Friday, May 7, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Is it correct to say 'mistakes in understanding'?

Posted: 07 May 2021 09:41 AM PDT

Is it correct to say 'mistakes in understanding' or a similar expression? For example: 'there is a mistake in your understanding.'

I am confused about this since I assume that 'understanding' refers to something that has been understood, is known, and is true. If so, a mistaken understanding seems to be a contradiction, similar to saying that something is a 'false truth.'

Thank you!

I need to use two compound words in a sentence and their first component is the same. Do I start the second word with a hyphen?

Posted: 07 May 2021 11:17 AM PDT

I need to write the following sentence in a description of a book's binding:

"Printer's wrappers, housed in cloth-backed and cloth-edged card slipcase."

This seems clunky to me, and I would rather write "cloth-backed and -edged card slipcase." Is the hyphen necessary before "edged?" I know that in the opposite situation (in which the second component is shared between two compound words) one can simply list the first components and follow each with a hyphen. An example I saw in another question was "ground- and sea-based forces." Can the same concept be applied to this situation? Thank you!

Word for “place of power”

Posted: 07 May 2021 11:21 AM PDT

I'm looking for a word (or literary/biblical reference) that means "a high place close to power and/or god."

As in "the stage was her ___, where she felt as if she could conquer the world."

Right now I've settled on "dominion," but that doesn't quite capture the spatial connotation I'm after. "High ground" is better on that front but lacks the immense power connotation I need.

I swear I've got one on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't quite reach it.

Is there a word for a swift periodic movement?

Posted: 07 May 2021 08:52 AM PDT

I want to express something along the lines of "I was moving left and right periodically (repeatedly)". Is there a word for such a movement? I thought about balancing, intercalating and even oscillating between left and right, but I am not quite sure.

What does Raw Defiance mean?

Posted: 07 May 2021 09:45 AM PDT

I looked up about the word "Raw" and found it has bunch of different meanings, one of them being 'A Natural, uncontrolled quality'

And, the other day, I heard someone say, in a bit of an apprehensive tone, "He is of raw defiance".

I couldn't seem to reproduce its usage in this context, what other sorts of qualities can I pair with 'Raw' and do the qualities always need to be indicative of strength and superiority?

How else can it be used, it'd be great to see a couple of examples.

Plsssssssssss help me [closed]

Posted: 07 May 2021 08:21 AM PDT

What sound does a car makes???

Is being “invited to” an interview the same as being “invited for” one?

Posted: 07 May 2021 09:10 AM PDT

I'm writing a LinkedIn post about an interview I did with The College Fix. The first sentence of my post is: "After seeing one of my Austin news segments, Jon Garaffa from The College Fix invited me to an interview where we spoke about life at TVAH." I'm concerned about whether it's correct for me to say that I was "invited to" the interview instead of being "invited for" it. I've heard the sentence both ways. Is being "invited to" an interview the same as being "invited for" one?

Advice for abstract title

Posted: 07 May 2021 08:17 AM PDT

I am writing an article about a software project, I am wondering which abstract title would be the more appropriate.

I would like to tell about a system we have been developing for a few years now; it has been presented before, as well as its capacity for evolution - or at least the new features we plan to add.

Is it as easy as: "Project X and its evolution" ?

I don't like "evolution" because we are talking about something new that is still in the planning process, and thus, that may change; so the outcome is not certain yet. I thought of "perspectives". I don't know if it would be ok ? (I am not a native English speaker)

Is there a better formulation ?

What is the meaning of "self-respect"?

Posted: 07 May 2021 07:56 AM PDT

What is the meaning of "self-respect" or "respect yourself"? I googled the term but I can't find a clear explanation. I just get the feeling that it is not exactly the same as "self-esteem".

The more I research the more I find it is probably culture related. For example the meanings of "self-confidence" and "self-esteem" seem universal. Self-confidence is 自信 in Chinese and they basically have the same meaning; self-esteem is 自尊. But I find that "self-respect" is a term and a concept for which Chinese language doesn't seem to have a counterpart, I don't think "self-respect" is 自重.

