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1500 questions
33
votes
3 answers
Is "targetted" a standard British English spelling?
Wiktionary says that the difference between "targetting" and "targeting" is that the first one is a British spelling and the second one is American. Meanwhile, Oxford Dictionaries says that "targetting" is a misspelling of "targeting". Which of them…
Hammerite
- 509
33
votes
16 answers
Words with opposite meanings in different regions
I can't recall it, but there is a word in American English which now means the opposite of itself in British English. What words are there that have opposite (not just different) meanings in different regions?
waiwai933
- 14,563
33
votes
4 answers
What does "Google-fu" mean?
Exact Duplicate:
Can anyone tell me what the suffix “-fu” stands for in the following sentence?
I was reading an article on MSDN where I found a mention to google-fu. It says, “To search for C++ delimeters and code snippets is going to take a…
katie
- 647
33
votes
13 answers
How do I politely say I have used my mouth while drinking water from a bottle?
Is there a one word substitute for the scenario below, and what is the politest way of saying it to another person or colleague?
I drink water from my bottle by touching my mouth
When someone wants to drink water from my bottle, I need to inform…
NewAtProgramming
- 439
33
votes
15 answers
Is there a word which means whatever you want it to mean? Or has no meaning?
I'm looking for a word which can be used in any situation to describe something in whatever way you want, i.e it's not a word and just fits in to places..., but is there an actual word which does that?
Hordern
- 347
33
votes
18 answers
antonym of "spoiled"
I'm looking for an antonym of the word spoiled.
The sense of spoiled I have in mind is a positive one: "I've become spoiled by these comfy shoes."
I'm looking for a word or short phrase to say: "I've become antispoiled by these horrible shoes and…
Michael Wolf
- 443
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33
votes
7 answers
What does "great good" mean in the tutorial title "Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!"?
There is a site learn you a haskell with the title "Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!". Does "Great Good" mean "very very good"? Does the whole phrase mean "learning Haskell is good for you" or "learning Haskell is good for the whole world" or…
bootleg
- 1,153
33
votes
3 answers
Why “daily” and not “dayly”?
Checking how adjectives related to time are created, I see:
year → yearly
month → monthly
week → weekly
day → daily
Why has “day” been derived into “daily” with an ‘i’ instead of “dayly” with a ‘y’?
In the Online Etymology Dictionary I don't see…
fedorqui
- 1,255
33
votes
3 answers
“Fire” a weapon before firearms existed?
Did the verb “fire a weapon” exist before the actual introduction of firearms on battlefields?
More specifically, does it make sense for a creative work to have archers (or whatever ranged weaponry) be told to “fire!”, when the world they live in…
Socce
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33
votes
5 answers
When did the term "scientist" overtake usage of the term "natural philosopher"?
The word scientist comes from the Latin scientia, but when did its usage become more prevalent than the term natural philosopher?
Jared Updike
- 1,244
33
votes
3 answers
What is the distinction between “role” and “rôle” [with a circumflex]?
One of our users, Stan Rogers, mentioned there was such a distinction, I think, when he answered a question and talked about how the orthography of foreign loan-words typically changes to conform with the usual rules of English spelling. In passing…
Uticensis
- 21,799
33
votes
3 answers
Why has the word "thrice" fallen out of common usage?
I'm an American living in America, but my workplace has a lot of immigrants from India here. They all use "thrice" very commonly, which is wonderful to my ears! Thrice is such a delightful word.
Today one of them said something happened "twice or…
Chris Sobolewski
- 433
33
votes
12 answers
Do the words "jail" and "prison" refer to different things?
In everyday speech, the terms jail and prison are used interchangeably in many situations. However, my understanding is that, at least in the US, they actually refer to slightly different things. For instance, it appears to me that it would be…
RegDwigнt
- 97,231
33
votes
3 answers
"User accounts" or "users account"
Is it correct to say user accounts or users account when referring to the accounts any user has on a site like this one?
In general, in the case of a noun that is used as adjective for the noun that follows, is it better to use …
apaderno
- 59,185
33
votes
3 answers
"parentheses" vs "parenthesis"
What is the difference between "parentheses" and "parenthesis"?
Aviran
- 465