This tag is for questions related to definitions and nuances of meaning of a word or phrase.
34
votes
6answers
11k views
Which day does “next Tuesday” refer to?
At what point does next Tuesday mean
the next Tuesday that will come to pass
and no longer
the Tuesday after the Tuesday that will come to pass`?
And, when does the meaning switch ...
39
votes
5answers
1k views
Why is it “geometric” but “theoretical”?
I just came across a course name: Geometric and Theoretical Optics. The mismatched endings bug me. Why do we have both -ical and -ic endings?
Is there any difference in meaning between, say, ...
35
votes
8answers
4k views
Is it “alright” or “allright”?
In practice I find both spellings being used. From a logical point of view, "allright" (as in: "all's right — everything is fine") seems correct. However, I recall hearing that "alright" is the ...
7
votes
7answers
9k views
What does “had had” mean? How does this differ from “had”?
For example, what is the difference between the following two sentences:
I had a bad day
I had had a bad day
10
votes
1answer
839 views
The construction of “Known but to God”
The Tomb of the Unknown Solider has the engraving "KNOWN BUT TO GOD", as presumably no man knows his name, but shouldn't it read "unknown, but to God", as the default for everyone is "unknown", with ...
30
votes
15answers
3k views
Words with opposite meanings in different regions
I can't recall it, but there is a word in American English which now means the opposite of itself in British English. What words are there that have opposite (not just different) meanings in different ...
13
votes
6answers
13k views
What is the difference between “nothing but”, “anything but”, and “everything but”?
What is the difference between these phrases? When is it valid to use which? Should they be avoided as being ambiguous?
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Question tags — “did you” vs. “didn't you”
Typically, when we ask for confirmation/denial of a statement, we say something like the following:
We turn left here, don't we?
You have a cat, don't you?
We've met before, haven't we?
...
10
votes
5answers
9k views
What does 'ten of six' mean in regard to time?
I am referring of course to the expression describing time. Today a corporate trainer (From north Philadelphia) that is teaching a class at my company used it in the context that the current time was ...
4
votes
3answers
4k views
“A number of students” vs. “the number of students” [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
A number of questions “has been” or “have been” asked?
From the grammatical view both are correct, but please explain the difference in meaning:
...
16
votes
5answers
3k views
“A few” vs. “few”
I have few friends.
I have a few friends.
I thought "few" means just one, two or even none. "A few" typically means more than two. However it seems to me some people say "few" when they ...
9
votes
1answer
10k views
Why use “need not” instead of “do not need to”?
The header of psyco.sourceforge.net states:
High-level languages need not be slower than low-level ones.
Why use need not instead of do not need? What does it mean? Also, why no to before be? ...
16
votes
4answers
2k views
What word means what many people think 'ironic' means?
'Ironic' is often used to mean an unusual coincidence rather than its true meaning which is closer to sarcastic. That being said, is there a word that would be a good replacement for what many people ...
2
votes
3answers
695 views
What does “ain't” mean?
What does the contraction ain't mean? Is it appropriate to use it in formal settings?
24
votes
9answers
26k views
“Lunch” vs. “dinner” vs. “supper” — times and meanings?
I've seen cases where a noon-time meal is referred to as dinner, and the evening meal is called supper. There's also lunch around noon followed by dinner in the evening. Is there a particular ...
26
votes
12answers
3k views
“Nothing to tell” versus “nothing to say”
There's nothing to tell.
There's nothing to say.
Can anyone explain the difference between those two statements and give some examples on how they should be used? I think I do have a basic ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings?
Words like "cleave" and "egregious" have meanings that are completely opposite other meanings of the same word. How did such a bizarre, confusing state of affairs ever develop?
I mean, I just can't ...
11
votes
5answers
2k views
“Biweekly”, “bimonthly”, “biannual”, and “bicentennial”
What do lengths of time with the "bi" prefix mean"? I have understood bicentennial as once every two hundred years, but biannual as meaning twice a year. Do biweekly and bimonthly mean twice a week or ...
-3
votes
3answers
209 views
On/in its semantics?
Please help me in choosing the right preposition in the below sentence:
The returned values seem a bit confusing on/in its semantics,
Here I'm talking about returned values of a computer ...
2
votes
7answers
1k views
What is the difference between “anyone” and “everyone” in this context
What is the difference between "anyone" and "everyone" in the following context?
For example,
Anyone is welcome to do such and such.
and
Everyone is welcome to do such and such.
mean ...
2
votes
2answers
601 views
Use of “do” in affirmative statements [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When do you use “Did + 1st form” instead of “2nd form”
When is do used in affirmative sentences? For example:
I do think that this is going to be...
Is it only ...
1
vote
2answers
572 views
1
vote
1answer
314 views
What do you call who writes comments? Commenter or commentator?
What should I call a person writing/adding comments (by pressing "add comment" link)? Commenter or commentator?
From a deleted answer, I understand that there are commentators (like those ...
30
votes
1answer
53k views
What does a single letter “J” mean in emailing?
Today is Halloween. After a successful party, many conversations have been going on in my company's email box.
The end of one email said "Till next time J". I had no idea what "J" meant in this ...
10
votes
5answers
4k views
Substitute X for Y
An awful lot of people seem to use the phrase "substitute X for Y" to mean "replace X with Y", while I've always used and understood it as "replace Y with X". This makes sense to me, given that a ...
