Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

What does a British person mean by: "Yer a right sausage, you!"?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 10:05 AM PDT

I heard this said by a native British speaker in a video:

Yer a right sausage, you!

What does this mean? My guess is that it means something like:

You are a truly stupid/silly person!

Am I right? Close? Wrong?

Rules of thumb to determine whether you are the subject or the object? [closed]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 08:59 AM PDT

Are there rules of thumb to determine whether, when referring to yourself, you are the subject or the object of a sentence?

I understand that "I" is to be used when one is the subject, and "me" when one is the object.

I am proofreading/editing a novel I am writing, and came across these two paragraphs, one of which uses "and me," whereas the other uses "and I":

The trip from India to our destination in Africa took Albert and me and the rest of the animals across northern India and the Arabian Sea before crossing into the African countries of Somalia and Kenya. We finally reached our destination of Tinga Tinga, Tanzania around two in the afternoon.

Landing near the same spot we had before when we were traveling with Warble and Mary McGorkle, Albert and I and the rest were completely shocked to see the Arodnap parked there.

I am not sure whether they are both right, both wrong, or one is right (which one)?

My theory is that they are right because if I were to only refer to myself in those passages, I would use "me" in the first instance:

The trip from India to our destination in Africa took me across northern India and the Arabian Sea before crossing into the African countries of Somalia and Kenya.

("I" definitely would not work there)

...and "I" in the second case:

Landing near the same spot we had before when we were traveling with Warble and Mary McGorkle, I was completely shocked to see the Arodnap parked there.

Is my theory correct?

I know some hearty folk, Whose party jokes pretending to hunt with the Quorn

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 08:56 AM PDT

I was watching Flanders & Swann's 'Ill Wind', it's hilarious btw, but there's a line I don't get it :

I know some hearty folk, Whose party joke's (joke is) pretending to hunt with the Quorn.

what does it mean? is "jokes" the verb here? and Quorn is just a kind of vegetable food? I don't understand the meaning.

Fyi the whole lyrics is:

I once had a whim and I had to obey it, To buy a French horn in a second-hand shop. I polished it up and I started to play it, In spite of the neighbours who begged me to stop.

To sound my horn, I had to develop my embouchure. I found my horn, Was a bit of a devil to play. So artfully wound, To give you a sound, A beautiful sound, So rich and round.

Oh the hours I had to spend, Before I mastered it in the end.

But that was yesterday. And just today, I looked in the usual place. There was the case, But the horn itself was missing!

Oh where can it have gone? Haven't you, hasn't anyone seen my horn? Oh where can it have gone? What a blow, now I know, I'm unable to play my Allegro.

Who swiped that horn? I bet you a quid somebody did. Knowing I found a concerto, And wanted to play it, Afraid of my talent at playing the horn. For early today to my utter dismay, It had vanished away like the dew in the morn.

I've lost that horn! I know I was using it yesterday. I've lost that horn, lost that horn, Found that horn gorn.

There's not much hope of getting it back, Though I'd willingly pay a reward.

I know some hearty folk, Whose party jokes pretending to hunt with the Quorn. Gone away, gone away. Was it one of them took it away? Will you kindly return that horn? Where is the devil who pinched my horn? I shall tell the police!

I want that French horn back.

I miss its music more and more and more. Without that horn I'm feeling sad and so forelorn.

I found a concerto and wanted to play it, Displaying my talent at playing the horn. But early today to my utter dismay, It had totally vanished away. I'd practised the horn and I wanted to play it, But somebody took it away! I practised the horn and was longing to play it, But somebody took it away!

My neighbour's asleep in his bed, I'll soon make him wish he were dead, I'll take up the tuba instead - WAA WAA !

