English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

05:00

> "You’d probably make a great college professor," Torkildson paraphrased Woodger on his blog. "But, since you don’t have a degree you’ll never get that kind of work. I would advise you to try something clerical, where you’ll be closely supervised and have immediate goals at all times."

Cerberus

Heh.

@tchrist All this was in the LL article.

I read it.

vorige.nrc.nl/article2316220.ece This acticle was actually written by my friend, hmm.

tchrist

Hide the homophones in the clergy. Like that’s never been tried before.

Cerberus

> This year, the Christian Democrat party is taking part in the Canal Parade, and so is ING. Top athletes will have their own boat, and the defence ministry has allowed soldiers to take part in uniform (as long as they wear it correctly). Even heterosexuals will have their own boat on Saturday- out of solidarity.

tchrist

@Cerberus Shirtless is not nekkid.

There is also something wicked about a gay parade in a canal.

Cerberus

Why?

Those must be real uniforms.

tchrist

05:03

@Cerberus Back passage.

Cerberus

@tchrist I actually don't know whether nudity is allowed.

No doubt it will present itself spontaneously.

tchrist

I’ve never seen anybody completely nude in a parade — well, outside of Black Rock City.

Cerberus

Remember, nudity is less of an issue here.

tchrist

But the Critical Tits Parade is close.

Cerberus

Haha that sounds nice.

tchrist

05:04

I have pictures!!!

Of course.

I used a fisheye lens. It is kinda wacky.

I also have shots of the Critical Dicks parade, but that was with a telephoto lens instead.

The fisheye sequence was taken from up super close to the chicks, sometimes in the middle of them as they rode around me.

Cerberus

You needed a telephoto lens?

tchrist

@Cerberus For zooming in. :)

Actually, it was because I saw the Critical Dicks parade zipping past from a distance. I hadn’t known it was happening then.

Whereas the Critical Tits parade I had prepared for.

I guess a number of cities have Critical Tits parades now.

But so far only Black Rock City has a corresponding Critical Dicks parade.

You realize these are for the most part bike parades, right?

George Pompidou

hello I am a foreigner posting on english.se,and for some reason this means I cannot capitalize The right thingsand sometimes omit spaces. please Tell me the difference,between these sentences

1. I like shoes

2. I Like an shoes

3. I like shoes

thank You

tchrist

My cousin did make the font page of our newspaper for the Naked Cruiser parade. He was wearing a G-string, but it was hard to tell. They published it two years in a row, and I clipped the newspaper article to show his kids years from now. :)

The Naked Pumpkin Run on Halloween is kinda weird. People wear only a jackolantern.

And that one is a run, not a ride.

George Pompidou

I think you mean a jacquesolanterne

Cerberus

05:11

@tchrist Hmm we also have naked bike parades, apparently.

@GeorgePompidou Haha, your style is...accurate!

tchrist

@Cerberus “Apparently”, like you just found out?

Cerberus

Yes.

Or I forgot.

It's not that noteworthy...

tchrist

@Cerberus It would be if I kept a copy of you on the front page of your newspaper riding in it!

Cerberus

@tchrist Well, I wouldn't do such a thing!

tchrist

-1

Q: "Is there" usage

I remember learning back in school that "is there" was bad. I do not remember if it was grammatically incorrect "lazy" english something else but I remember being advised to avoid using it in writing. What is the reason for this being "bad"?

Cerberus

05:13

That one's not that bad...

tchrist

@Cerberus I am at a loss for words. I am offended by the man on the right.

Only his head is naked.

Cerberus

Haha.

Perhaps he was not invited.

I'm sure he would not have lost his hair if he could have holpen it.

tchrist

One of the riders should have lent him a merkin.

Cerberus

Hah.

On this jolly note, I say good-bye.

tchrist

I’d think one’s backside would become unnaturally chummy with one’s bikeseat.

