Questions tagged [terminology]
This tag is for questions seeking or discussing a term (or terms) belonging or peculiar to a science, art, or specialized subject (e.g. linguistics, mathematics, physics, biology, finance, theatre, music, philosophy, astronomy, medical, nautical etc.). Consider adding [single-word-requests] and [phrase-requests] tags also if relevant.
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What is it called when a sentence is continued after an ellipsis?
It there a term for when a sentence is broken off by an ellipsis, and then continued?
Consider this example from Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time (2001, p. 10):
“They were… non-life forms.”
I know ...
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What is the word to describe using the phrase "no one" when you actually mean "most people"? [duplicate]
Example:
No one would ever do that.
Most people wouldn't do that
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Samey metaphors -v- unlike metaphors
Often metaphors are likenesses where there's a direct connection. For example on the news somebody describes a crash/ earthquake/ explosion as It was like a bomb going off.
What about where the two ...
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The opposite of "shell protection"
In security, we speak about different strategies of protection. Mainly, there are three to consider. First kind, usually called shell protection corresponds to the act of preventing the intrusion ...
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Is "volume bar", "volume slider” and “volume rocker" the same thing on mobile phones?
I just came across the words from the site "https://www.androidpolice.com/gmail-mark-all-messages-read/", which indicate, as for me the same thing but by using different words in the article ...
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How did "quantum" come to mean "smallest amount"?
In Latin, it simply means "an amount", which can be of anything and of any size. In modern English, especially in physics, it means the smallest amount physically possible, i.e. a physically ...
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Word for mouthpart that doesn’t imply that it applies to the mouth [closed]
Is there a word that refers to the organs/appendages used for processing food that do not imply that the organ/appendage in question is around a mouth or other orifice for food?
Example sentence:
The ...
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What is it called when someone addresses you by addressing their dog? [closed]
A friend said something to their dog and it was meant for me. I told her that I am pretty sure that is passive aggressive, but don't think I am correct.
What is this called?
I attempted wording it ...
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Word for the collectively leadership and important roles in a society
I am seeking a term for what can collectively be referred to as "the leader and/or the most important and powerful roles" in the hierarchy of a society.
I have an example from the YA series ...
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What's a term for a question where the options are Response/No Response instead of Yes/No?
Is there a specific term for a question, such as Are you asleep? and Can you hear me?, where the binary is Response/No Response rather than Yes/No?
I feel like there are other aspects of this concept ...
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Etymology of 'Priscilla' to refer to a type of curtain
Squashed between Priscian and Priscillian in Merriam-Webster Online, there's a peculiar entry, priscilla. It's not just a Biblical name, it appears, but also some sort of curtain.
priscilla:
[noun - ...
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Can Tumbleweed be used to describe a tall, gangly, and clumsy person? [closed]
My friends and family call me Tumbleweed because I'm tall and clumsy, but sometimes I wander if there's more to it when my "friends" call me Tumbleweed. I was wandering if Tumbleweed can be ...
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Is 'Desktop' the best term for a PC based on a 'table'? [closed]
Since ALL operating systems have a 'Desktop' - The area of the screen that contains your regularly used shortcuts, taskbar, menu and notification areas.
It would be more accurate to be 'Workstation' ...
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Words for diagonal directions
I'm a mathematician currently working on a problem involving splitting a square into two triangles, either by a line connecting top-left and bottom-right, or top-right and bottom left. I'm trying to ...
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Is there an accepted term for this style of management?
There are terms for different management styles—for example seagull management, mushroom management, and micromanagement. What I am looking for is a term that describes management which changes well-...
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What's a word for pliers and similar tools with a scissors action?
Is there a word for all tools with a scissors action, e.g. scissors, pliers, side cutters, single hole punch, cable crimper, lopper, secateurs, post hole digger, etc.?
Specifically, any tool that ...
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Word for the back side of a letter
The back side of a coin is called reverse, the left or back side of a bound manuscript is the verso, but what is the back of a piece of paper such as a letter (not the envelope) called? Dictionaries ...
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How did 'man of war' get that name?
In chapter seven of Gulliver's Travels it is written:
But hurried on by the precipitancy of youth, and having his imperial majesty’s license to pay my attendance upon the emperor of Blefuscu, I took ...
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Is there a grammatical term to describe this usage of "may be"?
I have found a sentence that goes like this: "Serenity may be the name of the company, but it doesn't describe the company."
Someone translated this sentence to my language as if "may ...
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What are these kinds of classifications called?
While browsing EL&U I sometimes see people pointing out in their answer that some words have been used in an unusual way (or should I call it structure?), producing sentences like "the writer ...
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When is a genus name without an initial capital letter acceptable in formal (but not necessarily in a scientific context) English? [duplicate]
In biology, the scientific name of a species (known as the "binomial name" or just the "binomial" or sometimes even just the "binomen") is written as a pair of words in ...
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Weird question - is 'arrived' technically deponent?
Yes, I know this sounds like a ridiculous question, but I do have concrete examples to back it up:
The sentence, "The newly arrived travelers ate breakfast" sounds perfectly reasonable to me ...
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Is there a name for such political abbreviations as "libfem" for liberal feminism and "ancap" for anarcho-capitalism? [closed]
In the last ten years or so, I've seen these strange abbreviations all over the Internet. Besides the ones in the above title, I've seen these examples: "tradcath", "nazbol", "...
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Is there a name for a known untruth being used as a defense or antagonistic tool? [closed]
Is there a word for the perpetuation of a known lie as a plausibly deniable excuse for objectionable beliefs?
I'm thinking of the Lost Cause of the Civil War, which is an argument that the Civil War ...
