texts: What part of speech is this "clean" word in the sentence?

texts:
To start off with, let me come clean, the Java logging ecosystem is messy.

This  sentence is quoted from Setting up logging second
paragraph. Is the word clean an adverb? Or come is a transitive
verb?


texts: "He remembered seeing a pocket compass [...] and marveling/marveled"

texts:
Albert Einstein talked about what influenced his life as a scientist.
  He remembered seeing a pocket compass when he was five years old and
  (marveling/marveled) that the needle always pointed north.

This is from my exam question which asked to select the correct choice between marveling and marveled. The answer says marveling is the correct answer but it seems like marveled is the right answer for me. Can someone verify the answer and explain why marveling is correct?


texts: Would I say "I can sometimes..." or "I sometimes can..."

texts:
I'm just curious.  I like to think that I am decent with grammar, but this has me puzzled.

Which is the correct way to arrange my sentence?

"I can sometimes..."

or

"I sometimes can..."

Thank you


texts:
First of all, I understand that then cannot be used as a conjunction with simply a comma (lacking a semicolon or start of new sentence) to connect two independent clauses and that a semicolon or a FANBOYS conjunction must be used with it for that to work. However, my question is: what if it's connecting a dependent clause? To be more specific, one that has to deal with sequence. I will list a few examples below:

I went to the store then home.

I'm going to cook the steak on the stove, then finish it off on the skillet.

Bob opened the door, then shut it right back.

Tracy and Jill came out first, then Brittany.

We ate all of our food, then grabbed some dessert.

Dictionary.com and a few other places state that it can be used in instances like some of those. However, I don't know if I trust that or not. I tend to follow rules in between traditional and modern, but in some cases, I think that they should always be followed. Therefore, I need know, in the strictest of terms, what the rules are regarding then.

I have seen the link of "Than vs then", and while it does provide some points, it does not fully explain the use of then with a dependent clause. The Op in that thread uses two independent clause, which is what I already stated was not allowed.


texts: What does “Trump opposes women who were born women” really mean?

texts:
New Yorker April 22 issue carried Andy Borowitz’s article that came under the title,
“Trump reassures supporters that he still opposes women who were born women.”
It begins with the following passage:

  “After rattling many of his supporters by expressing tolerance toward
  transgender people, the Republican front-runner Donald J. Trump
  clarified on Friday that he still opposes women who were born women.
  “The media has tried to blow my words out of proportion,” Trump said
  on the Fox News Channel. “Just because I happen to think transgender
  people deserve our understanding in no way means that I feel that way
  about women who were born women.”
  http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-reassures-supporters-that-he-still-opposes-women-who-were-born-women?

What does “women who were born women” mean? Doesn’t it mean “women in general, which represents a half all of electoral votes”?
If so, why does he “still oppose women who were born women, and turning women into his enemy? Doesn’t this massage contradict with his subsequent remark?

  Trump said that any attempt to twist his words to apply to “women in
  general” was deeply offensive to him. “I have made my views about
  women very clear and to suggest that I have somehow changed those
  views is really, really hurtful,” he said.

Isn’t some words, like “who suspect” missing from the headline, “Trump reassures supporters that he still opposes women who were born women.”?


texts:
Are these punctuated satisfactorily with the commas? If not, where else would you put them?

He said that he didn't want to go, and quite frankly he shouldn't have.

We can bill you on our customary terms, or if you'd like we can charge you directly.

We can bill you on our customary terms or, if you'd like, can charge you directly.


texts:
Imagine one has to give a presentation to explain something to an audience which already knows very much about that topic.

Is that correct to say in such a situation that one is teaching fish to swim?
Can I share the idiom with the audience?

E.g., "I'm afraid I'm teaching fish how to swim, but.."

And, are there any other expressions like this?


texts: Why has "as it did" been used in this sentence?

texts:
I read a sentence in "The Hindu" which was:

  Coming as it did just after the success of The Shape of Water at the Oscars, the book became an instant bestseller.

I don't know what difference would it have made had I not used "as it did" after "coming".


texts: I'm a cook at a restaurant. My liberal arts education combined with a classical culinary education helps me figure out most stuff on my own, but occasionally I'm unsure. The grey area, fuzzy logic. These two words appear to refer to the same instrument. They are homonyms with almost no difference in spelling. Undoubtedly they have similar etymology. What I'm wondering is if the latter is the result of a spelling error in the early days of e-commerce, or it if was an organically derived natural word prior to our digital ways. Word history is fun, but this one has me stumped. I'd like to know a bit more, academically, should anyone have concrete and well-reasoned answers. Thank you!


texts: unvoiced /th/ and /f/,Jennifer Rush Power Of Love

texts:
I know this is a question asked by many times.I also know unvoiced /th/ should never be pronounced as /f/.

But in this video youtube/watch?v=G-gfBBOqBJM

Jennifer Rush - The Power Of Love 1985

among the 1st paragraph,Are rolling by like thunder now. My problem is the word thunder.

Though I had adjusted the speed to 0.25 ,listened again and again,I could only get funder,I also watched the shape of her mouth carefully,I noticed that her upper teeth touch the lower lip.

in another video

youtube/watch?v=2KHt_DTE1To

also Jennifer Rush,I can clearly hear the unvoiced /th/ in thunder.

any help?Thank you


texts: First in are the blackest of the black - first in are - meaning, usage

texts:
Source: http://theweek.com/article/index/259581/russia-masters-the-art-of-clandestine-warfare-against-ukraine

  First in are the blackest of the black: case officers for the intelligence community who operate without official cover, who recruit sources and assess the battlefield. Then, small units of special operations forces sneak in, sometimes blending in with the populace, ready to make trouble. Then, special forces units that specialize in "information operations" designed to induce anxiety and outrage among local populations follow a strategy that comes from the top of the government. The idea is to generate genuine indigenous protest movements. Vladimir Putin has an eye to history; if today he seeds the strands that bind ethnic Russians in Ukraine together, it doesn't matter whether it takes five months or five years for a revolution to foment.

How do you understand first in are?


texts: What’s the meaning of “if that” at the end of a sentence?

texts:
I find it often after a number. What does it mean and what is that? It’d be nice if you could help me.

(from Google search)

  Some books that are more than 100 years old still won't sell for more than a dollar, if that.

(Harry Potter 2 [US Version]: p.123)

  Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor Tower, was staring morosely out of a window, muttering under his breath, “… don’t fulfill their requirements … half an inch, if that …”


texts: Verb - agreement dilemma - 'first-two days'

texts:
I am having some trouble coming up with a natural-sounding expression whilst still ensuring conformity to the rule of Subject-verb agreement. At the centre of my concern is the phrase "first-two days" when strictly used with a dummy subject:

1) It was a tough first-two days. (Not in agreement in number)

2) It was a tough  first-two-day. (Unsure about the appropriateness of a hyphenated compound word)

3) They were tough first-two days. (Grammatically sound but slightly jarring when spoken)

For the reasons in the brackets, none of the three is particularly desirable to me. But then again, my reasoning could be mistaken, so please shed some light on this.


texts: Opposite of filter in the computer sense

texts: If I have some data and want to remove all data that matches the predicate, I would call this predicate my filter condition. If I want to remove all the data that doesn't match the predicate what is the correct way of saying that? Right now I'm using retention condition. Does anyone have a better suggestion?


texts: English equivalent for the Persian idiom "Putting the drill on poppy"?

texts:
There is an old saying in Persian that describes a situation in which:

Someone is going into too much (unnecessary) detail while doing something.

Someone does something with too much (unnecessary) obsession.

The literal translation of the saying is:

Putting the drill on poppy.

I should add, this idiom is used in a negative manner. That means if you use this idiom for a situation, then you're probably annoyed by it. For example if you say: John is putting the drill on poppy, it could never be a compliment,  you mean it as a negative thing (because it's too much) and you're annoyed by it.
For instance,
suppose your car has just been crashed and you're running low on money. So you go to the auto repair shop and you ask the mechanic to fix your car but you don't want him to go into too much detail; You want him to fix your car with minimal cost. Here is the conversation:

Mechanic: Do you want to repair your car?
You: Yes, but please don't put the drill on poppy.

I tried searching about the origin of this old idiom and why they used drill and poppy plant in it but couldn't find any useful information. I asked a few of my older friends and they didn't know either. I'm still looking for an explanation but I suspect it has something to do with harvesting poppy plant and maybe the amount of detail it takes to extract seeds from it (maybe with an instrument like drill).
Is there any equivalent English idiom/expression to imply this meaning?
Update:
In case the words in the literal translation are not clear, I'm going to add what they're referring to here:

Drill is referring to a tool with a rotating cutting tip, used for making holes. (From google translate)

Poppy is referring to a herbaceous plant with showy flowers, milky sap, and rounded seed capsules. Many poppies contain alkaloids and are a source of drugs such as morphine and codeine. (From google translate)


texts:
The mid and northern regions are humid and snowy with less than four months during which average temperature exceed 10℃.

This is from an English textbook for the Japanese high school students who study for the entrance exams for colleges.
I don't understand why they say 'with' in this sentence.  Is it possible to say 'for' instead?


texts: Why doesn't the silent "e" work on "infinite"?

texts:
Why doesn't the silent "e" work on the word "infinite"?

What I mean is, why does mate have a long "a", but infinite has a short "i"?


texts: I have noticed that certain, seemingly random, words tend to sometimes have "ie" or "ei" in them. For example, the word "Foreign" has an "e", followed by an "i", but the word "friend", has an "i", followed by an "e". Why is this, and does one structure have a particular etymology that is different from another?


texts:
I am online freelancer and working with a international software team.

Just a while ago, my partner commented my issues on github as shown below.

  Just looking back at history of package.json it looks like the
  cordova-android: > 6.2.0 requirement was added in 0.8.4.

  0.8.3 doesn't have it. Maybe give that a go.

