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1500 questions
58
votes
13 answers
English equivalent for the Persian idiom "send someone out in pursuit of black chickpeas"
"To send somebody out in pursuit of some black chickpeas" is a Persian idiom that implies 'to make or ask someone to run an errand so that you be able to have/ buy some time in order to deal with your private affairs in their absence', like having…
Soudabeh
- 9,217
58
votes
13 answers
A skill that you have, but has little to no benefit for you
Most of us have these little things we are able to do, that are a little different or special. Maybe it is something we mostly use in laid-back social situations, to break the ice and get a laugh. Beyond that, however, this talent does not do much…
cobaltduck
- 12,897
58
votes
8 answers
What’s purportedly wrong with Strunk & White’s “The Elements of Style”?
I was reading the comments on this answer where several users claimed that Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style was “misinformed, hypocritical, and wrong” and “flat-out wrong or totally misleading”, so I’d love to get a delineated list of where…
MikeSchinkel
- 1,417
58
votes
24 answers
Image is to pixelated as a song is to ___?
The closest I could think of is "low quality" but that is not as specific as I'd like, it could also mean that the music is bad.
Example:
I like this song, but you should really get the CD. This sounds _______
Shelvacu
- 956
58
votes
4 answers
Why do some words have two past tense forms (e.g. "dreamed" vs. "dreamt")?
While perusing ShreevatsaR's answer to this question, it occurred to me that my own verbal usage is out of step with what I see in current American literature. When speaking in the past tense, I prefer to use the following forms:
dreamt (past tense…
ssakl
- 2,103
58
votes
7 answers
Word for a software bug that occurs again after having fixed it?
What's the word for a software bug that reoccurs after being fixed?
I'm embarking on some test-driven development (TDD) for a project, and I want to use the right term but have forgotten the word.
It's not reversion, but I think it sounds similar.…
the
- 703
58
votes
7 answers
Where did the term "OK/Okay" come from?
I've heard lots of varying histories of the term "OK".
Is there any evidence of the true origin of the term?
Daniel LeCheminant
- 2,251
58
votes
6 answers
What were the rules for capitalising nouns in the 17th and 18th centuries?
It seems to have been common practice in the 17th and 18th centuries in English-language sources to capitalise the first letters of nouns, as in
At which Time he prov'd himself the Noah's Dove, that finding himself no Rest anywhere, was receiv'd…
gpr
- 4,078
57
votes
9 answers
Why, in old books, are dates often given with the years redacted?
silly question, and I'm not sure this is even necessarily the right forum, but it's the most appropriate on StackExchange, so here we are.
Why is it, in older books, that years are sometimes redacted and replaced with a dash when writing the date in…
Sdaz MacSkibbons
- 673
57
votes
5 answers
"Postfix" or "suffix"?
Wikipedia and The Free Dictionary were not much help — is there a practical difference in the semantics of suffix and postfix, except that the latter is more rare?
File name extensions are well known. For example, index.en.xhtml could reasonably be…
l0b0
- 1,084
57
votes
19 answers
Is there a word to describe someone who tends to disagree with others only to upset them?
What's the word to describe someone who acts arrogantly and always disagrees with others unreasonably in order to upset people around him/her?
[I'm not looking for adjectives like unpleasant, annoying, unfriendly, rude, I'm looking for a more…
user19341
57
votes
2 answers
Is "authentification" a real word?
My professor used the word authentification in a lecture. I have always used authentication. Is it a real word or is authentication the correct term?
Matt Phillips
- 681
57
votes
5 answers
Why can't the word "can" be used in future tense (will can)?
I'm curious about why the English word can cannot be used in future tense (e.g. will can).
An example unrelated to English is French term je pourrai, but that's exactly what I mean.
Compare German ich werde können which translates exactly to I will…
iBug
- 1,336
57
votes
10 answers
"Position" is to "space" as what word is to "time"?
Is there an English word that is the temporal equivalent to "position"? As position can be described as "where you are", I can think of "when you are" as the temporal meaning.
Information on how it will be used in order to be answered (quoted…
user181468
- 697
57
votes
10 answers
"Eat" is to "feed" as "drink" is to what?
I can say "I feed someone". Am I forced to say "I give someone a drink", or is there a single word for this (as in "I [verb] someone")? Unfortunately my thesaurus can't really help me.
Daniel
- 57,547