7
votes
2answers
10k views
“Covered with” vs. “covered in” vs. “covered by”
I want to find out the differences in meaning among covered by, covered in, and covered with. For example, what is the difference between:
covered with blood
covered in blood
or the ...
12
votes
2answers
549 views
If I invent a word, what language is it?
I invented a word using medical terminology, Latin and maybe a bit of Greek. (I'm not honestly sure of the etymology of all the morphemes.) Considering that this word is primarily not of English ...
6
votes
6answers
8k views
Words with most meanings
I am not a native speaker and it sometimes surprise me how many different meanings some words have. An example is the word call - when I was learning English I thought it was only "shout" or "to ring ...
5
votes
4answers
3k views
How to use “tens of” and “hundreds of”?
If I'm not mistaken, tens of means 10 to 99 and hundreds of means 100 to 999. Is this correct? I found in some dictionaries that tens of is actually not correct.
I also found that hundreds of could ...
7
votes
5answers
4k views
6
votes
1answer
3k views
“They're not” vs. “they aren't”
How dissimilar are "they're not" and "they aren't"?
Is it dependent on context or are these exactly the same?
They are supposed to be going, but they are not.
They are not going.
5
votes
7answers
2k views
the difference between fast/quick/rapid
She is a karate coach. She is not very powerful, but she is very quick/fast/rapid.
Can I use all three words quick, fast or rapid in the sentence?
Could you tell me the different meanings ...
2
votes
3answers
899 views
What do brackets in a quote mean? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the proper use of [square brackets] in quotes?
What do brackets around a word or words in a quote mean? This may seem silly, but I've never figured this out.
...
32
votes
9answers
20k views
“Unregister” vs “Deregister”
The concept of "undoing a registration" is widely used in my line of work. While most dictionaries define unregister as the proper verb for it, several widely used and highly considered sources also ...
14
votes
2answers
14k views
What is meant by “steep learning curve”?
What should I understand from "steep learning curve"? When a computer program (for example a translation program) has a steep learning curve, does it mean that it is not good at learning or it's hard ...
1
vote
2answers
2k views
“It could/might/may be funny” — what is the correct usage?
What is the difference in meaning in these three sentences?
it might be funny
it could be funny
it may be funny
The answer was partially touched on in this post.
16
votes
3answers
2k views
What does the suffix “‑fu” mean?
Can anyone tell me what the suffix “‑fu” stands for in the following sentence?
If you want to take advantage of some other Spring-fu, like some of its aspect-oriented features, then you’ll need to ...
5
votes
1answer
467 views
Is it all right to use “in hopes of” to mean “with the aim of”?
Recently I browsed through the definition of hope in New Oxford American Dictionary (provided by Apple in the dictionary app) to double confirm with its usage as I answered a word-choice question and ...
5
votes
6answers
1k views
Why “integrity” means “honesty”
The word integrity meaning wholeness seems to come from the word integer which, roughly speaking, refers to whole numbers. Why does integrity also mean honesty?
4
votes
4answers
7k views
Does 'should' imply an unquestionable command?
My question is prompted by a question on the programmers.stackexchange:
This may be a duplicate of another question here on english.stackechange, but the answers given to that question did not ...
11
votes
3answers
612 views
What does “pillow-plumping romance with the press” mean?
I came across the phrase “pillow-plumping romance with the press” in Maureen Dowd’s article titled “Liability Index” in New York Times August 11 issue. It reads:
The president survived a “raised ...
11
votes
2answers
2k views
Gay (homosexual) and gay (happy)
When did the main meaning of the word 'gay' shift from happy to homosexual? How did the meaning evolve, if there is a relation between the two?
11
votes
6answers
9k views
Is “funnest” a word?
We seem to be stuck at an impasse on this issue.
Is funnest a word or not?
If so, does it mean "most fun"?
9
votes
2answers
3k views
What does 'fast friends' mean?
Does anyone have an idea? Close friends? I usually see this term in stories where the friends were best friends and then they fight for some reason.
8
votes
3answers
1k views
What does “above” mean in this context?
I just read this lady's profile.
The following sentence has drawn my attention:
I'm not above occasionally bending or breaking a grammar rule for good
cause. But I do believe clear, persuasive ...
8
votes
3answers
3k views
What is the distinction between “role” and “rôle” [with a circumflex]?
One of our users, Stan Rogers, mentioned there was such a distinction, I think, when he answered a question and talked about how the orthography of foreign loan-words typically changes to conform with ...
8
votes
5answers
9k views
What's the difference between “client” and “customer”?
I already asked a similar question (customer vs. client vs. user vs. consumer of on-line service) but, I believe, there may be some differences between technical and legal jargon and general usage of ...
7
votes
6answers
821 views
Superlative + noun + “possible”: why does the adjective come after the noun?
Does someone happen to have an explanation or theory for why in phrases like "the best method possible" the word 'possible' comes after the noun?
7
votes
2answers
2k views
Can you still call a woman “handsome”?
On the recommendation of some regulars here, I managed to watch the movie The Madness of King George over the weekend, and found it excellent. Anyway, one funny scene in the movie is when King ...
6
votes
4answers
2k views
“I ain't got no money”
I know the ultimate meaning of this is "I have no money."
But why? If ain't means have not, then isn't it true that "I ain't got no money" would be read as "I have not got no money"?
Can I have not ...