Please help me to understand more clearly.


texts: What type of word is "good" in the phrase "good guy?"

texts:
For example:

  "I always wanted to be a good guy."

While speaking, I could make this sentence mean two different things by simply placing different emphasis on the word "good." If I wanted to say that I always wanted to be good, I would place emphasis on the word good. If I was trying to make it sound like I was trying to be a good guy (as opposed to a bad guy), I would say the words "good guy" together and more quickly.

Does that mean that in the first context "good" is an adjective and in the second, a "good guy" is a noun by itself, or is "good" still an adjective in both cases?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When do I use “can” or “could”?

I wonder which of the following is more polite:

  Can you please change my email address?
  Could you please change my email address?

The second one sounds to me as if the request is more urgent. So I would choose the first. But I heard that "could", "should", etc. forms are more polite forms of "can", "shall", etc. Is this true at all and if so, what is the underlying reason?


texts: How can I teach what synonym to use according to context?

texts: I'm a teacher of English as a foreign language, and today I was reviewing some vocabulary from a book with my students. We found "irksome" and "pestering" to refer to something that is annoying. A student asked if there was a way to know when to use "irksome" and when is better to use "pestering". So, it occurred to me that maybe there is a way to know what word is the best fit to a given context, maybe a dictionary or another type of resource.


texts:
I'm looking for a word meaning a thing that essential and indispensable, but with strong connotations of being functional and useful.  This thing is essential because it is useful.

The closest I've been able to find is necessity, but that doesn't seem to highlight the functional nature of the thing in question.  On the other hand, a term like utilitarian doesn't imply indispensable.

Example Sentence:  Stack Exchange has become X, it's hard to imagine living without something so useful.


texts:
When trying to understand the difference between irritated and annoyed I get this definition:
Annoy means: To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds. Are they kidding? Annoy means irritate? What is that?
Then how to get the difference? Please help to understand.


texts: Neither nor where there are multiple subjects and articles

texts:
Which is correct: "Neither Frank nor Germaine spoke French or German" or "Neither Frank nor Germaine spoke French nor German"?
The idea we are trying to get across is that Frank speaks neither French nor German, and Germaine speaks neither French nor German


texts: "Yourn" as in yours. Where did it originate? I think from the southern US, but not sure.


texts: What does “so much as punch it in the face” mean?

texts:
I am reading The Economist, and I do not understand one sentence.

  ALMOST one year into Donald Trump’s presidency, you have to pinch yourself to make sense of it all. In “Fire and Fury”, Michael Wolff’s gossipy tale of the White House, which did not welcome Mr Trump’s anniversary so much as punch it in the face, the leader of the free world is portrayed as a monstrously selfish toddler-emperor seen by his own staff as unfit for office ...

Here, What does “which did not welcome Mr Trump’s anniversary so much as punch it in the face” mean?
I thought the gossipy tale did not welcome the anniversary and it did not punch it either, but I am not sure.

Does it mean the tale did not welcome the anniversary as strong as it punched the anniversary?
If so, why did the writer use “punch” instead of punched?

Could you please help me?

Thank you so much in advance.


texts:
Please have a look at this sentence:

  "Multiple citations of my work during the short time since their publication indicate its quality."

Here work is referring to many publications.

I have a tough time reviewing a statement particularly because of this sentence. Is this sentence grammatically correct? I mean are "their" and "its" used correctly here?

Should it be "... indicate their quality"? But that's not right because of work?! How about "works"?!

The mix of "their" and "its" is very confusing.


texts: Letter U in American English vs British English

texts:
Why was the letter 'U' dropped from many words such as colour, odour etc?
And also why is the letter 'l' spelt as a singular, when in British English it's used as a double 'll' in most words, cancelled, traveller, modelled etc?


texts: What's the word for when a person states something as a fact when it is untrue? Not a lie

texts:
I'm thinking of a specific author who propagates misinformation as fact. There's a word for this, I think it starts with an 'e', but I can't quite remember it and it is on the tip of my tongue. Any information will help. Thanks!

Also, the answer is not "a lie" or a "deception" or anything along those lines, because the person spreading the (mis)information believes it to be true. It's describing the act of promoting this information.


texts: Word for an object that undergoes a removal?

texts:
What would be one word (noun) to describe something that undergoes a removal (has something removed from it)? For example, something that undergoes multiplication is a multiplicand. Something that undergoes an absence is an absentee. However neither removend or removee sound correct.
Examples:

The duplicates were removed from the removend.

I removed 30 objects from the removend.

I want to know so I can have better (and more general) variable names than stuff like list_with_duplicates.
I'm not looking for the name of the stuff that is removed from the group, I am looking for a word for the group that the objects will be removed from.


texts: What is the rule for using "of" after generalizing nouns?

texts:
Consider these examples:

We went to the city of Rome. / We went to the city Rome.
He was born in the year of 1941. / He was born in the year 1941.
Kafka is known for the book of "The Trial". / Kafka is known for the book "The Trial".
We live on the planet of Earth. / We live on the planet Earth.
I like the fruit of apple. / I like the fruit apple.
We bathed in the river of Thames. / We bathed in the river Thames.
Where did the chemist of Linus Pauling live? / Where did the chemist Linus Pauling live?
In Africa we can find the mammal of lion. / In Africa we can find the mammal lion.


texts:
I have to write a dissertation about a charity named "St Anthony's trust".

I was puzzled about the title. Do you think that I should write

"Community-supported agriculture. St Anthony's trust" or
"Community-supported agriculture. The St Anthony's Trust"?

Sorry for my bad English but I have been started to write in this language.


texts:
Sentence:

  Petroleum is defined as a gaseous, liquid, and semisolid naturally
  occurring substance.

Question:

Here, occurring is used like an adjective, but it can only be used as a verb according to the dictionary. Why?


texts: Which word does the "which" in this sentence point to?

texts:
The wide grip that many people use slackens the back muscles, which provide crucial support for the weight and transfers the load to the spine.

Does "which" in the above sentence point to "back muscles" or "the wide grip"?
Without the commas, does the meaning change?


texts: Is there a term for "non-words" like "ha", "ugh", "huh", etc?

texts: What would these words be called, and are there any related rules on how to use them and what they each mean?


texts: Name for a set of clauses that can be split into sentences multiple ways

texts:
I'm a big fan of music with clever lyrics, and there's a particular bit of wordplay that I've come across in several songs and I've always wondered if it has a specific name. As the title says, it's when a set of clauses can make sentences multiple ways. In songs, it's usually that the rhythm splits what is being said into several distinct pieces, and those pieces can associate a few ways.

This is easiest to explain with an example. In the lyrics of Injection, by Rise Against, there are these lines:

  Pull this plug
  Let me breathe
  On my own
  I'm finally free

This could be interpreted as

  Pull this plug, let me breathe. On my own I'm finally free.

but it could also be

  Pull this plug. Let me breathe on my own. I'm finally free.

Is there a name for this? The closest I can think of is a garden path sentence, but that's not quite it - in a garden path sentence, one of the two implementations is wrong (or at least humorous), whereas in this, either is valid - when I've come across it in music it's often the juxtaposition between the two interpretations that is interesting or thought-provoking.


texts: Is it okay to omit the space after a comma in square bracket references, e.g. "[45,46,47,64]" in a research paper

texts: Should you still apply the rule that there is a space after the comma, or is it an accepted practice to omit the space in this case?


texts:
I’m looking for a word that would fit in the sentence it was a very learnful experience: i.e., I learned a lot during that experience.

Learnful feels correct to me, but the dictionary disagrees. It’s possible I’'m incorrectly assuming there is an English equivalent to the Dutch word leerzaam, but I can’t imagine there is no word to convey such a meaning.

Google Translate suggests instructive or informative, but those seem to either mean providing ways of doing things or factual information. What I want it to mean is more abstract, including things like skills and insights and overall growth in competency.

Interestingly, I do now think that the Dutch word leerzaam might not be translatable to English after all; so if someone (Dutch) has some thoughts on this, it might be of interest, since the languages are so similar.

I’m trying to think of a nice counterexample, but the best I can come up with now is this:

  Although it was a setback that my roof collapsed, it was an educational experience, and I would never start a home improvement project without proper preparation again.

That does sound pretty awkward in English, right?


texts: What is the Use of an Adjective of the Same Word Twice in the Same Sentence called?

texts:
Is there a name for this type of usage using words (in this case adjectives) repetitively in typical sentence formatting?  There has got to be.  This is killing me.  BTW, I'm no English professor.  Just wondering.

For example...

In the movie, "The Big Lebowski", Brand says the line, Brandt: [laughs] They're not literally his children. They're the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers - inner city children of promise but without the necessary means for a - necessary means for a higher education. So Mr Lebowski is committed to sending all of them to college.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-KDCBtmmthbb7u/the_big_lebowski_1998_a_tour_in_lebowskis_estate/

He uses the adjective, necessary twice.  It's not a heteronym, I know that since they word necessary has the same pronunciation.

Any help?

I don't think it is stuttering though.  Philip Seymour Hoffman and the Coen Brothers are way to brilliant I believe to just stammer through their lines...at least I think so.

He uses the derogatory or negative word, "without", as it pertains to them not having the necessary means to attain something that is necessary...a higher education.

What is this type of sentence formatting called?


texts: How to know if a word borrowed from another language is now an official English word

texts:
I posted here a question asking how to say "kilig" (a Filipino word that means a feeling of joy, agitation, or happiness felt when someone you fancy, love, or like makes an unexpected gesture of sweetness) in the shortest way possible in English. See the post here: Word/phrase to describe the kind of joy that you feel when someone you like or love shows you an act of kindness or love
Someone answered that I can now actually use "kilig" in my sentences because the word is now in oxforddictionaries.com.

When I checked, "kilig" is now indeed on the website. But when I checked other online dictionaries, "kilig" wasn't there.

