80
votes
Accepted
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
They would be a "breakroom", or "break room" a place where staff go when they have their breaks.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/breakroom
- 1,464
61
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
In the UK I have heard this referred to almost exclusively as the "canteen".
The dictionary definition for canteen states:
"a restaurant provided by an organization such as a college, factory, or ...
- 1,175
48
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
Lunch room
lunch room
n.
a room, as in a school or workplace, where light meals or snacks can be bought or where food brought from home may be eaten.
Source
- 1,228
30
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
Consider cafeteria.
a lunchroom or dining hall, as in a factory, office, or school, where food is served from counters or dispensed from vending machines OR where food brought from home may be eaten. ...
- 42.5k
22
votes
Accepted
Countries ending with -Y vs. -IA: What is the pattern?
It's accident, specific to each individual use of the country name in English. Let's take Austria and Hungary as an example. You might want there to be a deep phonological or etymological reason that ...
- 32.9k
15
votes
How is the name of the town Hingham, Massachusetts, pronounced?
I lived in Massachusetts for 27 years and did some house-hunting in Hingham, and everyone I ever heard say the name of that town pronounced it \ˈhɪŋəm\ .
Note that other two-syllable towns in ...
- 147k
14
votes
Accepted
“Shaw” → “Shavian” – why “v”?
It is said that Shaw disliked the adjective "Shawian" (which does look and sound awkward) and proposed to invent a new one.
He Latinized (sort of) his surname, from Shaw to Shavius (there is no "...
- 19k
14
votes
Accepted
What is the first mention/use of the word "America" in print in an English written/translated source
A new iuterlude [sic] (1520) has the following:
This sayde north parte is callyd Europa,
And this south parte callyd Affrica,
This eest parte is callyd Ynde,
But this newe landys founde lately
Ben ...
- 57.6k
12
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
In the UK, in government (police/fire service/parks depts) and some industry settings it can be called a 'mess room'. In educational and academic settings it can be referred to as a 'staff room'. In ...
- 259
10
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
We call it kitchen where i work because that's what it looks like. It has everything you would find in a standard kitchen (at home) except a gas cooker.
Nevertheless, I think other answers are an ...
- 231
8
votes
Accepted
United Kingdom's three-name-cities; is there a generic way to write them?
There isn't a standard. You just have to memorize them. :) On the one hand, you have:
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stoke-on-Trent
On the other, you have:
Kingston upon Hull
Newcastle upon Tyne
In the cases ...
- 3,224
8
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
Mess hall has not been mentioned yet. Mess in this case means food, not that it's a place for dirt. It's usually used to describe very large rooms and especially in military camps, but it can also be ...
- 1,003
7
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
Another possible name for this (in the UK, at least) is a refectory. This is what it's called where I work, but it's more academic than corporate, and is perhaps slightly old-fashioned.
- 442
7
votes
Accepted
Adding -s to French city names
The English spelling of the French cities Lyons and Marseilles preserves an orthography still current in France in the 19th c.:
Lyons, Marseilles
le colonel Mocquart …, avec ses hommes, sa ...
- 27.5k
7
votes
Accepted
What is a How (placename)?
Wordsense gives the etymology from Old Norse haugr
Akin to hár ("high"), Danish høj ("hill"), Northern Sami hög
("hill"), North English how.
Noun haugr (masc.) (...
- 2,563
6
votes
Why use "the" for oceans/seas/rivers etc. but not lakes?
The use of definite articles with names for inanimate objects in English should be understood on a case-by-case basis. There is, as far as I know, no principled reason behind the distribution of ...
- 17.7k
6
votes
British Isles - Acceptable?
Geographers don't generally dispute it, but it can be sensitive terminology in Ireland. The Wikipedia article on the British Isles naming dispute lists the following as alternative terms that have ...
- 17.9k
6
votes
Why do we use the article "the" with the Matterhorn (a mountain)?
Like any rule in English, there are many exceptions.
Generally we use "the" when the mountain is one of the earlier named Alpine German loanwords -- the Matterhorn, the Jungfrau, and so on. In these ...
- 2,191
6
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
Kitchenette.
Where I am (in Seattle) this is what I hear most often. It has one or more tables, a counter, fridge or two, a microwave or two, a sink, and a dishwasher.
Elsewhere (Missouri—and in ...
6
votes
Why is "Thailand" spelled with an 'h'?
Like many languages outside Europe, Thai distinguishes between aspirated and unaspirated plosives (eg [tʰ] and [t]). These both occur in English, but they are not treated as distinct sounds, so it is ...
- 74.7k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the purpose of changing "Nürnberg" to "Nuremberg" in English language?
The English spelling reflects an older form of the name, as in mediaeval Latin Nuremberga, or Norimberga. In the local Frankish dialect the town in still called Närmberch. So really your question ...
- 5,461
6
votes
What is the first mention/use of the word "America" in print in an English written/translated source
It was first printed in Waldseemüller map in 1507.
The Waldseemüller map or Universalis Cosmographia ("Universal Cosmography") is a printed wall map of the world by German cartographer ...
- 16.1k
6
votes
Countries ending with -Y vs. -IA: What is the pattern?
There is no "pattern"
OED
-ia suffix A termination of Latin and Greek nouns [= i- , ι-, stem or connecting vowel + -a suffix1 1] , in Greek esp. frequent as the ending of abstract nouns ...
- 28.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Why did Servia become Serbia?
From a not credible source:
In Ancient Greek, the letter Beta was pronounced like English B. But in Modern Greek, it's pronounced like English V. So "Serbia" became "Servia."
and from another ...
- 5,095
5
votes
Accepted
What is the term used for a place name that represents something other than the place itself?
It's a metonym.
metonym noun
A word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated. For example, Washington is a metonym for the US government.
...
- 37.7k
4
votes
Is “European Peninsula” a common name for Europe?
'Europe' as a continent, includes part of Russia, so I imagine the journalist was trying to avoid contradiction by using a phrase that, though uncommon, is clear. Nothing more complicated than that.
- 34.8k
4
votes
Adjective of proper noun containing "and"
There is no rule. Every place has its own unique gentilic for the name of the people from there, which is also known as a demonym. You simply have to look each one up individually, each and every ...
- 128k
4
votes
What is "a room a company provides for eating food" called?
Cafeteria serves food to employees or students.
A break room lets them eat food brought, or sometimes prepare their own food.
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible