If something is felt to be an adjective is positive, but only if the adjective still have the same meaning as the participle would normally have: otherwise it is negative.
@Cerberus Actually, Cerberus, I think that tchrist's reaction was quite justified, if slightly more severe than it needed to be. I don't see any "stooping". He was right.
quaver
1400–50; late Middle English quaveren (v.), blend of quake and waver1
but wiktionary has another statement:
quaver
From Middle English quaveren, frequentative form of quaven, cwavien (“to tremble”), equivalent to quave + -er. Cognate with Low German quabbeln (“to quiver”), Ge...
4. If you want to forbid people from disliking someone for her accent, then you should forbid people from disliking anyone for any reason, because why would any reason be better or worse than another?
@Mechanicalsnail Wise. But it will end as suddenly as it recommenced.
I have seen no end of British people sneering at Americans simply because of our accents. I am no more likely to tolerate it in British wannabes, either.
@Mahnax < Early ME. cwavien, prob. repr. an OE. *cwafian, of parallel formation to cwacian quake; for the stem cf. quiver v.
@MattЭллен Yeah, NZ is also very racially diverse. As far as I can tell, I'm 1/2 English, 1/4 Scottish, 1/16 Irish and 3/16 German. So I'm purely European. But again, most NZers have quite a mix of non-European in them, as well as having ancestors who have arrived at different times in NZ's short history.
He is asking for a more reliable source to decide. So the OED will do, although a more thorough etymological dictionary would be preferable in a top-notch answer.
A. 1225 St. Marher. 19 ― Al þe eorðe··bigon to cwakien [B. ant to cwauien].
1687 Miege Grt. Fr. Dict. ii, ― To Quave. As to quave with fat.
1430-40 Lydg. Bochas ᴠɪɪɪ. viii. (1558) fol. vi, ― Whose double whele quauereth euer in dout.
Hm, bogo-Dutch....
quiver — Prob. onomatopœic: cf. quiver a. and the vbs. quave, quaver. The existence of an obs. Dutch kuyveren, given by Kilian as meaning ‘to quiver’, is not otherwise authenticated.
I've been reading Heinlein's Starship Troopers in which the crews of the starships are referred to by the Mobile Infantry as "Navy files". This appears to be an affectionately derisory term. I was wondering, is this name used by real members of the army or marines to refer to navy people, and if ...
a file is a prostitute. Cockney rhyming slang from the 18th century.
'FILE. File is slang for a shrewd or artful person. File is slang for a pickpocket. .... ' which most of them were.
Hey, guys. I have a question to Americans here. Do you feel happy/unhappy/threatened/unthreatened about the encroachment of Spanish in the US? The way I see it, central and southern America already speak Spanish, so it's a bit much for them to want to bring it en masse to NA as well. What are your thoughts?
will English as we know it die off slowly to other languages whose native spakers feel a stronger need to maintain their language's being spoken (particularly Spanish)?
@Jez Is this true? There are a lot of monolingual English-speaking Hispanics, and it's not like Welsh/Basque/Irish/etc. where it's a minority language people feel is an endangered part of the cultural identity.
it seems a bit much to me that they already speak it ALL across central and southern America, but that's not good enough - they need to drag it into North America too to "maintain their cultural roots" :-)
i didn't used to, but now I understand why some Americans get so pissed off about this.
I think a country generally functions best with one official language.
sure, you can learn others for speaking to foreigners, but the country itself should have one
> The Nazi propaganda film Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew) was envisioned by Joseph Goebbels as an understated and subtle (by the standards of Nazi Propaganda) demonstration of the "evils" of Jewry, in keeping with Goebbels' (mostly correct) theory that the best propaganda was primarily entertainment and not obviously political.
> However, Hitler demanded more polemical material, such as laughably (even to the Nazis) crude comparisons of Jews to rats. It was a box-office flop, and some viewers fainted at the crudity.
@Jez I think it's fun. I don't consider it an encroachment. I think it is funny that Europeans have an incredible diversity of language and yet Americans think it is perfectly normal that we should have just one dominant language, given that both regions are approximately the same size (although Europe has about twice the population).
'Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on. 'I do,' Alice hastily replied; 'at least — at least I mean what I say — that's the same thing, you know.' 'Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. 'You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!' 'You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, 'that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!' 'You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, 'that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!'
quaver
1400–50; late Middle English quaveren (v.), blend of quake and waver1
but wiktionary has another statement:
quaver
From Middle English quaveren, frequentative form of quaven, cwavien (“to tremble”), equivalent to quave + -er. Cognate with Low German quabbeln (“to quiver”), Ge...
a file is a prostitute. Cockney rhyming slang from the 18th century.
'FILE. File is slang for a shrewd or artful person. File is slang for a pickpocket. .... ' which most of them were.
Difference b/w "Await" and "Wait"
Also do tell when to use which and when.
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…