English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

English Language & Usage: Ask a question and we will try our darnedest to try and find a reason to not answer it.

3:45 AM

@TIPS How about: "Speak so as to be understood, and pay attention to historical usage. All the rest hang on these two."?

3:56 AM

@tchrist I see your Little Miss Manners question here and I think that a little experiment should be done. I think the most objectionable part regarding the politeness of a phrase, is that it is a somewhat subjective manner, so I would suggest flagging the question as P.O.B. and see if it gets closed by users (rather than moderators).

Within a reasonable time-frame, that is. Perhaps within three days? I think that's how long a question takes to get closed on average, if it's going to be closed.

I'm suggesting that here because I think more policy minded people might spoil that sort of experiment if I suggested it on meta.

SmokeDetector

6:30 AM

[ SmokeDetector ] Bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer: Use of "age" as an uncountable & countable noun by Brother Leung Mitchell John on english.stackexchange.com …

Q: Assuming this passage was written in the 21st century, liquorice must have existed for approximately 5 centuries

7:12 AM

I came across this in the review queue. Let's assume it's a test question. The student can select from True, False, or Can't Tell. If the student chose Can't Tell and was marked wrong, they could very well complain that they (the student) really couldn't tell. It's not often that you get a test question that effectively asks, "Do you know the answer?" (or more strictly, "If you don't know, choose C"). As it turns out, Can't Tell was the scripted answer.

0

Liquorice in the form the average person recognises is a far cry from its original state. Derived from the root of a large herb known to grow to magnificent heights of 2 metres, it is dried, crystallised and combined with vast amounts of sugar and food colouring to produce the red or black twi...

meaning

caub

I don't know why but x / -y makes me cringe, I'm fine with -x / y though

@Lawrence My eye is drawn to the word "Must" for two reasons. One is because people try to avoid the word like the plague and the second is because of the reason for that, which is that its signification is very absolute.

If there's even the slightest possbility that the passage is wrong, the answer must be false.

7:38 AM

Yeah, based upon the data given there, it's possible that licorice has only existed for 4.99 centuries, instead of a full 5.

Maybe even as few as 4.49.

Ah wait, I missed the word "approximately".

Okay, rationale no. 2: It's false because licorice could have existed longer than five centuries.

8:12 AM

That's assuming it's licorice as the root though.

8:24 AM

Nah, it might refer to the root or the extract and the root might be older, which denecessitates interpreting it as the extract and hence as a particular age. I'll stick with false.

10:09 AM

@Tonepoet Actually, I think all 3 are valid, depending on how one looks at it. It's true that it must have existed for approx 5 centuries because the text said so (the root was harvested for herbal use, implying that it was used as a form of liquorice). It might have been discovered by others earlier, but one could argue (not that I'm keen on this line of argument) that anything existing for x centuries must have also existed for zero to x centuries. (cont'd ...)

(... cont'd) The argument for False is that the passage doesn't explicitly say anything about the herbal use being known as an application of liquorice - after all, it was just some kind of root tea or whatever. And I've already given an argument for Can't Tell. All in all, it would have made a good set up for a debate.

caub

4.99 centuries? can't you just say 499 years?

Q: What does "position" mean in this context?

I call that ID.

Just like we're now at MMXVI.

Jim Reynolds

10:28 AM

Oh PLEEEEZE, I can't take it!

3

I don't quite understand the phrase in bold: "This is a very high scoring wine from what will certainly prove to be in the top three vintages of all time," he said. "At the moment, we are talking to a lot of people about positions on Lafite because prices have come down so far it really looks lik...

meaning-in-context

caub

10:40 AM

financial term, for saying you've taken some action (short or long) on this product

oh well someone replied

11:34 AM

@caub I did it that way to be congruent with the wording of the question to make it more obvious and also to simplify the math because there's no zeroth century to be counted, so the 16th century is also known as the 1700s and the 21st is the 2000s.

@Lawrence The passage states that the root of the plant wasn't discovered until the early 1600s. I'd like to see you make tea without the root. XP My argument is that the licorice root may have existed for longer even if it wasn't called by that.

Also it doesn't say "Must have existed for at least five centuries" so I interpret "must" as being exactly as described, rather than relatively so.

Consider if I said "It must have been a year ago since this existed." I certainly doubt somebody would interpret that as being any other length of time.

11:51 AM

@tchrist "It's an emergency! Call IXII !"

Evil @Mitch bashing poor noobs.

Try an online dictionary dict.leo.org/ende/index_de.html — Mitch 25 mins ago

Have you tried using that online dictionary, dear sir?

Because that online dictionary is of no use.

Hello, where are the current mods located? I mean by time-zone..

I presume, most are from the West?

@Mitch Do you mean XIII or XI?

Where is "the West" located?

That's not a time zone I've heard of.

Hmm. I meant. Are most of you from the West? (Europe, America, etc.)

11:59 AM

Well, that's like the entire world.

LOL

More like half in the sense so meant.

But literally speaking there is no such thing as the west.

Oh. Okay.

I know you guys get me, but are playing. :)

Hehe

@Tonepoet well some people won't even give you that much. I come from the largest city in the very heart of Europe. Yet nobody ever would agree that I'm somehow from "the West". Nobody.

I was wondering if I can make myself useful because I'm from India..

12:02 PM

Everyone can be useful.

Because I think most mods aren't active while I'm online

We have thousands of users from India.

That is, if I can be a mod.

Some of them more active than others.

Aha.

12:03 PM

@NVZ well, there should be an election next year I guess.

Anyone can run.

I'm runnin now. :)

@RegDwigнt That's a different sort of relativity. You're certainly not in The West of Europe.

Wait what, there's an election now?

Although the chances are slim for me

very slim

You're kidding, right?

@Tonepoet well yes. Except that I actually am. I am closer to the Atlantic than to Ural. So in point of fact I am in the Western half.

12:06 PM

@RegDwigнt In the U.S.A. that'd be considered midwest, rather than west. You know though, the concept of a round earth really does complicate things. I really doubt the people who invented these words supposed "Oh, if you go far enough west, you'll end up in the east!"

If I get to be a mod, I would be available while most other mods aren't. That's my proposal..

North and south are lucky to have the poles to distinguish between them, giving them an absolute position.

Well yes. According to 101% of the people you ask, I am not in the West of anything. Because their very definition of "the West" is "anything but RegDwight". So yeah. Can't argue with that, then!

The problem I see is that I haven't talked to most users in chat and I may be a total stranger to all. LOL

@Tonepoet except when you're in Australia.

12:08 PM

Well, at least I brought up a topic for discussion. What's "West"? :)

West is that thing the Pet Shop Boys would really like to follow the Village People to.

Jesus Christ, Russia is so deep in the south, it must be the warmest of places.

The cardinal directions don't change no matter how much you rotate. North isn't the same as top of the map. XP

You tell that to the North magnetic pole.

Or the universe at large, for that matter.

Or the universes.

That darn thing doesn't have a top or a north.

And guess what, Earth is a part of it.

12:11 PM

I just said no matter how much you rotate, not no matter what. XP

No semantics in this chat.

Hehee.

You know what bothers me about this whole universe?
"Donald Trump"
LOL

At some point with enough of these Earth rotations we'll get back to Middle English. @Mitch

Maybe in another universe there's a good-guy Hitler and Trump.

12:12 PM

Nah. Donald Trump doesn't bother you. Wait till he gets elected. Then he will bother you.

He's a great comedian. We should build for him a wall.

Paint it red, and place it behind his stage.

Goodbye, yellow brick wall, where the dogs of society howl.

For he is one of the best standup comedians.

I would definitely pay for that wall.

Never ridicule your opponents. Especially not in politics. Because the next thing you know, they are actually nuking your kittens.

Yep. LOL

12:15 PM

@KitZ.Fox what if I name my variable programming_jargon?

Anyway. I should be working, folks.

So catchya lators.

Just Donald's recent remarks about 2nd amendment. That speech was ambiguous as hell. What if he was talking about nukes that way? Wouldn't other countries nuke him back just in case Donald is talking for real.

LOL

He should be on ELU.

He knows words. The best words. :)

I'm sorry for ranting. LOL. I'll stop.

Portuguese has not only orientar but also nortear. Both can be used either literally or figuratively.

12:35 PM

@Tonepoet Yes, that's why I don't like that argument.

@Tonepoet That type of root would have existed for as long as that species was in existence. Whether someone discovered it is irrelevant to whether it existed.

That's right.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to infer from that though.

However, we need to consider the possibility that the root didn't exist until it was discovered or a moment before. There's no way to really tell that without further data.

@RegDwigнt That's a question for Linguistics.

@Tonepoet Have some more tea. Hope it's the calming type :) .

We're also back to 10 candidates. Looks like we won't have a primary on EL&U again.

