English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Feeds

03:28

0

Q: What's a word that means "something that isn't upsetting"

I thought it would be "unupsetting" but apparently, that's not a word.

single-word-requests

Mitch

@Færd That's not already an ELU question? What do you do when an abbreviation ends a sentence, two dots or one?

Tonepoet

04:48

@Mitch The only guidance I ever saw for it is one dot.

Knowing how something should be done does not necessarily make it pleasant to do it though.

Feeds

09:08

0

Q: english word for this type of mirror

I'm looking for an English word for a mirror that reflects two different pictures on each side; two people can look into either side of the mirror (front side and back side) at the same time. I know what one-way or its synonym two-way mirror is, but it is different from what I'm describing here. ...

single-word-requests

Shafizadeh

09:59

Which one is correct?

- For question 0 means it doesn't have accepted answer and 1 means it does.

- For question 0 it means doesn't have accepted answer and 1 means it have.

RegDwigнt

13:39

@MattE.Эллен have you signed this petition yet?

All UK football road signs are wrong! Join the petition for geometric change!

►

Matt E. Эллен

@RegDwigнt is this about racism? no dark hexagons allowed in the UK?

@RegDwigнt the Government has responded

> The Government considers the current football symbol has a clear meaning and is understood by the public. Changing the design to show accurate geometry is not appropriate in this context.

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен No dark sarcasm in the classroom?

@MattE.Эллен That's a crap rationalization.

Stand up for your Gaussian curvature 0 playing objects!

tchrist

14:05

What are these hexagins and pexagins thingies he's talking about?

Matt E. Эллен

14:25

@Mitch yeah. I mean, I don't really care. Looks enough like a football. I don't think other cultures are laughing at us.

@tchrist some kind of football related seabirds?

tchrist

15:20

Today I learned that the opposite of people of color is people of pallor.

2

CowperKettle

Will a native speaker avoid writing "the drug was administered weekly" because "weekly" looks too much like "weakly", and write once a week or once every week instead?

tchrist

@CowperKettle Nope.

CowperKettle

Thanks!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@skullpatrol yeah, Tom Brady finds a way to win.

MetaEd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Hey, great to see you.

I mean, I see nothing. Nothing at all.

No ninja here anywhere.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

15:47

:)

How have you been?

MetaEd

@tchrist It's not things of color?

tchrist

@MetaEd rainbows

MetaEd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 good, thanks. Can still pee in the morning and see out of both eyes.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MetaEd Good. Better than peeing out of both eyes.

MetaEd

@tchrist There ya go. Rainbows <> people of color.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I could probably get a medical grant for that.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

15:50

Urine for a treat.

MetaEd

*****

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 What's new with you.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MetaEd Um, I got a cool scar over the summer.

You?

Something more interesting: I have a new jam, and it's library music from the 60s and 70s.

MetaEd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Nice. What did you trade for it?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MetaEd ulnar nerve pain

MetaEd

VERY nice.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

16:01

I had/have the cubital tunnel syndrome.

It feels a lot better.

MetaEd

I have a bun and a better attitude.

That's all I can think of. Oh, and I have a choir.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Oooh!

MetaEd

yeah, I'm really proud of them.

tchrist

yay

MetaEd

17:14

@tchrist mornin!

Mitch

@tchrist IKR! He's taking his medsin, and studying them in the luh BOR uh tree

@MattE.Эллен What I meant was that the 'Government' should own it and support their flat balls.

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch lol

Mitch

@tchrist Those who are wan

Matt E. Эллен

doubly funny as we have a politician called Ed Balls

well, he's retired, but still well known

Mitch

Is he flat?

What's his Gaussian curvature?

MetaEd

17:23

Why are we discussing retiring my balls? Is that like a retread?

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch probably close to 2, he's quite curvy

Mitch

@MetaEd Don't pay it ay mind. We've moved on to dinosaurs as pets

Matt E. Эллен

@MetaEd your balls were a British MP

Mitch

@MattE.Эллен Good for him! He's enjoying his retirement

MetaEd

@MattE.Эллен This is why I hate reincarnation. scratches his British MP

Matt E. Эллен

17:25

:D

Mitch

Is that how reincarnation works?

