I’m reading the book Working Backwards recently and got a little confused with the sentences below: I told him I’d played two weeks earlier at the local park with my buddy John. “So you have me beat on the A-list tennis partners,” I said, “but I’ve got you on recency. I’m calling it a push. … Read more
I recently discovered that in the sport of tennis, a score of "0" is pronounced "love". I have a few questions related to this discovery! Is it common for different sports to have words that represent different specific score values, or for zero? Is there a website or reference book you can recommend where I … Read more
Suppose a competition has a prize that contains flight tickets, all food and accommodation. Is there some special term in English to describe it? Flights with all inclusive stay or Flights with all inclusive living? Or something else? Luxurious living is an overkill, how to describe the prize with flights tickets, accommodation and all food … Read more
What is the meaning of “an action flag” in the sentence below? …your name has an action flag on it, which is directing me to transfer you immediately to the consul general’s chief administration. Thank you, fate Answer It means that whoever wrote this, saw some kind of marker on your folder/email conversation that elevate … Read more
Pentagrams can have virtually any orientation but the two most common are “point up”: And “point down”: Is there a more appropriate term used to distinguish between these two variants? Answer Point up = Pentagram Point Down = Inverted Pentagram AttributionSource : Link , Question Author : MrHen , Answer Author : Shawn D.
While I’m not native English speaker, I often need to express myself in English. For a week, I have been searching for a term which represents a kind of SQL query: SELECT something FROM somewhere WHERE somethingElse IN (SELECT foo FROM bar) It’s a query within another (those in brackets). What term should I use … Read more
I’m writing about art’s function of rescuing, redeeming or validating the artist’s experience and suffering. Some of my sources have compared this to the functions of magical talismans and power objects, and I’d like to use magical language now and then throughout my paper as a nod to this similarity. The problem is that I … Read more
In the movie ‘Fight Club’ I heard the phrase ‘Sixty-nined you’ for calling back. Is that common in American English or special for New York where you can press the 6 and 9 to call the last incoming number? Answer I’m pretty sure that pressing * 6 9 used to apply in Canada too, so … Read more
I’m looking for a word that describes an event or situation that is problematic but unusual. The word should indicate that something is theoretically possible, but so unlikely that you could ignore it. Example: Physicists laugh at the [unlikely but bad] possibility that the large hadron collider creates a black hole that engulfs the planet. … Read more
I’ve seen both, even in the same Wikipedia article entry. Is there a right and wrong version, or is either version OK as long as I’m consistent? I’m using the word in the context of patent law, as in ‘this invention must do A, B, and C to be considered novel and non(-)obvious’. Answer In … Read more