Noun + of + noun : Can nouns be switched? [closed]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 08:41 AM PDT

I was listening to Coney Island by Taylor Swift and I reached this part:

The question pounds my head What's a lifetime of achievement

First, I thought It meant something like what is the achievement of my life? But then, if that is what it means, it should've been achievement of a lifetime

I wanted to know if there's some sort of exception or something in English, allowing nouns to be switched in noun+of+noun, or I'm way off.

Can the word "instrumental" be used in a negative way?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 07:24 AM PDT

On a project Post-mortem Report that I was asked to write I need to state that a person was key in the disaster of the project. I was thinking of describing it as:

... and John Smith was instrumental in the outcome of the project.

I'm not sure if "instrumental" conveys the message correctly. I wanted to state that he was "greatly responsible" of the fiasco; he was one of five people who didn't do the work properly.

A Question About the Use of "who is believed to"

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 07:22 AM PDT

I have a question regarding the grammatical use of "who is believed to".

(a) The old banker, who is believed to be funding the syndicate.

(b) The old banker, who is believed to fund the syndicate.

So, I know that (a) is actually correct, my question is that can we use (b) too? Just as the way we use (a)? I mean, is it grammatically correct to use the phrase "who is believed to" that way, or is "be" mandatory there?

Thanks, and sorry if it's a silly question.

checkmated as adjective

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 09:33 AM PDT

Is the adjective "checkmated" used?

Although it does not appear in the Cambridge dictionary or Merriam-Webster, if...

  • Person-A checkmates Person-B

  • Consequently: Person-B is checkmated!

Is 'checkmated' correctly used?

Non-Offensive version of "Autistic Martian" [closed]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 06:02 AM PDT

I find myself using that phrase to colorfully describe someone who adopts a very narrow-minded, hyper-linear manner of argument, often based on false premises, or premises that are inconsistent with common understanding about human psychology or how human societies function. Is there something as short and descriptive that doesn't risk offense?

"Downloaded content" or "downloaded contents" when downloading files, folders, and other elements at once

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 08:10 AM PDT

I'm writing a message for an app. The user can select multiple files and folders to download. We're letting them navigate to the download location right after the download completes. I'm trying to find a generic word that can covers all the things that were downloaded. We cover specific cases in situations where users select a single file of a specific type.

I am wondering which one would be appropriate here:

Go to downloaded content

Go to downloaded contents

The examples I found point towards "contents" as it seems that since the number of elements they've selected to download are known to the user and are specific. However it sounds odd and the "container" isn't specified in the sentence so I'm not sure it's correct. On the other hand the selection of elements seems to be the "container".

Additional context:

  • We can't say files as we do not use this term in the app.
  • We display this one only when user selects multiple elements with different types.
  • In other scenarios we display the name of the element they've chosen e.g., Go to downloaded folder.

What word would best describe this scenario (giving a true but evasive answer)? [duplicate]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 03:33 AM PDT

What could be the word to best describe this following scenario:

Parent 1: Why did you give the child a high-sugar drink when I specifically asked you not too?

Parent 2: It's fine everybody, the drink was analysed by our experts and found not to have any caffeine at all.

Would it be red-herring? Obfuscation? Non sequitur?

After a long talk, understand or understood? [closed]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 02:13 AM PDT

Will you say "After a long talk, I understood (or understand) them better" ?

Should it have been been written differently? … Most Nobel winners are still men [closed]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 04:59 AM PDT

"Most Nobel winners are still men" I read this line on today's NY Times daily brief. My question concerns with the sentence formation. Should it have been written differently? Has the reporter compromised with clarity? I ask because I can't help but read it as - Most Nobel winners are STILL MEN rather than Most Nobel winners are STILL men, which I believe was the intended meaning. Is this a case of misuse of the word Still?

Edit: As per my understanding, Still is used to show continuity, and is followed by a verb or a verb clause. Link: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/still But, in this case, the word following Still is a noun. Is this sentence correct?

Use of article: "by the air" or "by air"? [closed]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 02:28 AM PDT

I like to travel by the air.

I like to travel by air.

