Search found 48 matches
- Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:04 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: How many languages do you know?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 16535
Yes, but how long does it take to 'know' a language? Like you, I've studied quite a few. I think I know English pretty well (been studying it seriously since I was about 12 months old) but I encounter a word that's new to me every week or so. I think I know French fairly well, but I come across at l...
- Tue Mar 14, 2006 9:57 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: HOI POLLOI
- Replies: 6
- Views: 24168
- Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:08 am
- Forum: Grammar
- Topic: The second sentence of a colon
- Replies: 10
- Views: 37901
Re: The second sentence of a colon
Here's something I've noticed in newspapers for which I find no clear-cut rule. There seem to be two ways of approaching what follows a colon, and that is to capitalise or not to capitalise. Which is it? The copy-editor for a book I've just completed (for W. W. Norton, New York) imposed this rule t...
- Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:01 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: Koine form of Immanuel
- Replies: 8
- Views: 22610
- Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:47 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Sexo islâmico/Islamic sex
- Replies: 5
- Views: 16345
- Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:05 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Phrontistery
- Replies: 7
- Views: 22000
Re: Phrontistery
Phrontistery --a word my pompous nature prompts me to use more often than simpler words such as school, college, university and institute-- is where one studies. While checking its etymology, I was surprised by American Heritage, my sure etymological compendium on the Web, not listing the word as a...
- Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:00 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: halcyon
- Replies: 17
- Views: 33222
- Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:57 am
- Forum: The Rebel-Yankee Test
- Topic: Soft Drinks: pop, soda, coke, et al
- Replies: 84
- Views: 851534
Re: Soft drinks: pop, soda, coke, et al
What on earth is bag balm?... and tonic is definately an old fashioned remedy for what ails ya. For everything else bag balm works just fine
- Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:55 am
- Forum: Spelling
- Topic: Miss Spelling
- Replies: 12
- Views: 62505
In English couldn't we also say: That's not that quick of a route. It's not that big of a deal. We were just sitting, enjoying the quiet of a summer's eve. -Tim Not in my English: I've never heard the first two or wanted to say them. Nor have I heard 'It's not that good of a paint job'. These must ...
- Sun Feb 26, 2006 9:30 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: -stani
- Replies: 9
- Views: 55926
... A bit back to the topic, Cypriot as the adjective form of Cyprus strikes me as odd too. In origin this is an ancient Greek suffix. It was specially used, 2500 years ago, to denote the Greek inhabitants of overseas countries -- thus Italiotai 'Greeks of Italy', Sikeliotai 'Greeks of Sicily', Mas...
- Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:39 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: -stani
- Replies: 9
- Views: 55926
So far as I can see, the word form of 'Pakistan' is modelled on older forms such as 'Hindustan', an old-fashioned term for the whole subcontinent or the northern swathe of it. There are many such names in Iran and central Asia (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, etc.) Hindustan is a Persian noun (m...
- Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:22 am
- Forum: Grammar
- Topic: as best as???
- Replies: 2
- Views: 18241
I've just looked in the Oxford English Dictionary and found examples of 'as best' going back to about 1350, but the earliest examples all have 'such' in the sentence ('such behaviour as best befits a man', that kind of thing) which is not the same perhaps. From the 1800s onwards there are lots of ex...
- Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:48 am
- Forum: WELCOME HOME!
- Topic: The Adventure of English
- Replies: 8
- Views: 54665
Why he separates the Normans with the Danes and Vikings? The military invading does not involve and the cultural conquest. The Anglo-Saxon had already hyper culture than that tribes. I suppose he treats them separately because, as maybe you intend to say, the Norman invasion had a permanent effect,...
- Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:13 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Der Untergang des Abendlandes
- Replies: 30
- Views: 77122