Language Overflow

userr2684291

10:01

Phrase of the day: be climbing the walls

2

userr2684291

10:15

I've grown to appreciate run-of-the-mill words that obtain idiomatic meaning when in juxtaposition with other such words. I suppose that's because they're harder to learn, in addition to attractive words' standing out too much and being of questionable utility.

CowperKettle

Yes, attractive words envenom the language, while chitterling words make it tastier.

userr2684291

Hm.

@CowperKettle By my lights, they make the language more idiomatic (they are idioms, after all) and come across as quite unextraordinary and normal. Perhaps I'm attracted to this multifacetiousness simple words can exhibit. Moreover, I've never been quite satisfied with my knowledge of phrasal verbs, for instance, which might be why I idolize writing that features them (or their authors, who choose to employ them).

Anonymous

10:51

But sometimes unusual words can be fun toys to play with, especially for us desultory moggies.

2

userr2684291

@snailplane I was about to ask what the heck goolearching meant; thanks for deciphering it. It's a shoddy portmanteau only they appear to be using (in the whole wide Googleverse).

Anonymous

I'm somewhat dismayed to learn they're typing it intentionally and that it wasn't just a typo.

userr2684291

Haha.

Anonymous

It doesn't really fit the patterns English speakers tend to use to form blends.

Jasper

When you see stars on the wall, it means Blue Square is here.

Anonymous

10:57

Yay!

Jasper

Wait, I edited a post the other day.

Is googlearching really a word?

Anonymous

I'm chatting from my phone, which makes starring things a challenge. Good thing you're here to pick up the slack.

Anonymous

Linguists tend not to talk about if something is a word. After all, he used it, and it appears to be written with letters that represent sounds and carry a meaning. It appears to inflect and have the syntactic features of a verb. It has its own idiosyncratic derivation, but one that is somewhat transparent. In other words, even though he presumably made it up himself, it is a word and we can describe it.

userr2684291

So no, it's not a real word. (:

Anonymous

What I'd rather say instead is that it is not an established word, nor one that fits the expected patterns of word formation.

Jasper

11:02

@snailplane The comments of a world class linguist!

userr2684291

It's what lay people would call a not a real word.

Anonymous

I understand the phrases "is not a word" and "is not a real word", but I choose to describe things slightly differently.

Jasper

Why did your picture change again @userr2684291? Did you upload this one as well?

userr2684291

I didn't. It changed on its own.

Anonymous

@Jasper If you want the comments of a world class linguist, you should see how annoyed Arnold Zwicky gets with the not-a-word stuff :-)

Anonymous

11:03

I'm just a snailplane.

M.A.R.

Hi all

Anonymous

Good morning! It's morning here in California.

Jasper

Oh I see. California is a nice place. I hope to go there some day for grad school.

userr2684291

Hello.

Anonymous

What school specifically?

Anonymous

11:07

0

Q: When to put "thing" after "the same"

"Saying nothing" and "not saying anything" mean the same (thing). "Small" and "tiny" are the same (thing). "Me not calling you" means the same (thing) as "I failed my mission." Should I put "thing" after "the same"? Please explain and give more/different instances if there are exce...

word-usage

Anonymous

I've always felt uncomfortable with mean the same without thing as a following head noun. I was rather surprised to see over the years how many native speakers would use the phrase without thing.

Man_From_India

Hi snail. How r u doing?

Anonymous

In my idiolect, thing is greatly preferred.

Jasper

@snailplane I think if I can get well and any school accepts me I will be very happy again, but I do intend to apply to several of the UC's, like UCLA for example.

userr2684291

@snailplane Me too! Then I started using it because I thought thing is heard too much in English.

Anonymous

11:10

But not everyone talks like I do, I suppose.

Anonymous

Hi there, @Man_From_India! It's been a little while :-)

Anonymous

I'm good. I've been released from jury duty and get a one-year exemption from further jurying.

CowperKettle

Yay!

Man_From_India

@snailplane yes I mostly visit another forum. Blender artists. New interest :-)

Anonymous

Ooh, sounds neat.

CowperKettle

11:13

Jurying-dutying is a hard work.

Anonymous

Oof, I can't edit that typo without switching chat UIs.

Man_From_India

@snailplane yay sounds like u have some plan for this one year .

Anonymous

Well, I'll edit it later. :-)

CowperKettle

It's but a typo

Anonymous

For starters, I plan to not be on any juries.

