We say something is racy and other times that it is spacey. Why the e in spacey and not racy? Engoish spelling always made sense before . . .

*English

@HeatherBrown I could say the same thing. I've been coming here for years.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者: Don't forget I can read history on chat posts.

@Robusto I know. :P

Thought of that after.

Hey, you have the World Series. Give me this at least, OK?

The Whirled Siris is only 4-7 games.

The Bears are never going to do anything again. I need this.

The Patriots are forever.

Hey! The Word Series ain't nothin' . . .

And if you think it is you're forgetting about all those dry years.

Naw, I agree. It's not nothin'.

damn, 22-7.

When the White Sox won it in 2005 I was surprised how good it made me feel.

The world just seems sunnier. Sparklier.

I was sad for the team last year.

I was feeling a little spacy and wasn't sure if "spacy" was the correct spelling or if it should be "spacey" as in Kevin Spacey, so I looked it up and, as it turns out, either is correct. And here is the first definition that I came across of the word with either spelling: "Stupefied or disoriented by or as if by drug use."

Personally, I choose the spelling with the least letters.

How common is the use of "blooming" as a tame replacement for what would be a more vulgar expletive? I use it fairly often but don't really hear other people say it.

Rare in American English

I think the British use it a lot.

I'd be curious to see if it's common in BE. I'm not too surprised about AE since "bloody" isn't really used that much either (AFAIK).

> Photogr. Coating with a ‘bloom’; the process of coating a photographic lens with a metallic fluoride in order to reduce surface reflection.

> The reducing of cast- or pig-iron into ‘blooms.’ Also attrib., as blooming mill; blooming machine, blooming rolls .

> ¶ 4. slang. Full-blown; often euphemistic for bloody (sense 10) or the like. Cf. blessed (5).

> 2. fig. a. In the bloom of health and beauty, in the prime of youth; flourishing.

There^ is your answer @Stacey if it's listed in the dictionary as slang/informal it must be pretty common :-)

Thanks, I was wondering if perhaps blooming was a bit too old-fashioned :)

It's definitely a 20th century word.

Could someone please check and tell me what is wrong with this question that I asked some time ago, got an answer, but more than that got a user (Hot Licks) who set on a crusade against the question for reasons unknown?

@user685252 no, if it's slang it must be, and is, uncommon by definition.

Also, maybe I'm blind, but the dictionary does not say anything at all about it being slang.

Or informal.

@Stacey Not used in AmE and I can't recall hearing it in BrE except in old movies. I suspect it's heard about as often as "heck" is used as a minced oath in AmE.

I suspect it's archaic or obsolescent, but I could be wrong. @MattE.Эллен might be able to shed more light on it.

@macraf imho the question is fine (+1)

@Robusto I keep hearing about blooming dales. Even in contemporary Hollywood movies.

The problem with "blooming" is that it has a perfectly acceptable definition.

@user685252 thank you, I flagged most of this user's comments as unconstructive, but he/she keeps nagging, I have no clue, what's the problem

@RegDwigнt That is the one exception, yes. But only in AmE. And only if you have enough money to shop there.

@user685252 How is that a problem for a word?

@Robusto I gave all my money to Radioshack, and look how that panned out.

@Robusto jinx.

@RegDwigнt You mean you had money left over after giving it all to LEGO?

No.

That could have been the problem.

@macraf don't be bullied by them, simply ignore them :-)

But hey, nobody prevented Radioshack from selling LEGO. Just sayin.

@Robusto sorta like using the name of the Lord in vain.

Worked fine for Toys R US. Take the RRP, triple it, then welcome millions of retarded dumbfucks with too much money. Hey presto.

@user685252 Which "Lord" is that?

Lord E.

Not to be confused with Wall E.

The one that's a blooming idiot :P

Not specific enough. Go on.

Lord S in BrE.

Is "Sutch" a shorthand for "sucks so much"?

That's what I always thought.

Also, sreaming?

It's a portmanteau of seaming and reaming.

Nice rolls.

@Robusto I thought it was a portmanteau of "Ming", a Chinese dictator, and "Sri", Tamil for "honorable", or Russian for "go take a crap now".

@RegDwigнt Generally, this was an album bought by people who had no taste, perception, knowledge of music, or sense of shame. They generally had no lack of discretionary income, however.

So either "your honor" or "go shit yourself, Ming". Historians are still divided.

> I feel better for having sreamed, don't you?

@Robusto well goes to show how little income I have. I've not even heard of this Sutch.

You have now. So that excuse is gone.

Well, sri.

Note how Siri is but one letter away from shit. And that letter am I.

I/o? Input/output? What is this grammer?

Meh, got the link wrong the first time.

> Why France was labeled as a “cowardice” i/o a “coward”?

That is not an English sentence for more than one reason.

It is not an English sentence because it was uttered by W. QED

Wait, the titles of ELU questions are now uttered by Dubya?

OMG that explains so much.

He has a lot to answer for.

I have a lotto answer for $64k.

BTW, here's a little-known fact: that's not really how lottery works. You don't pick the winner, someone else does.

If you were the one in charge of picking the winner, it'd be rather trivial for you to also bet on him winning.

What do you mean?

You happened to pick the same number that the person pulling the number out of the barrel did.

sigh

Oh well, someone else explain it.

np

@Stacey As Robusto says, it's not used at all in AmE and sounds like an old British movie minced oath faux Cockney like maybe in 'My Fair Lady'.

But it's used in some US restaurants for "bloomin' onion" a battered deep-fried onion that opens up like a flower, so a tiny bit of punning.

So in AmE it is recognized, just not used.

@Mitch Only at Outback Steakhouse, which is faux Australian.

