How to correctly call lobby of a movie theatre where people are waiting? How to correctly call the room where people watch the movie? Answer On entering front-of-house in a British Isles cinema we may call it either the lobby or foyer. (can vary from palace to palace*) and in an up niche cinema with … Read more
This seems to be fairly common pattern. The modern English names of several French or French-related cities seem to add s for no obvious reason. Marseille > Marseilles Lyon > Lyons Tanger > Tangiers Alger > Algiers In our multiculti postmodern world, all but the last have officially nixed their s in favor of the … Read more
The spelling for the adjective derived from the name Shaw is Shavian and not Shawian. Similarly you can find Arrow → Arrovian and Harrow → Harrovian. This strikes me as odd. First of all, I accept that the adjective for /ʃɔː/ is pronounced /ʃɔːvɪən/, so this is not about the word, just the spelling. Now, I see two possible … Read more
For the longest time ever I assumed these are two different places and was very confused about never knowing where Nuremberg is. Recently I found out that Nuremberg is the English form for Nürnberg. Is there a known first documented mention or some other historical evidence which may point to the purpose of this change? … Read more
There is a special term for when a place name is representative of something other than the actual place itself but I can’t remember what it is. For example: ‘Brussels’ may be used to refer to the European Union or ‘Washington’ to refer to the U.S. political establishment. Does anyone know what this term would … Read more
A few friends and I are developing a game that involves producing potions, however we’re finding it hard to think of the name for a building suited to producing potions specifically. Some names we have thought of include: Workshop Factory (This seems like more of a modern term, which goes against the setting of our … Read more
Many place names have different form/spelling in English and in the original language of the country, in which they lie, e.g. Lyons x Lyon, The Hague x Den Haag, Munich x München. Most of them are used so commonly that there is no question about their usage in English (e.g. I would definitely write Cologne … Read more
EDIT: I am obviously not being clear. I am not looking for a word for the common or familiar name. I am looking at how to describe the portion of the formal name that does not describe the system of government. In the name United States of America what is America? In the name French … Read more
I know that a factory that makes ropes is a ropery, but neither ‘chainery‘ nor ‘chainworks‘ seem to actually be real (or at least popular) terms for a place that produces chains. I hunted around a bit and didn’t come back with anything obvious, so I got to thinking that maybe it’s something I wouldn’t … Read more
I’ve recently encountered the term “Pedestrianised Zone” (as part of the name of a pedestrian zone, as in “X Street Pedestrianised Zone”) and thought there’s something weird/grammatically wrong about it. Wikipedia suggests that in BrE, pedestrianised zone = pedestrian zone. But according to www.gov.uk as well as images of road signs in the UK, “pedestrian … Read more
