Jay

19,347 reputation

1344

bio	website	johansens.us
	location	Michigan
	age
visits	member for	1 year, 8 months
	seen	May 15 at 17:50
stats	profile views	408

	19,347 reputation	bio	website	johansens.us	visits	member for	1 year, 8 months
1344 badges		location	Michigan		seen	May 15 at 17:50

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Jan 15	comment	What is the origin of “-ix” as a feminine variation? Note it's not -ix but -trix. The female equivalent of a dominator is not a dominaix, but a dominatrix. For the rest see Branimir. Can't say I ever heard someone use the word rectrix, but whatever. I have occasionally heard victrix for a female champion. Now that I think of it, is a female prosecutor a prosecutrix? Can't say I ever heard that used, either. And if a ship is feminine, than is it propelled by a motrix?
Jan 15	comment	Minimum amount of time a job needs to wait before executing again How about "minimum amount of time a job needs to wait before executing again"?
Jan 15	comment	What is the meaning of the name Zacharias Mulletstein? Are you sure it has any significant meaning? Maybe it's just someone's name.
Jan 15	comment	What is the meaning of the name Zacharias Mulletstein? "Stein" is German for "stone". It is found in some Eastern European Jewish names, like "Bernstein" (burned-stone), "Goldstein" (gold-stone) and "Epstein" (I have no idea what an "ep" is). What this has to do with mullets I don't know, whether "mullet" has another meaning or if this is just a joke.
Jan 15	comment	Is it acceptable to italicize a compound descriptor instead of hyphenating it? @Marthaª Not necessarily disagreeing with you, but to be pedantic, the rule that I was taught is that the title of a complete, full-length work, like a book or the name of a magazine, should go in italics, or if italics are not available, be underlined. The title of a section of a work, like a chapter in a book or an article in a magazine, or of a shorter work, like a poem or a short story, should go in quotes. They're not interchangeable. (See, e.g., MLA Handbook, sections 2.6.2 and 2.6.3)
Jan 14	answered	Is it acceptable to italicize a compound descriptor instead of hyphenating it?
Jan 11	comment	Use of the term “Sharia Law” In a word: Yes. Just like it is not redundant to say "the Stackexchange web forum". You could say, As opposed to what, the Stackexchange microwave oven? Anyone familiar with Stackexchange knows it's a web forum. But if my readers are not necessarily familiar with Stackexchange, I have to tell them what it is. Yes, if a reader knows what Sharia is, than it's not necessary to tell them. But if you start with the assumption that your readers already know everything you have to say, why are you bothering to write anything?
Jan 11	comment	Use of the term “Sharia Law” ... (Well, I could argue that "Rio Grande river" is not redundant even to someone who does speak Spanish. Perhaps we need to distinguish "Rio Grande" the river from "Rio Grande" the town in Ohio.)
Jan 11	comment	Use of the term “Sharia Law” @JonHanna "law law" is obviously redundant because both words are the same. "Sally, Fred's wife ..." are two different ways to identify the same person, but are not redundant because the reader may not know that both identify the same person. "Sally, who is named Sally ..." is redundant because it's the same way to identify a person, stated twice. Likewise, writing "the Rio Grande river ..." may seem redundant to someone who speaks Spanish because you're saying "river" twice. But to someone who does not speak Spanish it is not redundant. ...
Jan 11	answered	Can you use “procure” to mean “think of”?
Jan 11	answered	Use of the term “Sharia Law”
Jan 9	comment	What is the grammatical function of 'brand' in the phrase 'brand new' That answer is brand right!
Jan 9	comment	Can one prefer 'either' or 'neither'? @DavidSchwartz Hmm, it seems to me that the context is asking, What do you want me to give you to hold those things together, a rubber band or a clippy thing? I understand the options to be one or the other. I suppose if in context what he means is "do you want (a rubber band or a clippy thing) to hold those things together, or would you prefer something else?", then, yes, that would be different.
Jan 9	comment	This is a question regarding punctuation, I suppose If you do it now and then, it can serve to highlight that this particular statement is tentative. If you do it all the time, it becomes annoying clutter in your writing.
Jan 9	comment	Word or phrase to refer to self-employed professionals working from home in the UK? A "freelancer" is someone who sells his work or his time on a short-term or per-piece basis. For example a "freelance writer" may write a magazine article and then try to find a magazine to publish it, as opposed to a writer employed by the magazine full-time. A freelancer might or might not work from home. Someone who works at home might or might not be a freelancer. I work from home but I receive a regular salary from my employer. (I've heard that the term originally referred to mercenary soldiers: he was a "free lance", i.e. a soldier whose lance and body were not owned by any government.)
Jan 9	comment	Not a synonym, but what? I wouldn't think that "synonym" is a hypernym of "hypernym". :-) The conventional understanding of synonyms is that they have similar meanings, not a sub/super relationship. Sure, synonyms don't have to mean EXACTLY the same thing, there are shades of meaning and degrees of synonymousness. Like "big" and "large" are virtually interchangeable. I just found a list of synonyms that included "important" and "vital". I'd say, well, sort of. Depending on context, understanding of degree, etc. But "animal" is a hypernym of "Scottish terrier", and I don't think anyone would say that they are synonyms.
Jan 9	comment	Can one prefer 'either' or 'neither'? @DavidSchwartz Well, that's not how I interpret them, so your statement that "I don't think anyone would interpret them this way" is easily proven to be mistaken. It may be that I'm the only person in the world who interprets them this way, but I am somebody! I am not a number, I am a free man!
Jan 9	comment	Can one prefer 'either' or 'neither'? ... Without further information you don't know I value both equally highly or see both as equally worthless. On thinking about this further, I suppose I could see someone saying "I prefer neither" to mean "I want neither" in the sense of, not between A and B I prefer neither, but rather between A, B, and none, I prefer none. That is, if the choice is A, B or neither, I prefer neither.
Jan 9	comment	Can one prefer 'either' or 'neither'? Folks who are saying that "I prefer neither" means "I don't want A and also I don't want B" are, it seems to me, confusing "prefer" with "want". If I said, "I want neither", yes, that would mean that I don't want A and I don't want B. But "prefer" doesn't mean "want", it means "want this one more than that one". So to my ear, "I don't prefer A" doesn't mean "I don't want A", rather it means that I don't have a greater desire for A than I have for B. Either I value B more or I value them the same. ...
Jan 8	comment	What does it mean “It’s funny how you get a run”? Hmm. If the poster knew that the problem was that he was trying to apply the wrong definition of one of the words, and he knew which word that was, then he wouldn't have had to ask the question. The philosophy here seems to be that a question is not complete or legitimate unless the questioner can narrow the problem down to the point where he could look up the answer in a reference book. In which case it would be closed as "general reference".