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Feeds
Feeds
3:40 AM
0
Q: Noun our Adjective to succinctly describe the power to compel devotion

Darf NaderThis is my first post so I hope I am not doing this wrong. Anyway, I feel like this word is on the tip of my tongue, yadda-yadda-yadda, ok, enough about me. I am writing about the nature of power throughout history and I am looking for the word that best describes either (1) the human characteri...

single-word-requests word-choice
 
Færd
Færd
4:03 AM
@FaheemMitha Well, if you let your hat be the judge, it usually means that you leave it to your own conscience to decide what's right and what's right.
(In Farsi I mean, of course.)
> - I'm not sure whether to send the guy to jail for the money he owes me. Seems like he's not at fault.
- What can I say. Let your hat be the judge.
But I used the idiom with another strange meaning it's developed, which is ... hard for me to explain in English!
I'm sure many people use it that way, but I don't know how popular it is among all Farsi speakers.
I can't find the secondary meaning in dictionaries.
You sure you want me to explain the secondary meaning too? :D
(@M.A.R. Does the idiom in my original sentence make sense to you?)
In short, I meant if MAR doesn't like a blockbusting Hollywood movie, then there's not the slightest chance that I would like it.
Because he's more likely to like those things than I am.
Does anyone know of an equal idiom or phrasing in English?
> If he doesn't like that movie, then I wouldn't like it in the first place!
Hmm. Maybe not.
 
Færd
Færd
5:01 AM
.
> DOWNRIGHT : absolutely
> downright handsome, downright mean
Downright doesn't mean absolutely. That's a very reductionistic definition.
There's an element of shock or surprise or some emotion I can't pin down in downright which is missing in absolutely.
 
Feeds
Feeds
6:01 AM
0
Q: Is there a word for the "visual part" that hides the agenda?

xrook1I think I read somewhere that "hidden agenda" has two parts. The part that's visible, and the agenda (which is hidden by the visible). Is there a term or word for the visible part of a hidden agenda?

single-word-requests meaning
 
 
1 hour later…
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
7:23 AM
The long and winding road (0:
 
 
3 hours later…
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
9:58 AM
Jogging in minus 20 °C
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
there's frost on your EYE LASHES!!
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Ha - that's nice )) Girls in the Urals and Siberia love to make photos with frost on their eyelashes.
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Yes, her )))
Photo of a friend I made a week ago ))
Another friend
Also with frost on eyelashes (0:
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
10:21 AM
I wonder why there is very few results when I google for Couldn't you have taken.
Is this an erroneous construction?
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Nope, it's used a lot in everyday spoken language.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Only 83 search results
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Yeah, emphasis on the spoken part :-)
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Thank you, Patrol!
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
10:36 AM
np, pal
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
3
A: "Why couldn't" vs. "why couldn't you have"

ruakhCould is sometimes called the "remote" form of can. Sometimes it acts like a simple past tense: Yesterday I couldn't see the problem, but today I can. ≅ Yesterday I wasn't able to see the problem, but today I am. but sometimes it acts like a conditional: I couldn't do it if I tried. ...

I wonder if this answer is correct. That's interesting. Couldn't you have having a conditional function, and Couldn't you having the plain vanilla function.
 
 
3 hours later…
Feeds
Feeds
1:25 PM
0
Q: Does an adjective exist describing someone who is very articulate but in an emotional way?

yellowlessThere is eloquent and articulate for people who are very good with words, but what would be the equivalent for someone who is very good choosing the right words in an emotional or difficult/tense situation?

single-word-requests adjectives synonyms
 
 
2 hours later…
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
3:07 PM
I translated the first stanza from this song
 
 
1 hour later…
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
4:27 PM
@Færd sure did, but not your emphasis
@Færd whoa there. Liking or not liking blockbusters is like liking or not liking pies.
What flavor, akhe?
There are dumb blockbusters, like the Transformers franchise. Ugh, the dialogs are infuriatingly stupid. And there are smart blockbusters, like the Toy story franchise. "There's a snake in my boot."
Very different things. So different, that putting them in a blockbuster category doesn't help at all
So I do like smart blockbusters
 
