about abstract things rather than more concrete things, like buildings etc.?


texts: Why is the second t in "aptitude" aspirated?

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As far as I've understood there are these following rules for aspirating a plosive consonant:

When it's word initital
When it's in a stressed syllable

And it's not aspirated when:

When preceeded by another consonant like s
When followed by a fricative or a plosive

So by which rule is the second t in aptitude aspirated?


texts: Is it grammatically acceptable to start each options by 'or'?

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I've been using this wording and was wondering if it is grammatically acceptable:

"I wanted, or an apple, or an orange, or even a pineapple, but not a cake!"

I was under the feeling that it showed the exasperation of the speaker better than:

"I wanted an apple, an orange or a pineapple, but not a cake!"

It feels that the frustration is felt only at the end of the sentence in the second option but that the first option shows it from the start.


texts: How to say that I drink a coffee that is not the same as the coffee that other people drink?

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I'd like to avoid repeating the words coffee and drink.

I feel like writing "I drink a coffee different from other people", but this sounds weird, because of course my coffee is not the same as other people, since it is coffee, and other people are people.

I think it is possible to write "My coffee is different from other people's", but that is a special case where I can omit the word "coffee" at the end of the sentence because it is obvious. It would not work to write "I look at a different painting than other people's".

It's also confusing to write "I like a politician different from other people", because it's not clear (to me at least) if the politician I like is not the same politician as the politician other people like, or if the politician I like is different from other people.