English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:00 AM

@KannE I think it's not so much about men versus women as it is about context. It depends on the exact situation and your relationship with the people you are talking to.

KannE

IME, women don't really appreciate "stupid" in any real context, so all jokes aside...it seems like a hostile work environment to me...but maybe men say that to each other every day like it's no big deal. I have no idea.

Mitch

@MetaEd OMG WHY ARE YOU BRINGING PEANUT BUTTER IN HERE?

That stuff will never get out

@KannE I don't know, men pat each other on the butt, call each other stupid to their face, pop each other's zits. Women don't do that?

KannE

12:26 AM

@Mitch Hmm...patting on the butt for...'Your pants are too tight'...or 'You go, girl!'...popping zits whenever necessary, mostly in HS...but "stupid"...usually an unfriending moment if not a joke, I would say.

Feeds

1:13 AM

1

Q: Idiom request: Something badly done but with a lot of effort put into it

I was wondering if there was a word or a definition to describe, for example, amateur movies or other products when they're badly done, but the effort and passion put into it compensate that flaw, almost making it great because of that dedication. If there wasn't then I'd like to hear a neologism...

Mitch

1:25 AM

@KannE all those are awful

even if you know each other very well

Feeds

2:33 AM

0

Q: Word for adding greenery to a barren landscape

There's a word similar to "rewilding" and "reforestation/afforestation" used to describe adding greenery to a barren landscape. I think it might be related to the word "verdure", but I'm not sure. It's on the tip of my tongue. Does anyone know it?

single-word-requests

KannE

3:20 AM

@Mitch LOL! IKR...well, as it turns out, the summer help don't cry over a little spilt concrete...they just go back to the computer lab. I knew that was going to happen.

tchrist

4:00 AM

0

A: English Language & Usage's updated site theme is ready for testing!

Please don’t switch our question scores to the weird light-on-dark, blurry-and-bold “wrong-green-for-our-theme” boxes. This was tasteful in the current these you’re trying to get rid of: But this in the new theme is quite ugly and perhaps even harder to read: (And yes, it really is this ...

@Robusto More blunders. ^^^^^^

2

A: Responsive design released for all Beta & Undesigned sites

The stark green answer box is lower than the others even when zoomed: You don’t notice quite so much when vertical, and unzoomed: (Microsoft users should zoom out to only 67% to see what we Mac users are seeing here in terms of actual screen real estate.) However, what you do notice is how...

Webkit subpixel aliasing meets the Mac renderer...and loses.

I couldn't figure out why they made everything bold. Now I know.

3

A: Responsive design released for all Beta & Undesigned sites

It’s great to finally be able to use the full site on a cell phone! I’m not sure you have your containers set up correctly for portrait mode, though. Landscape on this post looks basically ok: But look at how in portrait mode there a huge amount of blank space where the question title isn’t a...

Until they adjust the font sizes instead of making everyone always use the same sizes on everything and any viewport, there are going to be casualties like that one.

KannE

4:37 AM

Mitch! Where is Mitch when you need him? I was about to comment on your answer till I realized it was you. People who have personally experienced apnea, some of them never snored...and some of them are still not (a-) breathing (-pnea). Did I take it out of context or...WTH?

SmokeDetector

5:05 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, potentially bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in title (197): Enduro Stack Canada by nikolahale on english.SE

SmokeDetector

5:31 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, link following arrow in body, pattern-matching website in body, +1 more (491): Strategies To Far More Rapidly Weight Loss by GeorgyHowar on english.SE

Feeds

9:30 AM

0

Q: Neither light exposes him Nor darkness hides him

"Neither light exposes him Nor darkness hides him" It's used in an Arabic story, and I want to translate the whole story into English , so I wonder If it is right beacause it is a literal translation ! Is its meaning clear to English readers ? Is there any grammatical error in my translation ?

single-word-requests word-usage expressions

RegDwigнt

10:54 AM

How the used when to used?

Your Reader's Digest for today. Actual question from the main site.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, pattern-matching product name in body, pattern-matching website in body, +2 more (592): natural weight loss by Blakearcher on english.SE

Feeds

11:22 AM

0

Q: Another word for "attack" in terms of a disease

Is there another word to mean the arrival of a disease?

single-word-requests

Feeds

12:42 PM

0

Q: Word for someone who plagiarizes or has plagiarized

Consider someone who has plagiarized someone else's work. They are writing an apology letter to the original author. I'm truly sorry about this - it really was unintended, and a one-time occurrence. I do not want you to think that I am a (?) What word could be used here for someone who pl...

single-word-requests

Jasper

12:59 PM

@RegDwigнt I just uploaded a new song. It is very hard to sing, so I hope it is OK.

