Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Is "giffy" (meaning airborne salt spray) a real word?

Posted: 19 May 2021 10:54 AM PDT

My mother (from Charleston, South Carolina) uses the word "giffy" (spelling unknown; hard g sound) for airborne salt spray that gets all over cars, windows, and (in extreme cases) power lines when you have a windy day near a body of salt water. [Actually the day doesn't have to be locally windy if you are near the surf, which can put salt spray into the air using the strength of winds far away.] Unfortunately my google-foo was insufficient to prove that this word, with this meaning, actually exists.

Is this term used outside my immediate family, and/or does it have an obvious heritage from better-known terms?

What is morphological analysis of words to estimate their meaning called?

Posted: 19 May 2021 10:49 AM PDT

Is there a word for this?

I'll use an example to show what I mean:

Let's say you don't know what sepsis means, which is bacterial infection of blood. So, you start thinking. You break the word up into what is most likely its components. In this case, it's likely you'd recognize its stem, seps, and its nominal suffix, is. Then, looking at seps, you remember the Seps, a snake whose venom caused putrefaction in a Greek bestiary. Then, you remember your house's septic tank, and the theme of putrefaction continues. With some more medical context, adding a non-linguistic logical element to your analysis (which in other examples might not be needed), you infer that sepsis is a bacterial infection of the blood. Other parts of the analysis might include looking for clues to find out what language the word stems from, and what languages it might have been transferred to, which further informs the analysis.

So, is there a word for this kind of analysis? Morpho-semantic analysis perhaps?

Note: I asked this question on Lingusitic.SE as well.

Can "author" be used to refer to the creator of a non-literary work?

Posted: 19 May 2021 09:46 AM PDT

I referred to the creator of a hardware device as the "author" of it earlier. Thinking back on it, I feel embarrassed for using "author" instead of "inventor" or "creator" or anything other than "author". To me, "author" is very much associated with writing/typing things, rather than coming up with this electronic device. But then I tried looking it up, to make myself possibly feel better, and I just find this ambiguous: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/author

  1. The originator or creator of a work, especially of a literary composition.

"Especially" here could mean "specifically" or "primarily". (Unless I'm mistaken about that as well.)

Can "author" be used as I used it, or did that just reveal to the receiver that I'm a poor English speaker whose overall message cannot be taken seriously?

What does 'week ahead' mean? [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 08:44 AM PDT

If someone says "Have a nice week ahead", do they mean the remaining days of the current week, or the next week?

What is the origin of the term "lee way" [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 08:41 AM PDT

The phrase seems as though it must have had some very specific meaning that was latter appropriated for more general usage as a way of asking for or giving the margin to make a possible mistake or not quite hit the mark.

what do you call a person who chase arguments by twisting every word you are saying in a middle of conversion [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 08:35 AM PDT

what do you call a person who chase arguments by twisting every word you are saying in a middle of conversion.

For example, a person may be accused of wrong doing and attempt to defend him self against the accusation while the accuser will twist his words and take them literately to use them against him. This way the accuser would deflate from the original argument to a new fake argument that was build by twisting his words. The accuser might not always twist words but can also trigger the other person by chasing every single words.

To give you an idea, I said to a friend that if you this again, it would be a consequences for your actions. The accuser would chase the consequences and says'( are you treating me! are you trying to play the victim! are you intending to kill me! how dare you of saying you wanna kill me,, ect.)

Should i write "introduction to" or "introduction of"? [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 09:11 AM PDT

I'm writing the Table of Contents for a document, but I'm confused to what I should use... Is it "introduction to the (sample) chisel" or "introduction of the chisel"?

Can't understand the meaning of the sentence [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 08:39 AM PDT

The day was warm—unusually so for the season—there was hardly a breath of air stirring; and the multitude were in no bad humor at being now and then besprinkled with friendly showers of momentary duration, that fell from large white masses of cloud which chequered in a fitful manner the blue vault of the firmament.

Casual way of asking someone how they found or calculated a number? [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 08:03 AM PDT

I am doing some calculations for a work project, and I guess that I have made a mistake in finding Flow Rate. I want to ask a coworker in a casual manner that where he/she get the flow rate from. This is not to undermine their work but to ask them to help me understand their method. I am looking for a phrasal verb that has a sense of finding, calculating and comming up with.

A question about the word **would** [migrated]

Posted: 19 May 2021 04:20 AM PDT

I'm really hoping that someone can help me.

In these sentences what does would actually mean? Usually we can use would to talk about past habit, suggestions, advice, conditionals etc.

1. He would get upset about that! (= I'm not surprised. Knowing him - this is a typical thing that he'd do)

or

2 A: She at all of biscuits and didn't leave any for anyone else.

B: Well, she would! (= I'm not surprised. Knowing her this is a typical thing that she'd do)

  • What can I call this form of would if I'd like to read more about it? Why do we use 'would' here? How might it be described in a grammatical way?

Thanks!

I'll tell you what let's do [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 05:32 AM PDT

I'll tell you what let's do.

What meaning of let's is used here? It doesn't seem an imperative.

" at the weekend" vs "at weekends"

Posted: 19 May 2021 02:52 AM PDT

The Longman dictionary of contemporary English lists the following example for the word "weekend" http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/weekend_1

I never work at the weekend.

However, I think the sentence

I never work at weekends.

is more appropriate. What am I missing?