Cerberus

05:16

poof

tchrist

05:45

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I am here to report that Lorin simply adored his (to-him-)yummy birthday chopped-salmon sashimi. Randy was not interested in it, which is just fine. Different strokes and all.

Stack Exchange

09:11

Limerick Machine: There once was a man from London Who never once had any fun He moved to Shanghai And started to...

posted on August 02, 2014 by sgdi

There once was a man from London Who never once had any fun He moved to Shanghai And started to cry When he realised what he had done

RegDwigнt

10:00

Ah, a cold Bitburger early in the morning, tis heaven.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I just got two Exo Suits. Plus Ecto-1 and the Mini and the mini Mini and two Mixels. With a 15% discount and VIP Points, and 1600 VIP Points to burn, that was a measly 95 bucks. Not too shabby.

(Also did get a bunny with a carrot cannon earlier this month. I am buying more LEGO than planned just because of you!)

RegDwigнt

10:41

BTW, in my store, the clerks enforce a limit of one Suit per customer.

Luckily the counter next to the one I was paying at was being operated by the store manager himself, and he was right in the middle of selling two to some loyal customer he seemed to know personally. So, like a little child, I flat-out pointed to him and went "but hey he's getting two! I want two, too!"

My cashier was perplexed but even so seemed unwilling to scan in the second one. Thankfully the manager recognized me from my numerous previous visits, and seemed to have an idea how much money I spend there, too, so he went, "two is okay, we were assigned plenty".

Still, me and that other guy were the only people in the store who got two. Absolutely everyone else in the store was grabbing an exo suit as soon as they came in, but absolutely everyone was only allowed one.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 BTW, I only just read on 1000steine.de that the store in Cologne had them on the shelves since at least Tuesday, too.

And there people get two no questions asked. One guy even said "a friendly smile" got him a third one, though without VIP Points. I suppose that means it was booked as a separate sale, to allegedly a completely different, non-VIP customer, so TLG don't get wind of it.

On eBay the asking price is already 60 Euro apiece. Plus shipping.

BL is cheaper as usual, but still 50 Euro, and one Czech guy is even asking 72.23 Euro. Plus shipping.

Robusto

11:37

@RegDwigнt That means you probably shouldn't try to play cards there.

RegDwigнt

12:42

2

Q: My internet is slow since I installed Ubuntu

I am an inexperienced Ubuntu user. Since I installed Ubuntu my Internet connection on this computer has become too slow. Sometimes the internet connection gets disconnected or videos load slowly. Here is my wireless information: ########## wireless info START ########## ##### release ##### ...

wireless internet

Install a faster internet, then.

Or perhaps there is now a bug installed in your internet. Simply remove it and everything will work fine again.

tchrist

13:48

Color me confused, but I’m unclear about which country is which in some of those.

Phonics The Hedgehog

@tchrist Yes, Korea is now about as half as large as China. I like this.

tchrist

But not as red. :)

Phonics The Hedgehog

True.

Where is your country?

tchrist

Well, either it’s the dark red thing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, or else nowhere.

It looks like the first set comprises America alone, the second just China, the third Britain and German and Japan, the fourth France (with French Guiana next to Brazil) and Italy and Australia and India, the sixth Spain and Canada and South Korea and maybe Brazil.

I dunno, I confused.

We are all glassholes now.

Phonics The Hedgehog

14:03

Hmm

@tchrist Alaska?

tchrist

@PhonicsTheHedgehog I meant America.

Phonics The Hedgehog

@tchrist Yeah, I knew. :P

tchrist

But they say there’s no country for old men.

Hacking traffic lights for fun and profit!

> In a few weeks, at WOOT (the USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies — an academic conference where security researchers demonstrate broken stuff), a team from the University of Michigan will be presenting a lovely paper, Green Lights Forever: Analyzing the Security of Traffic Infrastructure. It’s a short and fun read.

