Friday, May 28, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

"quantum mechanical" vs "quantum-mechanical" [duplicate]

Posted: 28 May 2021 09:29 AM PDT

I'm currently writing a short report, where one (sub-)chapter heading reads:

The quantum(-)mechanical basics

I am now wondering, whether it is preferable with or without the hyphen. When googling both words in quotation marks, "quantum-mechanical" gets 5.170.000 results, whereas "quantum mechanical" gets 4.990.000 results. Even in the wikipedia-article on Quantum Mechanics, both spellings are used.

Cause or Causes -- Plural form or not

Posted: 28 May 2021 09:34 AM PDT

It's from a GMAT sentence correction question, and the correct answer is:

According to scientists, human expansion and human appropriation of Earth's finite resources are the cause of what maybe the most sweeping wave of species extinctions since the demise of the dinosaur 65 million years ago.

Since "human expansion" and "human appropriation" are the two reasons, why does the sentence use "cause" instead of "causes"? Why is it in singular form?

I'm so confused, any explanation would be really appreciated!

Is there a word for the feeling that something is “off” about an overly pleasant group activity?

Posted: 28 May 2021 09:09 AM PDT

Is there a single word for the eeriness that you might feel when you're in a group activity that seems so pleasant, cheery, and safe that you can't help but feel like something's wrong?

The word should fit in this phrase: "Everyone is way too happy, and these streamers only add to the ____."

For example, you attend a child's birthday party. Every single guest has a smile on their face, everyone's chatting with each other, everyone's lively and happy. But it quickly begins to feel so false, artificial or superficial, like an illusion of pleasure. You abstain from interacting with anyone because they all seem like robots programmed for the facade that this party is, unreal or inauthentic. You feel disconnected. Perhaps this is "depersonalization", but the word I'm looking for would imply that this feeling was prompted by the merriment of the event combined with the fact that it was a group activity.

As another example, you observe a concert from the outskirts of its audience. Everyone's jumping around, laughing, and having fun. They might feel like genuine, real people, but you can't shake the feeling that everyone ought to be doing something else, something important, even if you can't pinpoint what that something may be. It's like everyone there is experiencing Peter Pan Syndrome. The idea that they're tiring themselves out by moving around so vigorously invokes a sense of pointless self-harm.

A third example: a VTuber excitedly sings a major-key, upbeat song, giggling off their mistakes every now and then. You notice a count of tens of thousands of viewers under their stream, one of which, for some reason, is you. You begin feeling uncomfortable, like this is all weird to be doing. You feel like an adult/teenager in a playpen, and you close the stream.

Basically, I'm looking for a word that means "eeriness" or "uncanniness", which describes the mood of each situation above, but implies that the source of this uneasy mood is the elation that the group activity would generally be expected to be received with.

Note: The reason the activities I refer to are group activities and necessarily not single-person is that the perception of many others indulging in the activity contributes significantly to the triggering of the feeling I'm looking to describe. Say the above examples occurred without crowds, and it was just you enjoying a song or video by yourself. You might be able to just stop, turn around, and engage in another activity as soon as your subconsciousness asks to move on, and you wouldn't feel any noticeable unease. In group activities, not only are you forced to continue witnessing people indulging in the activity, you're forced to witness them indulging together, and there's always a sense of enthusiasm and immersion in group pursuit that one may cringe at if they feel the mood I'm talking about.

Are mean (clarify meaning) and mean (average) etymologically connected? [closed]

Posted: 28 May 2021 08:44 AM PDT

It occurred to me that the mean average is sort of the 'definition' of the set, while asking for a statement's meaning is also seeking clarity or a definition.

Is this a coincidence, or was one usage inspired by the usage of the other?

Does the noun after `per` need an article? [closed]

Posted: 28 May 2021 07:51 AM PDT

E.g., There is one property per heading vs There is one property per a heading. The first one seems more correct.

