Friday, July 23, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Is “double click” ambiguous? [closed]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 09:04 AM PDT

There are a left button and a right button of a mouse.

Does "double click" mean:

  1. Pressing two buttons of the mouse simultaneously.
  2. Pressing one button of the mouse twice.

Does 'Only' always trigger inversion? [duplicate]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 08:11 AM PDT

Is every sentence that "Only" comes first inverted?

For example, which one is correct? "Only after every person on Earth forgets me am I dead." or "Only after every person on Earth forgets me I am dead".

A word for air that comes from your nose rather than your mouth?

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 08:16 AM PDT

I am looking for a concise, non-clumsy way of referring to breath that comes from one's nose rather than from one's mouth. A single-word would be nice.

I've done a Google search to no avail and reviewed Is There a Term for Letting Out an Exasperated Sigh Through the Nose but it's not what I'm looking for. Huff and humph were some of the good answers there but it wouldn't quite work in the sentence I am thinking of.

"Bad breath can be mitigated by not breathing through your mouth. Air that comes from your nose rather than your mouth is less smelly.

[One word for the all bold words would be beautifully concise if it exists!]

One post suggested suspirate which doesn't appear to be a word but that led me to suspire (verb) and suspiration (noun) which are. Unfortunately, according to a review of the OED entries these mean sigh and don't denote a sigh through the nose.

A compound word or phrase would be acceptable, but preferably something shorter than the phrase I came up with!

Sign to warn tourist about water

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 07:09 AM PDT

We have to put up a sign for tourists: the concept is that the water hasn't been tested so you can drink but at your own risk. Which one is correct/better?

  1. Water not controlled
  2. Not (non?) controlled water
  3. Untested water
  4. Not (non?) tested water
  5. Water not analyzed

What is the meaning of "followed by" in this context

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 07:30 AM PDT

On week two of her long, slow campaign for recovery, one of the students met Kathleen. He listened to her heart murmur, and he and I talked about aortic stenosis, and its association with blackouts and the risk of sudden death. We discussed what might be done about it – an echocardiogram back in the big hospital to assess its severity, followed by a decision: open surgery versus the newer, less invasive transcatheter aortic valve implantation, both performed in the regional cardiothoracic centre sixty miles down the road.

This is from Lucy Pollock's The Book About Getting Older. I'm having trouble interpreting the last sentence because of "followed by". Can I understand the story as "the decision of whether to get open surgery or less invasive transcatheter aortic valve implantation in the regional cardiothoracic centre sixty miles down the road will "be based on" an echocardiogram back in the big hospital to assess its severity."?

Why does Bart Simpson frequently speak British sentences in the classic The Simpsons episodes? [migrated]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 06:01 AM PDT

In many situations in the old The Simpsons episodes, Bart inexplicably speaks a sentence in British, out of the blue. For example:

You mean it ain't me noggin', it's me peepers?

(After his American teacher states that she suspects that Bart's apparent slow-wittedness may have been the result of a simple eyesight problem.)

Nothing about the context seems to warrant him speaking in a very British manner, and he only ever does it for a "line" or two.

Obviously, it "sounds funny", but is there some deeper meaning behind this which I'm missing? Bart, the character, simply thinks it's funny to speak like a British person sometimes? Is it meant to symbolize something?

Debates about vs debates around [duplicate]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 09:06 AM PDT

I am familiar with all the debates around/about this topic.

Are both 'around' and 'about' equally good in the above context? Do they both mean the same thing?

How to change “bright-red” into the adverb? [duplicate]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 04:43 AM PDT

My face turned bright-red.

I want this make "bright-red" into the adverb.

My face shined bright-redly.

Is "bright-redly" a right adverb for "bright-red"?

Reliable Academic Source for the Etymology of "Trauma"?

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 04:23 AM PDT

Problem: Are there any sources that I could cite in an academic paper for the etymology of "trauma" (noun), perhaps which come from a reliable source? I am particularly searching for the first recorded year in which it was used and its meaning at that time point.