Jasper

11:14

How often do you get jury duty, five days in three years or something?

Man_From_India

Oh btw there is the big festival for Bengalis coming up soon. It is starting from Tuesday. Today is Sunday here :-)

Durga puja

Jasper

It's Sunday now almost everywhere.

Man_From_India

:D

Anonymous

Actually, it's been something like twelve years since last time.

CowperKettle

Durga Puja

Durga Puja, also called Durgotsava and Navaratri, is an annual Hindu festival in the Indian subcontinent that reveres the goddess Durga. It is particularly popular in West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Tripura, and the diaspora from this region. The festival is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Ashvin, typically September or October of the Gregorian calendar. A multi-day festival that features elaborate temple and stage decorations (pandals), scripture recitation, performance arts, revelry and processions, Durga Puja is particularly observed by Hindus in eastern and northeastern states of India...

Jasper

11:16

@snailplane LOL, so jury duty isn't so bad.

Man_From_India

Yup this is it

Anonymous

You get a one-year guaranteed exemption, but there are enough people in the pool that it's pretty unlikely you'll get chosen on a yearly basis.

CowperKettle

Can you say "I'm prejudiced against criminals", and get an exemption for being prejudiced?

userr2684291

But you're there to determine whether they are criminals or not, innit?

Anonymous

You can say lots of things to try to get out of jury duty. Getting out of jury duty is a great American pastime.

2

userr2684291

11:17

Haha.

Anonymous

I would never deliberately try to get out of jury duty, though, unless it really did cause me some undue hardship.

Anonymous

Which at the moment it does not.

Man_From_India

Sometimes break is needed :-) but one whole year :O

Anonymous

Um, well, the nice thing about my life is that I have other things in it besides jury duty.

Jasper

@userr2684291 Would you like to play chess again another day?

userr2684291

11:19

Yeh.

Man_From_India

It is evident considering the amount of knowledge u hv in many subjects.

Jasper

Well, I don't have jury duty here in Antarctica, and I also have nothing left in life except a little hope.

Anonymous

Please hold onto that hope forever.

2

Jasper

Yeah thanks.

Man_From_India

Yay nice that jasper n user r playing here. Did u guys meet here?

Jasper

11:20

Yes, we talked here and played on lichess.org

Man_From_India

Yay great!

Jasper whr r u frm?

Jasper

Oh that's a secret.

Antarctica is just a joke.

Anonymous

It's been a while since we had Language Overflow chess. Last time, a user named lekon chekon was the instigator.

Man_From_India

Antertica? :D

CowperKettle

Original Vande Mataram (AnandMatha)

►

Jasper

11:22

But I will say most other things about myself though.

CowperKettle

Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple)

Jasper

That looks like some Hindu epic.

userr2684291

I'm kinda rusty and get bored easily. I s'pose that's why I stopped playing chess in the first place.

Jasper

I haven't read the Mahabharata or Ramayana, but I did read the Bhagavad Gita.

Man_From_India

Btw snail, hw the old users r doing? R they coming here or the main ell room?

Jasper

11:23

This is now the main ELL room.

The other room is dead.

Anonymous

We still haven't heard from Damkerng. And yes, this is now the main ELL room.

Man_From_India

I mean that qa site

Jasper

Do you mean ELU?

That's another room, room 95.

Man_From_India

No no ELL question answer site

Jasper

This is the ELL room, room 24938.

Oh, sure people still ask questions on the main site.

They also ask questions in chat.

Anonymous

11:24

It's actually busier than ever.

Man_From_India

Snail, can u hv access to stack database? U r a mod. U can find DT's addreas

Jasper

Yeah but it wouldn't be appropriate for snail to do that to find him.

Because people can leave SE any time.

Man_From_India

True.

That is also right

Jasper

Of course, if you have like a friend relationship, you can contact him, but as a moderator, that would be sort of misusing your privileges.

Man_From_India

Agree.

Jasper

11:27

Which is one of the bad things about being a mod, lol.

You can't act as a normal user anymore, lol.

Anonymous

Did he ever give any of you his email address?

Man_From_India

Btw my marriage is on 30th November.

Anonymous

Oh, congratulations! :-)

Jasper

@snailplane Nope, I think he was quite secretive about it.

Man_From_India

I have his wmail id

*email

Jasper

11:28

Then you should contact him!