I think the first one is correct because no human can travel in air (general meaning of 2nd one). When "the" is used with air it means by travelling by some "means" but the correct answer is the 2nd one. Why is that?

Grammar sentence question [closed]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 02:57 AM PDT

I would like to reply to an email with the following sentence about a missed job opportunity:

I probably would have gotten the job has not been for that requirement"

Is this statement grammatically correct?

A lot has changed ___ Larry came back from his summer vacation [migrated]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 02:59 AM PDT

A lot has changed ___ Larry came back from his summer vacation.

a. since
b. after
c. when
d. then

May I ask what is the most suitable answer for this question? This is because intially I chose a. since but the answer is wrong. Anyone can help me in understanding the question? Why since is not suitable in this question? Thank you in advance.

Doing something just because you have to do it. Doing something half-heartedly [duplicate]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 03:41 AM PDT

I am looking for verbs, adverbs, and/or adjectives that express actions done just for the sake of having to do them. Wanting to do something the easiest way possible just to get over with it, and therefore being careless of cursory.

For example:

I _____ through my homework because I was not in the mood for doing it. I did it ____.

Peculiarities of English as spoken/written by Norwegians

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 08:45 AM PDT

I'm writing a fiction book. Some of its characters are Norwegians who exchange emails in English. I'd like to lightly stylise their texts.

What mistakes / peculiarities / word choice / sentence building are common for Norwegians speaking or writing in English (especially if they're not very proficient in it)?

[I might use so-called Heavy Metal Umlauts of course... sø åll the wørds wøuld løøk like thæt, but that would hardly classify as "light stylisation" ;)]

What is a word like "negate" but even worse?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 04:18 AM PDT

I suspect this is going to be a "oh yeah, duh" moment, but I'm looking for a word that is like "negate," but worse. Here's an example sentence:

I could cram for this test all night, but the sleep deprivation I'd experience could negate the effort.

I believe this sentence means, "cramming for the test could be canceled out by the sleep deprivation." But what I really want to say is, "the negatives of sleep deprivation could be worse than the benefits of cramming.

Is there a word with the latter meaning that could be swapped out for negate in the example sentence?

EDIT: I probably wasn't clear because a lot of the answers are giving me stronger words with the same meaning of "negate." But I'm looking for a word with a different, yet related, meaning.

May be tagging it with synonyms because the confusion. But whenever I look up synonyms in a thesaurus, the list includes words with closely related meanings, too.

Negate, nullify, void, etc. can be interpreted as bringing you back to zero. I'm not looking for that, I'm looking for a word that fits the first example and means net negative.

What is the meaning of a shell of its former self?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 09:06 AM PDT

What is the meaning of a shell of its former self ? Refer to the article https://www.infoworld.com/article/3632142/how-docker-broke-in-half.html, to quote

The game changing container company is a shell of its former self. What happened to one of the hottest enterprise technology businesses of the cloud era?

The reason I ask here instead of looking it up in a dictionary is because

  1. The dictionaries I use don't have it, e.g. longman does not have this expression https://www.ldoceonline.com/spellcheck/english/?q=a+shell+of+its+former+self https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/a-shadow-of-your-former-self?q=a+shadow+of++its++former+self only has "a shadow of your former self"

  2. I googled "a shell of its former self" but I can only find some useful information. I had thought if it is a common expression I should be able to get many google search results. The result I thought make sense is this one "It means that although the team still exists, it no longer has the talent, spirit, and community support that it once had." But I am not sure if that is an "authority" explanation.

  3. So I was wondering is this a common expression that people will understand ?

Thanks

Sentence structure with an embedded question in a sentence

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 10:01 AM PDT

There are several instances where we embed questions in a sentence, but what is the conventional structure of those embedded question? For example,

  1. She asked if we still need a pen.
  2. She asked do we still need a pen.

Which one is right and why?
As far as I know option 1 is right, but what is the grammatical explanation for that? Please elaborate.