Who dropped?

I'm seated in an airplane.

12:49 PM

Um, the first guy, I think.

@tchrist I think it's the one who claimed to be exercising a test script.

Brock Adams.

That makes sense.

@tchrist On your way home?

@KitZ.Fox yes. Boarded.

12:50 PM

Nice!

I have to figure out how I'm going to fly again. I hear you can get tranquilizers specifically for that purpose.

@Lawrence Is it chamomile tea? That's a nice, calming, variety. Also let's abstract must from the context of time momentarily. If we were collocated in the same house, somebody was knocking at the door and I said "That must be the mailman because I ordered a Nendoroid two months ago", what that literally means is that out of everbody in the world, it could be nobody else. Now one may argue that it might be really somebody else, but my statement is technically the employment of hyperbole.

@Tonepoet It's liquorice tea. About the mailman, it's not necessarily hyperbole - in that context, the must signals an assumption.

@KitZ.Fox well yes, benzos like for an MRI.

@Lawrence Yes it signals an assumption, but it does so in a hyperbolic manner. If I wanted to be literal about it, there are other words that can more literally get the concept across the presumption, such as "is probably" or "should be". Why would I use must?

@Tonepoet It's the nature of an assumption - if you assumed it was the mailman, well, it severely restricts the set of people you'd expect. :)

12:58 PM

@Lawrence It restricts the number of people I'd expect to one, specifically.

@Tonepoet Yes, hence must.

Right.

It could be anyone, but it is exactly one that you expect.

It restricts your expectation, not reality.

That's why must "signals an assumption".

@KitZ.Fox And hence why I said it's a hyperbolic use.

1:01 PM

Right.

@Tonepoet But that - restricting expectation without constraining reality - isn't hyperbole. At least not the type of hyperbole I'm familiar with.

In this case I'm using it to "express much more, or much less than the truth" or in other words, "an exaggerated lie", specifically made for rhetorical effect no less.

In this case, my exaggeration is that there are far fewer than the actual number of possibilities.

I am trying to think through some programming logic.

I have a flag that determines whether or not to use a loop.

So I have partially redundant code in an if statement. It's irritating me.

1:16 PM

This reminds me of that S.W.R. that person was trying to make the other day. The one asking for a word to describe why item.item was problematic.

@KitZ.Fox Go ahead and post the code somewhere.

It's a bit long.

I am pulling a set of elements from two different sources and comparing them.

I can either walk through the entire collection or choose just one to compare.

That's the plan anyway.

Oh, I didn't neaten the first part yet.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the boolean test in "!= true" and "== true". Since checked is a boolean, the test is redundant (you can just test for if (checked) or if (!checked)).

I could. That doesn't really change the code though.

And I prefer this way because it is easier to read.

Which is the problematic flag?

1:22 PM

It's not a problematic flag. It's the redundancy.

I should just abstract it probably.

        outputObject ElementSets = new outputObject();
        ElementSets.elements1 = GetElements(Global.GlobalBaseUri + Global.StockNumber);
        ElementSets.elements2 = GetElements(Global.GlobalBaseUri2 + Global.StockNumber);
        bgwDataMonkey.ReportProgress(1, ElementSets);

:)

is repeated, but with changes to the uri and the "counter".

Yes, I agree with the abstracting. Pull it into a function and pass the parameters in. Then see if the resulting code can be further tweaked.

If I make a new method...well, I can do more stuff, but i think I should return it to the ...

I think I want to keep the ReportProgress in this method, for clarity.

grumbles

mutters

@RegDwigнt What I do when I go to foreign language dictionaries is I also have the browser do translation, so that all the foreign words appear translated too.

1:25 PM

@KitZ.Fox Another thing you can do is use the conditional to set the uri and counter, and place the common part outside the conditional.

That way I don't have to see all those weird foreign things.

@Lawrence It's the loop that complicates that.

Which is entirely my fault for sloppy coding.

But I made the collection of stock numbers globally accessible and also bound a list to it.

I could pass it to a different variable though.

@Tonepoet No, I don't mean that.

PWS: Hercules - IX-I-I

►

@KitZ.Fox You could put the single item into a one-item collection, then loop over that. :P

Yeah, keep reading.

1:29 PM

Globals, huh?

Don't start.

:)

I needed a place to store connection strings and stuff and I haven't worked with winforms since VB 6.

Also, I don't write code no more.

