Hot answers tagged vocabulary
201
Yes it did, and the formal version was (drumroll, please....) you.
In Early Modern English, thou was the singular and you was the plural. Plural you came to be used as a polite form of address (similar to the French vous, which is also used for the plural), but over time this polite form became more and more common, eventually displacing the singular thou ...
77
If you're looking for a single word that will express thanks at the same time, I would avoid both satiated and sated; with apologies to @F'x, "sated" is not at all common in conversation, and when it is used it usually has more to do with sex than food. (Not always, but often enough that your hosts will look at you strangely for a moment before relaxing and ...
77
That is quite simply a whiteboard.
Blackboard can be defined as:
A smooth, hard, dark-colored panel for writing on with chalk.
Whiteboard can be defined as:
A panel covered with white, glossy plastic for writing on with erasable markers.
38
Yes. As far as I know, you actually is the formal, originally plural version (ye/you/your) and thou was the informal version (thou/thee/thy/thine). Over time, thou became impolitely informal and is now no longer used, though interestingly enough nowadays it might even be perceived as more formal than you because it's archaic and survives almost exclusively ...
33
Mark Rosenfelder has a list. So too does Wikipedia
Here is a partial selection of those which I might use
Words from Algonquian languages:
Caribou
Chipmunk
Eskimo
Hickory
Hominy
Husky
Moccasin
Moose
Mugwump
Muskrat
Opossum
Papoose
Pecan
Pemmican
Persimmon
Powwow
Raccoon
Skunk
Squash
Squaw
Terrapin
Toboggan
Tomahawk
Totem
Wampum
...
30
Piece of junk refers to something that is cheap, shoddy, or worthless. It can be used as an oject as in "This piece of junk won't boot." or a modiying adjective as in "This piece-of-junk computer won't boot" (with or without hyphens).
Related adjectives can be used with the name of the device. These include:
"Junky", "shoddy", "trashy", "lousy", ...
29
It seems Middle English developed the distinction between formal (you) and informal (thou) versions: this distinction did not exist in Old English. The formal pronoun you was originally a plural form of thou; it can be seen in many languages that a plural form is seen as more polite, which is probably related to the Majestic Plural ("we, King blah blah, ...
29
MT_Head's answer is spot on — saying "I'm full" isn't rude.
I don't think there is another single word that is similarly polite and well-understood.
If you want to avoid saying "I'm full", you could say things like, "I've had plenty," or "I've had too much already."
Host: "Would you like any more?"
Guest: "Oh, no thank you, I've had
plenty. ...
28
It's a battlement or crenellation. This consists of a parapet (a short wall on top of a roof) with cops or merlons (the solid parts) and crenels or embrasures (the parts you can look through or fire arrows through).
Those links are all to Wikipedia, which I know you might not consider a reliable source (although all of those articles contain references). ...
27
Words relating to the "senses/perception" in a "neuronic/biological" context:
pertaining to the senses: sensory
pertaining to vision: ocular or optic or visual
pertaining to smell: olfactory
pertaining to taste: gustatory
pertaining to sound/hearing: auditory or aural or acoustic
pertaining to touch: tactile or tactual or haptic
unable to feel/touch: ...
26
Contraption (often paired as infernal contraption) refers to any mechanical or electronic device for which the author has some contempt.
Gizmo can similarly be employed to mock some needless or useless technological contrivance, but it is not inherently negative. I can call something a gizmo to suggest I am overwhelmed by its complexity, or simply because I ...
24
The closest thing might be the NATO Phonetic Alphabet.
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
Xray
Yankee
Zulu
24
That would be sister-in-law:
sister of one's spouse, the wife of one's brother, or sometimes the wife of one's spouse's brother.
Edit: as ShreevatsaR points out in the comments, if you're looking for a single word that means only "wife of one's brother" and nothing else, then you're out of luck.
23
Everyday English
tuxedo - the etymology1 is worth citing in extenso.
1889, named for Tuxedo Park, N.Y.,
site of a country club where it first
was worn in 1886. The name is an
attractive subject for elaborate
speculation, e.g.:
The Wolf tribe in New York was called in scorn by other Algonquians
from tuksit: round foot, implying that ...
