Are there only four demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, and those in English, or are there more like thik which is a variation of this and that? Answer “Hither, page, and stand by me If thou know’st it, telling Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?” “Sire, he lives a good league … Read more
I participate in other SE forums where it’s common practice for experienced or knowledgeable participants to simultaneously submit both a question and an answer. This can be very helpful in technical forums frequented by inexperienced users who tend to ask the same questions, but word their questions very differently. This practice is encouraged for all … Read more
In the area of which I live, there is a certain word we use to describe somebody that is naughty, or bad, in a joking/lighthearted manner. I do not know how to spell the word, and every attempt to find it on Google led to no accurate results. The word sounds like ‘Nixee’ with a … Read more
Whosever foot fits into the slipper, that woman will be my wife. Though English is not my native language, due to years of reading, ‘whosever’ as a possessive came naturally to me in the above example. Online search shows that the word is very rare and many dictionaries are getting rid of it (Oxford and … Read more
Recently, I’ve been going through checking how many Latin words ending in -alis have corresponding English words ending in -al. It seems there was a Latin word mānālis meaning “flowing” (as well as a separate word meaning “of or belonging to the Manes”). So I looked up “manal” in OneLook Dictionary Search and found that … Read more
What’s the rule for choosing between “whoever” and “whosoever” as a subject for a sentence? Even if they have the same semantics (of which I’m not sure), I’m assuming there some contextual or stylistic considerations for choosing one over the other. Answer Whosoever is, according to ODO, formal term for whoever. So you should/could use … Read more
From Wiktionary: 3. (with infinitive) to be too weak to do a thing, to be unable Sample using this definition: This friction <astheneo-s> to resist the force. An answer in the negative counts. Answer After various types of searches, I found that the French verb asthénier appears to be ultimately derived from the noun ἀσθένεια, … Read more
UPDATE: (2018-02-08) Pot-Calling-The-Kettle-Black (PCKB) reconsideration and another example: The Wikipedia article on PCKB indicates something interesting. It says that originally, the term was Spanish (c. 17th Century) and most often used to indicate hypocrisy, because in those days, BOTH the pot and the kettle were made of a black cast iron, which I why I … Read more
The Wiktionary definition of sesquipedalianism, usage (2), is given as follows: (countable) A very long word. And wouldn’t you know it, sesquipedalianism is a very long word! Sesquipedalianism is a sesquipedalianism. This observations brings me to the peculiar but fascinating question of whether a word that literally describes itself has been identified by some general … Read more
What I mean is “someone of old” that people could be drawn to. One who is stuck in the past and in his ways and dislikes the future. Something like: • an originator • an innovator • a predecessor • an uncaused, time-traveler. Edit: This character also could have nefarious, mysterious, dismissive or even obsolete … Read more