One of the reasons I think it might be culture related is that when I look for career advice I see the word respect yourself quite often, e.g., to quote from this article, "A letter to myself as a brand new software engineer" (I am a software engineer in China, obviously, lol).

But this doesn't mean that everyone is better than you. You have to respect yourself and your skills.

what is the meaning of that? In China I seldom hear people talking about career advice mention the phrase "respect yourself".

Difference between “getting rich” and “becoming rich”

Posted: 07 May 2021 06:16 AM PDT

Is there any difference between becoming rich and getting rich?

If there is, what would it be?

hadn't regretted or didn't regret?

Posted: 07 May 2021 06:14 AM PDT

I'm struggling to find out if my usage of "hadn't" is correct in this sentence:

She hadn't regretted this even once so far.

Thank you in advance :)

Is there a word for an explanation that is simple but wrong?

Posted: 07 May 2021 06:30 AM PDT

Here's an example:

  • Child: "Why are trees so tall?"
  • Mother: "So we can have a good shadow in summer".

The answer is adequate in the specific context by being simple and [superficially] valid. However, it probably does not resist a more academic or biological analysis.

Is there a name for such type of answer?

I found the word "sophistry" but I'm not sure it applies exactly to this.

Is there an expression for directing your opinion to someone but you use someone else's name?

Posted: 07 May 2021 04:25 AM PDT

Imagine there are 3 people A, B, and C. A and B are talking, A says to B that person C thinks he is arrogant. But actually, that's what person A is thinking. He just uses person C to avoid possible side effects or to make his opinion more valuable. The important thing is that person A does not have bad intention. Is there an expression in English that would explain what person A is doing?

Meaning of the verb to change when it is used in a properly intransitive way and not simply omitting the reflexive pronoun

Posted: 07 May 2021 05:36 AM PDT

What does the verb to change mean when there is no object (not even implicit) as opposed to simply omitting the reflexive pronoun?

For example:

Do you want to change? vs Do you want to change yourself?

It was said that

He is not asking if you want to change an object, but if you want to change. (This distinction applies whether you say you want to change your wife, your habits, your mind or yourself — they are all 'objects' in terms of this question - objects, as opposed to subjects).

and that

'Do you want to change?' is by no means the same as 'Do you want to change yourself?' - which is very like to 'Do you want to change your wife?'.

A wish to change is an holistic qualitative state of mind, and the reply 'how much?' and 'in what respect?' are quantitative, and analytic respectively, answering quite different inquiries, whatever the linguistics we can summon to dispute it.

I am not actually understanding the difference in meaning. I was always presuming that the reflexive pronoun was left implicit and was ommited.

Using “rivetted” (double t) is correct?

Posted: 07 May 2021 04:35 AM PDT

I am going through the following sentence.

I looked up at my boss and his eyes were rivetted on me

google search auto corrects it to riveted. One of the meaning to rivet from Oxford is

direct (one's eyes or attention) intently

  1. rivetted (using double t - tt) is incorrect?
  2. In the above sentence what meaning best suits for rivetted?

What is the subjective of this sentence?

Posted: 07 May 2021 04:21 AM PDT

Dong,2019 said that

A firm that colludes with other firms in a foreign product market is subject to that country's antitrustlaws. Foreign leniency law passage is thus likely to affect firms that operate across borders, not least because antitrust authorities coordinate their actions in prosecuting similar cartels

So "that" in the first sentence represents for "A firm" or "other firms". I thought it represent for "a firm" but it is meaningless if it is the case because it is for sure a firm will be affected by its country's antitrustlaws.

I doubted that"that country's antitrustlaws" are antitrustlaws of "other firms" in this circumstance.

exult, etymological order

Posted: 07 May 2021 07:15 AM PDT

I checked etymology for exult in etymonline. Details are:

1560s, "to leap up;" 1590s, "to rejoice, triumph,"

from French exulter, from Latin exultare/exsultare "rejoice exceedingly, revel, vaunt, boast;" literally "leap about, leap up,"

frequentative of exsilire "to leap up," from ex "out" (see ex-) + salire "to leap" (see salient (adj.)).