Single word for distance and duration

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 08:04 AM PDT

Is there a single word that defines the distance both in time and space between two points?

I am writing a long text and repeating distance and duration constantly seems weird.

I have considered gap but I am not sure if it makes sense.

I'd like to turn "The distance and duration for the jorney is 100km and 1 hour" into "The ____ for the journey is 100km and 1hour".

The “prickmouse” and the “butcher's broom”

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 03:41 AM PDT

I sometime go for walks in the wood near where I live, and in the undergrowth, beneath the oaks and pines, you'll find an evergreen prickly shrub which is called pungitopo in Italian. The word is derived from pungere (to prick) and topo (mouse). Its cladodes, which are easily mistaken for leaves, are like those of holly. In order to deter mice from eating their food supplies, it is said that country people would tie branches of pungitopo in a bundle and hang them with the preserved meats (salami, dried sausages, capocollo etc.) from the rafters or ceilings. As the bundle dried, the branches not only didn't lose their spiny 'leaves', but the spikes became sharper and deadlier.

  close up butcher's broom

The Germans call it Stechender Mäusedorn, which I think is literally translated as "pricking mice thorn". In English, the same shrub is called butcher's broom. Dictionary.com says the term first appeared between 1555–65 although the plant obviously existed long before then. Several sources claim that the branches of this plant were used by butchers to sweep their chopping blocks clean and recent research suggests that the plant also contains antibacterial oils.

If we look at the meaning and etymology of broom we find the following by Oxford Dictionaries and Etymonline.

broom: A long-handled brush of bristles or twigs, used for sweeping.

Its origins date back to the name of several types of flowering shrubs, called brōm in Old English.

Old English brom, popular name for several types of shrubs common throughout Europe (used medicinally and for fuel) and characterized by long, slender branches and many yellow flowers, from Proto-Germanic *bræmaz "thorny bush"

As "twigs of broom tied together to a handle to make a tool for sweeping," mid-14c.

  Spanish broom in bloom

Spanish broom (Spartium junceum) fits the description above, indeed its flowers are yellow, and its branches are long and slender but it looks nothing like the butcher's broom.

So was the 15th century butcher's broom originally called holly? According to Etymonline and Wiktionary, holly dates back to holin, a shortening of holegn, and holen from Old English. And possibly derived from Proto-Germanic hulisaz ("butcher's broom, forest thistle, holly")

   holly with berries

The earliest citations I found of butcher's broom were in an English Italian dictionary, dated 1611, and in a compendium of therapies attributed to the renowned French barber surgeon, Ambroise Paré, written in 1649.

…which have relation to the spleen: as, as Time, Epithymum, Broom flowers. Cetrach, Capers, the bark of their roots, the bark of Tamarisk. Diureticks, such as respect the kidnies and urinarie passages: as, the roots of Smallage, Asperagus, Fennel, Butcher's broom, the four greater cold seeds, Turpentine, Plantain, Saxifrage. Arthniticks, or such as strengthen the joints: as Cowslips, Chamepytis, Elecampane, Calamint, Hermodactils, and the like.

In Italy, I am not aware that pungitopo was ever used for sweeping floors as the grain, saggina, in English "sorghum" or "broom corn/broomcorn" in the US, has been used to make brooms since the medieval.

  old fashioned handmade broom propped against a brick wall

Although the origin of broomcorn is obscure, sorghum apparently originated in central Africa. Production of this crop then spread to the Mediterranean, where people used long-branched sorghum panicles for making brooms in the Dark Ages. Broomcorn may have evolved as a result of repeated selection of seed from heads that had the longest panicle branches. The broomcorn plant was first described in Italy in the late 1500s. Benjamin Franklin is credited with introducing broomcorn to the United States in the early 1700s.
NewCROP Purdue University

As I was reading up on pungitopo and brooms in Italian, I came across the term bruschino, the diminutive form of brusca spazzola, a brush which can be used to either scrub the floors, wash the laundry or for grooming horses. The Italian bruschino looks very similar to the English "brush"–a coincidence?

