Most Popular
1500 questions
36
votes
7 answers
Underwater equivalent of "aerodynamic"?
I was reading this book that features a description of a shark:
It had fins at its sides, a triangular fin that rose from its back, a raked, aerodynamic tail, and eyes that were small, black, and empty.
(Emphasis mine.)
Now, since "aero-" means…
Fiksdal
- 3,295
36
votes
12 answers
Secular alternative to "doubting Thomas"
When looking at this question, the phrase "doubting Thomas" popped into my head as a potential answer. That in turn led me to question the origin of the phrase, which I discovered comes from the Apostle Thomas being skeptical of Christ's…
pyobum
- 3,482
36
votes
9 answers
'Predator' is to 'Predatory' as 'Prey' is to...?
I'm trying to find a word like 'predatory' that refers to prey instead.
Looking through some physical books gave some information about the root word 'praedor', for which I found this Wikitionary page. A quick search on Merriam-Webster only returned…
intrepidM
- 479
36
votes
4 answers
Plural of an initialism that ends with the letter S
Possible Duplicate:
What is the correct way to pluralize an acronym?
I was answering something on Super User and wrote OSes as part of my normal flow without really thinking about it. On a re-read I decided that it didn't look right, so I changed…
DMA57361
- 843
36
votes
24 answers
What's a good term for source code that could theoretically still run, but is purposefully not?
I'm a software engineer. There are many times when I write a good chunk, or even the entirety of, a feature, but opt not to make it actually run in the program for some reason or another. This code is still there, and could theoretically work, but…
Ky -
- 1,014
36
votes
4 answers
"th" in mother, father, brother— but not sister
I was wondering why there is a "th" in mother, father, and brother, but not in sister? Is the etymology of the word different?
Tomáš Průdek
- 363
36
votes
10 answers
Is the term "aspie" derogatory?
Until today I had never heard of the shortened term "aspie" to refer to someone with Asperger syndrome. While the term strikes me as derogatory and belittling, I'm not a native speaker and obviously have no experience with its usage.
An online…
Lilienthal
- 536
36
votes
5 answers
Reason for the current trend to use «she» as the gender-neutral pronoun?
There are some questions on gender-neutral pronouns both here and on Writers.
User Christine Letts writes:
In academia, there is currently a
movement toward using the feminine
pronoun at all times.
I wonder why that is. I came across several…
Júlio Santos
- 555
36
votes
3 answers
Is the use of a hyphen between "non" and an adjective strictly necessary?
Do I need to put a "-" between "non" and an adjective? As an example in physics we say "a non isolated photon", "non tight photon"... The context is very formal (paper publications and similar). Is there a general rule? Are there some differences…
wiso
- 997
36
votes
3 answers
Person, Persons, People, Peoples
Can you please clarify the relation and differences between these nouns?
For example, is it proper to use "persons" instead of "people"? Are they the same? As I believe that "people" is plural, how come there exists the plural of the plural…
Mehper C. Palavuzlar
- 35,654
36
votes
16 answers
Phrase for a situation where a problem disappears when you are about to fix it, but reappears later
For example, the car mechanic can't replicate the problem you are having every day, but when you drive it off the service dept, there it is again. Or, when seeing the dentist, the tooth ache goes away, and comes back when you leave.
Jamshid Begmatov
- 377
36
votes
5 answers
Indefinite articles used with plural nouns: It was AN amazing TWO DAYS
The indefinite article a(n), derives from the old English word an meaning "one". Generally this word only occurs in determiner function before noun phrases which are singular. However, there seem to be some cases where this determiner occurs before…
Araucaria - Him
- 47,146
36
votes
11 answers
Word to describe "beautiful but worthless"
I have a family member who worked at a cat boarding facility. There, she met a couple who jokingly described their cat as "beautiful but worthless." Is there a word in the English language to describe such a purrradox? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
36
votes
9 answers
Person who pretends to not understand unless one speaks in exactly the words they expect
I just realized there are some people around my workplace who
always try to correct me when using a certain word, saying that that's not how I should speak, and I should use other words (the ones they provide me with)
or pretend they didn't…
vlad-ardelean
- 475
36
votes
4 answers
Is there a more common phrase that means "preponed"?
I was aware of this and this stackexchange post discuss the same. There is no prepone in English. Ok, then how do I say Our meeting is preponed in correct way? What is the correct word/phrase for prepone?
Gopi
- 543