So now my question is, how do I know that a borrowed word like "kilig" is now widely accepted as an English word? Is seeing the borrowed word in one online dictionary like oxforddictionaries.com enough?


texts:
In my language there is an idiom in this light which roughly means from this perspective or in connection with this. Can I use this idiom in English? For example,

  This presidential candidate was often accused of corruption, in this
  light his anti-corruption speech looked as a nonsense


texts:
When one wishes to say that something will happen in the future, one would say, for example, either ten years later or ten years on.
What I would like to know is if there are any semantic or stylistic differences between a year later and a year on. Or can they be used interchangeably?

I would also like to know which of the following sounds more natural in English:

1a. Some years later, I did...

1b. Some years on, I did...

2a. It was not until a year or so later that I...

2b. It was not until a year or so on that I...


texts: How are 'by hands' and 'by hand' different?

texts:
In the sentence , is the expression 'by hands' right?
Shouldn't it be 'by hand'?
I understand 'by hand' means 'by a person not by a machine.
If both are OK how are they different?
Thanks in advance.

One solution is the Freeplay radio, which can be charged by hands.


texts: Is “Handle / cannot handle somebody the person” a common set phrase?

texts:
There was the following passage in New York Time’s article dealing with the issue of alleged domestic violence cases of U.S. Soccer team goalie, Hope Solo, and its outcomes under the title, “Hope Solo is a hero on the field. Repeat, on the field.”

“By now, though, it’s not a stretch to think that U.S. Soccer, and maybe even her teammates, can’t handle Hope Solo the person anymore and have resorted to focusing on her as merely a goalkeeper.”

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/13/should-hope-solos-actions-keep-her-off-the-field?

Is “handle somebody the person” a common set phrase? Can I say "I cannot handle my son the person any more"? Don’t we need a preposition such as “in," or "by," or "as a” before “person”?

What does “the person” function grammatically in this configuration?


texts: Do I use the article "the" before the name of a specific database in a sentence?

texts: When you name a specific database, do you use the before it? I'm helping a friend translate from Japanese into English, and she's referring to a database such as Earthquakes database, the actual name of the database.  Should a sentence say:  Refer to Earthquakes database or should it say refer to the Earthquakes database?  It will be read by those familiar with the particular database.


texts: Why did some English verbs lose nasal endings?

texts:
I saw this ending in many words of Old English origin where a word has -an in Old English but then lost in Modern English.
Examples: habban, climban, sceþþan, singan, offrian etc.
I noticed another thing: Old English words that end in -an end in -en in Middle English:

Old English
Middle English
Modern English

climban
climben
climb

singan
singen
sing

habban
haven
have

āscian
asken
ask

I can't think of other words but there are so many that behave the same.
What's up with the loss of -an/-en? And why the change from -an to -en? Can anyone please explain this?
EDIT:
While searching for an answer, I found this website (Uni.Due.De).
It has some information but I don't understand it at all.

The effects of the above changes on the morphology of Middle English were very considerable. They led to a loss of distinctiveness among grammatical endings so that the various declensional classes of Old English collapsed, with the dative plural remaining for a while the only case — with a final nasal /-n/ — which was distinctive, but even that was reduced in the course of the Middle English period. A direct consequence of this was that the more common declensions were generalised and used productively. The two main ones are the s-type and the nasal type as seen in the Old English words stān ‘stone’ : stānas ‘stones’ and ēage ‘eye’ : ēagan ‘eyes’ respectively. For a while the nasal declension was productive as is seen in its addition to the old r-plural child : childer > child(e)ren to give the doubly marked plural which has survived to the present day


texts: Someone care to explain what those things are/what are those things?

texts:
What is the difference between:

  Someone care to explain what those things are?

and

  Someone care to explain what are those things?

Are these both correct?
Which one should I use?


texts: Do I need any article in the following case?

texts:
Today we've designed Unforgettable Day campaign.
or
Today we've designed the Unforgettable Day campaign.


texts: Term for Successful Sale after Demoing Product

texts:
I believe there is a business term for such an event, but I can't recall what it is.

An example would be a vacuum salesman showing a prospective buyer how a vacuum works, and the buyer ends up buying one.


texts: An English word which needs a prefix to be plural

texts: Can you suggest a word in the English language which needs a prefix to be converted to a plural form?


texts:
For me it´s not really clear, because it´s possible to keep it in singular in German.

which version correct?

The Motor front and the motor rear bearing "has" or "have" been replaced?

Thanks in advance ;)

Kind regards


texts:
What made Tinder Tinder was the work of a team: Joe Munoz, who built
  the technical back end; Jonathan Badeen, who wrote the iOS code;
  Christopher Gulczynski, who created the design; Rad, who played point.

What was Rad doing for Tinder? What is the meaning of the the phrase 'played point'?

Source article.


texts:
Words like "algebra", "alchemy" and "alcohol" were introduced to English via Arabic. The "al-" prefix is the Arabic definite article. Why was the definite article retained when the words were incorporated into English?

BTW: I am aware that Arabic was not the origin of some of these words but it did add the "al-" prefix.


texts: Is there a list of words coined by authors such as Shakespeare?

texts: There are some lists of words coined by specific authors, but what I'd like to find, if it exists, is a meta-list of words coined by canonical authors (Shakespeare, Milton, etc). At the very least, is there a list (preferably online somewhere) of Milton's coinages?


texts: English equivalent for "An ignorant child learns when it itches"

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

"An ignorant child learns when it itches."

It's a kind of warning that means

If people refuse to realise the magnitude of a problem when there is time to solve it, they will only realize it when they're forced to deal with the repercussions.

Consider this scene I imagined.

Family goes camping; kid touches a poisonous plant ignoring parents warning; results in itchy rash on skin.

Thus, the idiom might've originated.
I found this to have a meaning somewhat close.

Learn the hard way
To learn something by experience, especially by an unpleasant experience.

But I wonder if there's a better phrase to use when warning somebody before it's too late.


texts: Is "dispreferred" a mainstream word in English?

texts: I just recently came across the word dispreferred in a linguistic document.  I have never heard the word used before, rather I generally hear something like "preferred something else" in everyday conversation.  Is dispreferred a linguistics/language specific term or does it have more widespread usage in non-technical conversations?  As I type the word dispreferred, I see a red underline indicating that I have entered a misspelled word.


texts: Is the phrase "having a rave up" still in use?

texts:
I found the title of a 1965 album by the Yardbirds called Having a Rave Up quite funny when I first saw it. Dictionary.com defines "rave-up" as "a party, especially a wild one," and notes that this is an informal, British term. The reason it seems funny to me is because, although I have heard the term "rave" often, I have never heard "rave up" used.

Is this phrase still in use today, or is it something of a relic from the 60s–70s?


texts: "Which one is you?" vs "Which one are you?"

texts:
Imagine I'm looking at a photo containing a number of people's faces and I can't tell which one belongs to a certain friend of mine.  I could ask him one of two things:

  "Which one is you?"
   or
  "Which one are you?"

Which is correct?


texts: The pronunciation shift of T to D in the United States

texts: I'm from the United States and I have recently discovered that I don't pronounce the T as a soft D as other Americans do. Neither do most of the people in my area or my parents. I pronounce the word "butter" like someone from most areas of Britain would, I don't pronounce it like "budder." Other than the pronunciation of this consonant, my pronunciation aligns with the main American pronunciation. I was wondering if there is some kind explanation as to why the pronunciation of the t hasn't shifted to a D in my area? I live in the Southern New Hampshire by the way.


texts: What's the word for something that has a mind of its own?

texts:
An example could be the lawnmower that works sometimes, but seems to have a mind of its own.

It could also be the literal word for having a mind of its own, to describe any being.


texts: Blanket term for things we often buy at grocery store that are not groceries, e.g., toilet paper, laundry detergent, window cleaner, saran wrap

texts:
I’m looking for a term to cover the kinds of things that we frequently buy at the grocery store but that are not actually groceries.

The term needs to include things like: toilet paper, kitchen napkins, band aids, detergents (laundry, dish), cleansers, bath soap and shampoo, paper towels, trash bags, hand cream, tooth paste, sun block, hair spray, bug spray, deodorant, batteries, matches.

But it should not include things like: clothing, furniture, appliances, cookware.

Someone suggested to me “household goods,” but I think that includes things like furniture and home appliances, and so is too broad.

Any suggestions?


texts: Meaning of "public affairs" and "public interest"

texts:
The definition of political from OALD is:

  connected with the state, government or public affairs

Is the definition of public of public affairs definition 1 or 2 or neither?

  of, relating to, or affecting all or most of the people of a country, state, etc.
  connected with the government and the services it provides

From dictionary.com, affairs is defined as:

  matters of commercial or public interest or concern

Which of the following is the definition of interest of public interest?

  the quality that something has when it attracts somebody's attention or makes them want to know more about it
  a good result or an advantage for somebody/something


texts: The meaning of "a cottage industry of people"

texts:
What does "a cottage industry of people" in the following Washington Post article mean?

  All of the early machinations by Republicans and Democrats who want to be the next president — even though President Obama won reelection just 292 days ago — have spawned a cottage industry of people wondering whether this is the earliest start ever for a presidential race and whether that’s a good or a bad thing.


texts: What is the term for escapsulating content with something else?

texts:
I am writing about a research journal article where they start and end the article with two separate anecdotal stories. I want to be able to say:

"Two lengthy anecdotes XXXXing the article are strangely out of place...."

It is the XXXX that I need.  So far the closest I have is 'escapsulate', but I think there is a better term for it out there - I just can't put my finger on it. "End-capping" was what came to mind immediately, but I did a quick google and that doesn't seem to mean what I thought it did.

Any help appreciated.


texts:
From mathematics:

  "Tensors eat vectors and spit out numbers."

Is this an analogy, metaphor or other named figure of speech?


texts:
Both:

  I and my neighbour went to the races

and:

  My neighbour and I went to the races

are commonly used. However in the plural I've only ever seen the form:

  We and the neighbours went to the races

The other form:

  The neighbours and we went to the races

sounds drastically wrong for some reason I can't articulate, but I don't think it violates any grammatical rules. Is My neighbours and we incorrect in this context, or does it seem strange simply because it isn't commonly used?


texts: What do you call someone who doesn't back down?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes a character in an essay I'm writing. I need a word for someone who doesn't back down, something like "brave" but not quite, more like "courageous". This person is protective, and stands up for others no matter what. In one scene, a group of people are attacking a student, and this character stands up to them and gets them to back off. Even when everyone is against them they stands up for what is right, no matter the odds.

Edit:

The character is a teenager, if that helps at all.

Edit

A teenager with principles, a person who defends the underdog, a person who's not afraid or ashamed to stand up for what's right.


texts:
I am looking for an adjective that corresponds to the adverb soon, to fit a sentence such as:

  That feature will be added in an [adjective] update.

Is there an adjective with the same meaning as soon?


texts: It was nice being here vs It was nice to be here

texts: What is more appropriate to say: It was nice being here or It was nice to be here? I hear both constructions pretty often, and am aware of the slight difference, but it seems that people use them interchangeably.


texts: "Latch onto [something/someone]" for "obtain, get (hold of) [something/someone]" in AE

texts:
I just rediscovered the colloquial expression "latch on to [something]" online and would like to know the story to its meaning of "obtain, get", which is presented by CD as AE and CE.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/latch+on
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/latch+onto

What I wish you could tell is if this idiom is appropriate for any sense of "obtain, get hold of" (i.e. come into possession, get, acquire, procure, find, as through effort or request). Or is it only suitable for specific contexts, and for certain registers but the most formal ones?
E.g.
He latched onto a fortune in the fur trade. source
I latched onto a good book about repairing plumbing. source
I have to latch onto a hundred bucks by Friday night. source
I don't know where Jane is. Let me try to latch onto her.
source
She had already latched onto a new job with the Colorado Association of School Executives... source
Or they managed only in their memories, from a time when people latched onto a good job and then did everything in their power to keep it. source
I, however, latched onto a good little portable typewriter, which I brought with me back to France. source
I even latched onto a nice little leather Coach bag which I think is going to be a good Pad carrier. source
Meanwhile, the golfing world will have to latch onto a substitute, a fill-in, someone to pack the galleries. source


texts: What does it mean that Republicans in Congress “need to get off their hands and stop rooting for failure”?

texts:
In June 3rd AP radio news, I heard Stephanie Cutter, Deputy Manager of the Obama re-election campaign, say:

  Republicans in Congress have refused to approve measures that will improve job creation because they want the President to fail. They need to get off their hands and stop rooting for failure.

I’m not clear about what the last line, “They need to get off their hands and stop rooting for failure,” means. From (or to) what Republicans need to get off their hands? What does "get off one’s hand" mean? What does "root for failure" mean?

Would you explain the last line in plain English?


texts: What does “I don't suffer from insanity” mean?

texts:
I'm pretty confused about a quote I've read on a website. It was written:

  I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.

I'd like to know what it really means when a person says this.


texts: Does the sentence, “Lots of twilhearts went to the movie” make sense? If it does, what does it mean?

texts:
I’ve been making dictation of English news broadcasting for a couple of years in order to maintain listening proficiency of English.

On yesterday's AP radio news broadcasted through AFN Tokyo (Eagle 810), I heard the following lines reporting the latest box office sales ranking.

  “Lots of twilhearts went to the movie this weekend to see Edward and Bella wed. “Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1” is No. 1 at the box office.”

The beginning word of the above line certainly sounded to me as “Lots of twilhearts,” not “twilight.” But I don’t know what “twilheart” mean. I found the word, “twilhearts” in several excerpts on Google without definition, but there’s no entry of such word as “twilhearts” in any English dictionaries at hand.

Does the statement “Lots of twilhearts went to the movie to see Edward and Bella wed,” make sense? If it does, what does it mean? If it doesn’t make sense, do you have any idea about what the right word it should be”?


texts: I would like to use the slogan "Plan work. Track time." for a product I'm working on. However, I'm a bit alarmed by the fact I get virtually no search results on Google for "plan work", which gives me the impression it's not proper English. Is it?


texts: What is the proper way to say possesive with "person X" and self?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner

I've never known what the proper way to use a sentence in which you and a specific person (as in you can't just say "our" because you want to specify who) possess something.  Is it "Julie's and mine", "Mine and Julies", "Julie and my"...?

For instance,
"Julie and my favorite band is Eluveitie."
"That sandwich is Ben and mine."

They all sound a bit strange, which is the correct way to say this?


texts: Can "limit" be used regarding a minimum?

texts:
For example, suppose there is a sale on candy bars and I buy three, and then the cashier says

Sorry sir, but the sale price is limited to a minimum purchase of 5 candy bars

Is that a correct usage of the word "limit"?
Or can it only be used with a maximum, such as in

Speed limit?


texts: What are specific cartoon-type interjections like "cough" and "sigh" called in English?

texts:
In comics, for example those by Walt Disney, interjections that describe or emphasize in words what the characters in the image are doing are quite commonly used (cough, sigh, tweet).

According to the German Wikipedia, a grammatical term for this type of word has been introduced only recently, in 1998. It’s called Inflektiv.

I could not find an English translation, neither on these pages nor in any search engine. Is there a term for this?


texts:
I can't figure out this sentence:

  We are experiencing longer than average wait times.

I checked the dictionary. Time should not be countable.

Can anyone tell me which one is correct?

  average wait times vs. average wait time

  wait times vs. wait time

Thanks!


texts: What's a word for knowing something from experience?

texts:
I'm trying to figure out a word that describes subconsciously knowing something from experience. My initial attempt was "instinct", but that has more gifted and primal connotations.

The use case I had in mind was as follows:

  "If we assume that the model is applicable, it tells us what we've ________ known for a while [...]"

Update:

The word that fits best for my use case seems to be intuitively.

Another good one was empirically, but it tends to imply there were some experiments carried out to glean the knowledge, which wasn't the case.


texts: Can any of you, the respected teachers help me know which of the following is right: 1. It's been quoted that she would work diligently. She would earn a huge sum of money and then she would enjoy this with her friends on weekends. b. It's been quoted that she would work diligently. She earned a huge sum of money and then she enjoyed this with her friends on weekends. Look forward to your answer


texts:
In German it was customary to decline Latin words used in German prose. One might, for instance, speak of performing a reductionem ad absurdum, using the the accusative form of the word reductio when it has the function of the direct object.

Are there any (relatively recent) examples of this in English litterature?


texts: Why can't synonyms be swapped out of any phrase since their meaning would be the same?

texts:
"Eye of the beholder" and "Eye of the viewer" mean the same thing because beholder and viewer are synonyms.  Why can't they both be used?

What about "slim chance" vs "slim possibility"? They both seem to be ok.  Does that mean any synonym would be ok?

Why is one pair ok with the swap and the other is not?  I'm more interested in the understanding the reasons for the difference then the particular examples.


texts:
A person I know, who is not a native English speaker (just like me, I must add) always uses the expression "to have sense" instead of "to make sense", because in Spanish that expression literally translates as "to have sense", which is correct. As a real life example, he would say

  It has no sense to develop this feature

It just sounds so ugly and bad to me, and I believe it is a false friend, but I do not want to say anything because like other times, this might be a correct expression, just a very uncommon one. Am I right believing this is a false friend, or do those expressions mean exactly the same?


texts: What would someone's unofficial support of another be called?

texts:
For the sake of this question, I'm going to use the US 2016 presidential election as an example.

Let's say that Trump and his campaign has no official or even non-official collusion with Putin or Russia. He has no ties with them whatsoever. However, Putin supports his campaign from behind the scenes and directly influence the election to Trump's benefit.

Now, if Trump is well aware of Putin's support and have made deals with him, he can be called a puppet of Putin. If he was brainwashed, he can even be called a Manchurian Candidate.

If he has no knowledge and no deals with Putin, yet the latter still supports him directly, what does that make him?  What is the relationship called?


texts: Is there an expression for a spontaneously un-posed snapshot/photograph? The ones taken by surprise, that give that 'natural look'?


texts:
I've found an obscure definition for the noun "amount" i.e.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/amount
"the full value, effect, or significance of something"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amount
"the whole effect, significance, or import"

Would anyone be familiar with this definition, and also be able to provide an example phrase or sentence for "amount" in this context?

Thanks.


texts:
Is it correct to turn the sentence "He'll be her six husband" into a question" Which husband of hers in a row will he be?"
Any other alternatives?
Best wishes,
Boguslaw


texts: "Comparison between" versus "comparison for"

texts: What's the difference between "comparison between" and "comparison for"?


texts: Does 'Grab some food' always mean to 'buy' food?

texts:
I was in a situation where all my classmates in college had a dinner together which our school prepared for us on our first day of school.  There were some cans of beverages on the other side and someone told us we can have them without charge. And some of us didn't hear that, so i said to them "You guys can grab some beverages over there."
Now i'm wondering grab as in 'grab food' can mean getting food free of charge as well  since I've always heard people say things like "Let's grab some coffee" meaning "buy" some coffee..
Does what i said to them sound natural? Or would there have been better ways to say that?


texts: Is there a word for someone dodgy with tasks or chores?

texts: Someone evasive when it comes to tasks. Someone not around when there are chores to do.


texts: Can it is be replaced with were in the past?

texts: Can is be replaced with were in the past ???


texts: Personal Introductions: "This is" or "These are"

texts:
The Canadian children's network, Treehouse is in the process of replacing the show "This is Emily Yeung" with "This is Scarlett and Isaiah".

That doesn't actually sound wrong, but would it be more correct to say "These are Scarlett and Isaiah"? That would definitely be the case if you were to elaborate "These are my siblings Scarlett and Isaiah". What rule applies here?


texts: Is there a single word that describes someone who has delivered positive change to society?

texts:
Think of someone like Tyra Banks who has pushed the envelope in the fashion industry and has created campaigns to increase diversity in beauty ideals and self acceptance.
Or someone who uses their career to benefit humanity and/or the environment in some way. Someone who has substance and has made a change and lives with purpose.

