Hot answers tagged names
42
In this context (greater Toronto) greater means “an area greater than the city itself” and “greater Toronto” is a shortened version of “the greater Toronto area”. Greater describes/modifies area rather than Toronto, giving a size contrast (greater) rather than describing the goodness of the city (great).
32
There seems to be no "official" word.
You will find " nibling ", by analogy with sibling.
(But it is mentioned only in the "New Words & Slang" section of Merriam-Webster, or in site like urbandictionary.com)
This thread also mentions:
that there is no encompassing word for aunt/uncle either
that there is no male/female form of cousin.
the article ...
25
No Jennifer is from
From a Cornish form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar (see GUINEVERE). This name has only been common outside of Cornwall since the beginning of the 20th century, after it was featured in George Bernard Shaw's play 'The Doctor's Dilemma' (1906).
GUINEVERE
From the Norman French form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, composed of the ...
25
Great means big, greater means bigger.
So Greater Manchester is the larger metropolitan area around the city of Manchester in the middle.
However, Great Britain is the larger of the two separate and distinct Britains, the other being Brittany in north-west France. In French, Great Britain is Grande Bretagne and Brittany is just Bretagne. Brittany has also ...
20
It's not just that article. Here's a book which has it:
Bread and ale, both packed with calories and nutrients, lay at the heart of all diets, and ale barm was so vital that it was sometimes known as godisgoode 'bicause it cometh of the grete grace of God'.
Searching for the last quote, I found a site with this information:
In her splendid book on ...
18
Area 51 is a military base in Southern Nevada often found at the center of UFO stories.
From Wikipedia:
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. ... The intense secrecy surrounding the base, the very existence of which the U.S. government barely acknowledges, has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories ...
17
ellipsis noun (plural ellipses)
the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.
• a set of dots indicating such an omission.
(New Oxford American Dictionary)
It is represented in Unicode by the glyph U+2026 HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS: …
The details of typesetting ellipses is ...
17
That's a relic from previous versions of the name. From Etymonline:
John masc. proper name, mid-12c., from M.L. Johannes, from L.L. Joannes, from Gk. Ioannes, from Heb. Yohanan (in full y'hohanan) lit. "Jehovah has favored," from hanan "he was gracious."
17
The most useful rule — and the most general and the easiest to remember — is simply that you add ’s whenever you actually say an extra /əz/ at the end when forming the possessive, compared with how you say the non-possessive version. Let your own ear be your guide. That’s all there is to it. No fancy rules full of exceptions. Just your own ear (as a native ...
16
This is called Hypocorism.
A hypocorism is a shorter form of a
word or given name, for example, when
used in more intimate situations as a
nickname or term of endearment.
English forms nicknames in a variety of manners. Shortening, often to the first syllable:
Abraham → Abe
Anthony → Tony
Benjamin, Benedict → Ben, Benny
Carolyn → Carol, Lyn, ...
16
It is a double dagger and it is often used in typography to indicate a footnote.
The simple one (†), with only one horizontal bar is called a dagger after it's resemblance with the blade.
If you have two footnotes on a given page, the first one will be marked with the single dagger and the second one with the double dagger.
In lists of peoples (authors, ...
16
The answer is that the expression is based on how we, as humans, interpret geography. We refer to smaller, relatively unknown areas by the name of a larger, more well-known, area the smaller area is near.
By saying "Greater Toronto", we identify the city of Toronto and the smaller areas close by, at the same time acknowledging that these smaller areas are ...
15
I think this is a mild hyperforeignism that comes from an attempt to pronounce “Naomi” more like the original Hebrew: nah-oh-mee [na.o.mi]. The [ao] sequence is uncommon in English—and because there are two separately stressed syllables in this case, they cannot merge into ow [aʊ]. Thus an epenthetic /y/ [j] sound appears, giving nah-yo-mee [na.joʊ.mi]. This ...
14
<H> is a letter that's used in English largely to modify other letters, like <TH>, used for both /ð/ and /θ/, <SH> for /ʃ/, and <CH> for /tʃ/. This is for native English words that may have been borrowed centuries ago, but now are felt to be English.
In proper names from other languages, like Afghanistan, Baghdad, and Lamborghini, we are not ...
13
The name originally comes from the British newspaper The Daily Universal Register founded in 1785, which changed it names to The Times in 1788. Since then it has lent its name to papers all over the world.