> In summary, it’s common for traffic light controllers to speak to each other over a 5.8GHz wireless channel (much like WiFi, but a dedicated frequency) with no cryptography, default usernames and passwords, and well-known and exploitable bugs. Oh boy. And what can we do with that?

@Cerberus WOOT

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist Yay! Lorin should have it to himself if he wants it that way.

tchrist

Sabrage

Sabrage /səˈbrɑːʒ/ is a technique for opening a Champagne bottle with a saber, used for ceremonial occasions. The saber is slid along the body of the bottle to break the entire neck away from the bottle, leaving only the base of the bottle open and ready to pour. The force of the blunt side of the blade hitting the lip breaks the glass to separate the collar from the neck of the bottle. Note that one does not use the sharp side of the blade. The cork and collar remain together after separating from the neck. == History == This technique became popular in France when the army of Napoleon visited...

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Randy just isn’t into raw fish.

I wonder whether wasabi would help.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

14:20

@tchrist I'm on Lorin's side.

tchrist

Lorin is in my lap right now. He wants breakfast, freshly killed no doubt.

The hacking-traffic-lights article is by an old friend of mine.

He was like 15 when I met him, and is now a professor.

RegDwigнt

The Homophones Got Me! A Record of a Recent Firing

tchrist

@RegDwigнt We were all over that last night. It smells funny, but I can discover no evidence that it is a hoax.

Why is this chef grinning?

news.yahoo.com/…

RegDwigнt

Also, physicists are crazy.

32

A: What do you really see on a line of clocks as you pass by them at high speed?

I assume you used the formulae $f_o = fs\sqrt{\frac{1+v/c}{1-v/c}}$ for the clocks ahead of you and $f_o = fs\sqrt{\frac{1-v/c}{1+v/c}}$ for the clocks behind you. Those formulae do imply a singularity for the clock that is closest to you. Which equation to use? The answer is neither. Those expr...

tchrist

The more I think about it, the more I think that every time our local news goes non-local, it’s not for the better.

@RegDwigнt That posting would definitely be helped by a photograph. And an ngram could never hurt either.

0

A: "Good night" or "good evening"?

As after the sun up Good morning is wished! So after sun-set good evening should be wished! And good night should be wished while sepration..!

Cerberus

14:44

@tchrist Hmm what?

tchrist

WOOT is a funny name for a symposium.

Cerberus

Oh?

Oh, I see it now.

My eyes skipped it.

It is indeed.

How is your knee?

tchrist

In morning.

It is less bad in morning.

Phonics The Hedgehog

Did you take an arrow to your knee or something?

tchrist

Just after arising. And if I don’t move around much.

Cerberus

14:46

I see.

tchrist

@PhonicsTheHedgehog I’m too old for that lamer malarkey.

Phonics The Hedgehog

At any rate, I know how you feel as I also injured my leg in the past. :(

tchrist

Where is malarkey from, anyhoo?

Cerberus

I think it was "unknown".

tchrist

It feels . . . Irish.

I know it has nothing do with a key for the malar.

Cerberus

14:48

> slang (orig. U.S.).

(m@"lA;kI) [Origin unknown.]
Humbug, nonsense, foolishness.
1929 J. P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl vii. 102 It's a wonder you notice me, I told him. That's a lot of malaky, says he.

tchrist

I think wonder.

Cerberus

Are you drugged up?

tchrist

A little.

> Malarkey is meaningless talk, nonsense or foolishness.

It’s still known in the US and to a lesser extent in the UK and elsewhere, but where this odd-looking word comes from is decidedly uncertain. What we do know is that it began to appear in the US in the early 1920s in various spellings, such as malaky, malachy, and mullarkey. Its first known user was the cartoonist T A Dorgan, in 1922, but it only began to appear widely at the end of the decade. By 1930, Variety could pun on it: “The song is ended but the Malarkey lingers on.”

worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mal3.htm

I agree with the writer that “origin unknown” is unsatisfactory.