I have following questions: pls help clarify. thanks

  1. with in 30 years the meaning changes from "to leap up" to "to rejoice, triumph"? how this transformation is so fast?

  2. from French or Latin? Is this possible to come both from French and Latin simultaneously?

  3. frequentative of exsilire? what does this mean?

frequentative details from wiki:

In grammar, a frequentative form (abbreviated freq or fr) of a word is one that indicates repeated action, but is not to be confused with iterative aspect.The frequentative form can be considered a separate but not completely independent word called a frequentative. The frequentative is no longer productive in English, but still is in some language groups, such as Finno-Ugric, Balto-Slavic, Turkic, etc.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequentative

What's happening inside the Old Lady?

Posted: 07 May 2021 10:30 AM PDT

Is there a term for the kind of elaborating progression seen in children's songs such as "The Old Lady Who Swallowed..." and "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea"? I can almost dredge one up, but I can't quite express it.

I'm trying to relate this metaphorically to a situation where one is in a hole and keeps digging -- a cascade of complications that accumulate when trying to solve what starts as a simple problem.

I could always make a direct reference to a song, like "It seemed simple enough at first, but before long we were swallowing a frog to catch a fly", but I was hoping to find a word or phrase that conveys the idea without invoking a nursery rhyme.

ETA - a suggested dupe gets only a bit toward the issue: I'm looking for something that reflects the compounding. Not just one bad thing into another, but a bad thing that you try to fix, only to introduce another, probably worse thing, and again, and so on. Out of the frying pan into the fire, out of the fire into the furnace, out of the furnace into...

FETA - I got a suggestion from someone not in this clubhouse that fits well and might spark more discussion. "The situation snowballed", invoking the accumulation of a runaway downhill tumble. Not an avalanche, just a growing problem.

Etymological origin and earliest recorded occurrence of 'saunter' in English

Posted: 07 May 2021 04:57 AM PDT

Someone just sent me a quotation from the explorer/naturalist John Muir, in which he makes the following etymological claim:

Do you know the origin of that word saunter? It's a beautiful word. Away back in the middle ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply 'A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers.

The quotation goes back to Albert Palmer, The Mountain Trail and Its Message (1911), who reports that Muir said it to him in a conversation they were having about hiking. Palmer withholds judgment about "whether the derivation just given is scientific or fanciful"—but Merriam-Webster seems inclined to view it as the latter. From Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003):

saunter vi {prob. fr. ME santren to muse} (ca. 1667) : to walk about in an idle or leisurely manner : STROLL

The Online Etymology Dictionary likewise appears to be unimpressed by the "sainte-terre-er" explanation:

saunter (v.) late 15c., santren "to muse, be in reverie," of uncertain origin despite many absurd speculations. Meaning "walk with a leisurely gait" is from 1660s, and may be a different word. Klein suggests this sense of the word derives via Anglo-French sauntrer (mid-14c.) from French s'aventurer "to take risks," but OED finds this "unlikely."

In an interesting extended discussion of the Muir quotation, Etymology Online traces the "à la sainte terre" origin theory to Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English Language and beyond. Johnson has this entry for saunter, which he augments with instances of the word (in various forms) in literary use by L'Estrange, Dryden, Locke, Prior, Tickel, Gay, and Pope:

To SAUNTER v.n. [aller à la sainte terre, from idle people who roved about the country, and asked charity under pretence of going à la sainte terre, to the holy land, or sans terre, as having no settled home] To wander about idly ; to loiter ; to linger.

Etymology Online then traces the roots of Johnson's proposed etymology back to Nathan Bailey, An Universal Etymological Dictionary, second edition (1724), which actually proposes two possible derivations:

To SAUNTER, {of Sauter or Santeller, F. to dance, q. d. to dance to and fro, or of Sainte-Terre, F.} to go idling up and down. See to Santer.