I'm gonna have to get a refund then

Matt E. Эллен

who do you ask for a refund from?

MetaEd

@MattE.Эллен Talk to your mum.

tchrist

17:38

@Mitch It's that we have a secondary stress at the end of -on words and don't reduce them to schwa.

Well known python vs pythin thing

Mitch

i think of 'python' as a ... what is the thing called with two syllables of mostly the same stress? Spondee?

'py 'thon

tchrist

HEX-a-GON

It isn't really but it doesn't reduce for us.

UK is apparently HEX-a-gn

hexigin

They do shorten stuff more than we do, as noted about medsin

sechrees

sekchrees?

Matt E. Эллен

kedgeree?

No, no, not hexagon, that thing you shout when your pigs have escaped

Mitch

Ohhhhh....No no not "Hogs are gone"

hah aha ha ha ha

god that took me three tries

I have nothing left

Feeds

17:56

0

Q: Searching for rare word

I'm searching for a word that means a small space/dwelling that is much larger on the inside than it appears from the exterior. It has been in 2 stories I know of, shown as a magical tent: Ali Baba and The 40 Thieves, and most recently in the Harry Potter movies as Weasley's tent at the Quidditch...

single-word-requests

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch :D

Mitch

18:23

@Educ Did it snow around you?

Educ

No here in casablanca

but may be in Ifrane

It's just cold

here in casablanca we never had snow

only rains and cold weather

Mitch

SNOW IN THE DESERT: #Zagora, Morocco recorded their first snowfall in 50 years yesterday! While #snow is common in the mountains of #Morocco, it's not so common further south in the city known as the gateway to the #desert. https://t.co/DrxViXXF3o

Tweeted by WeatherNation on January 30, 2018 at 4:36 PM

Educ

but this is in ZAGORA NOT IN CASABLANCA

I don't live in south morocco

check the position of casablanca in maps it's near to Rabat capital of morocco

Mitch

Ouarzazate also

I don't know how nearby these are to you

Oh...over the mountains to the south of you

Educ

ouarzazate and zagora they are in south morocco ( sahara )

but me i'm in casablanca it's not in sahara

wait for me I'll show you

Mitch

18:29

still, there are as many palm trees in those pictures as I suspect there are in your town.

Educ

no there just few of them you can count them by your fingers

and there are palm that's not real they are just for

google.com/maps/dir/Casablanca/Zagora/@31.9461867,-9.1766414,7z/…

Mitch

9 hrs. that's a long trip.

Educ

yesss

Feeds

18:53

0

Q: Word that means "free from expectation"?

As in, an expectation-free hug with your partner. Doing something without expecting anything in return, but not necessarily selfless. I hoped "nonexpecting" was a word, but it seems reserved for pregnancy 🙂

single-word-requests

Matt E. Эллен

19:07

I see. Something for people who are allergic to hope. Expectation free bread.

Araucaria

@tchrist Is this question good to be reopened after its edit?

1

Q: "I was starting suspecting something was wrong" <-- What's the grammar problem here?

I have been using “starting suspecting” frequently thinking that it’s correct too but recently my friend corrected me. I don't understand why. It is well-known that start to + verb and start verb-ing are interchangeable in terms of meaning: It started to rain. It started raining. T...

grammar phrase-usage infinitive-vs-gerund

Færd

19:43

@Mitch I don't know.

Feeds

0

Q: One word that means ray of light in darkness or light illuminating a dark path. It could also be used to redefine the word 'Black'.

There could be multiple phrases and could have multiple meanings and contexts ,i.e., finding answers to a question nobody knew about or ray of hope in an unknown atmosphere,and, light inside darkness.

single-word-requests phrase-requests

Færd

For now, I'm thinking if I have to have to abbreviation dot, I'll hava it as a middle dot, no matter what.

And if it coincides with the end-sentence dot, so what.