Feeds
Feeds
0
Q: one word for the phrase

Learner12Is there one word for the act of struggling from one thing to another. For example, "she cannot make up her mind. Is she going to stay with us or is she going to carry on with that group," or(a plot of the poem "An Unknown Girl") 'not being able to make up her mind whether she belongs to the East...

single-word-requests
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
And you would too
I mean, they're not my girlfriend or something. They're appealing because they make you feel good in some way. Like Tom Hanks
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
5:00 PM
> A new study in Biological Psychiatry has characterized the patterns of brain neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA in a network of regions that temporarily maintain and process visual information about the location of objects in space, a cognitive ability referred to as visuospatial working memory.
Why isn't there a definite article before neurotransmitters?
 
terdon
terdon
5:17 PM
@CowperKettle Because it is referring to a class of molecules, not any in particular. Just like you'd say I noticed the pattern of stars in the sky. That refers to the pattern of stars, not to the pattern of those stars that happen to be in the sky at this moment.
 
Feeds
Feeds
1
Q: Questions about the verb "coin" when coining an idea

sondra.kinseyI want to say "Rieger coined the notion of deep solidarity." However, I'm not sure about several aspects of this: Can you coin a notion, or only a phrase? Can I say he coined the phrase, even if other people used these words with their typical meanings, but he first defined them in a technical ...

single-word-requests meaning terminology
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
5:35 PM
@terdon I disagree. Glutamate and GABA are quite particular.
 
terdon
terdon
@CowperKettle Oh wow. You're absolutely right. I misread that. There should indeed be a the there.
 
 
2 hours later…
tchrist
tchrist
7:14 PM
@Tonepoet Well, now what should I do?
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist About?
 
tchrist
tchrist
@Tonepoet You are likely correct, but now what do I do now that I’ve gone and given a long answer with new information and focus, with an important teaching point that specifically addresses this poster’s specific question about whether English deliberately spells two same-sounding words differently so that one can tell them apart in writing? — tchrist ♦ 3 mins ago
I think you're right that it's a near- or exact-duplicate, but there is a nuance to this particular asker's version of the question that is not answered in the other question’s current answers.
It doesn't make sense to have two questions on the site so close together.
But the point about deliberate spellings is not one I would see lost.
I can think of three possible "solutions", but none is especially attractive.
 
Mitch
Mitch
@M.A.R. Slight nuance here... the Transformers movies yes are pretty idiotic in all dimensions, but at least in the very first one there was some snappy dialog between the main guy and his parents. That's all I remember, the only redeeming qualities
No, I don;t think I will ever willingly (re)watch any of them. But there is some glimmer of non-terribleness about at least a few moments of one of them.
 
tchrist
tchrist
1. Close it as a dup and let things stand as they are.
2. First dup-close it and then merge the questions.
3. Edit the question to draw greater attention to the respelling-for-distinguishing hypothesis.
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist Is there any reason your answer can't be posted under the other question?
 
tchrist
tchrist
7:21 PM
@Tonepoet Not too much. The problem is that the other doesn't (IIRC) ask about the respelling-for-distinguishing hypothesis.
Oh, hm. Maybe I could "ask" a new question that asks whether English often/ever/seldom/never deliberately introduces heterographs for the purpose of distinguish homophones in writing.
There actually are languages that do do something like that, at least arguably. Spanish spells the unstressed "my" as mi as in mi amigo for "my friend", but spells the stressed form used for "me" as an object of a preposition with a stress-accented mí as in para mí meaning "for me".
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist This might be a category 3 borderline duplicate. I'd let the community decide if it's a duplicate and leave your answer there. Unlike other question types, duplicates are not candidates for deletion if they can serve as useful referrals and I recall seeing a point about keeping answers on a question so that people seeking an immediate answer on Google don't necessarily have to check the duplicate.
 
tchrist
tchrist
@Tonepoet That seems reasonable.
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist Keep in mind that I ultimately decided not to flag it myself, because I wasn't quite sure if it was a duplicate either.
 
tchrist
tchrist
@Tonepoet Now that you point it out, yes, I do see that now, although keep in mind that that's privileged knowledge I would not have otherwise been permitted to share in public but for your having revealed it publicly already.
It has four close votes on it now. I’m sure it will be soon closed.
@Tonepoet Because you have historically displayed good judgement about such matters, may I ask your opinion on re-opening this question?
0
Q: Is the etymology of the word romance a practical joke?