Cerberus

It always is.

tchrist

Secret Origins

Secret Origins is the title of several comic book series published by DC Comics which featured the origin stories of the publisher's various characters. == Publication history == Secret Origins was first published as a one-shot in 1961 and contained only reprinted material. The title became an ongoing reprint series in February-March 1973 which ran for seven issues and ended in October-November 1974. The title was used on various compilations of origin stories including Limited Collectors' Edition #C-39 (October–November 1975) and #C-45 (June–July 1976) as well as DC Special Series #10 (1978) and...

I was exposed to it during the 73–74 run.

Robusto

15:03

@Cerberus I could use a little of that today. Me lower back is paining me.

kwak

@tchrist Did you do the Vietnam war?

tchrist

@kwak “Do”?

kwak

Usted hice la guerra del Vietnam?

@tchrist participate in

as part of the army

Robusto

He would have participated as a TV viewer, if that.

kwak

ah most people did, I get some weird cliche that all americans went to the war

tchrist

15:05

Not at age ten.

Robusto

@kwak Nope.

kwak

@tchrist fortunately

Robusto

I think you mean "all went to the war" instead of "went all to the war" . . .

kwak

bloody war, by the way, let's stop talking of that shit, sorry, and do 1 minute of silence

tchrist

@Rob Did you know that The Bear Went Over the Mountain was originally bellic?

 Malbrook the Prince of Commanders
 Is gone to war in Flanders,
 His fame is like Alexander's,
 But when will he ever come home?
 Mironton, mironton, mirontaine.

Mambrú se fue a la guerra

Mambrú se fue a la guerra es la versión en español de una canción popular infantil francesa, Marlbrough s'en va-t-en guerre. == Origen == Fue compuesta tras la batalla de Malplaquet (1709), que enfrentó a los ejércitos de Gran Bretaña y Francia, durante la Guerra de Sucesión Española. A pesar de su derrota, los franceses creyeron muerto en la batalla a su enemigo John Churchill, duque de Marlborough, que es a quien se dedica la canción burlesca. La melodía de la canción parece ser aún más antigua: según Chateaubriand, es de origen árabe y habría llegado a Francia llevada por los cruzados....

kwak

15:09

belligerant

Robusto

I didn't know that. But I guess we should celebrate the centenary of that tune soon.

tchrist

@kwak You are too punny!!

Robusto

Mironton . . . mirontaine?

tchrist

@kwak It’s an -er thing not an -ar thing, but you made it a very nice pun by changing it to the -ar version, since now it is a rant. :)

 Marlbrough zieht aus zum Kriege,
 Die Fahne läßt er wehn;
 Da reicht zum Kampf und Siege
 Die Hand ihm Prinz Eugen.

kwak

@tchrist not purposed pun: fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/bellig%C3%A9rant

Robusto

15:13

@tchrist Hmm . . . they're rhyming wehn with Eugen? In what universe does that work?

tchrist

@kwak More often than not, -ar verbs produce -ant,-ance,-able derived forms while -er verbs produce -ent,-ence,-ible derived forms.

French seems to have confused that in a few places. Hence resistance etc.

I’m not sure I would know how to produce any distinction pronouncing -ant versus -ent in French.

Robusto

Name a four-letter word for a type of woman, which ends in -unt. Did you choose aunt? No? What were you thinking?

tchrist

But there is another force at work in English for such words. When you have both an -a and an -e- version, the former is a substantive and the latter a modifier. So a dependant is someone who is dependent on someone or something.

Robusto

0

Q: Girl vs Young Woman vs Woman

The boundary between childhood and adulthood is nebulous. There's puberty, and then there are various legally significant ages: 16, 17, 18, 21... To further complicate the matter, some people call females 'girls' well after 21. What are some guidelines for picking the appropriate term?

word-choice

Don't we have a canonical for this?

tchrist

@Robusto I’m going to have to punt on that one.

