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Is there a word for something that was formerly a social norm but is no longer acceptable?

I've been reading a lot of various classic literature, and at times there is the sort of casual misogyny or racism that was commonplace and (within certain cultures) the social norm at that time. Such ...
oliverseal's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
32 views

Words that you cannot use intensifiers with

My question is what is the name for words that intensifiers cannot be used with. Words like unique or impossible. Something cannot be more unique or more impossible than another thing. I forgot the ...
Iris W's user avatar
  • 11
-1 votes
1 answer
37 views

Is there a commonly used root for "Inclusion" and "Exclusion", or some way to specify the status of being "Included" or "Excluded"? [duplicate]

"Inclusion" means for something to be part of a group "Exclusion" means for something to not be part of a group Whether something is in the group or out of the group is obviously ...
Sidney's user avatar
  • 1,467
4 votes
1 answer
119 views

Origin of the idiom "a few trombones short of a marching band"

I've heard the following idiom being used a few times recently but am unsure where it's come from: He's a few trombones short of a marching band. I don't know exactly what it means and I can't find ...
user1598's user avatar
  • 141
0 votes
0 answers
33 views

How would you use commas to separate adjectives of equal rights? [duplicate]

I am very confused about these separate adjectives of equal rights. The example I got was The Colt's strong, swift defense enabled them to win.
Livizsmart4ELA's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
58 views

What's meant by ". . . he went the pace extraordinary"? (go the pace ?) [migrated]

(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XX, published 1892) Passage 319 But before he was out of long clothes, the cloven foot began to show; he proved to be no ...
philphil's user avatar
  • 219
0 votes
0 answers
46 views

why is it a noun phrase and not an adjective phrase? [closed]

In the sentence "The boy is ten years old". Why is 'ten years old' a noun phrase and not an adjective phrase. Doesn't "ten years old" give me more information about the boy. How do ...
Nikhilonly's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
14 views

Continuous form of verb or Present participle?

Expanded version: Nobody likes to talk with the man who is sitting on the rock alone. Reduced version: Nobody likes to talk with the man sitting on the rock alone. How is it possible that in the ...
raj rajput's user avatar
-1 votes
0 answers
12 views

Is the phrase "Those are all cars make Chevrolet." in the English language? [migrated]

How about these? Those are all make Chevrolet cars. and Those are all Chevrolet make cars. Are any of these syntactically correct English phrases?
cherry-noize's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
52 views

Trying to understand how to connect phrases/clauses with commas

Take this fragment for example: The snow had come from the north, in the mist, driven by the night wind, smelling of the sea. It is from John Le Carré's The Looking Glass War. I've seen writers do ...
Evangelos Aktoudianakis's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
55 views

What do you call the person or character being spoken to in a poem or song?

This question asks what to call the person who is speaking in a lyric poem. The terms "narrator", "speaker", "persona", etc. may be used to refer to the "I" in &...
mriklojn's user avatar
  • 111
0 votes
0 answers
24 views

meaning of " I once had it all...My palate was sated…Nostrils stimulated…standing venerated " [closed]

Hello English is not my first language . I came across this sentence that i don't understand : I once had it all...My palate was sated…Nostrils stimulated…standing venerated
Its me's user avatar
  • 1
0 votes
0 answers
44 views

Meaning of "these thin boards divided the secret" [closed]

(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XX, published 1892) Passage 318 I had escaped the grounds and the cattle; I could not escape the house. A lady with silver hair,...
philphil's user avatar
  • 219
0 votes
1 answer
58 views

Is 'where' accurate here, or is 'with' accurate? [closed]

I wrote in my manuscript: 'Let f be a k-face of D where $k \ge 4$.' However, I feel that replacing 'where' with 'with' might be more appropriate. I'm a bit uncertain, so I'm posing this question. Can ...
licheng's user avatar
  • 311
1 vote
2 answers
79 views

Is "all showing that the weapons were being used by the Free Syrian Army" an absolute?

At the same time, dozens of videos of the weapons were being uploaded from Daraya, all showing that the weapons were being used by the Free Syrian Army **Source-New Yorker magazine https://www....
rahul sehrawat's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
97 views

Is the noun modifier "among them a portable anti-tank rocket and a wheel-mounted recoilless rifle" an appositive or absolute phrase?

Higgins was looking at videos coming out of the Daraya region when he noticed several weapons that he had not yet documented in Syria, among them a portable anti-tank rocket and a wheel-mounted ...
rahul sehrawat's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
38 views

Which is better, 'Iberophile', or 'Hispanophile'?