Context: This post is somewhat helpful and at present I am using the Online Etymology Dictionary to cite its origin to 1690s where it was referred to as "physical wound" in medical Latin. However, I am wondering if any experts in linguistics have any recommendations?

The Miss(es) Joneses

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 02:21 AM PDT

Fowler reads

The Misses Jones is the old-fashioned plural, occasionally used when formality is required, e.g. in printed lists of guests present, etc.; otherwise the type the Miss Joneses is now usual.

Is Miss here a plural ?

Secondly, why can't we use Misses Joneses?

Finally, is this pattern also used of Mr., Mrs. or Ms. ?

Will vs would in the following question [migrated]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 12:28 AM PDT

What's the difference between:

"I would go on a walk with my friend tonight. "

"I will go on a walk with my friend tonight. "

Take something off someone's plate

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 09:29 AM PDT

Today while scrolling, I found somebody tweeted this text that confused me.

As retweets and sharing are allowed I will just copy and paste that tweet here, in order to keep the context.

"Yesterday, I was offered an exciting opportunity and when I emailed my PhD mentor to let him know, he said congratulations and then asked:

What will you take off your plate so they get the best you?

Wow. Great mentors ask the tough questions that you need to hear."

The sentence that I didn't get is bold.

Word for when something has no purpose other than to look pretty? [duplicate]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 12:11 AM PDT

I'm trying to describe a character who is a young actress. she is exploited in the industry and basically has no purpose other than a means of 'looking pretty' or just being 'another pretty face'?? I can't think of a word for it?

I keep thinking maybe mannequin but that's not exactly correct??? or something along those lines?

Please help!

What does worldly experience mean? [closed]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 02:54 AM PDT

I was reading an article about growing of age and I just read this sentence,

This creates a very scary letting go for parents, who must accept that they cannot keep their teenager free of more worldly dangers that are associated with the worldly experience he or she is wanting.

—Parenting Adolescents and the Problems of Letting Go, Psychology Today, April 23, 2012

And I can't really understand the meaning of worldly experience/(dangers). Can someone explain this to me?

Presumably any experience that one could have has something to do with the world, but here it is obvious that the authors have in mind some specific kind of experiences. Why would the authors choose to call these specific experiences worldly, in contrast to some other experiences, which are also worldly in the literal sense?

Why does there seem to be a consensus with regards to subject complement agreement when the phrase in question starts with "We have"? [duplicate]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 07:14 AM PDT

From reading about subject complement agreement, there seems to be some contention as to whether the complement should be plural or singular. For example, both

"It is a time when teams take a look at their roster and decide whether it's good enough to be a contender or if it's time to start rebuilding for next season."

and

"It is a time when teams take a look at their rosters and decide whether they're good enough to be contenders or if it's time to start rebuilding for next season."

seem to be grammatically correct. However, when the sentence is something like

"We have the same computer."

the consensus seems to be that "computer" should remain singular, why is this the case?

Edit: My source for the first two sentences is:https://markallenediting.com/2011/02/19/parts-of-sentences-sometimes-must-agree-to-disagree/, while my final sentence is inspired by posts like these: We have the same car vs we have the same cars

Why does Tucker Carlson (an American) say "A man called" rather than "A man named"? [closed]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 06:40 AM PDT

Tucker Carlson is an American FOX news anchor. He's from San Francisco CA originally.

However he constantly uses the non-American (British) expression

A man called...

rather than

A man named...

What could explain this? Example: https://youtu.be/mi-_VqYODLw?t=292

Simple phrase for the business model of 'secretly' worsening terms of service?

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 09:06 AM PDT

Let's say an online service worsens its subscription terms (e.g. charges extra for some hidden fees) once they reach some sufficient market saturation. Many users will not read the general terms of service updates, etc and only notice many years later. This is not really fair business and many users will feel betrayed once they realize that the service that used to be good has cost twice as many in the last few years etc.