Jesse IvySerious question. I looked into it and I'm pretty fascinated by the word and it's often misuse in my opinion. I really like one definition that's served by the Google Dictionary referring to the remoteness from everyday life. I guess my question, if traced back, is what is the meaning of the wor...

etymology
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist Oh, I thank you for the compliment.
@tchrist It's a long question, so I'm going to need time to consider this.
 
tchrist
tchrist
7:37 PM
ok
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
7:59 PM
Hey, someone compliment me
 
tchrist
tchrist
@M.A.R. You look brighter in yellow than in black.
> I shall, however, want to claim that there is a dominant trend toward the representation of a body-in-pieces, of what is, in Kleinian theory, termed the part object, that runs, like an insistent thread, a sustained subtext, through much of American artistic production (and through its painting and sculpture, in particular) in the 1950s and 1960s.
Without cheating and looking it up, guess to within 20 years when that sentence was written.
Hell, within 50 years.
I count 8 commas.
The 1960s bit gives it away as postmodernist. :)
I didn't realize people still constructed sentences with so many commas as that one. It was written in our current century.
 
Educ
Educ
8:26 PM
Hello
Hope eveyone here be okay
@tchrist how are ya
@Mitch I miss you bro
 
Færd
Færd
8:42 PM
@M.A.R. Perhaps I would, but maybe I'm past the point where I coudl spontaneously decide to invest my time in anything that brought me joy.
Not with an easy mind.
I seldom watch movies these days, and when I do, I can scarcely finish them in one sitting.
I look for more than amusingly smart plots and production when I watch films.
I'm not sure if I wouldn't bore you if I continued.
 
Educ
Educ
“what does im little a hazy mean”
 
Færd
Færd
@Educ Do you mean "I'm a little hazy."?
.
 
Educ
Educ
8:59 PM
Yes
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Haze is like mist.
 
Educ
Educ
I know but im looking for the whole expression
 
Færd
Færd
See the last meaning.
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
"a little fuzzy"
 
Færd
Færd
Would you say you're fuzzy to mean you're confused?
 
Educ
Educ
9:03 PM
So thats meand im confused
 
Færd
Færd
I guess so.
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Yup.
 
Færd
Færd
Or that I'm in your dream and you're seeing me in a fuzzy hazy aura.
:)
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Lacking clarity is fuzzy.
 
Færd
Færd
An issue could lack clarity and therefore be fuzzy, yes.
The question is whether you can be fuzzy about an issue.
.
I've only just listened to the first chapter of Wuthering Heights and my English is already picking up an undeliberate pretense of old-fashioned artistic flair.
Here: ia801403.us.archive.org/22/items/wuthering_heights_rg_librivox/… if you could give up a quarter of an hour for an enjoyable listen.
 
Educ
Educ
9:10 PM
Hazy iss fuzz
Y
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist I am a little concerned about Jesse's tendency towards drunkenship, and I am tempted to let the community bot sweep away this question since it is negatively voted upon, without answer. However, to be fair, based on the merits of the question itself my opinion is that it should be open.