I'm not sure, because according to dictionaries, Iberophile isn't a word, but it is the first result on Google for "lover of Spain"
Anon Ymous's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
32 views

Adjectives with "these"

I thought I was doing a simple exercise (in attachment) from an English tutorial. But I didn’t find the expected sentences in the answers to the exercise: These expensive pants are too big My black ...
Veronika's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
103 views

How did "phenomenal" come to mean "extraordinary"?

Phenomenal nowadays is primarily used in common discourse to mean extraordinary, although it has a now-rarer secondary meaning which I suspect was originally its primary meaning: a. known through the ...
temporary_user_name's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
45 views

Another phrase for "he is a very easy person to scare"? [duplicate]

Can I have another phrase for the sentence/phrase; He is a very easy person to scare. Please I need this because I am writing a story which I'm going to produce when I'm finished...
Adesewa's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
27 views

Square Feet versus Square Foot [duplicate]

The sentence is The project would construct a 2000 square (foot/feet) kitchen.' I put 'The project would construct a 2000 square feet kitchen.' My senior reviewer changed feet to foot. Why? If I ...
Barnaby Briggs's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
64 views

The meaning of "The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it." — G. K. Chesterton

I recently came across this quote by G. K. Chesterton. The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it. (Note that the version I initially saw ...
The Surgeon of Death's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
41 views

A single word that describes or connotes all items in a list except the last item

Is there a single word to describe all the elements in a list, except the last item? The head of a list refers to the first item in the list and the tail refers to the last item. In mathematics and ...
Robert Steward's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
37 views

When do you use hyphens with compound adjectives?

I understand there are numerous questions related to this question but nothing truly clarifies my problem. I have been trying to understand when I should use hyphens in compound adjectives and I seem ...
Benji's user avatar
  • 21
0 votes
0 answers
12 views

There is a table in a/the kitchen? (if 1st sentence) [migrated]

I'm confused as to why internet shows a lot of hits like 'There is a table in 'the' kitchen?' after 'There is a table in'. Is it because the sentence(s) are assumed to be already in the middle of the ...
Martian2020's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
3k views

Etymologically, how did 'outrage' get 're-analyzed'?

Wiktionary: From... Old French... oultrage (“excess”)... derived from Latin ultrā (“beyond”). Later reanalysed as out- +‎ rage, whence the contemporary pronunciation, though neither of these is ...
zeno's user avatar
  • 819
1 vote
3 answers
56 views

What is the difference — honor, confer, decorate —?

I’m a Japanese college student, and in English class, I saw a sentence saying, The prime minister was formally invested with the title by Emperor. When I looked up words which mean "to give a ...
xiuxiu's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
0 answers
41 views

Growing calls, calls have grown

I'm wondering if 'calls have grown for X to be Y-ed' is an acceptable substitute for 'there have been growing calls for X to be Y-ed'? To clarify, these are examples of the latter from the first page ...
foolishkettle's user avatar
-1 votes
0 answers
29 views

What does the phrase, 'as thus construed', mean? [closed]

What is the meaning of the phrase, 'as thus construed'? I was writing an essay and felt that phrase was appropriate, but I looked it up with quotes on google and found only references in some legal ...
Jake Simmons's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
36 views

Origin of the expression “turn the card” meaning to pass on an opportunity

I recently dropped the phrase “turn the card” meaning to pass on an opportunity in an answer of a sister site. While not a common expression, I would have expected most people that I converse with in ...
Dale M's user avatar
  • 1,288
0 votes
0 answers
46 views

What is a word for a bad thing that is so common that it is mostly ignored? [closed]

I am not sure if there is such a word but it would be very helpful to know.
josh's user avatar
  • 1
4 votes
0 answers
56 views

Easier said than done vs. Easier to say than do

As a speaker of English as a second language, I've long been curious to know why English speakers would choose to say "Easier said than done" over "Easier to say than do". Why ...
Choe Guevara's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
26 views

Proper sorting of groups that begin with a person's name

If I were sorting, for example, audio recordings based upon the performer, then "Vince Guaraldi" and "Bob Seger" would be sorted as "Guaraldi, Vince" and "Seger, Bob&...
Jason's user avatar
  • 101
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

Meaning of "teen" in Aeschylus's play "The Persians"

I came across the phrase "how shall I bear my teen?" in Aeschylus' play "The Persians". I also saw "the children of teen" in "Seven against Thebes". What ...
Ellen's user avatar
  • 81
1 vote
1 answer
115 views

'as he had lived'

In the clause 'He died as he had lived', what is the grammatical function of 'as he had lived'? I know it modifies 'died', and I know 'as' can be used.
Evangelos Aktoudianakis's user avatar
-1 votes
0 answers
49 views

One word for the noise that ships make when approaching a port [closed]

I’m writing my book where I would like to describe the noise, using one word, that ships produce approaching a port. I would say something like TU-TU. I’m not sure if it works though…
Vlad's user avatar
  • 1
0 votes
0 answers
21 views

What is the function of the word "boats" in this sentence? [migrated]

For instance, they can learn that boats float and can practice ways to make boats move across water. Is it a subject or an object (the bolded word)?
Bubbles's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
23 views

Is it proper to switch from the third person singular (The Department of Environment) to the first person plural (we) in the same sentence? [duplicate]

I often have to translate sentences such as: The Department of Environment has offices everywhere in the country, and we would love for you to join us [us as in "the whole department, and not a ...
NinjaTranslator's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
38 views

"by validating" - missing direct object?

According to several dictionaries I have, "validate" is a transitive verb. But both Grammarly and ChatGPT judge the following (imperative) sentence as correct: Ensure feature quality by ...
Jirka-x1's user avatar
  • 101
0 votes
0 answers
34 views

Is there a word for technical debt that is centered around at-rest configuration data?

So sometimes my team runs into technical debt centered around persistent data. A quick example is if we create four options KNOWING that we will want to reduce them to two options later. This would ...
Sidney's user avatar
  • 1,467
0 votes
0 answers
34 views

What’s a word for an organization you’re soliciting a sponsorship from?

For example: Please enter the name and email of the [word meaning a possible sponsor]. I am building a website that helps users find and connect with companies and other organizations to ask them ...
JMasterBoi's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
36 views

What is a term for the evolution of idioms through error?

At my place of work the idiom bottom-up (as in bottom-up design) is often used and debated as a way of doing things. However over the last year or so it's increasingly being expressed as bottoms-up ...
Air's user avatar
  • 111
0 votes
1 answer
65 views

Galloping incompetence & galloping ineptitude

Is it correct to use "galloping" as a synonym of "extreme"? For example, I often see "galloping incompetence" and "galloping ineptitude". But Merriam Webster's ...
Greg Lovern's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
30 views

What seems more accurate "You and your kid discover their true capability" or "You and your kid discover his/her true capability"? [duplicate]

I have been asked to look at some old admission response forms that our school mails back to applying students. This letter consists of their test scores and the programs that is offered to them. Now, ...
Ashutosh's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
40 views

When you compare an object to a reference object, what noun to use to refer to the former?

I am in the process of writing a research paper that compares my Methods A and B against a commonly accepted gold standard (reference) method. All methods produce objects that are identical in the ...
Enuff's user avatar
  • 101
0 votes
2 answers
46 views

Do I need to repeat the subject after a semicolon splitting two sentences that have the same subject in formal written English?

Do I need to repeat the subject after a semicolon splitting two sentences that have the same subject in formal written English? For example: He talked to the owners, which was understandable; paid ...
goahead97's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
33 views

A/an + adj. + weather [duplicate]

We can say, "I had a delicious breakfast" because of the adjective, as opposed to "I had breakfast", where we don't use an indefinite article. As in this former case we have ...
Rrock Cj's user avatar
  • 235
2 votes
0 answers
84 views

Why are "all together" and "altogether" exact homophones in American English?

This question was inspired by the interesting discussion here: Why isn't the T in "relative" flapped? It seems like the adverb already and the two-word phrase all ready should be ...
Quack E. Duck's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
58 views

Should you italicize names of aircraft if they are serial numbers?

In English, it's customary to italicize the names of vessels, aircraft, and spacecraft, e.g. USS Oklahoma, B-17 Ye Olde Pub, and space shuttle Discovery. Does that also apply to specific aircraft ...
user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
447 views

Meaning of "swindle" in "…while four to five days in London would be suitable to swindle across the streets" [closed]

I came across this sentence in a blog. Is the 'swindle' being used correctly? If yes, what does it mean in this sentence? In most cases, three to four days in Paris would be enough to skim through ...
Jeetendra's user avatar

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