English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

21:01

You know, I was kidding with the "readed" statement. But now I actually looked at the question and he actually freakin' uses that! Mind = puzzlified

MrHen

@RegDwight Honey ducklings... now I am hungry...

RegDwight

Hey yo, stop jumping on the let's-star-Kosmo bandwagon, or else I will force-unstar his message and pin mine! Mwuahahahahaha!.

MrHen

@RegDwight Is this some sort of reverse-reverse-psychology?

Robusto

I left someone a comment there. How dare he mess with "the loaded" — I hate buzzkills like him.

RegDwight

@MrHen I have never quite figured out how many reverses a psychology needs to work in this chat.

Robusto

21:03

@RegDwight — Anything more than one is wasted.

MrHen

@RegDwight Maybe you should try a deke-psychology.

@Robusto *redundant

Robusto

Because, like, wasted is a state of mind.

MrHen

@Robusto "I will try a wasted-psychology on you!"

RegDwight

@Robusto The thing is, in this chat, anything ≤1 is wasted, too.

MrHen

I think it works.

whoa... TIL deke is Canadian...

no wonder it wasn't in the spellchecker

Robusto

21:05

@MrHen — You are too late. I am home now. Already working on the wasted.

MrHen

@Robusto I suppose that means it is too early for a reverse-wasted-psychology?

RegDwight

@MrHen a) it's deku, and b) it's from Zelda.

Robusto

Too early?

1 min ago, by Robusto

@MrHen — You are too late. I am home now. Already working on the wasted.

RegDwight

F'x

@RegDwight polygons!

Robusto

21:07

And the caption to that cartoon is: "If you don't cheer up soon I'm going to get my doggy to pee on you."

RegDwight

N64, whaddayawant?

Robusto

0

Q: Eeeek! Where did my giant quotation mark go?

I don't care what @nohat thinks. The world is a bleak and barren place without ornamentation. Less is less. Deal with it.

feature-request

I think I spelled Eeeek! right ...

RegDwight

The Eeeek! expert will be making her fulminant return shortly.

Robusto

Better get your lederhosen on. It will be a thwackfest.

Vitaly

1 hour ago, by Vitaly

so, is there any way to indent quotes within quotes using neither the non-breaking space nor >>?

1 hour ago, by Vitaly

just in case it gets reverted to the giant quotation mark, someday

MrHen

21:11

@Robusto I care what @nohat thinks because he agrees with me.

RegDwight

@Kosmonaut has been neglecting his @Martha-ing duties lately.

Robusto

@MrHen — You're both a couple of proper Puritans then, ain't ya?

RegDwight

Settings -> Turn off all styling

Works like a charm.

MrHen

@Robusto Yes. I suggested replacing the red quote with a black one bosting a belt buckle but no one listened.

RegDwight

@MrHen Pics or it didn't happen.

Robusto

21:14

@RegDwight — No. You have to rub a charm. You don't have to rub the settings at all.

[Thinks he hears everyone trying to rub the settings.]

MrHen

@Robusto Okay... whatever you are wasting your psyche with may be a bit strong.

Robusto

12 mins ago, by Robusto

@MrHen — You are too late. I am home now. Already working on the wasted.

"I have not yet begun to defile myself." — Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone

MrHen

@Robusto So I went looking for alternative Val Kilmer quotes and... got nothing.

Apparently that is the best thing he ever said.

RegDwight

"Chris Shiherlis: When are you gonna get some furniture?"

That's one of very few quotes I remember from that movie.

Also, this:
Chris Shiherlis: Charlene's gonna leave me.
Neil McCauley: Why?
Chris Shiherlis: No more steaks in the freezer.

What the heck, I just clicked on Val Kilmer photos and got this:

Robusto

21:30

@MrHen — I guess you never saw Quentin Tarantino's take-down of Top Gun then.

RegDwight

Billare

5

Q: What's the difference between a "fen" and a "dale"?

What's the difference between a fen and a dale? Are these words used precisely at all? EDIT: My question comes from this Kipling poem, The Spirit of England; if you'll notice, each couplet, plain and hill, towns and downs seem to be opposing, and I was wondering if that were true for woodland a...

differences nouns

Robusto

RegDwight

That is clearly John Goodman.

Billare

Delete the whole series of comments there...or I'll get flagged for a suspension

Except Alennano's

And mine, with prejudice

MrHen

21:30

@RegDwight Yeah... he is different now post-auto-defilization

Billare

No, delete every comment (including mine) wit prejudice

RegDwight

@MrHen I... I didn't know!

Billare

except Alenanno

@RegDwight Or else it will spiral out of control.

Idiot telling me difference between average and median like I didn't have more rep on MathSE on him.

RegDwight

@Billare I am reading, wait a minute...

Oh boy. Piplz. Keep it civil, all of you.

Robusto

Val's been getting kinda beefy lately.

RegDwight

21:34

I am not quite sure if Marcin's first comment warrants deletion.

Billare

Fine, leave it.

Just those dangling comments by those morons are going to get me in trouble

So i need to need to things off at the pass.

MrHen

Aw... edits.

Billare

OK, cool.

It's a weakness of mine, honestly, that I need to fix.