The stricter variation of our general reference closure reason (the research must always be included) usually yields to almost any amount of research, on the basis that no one adequate authority is so much more trustworthy than another that a copy/paste answer would suffice all by itself. Britannic…
The most important factor to me is that this seems like it might be something other people might want to know. In searcing for a potential duplicate, I see "Does "Romantic" have to do with Roman Empire or Romania which raises some similar concerns, and that was closed for a lack of research. If it was open,
I might suggest changing the close reason from Gen. Ref. to duplicate, but closing a question as a duplicate of a question which doesn't provide research is, as I've mentioned in the past somewhat frivilous.
 
tchrist
tchrist
The note at sense 3a seems perfectly clear. Sense 3a is:
> A fictitious narrative, usually in prose, in which the settings or the events depicted are remote from everyday life, or in which sensational or exciting events or adventures form the central theme; a book, etc., containing such a narrative. Now chiefly arch. and hist.
Its note is:
> A gradual development from sense A. 1, from which it is not always easily distinguished; quot. 1589 may be transitional, in that it refers to contemporary writing but is self-consciously in the tradition of the medieval chivalric romance (for a use of the older sense in the same source see quot. 1589 at sense A. 1bβ. ). The choice of a legendary or historical setting remained typical well into the 19th cent. In romances of the 16th and 17th centuries the story was often overlaid with long disquisitions and digressions from the plot. As a description of a literary genre the sense has now…
The etymology section is separate from that.
And incredibly long!!!!
> Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymons: French romauns, romaunce.
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman romauns, romaunz, rumanz, rumauns, Anglo-Norman and Old French romanz, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French romans, Middle French rommans, also (after words in -ance -ance suffix) Anglo-Norman romaunce, Anglo-Norman and Middle French romance (also Anglo-Norman and Middle French romant , romaunt (see discussion at romaunt n.), and hence (with loss of the final consonant) Middle French, French roman roman n.2) the vernacular French language (c1125 as ronmanz ; end of the 12th cent. as romant …
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
@Educ hazy = fuzzy = confused
 
tchrist
tchrist
@Tonepoet I swear you are reading my private chats about drunkenship. :)
 
Educ
Educ
@skullpatrol thamk you , also we can say i m unable to think cleary
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
9:20 PM
Yes. @Educ
That's why I said haze is mist.
 
Educ
Educ
@skullpatrol cool :)
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
:-)
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist One other thing I'd like to note is that the online etymology dictionary is the first result on Google. How much value do you think an answer to this question could add over what it already states?
 
tchrist
tchrist
I also cannot help but think of literary theorist Northrup Frye’s use of the word in his “Analysis of Criticism” in which he charts out the archetypes of literature throughout time.
@Tonepoet Not really all that much; perhaps the 3a note.
@Tonepoet As Janus has commented, really all that the asker needs to know is spelled out in the easily accessed etymological references on the net. The asker seems confused.
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist Hmm...
 
tchrist
tchrist
9:31 PM
In the mythic mode, the gods themselves are the heroes (like the Greek gods or Tolkien’s valar and maiar, including Gandalf).

In the romantic mode, mortals specially endowed by the gods (like Achilles or Aragorn) are the heroes. We can never be those heroes ourselves, but we would like to be.

In the high mimetic mode, the heroes are leaders of high virtue and judgement and strengths of character but not "specially blessed" in some way. Think George Washington or Boromir or perhaps Ulysses.

In the low mimetic mode, the heroes are regular people like you and me, so Sherlock Holmes or Frodo.
> In the mythical mode scripture, literature claiming divine inspiration is prevalent.
In the romantic, the gods have retreated to the sky and it is up to chroniclers in a nomadic society to remember the lists of names of the patriarchs, the proverbs, traditions, charms, deeds, etc.
In the high mimetic mode society is structured around a capital city, and "national" epics such as The Faerie Queene and The Lusiad are typical.
In the low mimetic, thematic exposition tends toward individualism and romanticism. The individual author's own thoughts and ideas are now the center of authority, as i…
Anatomy of Criticism
Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton University Press, 1957) is a book by Canadian literary critic and theorist, Northrop Frye, which attempts to formulate an overall view of the scope, theory, principles, and techniques of literary criticism derived exclusively from literature. Frye consciously omits all specific and practical criticism, instead offering classically inspired theories of modes, symbols, myths and genres, in what he termed "an interconnected group of suggestions." The literary approach proposed by Frye in Anatomy was highly influential in the decades before deconstructivist...
King Arthur and Beowulf are romantic literature.
> Mythic tragedy deals with the death of gods.
Romantic tragedy features elegies mourning the death of heroes such as Arthur or Beowulf.
High mimetic tragedy presents the death of a noble human such as Othello or Oedipus.
Low mimetic tragedy shows the death or sacrifice of an ordinary human being and evokes pathos, as with Thomas Hardy's Tess or Henry James's Daisy Miller.
The ironic mode often shows the death or suffering of a protagonist who is both weak and pitiful compared to the rest of humanity and the protagonist's environment; Franz Kafka's works provide many examples of such. At ot…
In that their heroes have special powers.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@Educ hi
 