@Kit Z. Fox I do hate to bother you but I think this not an answer may need your attention. I'd normally flag it but Silinus's comment seems to imply that the question in the not an answer would be topical if asked. XD

@KitZ.Fox Your ElementSet2 in the loop is independent of i. Does it evaluate to the same value as the other leg?

1:32 PM

hush i'm coding

Q: Add-on for get inbox and achievements notifications, improve text editor and lightbox

Jun 20 '13 at 4:31, by Cerberus

Ahhh Spitsbergen!!

Guilherme Nascimento

8

Install Firefox add-on Opera extension Google Chrome extension (not currently available) Alternate installation (manual): Download add-on for your your web-browser in 0.1.4 or: Chrome Firefox Opera After follow steps in howtogeek About Notifies about new messages in inbox Notif...

app notifier inbox

there. better.

@KitZ.Fox All the best :) . For what it's worth, if there isn't a significant performance penalty, it's probably better to just leave it until you refactor the data model.

@KitZ.Fox Oh, looks like you've solved it. Congratulations! :)

@KitZ.Fox What did you do to remove the redundancy?

The thing I said I was going to do. I created a local list and put the value/values in it, depending on the flag.

1:44 PM

Morning

hiya

1:59 PM

Bye!

So an ex-coworker of mine is complaining that the media is biased against trump because they didn't ask him if he literally meant for 2nd amendment people to do something about Hillary appointing judges they don't like.

He says when he was in journalism school he was taught they they should immediately ask the candidate to clarify what they're saying.

Am I on crazy pills for thinking that he's on crazy pills?

@Mitch you're a rebel.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 nobody is on crazy pills. That's just America. It's in their DNA. They can't help it.

@RegDwigнt well, we're both in Canada.

But I find his notions odd that A) the media should somehow ask him to clarify his statements that he's making in a no-media-present presentation before publishing them, and/or B) that every time he makes an outrageous statement, he should be give time to backtrack that statement

he vaguely accuses the right wing media of being the same way with Hillary, but then again he supported Rob Ford back in the day.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It wasn't a journalist situation, an interview. He was giving a speech. the journalists are reporting the outcry (justified or not) against it. I'm sure some people have askedhim since what he meant by it, but the bigger story that is being reported is how upset is everybody is.

@Mitch yeah, exactly

I mean, one, he said it. two, nobody was able to interrupt and ask questions. three, even if he later backs down, people still heard it.

It's like when a lawyer asks a question in court that they're not allowed to ask, then gets overruled: overruling the question doesn't make the jury un-hear what they heard.

2:12 PM

exactly

Or the judge asks them to come up to the bench to discuss something off the record and the lawyers fake whisper (so that the jury can obviously hear).

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 "The Daily Show - Did Donald Trump Call for Hillary Clinton's Assassination?" youtube.com/watch?v=25w439VNqTw

It's the best explanation

:)

user227867

Hello @kit, LOL! I am back, LOL!

@Jasper woo hoo! nice!

What's up?

user227867

@Mitch My XXX

@Jasper haha actually I'm sort of glad Im not sure exactly what that means!

user227867

2:26 PM

It is open to interpretation...

weird

> The uploader has not made this video available in your country.

user227867

@Mitch I see what you did there.

@Araucaria re the horse/whores thing... is that the same issue for all 'voiced' word-final fricatives?

What country is that? Maybe you could search for that video manually or visit Comedy Central website directly.

Believe me, you'll find it interesting. :)

user227867

2:29 PM

I suspect tchrist and metaed will be voted in as mods.

I hope that.

user227867

@NVZ Is that a pic of Jesus?

Does "suspect" imply that you don't want that to happen?

@Mitch all fricatives, affricates and stops, yes

'is' is usually pronounced /iz/, 'of' as /uv/

2:30 PM

It's a pic of Jon Snow.

At least, an artwork it is.

user227867

I don't think Trump's words mean the assassination thing.

user227867

Media headlines like to sensationalise.

both in terms of the devoicing and in terms of prefortis clipping ....

@Araucaria so 'gob' is really [gap]?

user227867

When Trump said Obama founded ISIS and Clinton cofounded it, I knew he was finished.

2:31 PM

or rather [ga:p]

It's like that "blue and white dress" debate all over again..

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Link at end of answer: English word for the Urdu "Amanat" by sasaa on english.stackexchange.com …

@Jasper Hi!

user227867

@Mitch My new youtube channel, which I hope not to delete.