When someone offhand insults me, I just can't let it go, even when it would more prudent and easier just to let things pass.

RegDwight

A fault confessed is half redressed.

Billare

Where is that from?

-1

Q: Does the word "amen" have anything to do with men? Which is the correct pronunciation?

I don't understand how the word amen was coined by breaking it down to what I presume to be its constituents, a- and men. It seems to be a phrase of affirmation — I don't see what men has anything to do with it. Does it? Also, which is the correct pronunciation? "Ah-men" or "ay-men"? W...

etymology pronunciation

RegDwight

21:41

Yeah, to be honest, that one was pretty weak, Billare...

Billare

@MrHen Why is this such a bad etymological error? I thought it meant "all men", as an affirmation.

Wait, I'm supposed to know that AMEN came from the Hebrew?

or semitic A-M-N

RegDwight

No.

Robusto

@RegDwight — A fault confessed is half undressed.

RegDwight

@Billare But somehow I was under the impression that you would be aware that it's the same in a great number of languages that don't have either a or men.

Billare

@RegDwight No...

Robusto

21:42

@Billare — Everyone knows "amen" means "Thank frickin' Christ! Now we can go do something else that doesn't involve praying."

Billare

@RegDwigt In fact, I'd rather have guessed it was an importation from the KJV than remember that

RegDwight

Fair enough.

Billare

@RegDwight TBH, I figured my question before I posted it

@REgDwight But, I thought it was interesting enough since I had to get the info from 3 different sites

@RegDwight to post it as a giant question

RegDwight

@Billare That's what I'm talking about.

I was under the impression that you would know the answer.

Billare

@RegDwight I don't think its trivial though! I had to look up the answer

The pronunciation bit I thought was interesting

since I confirmed the AH-men is used primarily in liturgical contexts

RegDwight

21:45

Well, make no mistake, if you haven't posted it, one day someone else would have. Without researching first...

All I'm saying is that it's not like MrHen doesn't have a point there.

Billare

Is my prior thinking that it meant "all men" really so crazy?

A contraction of say all men say

RegDwight

Well, that's a question I can't answer as an ananas.

No idea how popular certain folk etymologies might or might not be.

Billare

RAMEN clearly wouldn't have an etymological root with men

Vitaly

Given enough time, one day someone else will post a similar question without researching first.

RegDwight

A very slow jinx, Vitaly.

Vitaly

21:48

I am making a different point.

RegDwight

Ah.

My bad.

Billare

But a is a common enough prefix it definitely come from English, or Englis by way of French

RegDwight

@Vitaly Yeah, you have a point. Dupes are unstoppable.

Vitaly

@Billare Surely it would! The Egyptian god Ra + men! Or radium + men! Or Royal Academy + men! Or radioactive men!

RegDwight

Given enough time, we will have any number of dupes of the "what does 'spouse' mean?" question, worded even more poorly.

On the plus side, every answer of yours will be at +10000 by then.

Billare

21:52

ah, well...I just thought so many downvotes were a bit hars.

anyway, I gtg.

Ciao, all.

RegDwight

Seeya.

Vitaly

Later

RegDwight

@Robusto Oh, and I won't be thwacking you, because that's obviously some superb manly humor right there.

I don't even have to be wasted to fully appreciate it in all its intricacies.

RegDwight

22:49

@JSBangs, can I have your opinion on this:

3

Q: Tag synonym suggestions

I don't know if there should be a single thread for proposed tag synonyms, but I'll go ahead and leave this relatively generic in case that's desirable (and assuming there's not already a thread for this I've missed). One issue that might be controversial is the fact that "common use" and techn...

feature-request tag-synonyms tagging

It's been dangling around for quite some time, I don't want to leave @jgbelacqua disappointed.

We have 9 questions tagged orthography, 131 tagged spelling, 2 tagged with both.

837 meaning, 16 semantics, 3 both.

MrHen

1 hour ago, by Billare

@MrHen Why is this such a bad etymological error? I thought it meant "all men", as an affirmation.

Is this still relevant?

RegDwight

Um, whaddayamean?

Ah.

You weren't around.

MrHen

@RegDwight As in, is @Billare still asking me the question or has the moment passed?

RegDwight

Now I remember.

Vitaly

yapfiles.ru/files/202591/mitoza.swf

RegDwight

22:58

@MrHen I think we have figured it out.

MrHen

@RegDwight Okay

RegDwight

@Vitaly Dis is awesum but wat iz it?

Mr. Disappointment

Haw!

Vitaly

That's exactly my question. @RegDwight

RegDwight

This is clearly the wrong site. You must ask over -----> there

Vitaly

23:01

Hahahahahahahahaha!

Mr. Disappointment

I made a smoke ring pedastaled on broccoli.

Woot

RegDwight

@MrDisappointment I made something with a tongue and a carrot...

@MrDisappointment Ha, now I got there, too!

Mr. Disappointment

It's almost worth marking the link as a favourite...

...at work

RegDwight

Hehehe.

Mr. Disappointment

Quick wit with the skeptics link though, @RegDwight, well done.

