English Language & Usage

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earned this badge 49 times.
In 18th century England, was "eat" the past tense of "eat" and how was it pronounced?
Awarded May 23 at 12:51
"Boy howdy!" Where did this expression come from, who uses it, and what does it convey?
Awarded Feb 20 at 19:43
How did "itch" come to be used to mean "scratch" as in "I had to itch my leg"?
Awarded Oct 29, 2022 at 23:57
Is the phrase "hard bark on [someone]" just a Hollywood invention?
Awarded Jun 20, 2022 at 2:41
How and when did "jug" come to be a slang term for "prison"?
Awarded Jun 9, 2021 at 21:04
When and where did "clam" come to mean a missed note in a musical performance?
Awarded Mar 16, 2021 at 23:12
Where does the expression "to shine someone on" come from? And does it have racist origins?
Awarded Mar 15, 2021 at 1:25
What does "queer" really mean these days?
Awarded Jan 10, 2021 at 22:42
How did some English words get a "y" sound in front of "uː"-sounding vowels?
Awarded Oct 6, 2020 at 21:30
When and where did "bad boy" start being used to mean something impressive, e.g. "Let's take this bad boy out for a spin!"
Awarded Apr 24, 2020 at 2:04
Is there a pessimistic counterpart to the term "Pollyanna"?
Awarded Mar 5, 2020 at 12:30
Where does the term "shiv" (a makeshift dagger) actually come from?
Awarded Feb 7, 2020 at 12:20
Is there such a thing as Intrusive-L (as opposed to Intrusive-R)?
Awarded Nov 19, 2019 at 9:10
Where did we get the "fours" in "on all fours"?
Awarded Sep 13, 2019 at 16:05
Is the split in pronunciation of "detail" regional, semantic, or irrelevant?
Awarded Apr 7, 2019 at 13:55
When did "a buck" start being used to mean any unit of 100? (E.g. "a buck fifty" for 150 lbs.)
Awarded Sep 19, 2018 at 0:55
Is there an acceptable corresponding negative to "well off"?
Awarded Aug 29, 2018 at 23:30
The "old switcheroo": Where did the "-eroo" suffix come from?
Awarded Nov 17, 2017 at 21:40
Is Yiddish a creole language? And if not, what is it?
Awarded Aug 3, 2017 at 3:26
Matryoshka words
Awarded Mar 21, 2017 at 13:42
When and how did we start getting "off the dime"?
Awarded Jan 24, 2017 at 19:18
What do we call this kind of recursive expression?
Awarded Sep 2, 2016 at 14:34
Where did we get "buster" as in "Look here, buster"?
Awarded Jun 9, 2016 at 22:44
The hidden flaw in "singular they"—what to do about reflexive pronouns?
Awarded May 12, 2016 at 16:49
Term for a word that is unintentionally made up of two or more other words?
Awarded Aug 8, 2015 at 3:31
"Carved from the living rock" — since when was rock ever alive?
Awarded Jul 28, 2015 at 20:42
Differing pronunciations of "divisive"
Awarded Jun 5, 2015 at 2:50
You don't want to answer this word-placement question, now do you?
Awarded Jun 4, 2015 at 2:47
Does a "fact" have to be true?
Awarded May 28, 2015 at 19:17
How do you tell when you're reading a poor translation?
Awarded May 14, 2015 at 9:10
"Consists of" vs. "consists in": different meanings of the verb, or the same meaning applied differently?
Awarded Apr 13, 2015 at 13:44
What do the British mean by "bolshie"?
Awarded Feb 14, 2015 at 16:11
"Soft-peddle" vs. "Soft-pedal": eggcorn blunder or sly play on words?
Awarded Jul 2, 2014 at 22:29
Does the 18th century contraction "on't" survive phonologically in English today?
Awarded Apr 8, 2014 at 9:48
Do Brits understand rhyming slang or are they sometimes puzzled by it too?
Awarded Mar 4, 2014 at 18:01
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Is there a name for this kind of punny transference?
Awarded Jan 15, 2014 at 20:17
Diacritics and non-English letters in anglicized loan words: keep 'em, dump 'em, italicize the words, or what?
Awarded Nov 30, 2013 at 2:43
Why do we say "try and" [verb] instead of "try to" [verb]? (E.g., "Try and call me tomorrow.")
Awarded Sep 29, 2013 at 7:44
Punctuating question tags: A question mark is always required, isn't it. (Well, isn't it?)
Awarded Apr 3, 2013 at 1:39
Is there a term for words that have a single meaning or are only used in a single context?
Awarded Jan 26, 2013 at 11:17
Does the quirky spelling in English actually make it easier to read?
Awarded Jan 9, 2013 at 9:22
"I'm sure" vs. "I'm for sure": Who uses which, and when?
Awarded Dec 29, 2012 at 19:17
"Close the light" — regionalism or mere oddity?
Awarded Aug 17, 2012 at 8:57
Use of "deadpool" as a verb
Awarded Aug 16, 2012 at 21:26
Types of things vs. types of thing
Awarded Aug 15, 2012 at 20:15
"Money for rope" ... meaning and derivation?
Awarded Jul 6, 2012 at 13:55
How do the tens­es and as­pects in English cor­re­spond tem­po­ral­ly to one an­oth­er?
Awarded Mar 18, 2012 at 14:31
Is it ever worth the time and effort to correct someone else's grating grammatical mistakes? [closed]
Awarded Feb 17, 2012 at 12:52
Just how offensive are the terms "retarded" and "gay"?
Awarded Sep 28, 2011 at 8:49

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