LOL

Man_From_India

@snailplane thank u :-)

I tried, bt no reply from him :'(

Jasper

Well, you can try say a couple of times, but if there's no response then just forget it.

Man_From_India

It swems like suddenly our loving DT just vanished :'(

Jasper

People don't respond for a few reasons.

Anonymous

Yeah. I miss him. We all miss him.

Man_From_India

11:30

@Jasper that's why I didn't contact him further.

Anonymous

@Jasper Yeah, it's just natural to want to know if someone's okay when they disappear.

Anonymous

I've had a number of people disappear from my life recently.

Jasper

Either they are busy or they are not interested or, well, something bad happened to them and they died or something.

Man_From_India

My only hope was that during tshirt distribution he left his postal address. We could send him cards asking if he is okay.

userr2684291

@Jasper Sort of is key there: it's not really misusing if you're concerned and not meaning to do any harm. Of course, it probably is misusing by some arbitrary SE rules, but being human trumps those rules, y'know – even if Damkerng decided to sue for harassing or whatever.

CowperKettle

11:31

@Man_From_India Congratulations!

Man_From_India

@CowperKettle thank u :-)

Jasper

@userr2684291 I completely agree with you.

Anonymous

Two of my childhood friends passed away recently.

Jasper

Hmm, that's sad.

Man_From_India

Hw is ur sister btw. She is continuing education in Delhi?

Anonymous

11:32

I'm only 36, and they were my age, so I didn't really expect that.

Man_From_India

@snailplane oh god :'( heartbreaking.

Jasper

@Man_From_India Whose sister?

Man_From_India

Sorry. Kettle's

userr2684291

Wait, my avatar changed again?

Haha.

Jasper

Yes, was it because you changed your email?

Man_From_India

11:34

:D

Jasper

I don't know why it keeps changing.

Anonymous

Assuming you haven't entered an email address, if you don't want it to change on its own when your IP changes, you can add an email address.

Man_From_India

It happened for me once long back :)

CowperKettle

@snailplane A guy from a neihboring flat aged just 32 died about 10 days ago.

Anonymous

Only 32. Seems too young.

Jasper

11:36

@snailplane LOL, I didn't know you can not enter any when you need one to sign in...

CowperKettle

They discovered cancer, and it was way too late.

In Russia, medical diagnostics is in shambles.

userr2684291

Yeah, I assumed it was either the IP or they recalculated it every day.

Jasper

@CowperKettle I see you used my suggestion of 'neighboring flat' there, lol.

@CowperKettle Russia can be a great country, but maybe change Putin first.

userr2684291

Put in someone else.

CowperKettle

The only thing that is not in shambles is Putin's bank accounts.

Man_From_India

11:37

My mom's own brother died of cancer few months back. It is also a very late detection :(

Anonymous

Sometimes it can develop without any symptoms.

Man_From_India

@CowperKettle same here. But the disease is like that.

CowperKettle

Another bad thing is that it is very, very hard to obtain narcotic painkillers in Russia.

And many cancer patients die in terrible pain.

Idiotic government.

Jasper

I read many Russians drank bath lotion as they had no money for vodka.

But they died because this bath lotion contained the wrong type of alcohol.

Man_From_India

I found a little friend from Czech republic :) we met online. She is helping me with my attempt of 3D

Anonymous

11:40

Oh, methanol . . .

Jasper

@Man_From_India 3D?

Man_From_India

Yup 3D art

Anonymous

The Blender stuff.

Man_From_India

Yup

I can't afford the time n money to any popular software. So sticking to blender.

It is great.

Anonymous

I've never used any 3D software.

Man_From_India

11:45

U can start blender :-)

U can find lot of inspiration from across the web :D

Anonymous

Ooh, you've posted on the Blender SE a few times, I see :-)

Man_From_India

U can even run it on low end system.

Anonymous

I was just thinking, "Hey, isn't there a stack for that?"

Man_From_India

Yes I started learning it.

Anonymous

For some reason, my dreams last night were about Stack Exchange.

Man_From_India

11:47

But blender artist is also very good. U can find work, team mates n all.

Anonymous

I dreamt that a question was migrated when it shouldn't have been.

Anonymous

Not, all in all, a terribly exciting dream, but there you have it.

Man_From_India

Dream about a migrated question? :O

Anonymous

What sorts of things have you made with Blender?