22
routine:
noun
1. a customary or regular course of procedure.
2. commonplace tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at
specified intervals; typical or
everyday activity: the routine of an
office.
3. regular, unvarying, habitual, unimaginative, or rote procedure.
22
The words orient and occident are two of the set of six French words
orient, occident, zénith, nadir, septentrion, midi,
which form the set you were looking for. The word septentrion (north) is obsolete in English, and I can find no evidence that midi (formerly spelled midy) was ever an English word at all.
In Old French, the word méridien was used ...
21
They mean completely different things. Ostensibly means someone or something has set an expectation that a situation or condition will be a certain way; probably expresses the likelihood that it will be that way.
This book ostensibly provides the
reader with all the information needed
to write good prose.
Here the speaker is implying that some ...
21
Each city’s metro system has a “common name” that developed historically.
London - “The Tube”, from the tube-shaped deep level bored tunnels
Paris - metro, full name “Métropolitain”
New York City - subway, because the main lines have significant underground sections
Chicago - “The L” - from el, because it is mostly elevated
Boston - “The T” - from MBTA, ...
21
In any normal context, a fatal injury is one which either has already led to death, or appears certain to do so.
There will be rare circumstances where that appearance of impending death turns out to be mistaken, but in retrospect this would constitute a misuse of the word fatal.
The normal term for injuries which may well result in death is ...
21
An empty-nester is "a person whose children have grown up and no longer live at home". Wiktionary offers the following explanatory etymology:
From birds whose offspring leave the nest when they reach maturity.
20
The "more posh" words are usually Latin (occasionally Greek) in origin. The more common sounding words are from original Anglo-Saxon (I'm sure a real linguist knows more). The more educated classes tended to be more likely to use Latin and other foreign terms, while the less educated classes used the vernacular (i.e. the vulgar, common language) of the day.
20
Whether or not it is a true English word and where it came from are two completely different questions. We borrow words from many languages, but they are still real English words.
It is borrowed from Swahili [safari], which was in turn borrowed from Arabic [سفاري].
It has been attested in dictionaries as part of the English language since c. 1890.
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 ...
20
Sorry, I believe the answer is "sleet":
Rain and snow mixed (also known as sleet) is precipitation composed of rain and partially melted snow. This precipitation can occur where the temperature in the lower part of the atmosphere is slightly above the freezing point (0 °C or 32 °F). Its METAR code is RASN.
Meteorologists around my geographical area ...
20
You might consider apparition. Collins defines it as:
apparition (n.) an appearance, esp of a ghost or ghostlike figure
Wordnik mentions:
apparition (n.) That which appears or becomes visible; an appearance, especially of a remarkable or phenomenal kind.
19
The word oestrogen comes from the Latin word oestrus, and oesophagus is a Latin word as well.
The oe spelling in Latin originally represented a diphthong [oj] ("oy"), but then later (in Latin) became a long vowel [ee]. When we borrowed such words into English, it was pronounced more like [i], [e], or [ɛ] (depending on the word), following English ...
19
For a phrase to be adopted into a language, enough people have to start using it. There is no set of criteria beyond popularity.
There is no way to force a phrase into someone's language at an individual level and to make sure it means what you want it to mean.
Think of words and phrases as if they are mental viral symbionts. They inhabit your brain to ...
18
We still haven't got a sponsor although the fact that we've written to dozens of companies
is not a sentence.
While "We still haven't got a sponsor" is an independent clause, "although the fact that we've written to dozens of companies" is not a clause because "the fact that we've written to dozens of companies" is merely a noun phrase.
One could fix ...
17
I reject your premise that "independance" is the American spelling; it's the French one. Both in British and in American English, "independence" is spelled with an "e". (There's even a federal holiday.)
17
The term alien is actually the technical term used by governments to describe someone who is not a citizen (of either the naturalized or natural born varieties). For example, one of the major immigration forms for the US is entitled "Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration"
I would say it is not at all inappropriate, and any offense would ...
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