I was thinking an influencer or revolutionary, but it is too vague and doesn't nail it on the dot.


texts: Are there terms to distinguish the auxiliary verbs in a multi-auxiliary verb phrase?

texts:
In phrase constructions that include multiple auxiliary verbs, as in "he has been sleeping all day", is there terminology commonly used to distinguish them? For example, might you call the first one "the primary auxiliary" and the next "a secondary auxiliary"? I understand the distinction for "modal" auxiliaries, but here I am talking about non-modal forms that co-occur.
If there are no such formal terms, are there understood roles that each play in the construction of a VP?


texts:
Are "All the way back" vs "All the way in the back" the same ?
I found the explain for "All the way" phrase in here: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/all-the-way
Do they depend on the context of the sentence?
For example, someone invite a friend to his exhibition. There is a picture that he want his friend to see it and he said: "It's all the way in the back.". Does he means the picture is in somewhere in the back of the exhibition or it's picture he put all the effort into doing it? If his mean is the second one, what is the role of the phrase "in the back" in this sentence? Does it emphasizes the phrase "all the way"?


texts: 'agree a number ... to one mischief' (1655 UK)

texts:
Source: Paragraph 2, Chapter XX, De Corpore Politico, 1655, by Thomas Hobbes

  For multitude, though in their persons they run together, yet they concur not always in their designs. For even at that time when men are in tumult, though they agree a number of them to one mischief, and a number of them to another; yet, in the whole, they are amongst themselves in the state of hostility, and not of peace

While writing this ELL question, I tried to read some examples on Google Books which yielded the above. Which definition of  agree matches?

I tried OED. I guessed definitions 15, and the obsolete 16 and 17, which I don't replicate here because none match.    I'm guessing:
it doesn't make sense to harmonise or reconcile  men .. in tumult to one mischief.


texts: Confused between the usage of the sentence starting with Looking forward to

texts:
Could anyone tell me which one is correct :

1) Looking forward to do more homework exercises with you in future

OR

2) Looking forward in doing more homework exercises with you in future

Since I am using ing with look, it seems more appropriate to used doing somewhere in the sentence later but in the first sentence, I have to and it doesn't sound appropriate to use doing after to. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks


texts: Can "..." mean the same thing as a semicolon?

texts: Can a semicolon be replaced with "..." (an ellipsis) in a sentence? Is there any difference at all?


texts: Comma or semicolon after an independent clause ending in 'though'

texts:
In this sentence:

  The exterior of the building wasn't what made it special, though, it was the people inside.

should the second comma be a semicolon, or is it correct just the way it is?


texts:
When should I use 'band' and when 'act', particularly in the musical context?

Checking the Google Ngram service, I see that rock bands is more common than rock acts. Instead hip-hop acts is more common of hip-hop bands.

Update

I add some more context from Wikipedia

  Chicago house music acts from the early to mid-1980s found success on the US dance charts on various Chicago independent record labels that were more open to sign local house music artists. These same acts also experienced some success in the United Kingdom, garnering hits in that country. Due to this success, by the late 1980s, Chicago house music acts suddenly found themselves being offered major label deals.
  [...]
  UK acts such as The Beatmasters, Krush, [...] opened the doors to house music success on the UK charts.

Is there a reason why they do not say artists or bands for acts? Are they just synonymous? It does not seem to me here that "act" here is  used to mean a specific performance, like @Hot Licks suggest.

I am interested to everyday English or formal English as it might be used by Wikipedia and not some technical jargon used by music specialists (to answer @jsw29)


texts: What's correct - Conflict of OR Conflict between?

texts:
Which of the following sentences would be the right usage here?

  Conflict of ABC and XYZ
  Conflict between ABC and XYZ


texts: The difference between "discomfit" and "discomfort."

texts: There isn't a lot to say, really, except that I just want to know the difference between the two words as verbs. I found that dictionaries give definitions so overlapping that the words sound as if they are 100% interchangeable.


texts: What phrase is "you betcha" a descendant of?

texts: "You bet you"?  That's the closest I could think of.  Or is it "you bet yourself", with the "self" omitted so it's quicker to say?  Or is it something else altogether?


texts: Saying "into" instead of "times" when talking about multiplication

texts:
I'm studying a series on algorithms taught by "Abdul Bari" on youtube

Here is when he says "A into B" to talk about multiplying A by B

I know why some say "a times b" when talking about multiplication. I'm curious about the expression "a into b". Where might it come from?


texts: An adjective to indicate that there is too much text on a slide

texts:
Your slide is too adj

What's an adjective to indicate that there are too many words on a slide?


texts:
"The mean kinetic temperature (MKT) can express, as a single temperature effect, the impact of varying temperature history to a given time on food quality."
Thank you


texts:
I would only put a written note on a client's desk whom I know.

I may be criticised for assuming that the attachment of 'whom' to 'client' is understood and unambiguous. Grammatically, some might say, I am attaching 'whom' to 'desk'.

I would only put a written note on a client's desk if I know them.

Similarly with the following :

I would only drive a friend's car who had insurance.

I would only drive a friend's car if he had insurance.

Am I wrong to use 1 and 2 ?


texts: What is the word for raining without clouds?

texts: I remember the word to be no English. I once have seen this word on a website which I don't recall the address.


texts: Is itinery/itinary an acceptable pronunciation of "itinerary"?

texts:
There are enough Google results with the misspelling above to suggest I'm not the only person who pronounces itinerary incorrectly.

So is this common or even acceptable to pronounce it in this way?

Excuse me if I'm way off the mark, but do the majority of people pronounce it differently from its spelling?


texts:
In writing a sentence, using the '%' symbol, which of the following is correct:
"....record rates that range between 8 and 12%."
or
"....record rates that range between 8% and 12%."

Thanks,
Jerry


texts: Can something be "insidious to/for" someone or never?

texts:
Can something be insidious to or for someone? Judging by Oxford Online Dictionaries, it doesn't seem like it.

Is the adjective insidious only used attributively? For example, an insidious problem, an insidious disease, an insidious health condition.

I am currently marking a student's essay who wrote

  Technology can harm our environment, make people lazy and especially in teenager who become addicted to video games or mobile phones.

I know the sentence has other problems but I would like to suggest the following improvements without rewriting the whole thing

  Technology is harmful to our environment, it makes people lazier and can be especially insidious to/for  teenagers who become addicted to video games or social media.

Is my suggestion appropriate or not? Do I need to reword the entire sentence in order to fit in insidious, or is it never used like that? By the way, insidious in Italian is insidioso, the meaning is identical.


texts: What do “socially imposed judgments” and “Keyboard, face, keyboard, face.” mean?

texts:
In the wake of successive sexual scandals of IMF Chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Congressman, Anthony Weiner, I learned that there’s no shortage of euphemisms for expressing love (or sexual) affairs in modern English such as tangoing, one night stand, Okay fluke planetary alignment, etc. from recent newspapers.
However, I don’t understand (1) what the word, “socially imposed judgments,” in the sentence of Carolyn Hax’s column of Washington Post’s Lifestyle section (June 6 issue), though I think I can guess it roughly. Also I have no idea about (2) what “Keyboard, face, keyboard, face,” means. Can someone clarify the meanings of these two phrases in the following sentence?

Hi, Carolyn.
Do you have any advice on how two people who really hit it off after a mutual friend’s birthday party might see past their own hang-ups and begin dating each other with open minds? We’ve both got some socially imposed judgments about how easy it was for the other person to jump into bed right away .
One-night stand to relationship? [This is how the asker signed her question.]

Here begins Carolyn Hax's reply:

Keyboard, face, keyboard, face.
How about: “Why don’t we go out to see if we actually like each other?”
Unless you don’t feel as if you can do the asking?

Edited to add more context by Robusto


texts: What does "to whip the burn with a cardinal" mean?

texts:
In "Five Red Herrings," at least in the BBC TV adaptation, Lord Peter Wimsey declares at one point that he plans to "whip the burn with a cardinal."

He seems to be referring to fishing. The burn is a stream; we suppose whipping refers the motion of the fishing rod, maybe a particular technique.

But what does he mean by a cardinal? None of the usual senses of the word (a bird, a church official, a number) seem to make sense here.  Is it some sort of red bait or lure?

Later on, Wimsey catches a trout, if that helps at all.

P.S. I found this line of fishing reels called Cardinal, but I have no idea whether they're old enough to be known by Wimsey.


texts:
In "Getting Things Done", David Allen refers to "Open Loops", meaning things that are incomplete.

Q: What past reference to an "Open loop" is he alluding to?  Is that phrase "Open Loop" something that's been used in other areas before and is being redefined by David Allen, or is this a brand new phrase?


texts: Looking for an "exotic" antonym for Bane

texts:
As a game developer, I have a few ways of symbolizing the effectiveness of attacks. My engine supports elemental damage mitigation through Resistances, and elemental weakness(a Fire based attack deals more damage to you instead of being mitigated) through Aversions. I like those two words because I feel as though they entirely personify their purpose.

Having this implemented, I wanted to also include a secondary system, which, instead of being elemental based(Fire, Frost, Energy, Nature, Arcane, Holy, Shadow), it would instead be Creature Type based. I decided to call advantages vs creatures "Banes". So, if you had a Bane of 20% vs Undead, you would natively deal 20% more damage to them via all sources of damage output.

This is where my problem arises, because now I want a polar opposite of Bane. Essentially it would serve as a detrimental attribute, meaning you deal less damage to creatures of that type. I just can't seem to locate an adequate word for this "lack of effectiveness" towards monsters. I did try Googling possible antonyms, but didn't find any that clicked for me.

My question is quite simple, what would be a good word that describes this behaviour?