As you can see, I managed to rake together some information but I'm still itching to know a few other things. Mainly...

  • Were holly and butcher's broom called by the same name in Old English?

  • English is a Germanic language, so why wasn't the plant called something like "prickly mouse", "spiky mice thorn" or "prick-mice" like its German counterpart?

  • Is there any evidence, in art or in literature, that the plant was actually used by butchers to sweep the cutting block (or floors) in their shops?

  • Why is it a butcher's broom and not a butcher's brush? A broom has a long handle and is used to sweep floors, a brush has shorter bristles with a shorter handle.

How to parse "It's not about you"

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 06:16 AM PDT

I once was discussing a personal decision I had made with an acquaintance, and he expressed his disapproval of my decision with the phrase "It's not about you".

As far as I could understand, this phrase somehow means "You're acting selfishly and you don't have the right to do this". But I am having a hard time putting that into the words "it's not about you". On the surface the words are gibberish. Of course a decision I make for myself is "about me". Does the phrase mean "a personal decision that affects you should not concern you"? That also makes little sense.

Of particular concern is the issue that it's impossible to refute without understanding what it is trying to say. So the recipient of such a statement (i.e. me) has no choice but to accept this vague statement of disapproval without objection.

What is the correct way to understand how to parse this statement?

A colon or a comma in alternative questions

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 02:04 AM PDT

Which punctuation mark should be used before the second part of the alternative question? Should it be a colon or a comma?

Eg: What do you like best: pears or apples? or What do you like best, pears or apples?

Which of these two question has the correct punctuation?

All grammar manuals I looked through say nothing about using a colon in alternative questions.

What do we call someone who respects time?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 03:54 AM PDT

I am wondering if there is a specific adjective for someone who respects time, who always comes on time and leaves in time, and someone who uses his time productively and meaningfully.

I have not found any terms which are suitable for that.

What is the noun for "encoding"?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 07:06 AM PDT

I am currently writing a paper about how neurons encode a stimuli. We would like a noun for the process of encoding, something like "encodement". However, I am not sure whether this is the best choice. Any ideas?

English Translation of "Umay"

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 09:37 AM PDT

As a Filipino-Canadian, I often go to Filipino gatherings with lots of tasty Filipino food. In some cases, we eat so much food that we become full; however, in other cases, we say that we are "umay"... we simply feel tired of eating the same food and wish to eat no more, but it's not the same as full.

People become "umay" when they eat so much of the same food without becoming full, but still end up not wanting to eat it anymore

Is there an English verb/adjective for this? Something I could say during non-Filipino gatherings?

Thanks in advance.

Is "teen-ager" correct? Still used? Etymology? [closed]

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 10:07 AM PDT

I was reading an article in The New York Times published in 1990 and came across the spelling of teenager as 'teen-ager'; is this American spelling? Archaic?

The young man, who often said he only wanted to be treated like an ordinary teen-ager, had a date for the senior prom, and friends said he was looking forward to the dance.

According to Merriam-Webster the noun ager first appeared in print in 1884 while teen, meaning "a teenage person," dates back to 1818.

Is the use of the hyphen in "teen-ager" still common today? [2013] What is the history of this spelling?

History of use of the term "organism"

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 01:20 AM PDT

I have found that the term "organism" does not originate from any writings of Aristotle or some other ancient Greek, though Aristotle freely uses the term "organon", spelled "organ" in English, to denote a part of a living being or of man in particular.

It is obvious that the term is of late origin by some European scholar. Wikipedia states that it "first appeared in the English language in 1701 and took on its current definition by 1834 (Oxford English Dictionary)". Still, no specific reference is provided.

Who first used the term "organism" and when and where was it used?

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