Robusto

15:18

@tchrist So, you're out of the hunt, as it were.

tchrist

aunt [n.]
bunt [n.1]
bunt [n.2]
bunt [n.3]
bunt [n.4]
bunt [n.5]
bunt [n.6]
bunt [n.7]
bunt [n.8]
bunt [n.9]
bunt [v.1]
bunt [v.2]
bunt [v.3]
cunt [n.]
× dunt → dint
dunt [adj. and n.2]
dunt [n.1]
dunt [v.1]
dunt [v.2]
† hunt [n.1]
hunt [n.2]
hunt [v.]
† junt [n.1]
junt [n.2]
lunt [adj.]
lunt [n.]
lunt [v.]
× munt → mint
munt [n.]
punt [n.1]
punt [n.2]
punt [n.3]
punt [n.4]
punt [n.5]
punt [n.6]
punt [n.7]
punt [v.1]
punt [v.2]
punt [v.3]
† runt [v.]
runt [n.]
‖ sunt [n.]
× wunt → want

kwak

French has evolved a bit randomly sometimes

Robusto

@kwak Everything evolves randomly. We don't live in a deterministic universe.

Cerberus

@Robusto Poor you! Muscles or nerves?

@Robusto Except France.

kwak

random mutations

Cerberus

15:20

She is usually quite determined.

Robusto

@Cerberus Dunno. Some kind of sciatica, feels like. The pain shoots down into my leg from the sacral region.

tchrist

@kwak I feel like the sorts of rules/guidelines I just spouted are better honored in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese than they are in French or English. The trend is the same, but French and English have more exceptions.

kwak

France evolves very deterministically, in an idiotic way

Cerberus

@Robusto Ow, so nerve. That sucks.

Robusto

@tchrist I think English gets most of its exceptions from French.

kwak

15:21

I wish to go in Iceland

Seems pretty cool

Robusto

@kwak *to Iceland

tchrist

Hm, apparently French béligerant owes its final vowel to Latin belligĕrans, -antis.

@Robusto He’s French.

Robusto

@tchrist But trying to speak English.

Cerberus

Does gerare exist in Latin?

tchrist

I know, I know.

Cerberus

15:23

Normally one geres a bellum in Latin.

tchrist

@Cerberus I thought it was gerere.

Cerberus

Yes.

The dictionary has no belligerans.

tchrist

Interesting.

kwak

@Robusto thanks, I hesitated

Cerberus

It was probably mistakenly formed out of belligerator.

Which already is post-classical.

tchrist

15:25

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/belligerent

> From Latin belligerans (“waging war”), present active participle of belligerō (“I wage war”), from belliger (“waging war, warlike”), from bellum (“war”) + -ger (from gerō (“I lead, wage, carry on”)).

Cerberus

Hmm so they made an -a- verb based on the nomen.

Not what the Romans would have done, if there's the perfectly traditional bellum gerere available.

tchrist

The Spanish did, too. Hm.

Cerberus

Probably all based on some Late-Latin word.

tchrist

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beligerante

lema.rae.es/drae/?val=belligerente

Cerberus

You know, the word belligerans itself is a bit silly, when you already have belliger.

tchrist

15:30

But it is only an adjective in Spanish, not a substantive. Also, English belligerence is Spanish beligerancia.

Cerberus

The e/a thing before n is always mixed up in French, and hence also in English.

They were probably too nasal to notice the difference, those Frenchies.

tchrist

Is this because of phonologic mergers?

Right.

Cerberus

We can't be sure, but probably.

Robusto

Quick, name a mythical Greek isle whose name is six letters, all of them vowels. Hint: It's also a palindrome.

Cerberus

Not sure how they pronounces those things exactly by the way the spellings were established.

Robusto

15:32

How fast can TC grep this? tick-tick-tick

Cerberus

Six letters??

Robusto

Aye-aye.