RegDwight

23:05

I'm surprised there are no questions about using Skeptics as your toilet bowl on the meta Meta.

There have been such questions about SuperUser and Programmers, but not Skeptics.

44

Q: Please stop using Programmers.SE as your toilet bowl

Stack Overflow users have been using the "off topic - belongs on Programmers.SE" close reason as an alternative to all the other close reasons. It'd be helpful if people actually read the FAQ and the guidelines for six subjective questions before voting to migrate questions like: What's your fa...

discussion off-topic programmers-se

Mr. Disappointment

Now, 'crystal ball; I might get - but I'm not following you as is... :/

Ah, OK, I guess I'll catch up on it. Thanks

I see, I get it.

RegDwight

Basically, all you need to read there is the comment by mmyers

> I was sort of under the impression that Programmers was supposed to be the toilet bowl.

Mr. Disappointment

Aahahah!

Vitaly

0

Q: Until + tense / since or for

Is any of these sentences correct ? Until I played again 2 months ago, I had not played to this game for 5 years. Until I played again 2 months ago, I had not played to this game since 5 years. Until I played again 2 months ago, I had not played this game for 5 years. Until I played again 2 m...

tense

RegDwight

Now, now.)))

Remember that the transcript is public for all eternity.)))

Vitaly

23:11

^^

RegDwight

Ha, you chicken, you.

But more to the point, why is there a "to" in the first two examples but not in the other ones?

Vitaly

have you ever seen such usage?

I have never seen it before, and there is over a million results in Google for play to this game

RegDwight

I have just asked him if it was a typo.

Oh, @MrDisappointment is going really hard on the poor newbie...

Mr. Disappointment

Man, I'm a newbie!

Vitaly

well, 259 results if you get to the last page (20-odd)

RegDwight

23:15

@MrDisappointment Point taken.

Mr. Disappointment

@RegDwight I did think the question mark made it come across a little less strong - I guess that didn't work, right? :/

RegDwight

Well, I can only offer my very own two cents, which would be that it's not the warmest welcome imaginable.)))

In other news, welcome to the 3k club, @Alenanno!

In fact, it doesn't look like he's been active in chat yet...

So, welcome to the 3k club, @@11274!

Vitaly

@RegDwight Does that work?

RegDwight

@Vitaly Only for mods.

Mr. Disappointment

@RegDwight Hm, I can concede to that.

RegDwight

23:26

@Vitaly In fact, it doesn't work for mods, either. None of the users I mod-mention ever show up.)))

Vitaly

Aw.

RegDwight

@MrDisappointment The usual procedure is just to edit it yourself.

Now that we have peer-reviewed edits, even anonymous users can do that.

And you get a whopping two reps!

Mr. Disappointment

I understand that, and I'm not shy to do so. There were a couple of reasons I didn't on this occasion.

Oh ya, I guess I should make the most of those before I hit 2k.

RegDwight

Yeah, I usually don't fix everything, either, to stay true to OP's spirit, for better or worse.

Mr. Disappointment

Lucky me.

RegDwight

23:29

@MrDisappointment Yeah, I never got one of these.

By the time they introduced peer-reviewing, I was way over 2k on SO, MSO, and ELU.

Mr. Disappointment

My SO account was dormant for so long, I've really only been properly active for a matter of months

Hardly really knew how the network was so vast

I'm picking things up over time though.

Vitaly

TIL: the plural of abmho is abmhos.

RegDwight

Feb 18 at 20:39, by RegDwight

My SO rep graph. That really says it all.

Mr. Disappointment

From ELU?

RegDwight

SO.

Vitaly

23:34

Abmho

Abmho is a unit of electrical conductance in the emu-cgs system of units (stands for "electromagnetic units - centimetre gram second"). It's equal to gigasiemens (inverse of nano-ohm). Also known as absiemens. The emu-cgs units are one of several systems of electromagnetic units within the centimetre gram second system of units; others include esu-cgs, Gaussian units, and Lorentz-Heaviside units. In these other systems, the abmho is not one of the units.

Mr. Disappointment

Hm, you keep a screeny of the old graph? Sentimental much?

;)

RegDwight

@MrDisappointment No, I just happened to post it in chat.

So now I can quote it forever.

Mr. Disappointment

Ahh

RegDwight

I don't keep things, the transcript does.

@Vitaly I'll stick with gigasiemens, thank you very much.

Seriously, how is abmho even a word?

Mr. Disappointment

Emphasis on the 'h'.

RegDwight

23:37

Apr 21 at 23:51, by RegDwight

Авпваойцехрварждоы.

Vitaly

@RegDwight any ideas how to get some data from that 500k list of words I posted here earlier? I am trying to get a meaningful list of words that end in -o, but stuff like ambho comprises more than 90 per cent of it

RegDwight

@Vitaly Now you just catch me off guard.

No idea...

I mean, you can't even exclude stuff with 3 consecutive consonants, say.

There are an awful lot of "valid" words like that.

Vitaly

except that abmho is a valid word, listed in Random House Webster's Dictionary

RegDwight

You know what I mean. :P

You want to exclude it.

findtheword.info/Search.aspx?stype=ends&sword=o

Rats, that one has abmho, too.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…