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The Oxford English Dictionary is said to be a descriptive dictionary. What does that mean?
What does it mean for the OED or any dictionary for that matter to be "descriptive" or "prescriptive"?
Has the OED changed over the years?
I was curious to know what is meant by the word Dao in the given quote.Also please shed light on the hidden meaning of the quote.
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A question was just asked on ELL, and it needs a lot of work.
Here's a screen shot. There are two problems with this question: first, the way the initial question was asked; second, the way a follow-on question was asked in a comment.
Error Identification
I'll start by addressing the...0
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In The King of the Fields by Isaac Bashevis Singer, there's this scene early on in the book - the section "Cybula and Nosek" - where Cybula, who is on his way with his daughter for a peace meeting with the invaders, muses about some birds:
The birds had all settled down on branches of trees, exc...
Hanlon's razor is an aphorism, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity", known in several other forms. It is a philosophical razor which suggests a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for human behavior. Similar statements have been recorded since at least the 18th century. It is probably named after Robert J. Hanlon, a person who submitted the idea to a joke book.
== Origin ==
Inspired by Occam's razor, the aphorism became known in this form and under this name by the Jargon File, a glossary of computer programmer slang.
Later that same year, the Jargon...
While I would not consider replying with "Sure" to be polite, I have noticed that it is extremely common among Indian English speakers to reply with "Sure" in this context as a normal reply. Here is an example:
"Thanks, I appreciate the explanation you gave."
"Sure."
For a frame of reference,...
Dogeza (土下座) is an element of traditional Japanese etiquette which involves kneeling directly on the ground and bowing to prostrate oneself while touching one's head to the floor. It is used to show deference to a person of higher status, as a deep apology or to express the desire for a favor from said person.
The term is used in Japanese politics such as "dogeza-gaikō" (土下座外交) which is translated to "kowtow diplomacy" or "kowtow foreign policy". In general, dogeza is translated into English as "prostration" or "kowtow".
== The meaning of performing dogeza ==
In the Japanese social consciousness...
The spelling of William Shakespeare's name has varied over time. It was not consistently spelled any single way during his lifetime, in manuscript or in printed form. After his death the name was spelled variously by editors of his work, and the spelling was not fixed until well into the 20th century.
The standard spelling of the surname as "Shakespeare" was the most common published form in Shakespeare's lifetime, but it was not one used in his own handwritten signatures. It was, however, the spelling used as a printed signature to the dedications of the first editions of his poems Venus and Adonis...
In one literary (and cinematic) motif the protagonist, after a long journey, arrives to find the person he or she has come to see is dead or missing. Eg Lem's Solaris, the film The Third Man. Other literary examples?
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