Cerberus

You know I suck at such things. It seems an impossible task...or I may not know the isle.

Robusto

Wait . . . I miscounted. It's five letters.

Cerberus

Slightly better.

tchrist

15:33

@kwak Do modern French speakers still have invariably four different nasal vowels in un bon vin blanc? And are courent and courant homophones in French now?

Cerberus

I am guessing Ai_ia.

Robusto

Close enough.

Aeaea

Aeaea or Eëa (/iːˈiːə/ ee-EE-ə or /əˈiːə/ ə-EE-ə; Ancient Greek: Αἰαία, Aiaía [aɪ.áɪ.a]) was a mythological island said to be the home of the sorceress Circe. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus tells Alcinous that he stayed here for a year on his way home to Ithaca. The modern Greek scholar Ioannis Kakridis insists that any attempt at realistic identification is vain, arguing that Homer vaguely located Aeaea somewhere in the eastern part of his world, perhaps near Colchis, since Circe was the sister of Aeëtes, king of Colchis, and because the goddess Dawn had her palace there. The somewhat inconsistent...

Cerberus

Is Aioia a place?

Ah.

So aiaia. Sounds onomatopoeic!

Ai ai ai!

Robusto

It sounds like the wind.

Aeolian, in fact.

tchrist

Yayoi is not Greek.

Cerberus

15:34

Aeolos is the God of winds...

So Aiolos.

tchrist

@Cerberus A minor god, to be sure.

Robusto

No. Flatos, the god of farts, is the minor god.

Cerberus

Well, he did mess up Odysseus' nostos!

tchrist

Æolian mode

More minor than major, one must admit.

Robusto

OK, a relatively minor god.

Cerberus

15:36

Yeah.

Robusto

A minor third lower than a major god.

Cerberus

Apparently, Aeolus is very complicated, with three Aeoli and some interconnectedness...

tchrist

@Cerberus If only Gollum had known Homer!

Cerberus

Then...he would have released the winds?

Robusto

Tolkien would have had to know Homer. I can't conceive of an academic of that era not being well versed in the classics.

Cerberus

15:38

Odysseus' hetairoi already did!

Of course.

tchrist

He’d’ve had a lot of fun at Odysseususes’s expense.

Cerberus

frowns

tchrist

@Robusto You miss point.

Robusto

@tchrist I make point.

tchrist

And Tolkien studied classical languages as a child. He only moved to the Germanic ones later, at university I think.

Cerberus

15:39

Everyone did.

And many still do.

But no more in England, I believe.

tchrist

Certainly Greek is not a common precollegiate offering in latterday schooling.

Latin has fallen, too, but not so far.

Robusto

english.stackexchange.com/q/188420/2303f

Geschlossen.

tchrist

O superman!

Robusto

I only use my powers for good.

tchrist

So Mein Schlüssel ist geschlossen, not verse viça.

But your Schloss might be geschlossen.

Robusto

15:44

@tchrist schliessen -> geschlossen

tchrist

geschlossen mit Schlüssel, no less.

Robusto

Wow, I flubbed a keystroke and my keyboard switched to Japanese. And I've been looking for a keystroke to do just that. Now I can't find it again.

tchrist

@Robusto Ask your cats to dance upon your keyboard. They’ll find it.

Robusto

The cats are not allowed in my office. Not since The Great Orange Juice Incident.

About which the less said the better.

tchrist

Well, you could keep the Dutch Jews out instead.

Robusto

15:48

@Cerberus says the damn Rotterdammers will tell them where to go.

そうね！

It's Alt-Shift in Windows.

Cerberus

@tchrist It is here.

Robusto

Didn't need no cats to tell me that.

Cerberus

@Robusto Yup!

Working-class humour can be crude, but fun.

tchrist

Looks like the ol’ girl is fighting for reopenage.

Let her eat cake.