SmokeDetector

1:12 PM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Pattern-matching website in body (98): What is an "indirect dialogue/discourse"? by Des.X on english.SE

Mitch

@KannE I hope I at least hinted that apnea (the 'condition') is not the same as snoring (the symptom) even though people tend to (very reasonably) conflate the two.

So are you a doc? I also hinted at a similar situation for tracheotomy/tracheostomy. They're different ideas but so closely related that it's easy to use either, at least informally. Both work in "He's had a tracheostomy/tracheotomy" (both the hole and the procedure that creates the hole)

Also, I'm never here when anybody needs me, and when I am here people negatively need me, they need me not a lot but the opposite, less than not at all. They'd wish I'd go away.

I acquiesce to all their wishes!

poof

Cerberus

2:03 PM

@Mitch Nooo.

Mitch

2:26 PM

@Cerberus I'm back!

haha no one's here.

see ya!

Cerberus

Yay!

Oh...

Feeds

0

Q: What do you call it when one does something (may be committedly) but actually because it is instructed by a book

What do you call it when you do something (may be committedly) because it is instructed by a book (divine book). When an outsider looks at it, it feels that the act is for lack of word "spiritually empty" or something of that sort. Example: If a person goes to a temple or a church just because h...

single-word-requests idioms

CowperKettle

3:12 PM

> For the 6 solutions of each concentration level within the same cycle, the following parameters were calculated: mean measured concentration, standard deviation, relative standard deviation, and % signal inhibition in the presence of the drug product.

Can one phrase it thus?

Or is it better to write "percent of signal inhibition"

Or ", and signal inhibition (in %)"?

Cerberus

3:23 PM

@CowperKettle The last, as in, signal inhibition (in percent). I believe using a percentage sign there is less formal.

Or just leave out the percent altogether: after all, the other quantities don't have units either.

CowperKettle

3:53 PM

@Cerberus Thank you!

Feeds

0

Q: Onomatopoeia: Wind

I'm trying to find Onomatopoeia words that sound like the wind. I have seen "howling" used to describe the sound. But, the closest Onomatopoeia word has been "whoosh."

single-word-requests

Feeds

4:25 PM

0

Q: “Storyrize” a fact

Suppose Person A wants to tell a factual event/happening to Person B, and Person A does not want to mention names, or whatever certain details. (Perhaps he is talking about himself but he is too shy to admit that.) He tells it in such a way that as if it is a story. But Person B knows that it is ...

single-word-requests

Feeds

5:12 PM

0

Q: Verbs to describe an attack?

What verbs can use to describe how an eel (predator) approaches their prey?

single-word-requests

Feeds

6:30 PM

MetaEd has made a change to the feeds posted into this room

Curio

6:43 PM

Is "The students have been told nothing about the exam yet" correct?

What about this? Sarah will be not given the prize

MetaEd

6:56 PM

What are your doubts about them?

KannE

8:09 PM

@Mitch I need your humor all the time, as many do I'm sure, so let's put that to rest...Mr. Sad Sack. And, I was a medic...serving mainly on a pediatric ward, but heavily rotated to other wards due to a war and the nature of pediatrics (highly fluctuating patient count). Which brings up another thing you're good for--word choice (with one exception so far--snoring). Should you use "highly" to modify "fluctuating" or any word that rises and falls--goes high and low, so to speak?

It doesn't seem right to me..."greatly" seemed worse...there must be a better word or phrasing for that.

Mitch

@KannE The formal term for snoring is 'stentor' which I have never seen used by anyone ever, doc or notdoc.

@KannE 'widely fluctuating'?

'rapidly fluctuating'?

'randomly fluctuating'

'highly functioning microencephalic'

KannE

@Mitch Yes, widely, that's it. But it was sort of predictable, usually low in the middle of the week.

Mitch

very curious about how war and pediatrics intersect, but worry that it is too tormenting to bring up, for you or for me.

@KannE highly and greatly work just fine, but now that you mention it, I share the doubt about them, but possibly not because of actual doubt but just because you said them.