Another example:

  • There are two colors per book.
  • There are two colors per a book.
  • There are two colors per one book.
  • There are two colors per each book.

Does the word 'anxiate' exist? What is its usage?

Posted: 28 May 2021 07:51 AM PDT

Anxiate is a word I'd been thinking about, and felt that it should stand for something along the lines of "to give anxiety to someone". As it turns out, I've hit several references to this word which don't really contain much info. The Cambridge dictionary doesn't yield anything substantial either.

It seems to exist in Latin, with a small explanation here.

EDIT: As per the comments, this word does not exist in English. My second question still remains:

  1. Is there an alternative to this word in English?

Sixth from last? pro pre ante pen ult

Posted: 28 May 2021 07:26 AM PDT

There is a latin sequence of terms that refer to order from last:

Has the final word ever been used or coined anywhere?

A black and white horizontally striped T-shirt or a black and white horizontal striped T-shirt?

Posted: 28 May 2021 06:11 AM PDT

I'm looking for a noun phrase to describe a black T-shirt with white horizontal stripes on it. I've come up with two possible answers: ''A black and white horizontally striped T-shirt'' and ''a black and white horizontal striped T-shirt''. Which one sounds better to your ears?

question something, challenge something, etc [closed]

Posted: 28 May 2021 05:27 AM PDT

Assume you want to question/challenge an idea x with the purpose of exposing flaws in it. What would be some good alternatives to say it?

  1. Question x
  2. Challenge x

Any other options?

Is it correct to say 'available drugs have...' or should it be 'the available drugs have...'?

Posted: 28 May 2021 08:13 AM PDT

The sentence is as follows: Available drugs - antimonials, pentamidine, amphotericin B and miltefosine - have side-effects. The writer wants to know why they cannot say: The available drugs - antimonials, pentamidine, amphotericin B and miltefosine - have side-effects.

I can quote no rule but feel the first instance is more correct.

Is "Able of *verb in continous*" correct? [closed]

Posted: 28 May 2021 04:29 AM PDT

Currently going through a small mental breakdown with this:

"... equipment to do so, and governments should be able of solving the problem..."

Is this expression correct?

Comma before "and" with two seemingly imperative clauses

Posted: 28 May 2021 04:30 AM PDT

Could some knowledgeable individual please tell me whether this sentence needs a comma before the "and":

"Share the good times and stay together with the family at the Grand Hotel in LA".

I am aware that two imperatives are separated by a comma when they are of a certain length, but here, "Share the good times" and "stay together with the family" both complete/rely on the final part of the sentence "at the Grand Hotel in LA". It is basically "Stay together with the family at the Grand Hotel in LA" and "Share the good times at the Grand Hotel in LA" as another. Does this mean that a comma is not called for because they both relate to the final part of the sentence, or is it still required?

I really hope I explained that well enough for you to understand. Any help would be very much appreciated, and lengthy explanations are extremely welcome (rules and all)! Thank you, everyone.

ADDITION: This would maybe demonstrate what I mean better: "Experience dining at its finest and get a great night's sleep at the Grand Hotel." Would there be a comma before "and" here?

Is it normative to use "even" in the sense of "too", "also"?

Posted: 28 May 2021 09:41 AM PDT

My colleagues often use "even" as in "Even I was thinking about that" instead of "I also was thinking about that". This usage seems to be widespread in India. Is it accepted elsewhere?

Pay $0 in your deductible VS Pay $0 of your deductible

Posted: 28 May 2021 08:42 AM PDT

Should I use 'of' or 'in' in this situation?

I've been using the logic of "Get $5 off in your next order" and wrote "pay $0 in your deductible" but my friend told me it was wrong and I should use 'of' instead?

What does "beat the birds" mean?

Posted: 28 May 2021 02:28 AM PDT

Heard this phrase in Frank Sinatra's song.

Just say the words and we'll beat the birds Down to Acapulco Bay

Just wonder what that means. I have rough idea, just to go to Acapulco Bay. Want to understand exact flavor of it.