Matt Эллен

16:06

@Cerberus does it have bellicophage?

tchrist

† ˈbellibone [n.]
† ˈbellic [adj.]
† ˈbellical [adj.]
† ˈbelliche [adv.]
bellicose [adj.]
ˌbelliˈcosely [adv.]
bellicosity [n.]
† ˈbellicous [adj.]
bellied [ppl. adj.]
× bellies → belly
† beˈlliferous [adj.]
† ˈbellify [v.]
ˈbellifying [ppl. adj.] ← ˈbellify
† beˈlligerate [v.]
† beˌlligeˈration [n.]
belligerence [n.]
beˈlligerency [n.]
belligerent [adj.]
beˈlligerently [adv.]
† beˈlligerous [adj.]
× belling → bell
› -belling, -boasting, -caring, -cleaning, -cockering, -deeming, -descanting, -drugging, -farming, -fasting, -judging, -liking, -meddling, -packaging, -packing, -padding,

Look at all those dead words!

The toll of war is great indeed.

Matt Эллен

thems fightin words

tchrist

I rather wish bellibone were pronounced to rhyme with Elric of Melniboné.

Elric was the ur-Targaryen.

Matt Эллен

what is the bellibone connected to? the kidneybone?

tchrist

Elle est belle et bonne.

@MattЭллен How come you guys rhyme so foully?

 "But since to speak I'm hurried,"
 Added this page, quite flurried,
 "Malbrook is dead and buried!"
 And here he shed a tear.

 "He's dead! He's dead as a herring!
 For I beheld his berring,
 And four officers transferring
 His corpse away from the field.

Although I think a drinking-song with clamorous refrains of He’s dead, he’s dead as a herring! would be quite amusing.

Matt Эллен

16:18

lol

tchrist

Seems almost Pythonesque, n’est-ce pas?

Matt Эллен

indeed

tchrist

> While sitting quite forlorn in
That tower, she spies returning
A page clad in deep mourning,
With fainting steps and slow.

> "O page, prithee come faster!
What news do you bring of your master?
I fear there is some disaster,
Your looks are so full of woe."

"The news I bring fair lady,"
With sorrowful accent said he,
"Is one you are not ready
So soon, alas! to hear.

’Twould seem that rhyme was once not so rigorous. Or else we don’t talk that way anymore.

I mean, how can deep mourning rhyme with returning?

Matt Эллен

I don't know berring. couldn't find it in a dictionary. I assume it means something like carrying? Or maybe death?

tchrist

Or lady and ready?

Matt Эллен

16:22

slant rhymes!

it's all fine

tchrist

@MattЭллен Smacks of Orientalism.

> In mod.Eng. the originally short vowel of the present has been lengthened by position orig. /bɛr/, now /bɛə(r)/. The pa. t., in Gothic bar, pl. bêrun, was regularly in OE. bær, bǽron (Anglian béron); early ME. bar, beren, afterwards by levelling of sing. and pl., in south ber, beren, beeren, in north bar(e, baren, bare, which became the literary form.

> Pa. t. bore /bɔə(r)/.
Pa. pple. borne /bɔɚn/, born /bɔ˞ːn/. Forms: Inf. 1 ber-an, (2 beor-en, bor-en), 2–5 ber-en, 3–6 ber-e, (4 berne, bern), 4–5 ber, 5 beere, Sc. 5–6 beir(e, 5– 7 beare, (5–8 bare, 6 baire, berie), 6– bear. Pa. t. 1–2 bær (pl. bǽron), 2–5 ber, bar (pl. beren), 4–5 bere, 4–8 bare, (4 beir, beere, baar); 5– bore (rare till c 1600), 6 boore; Sc. 5 bur, 5–6 buir, 6–8 bure; (5 baryd, 7 beared). Pa. pple. 1–4 boren, (4–5 borin(e, 5 borun), 4–7 born (rare), 5–7 borne (usual); also 2–4 iboren, 3–5 ibore, ybore, ibor, (5 ebore), 3–8 bore, (4–5 bor, 6 arch. yborne, ybore), 8–9 bo…

Matt Эллен

related to berried?

