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3:23 AM
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Q: What does it mean by "grizzly image"?

DennisRecently I watched a video and here is one of the line: The grizzly image has since been immortalized as shorthand slang for single-minded cult-like thinking. When I searched the meaning of "grizzly" on the internet, I saw only the result "grizzly bear". It seems to me that "grizzly" has n...

 
3:47 AM
Oh that's interesting. It seems as if when you edit a question to have a tag, Feeds doesn't post it.
 
4:12 AM
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Q: What is a single word for "inaccurate suspicion"?

General NuisanceWhat is a single word to convey the sense of "inaccurate suspicion," but that tends to infer a bit of unfairness, such as It is immoral to use brutal force in response to [inaccurate suspicion].

 
4:25 AM
@Tonepoet Maybe there is a time lag? I don't know.
 
@Jasper Well, it hasn't been posted yet if there is. XP
 
@Tonepoet Hi, we haven't talked for a long time in google chat, lol. You have my new email address right?
 
@Jasper Actually no, you never gave it to me. I was under the impression that you hadn't wanted to chat privately anymore due to the nature of our last, or next to last conversation on there.
 
@Tonepoet Hmm, I see. Maybe I will email you again soon...
 
@Jasper Hmm, how have you been anyway? Good I hope?
 
4:32 AM
@Tonepoet Not really. I am going to eat now, see you soon...
 
5:06 AM
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Q: What is a word that means religion adapted from history?

JayI have seen this word before on Wikipedia. Usage would be something like Christians may believe in the story of Noah's Ark; but modern scholars have a _______ interpretation. Noah's Ark may have been a real flood that happened in 1000BC. Or something like this.

 
 
5 hours later…
10:30 AM
@Mitch I want to make sure I have a basic set of words and phrases alive in my active memory, and one way to achieve that is to review a short dictionary from time to time. The one I attached a picture of has ~40 thousand entries and sub-entries, which sounds more than enough for my daily usage.
@Mitch That'd be a great idea if you could search in their video transcripts. But you've already got COCA with their more accurate speech transcriptions and a variety of other language registers. YouTube, however, lets you see the word used in action.
Correction: in action --> in the act
 
 
2 hours later…
12:18 PM
What would you call a shop where electronic equipment (TVs and fridges etc) is sold? An (electric/electrical/)electronic shop? What about a repair shop for these things?
 
12:30 PM
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Q: How to say that the usage of something is questionable due to already exisiting solutions?

Kev1n91For example, I have developed a software algorithm which does the needed behaviour, but already existiing solutions are better or already implemented. How can I describe my algorithm with a professional adjective, that says something like "useless but working", e.g in the following sentence: ...

 
12:43 PM
Does "scrupulous" have a negative connotation? or is it like rigorous?
 
1:35 PM
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Q: Word for a person taking on a characteristic that isn't a natural one but is a consequence of their environment?

David from MelbourneI was sure that I had come across a word, now forgotten, that describes someone taking on a characteristic that isn't a natural one but is a consequence of their environment. An example might be that of a person who isn't, by nature, a driven, deadline-oriented [Type A] person, but has become so ...

 
@caub I don't think it does. Compare with unscrupulous and scruple.
 
 
1 hour later…
2:56 PM
@Tonepoet I am thinking of buying a copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary. =)
 
@Jasper There's a sort of dilemma with that: As long as you don't buy it, the fourth edition will never exist. However, once you do buy it, the fourth edition will be released the very next day! =P
 
@Tonepoet I think a fourth edition in paper form if released will take a few more years. Recently the blog at MW Unabridged got updated after over a year.
 
@Jasper Honestly, I suspect Merriam-Webster has given up on paper. I mean, if it was just the unabridged dictionary, then it'd be understandable. However, I'm surprised the collegiate dictionary is likely to pass this entire decade by without an update.
 
3:13 PM
Knowing that the same company owns the Encyclopedia Britannica, which has expressly given up on paper also doesn't give me much hope that we'll see future publications from them. So with these considerations mind, I wouldn't really worry about it. I was just making a joke with the whole dilemma thing.
 
3:26 PM
@Færd There are problems with ngrams that need to be acknowledged. If you turn smoothing off, you'll see that there was a huge spike in usage in 1983 or 1984 that biases the average. More importantly though, there isn't enough context from the graph itself to differentiate between authentic and completely fictitious use, or more local regional variations.
Howdy is heavily associated with a southern american accent, and most especially rural Texas. Fiction most especially uses the word howdy to mark somebody as a Texan. Some practices which are otherwise anachronistic have survived there, so it may be 'old fashioned' in standard american English without actually diminishing in use due to over-representation in recorded media.
 
3:42 PM
If I recall correctly, this even crossed over into some anime translations, since having somebody speak southern-American English is the usual method of choice conveying that they spoke the Osakan dialect in a dub. Regardless, even in books ngrams suggests that usage peaked in 1940, which is sufficiently old fashioned enough for some people.
 
 
1 hour later…
5:07 PM
@Færd eventually auto-captioning with speech to text will make that available. but for right now I was just suggesting google for 'howdy youtube' and it just might work out
@caub 'scruples' is a strange word. It is very vague (even though it has a dictionary definition something like 'principles' or 'morals').
It is much more common to here of someone that they 'have no scruples' or 'are unscrupulous' which in context is always very meaningful and disparaging, something like machiavellian or mildly unethical but not quite breaking any rules.
Because of the popularity of 'unscrupulous', hearing 'scruples' actually has a negative connotation to it too, even though it is presumably the positive side of things.
Similar to 'uncouth'. 'Uncouth' means 'common' and 'vulgar'. But 'couth' is such a rare word that even though it means the opposite, it really floats around in this vague misunderstanding of not being sure if it is vulgar or its opposite.
This may seem strange because they have dictionary definitions. but people aren't dictionaries, people have vague understandings of words that they use for the most part correctly, but for rarer words it can be difficult for a person to be aware of its true dictionary definition
As to 'rigorous' I'm not sure what you mean. Can you explain?
@snailplane just because they don't say something, doesn't mean that it is not that.
Dictionaries are oversimplified, so they leave out a lot of nuance. OED has keywords rare or archaic, but those are only given for extreme cases.
 
Anonymous
6:06 PM
@Mitch Sure, and I wouldn't imply otherwise. Although in this case I think I'd say it's dialectal rather than old-fashioned.
 
6:47 PM
@Mitch ah thanks, interesting, oh I just meant to find a synonym in that context (imagine "scrupulous programmer"). But yes, the morale taint, and the negative one are strong
So I'll avoid that fancy adjective there :)
 
 
1 hour later…
7:52 PM
@snailplane yeah, I agree. that's what I had said earlier with 'country-western'.
@caub oh, I would definitely avoid 'scrupulous programmer'. I think it is way too metaphorical to think of engineering practices that way. 'principled' or some other adjective would be better.
Do you know the PG Wodehouse quote about 'gruntled'?
"I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled."
'gruntled' had long been lost to English, its remnant surviving in the common disgruntled, and (I think) wodehouse was the first to reuse it comedically. I can only hear 'gruntled' sarcastically and in the presence of 'disgruntled', it has no meaning by itself. 'scruples' or 'scrupulous' while not exactly this far, has a similar feeling
 
Anonymous
I thought of gruntled when you mentioned couth.
 
10:44 PM
@snailplane haha 'vagance'? 'astrous'? oh disastrous. but the other one?
 
Anonymous
Extravagance
 

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