I need a word that essentially means "lacking strength against".


texts: Word for always submitting things long after deadline

texts: What is the word for the phenomenon a person is submitting things long after deadline, routinely?


texts: What do you call a situation when you can't find the things you are currently looking for but finding it when you're not looking for it?

texts:
What will be the best word or term to use in that kind of situation?
For example, I am currently looking for my Nursing book inside my house but after days of searching, still no success and I already gave up. However, few weeks or months later I accidentally saw it under my bed when I am cleaning up my room.

I am thinking of the word "Coincidence" but I am looking for a more precise word. Luck? hmmm. Not quite sure.


texts:
Why is it nutmeg and not *megnut?

Is it something to do with Latin/French influences on the English grammar?


texts:
Without the accompanying neither, it can be difficult to know whether or not to use nor.

Is this correct, or should or be used here instead?

  We do not have the equipment needed to measure buoyancy nor air volume.


texts: Is "for all I know" without may/might/etc. "correct"?

texts:
I have seen "for all I know" used in both of the following forms:

For all I know, he may as well be Santa in disguise.
For all I know, he's Santa in disguise.

From what I've understood so far, both forms mean the same thing, more or less (they're both wild speculation).

Are both forms considered equally acceptable in scholarly spheres etc., or is one considered "to avoid"?


texts: in the following picture: ''pass'' means admission or allowance?


texts:
Ever wonder why the waiter at the restaurant you went to last week is now giving you dirty looks. Well, perhaps you didn't leave them a tip!

Then, the question is: What is a person who never leaves a tip called?

A bit of searching come up with "penny-pincher" ("unwilling to spend money"), but I'm unsure this is the best choice in this case.


texts: The ways of saying of situations in which you couldn't achieve your purpose

texts:
I was reviewing my grammar book and the book mentions the things that we wanted to do but couldn't in different chapters in which it explains tenses separately so I accumulated   these types situations in different tenses under the same question. I would like to ask if they all are grammatically correct and  have almost the same meaning and in which situations would you prefer to use each one if some of them  have distinctly different meaning.

I am going to use the same sentence for different structures.

1.I was going to do washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

2.I was to have done the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

3.I was supposed to do the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

4.I was supposed to have done the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

5.I was about to do the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

6.I was meaning to do the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

7.I meant to do the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

8.I hoped/ was hoping/ had hoped/ had been hoping to do the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

9.I planned/ was planning/ had planned/ had been planning to do the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

10.I intended/ was intending / had intended/ had been intending to do the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.

11.I was thinking of  to do the washing but we'd run out of washing powder.


texts: What irregular verbs are there in Early Modern English?

texts:
Can anyone tell me, or direct me to a site where it would have a list of, irregular verbs in Early Modern English? I understand verbs such as "to be" or "to have", but how many more are there, and what are they?

I wonder this because I conjugate "can", and I know that it is "thou canst", but for some reason "he/she/it canneth" sounds really odd to me.


texts: Sentence Construction: "Just Because ...... Does Not Mean"

texts:
I've already found an entry on this here.

However, it does not solve my problem:

I just read an entry on "cross platform" from Wikipedia, in which it wrote:

  Just because a particular operating system may run on different computer architectures, that does not mean that the software written for that operating system will automatically work on all architectures that the operating system supports.

I have seen sentence construction "Just because...does not mean" quite often, but it was my first time to notice that the word "that" or "it" could be present in the construction as well (e.g., "Just because..., that/it does not mean").

Could someone please explain which usage is correct?


texts: Can we use "likewise" instead of "also" in formal writing?

texts:
When we write academic paper, can we use "also"? If it is a bit informal,
is it ok to use "likewise" instead of "also"?
Or, are there any possible expression in such situation?


texts: Why did the word “alluring” peak in the 1920s?

texts:
As per title. This is the Ngram Graph for the word alluring:

For comparison, this is the same graph for the word remarkable:


texts: Is there a word that describes an over exaggeration due to one being sheltered by wealth/an elite social class?

texts:
For instance, wealthy people complaining wind turbines ruin their view and disrupt their lives when an average person would find simply having a view of the ocean pleasurable? I hope this gets the point across.
I want to say "pedantic" but I don't think it quite fits.

What is the term for this situation?


texts: What's the meaning of 'decoy' in the context below?

texts:
I have to translate this paragraph into Romanian:

  I look at the banister. The dog’s lead didn’t cause any damage,
  and in the row of four turned wooden posts the one he hanged
  from doesn’t look different from the others, except for a few
  stains. I think, nonsensically, of the houses on Priory Walk in
  Chelsea, the identical white decoys on either side.

I don't understand the meaning of 'decoy' in this context. Could someone please explain to me what it means?


texts:
Which one is correct and why?
A) Listen to this song! It's so good, I want to dance it.
B) Listen to this song! It's so good, I want to dance to it.
C)I love this song. Can we dance to it?


texts:
In the context of computers or websites, when should one use click or click on?

Click (on) the right mouse button
Click (on) the word 'Download'
Click (on) the Start button
Click (on) here for more information


texts:
Can I say/write
"It's advertised" instead of "It was advertised"


texts: Capitalization of letters from non-Latin scripts in English

texts: I couldn't find any clear rules/guidelines regarding this, so I'm asking the question here: If an otherwise English sentence begins with a word that is written in non-Latin script (e.g. Greek letters), does this word have to be capitalized?


texts: Do you "chew" yogurt? What is the correct verb?

texts:
Someone told me (half) jokingly that I should be able to eat my yogurt (plain Greek yogurt) quickly since I don't have to chew it.  We then started wondering if chewing is the correct verb for when yogurt is in your mouth.  I'm talking specifically about when the yogurt is in your mouth before you swallow it, when you break it up with your tongue but not necessarily with your teeth (or at least I think that's what I do!).  What is this called?

Just a fun question, couldn't find anything online about the proper term (if there is one), and I have seen people on here find interesting terms for things like this!

Update1:  Edited the question to be more specific about what I was really asking (sorry!).


texts: Give or Take - Which is Give and Which is Take

texts:
I was recently asked for a rough estimate on how long a small project will take. I figured it would be a couple weeks, most likely a bit less, but could also be a bit more depending on a few unknowns, so I said "It will probably be about 2 weeks, give or take a few days, most likely give."
I think I naturally went with "give" because it sounds more positive and less time on the project is better. But this logic doesn't hold up in situations where more time is better, like "I'm going to DisneyLand for 2 weeks, give or take a few days."
So which is it? Is the project giving time back? Or am I giving more time to the project?
Is the vacation taking more time? Or would you be giving it more time?


texts: sequence of tenses (was/were vs had been/have been)

texts:
Which is better?

  The protocol was signed last week after all punch list items were fixed up.

or

  The protocol was signed last week after all punch list items had been fixed up.


texts: "Will have been +ing" equivalent to "Must have been +ing"?

texts:
The book "Advanced Grammar in Use" third edition, on page 22, says:

"We can use the future perfect continuous (will have been +ing) to say what we think was happening at a point in the past:

Motorist Hesketh WILL HAVE BEEN ASKING herself whether speed cameras are a good idea after she was fined 100 pounds last week for driving..."

So, can "will have been +ing" be an equivalent to "must have been +ing", when we try to stress a possibility that something may have happened in the past?


texts: Formal term for upper level health workers

texts:
What is the formal term for upper level healthcare workers?

By "upper level" I mean Medical Doctors and pharmacists; basically the ones that must have a university degree to perform the duties.

I'm aware of possible legal differences between various countries, fortunately I don't need a perfectly unambiguous term. The context allows for not being 100% accurate, journalistic accuracy would be enough, so to speak.


texts: I work at an agency with a number of challenges related to nepotism and power, so I like to be super sure about my grammar critiques. The initiative I work under uses the word antiviral. However, my colleague punctuates the word with a hyphen. When is it appropriate to use anti-viral? I do not want to disclose information about the agency, so I am sorry I cannot spell out the actual name of my department, but it is something resembling Antiviral/Anti-Viral Linkage Project. We really cannot present at conferences under two different names! Also, we do not have any sort of style guide outside the authority of directors.


texts: Words spelled the same way they are pronounced

texts:
Is there a term for words that are spelled the same way they are pronounced? If so, is there a list of them somewhere?
For example, I have thought of:

"a" spelled A pronounced "A"

"I" spelled I pronounced "I"

"ok" spelled O-K pronounced "O"-"K"

"Io" (Jupiter's moon) spelled I-O pronounced "I"-"O"

More explicitly, words whose spelling is pronounced the same as how the word itself is pronounced.


texts: Is "Step out from behind" a phrasal verb?

texts:
Look at these examples:

He stepped out from behind the curtain.
Step out from behind the counter.
Step out from behind the blue wall.
Step out from behind the veil of illusion.


texts: Two uses of "which" in the same sentence

texts:
I would like to ask whether I can use "which" twice in the following sentence:

  We are so (so!) excited for our big day which is just around the corner and which would be meaningless without you!


texts: Injective / injectional: mode of operation of a pump

texts:
What is the best matching word for the mode of operation of a pump doing injections into a pipe system?

By "injections", individual short feedings with no (temporal or other) relation to each other are meant. That mode is distinct from a "pulsed mode" where constantly are pulses generated.

Could one use "The pump operates injective." or "The pump is in injectional operation mode." to describe that mode of operation in contrast to a "continuous operation mode"?

Or should one better stick to the less precise term "non-continuous operation mode" in that case?

Thanks in advance!

To clarify what that modes of operation should stand for:

Setting the pump to "continuous operation mode" means to instruct the pump to produce an continuous output until it is told otherwise. While operating in that mode, the output level of the pump can be directly adjusted from 0 to 100%.

Setting the pump to "injectional operation mode" means to force the pump to produce no output until an external command instructs it to do so for a limited time from that moment on. In that mode, the configured output level of the pump comes into effect only while instructed to produce an output by the external command.

