40
votes
Accepted
What's a word for a person being fed on by a blood sucking animal?
"Host" would be the most correct term biologically, though it's more often associated with long-term parasites / guests that actually live in or on the host.
If you want to avoid the "...
- 674
38
votes
Accepted
What is the term for words such as Turkish, American, Canadian, Mexican, Polish, etc.?
You've used the single-word-request tag, but no such single word may exist. Demonyms are usually nouns, but most have corresponding adjectival forms. You might therefore call these words "...
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27
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What is the term for words such as Turkish, American, Canadian, Mexican, Polish, etc.?
They are country adjectives in the examples 'Turkish cuisine',
'American passport', 'Canadian insignia' etc. as the adjectives refer to the country, not people. A country adjective differs from a ...
- 54k
25
votes
"The machine must be kept operating at its *WORD* " - What is the word?
The first word that occurred to me was optimum. Four major dictionaries suggest that this is a good choice:
Merriam-Webster definition 1
is “the amount or degree of something that is most favorable to ...
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25
votes
Accepted
Word for heavily foreign-influenced speech?
For the language phenomenon where the English language is heavily influenced by another language, a portmanteau term combined from the name of two languages is used. In your specific example, it is ...
- 54k
24
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What's a word for a person being fed on by a blood sucking animal?
From the perspective of a biologist
This is NOT an example of a predator / prey relationship. By definition, a predator KILLS its prey. If the person whose blood is being taken generally lives, they ...
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23
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"The machine must be kept operating at its *WORD* " - What is the word?
One common word often used in such contexts that you seem to have overlooked is peak:
constituting the highest or maximum level, volume, etc.; optimal; prime:
a machine running at peak performance.
[...
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17
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Accepted
Antonym of "Crying Wolf too much"
He has an impressive / an outstanding / a strong / a proven / ... track record.
track record: a record of past performance often taken as an indicator of likely future performance
These stocks have ...
- 71k
17
votes
Accepted
What is the name of the people that yell "repent!"?
One term is street preacher, which apparently has been around since 1769:
street preacher n.
1769 B. Pye Five Lett. i. 10 Our prudent Leaders do not send out Field-Preachers, and Street-...
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17
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Thieves who rob dead bodies on the battlefield
The 1949 Geneva Convention Article 18 contains this paragraph:
After each engagement, Parties to the conflict shall, without delay,
take all possible measures to search for and collect the ...
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16
votes
Accepted
What is the overflow feature from a canal to a river called?
The black stair-like structure is called a stepped spillway.
If you look closely at the spillway, you'll see these trapezoidal structures:
The complete structure is called a labyrinth [side] weir.
A ...
- 10k
16
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Thieves who rob dead bodies on the battlefield
Obviously, there are "grave robbers," people who steal possessions (and/or the bodies themselves) from people's graves, but that's not quite the same thing.
A catch-all legal term for such ...
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11
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Antonym of "Crying Wolf too much"
One opposite could be "to be a Cassandra", that is, to be right but not be believed. This doesn't bring in the repetition implied in crying wolf, so it isn't perfect.
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What do you call the strips on shoes that are often used instead of laces?
It is called Velcro strips:
the brand name of a type of fastening tape consisting of opposing pieces of fabric, one piece with a dense arrangement of tiny nylon hooks and the other with a dense nylon ...
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11
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"The machine must be kept operating at its *WORD* " - What is the word?
I would simply use at its best:
at the highest standard that can be achieved (Cambridge)
I see it is rather commonly used with the verb to operate:
If your brain was a computer, it would take 25 ...
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11
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When a disability is seen as a good thing
Disability pride seems like the most fitting term.
Kathleen R. Bogart Ph.D., who has facial paralysis caused by Moebius syndrome, explains in a Psychology Today article:
Like the early gay pride ...
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11
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What is the term for words such as Turkish, American, Canadian, Mexican, Polish, etc.?
These are demonymic adjectives, sometimes also called gentilic adjectives (there isn't much difference between the two terms other than that the first is Greek, and the second Latin).
The ...
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10
votes
Accepted
What is the origin/meaning of the term "color" in corporate earnings calls?
I don't think the use of color in your examples has to do with finance, per se, but rather the word is being used in its sense of interesting and elucidating details, examples, anecdotes, etc., and ...
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10
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What's a word meaning to use one’s hands and feet equally?
If you are able to use your feet like your hands your feet are prehensile. The term you are looking for is prehensility.
Prehensile feet are lower limbs that possess prehensility, the ability to ...
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9
votes
Accepted
What is the name for a hardware equivalent of a Widget?
It's still a widget. Widget was a general term for a small piece of hardware long before software existed. The term was just incorporated into software terminology.
The same thing thing applies to &...
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9
votes
What's a word for a person being fed on by a blood sucking animal?
You say that the "suckee" receives a benefit — namely, good luck — in exchange for its blood. One could therefore argue that the relationship between sucker and suckee is symbiotic rather ...
- 744
8
votes
Accepted
In the field of bookbinding, where does the term "Davey Board" come from?
It would appear that the name comes from The Davey Company (Davey Est 1842) who invented and manufactured various types of board under the Davey trademark(s).
The company produces enough binder's ...
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8
votes
What can I call 2nd and 3rd place finishes in a competition?
A concise way to put it would be placegetter or placed. In the UK, Australia and New Zealand, "placed" would be understood to be in the top three. My understanding is a place in the US means ...
- 1,857
7
votes
Accepted
What do you call this device that floats in the water at ports?
light(ed) buoy
Images of lighted buoys
lighted buoy
Floating object used as beacon. Visual Dictionary illustration
light buoy
(Nautical) A buoy with a light on top which is lit at night to aid
...
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7
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What do you call the strips on shoes that are often used instead of laces?
To answer the second part of your question, I would use do up informally instead of lace, as
Go ahead; I just need to do up my shoes.
Or, more formally, fasten, as
The girl fastened her shoes ...
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"The machine must be kept operating at its *WORD* " - What is the word?
...'the machine' must be kept in "tip-top" (or "perfect") condition in order to ensure it operates at maximum efficiency.
The machine must be kept operating at its optimum.
...
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7
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What is the name of the people that yell "repent!"?
@Andrew was quicker, so I will just post this in case it offers something supplementary.
Officially, without any connotation of irony, they are called street preachers. Wikipedia explains that:
Open-...
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7
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What is the name of the people that yell "repent!"?
Much depends on the context - and you give none. On the one hand, we have
OED
God-botherer
n. depreciative (chiefly British, originally Military slang) a member of the clergy; any religious-minded ...
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7
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When a disability is seen as a good thing
Neurodiversity and neurodivergent have positive connotations which might work in your example sentence.
Neurodiversity:
“Neurodiverse” refers to a community of people whose members are
...
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6
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What do you call the strips on shoes that are often used instead of laces?
I would call them Straps because that word would cover all fasteners
Straps would be Hook-and-loop fasteners in modern times, but historically straps would have buckles, hooks, snap domes, or ratchets....
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible