New answers tagged terminology
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Is there any single word to name the people who are in an exodus?
I have seen "exodees" used to mean this though I can't recall where. None of the suggested words has precisely that meaning so one is definitely needed.
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What is an object (talisman, amulet, salt circle etc.) that hinders or stops an evil spirit called?
A ward can define an object that wards off evil spirits, negative energy etc. It can serve as a hypernym for such objects, and it can also cover protective spells/enchantments and barriers which is ...
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Specific type of deception or logic error
This type of deceitful argument you describe, where someone relies on multiple meanings of a word to make their point, could be called:
Equivocation - Using an ambiguous term in different senses ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
A dictionary does not define words. A good dictionary should catalogue the current use. A good, big dictionary should include all the different usages, including mathematical or scientific definitions ...
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What is the word for the fusing of, for example, "-ed" and the final consonant "d" to give the ending (with voice removed) of "bent"?
Short answer (tl;dr):
According to the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum 2002; pp. 1601—1602) the two processes involved are simply:
devoicing of the suffix (d→t)
...
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What is the word for the fusing of, for example, "-ed" and the final consonant "d" to give the ending (with voice removed) of "bent"?
The two key terms you want are devoicing (going from /d/ to /t/) and coalescence (removing the multiple /d*d/).
The historical explanations would get into the class of Old English verbs, dialects of ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
I work more with software specifications than maths, but the problems are similar. The most common problem is with "may not", which is thoroughly ambiguous. Usually the context makes it ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
A similar ambiguous phrase might be...
How many dogs and cats are there?
The sets of 'dogs' and 'cats' do not overlap. Nothing is a 'dog' and a 'cat' at the same time. So if we associate 'and' with ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
I partially agree with Professor West.
cannot - as in "I cannot do " means I am incapable of doing it
but too many people conflate "can" with "may"
"Teacher, can I ...
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A word describing someone's preference to have a lineally/genetically-related child
I can't think of an adjective but you could use a terse caption:
wants his own children
willing to adopt/foster children
Using the word "progeny" instead of "children" adds a ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
It's funny, but I happened to run across Professor West's little web page myself just a few weeks ago, soon after I got a copy of his textbook Introduction to Graph Theory. Right now there are just ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
Thanks to Paul Tanenbaum for alerting me to this discussion. In response to these comments, I have modified this item on my grammar page. It now reads:
It appears that some writers of English now ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
As others have pointed out, cannot is ambiguous. My Random House Webster's College Dictionary (2001) lists cannot as an alternative form of can not; i.e., they are synonyms. But my American Heritage ...
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What do you call a word with vowels removed?
Why do you think such a technical term exists? –
Peter Shor Aug 9, 2017 at 18:15
I don't. It may not. I'd like to know if it does not. – vaer-k Aug 9, 2017 at 18:15
The word does not exist.
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A term for mixture used for palatography
I would call it "a special non-toxic paint" (harmless if swallowed).
It was looking for what to call a mixture of oil plus pigment that gets "painted" onto the person's tongue and ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
This is called an amphibology, an in this case you're describing a first order logic confusion. I'm assuming the math professor has a laundry list of similar terms and phrasing which he finds ...
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A term for mixture used for palatography
A one word term for this is perhaps not available. However, there are several sources of which three are mentioned below that mention the two-word term "coloring agent" (BrE: colouring ...
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A term for mixture used for palatography
"Coloring" and "dyes" implies you are applying the substance specifically to color the surface.
"Painting" might be better because it describes the action (like stroking ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
Can not is ambiguous. Conveniently, it has an alternative spelling cannot which corresponds to the more common of the two possible meanings. It's wrong though to say that this means can not can only ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
Full disclosure, I know Doug West (he’s my Ph.D. advisor’s Ph.D. advisor), so I am probably more inclined to give him credit. But it’s pretty obvious in context that he’s not being curmudgeonly and ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
The good professor is saying that "can not be" is ambiguous.
"X can not be 8" could mean "it is possible for X not to be 8" which then means, by extension, that it is ...
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The usage of "can not" vs. "cannot" in mathematics
EnglishClub has a balanced overview:
People often ask me whether they should write cannot (1 word) or
can not (2 words).
Cannot is a contraction of can not.
In 'British English' cannot is the normal ...
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What is the trade of an electrician called?
One word which might fit is
Wiring
Of course there are features of electrical installation which are not purely related to fitting wires, but fitting wires certainly does take a significant fraction ...
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What are the exclamation and question marks/points called in variants of English?
As Ngram shows, American English typically uses "exclamation point" but "question mark." British English, by contrast, uses "mark" in both cases.
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What are the exclamation and question marks/points called in variants of English?
Someone said they never heard of exclamation point in America. That's funny because I was born here and have lived here for 60 years and it's always been called an exclamation point, all through ...
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What is the trade of an electrician called?
The word you're looking for is "electrics".
However, it's not often used in this context. Most people would say "electrical work".
It's also worth noting that if you modify the ...
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What is the trade of an electrician called?
There does not seem to be a single word derived from the word electricity, no doubt because electricity appeared late in the history of trades. The first electrical device seems to have been the ...
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What is the trade of an electrician called?
It may seem odd (or it may just be because electrician work is relatively new as a profession compared to the others), but electricians do electrical (or electrical work, which is probably more common ...
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What is the trade of an electrician called?
It is called electrical work (or you could use electrical trade). It is a noun phrase as the adjective electrical modifies the noun work. There isn't a single word noun for the trade of an electrician....
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What is the term for when people lack the experience or knowledge to understand a metaphor?
Someone who is too literal-minded may have trouble with metaphors. But sometimes a metaphor is too opaque, even for those who are able to process figurative language with ease.
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What does "endorse" mean in banking?
The words "accept responsibility for paying it" describe a situation like the following: I get a check from Mr. Cheatum for $10 because I mowed his lawn. The "check" is a typical ...
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Is there a name for this kind of sentence structure where a clause is in subject position and **it** appears anaphorically in the matrix clause?
I may be missing something here but
That the sons of poor men may govern rich realms, = content clause – the clause expands on the content of the anaphoric “it” in both clauses.
don't report it as ...
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Do etymologists refer to when a word was first written, rather than when it was first used (spoken)?
It comes down to what qualifies as an attestation. If someone with "street cred" writes an essay for the Sunday paper and says, "I can guarantee you we used [ some word ] when I was a ...
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Do etymologists refer to when a word was first written, rather than when it was first used (spoken)?
Dates like these generally refer to written usage since that is generally the only kind of evidence that we have. (Speech by itself doesn't leave documents behind.) So these can be viewed as providing ...
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Do etymologists refer to when a word was first written, rather than when it was first used (spoken)?
Dates like this refer to the first known instance of a word being used in writing. They are not intended as an indication of when that word (or another word from which it is descended) might have been ...
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A word for drain plugs in boats
I've found evidence that the word scyttel was used in Old English for a boat plug. It is mentioned in the book "Etymological and Pronouncing Dictionary of Difficult Words" by Ebenezer Cobham ...
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What is the term used "When a person is called in to work on a holiday"?
"What is that leave is called?" It's called a Comp Day. It is compensation for working a holiday, weekend or anytime you normally wouldn't. Some companies will compensate with 1 1/2 to 2 ...
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A word for drain plugs in boats
Bilge plug is a term used. Bilge is a nautical term meaning the lowest inner part of a ship's hull, where water collects. The water accumulated can also be called bilge. Another relevant term is a ...
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A word for drain plugs in boats
The word bung works. Wiktionary defines it as:
A stopper, alternative to a cork, often made of rubber, used to prevent fluid passing through the neck of a bottle, vat, a hole in a vessel etc.
...
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What’s it called when you use more than the first letters of words in making an acronym?
During Communication , in general , long items are shortened to make it easy to vocalize or type or transmit.
That gives the most general concept "Abbreviation" :
A shortened form of a word ...
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Which is the more idiomatic: equivalence/equivalencies or equivalency/equivalences?
As MW notes, "equivalence" (plural "equivalences") and "equivalency" (plural "equivalencies") are synonyms in this context. According to Ngram, "...
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Is there a term for words that are stronger than a similar counterpart? (e.g. Dislike vs. Hate)
I suggest the three types of adjectives--positive, comparative, and superlative--are somewhat analogous to the three dyads or counterparts you provided in your question.
If you were to take the word ...
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