network profile
| bio | website | |
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| location | ||
| age | ||
| visits | member for | 2 years, 4 months |
| seen | May 10 at 13:19 | |
| stats | profile views | 33 |
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Sep 21 |
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What is the meaning of the phrase “small town charm”? @BillFranke That's a good example - I always take the phrase to mean that there's a bit of a smokescreen at work i.e. the small town charm is (partially) an act designed to fool people into dropping their guard a little. But maybe I'm being overly cynical... |
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Aug 27 |
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Difference between “slacks”, “pants”, and “trousers”? I think that categorising slacks as informal dates to an earlier time when people wore suits a lot more frequently, and slacks were, relatively speaking, more informal. Obviously, the arrival of jeans has pushed slacks back into the middle of the 'formality spectrum'. |
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Aug 21 |
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“X times as many as” or “X times more than” @BenHocking In fact, you'd have infinitely more than either. Or is that infinity times as many? :) |
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Apr 19 |
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Is there a difference between “bitter” and “better” in pronunciation? There's a tendency of radio DJs in the UK to use the 'bedder' pronunciation that's been parodied over the years (by Harry Enfield and Alan Partridge to name two). I think it's a kind of affected attempt to sound more American. On a more serious note, it tends to be one of the first speech shifts to happen when Brits / Irish people start spending time in the US |
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Apr 12 |
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What is wrong in “Please don't pluck the flowers” and other phrases used in the Indian subcontinent? I've lived in Ireland for 12 years but I don't recall ever hearing "do the needful". It might be a regional/generational thing, but then I'm probably unobservant and I don't get out out much :) |
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Apr 4 |
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What is the difference between an Emperor and a King? @TimLymington - Aha, so duchy and principality are used to refer to the place, while the '-dom' versions are used when referring to the title. Thanks for the clarification. |
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Apr 3 |
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What is the difference between an Emperor and a King? There's probably a lot of reverse engineering here as well, but I assume that a duchy and a principality are synonymous with dukedoms and princedoms |
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Mar 12 |
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Does absence of articles in computer-related sentences look natural? @JonofAllTrades - I agree that it should be a last resort. What really drives me mad is when radio news readers read out headlines in the same way even though there's no reason to do so. I presume it's a misguided attempt to inject some importance but it just sounds inarticulate to my ears. |
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Mar 9 |
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What's the word for the condition where you need to defecate? "Touching cloth" is a personal fave :) |
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Mar 8 |
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Should pronunciation of the r in “heart” be the same as r in “rabbit”, in UK English? A good example of rhotic/non-rhotic differences is in the naming of the Ford Ka. To most English people, Ka is pronounced exactly the same as 'car'. But in Ireland, for example, the two are pronounced differently. |
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Feb 8 |
answered | What does the phrase “none too dissimilar” mean? |
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Feb 6 |
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Is there a name for synonyms that appear to have opposite meanings? I used to work with a guy who jokingly used the term 'tuitive' for something that was difficult to use. |
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Jan 27 |
answered | Asking about the date on which something happens using “effective” |
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Jan 13 |
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Which is the word that means neither “believer” nor “atheist” but somewhere in between? I'm not sure why the OED definition includes 'God'. Presumably it's for historical reasons, because logically speaking, once you list one 'concrete' god you'd have to list them all... |
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Jan 13 |
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“Nowadays” vs “today” I'm not sure if I agree with your example. Adding 'Nowadays' conveys the additional meaning of some kind of contrast with the past. Of course, if this additional meaning isn't intended then I agree 100% that 'nowadays' is redundant. |
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Jan 11 |
awarded | Yearling |
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Jan 10 |
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ON an American street, but IN a British one. Do the twain ever meet? that's interesting. I suppose purely from a physical point of view you could make a case that a building that takes up an entire block could be thought of more as 'on' whereas a house that's nestled in amongst other houses is more likely to be 'in'. But I'm not convinced of my own reasoning here... |
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Jan 10 |
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ON an American street, but IN a British one. Do the twain ever meet? As a Brit I agree. But I think there's a slight 'size/importance' consideration though. For example, the Natural History Museum is on (rather than in) Cromwell Road because it's so big. So maybe Americans live in bigger houses than us Brits :) |
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Jan 3 |
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Is this phrase “now processing..don't terminate this program” correct? Sorry to be off-topic, but as a programmer, I'd say that you should design your application so that this message is never displayed. You should always try and provide the user with a 'Cancel' button and you shouldn't design your application so that the integrity of its data is dependent on the user not closing it. As a user, it drives me mad if an application 'locks me out' and the first thing I do with such apps once I've closed them is to uninstall them. |
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Jan 3 |
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What does 'condescending' exactly mean? The "condescending and friendly" examples from the OP back this up - they seem to date from a time when talking down to one's inferiors was seen to be a good thing i.e. better than not talking to them at all. |
