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1500 questions
51
votes
3 answers
What is a good way to remind someone to reply to your email?
Sometimes some of the emails to people senior to you in the company are left unanswered.
What are the ways to politely remind the person that he needs to reply to your email (which he might have missed/forgotten about)?
I once used this as a reply…
Lazer
- 2,587
50
votes
4 answers
Is "yay or nay" an acceptable alternative to "yea or nay"?
Is "yay or nay" an acceptable alternative to "yea or nay"? I have seen it several times in recent weeks, enough to make me wonder whether it is an emerging usage or just a common typo.
mmyers
- 6,181
50
votes
5 answers
What does "to come undone" actually mean?
I've heard this phrase several times but was given several contradictory interpretations. Please provide an exact meaning of the phase.
Denys S.
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50
votes
2 answers
A number of questions "has been" or "have been" asked?
Formally, is it correct to write:
A number of questions has been asked here.
or:
A number of questions have been asked here.
As a non-native speaker of English, I would prefer the former: the subject seems to be "number", therefore the verb…
Pukku
- 739
50
votes
6 answers
What is the type of English used in the King James Bible called?
In the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, there is a distinct type of English present (this passage from Job 1:7-12):
And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth,…
George Stocker
- 609
50
votes
9 answers
How did 'sanction' come to have two opposite meanings?
Sanction is an unusual ambiguous word to me. In some cases it means to approve some action, while in other cases it means to prohibit or punish some action; and there being near opposite meanings, context is especially essential for correct…
DuckMaestro
- 1,478
50
votes
5 answers
Have "choir" and "deer" ever rhymed?
It’s that time of year when the dodgy rhymes of Christmas carols abound, but I find the chorus of "The Holly and the Ivy" particularly intriguing.
The rising of the sun
And the running of the deer,
The playing of the merry organ,
Sweet singing in…
Pam
- 7,260
50
votes
12 answers
Equivalent English phrase for "don't roll around where you've fallen"
In my language, we have a phrase which roughly translates to "don't roll around where you've fallen". It indicates that a person has said or done something stupid. Then when someone points this out, they still don't stop and pretend to be right, in…
ColonD
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50
votes
3 answers
The "old switcheroo": Where did the "-eroo" suffix come from?
The -eroo suffix works as an intensifier of sorts, though it also seems to have other, less well-defined properties.
The online OED has only this to say about it:
-eroo, suffix
factitious slang suffix as in boozeroo n., brusheroo (brush n.2…
Robusto
- 151,571
50
votes
3 answers
What is the meaning of the phrase 'Here be dragons'?
What does here be dragons mean in the example below?
WARNING Here be dragons. Relative source binding can not only encourage
bad application practices, such as binding to things defined in codebehind
instead of following a pattern such as…
Liu
- 2,517
50
votes
7 answers
Use of 'pussy' as term of endearment
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHDEL), Fifth Edition (© 2011)1, lists one of the meanings of 'pussy' as:
(Chiefly British) Sweetheart; dear. Used as a term of endearment.
However, I have not come across this sense…
user190973
50
votes
5 answers
Alternative to "manned" when referring to an extraterrestrial spacecraft?
In this question about manned spaceships versus drones, a user (perhaps jokingly) pointed out that "manned" wouldn't technically be correct when talking about an extraterrestrial spacecraft:
By definition, they wouldn't be 'manned', but they might…
Fiksdal
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50
votes
16 answers
Is there an expression to indicate the strategy of wearing someone down with numerous small irritations?
I would use rope-a-dope, but it's got connotations of pretending to lose that I don't need. I'm trying to describe the behavior of someone who sends twenty detailed emails a day about various projects, and the recipient of his emails has finally…
Elby Cloud
- 964
50
votes
5 answers
Where did "cc" and "bcc" come from?
I've just realised that CC is "carbon-copy" and BCC is "blind-carbon-copy". Basically I'm wondering, where did these terms come from?
Pacerier
- 7,017
50
votes
15 answers
An English equivalent of Arabic idiom ‘Show us the breadth of your shoulders’
The Arabic idiom “OK, now you can show us the breadth of your shoulders.” has a meaning similar to get lost, but with a more humorous edge. The idea of the idiom comes from when the recipient turns around and walks out, or figuratively speaking:…
mahpack
- 863