@Mitch Well kinda, but the devoiced /b/ there still remains what we call a 'lenis' consonant and retains other lenis consonant features and effects. So it will sound /p/-like if you chop it off and listen to it on its own, but really it is still a /b/ ...

2:34 PM

@Araucaria and that's the same or different explanation for all the other voiced word final consonants (stops, affricates, fricatives)?

@Jasper ??

@Mitch Yes, it's the same. But notice that it only occurs if there isn't a voiced sound following it.

user227867

@Mitch Oh, I forgot the link youtube.com/channel/UCnKEDPuP0in8tzAXsq15Gfw

user227867

I am going to take a nap.

@Jasper That's actually one of his less controversial claims.

@Jasper Can you do 'Largo Al Factotum'?

2:46 PM

@Jasper Looks like it to me.

@Jasper Oh, has he resigned again already?

M-J

Hi everybody.

What is a shorter way of saying this: "In addition to the fact that..."!

@M-J 'And since...'

So I asked my ex-coworker to elaborate on his claim of media bias, and asked him what specifically the media should have done differently in this case, and he replied "Yes, Trump is bad". So my conclusions of "he's on crazy pills" has been affirmed.

M-J

No I think it doesn't fit in my sentence. For example, I want to say, it's not hygienic, [in addition to the fact that] it might be rotten

:31649108

3:02 PM

@M-J why didn't you say that to begin with?

"it's not hygienic, forget that it might be rotten"

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It took you a year to come to that conclusion? I knew what Trump would turn out to be since he joined this campaign. Haha

@NVZ No, the "he" in "on crazy pills" refers to my coworker.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Lexical ambiguity!

@M-J Besides.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 reminds self to go to pharmacy to pick up more crazy pills

@tchrist yeah. that or an alternative single word on the tip of my tongue

'much less'?something like that

3:06 PM

You know who's sane? The Joker. He's got everything figured out. It's just that our small minds can't fathom it.

@Mitch Try asking under tongue-tipper-requests.

'not to speak of'?

where 'alternative single' = '4'

Q: definition of "Cooling dosas"?

3:53 PM

0

I was a novel, I got to the phrase "Cooling dosas". here is the context: "Lenoid Danilovich Arkadin sat in a darkened room that smelled of hot electronics, stale smoke, and cooling dosas." what does it mean?

meaning vocabulary

WTF. My first impression is close vote as 'check a dictionary', flag to mod to delete as 'stupid/look it up'...

but then where else can you ask one-off like this and have a set of people who could answer appropriately?

Maybe we should accept these kinds of not terribly well thought out questions. And just answer them.

@Mitch Except that's not what Stack Exchange created and run the site for.

How many linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts will find answers to that question useful or interesting?

Depends on if there's a lot of etymology research.

@Mitch And it is a general reference question. A "define dosas" search answers it.

@KitZ.Fox I left something out. How many of those people will be searching for expert answers to that question and find the answers it attracts useful or interesting?

Because I do take your point that some great answers can be written that go into the etymology of the word or whatever.

Othya

4:08 PM

Question: at what point can you get 'banned' (or whatnot) for upvoting the same person frequently?

@Othya At the point where the mods feel like you're not getting the message to not do that.

Othya

Max Williams made quite a few good answers within the past couple hours and I think I upvoted three in a row... not realizing it was him each time. Should I avoid upvoting him purposely now in case I get 'flagged'?

The script is automatic, so you won't get flagged. It will just undo the votes.

@KitZ.Fox The cooling dosas question falls far short of the bar. A visitor can “ask simple questions as long as they are thoughtful, intriguing questions posed as you would ask them of an expert. Overly simple questions without research or forethought should be closed. … There’s no lowering of the bar for a so-called learners’ status.”

Othya

Thanks

4:11 PM

@MετάEd I hear you.

4:35 PM

@MετάEd It's arguable that even an etymological answer regarding the word wouldn't be very topical here. Its status as a word in English is debatable. Yes, I knew what a Dosa is because Indian Food is delicious, but it's not like the meaning of the word has significantly changed because it's used as a loanword n English.

I mean if we can ask about Dosas, can we ask about Saag Paneer?

@Mitch Also we do answer them. We just do it in the comments for some reason. I don't understand why. A comment answer like that doesn't seem much better than an S.L.A. Does it make a difference to questioners where it's answered? It seems like getting the right answer is just as rewarding to them either way.

@Tonepoet Yes. An English etymology in an answer to this question would be very short and not very interesting. But even if it were possible to provide a long etymology, the question is too basic. It's not a question for an expert. It's a question for Google. Also, I am now really hungry for a masala dosa.

