Most active questions
139 questions from the last 30 days
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What is the adjective for a person that doesn't have any vices or sin
I always forget this word even though I use it often and when I do try to recall it, for some reason I always think of the word "bipartisan".
I would describe it somebody's lifestyle, an ...
- 151
9
votes
12
answers
2k
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Aphorism for "if you can't do what you want right now, do something else that furthers the greater goal"?
Are there any well known aphorisms expressing: "if you can't do what you want right now, do something else that furthers the greater goal"?
A few adjacent phrases that don't quite work:
...
- 201
6
votes
5
answers
5k
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Why is “As a white guy who spent his whole career at MIT…” funny [closed]
At 10:40 in this video, the speaker says “As a white guy who spent his whole career at MIT and Harvard, I got no problem with this” and the audience is laughing.
But I couldn't figure out what the ...
- 113
10
votes
3
answers
3k
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What does “lettuce talk” mean?
In a comment to the news that a British politician is going to launch a “free speech” social media platform, a user criticised the initiative as “lettuce talk”.
I checked the slang meanings of ...
- 5,668
8
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4
answers
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Should it be "is" or "are"? "This tool has far greater powers than is/are apparent"
I must tell you that this tool has far greater powers than is now apparent.
OR
I must tell you that this tool has far greater powers than are now apparent.
- 123
5
votes
3
answers
2k
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Should it be “was” or “were”? “The results were not as conclusive as was/were expected”
The results were not as conclusive as were expected.
or
The results were not as conclusive as was expected.
- 51
3
votes
5
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A single word for dishonestly underselling one's own importance/credentials?
Does a word exist for when someone understates their importance, credentials, or their ability for the purposes of defrauding someone or averting their attention?
The word "fraudulent" or &...
- 81
19
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2
answers
3k
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Is there a common description of the way Trump pronounces things he doesn't like?
Donald Trump seems to have idiosyncratic ways of pronouncing names of people or places he dislikes.
Whenever Donald Trump says "China", it totally grates on me, it sounds extremely harsh and ...
- 23.6k
11
votes
4
answers
2k
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If-sentences that do not indicate causality
(1) If you're interested, Dick's coming to the party too.
(2) If he attacked her, she wasn’t hurt at all.
(3) If he attacks me, I’ve got a gun.
In the above sentences, the if-clause and the main ...
- 157
9
votes
5
answers
2k
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Word for the behaviour of those small fish that swim alongside whales or sharks
Not looking for the actual name of these fish, which is a remora as far as I can tell, but a word that describes this kind of behaviour.
Like being a sidecar, or trailing, but not those words.
- 99
8
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5
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Why does "though" seem to require re-establishing the subject, but "and" does not?
Specifically, I'm looking at XKCD 3076: The Roads Both Taken, which reads:
And so of course I traveled both
Though be one traveler
A parody of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken
And sorry I could ...
- 199
8
votes
2
answers
1k
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Comparatives with different sexes: only as postmodifiers. What's wrong with "A happier man than my mom"?
With different sexes, only the post-modifying position is allowed.
Compare:
A happier woman than my mom
A woman happier than my mom
A man happier than my mom
✱A happier man than my mom
Unfortunately, ...
- 3,508
5
votes
4
answers
744
views
The difference between “face the past” and “face up to the past”
Collins Dictionary appears to suggest that face up to something has different meanings in British English and American.
face up to
in British English
verb
(intr, adverb; + preposition)
to accept (an ...
- 94.1k
6
votes
3
answers
870
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"Nothing much happened." — Is "much" an adverb here?
Nothing much happened.
"Much" modifies "nothing".
What part of speech is "much" here?
- 959
1
vote
3
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I seem to recall there being a phrase for a number of people approaching 70, what was it?
While going through my dictionary some time back, I came across a way of saying a hall has a number of people approaching 70, or somewhere close to 70. Try as I might, I can't remember the words the ...