But, I wish it was possible to do away altogether with the abbreviation dot.

tchrist

20:30

@Araucaria Yes but it might be a duplicate

MetaEd

@Færd Some publications use the dot only when there is abbreviation at the end of the word. So "100 gal." for gallons, but "Mr" (or "Dr") Somebody.

I have an audiobook I was listening to today with "Mr." in it, and the audio reading software treated each period as if it ended a sentence. So there was a pitchdown and a full stop.

And that made it hard to comprehend.

Cerberus

@MetaEd I would consider that standard.

@MetaEd That's not very practical.

MetaEd

@Cerberus It's not what I was taught, though. So it may be standard now, but not then, or standard in some places, but not others.

In my unremarkable public school, I was taught "Mr." and "Dr.".

Cerberus

Or maybe Mr. is American?

MetaEd

Very possible. That would come under some places but not others.

@Cerberus Wikipedia says Brits would write "Rev." but "Revd" (for Reverend), but Americans would always use the mark.

Cerberus

20:45

Yeah.

In some ways, it's nice to have the dot only stand in place of missing letters, not elsewhere.

On the other hand, it's nice to mark all abbreviations.

M.r would be better.

After all, what is a master but an object?

skullpatrol

Wise words^

what about units? like feet ---> ft while inch---> in.

I think the engineers/physicist will have something to say about it :-)

Cerberus

21:01

Yeah, like that.

But they use metres anyway.

skullpatrol

they try to use metres as much as possible, yes

textbook writes don't

Mitch

@Færd The formal answer is obviously 'don't do that' (don't put an abbreviation at the end of a sentence). Meaning two dots looks terrible, so really only one dot is allowed and that must be for the end of the sentence. So it's the abbreviation doesn't belong

MetaEd

@Cerberus The conventional way to do something like that in English is the apostrophe, so what you'd end up with is "M'r Cerberus". Which is unusual, but not unclear.

Mitch

@MetaEd Wha? It didn't get a professional voice actor to do the reading, but used a machine?

Cerberus

@MetaEd That would be OK.

MetaEd

21:06

@Mitch Google Play Books will play audiobooks but it will also read ebooks. It's actually the latter that is problematic.

Feeds

0

Q: Noun that describes something which checks for uniqueness between separate entities

I'm trying to determine a better word to describe a role for an entity that checks for uniqueness between two objects. For example: if I wanted to check for duplicate records in an excel spreadsheet, is there a single non-compound word to describe the tool which executes that action. Right now ...

single-word-requests nouns

MetaEd

@skullpatrol It's well worth avoiding abbreviations except when you are very tight for space.

skullpatrol

True.

MetaEd

She frowned and called him Mr.
Because he fondly kr.
And so for spite
That very night
That Mr. kr. sr.

Mitch

señor?

MetaEd

21:47

@Mitch That's it.
She frowned and called him Mayor
Because he fondly cane your
And so for spite
That very night
That Mayor cane your señor.

skullpatrol

Poets like to keep you guessing with abbreviations :-)

tchrist

all señores are mayores

skullpatrol

I quess that's what makes mathematicians seem like poets.

Mitch

I don't know what mathematicians you know but poetry is usually not the first thing that comes to mind

Tiddly pom pah pom, Diddly doo rah doo ra

Skiddly bee bop, skiddly ree rop, biddly biddly boo

Suck on that Paul Erdös

@MetaEd sounds salacious

Feeds

0

Q: A word for authorship of song’s music, but not lyrics?

I am developing a website for a singer-songwriter. Among other sections, the website has a section for songs where the singer-songwriter has set his music on others’ poetry. (Unlike the majority of his songs where he is the author of both music and lyrics.) I look for a “keyword” that will mark t...

single-word-requests

Mitch

21:58

as salacious as salty salad saucisson

Salut!

and if that salad has the ultimate in lace fringes, that'd be:

salacious and salty last salad saucisson tassels

skullpatrol

yeah, it's not the first...but eventually it flourishes

hard to describe

~~hard~~ impossible

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…