Expressions about minimal cosmetics ingredients [closed]

Posted: 28 May 2021 01:21 AM PDT

I am making a cosmetics product. This product's concept is "minimum formula". Many cosmetics use over 30+ ingredients to 1 product, but this is made with just 10 ingredients.

I want to represent it with simple sentence

"Minimal formula of 10"

"Minimum formula of 10"

"10 Ingredients."

Do you think any proper sentence? I think aboves are all weird...

Is it right to say "restaurant supplies made easy"?

Posted: 27 May 2021 10:20 PM PDT

I'm not a native speaker, but I am trying to structure a tagline for my school work commercial. The commercial is trying to say that we can help you make restaurant supplies purchasing (this process) much easier.

I have seen many expressions like "Gardening made easy ","restaurant management made easy", or "payments made easy". However the subject is always referring to an action, like gardening, management, or payment.

I am wondering if "restaurant supplies made easy" could deliver the intention, and if it is a correct tagline. Or should I use "restaurant supply made easy"?

Need your wisdom. Thanks guys!

Should I use hyphenation on compounds consisting of three nouns?

Posted: 28 May 2021 12:30 AM PDT

In our software, we extract/detect information from/on images, e.g., face features and hand gestures.

When referring to these processes, should it be...?

  • "face feature extraction" and "hand gesture detection"
    or
  • "face-feature extraction" and "hand-gesture detection"

A word for 'monotonous' or 'repetitive' with a positive connotation

Posted: 27 May 2021 10:32 PM PDT

For some time I have been looking for a word that describes a repetitive or monotonous task in a positive light. In particular, some people find simple tasks like grocery shopping, counting pennies, or making highly detailed drawings to be soothing. The closest thing I've found to such a word is the phrase 'comfortingly repetitive.' Synonyms for 'monotonous,' 'comforting,' 'soothing,' and 'repetitive' have turned up nothing close.

A vaguely related word might be 'stereotypy,' though this word is a noun that (negatively) describes a pathological behavior, whereas I am looking for a positive adjective. Maybe someone with a stereotypy would describe the tasks they do using the sought-after word.

A noun for a 'comfortingly repetitive task' would also be helpful, so long as it had a positive connotation.

Is there an idiom for "looking for something in the wrong place"?

Posted: 28 May 2021 06:06 AM PDT

I want to express how someone might have an unfulfilled social need and seek to satisfy it in the wrong place. For example: someone has a romantic social need yet seeks for it to be satisfied from a popular, professional Twitch streamer; or someone has a friendship social need yet seeks to satisfy it with their therapist, which is inappropriate/unprofessional.

Is there a common idiom that describes something like this? Or can you come up with one?

I came up with "looking for an orange in an apple orchard", but I'm not sure if it captures what I want to say.

(also, I read the responses to Phrase or idiom for funnelling efforts in wrong direction, What could be an idiom describing the action of looking for something in the wrong place?, and An idiom meaning someone's doing something useless and has no result at the end, but they don't have the nuance I'm looking for).

Thanks in advance!

Should I add 'the' in titles?

Posted: 28 May 2021 12:06 AM PDT

I am recently writing a proposal titled "Evaluating and Optimizing (the) Utility of Explanations". But I am not sure if I should include 'the' before 'Utility' in the title. Actually this question has always been bothering me. Is there any difference in the use of 'the' in titles v.s. bodies?

Is "devolve" a sloppy (if technically permissable) way to say "de-evolve"?

