I understand what the idiom means: as per this question, it means a person or creature unwittingly used as a test for danger, often destructively. I understand why coalmines: as depositories of ancient organic waste, they are particularly prone to methane and carbon monoxide buildup. But why a canary? They are technically exotic, native and … Read more
If you wanna say someone put their hand on my shoulder throughout the window should i say extended his hand on my shoulder? Answer One of many possible sentences I could construct for the scenario described is: He extended his arm, reached through the window, and put his hand on my shoulder. But that just … Read more
I was watching an American show called Breaking Bad and they use this phrase: Can I use your John’s? to mean Can I use your toilet? As it stands the origin has been mentioned here, courtesy to @Jason Bassford and @user067531 in the comments below, but I feel it doesn’t adequately discuss why the particular … Read more
How can I refer to something that barely works given a certain context and can get broken at any moment? The thing is: I wrote some geometry calculations in an application that will work in our context, but any minimum condition can make it fail. So I typed in the comment: “… there are precision … Read more
Imagine a situation where the Internet connection at your office of 1000 people goes down. You, as the IT person, are responsible for fixing it. You immediately turn on the red lights and alarms. Two minutes later, the Internet is back and all is back to normal and it wasn’t your fault. In Hebrew, you … Read more
The expression “in the inside” appears to be logical (because insides are closed spaces with boundaries) but the more common expression is “on the inside.” What’s the reason behind this usage? Answer The noun inside, as opposed to the preposition inside, appears to be composed of a noun side, pre-modified by the preposition in. The … Read more
The title says it all. I have heard the phrase used either way, but “well” makes more sense to me. My editor and I are both at a stalemate with this one. Answer “Wealth of information” is a (somewhat) commonly used idiom, as compared to “Well of information”. As per the Cambridge dictionary, one of … Read more
Please suppose that the following image is a company including all of its staff, supporters, leaders and key members where the bowman and the bow and the arrow are the whole company including all the parts I mentioned and the final goal is hitting the target with the arrow at hand. This arrow as a … Read more
I am curious to know if the usage of “for” in the sentence below is grammatical? The reason why “socioeconomical understanding” is chosen as the umbrella section is for it to mediate the understanding of innovation in X industries. The following subsections are intertwined in their individual evolutions and implications for X industries. PS: I … Read more
A recent tweet by the U.S. president includes this assurance: I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! A blog post by David Graham, "The One Color the White House Sees Clearly" at The Atlantic Online offers this commentary on the history of the expression "doesn’t have a racist bone in [one’s] body": As … Read more