> Obs. Beaten; threshed; trodden, beaten as a path.

tchrist

I don’t know.

Matt Эллен

ah, I think it is. Berry is a verb meaning beat as in hit.

tchrist

Yes, I think so now.

> ˈberry, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.

Also bery, bury.

Etymology: ME. berien, bery, ad. ONor. berja to strike, beat, thresh = OHG. berjan, MHG. berren, beren, bern; repr. in OE. only by pa. pple. ʒebered. Cogn. w. L. ferīre to strike.

1. trans. To beat, thrash.

A. 1225 Ancr. R. 188 ― Þer ȝe schulen iseon bunsen [v.r. berien] ham mit tes deofles bettles.
1808 Jamieson, ― Berry, to beat; as to berry a bairn, to beat a child.

2. To thresh (corn, etc.). See berried ppl. a.

1483 Cath. Angl. 29 ― Bery··vbi to thresche.

I wonder what dialects retain it.

Matt Эллен

16:29

Scottish, perhaps

> 1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang., Berry, to beat; as to berry a bairn, to beat a child.

but that was a couple of centuries ago

tchrist

Why’ve we no Scots here to interrogate?

Bring me a Scot!

Why USB sticks are like hypodermic needles.

Matt Эллен

:D I can imagine. viruses abound

tchrist

Actually, it’s worse than that.

> Computer users pass around USB sticks like silicon business cards. Although we know they often carry malware infections, we depend on antivirus scans and the occasional reformatting to keep our thumbdrives from becoming the carrier for the next digital epidemic. But the security problems with USB devices run deeper than you think: Their risk isn’t just in what they carry, it’s built into the core of how they work.

So long and thanks for all the flash.

Matt Эллен

wow. hacking the firmware. that's pretty cool.

I hadn't thought of that.

tchrist

Insidious.

Matt Эллен

16:34

indeed

Cerberus

Old news!

tchrist

Anybody who uses autorun is an idiot. But that isn’t the problem here.

Cerberus

They also hack the firmware of motherboards, as you know, and hard drives...

@tchrist Agreed.

tchrist

0

Q: What is another word for "dared myself"?

What is another word for "Dared myself"? when you cannot used the same word for dared or myself. Do help, it's urgent, Thanks:)

thesaurus

thesaurus? Really?

I bet he will not appreciate I durst myself.

And the Do help and it’s urgent and Thanks are all unthankable.

Matt Эллен

heh

well, that will probably annoy them. oh well.

tchrist

16:42

“A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.” Likewise a lack of creativity.

@MattЭллен Turnabout’s fair play.

Matt Эллен

:D

tchrist

And this one is kinda not possible to answer, because there is insufficient context to divine the intent:

0

Q: "I went to the hotel you were staying at" vs. "you stayed at"

Which of these is true: I went to the hotel you were staying at when you were in New York. I went to the hotel you stayed at when you were in New York.

meaning grammaticality differences simple-past progressive-aspect

I don’t really understand what the OP is asking. One reading is that they went to the hotel where their friend was (still) staying, but another is that they went to the hotel where their friend had (previously) stayed. — tchrist 42 mins ago

And then there was true.

Matt Эллен

lol

neither are true. I've not stayed at a hotel in New York.

tchrist

So much garbage.

-2

A: Is [Its'] a word? (Note the apostrophe at the end.)

Its' is a word I don't quit know how to use it in a sentence but I remember my teacher telling is that it was in fact a word. I will find omit what it means and tell you guys. I have a question.... Could its and it's' mean the same thing?

Matt Эллен

that must be a dupe of a dupe. I'm sure I've seen it before

oh

it's an answer :D

tchrist

16:54

If you say so.

Matt Эллен

well, I mean, posted in the "Your Answer" box...

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…