Man_From_India

I am into modelling a human head. Had texture. Now I need to add more details. Like skin pore, blemishes etc

That is where I am stuck now.

Anonymous

11:50

I wonder if hair is difficult.

Man_From_India

Oh i made a cool pirate flag :) that flatter with wind

Anonymous

Ooh.

Anonymous

By the way, bees have moved into my walls.

Man_From_India

It is. For me most of the stuff is difficult

Last night fire flies came to my room :P

Anonymous

I miss fireflies. We called them lightning bugs where I grew up, a difference in dialect.

Anonymous

11:51

In Illinois, they're lightning bugs. Out here in California, they're fireflies.

3

Anonymous

Funny thing is, we don't have fireflies out here.

Anonymous

But we have a different word nonetheless.

Man_From_India

With that friend we started to do a project. An animation short. I wrote the story long back. But we both have very little tome.

*time

Anonymous

I rather miss them. When my siblings and I were children, we used to catch fireflies carefully between cupped hands, bring them indoors and release them. My parents would come home to a house with all the lights off, but a couple dozen of these "lightning bugs" lighting up the house with pulses of green light.

2

Anonymous

Of course, this drove them crazy.

Anonymous

11:53

This was not a parent-approved activity. :-)

userr2684291

(:

Man_From_India

In busy cities they r rare. I remember when I was in Bangalore how it was :-) byt it was atill not California.

Anonymous

Actually, they've been dying out across the States. It's sad.

Anonymous

And I guess it's not just here, either.

Man_From_India

@snailplane i recently watched similar thing in a cartoon :-)

I can now see kites are flying.

Children r running after a falling kite :-)

Jasper

14:36

I keep mixing up @V.V. and @yubraj, because they are both flowers. =D

CowperKettle

14:52

@Man_From_India Is there real money to be made from that?

Man_From_India

15:11

@CowperKettle I really don't know. I started it as a passion. You however can start freelancing. I heard that you can get freelance work and it doesn't matter what tool u use as long as u van deliver quality product. But let me warn u, this tool is not used in the industry.

I myself have some dream to make use of it but as of now have no idea what and how to do. For now, just learn.

Even if it is not used in the industry, it is really industry standard. But I agree in final stage, it is a little slow.

CowperKettle

I see.

I've zero free time from translation.

If I manage to find free time, I guess I'd better learn C# or Python and database programming.

There must be some freelance money in that.

@snailplane I saw some fluorescent bugs this summer on an island in the middle of the Shitovskoye Lake.

Шитовское озеро

Шитовское — озеро Свердловской области России, находится в городском округе Верхняя Пышма, в 15 километрах к северу от города Верхняя Пышма. Иногда принимается за исток реки Исети. Озеро вытянуто почти на 7 км в направлении северо-восток — юго-запад. На озере много островов, основные из них это: Травяной (самый крупный), Репной, Арамильский, Скомино. Берега плоские и преимущественно заболоченные (с запада к озеру примыкает одноимённое болото), покрытые смешанным лесом. Западный берег гористый . С севера из Кедрового болота в озеро впадает речка Бобровка, из южного берега начинается Шитовской исток…

That was amazing.

We bicycled there in the evening and spent several hours there in boats looking at the stars.

Andrey a.k.a. 'Chili" launched an app on his phone that showed us where this or that constellation is on the sky

Amazing.

I was walking in the dark across that island, and saw some lighting bugs. So interesting!

We were on two boats ))

A couple of folks on either boat

Jasper

Very nice pics.

CowperKettle

It was only dark for about 2 hours. Because in the summers, in mid-June, it does not get dark in our latitudes

So even at midnight it was thus

Bing Crosby And Louis Armstrong - Gone Fishin

►

Man_From_India

15:26

@CowperKettle cool. But all r easy. If u don't want to mess with assembly language or machibe language, u can try C first.

Language is secondary. U have to know how stuffs work. The secret is u have to know how a task is done manually, then u can implement it using C or any other language.

Jasper

@Man_From_India Do you prefer C or C++?

Man_From_India

Hmmm two r different. It matters what u r doing.

V.V.

Hi! Who knows what can "Last year attended" mean in the document

?

Man_From_India

Anyway I am not a software guy, more of an Electronic guy. Anyway I'm not in the industry anymore though. Regarding software stuffs, DT would hv been the best person:-)

Jasper

@V.V. Can you give the whole sentence? Probably means the guy attended something last year.