tchrist
tchrist
The asker is talking about low-mimetic works: "thematic exposition tends toward individualism and romanticism".
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@tchrist Oh, I thank you for the compliment.
 
tchrist
tchrist
They are not talking about what Frye calls the romantic mode of King Arthur and Beowulf, of the Lord of the Rings.
@Tonepoet I don't know that it's possible to compress that huge OED etymological section on romance into a small and tidy answer. It's even less likely that I'd be able to compress Frye's ideas.
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Philosophers like to compress ideas.
I read that parts of Russell's principia has been compressed.
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
9:47 PM
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@tchrist I'm having some second thoughts about this upon rereading the comments. Esp. this one:
@DanBron the hilarious offshoots are required I'm afraid, please see edit above and know that the question is included in its entirety in the title as it should be. The question is one line. And the stream of consciousness in the description is intended as reference material to describe the question. Is the etymology of the word romance a practical joke? You might also refer to the Frenchman's taunting from the Monty Python film The Quest for the Holy Grail. This is a serious topic I think. :) — Jesse Ivy 57 mins ago
Question Title: "Is the etymology of the word romance a practical joke?"
 
tchrist
tchrist
Yeah.
 
Educ
Educ
@M.A.R. how is it going with you
 
Mitch
Mitch
@tchrist It's a junk question. If it just asked the etymology of the many meanings of 'romance' it would be LMGTFY. As is it is just junk. Should be deleted.
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
Also, since the scope of the question doesn't really have to do with the original English sense of the word, it seems like a question better suited for Latin S.E. anyway,
 
tchrist
tchrist
9:53 PM
@Mitch Did you cast a delete vote? :)
 
Mitch
Mitch
@tchrist I totally would but it isn't available to me yet
 
tchrist
tchrist
Oh sorry.
Forgot it takes –3 not –2.
 
Mitch
Mitch
The question has enough keywords to pique interest, that's why it has survived this far
 
tchrist
tchrist
Clickbait
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@Mitch No, it was clearly googled already. I mean he even references the Google define results...
 
Mitch
Mitch
10:00 PM
There's worse things in the word
LIKE MISSPELLING "Y'ALL" AS "YA'LL". THAT SHOULD BE STOPPED!
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
10:13 PM
@Tonepoet someone just answer with an "it's complicated"
@Mitch ya'll
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@Mitch I suspect that you misinterpreted the sentence "Ya'll git to the store and get me some ice-cream, now!" It's not you all: it's you shall. As in, it's an obligation if you don't want your behind to be beat. XP
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
I prefer the contraction to be 'sh
Kapi'sh
Thou'sh'nt drink too much alcoholth
 
Educ
Educ
What does « do you understand english lamguage « means whem someone say it to native person
 
Tonepoet
Tonepoet
@Educ It depends on the context, but it's almost certainly derogatory.
It might mean something like You didn't even understand a word I said, did you? or it might mean What you said is nonsense. for a couple of examples...
The key point is that one of the participants may as well be speaking another language (a roughly synonymous phrase) than anything the other participant would be able to comprehend.
 
Educ
Educ
10:45 PM
Here is the context
5:00
Thank you
 

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