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1500 questions
57
votes
9 answers

Is "faff" well understood outside Britain?

Google says "faff" is just British English. Is it well understood in other English speaking regions? If not, is there an international alternative? faff BRITISH informal verb: faff; 3rd person present: faffs; past tense: faffed; past participle:…
callum
  • 1,002
57
votes
3 answers

If we have a "second" of time, what's "first"?

The word second can refer to ordinal #2 (that which comes after first), or a unit of time, 1/60 of a minute. Ordinarily you might think that this is just a coincidence, but in Spanish, the word segundo also means both a second (of time) and ordinal…
Mason Wheeler
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57
votes
5 answers

Is using "fruits" as the plural of "fruit" acceptable?

I've always understood the plural of fruit to be fruit, not fruits. I was looking at some marketing material and they used the word "fruits" in the following context: A unique infusion made with ... strawberry, raspberry and cranberry fruits In…
xerxesb
  • 673
57
votes
4 answers

Why use the word "copy" in "do you copy that"?

I notice "do you copy that?" is used in movies to ask for confirmation in telephone/interphone conversation. I only know copy means make things duplicated, so why use it in "do you copy that"? Is there a history about it?
LiuYan 刘研
  • 663
57
votes
7 answers

When is my son's first birthday?

[Clue: he was born three weeks ago, on 23 September 2014.] Originally, as I understand it, the word birthday meant the day of one's birth. It was a one-off event. I don't want to quarrel with the idea of extending this to cover anniversaries of…
chiastic-security
  • 3,091
57
votes
11 answers

Singular of "dice"

After a discussion on the topic I found out that Oxford Dictionary Online [courtesy of Grammarphobia; Oct 2016] has a usage note stating that Historically, dice is the plural of die, but in modern standard English dice is both the singular and the…
David Mulder
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57
votes
4 answers

Why is "pineapple" in English but "ananas" in all other languages?

Why is "pineapple" in English but "ananas" in all other languages?
Clever Masha
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57
votes
6 answers

Is "Just a friendly advice" grammatical?

I know that "advice" is uncountable and thus is incompatible with the article "a". However, the phrase "Just a friendly advice" seems to be rather widespread. Is it idiomatic, or incorrect? What is a more grammatical form?
user2978
57
votes
12 answers

What's the English equivalent of the Japanese saying, “A fart ruins 100 days of sermons by the priest (bishop)”?

I was amused by the expression "Paid a penny and only farted" (related by @FumbleFingers), which suggested a similar Japanese saying: 大山鳴動鼠一匹 - "Find only a small mouse coming out after hearing rumblings and experiencing shaking of the big…
Yoichi Oishi
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56
votes
7 answers

What does "you will want to" mean?

I often find people (mostly American people) telling to me "you will want to do this" or "you will not want to do this". Does it mean they are telling me that I should do something (in the sense of being authoritative) or are they just requesting…
Subhra
  • 561
56
votes
9 answers

What is the origin of the term "ginger" for red-headed people?

I'd like to know the etymology of the word "ginger" in reference to red-headed people. In particular, if "ginger" in this context is related to the plant root used in cooking, I'd like to know how the color red became associated with it. I am only…
kleingordon
  • 677
56
votes
1 answer

What is "musset"?

I came across the word "musset" in Gregory Maguire's Wicked-- Her green traveling gown with its inset panels of ochre musset suggested wealth, while the black shawl draping just so about the shoulders was a nod to her academic inclinations. (p. 84…
soundandfury
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56
votes
5 answers

When should I not use a ligature in English typesetting?

Typesetting that goes beyond the scope of basic MS Word (e.g. LaTeX, or even modern Word versions with a good OpenType font) often uses ligatures for certain glyph combinations, the most common being f + f = ff f + i = fi f + l = fl f + f + i = ffi f +…
doncherry
  • 661
56
votes
4 answers

"What would you with the king?" -From the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"

In the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, in order to show how punctuation changes meaning and can be used for jokes, it says: Instead of “What would you with the king?” you can have someone say in Marlowe’s Edward II, “What? Would you? With the…
MaxS
  • 943
56
votes
11 answers

What does 'for' mean in 'We are done for'?

There is an English expression do for, which means to kill, to execute, to ruin, to defeat etc. and this expression seems to always be used in passive voice: e.g.) We are done for. I understand this is like an idiom, but why is the preposition for…
Jessica.D
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