This question is aimed to find the suitable words that can be used to distinguish between these two modes of operation.


texts: Thank you for initiating the opportunity for Bob and me to talk.


texts: Can the "one" be omitted in this sentence?

texts:
For me, the price is higher than the one for him.

I know "For me, the price is higher than him." must be wrong.

But what is the most simplified version of this sentence? Can I also omit "the one" and leave just "For me, the price is higher than for him."?


texts: What is the first known use of the proverb “out of sight is out of mind”?

texts:
It is said that Shakespeare and Hopkins used ‘out of sight is out of mind’.

But when was this phrase first used?


texts: Is the proverb “never ask a barber if he thinks you need a haircut” used and understood?

texts:
The saying “never ask a barber if he thinks you need a haircut” means “don’t ask a person about their own activity, because they are in a conflict of interest and can only answer in one way”. Thus, it is an equivalent to “don’t ask silly questions”.

Looking it up on Google Books, I’ve found that the oldest occurrence dates back to 1998. It is therefore quite recent, if we are allowed to give some credit to this piece of information. I would like to know if this saying is actually used and established in everyday language, and if it can be understood by any native speaker.


texts: Is there a single word to describe a person who is experiencing something?

texts: For example, a person who is attending a training is named as a trainee. Is there any such similar words to describe about a person who is into any specific situation?


texts:
An article about the msnbc political show with Chris Hayes is titled :

  Let's pretend we had a functional Congress.

The way I read this title is that it says that we are to pretend that we have a functional Congress now, as opposed in the past. Hypothetical past tense is used with "suppose" and I guess that "Let's suppose we had a functional Congress" would be as acceptable if not preferred to "Let's suppose we have a functional Congress", but what about the use of "pretend" and "imagine" with the past verb form the same way?

In this sentence I'd understand that either pretend, suppose or imagine would imply that we don't have a functional Congress, but for the sake of argument we are imagining a situation in which we have. By using any of these verbs in this sentence the inference would be that the fact of the matter is different, and the situation we are imagining, supposing or pretending to exist is counterfactual. "Had" in this sentence thus refers to current state of affairs and not to the Congress in the past, that is, "had" is used to convey a hypothetical idea and not to place the situation in the past.

I understand that unlike suppose, verbs pretend and imagine are not normally followed by hypothetical past tense verb, but I find examples such as the example I cited or with "imagine":

Imagine if we had the McCarthy era right now.

Imagine we had a studio right now.

where the meanings of the three verbs seem to overlap, and I understand that the past tense verb following them can be rephrased as "we are imagining a situation in which something is true or is happening now" as opposed to imagining a situation that occurred in the past.


texts: Modifying nouns without relative pronouns or relative adverbs

texts:
Do those sentences below sound natural?
1.She’s got that hair the color of chestnut.(Modified by the objective)
2.I looked in the mirror the size of my two hands.(Modifies by the objective)
3.I saw the view, an older man criticizing a young man.(Modified by the gerund clause)
4.My favorite sport, playing the baseball, has brought me friends.(Modified by the gerund clause)
And if these don’t really sound natural, can you give me an example using the same technique as in the ().
And also I wanna know what kind of nouns collocate well with the way of modifying as in the ().


texts:
I am wondering, in the context of a computer processing text, which characters or combination of characters can end an English sentence.  A question mark, exclamation mark and period are the most obvious, but are there any others?  What if the final character is a parenthesis?

Background

I am working on a computer program that produces a document, and in the document I am displaying some user-entered text in the form of a sentence.  This user text ends the sentence, so I need to ensure there's a full stop before the next sentence begins.

I could simply add a period to the end of the text, which would work most of the time:

  This is an example  ►  This is an example.

But of course if the user entered text that includes an end-of-sentence marker, this simple solution won't work:

  Example!  ►  Example!.

So clearly if the last character is an exclamation mark, question mark or period, then no extra period should be appended.

However it doesn't seem so simple.  What if the last character is a closing parenthesis?  You could simply add a period to (Example) and it would be fine, but if it's (Example.) then you should not add a period as (Example.). is not correct.

So in this case it seems you need to check the last two characters to see if the sentence has ended.

But then what if the sentence ends with a quotation mark?

  Please refer to the song "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"

So it seems you have to check the final three characters to see whether the sentence has ended, and whether you should append a period or not.

Question

Is there any rule (suitable for implementation in a computer program) that would cover at least the majority of cases?  I am thinking something like:

Check the last character
If it is ?, ! or . then the sentence has ended
If it is " or ) then drop the character from the end and go back to 1
Otherwise the sentence has not ended, and a period should be appended to the original text.

Would this work, or does it miss other combinations that might occur?

Out of curiosity, what other character combinations might there be that could potentially end a sentence, but require closer scrutiny rather than blindly appending a full stop?


texts: How did 'receiver' semantically shift to mean an appointee to manage a company's assets?

texts:
What semantic notions underlie 1. with c in the OED?
According to c, receivers manages or administers assets. So what exactly do they "receive"?

Paul Davies. JC Smith's The Law of Contract (2018 2 ed). p. 468.

  Receiver     a person appointed to manage a company’s
  assets, when the company is not operating as well as it
  could be (often in the event of insolvency).


texts:
We all know the various slang words for bottoms, boobs and genitalia. Those are well covered here already. This question relates to slang words for the other parts of the body.

What common slang words do we have for body parts (aside from the "good bits" mentioned above). For example: "noggin" for your head. Alternatively, "peepers" for your eyes (though urban dictionary says this can also mean breasts).


texts: What's the purpose of differentiating the singular and plural forms of verbs?

texts:
It's not that I can't memorize them, but I have always been wondering how it has become the way it is - what's the purpose of differenting them?

Why not just always use the singular form?

I am a native Chinese, and in Chinese verbs don't differentiate singular/plural forms and even tenses.

I understand tenses can be useful, as they indicate the time of the action. But since the subjects can already indicate if the number is one or more, why not just use one certain form under all circumstances?


texts: Should I add punctuation after each in a a list of incomplete sentences?

texts:
When writing a list of potentially incomplete sentences, how should I punctuate each item?

Daycare Admission Rules:

No older than 5 years
No younger than 1 year
No purple Hair

Do I end each with a period, a question mark (if interrogative), or nothing?


texts: I told her what you insisted that we need. [relative or interrogative pronoun?]

texts:
This is an example from The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Huddlestone and Pullum, on page 1088:

  [i] I told her what you insisted that we need.

There, they're discussing the location of the gap in an unbounded dependency construction.

At the bottom of the page, it says,

  The meaning of [i] can be given as "I told her the value of x in the proposition 'You insisted that we need x'"...

Now, in context, is "what" a relative pronoun or an interrogative pronoun?


texts: [Were]/[had been] incompatible from the start

texts:
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/10/letter-to-my-father
Sentence:
I'm now older than you were when you were swept to your death off a high rope bridge in the Scottish Highlands, aged 49. Your young wife, my stepmother, was behind you and could only watch helpless as you fell. Your son was only two. You were fit, exuberantly full of life and happy in your second marriage. This was your chance to be a good father and it was snatched away. For us three children from your first marriage, it was a different story. You left us when we were all under five. That time, it was your choice to leave. You married young, had three children in quick succession and decided domestic life wasn't for you. When I asked my mother why you had left, she said you didn't like Edinburgh, the city where you grew up and where I was born. Even as a child that seemed an odd explanation. When I was older, she told me that you'd married after knowing each other for only six months and [had been]/[were] incompatible from the start. You loved adventure and the great outdoors, she preferred to be inside, reading or chatting with friends. She was remarkably forgiving towards the man who'd left her with three young children.
Question:
The past perfect "had been" is used in the original. Does the simple past "were" work instead of the past perfect "had been" in the above passage? Thanks.


texts:
Please consider these sentences:

  The word X produces meaning Y
  The word X produces meaning Y in sentence Z

Is "produces meaning" valid in that sentence? If so, which seems to be more valid between the both of the above sentences? And if not, may I know why it is not valid?

(the sense intended here is the word X has meaning Y, not sentence Z has meaning Y).


texts:
I would like to understand the following (because Google returns suspiciously low number of records for this form):

    A: I saw him there.
    B (joins the conversation): Hey, have you seen John lately?
     C: He has just said he had seen him there.

Is it OK to use present perfect and then reported speech shifted back (from past simple to past perfect)?


texts:
Is "smash together" a good phrase for describing a creation of a new entity from (possibly smaller) entities, which are destroyed in the process?

Are there any reasonable synonyms?


texts: Should "crossed" really be there as an equivalent of this definition?

texts:
I read a definition of the word "squint" in Merriam Webster Dictionaries which was:

  of the eyes : not having the visual axes parallel : CROSSED

"Crossed" (or cross-eyed) is in fact a type of a pathological condition relating to eye known as Strabismus or squint-eyed. So I don't think it should really be there as the equivalent of the definition because it is a type of the squint-eyed disease which is broader term and the type is specific.


texts: Receiving money 'as agent' or 'as an agent' and other similar cases

texts:
So I've actually come across this kind of sentences quite a lot, when we're describing the capacity in which the subject does something. For example, sometimes we say:

The vendor's solicitors will receive the deposit as agent for the vendor

I always thought, strictly grammatically speaking, the correct formulation was:

The vendor's solicitors will receive the deposit as an agent for the vendor

Are both correct? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency, as I've come across both formulations quite often.


texts:
"Mary is so funny."

What is the grammatical function of 'so' in this example?


texts: Do I have several GPSs, or several GPSes, or something completely different? What is the rule to remember (will be useful later when I can have a GPS2, a GPST and maybe a GPSX too).


texts: When I want to talk about creating a structural model of a building or bridge, should I say modelling the structure or modeling the structure?


texts: "In the mid of 1990s" Is it grammatically correct?

texts:
What is the correct way to write the following phrase?

  In the mid of 1990s

What are the (writing) variants of that expression? (I just want to know, to diversify my writing.)

Thank you.


texts:
Perhaps I don't fully understand the word, but it always confuses me.

When talking about money:

  The money was remitted.

Which means that the money was transmitted/transferred successfully.

But it also means:

Cancel or refrain from exacting or inflicting (a debt or punishment).
Pardon (a sin).

What are the reasons that when referring to money as remitted, it is a positive, otherwise negative?


texts: Is it possible for an adjective to modify another adjective?

texts:
While I doubt an adjective can modify another one, I'm wondering if it may be possible. Here is the example: "An immaculate black three-piece suit." Most likely, I'd have to use the adverb immaculately to modify black, but I could be wrong. What syntactic parses are possible for “an immaculate black three-piece suit”?

(Also, if someone has an answer as to why bright in “a bright red car” is grammatical, I’m all ears. Bright is an adjective meaning—in that context—vivid and bold [as Oxford defines it], yet it is modifying a second adjective: the color red. Is bright, or any other word describing color, like light in light red, the only adjective that can get away with this?)


texts: What’s the place called where the lord/ ruler of a village in the 1400s lived?

texts: In England in the 1400s, most people had a small house but where the lord would live was different, bigger. In particular, in Skyrim the Jarls live in keeps but that's a little too big for what I’m looking for.


texts: You can refer to a group of people who you perceive to be blindly trudging through life according to the path laid before them by the state/evil corporations as sheeple, but how would you refer to any individual member of that group?


texts:
...the boys were sitting around in the Palace sipping the result of
  Eddie’s latest contribution. Gay was there too, the latest member of
  the group. Eddie sipped speculatively from his glass and smacked his
  lips. “It’s funny how you get a run,” he said. “Take last night. There
  was at least ten guys ordered Manhattans. Sometimes maybe you don’t
  get two calls for a Manhattan in a month. It’s the grenadine gives the
  stuff that taste.”

  John Steinbeck. Cannery Row.

What does it mean "It’s funny how you get a run"?
I think I understand all words but do not understand whole sentence.
Is it possible to say the same in other words and more simply?


texts: Is there a word for a multi-user attempt to grab something?

texts:
I'm looking for a word (or phrase) that describes the actions of the hippos in the game of Hungry Hungry Hippos.

  All 20 guests saw that there were only 5 shrimp left and what ensued
  was a frenzied [SOMETHING].

Is there such a word (or colloquialism) in the English language?


texts:
What's a word that describes a useful metaphorical precept? "Money is time" might be an example of a _______.
For some reason I am associating these (wrong) words with this one: allegory, syllogy, anecdote—so maybe it is similar to these.
"Analogy" might be the closest synonym I have thought of so far, similarly "analogue" almost works.
Bruce Lee's "be water" isn't an instruction to literally become water, but a metaphor to encourage flexibility and adaptability.
If I said "I am water" I would be using a _________.
Somehow I associate this word with sages and wise masters in the mountain. Like _______s could be used for expressing comprehensions about the Dao. "There is no spoon" kind of resonance.


texts: What does the initial fragment of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mean?

texts:
I begun reading Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

This is one of the initial fragments, emphasis mine:

  This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of
  the people on it were unhappy for  pretty much of the time. Many
  solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were
  largely  concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper,
  which is odd because on the whole it wasn't  the small green pieces of
  paper that were unhappy.

I don't quite grasp what he intended to say with this last line.

So, sad people were concerned about money: "which is odd because money wasn't the unhappy one". This doesn't make much sense to me.

What is the meaning of this last line?


texts: Collective nouns - singular vs. plural verbs?

texts:
What about "youth"?
As in:
"The youth of today is highly interconnected in many ways."
vs.
"The youth of today are highly interconnected in many ways."


texts:
Why is the pipe wrench often called a monkey wrench?

From the Ferris State University Jim Crow Museum website…

  Q: Did Jack Johnson invent the wrench?

  A: Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, patented a wrench (U.S. patent #1,413,121) on April 18, 1922. His patent was not the first for a wrench. Solymon Merrick of Springfield, Massachusetts, patented the first wrench in 1835. Charles Moncky, a Baltimore mechanic, invented the monkey wrench around 1858. Moncky's wrench was named using a purposeful misspelling of his name.

There appear to be 2 common misconceptions based on faulty internet information.

Supposedly there is a racially based myth that the monkey wrench was named after Johnson. However, the name was in use at least 100 years before, and his name only appears tangentially to the topic.

  …suggests that African-American boxer Jack Johnson invented the tool, and the racists of the time added the label “monkey” as a racial epithet. However, neither part of this story is strictly true. (1)

The other would seem to be a continuation of the “Moncky” hoax. (2)

  …Another hoax suggests that a man named Charles Moncky invented the tool. Historians have found no record of a Charles Moncky living in the area at the time it is said, though researchers found multiple Charles Monks. However, none of the possible Charles Monks can be the inventor. All were children when the tool was invented or born after the term “monkey wrench” was already in circulation. (1)

And yet another inventor was credited with the invention…

  The apparent inventor of the monkey wrench is Loring Coes, who invented the tool in 1840 in Worcester, Massachusetts. *That date is about 37 years after the earliest recorded use of the term “monkey wrench”, however we know that this time the name stuck to the tool Coes invented, as its design remained in production by various companies for the next 120 years. (1)

…so it appears the term was already in use to describe the “carriage wrench”.

I thought perhaps it came from the phrase “monkey around”, but I cannot find any use before 1889 on Ngrams.

And it appears that the “smooth lipped” carriage wrench was called a “monkey wrench” at least 37 years before the invention of the modern day toothed-lip pipe wrench.
Even though Coes gets the credit for the name, it was in use long before.

So why was it originally called a “monkey wrench” ?

(1) Healthy Handy Man

(2) Wikipedia
(3) Images Wikipedia


texts:
This question is mainly for all those that are not speaking English as their first language.

For me there has been some words that are difficult to pronounce correctly. Maybe saying word aloud gives you a feeling that you're doing something wrong.

It would be interesting to know which words you find difficult?

My favourites are squirrel, miscellaneous (plus I have to always check how is this written correctly) and murderer (it's mumbling when I say it)


texts: The use of "male"/"female" (instead of e.g. "man"/"woman") in everyday speech

texts:
In contemporary English, the terms "male" and "female" seem to be almost as commonly applied to people as "man" and "woman". For example, I see people posting questions on certain StackExchange sites starting with "I am a 23 year old male" or similar.

As a non-native (but fluent) speaker of English, this usage still bothers me for reasons I will explain below. I would like to know if this is just because of a bias coming from my native language, or if native English speakers also perceive these terms in a similar way to me.

Both in my mother tongue and other languages I speak, the direct translation of "male" and "female" are either applied to animals only, or are used in technical or scientific contexts.  "Male elephant" is natural. "Human male" also does occur in a scientific text, after all humans are mammals (a kind of animal, from a biological perspective). The police may use "male suspect", as this is again a kind of technical jargon (and it goes the extra mile to be strictly objective). Then it's easy to see how this can get shortened into just "male", e.g. "60 year old male", in a police communication.

But hearing these words used in everyday speech always leaves me with a bad taste. In a way, it feels like talking about people as if they were animals when using "male"/"female" instead of the more common man/boy/lad/whatever.  It feels ugly and almost rude.

Thus my question is not about the literal meaning of these terms, but their connotations, and how (or whether) these connotations have changed during the past few decades.

Do native speakers sometimes perceive these terms the same way I do?  Or am  I just influenced by the bias from my native language?

Finally, is my perception correct that the everyday use of these terms has significantly increasing during the last decade? Are there differences in the nuances of these terms between countries (e.g. UK vs US)?


texts: Is there such a thing as a “past subjunctive”?

texts:
Is there really such a thing as a “past subjunctive” in English?

I actually learned the term “past subjunctive” from my Spanish class. From what I already know, the subjunctive is used with subjunction — that is, like with until and while clauses.

So for example, in this sentence:

  I was eating chips while there was nobody around.

Is that “while there was” actually supposed to be “while there is” instead?


texts: Looking for a verb that would be the opposite of smear, from a political/public relations point of view

texts: I'm looking for a single word that would mean the opposite of smear. Specifically, I'm looking for it in the context of a verb being an action that an entity has at his disposal. So you might have a dirty snook who has "Smear 4", or the ability to lower someone's public relations rating by 4 points. If you were the victim of a "Smear 4" you would need to hire your own consultant with "Unsmear 4" to get your public relations back to where they were before the smear campaign was run against you. Clearly, "Unsmear" is not a viable term. I've reviewed a number of thesauruses, but nothing really jumps out at me. The closest I've found is either flatter or glorify, but neither convey what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something that evokes images of kissing babies, attending ice cream socials, and other typical PR boosting stuff.


texts:
Does all imply that there is one or more of something?

Does the statement "all of the books are red" imply there is at least one red book?
Could there be zero books and the statement still be factually correct?
Is it inherently ambiguous?

Not sure if this is an English question or more of a math or logic question.


texts: Difference between "huge", "enormous" and "gigantic"

texts: Among the words huge, enormous and gigantic, does one word refer to something bigger than another does, or do they all refer to the same size?


texts: Should I use "everyone's", "everyones'" or "everyones"?

texts:
I have the following sentence:

  Joe got everyone's attention and started to speak.

Should it be everyone's, everyones' or everyones?


texts:
I’ve joined a writer’s forum that has critiquing workshops, and I’m merrily participating.  Some of the work is really good.  But I keep running across usages of the word “whilst”, which to me is old fashioned and outdated.

Many of the posters there have English as a second (or third) language, and are (sometimes clearly) using translation engines to post their work for review.  Before commenting on their use of whilst, I thought I’d check to make sure I am correct.  So...

Is whilst proper English, as in, “...whilst snow fell gently outside her window”?  Is while a more appropriate word here?  If it is proper, is it still in common use in other countries (other than the U.S.), or is it old fashioned and outdated for English everywhere?