How would you interprete the phrase "blooming idiot"?

A minced oath for "bloody idiot."

Not an idiot that has fully bloomed.

No, of course not.

Or is a late bloomer :-)

@macraf I don't think he's on a crusade. I think he thinks that you're not getting his point, and so keeps trying to make it. (and you understandably still want to not have your question closed). His comments are not flaggable; they're not mean or tendentious. I'm neither here nor there about closing (the answer is simply 'no' that usage of 'copyrighting' as the actual copies is wrong).

@user685252 If it is not something that naturally blooms, like a flower, it would be the minced euphemism for "bloody."

@Robusto I feel like other restaurants use the same name ... Copper River Steakhouse?

If they do, they ripped it off from Outback — or vice versa. Me, I've never been to that franchise, but I suspect they are trying to grab some of Outback's market share.

wait... the Copper somethy something steakhouse does some other battered deepfried thing with onions... this requires research!

research done.

lonestar steakhouse uses the term.

australians eat them for breakfast with leftover Foster's still in the can.

Eeeww

I know!

I personally like the bloomin onion thing especially with whatever sauce they have. But each bite is one step closer to a heart attack.

frittering away the moments that make up the dull day

mmm.. fritters

ah.. there's the starting gun. I waited ten years for that!

@Mitch Again, likely borrowed.

In any case, if not borrowed it can still apply literally to the onion, as something that "naturally blooms" (see my comment above).

Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources :-)

Touché

@Cerberus: Homer referred to the "long-haired Achaeans" . . . are these believed to be a fair-haired northern race that settled in Greece?

@Robusto Mm as far as I know, Homer uses Achaoi to mean the Greeks in general.

I believe the history of the Achaean people, of the two regions named Achaea, of the Doric-Achaean dialect, and of the use of the word, is very complicated.

Unless there is something else in the context to suggest that he meant a specific people, I would assume he meant the Greeks in general.

This is made harder, I suppose, by the fact that the people inhabiting Greece currently are not descendants of the ancient Greeks. Or so I've heard.

@Robusto I wouldn't say that: they are probably a mixture.

@Robusto Whaaaaa?

NOooooooooooo

@terdon Hey, I'm just the messenger.

You just popped my favorite bubble!

Actually, you'd be surprised at how many people here truly believe that modern Greeks are the direct descendants of Socrates and his ilk.

Depressing, really.

What, did you think you look anything like those garlanded nudes dancing around the red-figured pottery of the era?

For one thing, you only wish you were so well endowed.

@Robusto Hey, it's cold!

I thought Greece was mostly hot.

Yes. And Earth is mostly harmless.

That's right, blame it on the Earth.

Well, I'm Greek, I can hardly be expected to assume the blame myself. That's ungreekian.

Plus, I'm also American, so if I start taking blame, I'll never stop.

Good points.

@terdon Well, aren't you?

I am confused.

I'm sure many people have immigrated and emigrated throughout history, but it is the same in any place, isn't it?

hey

@Cerberus Yes, but i) it has been thousands of years, you're likely to be as related to Socrates as I am; ii) Greece has had a particularly turbulent past because of its location. Dozens, if not hundreds, of peoples have come through, fucked and left (or stayed).

@HeatherBrown Greasy people come pre-lubed. Makes some things easier.

Actually, it probably makes fucking and fleeing easier. Fleeing because they can slip through tight places. And fucking for the same reason, largely.

@terdon Don't give him ideas. He already thinks he's related to a famous Greek named Hades or something.

Hi everybody. familiar faces here :P

No faces here. Only gravatars.

haha I was about to mention (avatars) but just thought it might be facetious

No. "Faces" is facetious. "Gravatars" is literal.

ّI've lost my right/left directions right now. please don't do these complex games to me :))

They're over there, to the left of the rightmost book on the right-hand side of the room.

Fine. Bring relativity into this, Einstein.

Yeah, forgot to mention, they're travelling away from you at 0.75C

Ok, now Einstein was facetious :/

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I'm just going to let them go. I don't have the energy to catch up.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I've got used to do the same

So here's what I'm wondering. We're hearing now how processed meats cause cancer, and that they increase one's chances of colon cancer by 18%. Now, apparently the average person has about a 5% chance of developing colon cancer as it stands. Does this 18% mean 18% of the 5%, ror ~6% total risk, or does it mean 18% added to 5%, increasing the total risk to 23%? NOBODY fucking mentions that, but it seems to me a pretty important detail.

@Cerberus not iceland

Iceland was founded by emigrants. QED

@HeatherBrown Do you even go to restroom?

@Robusto gravatars are gravid

@Robusto chews beef jerky slowly

Ever helpful.

@Robusto and a lot were Irish slaves.

@HeatherBrown Now I think you've gone

@DummyBeginner Maybe. I would say it involves a discussion of attributive nouns (also known as noun adjuncts).

@HeatherBrown So the Circle of Life for you has a rather short diameter.

@HeatherBrown income and outcome don't match. You'll drain inside

@Robusto The border between these two sites has alwayse been misty to me.

In a perfect world, ELL would be the oubliette of ELU. In the real world, it only pleases us here at ELU to think that's what it is.

@DummyBeginner ewww

@Robusto I have nothing to say

@Mitch I know

@Robusto I'm pretty sure it means your absolute risk is 18% higher than otherwise, i.e. 6% instead of 5%. But none of the sources I read even mentioned the "5%" figure, making the whole story completely void of useful information.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It means bacon om nom nom nom

Doesn't matter.

Please cast your delete votes on the non-answers that deserve it here so that it auto-protects:

@tchrist I hate SWRs now

Lord yes.

:(