Full disclosure: I didn't come up with those words off the top of my head. I used google books

I'm not an automaton (though some have reasonably questioned that). I am also not a non-native speaker who uses all these great internet tools like a chimpanzee with a machine gun (I'm the guy filming)

Hold on... pats self down yeah, not an automaton. I'm still full from a snack after lunch

Or am I?

This simulation must be really good to get down that exact feeling of fullness.

> It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of more fortune.

> However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding firms, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their investors.

> “Mr. Andreesen,” said his analyst to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is shopping for an A round?”

> Mr. Andreesen replied that he had not.

“But it is,” returned she; “for Sequoia Capital has just been here, and they told me all about it.”

Mr. Andreesen made no answer.

“Do you not want to know who has submitted a term sheet?” cried his attorney impatiently.

> “You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”

This was invitation enough.

Pride and Value Proposition

KannE

8:41 PM

@Mitch Well, just looking from the logistics side of it, resources are limited (especially people, sort of big deal in an army, no surprise there), so during a war, hospitals have to join and better utilize available resources. For example, our ward was joined with PICU and instead of getting a break during the middle of the week (pediatrics is usually inundated on Fridays and Mondays--with parents trying to avoid the ER and kids scheduled for minor surgeries--T&As mostly back then).

But, all the adult wards are packed, geriatrics because people get older (not younger), maternity because pregnancy is booming, and all the other the other wards need help because...it's a war, and they come back to a hospital instead of a home sometimes. You were right; it does always go there, doesn't it?

*There are errors, but I think you know what I meant.

KannE

9:09 PM

@Mitch Have I ever seen "stentor" before? I do remember the head nurses laughing at the interns notes on occasion... I wish I could remember which words they thought were ridiculous.

Mitch

@KannE Huh. I thought those were going out of style. I thought in the olden days docs just did it 'because' and so everyone had their tonsils out.

KannE

9:22 PM

@Mitch Yes (see "back then)...I hope so, rather. My sister had hers taken out in the 70's...but 20 years later they were still yanking 'em out...if they were TOO infected, they said...but I think I was kept on a need-to-know basis; it must've been more complicated than that. They probably have that all sorted out by now.

I must read your Proposition paragraph now. I'm a slow reader.

KannE

9:36 PM

And, can we bring back the "70's" vs. the "70s"...is that even right? This word processor (or whatever) is underlining the "70s"... Why must I google it every time!?...or time?!...I'm sick of that too. Make up your mind, people!

KannE

9:52 PM

@Mitch LOL!..."pats self down...still full from a snack after lunch." But maybe...they made it possible for you to 'eat' and store food, in an expandable compartment, until such time as you could dispose of it properly...so you could do lunch or whatever. I think I saw it in a movie once...or I'm filling in the gaps of my memory with brilliance...one or the other, as usual.

ab2

10:09 PM

Is emergy the new covfefe? "I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this [the caravan from Honduras] is a National Emergy". Wash Post

Mitch

10:30 PM

@KannE Sleeper: a guy wakes up 200 years in the future everything is robots and stuff even the pets, you feed them aluminum foil and they poop little batteries.

@ab2 That was my first impression.

KannE

10:47 PM

Hmm...does it seem like people just need the proper suffixes for their root words lately?

@Mitch It was hard, but I figured it out. You are Michael Moritz. Please send money, as much as possible; I'm a good cause.

Mitch

@KannE That guy? Ugh.

But put like 10k in this offshore bank account and that will allow me to ... um.. put in ... um... a bajillion more and you can take it all then.

Dollars! forgot the currency!

haha

no...Euros!

KannE

11:03 PM

@Mitch Now I think you really are...

Mitch

wait...Bitcoin

just bitcoin

that's my last offer

wait

nope, bitcoin

Hey, you wouldn't be getting 1.6 billion like today?

KannE

Seriously though..."Pride and Value Proposition"...google can't find that. Is it the name of a chapter or what? I feel like there's another gap in my education...like spaghetti having an H in it or something...

Cerberus

Sounds like nonsense...

Jasper

11:20 PM

Good that you said an H and not a H.

KannE

Even though I've been asked to recently, I feel very reluctant to make an answer out of a comment that just handed the OP a suffix. It just seems...wrong.

KannE

11:43 PM

@Jasper I'm pretty definite about my articles...hahaha. I need an Ensure or something; that salad didn't work out. Later, all.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…