What is this step called when a business switches from competitive to greedy without real upfront communication? The word or phrase does not need to necessarily reflect bad intent just this kind of 'making money by worsening the terms at the expense of long time customers'.

Example usage (I will use 'greedy switch' as placeholder):

John is regularly reviews his subscription plans' terms to make sure the business partners don't [do this greedy switch].

Jane recommended this banking service to her friends for its good terms a few years ago but since then they [greedy switched] and we are better of without them.

Should I use a comma or semicolon to separate the items in this sentence

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 12:05 AM PDT

We have planned to modify the product mobile phone and address the following sustainable development goals: Responsible Consumption and Production, Good Health and Well Being.

or

We have planned to modify the product mobile phone and address the following sustainable development goals: Responsible Consumption and Production; Good Health and Well Being.

Which one of the above is correct?

Appropriate Word or Phrase that Means "Determine Whether an Action is Permitted"

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 02:32 AM PDT

Is there a good couple-/few-word phrase to express the idea that an actor's intendended purpose is to determine whether an action is permitted/approved/authorized versus denied/disapproved/rejected? I'll note that I'm subtly not talking about the actual approval/rejection itself, but rather the determination of which end action to take.

At the moment, I'm clunkily describing this as "determine permission", but that feels inaccurate because one might determine that something is not permitted.

An example would be "This committee will review the application, and send a judgement of whether a member's request should be approved or denied to the appropriate administrator; its members alone [determine permission] for requests."

Note: I am actually using this as the name for a function in code, so unfortunately I am unable to get creative with rephrasing in order to circumvent the problem.

The pronunciation of the word 'junta'

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 07:22 AM PDT

I am just wondering if there is a historical explanation for the two different ways of pronouncing junta, a word of Spanish origin, with /h/ as in American English and with /dƷ/ in British English.

Specific word for social app user?

Posted: 22 Jul 2021 11:07 PM PDT

I am looking for a specific word to describe people who are active on social media apps: FB, Whatsapp, etc.

The nearest word that I found while searching online is netizen. Cambridge Dictionary describes it as:

a person who uses the internet

But, it does not fit the idea I want to represent:

______ are human beings without four limbs. They demand and demand, but can't act in real life.

English idiom or proverb equivalent for "saying something, and doing the opposite"

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 02:59 AM PDT

Could somebody please help me by giving an English idiom or proverb used for the people who say something and do exactly opposite

What does "lacy jags" mean in Whitman's poem?

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 07:24 AM PDT

I ran into this poetic expression when my literature teacher quoted Walt Whitman,

I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the runaway sun;

I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

According to Dictionary.com, 'jag' has the meaning of 'a load, as of hay or wood'. So here 'lacy jags' means 'wood with laces'? I'm confused.

Can something be disgusting without something else to feel disgust? [closed]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 09:25 AM PDT

Disgusting means

Causing disgust; repulsive; distasteful

and is a deverbal adjective in that it behaves purely as an adjective, not a present participle.

If we take an adjective such as "disgusting" and define it as "causing disgust" or some other definition with the progressive aspect, does that mean a sentence with that adjective describing something entails that another being exists? For example,

The very disgusting bug was alone in the room.

The man who was the only person there was really annoying.

How to pronounce shortened words? [closed]

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 06:41 AM PDT

I'm studying programming, and regular English words are often shortened. For example, "previous" is shortened to "prev", "integer" to "int", "character" to "char" etc.

How do you pronounce the short versions? Is it char like in "charcoal" or char like in "character", sounding like "care"?

Edit: why I think this question is not the same as "how to pronounce programmers' word char", my question was more in the general sense on how to think about those pronunciations, as only the case of "char" is not my only concern.

Dictionary which shows plural form?

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 06:02 AM PDT

I am looking for a dictionary (program / app) that tells me about the plural form of a word.

I have tried Dictionary.com, Meriam-Webster and OED but they are not.

I know if I look for media, it will tell me it's plural of "medium", but is there a dictionary which does it the other way round? Thanks
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