Wikipedia: The Times
The original meaning of time is to happen, so the times means that what has happened, which is a fitting name for a newspaper.
...
12
It's very easy to determine the relationship in English.
First, find your common ancestor. Siblings have the same father, cousins have the same grandfather, etc.
Same grandfather means First cousin.
Same great-grandfather means second cousin.
Same great-great-grandfather means third cousin.
If you are not in the same generation, pick the shortest one, ...
12
Avon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Avon_%28Warwickshire%29#Etymology
"Avon" derives from the British language abona, "river", which also survives as a number of other English and Scottish river names, and as modern Welsh afon (pronounced [ˈavɔn]), "river".
Ouse
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Ouse+River
The English name for the river ...
12
Taboo words are those avoided because of some stigma.
The stigma is usually cultural, arising out of can be fear (via cultural associations with bad magic or evil in the local religion, like devil or hell), disrespect (holy words that could be used blasphemously, peoples first names that you don't know or who are older than you), sorrow (names of the ...
12
In order to pluralize a name, this guide says:
There are really just two rules to remember, whether you’re pluralizing a given (first) name or a surname (last name):
If the name ends in s, sh, ch, x or z, add es.
In every other case, add s.
Similarly, there are two fundamental no-no’s:
Never change a y to ies when pluralizing a ...
12
It is proper to refer her as Ms Smith (for example) regardless of her martial status. Since the woman in question kept her maiden name, I would opt for this title or use the appropriate occupational title (e.g. Doctor Smith, Professor Smith, Major Smith, etc.)
Miss is a title for an unmarried woman, and is not acceptable.
12
It was referred to as the Ukraine when it was a part of the former Soviet Union. Since they were split apart and Ukraine became a country it should properly be called Ukraine without the definite article.
Note:
The name Ukraine, which first appeared in the historical chronicles in 1187, has been common in the English language for almost 350 years. In ...
12
Whether there is a plural form depends entirely on whether there is actually a singular form.
In the case of WordPress, there isn't a singular form. You don't say “I implemented my blog as a WordPress.” It’s using WordPress or even on WordPress or in WordPress, but not as a WordPress.
Consequently there is no plural form.
This doesn't apply to all ...
11
It's a perfect example of a false cognate pair that is created by a sort of linguistic homogenization. When we come across foreign words, we pronounce them with our own sounds, mapping a foreign sound to one natural to our own ear that seems close enough for our purposes. Unrelated sounds and syllables from unrelated languages might in this way each get ...
11
As voxanimus says that use is incorrect. The only correct use I can think of is when speaking of a well-known individual. For example, this exchange
"Dennis Ritchie is dead."
"Not the Dennis Ritchie? dmr? The guy who developed C?"
and "the" would be emphasized as sound like "thee".
11
Well, what do cookbooks contain? Recipes!
What is a recipe?
recipe, n. : a set of instructions for making something
As the blurb on the cover of this book says, it contains recipes "for taking control of automated testing using powerful Python testing tools."
One of my favorite programming cookbooks, the C++ Cookbook, contains recipes for creating ...
11
Actually, the Greek is Χρυσόστομος, so writing Chrysostom is in some fashion already an Anglicized translation, since we have transliterated Χ (chi) > Ch and have dropped the -ος at the end. Mozart kept the Latinized Johannes Chrysostomus in his own name.
I have another reason, though. The nickname Χρυσόστομος shouldn’t really be translated into English ...
11
When native speakers see "Rite Company," said Company would like the patron to think "Right," as in "correct" or "accurate," or maybe even "righteous."
There are no solemn ceremonies at Rite Aid or Shop Rite that would pass for a rite.
Dictionary.com defines rite as:
a formal or ceremonial act or procedure prescribed or customary in religious or other ...
10
Your question contains an implicit assumption which is unfounded: the words sol in Latin, helios in Greek, and güneş simply mean "sun". They are names for the sun in exactly the same way that the English word is the name for the sun. If you doubt this, consider the following: is there some generic word for "sun" in either Latin or Greek that contrasts with ...
10
I think this question is a little bit confused. First of all, there is a phenomenon in some varieties of American English called the Mary-marry–merry merger, where all or some of the words Mary, marry, and merry are pronounced the same; that is, the vowels /e/, /æ/, and /ɛ/ are all merged before the sound /r/. In some varieties of American English, there is ...
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