Bailey's etymological entry for santer is quite elaborate:

To SANTER, {of Sancte Terre, F. or Sancta Terra, L. i. e. the Holy Land, because when there were frequent Expeditions to the Holy Land many idle Persons went from Place to Place upon pretence they had taken the Cross upon them, or intended to do so, and to go thither} to wander up and down.

I have three questions about the etymology of saunter:

  1. What is the earliest source in English to make the connection between saunter and sainte-terre?
  2. What is the earliest recorded instance in English of saunter/santer in the sense of "to wander or go idling up and down"?
  3. What is the likeliest etymology of saunter?

Is there a term for nicknames which are inserted between first and last names?

Posted: 07 May 2021 10:06 AM PDT

Examples:

  • Mike "no-stop" Granger
  • Jimmy "the wrench" Parsons

Is there a specific term that describes either of the following?

  • the nickname that comes between the first and last name
  • the format itself

Does [z] + [j] equal [ ʒ ]?

Posted: 07 May 2021 04:41 AM PDT

Could it be that sometimes the voiced alveolar sibilant [z] at the end of a syllable merges with a following palatal approximant [j] to produce a voiced postalveolar sibilant [ʒ]?

Bob Dylan clearly sings "close your eyes", whereas The Hollies seem to say "closureyes".

Is this a dialect thing?

Name for idea that if a concept is confusing you then you are starting to understand it

Posted: 07 May 2021 11:03 AM PDT

I feel like I've heard a term for this concept before, perhaps in the form of "(Person)'s Law"...

The notion that, only if a person finds a given concept bizarre/confusing/paradoxical are they really starting to understand it.

Examples of concepts that this can apply to: quantum physics, relativity...

What is the figure of speech for this sentence ‘be polite but assertive to strangers’ [closed]

Posted: 07 May 2021 04:55 AM PDT

Be polite but assertive to strangers. My teacher gave us a comprehension passage on kidnapping, ransom and extortion. The sentence was a tip on how to avoid getting kidnapped.

Is there a noun for "someone who has access"?

Posted: 07 May 2021 09:26 AM PDT

I'm building a data model for a computer program, and I'm in need a noun (a short compound noun is acceptable) for "someone who has access".

The information will be provided as an answer to the question: "Who has access to the data within your company?".

My initial thought was to go with something along the lines of "internal data accessor", but accessor doesn't seem to be a common English word, and it's usage in computer programming doesn't quite match what I'm describing.

Past tense of "make up for" ambiguity

Posted: 07 May 2021 05:07 AM PDT

I am in a literary conundrum, I need to use the "make up for" idiom in past tense, however "make" translates to "made", which forms the "made up" idiom, which is fundamentally different from the "make up for".

Is "made up for" ambiguous? Should I leave it as it is or go for "compensated for"?

The actual sentence is "Stuff that cannot be made up for".

"high-quality" vs. "quality"

Posted: 07 May 2021 09:53 AM PDT

This appeared in the NYT the other day: "...creating a quality product is challenging."

I've always been under the impression that one should say "high-quality" or "low-quality" or have some modifier(?) before "quality". It seems weird to just say "quality" on its own. Is it?

I don't know the grammatical terms for what I'm trying to express (and if someone could fill me in with some explanation I would greatly appreciate it!).

Term for how politicians denigrate their opponents to win the support of the populace

Posted: 07 May 2021 04:39 AM PDT

As it's election time in UK and some other countries as well, we're used to listening to politicians' oratory. During the speeches we often observe how politicians try to win public support by denigrating their opposition or laying blame on them at times even unfairly and unjustly. Is there a word for this tactic? It may not necessarily relate to politics alone.

Usage of "ladies and gentlemen" to address two people of different sex

Posted: 07 May 2021 08:51 AM PDT

It seems to be not quite logical to use the traditional address "ladies and gentlemen" when there are only a single lady and a single gentleman in the room, not counting for the person who is speaking.

What an address (in a similarly traditional style) would it be better to use in such case? Does it depend on the speaker's gender or any other circumstances?
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