@Tonepoet Answering basic questions in comments is controversial. I tend to think it's fine.

OMG the review queue just dropped below 50.

It kinda bypasses the voting and closure system which is problematic.. It also clutters up the comments for no discernible purpose in my opinion.

throws confetti

4:53 PM

@KitZ.Fox Danmaku for everyone!

5:18 PM

@KitZ.Fox shoots t-shirt cannon into audience

@RegDwigнt I tore my dress

does it expose your midriff?

@MετάEd I know, but maybe it's what it should be for. Because yahoo answers is crap.

@KitZ.Fox well, it's a skirt, so that would be weird if it did.

@MετάEd There's gotta be a place for people to ask one-off questions like "What does this sentence mean?"

I know, all we're asking is for askers to be responsible about it. Just try a little first.

@Tonepoet maybe yes, maybe no. if you google for it and can't find anything, then sure.

@Tonepoet I intentionally answer in comments al the time, specifically because the question should be closed, but I don't want the OP to go away with nothing.

@KitZ.Fox what activity could one do to tear ones dress at the midriff?

Don't answer that.

5:36 PM

@Mitch There are plenty of places. Just not an expert Q&A site. Any more than stackoverflow.com wants questions like "what does 10 GOTO 10 mean?"

@MετάEd I just can't stand finding non-answers on yahoo.

@Tonepoet Giving an answer in a comment, when the question is too basic, clarifies that the question is too basic and also helps the person who asked the question. So such a comment is both constructive and helpful.

@Tonepoet On the other hand, a question that is not too basic should be answered with an answer post. It is fine for people to throw quickie comments, but if they answer the question, either the OP or someone else should ultimately turn them into an answer.

We do encourage people to answer their own questions if they can.

@Mitch The Stack Exchange network is for expert level Q&A. Not just expert level A. It is simply a different beast from Yahoo Answers.

5:53 PM

@MετάEd Especially given how ruthless I've become with answers-in-comments.

@KitZ.Fox ruthless in what way? given such a-in-c's or deleting them?

@KitZ.Fox I was wondering where Ruth went.

@Mitch deleting them.

65 comments on a SWR with different suggestions is just ridiculous. Either answer or don't.

purges chain

which one?

All of them.

5:59 PM

My boys make this joke:

"Captain Rex, order 66 ... pizzas for the crew."

Matt E. Эллен

:D cute

Abcd

can someone please check my introduction ?

to an essay

?

@MattE.Эллен ?

@KitZ.Fox?

@Mitch?

@MετάEd?

Færd

6:30 PM

Do Americans fully pronounce the r in understand?

Yes

Some dialects may not but as a general rule, yes

Færd

Yeah, it was silly of me to think there's one American accent.

Thanks.

7:16 PM

@MετάEd How?

I know that many E.L.U. people hold that opinion but I don't see any reason why a newbie, which presumably the sort of person who doesn't know how to ask questions should be able to infer this, when they haven't learned even the basic mannerisms of the website.

If you have to expressly tell them in the comment, that could also be a note in a real answer.

7:33 PM

"Dosa: (Cookery) a savoury Indian pancake" – Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition However, I'm flagging this question as off topic, because being able to find it so easily in an common resource makes this question too rudimentary to ask on our website. I'm flagging this as off-topic. Please read our help center rules regarding how to ask questions before asking your next one.

Ah, darn, one sentence too many.

But you get the point.

The real solution for this problem is to have a script automatically look up the word in a dictionary and ask the user if that's the answer before they submit the question.

But that takes actual work to implement

And is crazy specific to EL&U

We also have many questions where dictionary entries aren't even relevant and if we do it on a tag by tag basis, we're depending on the users to tag properly for it to work.

The point being that if it's too rote for users than maybe a computer should do it for us. ;)

Yeah, I realize that. My point was that despite the task being too tedious for users to enjoy, it is not routine enough for a script, so the users have to do it. XP

I'm being half-facetious. Good to see that the topics of argument haven't changed, though. :)

7:48 PM

@MrHen That might be pretty useful. "Before posting your question, this preview hyperlinks every word to a dictionary lookup of that word"

"Click the button labelled I already looked in the dictionary to continue"

@MrHen Yes they have. Now I'm going to debate whether or not Saag Paneer is topical! XP

@Tonepoet I think you're supposed to eat it, not rub it on your skin