Alternate phrases for "following service failures..." [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 02:02 AM PDT

I am looking for an alternative phrase for the word following in the sentence "Following service failures, customers report strong desires to receive an explanation of what went wrong ." in academic context.

Is it grammatical to split a qualifying subclause from the qualified noun?

Posted: 19 May 2021 01:42 AM PDT

While drafting an answer on another site, at one point I came up with the following sentence:

*You can't force someone to follow a contract who hasn't agreed to it.

I think the intended meaning is clear. But if you apply the grammar rules strictly, without regard for semantics, it would seem that the 'who' applies to the contract, which is a strange thing to say.

Is this construction grammatical and does it have a distinct name?

Let's schedule "it" vs Let's schedule "this", which one is correcT? [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 01:37 AM PDT

Whenever I get an email asking to share my availability for meeting/interview. I tell them let's schedule this on XYZ date at ABC time.

Which one is correct, let's schedule this or let's schedule it?

Also let's or lets?

The expression "that (reason) is that (explanation) " should be avoid in a formal communication? [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 02:27 AM PDT

"The reason behind that is that she is polite" contains a grammatical mistake in the part "that is that"? It is a formal letter. Thank you for your help.

We are working on the layout for size 10 (or: for THE size 10) [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 04:49 AM PDT

Please note that this is technical/engineering language.

We are working on the layout for size 10 (or: for the size 10).

Am I right to say that the definite article, in front of the noun 'size', is not needed in the sentence above?

Could anyone explain why or why not?

Circle "with radius" vs. "of radius" [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 02:08 AM PDT

Are both of there correct?

  1. Circle with radius r = 1 cm.
  2. Circle of radius r = 1 cm.

I do not want to use other sentences such as "Radius of a circle is r = 1 cm."

Collective term for nontechnical staff at a company?

Posted: 19 May 2021 04:32 AM PDT

I am looking for a term which would refer to all of the nontechnical staff at a technical company.

For example, if it is a software firm, the term would refer to, say, all HR, education, travel and relocation, wellness and finance staff.

Example

Without the great [nontechnical staff] at our company, our programmers wouldn't have been able to achieve what they did.

Words I considered

I could use the term "nontechnical staff" but I do not like the fact that it denotes what they aren't instead of what they are.

I also thought about "support staff". According to Cambridge Dictionary, support staff are

the people who work for an organization to keep it running and to support the people who are involved in the organization's main business.

However, the problem with this term is that, at a technical company, when someone hears the term "support staff", the first thing that comes to mind is IT or technical support staff.

Grammatically wrong quote

Posted: 19 May 2021 07:45 AM PDT

As a researcher, I often need to quote from the previous authors. Sometimes, it happens that there are spelling mistakes in the part I want to quote. I treat this as a human error and write the correct spelling. However, I am unsure how should I handle if there is some (relatively) serious error? For example, I found the word choosed. Should I simply copy with the wrong word, or fix it?

If I change it, the previous authors (from whom I took the quote) may be unhappy. If I do not change it, the reviewers (who would be reviewing my paper) may be unhappy by seeing my lack of care while writing a paper.

This question is different from this, as I am confused whether or not to correct. Since I am writing a formal paper, I cannot use sic.

Word for a person who avoid accountability of his promises by denial and shaming [duplicate]

Posted: 19 May 2021 08:23 AM PDT

What do you call a person who gives a promise and then denies, and shames and demonizes you for your orginal inquiry. For example a person might promise to sponsor you and then deny of giving such promise and start to shame you for inquiring about sponsorship.

Is there a word or phrase for a location that everyone would want to go to where you can do a lot of different things? [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 04:34 AM PDT

I am looking for a word or phrase for a place where you could go talk, learn, play games, etc. I think something like a school would be the best word for this, but I am looking for something different. I am not talking about heaven or a sanctuary just more along the lines of a place where everyone would want to go to hangout with their friends, have a business meeting, etc. Like a club or a coffee shop maybe, but is there another word for a location where you could go to do a lot of different things. thank you.

Can I replace "to conquer" by "conquering" in this sentence?

Posted: 19 May 2021 05:04 AM PDT

The green, the result of men's toil to conquer nature, is wheat fields blown by the breeze into green waves.

At the moment with present perfect

Posted: 19 May 2021 06:07 AM PDT

Yesterday I was doing some english exercises and I've had some problems with a sentence:

At the moment, most of the work is being done. (solution)

At the moment, most of the work has been done. (my answer)

Why wasn't mine right? The context says that a lot of work in the house has been done (the walls have been put on, the roof has been put on and the bathroom has been fit), so now it only remains to paint the walls and to fit the kitchen.

"I'm sure this would not have happened" vs. "I'm not sure this didn't happen" [closed]

Posted: 19 May 2021 05:42 AM PDT

I was asked what's wrong with this sentence:

I'm not sure this didn't happen.

I didn't think it was incorrect, but my friend said it was, and should have been

I'm sure this would not have happened.

So, is the sentence correct either way, or is one correct and the other not?

"The ones" or "those"?

Posted: 19 May 2021 01:53 AM PDT

I recently corrected

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

"ghettos, such as those found..."

Was I correct, or are both versions right?

Which is the preposition to go with “best”? Is it “best at”?

Posted: 19 May 2021 03:20 AM PDT

Is it right to say:

We take pride in doing what we are best at, delivering unsurpassed levels of service, so our customers can do what they are best at.
Posted by at

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