Jude Niroshan

15:36

Good evening!

Is UK considered as a place to buy branded shoes for lower price?

CowperKettle

@V.V. Если это таблица, то, возможно "последний год, в который данный человек посещал данный курс". Или "список курсов, которые человек посещал за последний год".

Jasper

@JudeNiroshan As far as prices go, search the various stores online to find the best price.

CowperKettle

@JudeNiroshan Yes, it was actually founded for this purpose by the Romans

Jasper

@CowperKettle What???

I think you replied to the wrong line, LOL.

Jude Niroshan

@CowperKettle LOL

V.V.

15:53

Thanks @CowperKettle

CowperKettle

Google Translate

> If this is a table, then perhaps "the last year that this person attended this course." Or "a list of courses that a person has attended in the past year."

Perfect!

Jasper

So no thanks to me, only to CowperKettle? LOL.

@CowperKettle Yeah, I just did a google translate as well, LOL.

It is midnight now.

V.V.

Ooo! I can't recognize anybody! What's up?

Btw, @Man_From_India, Congratulations!

Jasper

Maybe I should change my name to Man From Antarctica!

Or maybe Antarcticaman!

Or maybe, to give an Italian flavour, Anataracaticamana!

CowperKettle

16:11

@Jasper Ah, so you are in Hong Kong or Taiwan!

Or Australia, probably

Jasper

@CowperKettle I cannot confirm or deny any guesses, lol.

CowperKettle

In Perth.

Jasper

But this world is very big, and there are hundreds of countries, lol.

Of course, Russia is the BIGGEST of them all, lol.

CowperKettle

Perth

Perth () is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth-most populous city in Australia, with a population of around 2.02 million (as of 9 August 2016) living in Greater Perth. Perth is part of the South West Land Division of Western Australia, with the majority of the metropolitan area located on the Swan Coastal Plain, a narrow strip between the Indian Ocean and the Darling Scarp. The first areas settled were on the Swan River, with the city's central business district and port (Fremantle) both located on its shores. Perth was founded by Captain...

Or maybe.. in Irkutsk

Irkutsk

Irkutsk (Russian: Иркутск; IPA: [ɪrˈkutsk]) is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, and one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: 587,891 (2010 Census); 593,604 (2002 Census); 622,301 (1989 Census). == History == In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovyo (winter quarters) near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov built an ostrog or small fort nearby. The ostrog gained official town rights from the government in 1686. The first road connection between Moscow and Irkutsk, the Siberian Road...

Jasper

LOL

I don't know what to think of Russia, because part of it is in Europe and the other Asia.

It has so many different timezones and cultures.

CowperKettle

16:15

Yes, Europe is very close to Yekaterinburg

I have been to Europe several times this summer, on my bicycle

There are signs on the roads that lead west of Yekaterinburg

It's about 20 km west of our city.

Jasper

If I go to Moscow for holiday, is it enough to know English? Or must I learn Russian?

CowperKettle

ural-n.ru/p/obeliski-evropa-asia.html

@Jasper English is enough

But if you want to speak to local people, you'd better learn 50-100 words in Russian

Jasper

Aha!

CowperKettle

One of our trips to Europe this summer

(0:

On bicycles with portable tents and stuff

V.V.

16:33

@Jasper, Far East is nearer to you than Moscow, right?

Jasper

16:55

@V.V. Hmm, I have no idea where Far East is, but I think I am far from Moscow, lol. I also think Russians are great mathematicians.

Anonymous

17:52

Since the OP tried to look it up in a thesaurus, I think it's also worth noting that the word is not real. It's implied above, but not totally explicit. — Ringo 1 hour ago

Anonymous

On the realness of words.

Jasper

18:21

@snailplane LOL

Anonymous

It's probably not worth leaving a comment, but I don't believe there is anything unreal about a nonce-word like mom-pkin in the OP's phrase. Rather, it has every attribute I expect a word to have.

Man_From_India

22:12

@V.V. thank you :-) hw r u doing?

Jasper

22:38

@Man_From_India I see you are a room owner too, lol.

Jasper

23:14

I just noticed that there are almost 3000 unanswered questions on ELL (no upvoted or accepted answers). Can we do something to bring this list to 0? That's what some SE sites actively do, I think.

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