Is it "chaises longues" or just "chaise longues"?
... Or something else?
A currently ongoing Escherichia coli O104:H4 bacterial outbreak began in Germany in May 2011. Certain strains of E. coli are a major cause of foodborne illness. The outbreak started after several people in Germany were infected with bacteria leading to hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a medical emergency that requires urgent treatment. 26 people have died by 8 June and around 500 had been hospitalised with HUS due to the intensifying outbreak. The agriculture minister of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) has identified a farm in Bienenbuettel, Niedersachsen, Germany, which produces a va...
If "ta" means "thank-you", how did "ta-ta" come to mean "goodbye?" Isn't it basically repeating "ta?", in which case, wouldn't it mean "thanks, thanks!"?
Is there a reason why? Does it lie in their etymologies?
Where does the expression "ta" come from?
Wikipedia has only this to say:
"ta!", slang, Exclam. Thank you! {Informal}, an expression of gratitude
but no additional information or links about its genesis.
I have only ever heard it from englishmen and -women. Is it used anywhere else in the...
Knight Rider is an American television series that originally ran from September 26, 1982, to August 8, 1986. The series was broadcast on NBC and starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a high-tech modern-day knight fighting crime with the help of an advanced, artificially intelligent and nearly-indestructible car.
Conceived and produced by Glen A. Larson, the show was an instant hit. "I wanted to do The Lone Ranger with a car", and "Kind of a sci-fi thing, with the soul of a western", Larson said in The Last Great Ride.
Plot
Self-made billionaire Wilton Knight rescues police detect...
Parkinson's Law of Triviality, also known as bikeshedding or the bicycle shed example, is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that organisations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. Parkinson demonstrated this by contrasting the triviality of a bike shed to a nuclear reactor. Later, Poul-Henning Kamp applied the law to software development and introduced the colour of the bike shed as the proverbial trivial detail receiving disproportionate attention.
Argument
The concept is presented in C. Northcote Parkinson's spoof of management, Parkinson's Law. Parkinson dramatizes ...
I've heard the above mentioned many times growing up that chewing your fingernails will expose you to more germs than to licking a public toilet seat.
Apologies for the provacative title, but here are quotes from the top 4 Google results from Australia:
Cause biting your fingernails is really ...
India Pale Ale or IPA is a style of beer within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century.
The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835. Before January 1835, and for some time after this date, this style of beer was referred to as "pale ale as prepared for India", "India Ale", "pale India ale" or "pale export India ale".
History
IPA descends from the earliest pale ales of the 17th century. The term "pale ale" originally denoted an ale which had be...
In western movies, it is a common trope that the person to draw first usually loses in a gunfight. Is there any truth to this?
Related to this question.
My non-native English speaking friend just asked me:
Data is ...
or
Data are ...
I said both but that's because I've been desensitized from reading/writing both (especially from writing code and adding quick comments).
My question: Is it acceptable to utilize e...
e.g.: is it correct: this is an apple - the wrong would be this is a apple?
thanks.
Great Scott! is an exclamation of surprise, amazement, or dismay.
Possible origins
The expression is of uncertain origin. It is believed to date back at least as far as the American Civil War, and may refer to the commander‑in‑chief of the U.S. Army, General Winfield Scott. The general, known to his troops as Old Fuss and Feathers, weighed 300 pounds (21 stone or 136 kg) in his later years and was too fat to ride a horse. A May 1861 edition of the New York Times carried the sentence:
:These gathering hosts of loyal freemen, under the command of the great SCOTT.
In an 1871...
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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
Not for the faint of heart or those easily triggered by Englis...