Posted: 28 May 2021 08:55 AM PDT

I have a question about the word "devolve." The most traditional usage, if I judge by the OED, is to mean "to pass down to or onto," as in a title or an inheritance or similar. Other related meanings of "falling to" or "rolling down" to or upon are related to this. I see this quite a bit these days in British media in the discussion of Brexit. My question has to do with the usage I hear and see quite often now in the US which is to mean "deteriorate." I see this quite a lot in US publications (e.g. Newsweek recently: "Should ramped-up tensions between the U.S. and North Korea devolve into outright nuclear war..." or a recent article in Food and Wine magazine asking, "Will the concept evolve (devolve?) into murder-mystery theater?") I see it constantly in academic writing as well. The OED gives this usage as 8b, quite far down the list of meanings, and gives only one example (from 1830, a "scholar devolving into a buffoon"), origin obscure. Even though the origin of this usage seems to emerge before Darwin, I would guess that the widespread usage nowadays in this sense of degeneration is due to a conceptual pairing with "evolution" (implying positive progress), even though this is only based on an apparent similarity of devolve with "de-evolve," not a real etymological basis in the word. This usage seems wrong or at least questionable to me--but maybe I am just being too rigid.

Is this a usage that you deem legitimate enough to be tolerated, despite the misunderstanding of meaning that seems to drive it, or does the false foundation (evolve vs "devolve" rather than de-evolve) make it sloppy usage on some level? Or is it a popular misuse to be avoided, akin to sports athletes and everyone else claiming they feel "truly humbled" by a victory rather than honored?

Why does "to dip" mean "to leave"?

Posted: 28 May 2021 01:26 AM PDT

So, "dip" has come to mean "leave" in American slang. As in, "Let's dip," i.e. "Let's get out of here."

How did that happen? The best I could come up with is: a dip in the road obscures vision, so if you're in a dip, you can't be seen-- and, if you leave, you can't be seen. That's a bit of a stretch, though.

Anyone have a more plausible explanation?

What is the word for the gesture when someone takes three fingers and kisses it into the air?

Posted: 28 May 2021 09:30 AM PDT

You often see this with Italians, especially when complimenting some food they just ate, but it has evolved into a more universal gesture.

Take the thumb, index, and middle finger, gather them together, bring them to your lips, and kiss them, while moving your arm away and spread your fingers, while saying MWAH!

Is there a single word for this gesture?

"Per documentation:" vs. "Per the documentation:"

Posted: 28 May 2021 08:09 AM PDT

I often quote the documentation of the software I am writing about on StackOverflow. Typically, I use the short phrase:

Per documentation:

Also serving as deep link to the quoted passage, followed by the quote.

Recently somebody edited a post of mine to make this:

Per the documentation:

Not the most important detail, but now I wonder which is more correct. I like to be brief, so if either is correct my preference is obvious.

I am typically referring to the official documentation of the project, not just some documentation, if that should matter.

Why do we have two words to describe post-mortem medical examination?

Posted: 28 May 2021 08:11 AM PDT

Autopsy is defined as

inspection and dissection of a body after death, as for determination of the cause of death; postmortem examination.

Necropsy is defined as

the examination of a body after death; autopsy.

In practice, it seems that "autopsy" is generally used when referring to the post-mortem examination of a human body, and "necropsy" refers to the examination of non-human bodies. I see no immediate evidence in the root words that would explain why we have this distinction, except perhaps for the "self" that αὐτός refers to being used to describe post-mortem examination of humans specifically, leaving "necropsy" to mean examination of dead bodies in general.

That is all conjecture, however, and it seems like a stretch. So: where do these two separate words come from?

How do you spell wifi / Wi-Fi / WiFi?

Posted: 28 May 2021 08:45 AM PDT

This is probably related to whether one should capitalize Internet or not. I am looking for the correct spelling of wifi when referring to a wireless connection to the Internet. I want to tell the users of my iPhone app that they cannot use their cellular network to watch the HD videos.

If I use the capitalized and hyphenated version as seen on Wikipedia, will I be referring to the Wi-Fi brand rather than the concept of wifi?

"Wi-Fi" is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance and the brand name for products using the IEEE 802.11 family of standards.

Some dude on Meta.stackoverflow made this claim with no explanation:

WiFi" is a bit better than "wifi" as it asserts the etymology, compare history of usage of "hifi" from which it derives. – Steve-o Aug 29 at 3:59
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