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What are pronunciation options for letter "E" in the word "Enum" (short for "Enumeration")?
Context: enum as an abbreviation/short for enumeration.
This question is about pronunciation of the letter E in enum, not about the num part.
I've heard people say both "æ-num" (like in &...
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How to describe this gadget in English? ("בית מנורה עם מתג") [closed]
How would you describe this gadget in English?
In Hebrew, I would say "בית מנורה עם מתג", that is, "a lantern house with a switch"- perhaps English has a better way to put it.
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What is the term for indicating some pages, not all in a BOB index?
I am trying to translate a BOB (back-of-the-book) index of names and themes. Now one theme comes up so often in the book, that it is impossible to include all the pages in the index under that entry.
...
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What is the term for a word/name that describes the function?
What is the term for a word/name that describes the function?
One example is dishwasher, which is a machine that does exactly what the name suggests- it washes dishes.
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What word can express entirely or partially losing a narrower perceptual experience as a result of its contextualization within a broader one?
I am seeking a word or phrase, likely a verb, to express entirely or partially losing a narrower perceptual experience as a result of its contextualization within a broader perceptual experience.
One ...
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"Swear" as a noun as opposed to "swear word"
I'm a teenager from Chicago. During my childhood (and, presumably, that of almost all English-speaking children), I was taught that some words were "bad" words; these words were ...
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Is there a term to describe the use of an incorrect adverb (as an adjective-modifier)?
The phrase 'slightly dead' would be incorrect because a person can't be 'slightly' dead. Is there a term to describe phrases that incorrectly use adverbs in this way?
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If silent is an adjective, what are silence(n), silenced (verb), silently (adv) called? The cognate of silent? [duplicate]
I'm trying to find the term to describe a group of words in different forms (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) that is derived from the same word.
I found that cognate refers to the derivation of a word ...
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Term for (humorous) sentences that end in unexpected ways [duplicate]
I'm trying to find the term that refers to a certain type of joke. These jokes generally have the following characterstics:
generally only one sentence long
the first half is straightforward and ...
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Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics?
Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics, behaviours or traits that are not physical? The term should have a negative connotation. I've heard the ...
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What word could I use to simplify referring to it?
I'm trying to describe a power but I'm having trouble finding the right terminology to simplify what I am trying to get across. The basic idea is that the ability in question can create two points, ...
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Is there a word like "alphanumeric" but is inclusive of symbols and special characters as well?
"Alphasymeric"? Apparently not a real word, so is there an appropriate one? If it matters, I'm seeking this as a vernacular term in the context of the "computer information technology&...
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What do you call this function in language: 'ignite' → 'igniter' ; 'wait'→'waiter' ; 'run' →'runner"
The linguistic procedure outlined below is the one that can be used to make new words out of verbs, and anyone who understands English will immediately have a sense of the meaning of the new word as ...
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Why does the name of the UK not change to UQ during the reign of a Queen? [closed]
The term queendom implies the territory possessed by the crown and denotes the country or state ruled by a queen. Etymonline says
Queendom is from c. 1600 as "country ruled by a queen," ...
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Term for creating Terminology
I’ve been struggling to remember a word for “creating discrete terminology.”
It feels like an academic word used in linguistics in the vein of “semiotics,” (but not dealing with signs, dealing with ...
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What do you call the place that terminates a water channel?
What do you call the place that terminates a water channel, as in the image below?
The channel terminates at the concrete wall. What is the name of that? Channel terminator? Channel barrier?
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What does "endorse" mean in banking?
According to Oxford Languages,
sign (a check or bill of exchange) on the back to make it payable to someone other than the stated payee or to accept responsibility for paying it.
I'm having trouble ...
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What is the feature/state/type of a noun made "real" with a determiner?
How do you call the feature/type/state of a noun which has been made "actual/real" with a determiner etc. as opposed to without it:
Car [in the dictionary]
A/the/my/this... car.
I read &...
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A name for the head of the school examination control room
In most schools and universities, there is a room or a center for examination tasks. In my country, it is called examination control room. This room has a number of responsibilities, such as ...
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What is the term for using a word to portray a particular idea outside of but close to the context of the original meaning?
What is the term for using a word to portray a particular idea outside of but close to the context of the original meaning? Here is an example of what I mean. Someone may use the word “mercenary” in a ...
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Is there a word for letters that are shaped the same when capitalized or not?
The letters
c/C, o/O, s/S, v/V, w/W, x/X, z/Z
Are roughly congruently shaped from uppercase to lowercase. Depending on the font, there can be some serif differences but generally they have much less ...
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Why does mathematics say "quadratic" instead of "squaric"?
In mathematics, powers of 2 and 3 are often referred to using "square" and "cube" terminology: a "number squared/cubed", the "square/cube root of a number". ...
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Naming the extents of a piece of Earth [closed]
To a first approximation, Norway would fit in a bounding box of 500x1600x3 km, where 500 km is east-west, 1600 is north-south, and 3 km is up-down. What do you call the extents in each of these ...
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Terms for "stuff" preceeding and following an item in a sequence [closed]
I need insight from a native speaker of any variety of English on what to call items in a sequence that proceeds or follows a certain item.
In a sequence "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11", I want ...
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What does ‘capture by employees’ mean in 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕 in the context of being a ‘vice’ of speculative activity in investment banking?
What is ‘capture by employees’?
In this past week’s January 26th issue of The Economist, the phrase capture by employees appears in a leading article* titled “The Humbling of Goldman Sachs” in this ...
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The word to describe "clever" style of TV episode' s title
In our country we have long TV series (maybe seventy episodes in one series) without unique titles. They are just simply marked as episode 01, episode 02, etc. It is hard to find the specific one in ...
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