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11 votes
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Is there a terse way to say "movies and TV shows"?
I often wish to refer to both "movies and/or TV shows" in a sentence. I wish to refer only to movies, or only to TV shows, much less often. Is there a word that could mean both? If not, should you...
I often wish to refer to both "movies and/or TV shows" in a sentence. I wish to refer only to movies, or only to TV shows, much less often. Is there a word that could mean both? If not, should you create it?
And yes, that is a silly, inconsequential, pedantic preoccupation about language. What can I tell you? I have lots of those. I am what I am :P
10 votes -
Interesting histories: Female — Male — Woman — Man
6 votes -
The English language rules we know – but don’t know we know
17 votes -
From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words
8 votes -
On communicating accurately with Americans
11 votes -
The melancholy decline of the semicolon
17 votes -
Longstanding discourse w/ my SO about the phrase "a couple of..."
#couple Defined as: noun: couple; plural noun: couples 1. two individuals of the same sort considered together. "a couple of girls were playing marbles" a pair of partners in a dance or game....
#couple
Defined as:noun:
couple;
plural noun: couples
1.
two individuals of the same sort considered together.
"a couple of girls were playing marbles"a pair of partners in a dance or game.
MECHANICS
a pair of equal and parallel forces acting in opposite directions, and tending to cause rotation about an axis perpendicular to the plane containing them.
2.
two people who are married, engaged, or otherwise closely associated romantically or sexually.
"in three weeks the couple fell in love and became engaged"3.
INFORMAL
an indefinite small number.
"he hoped she'd be better in a couple of days"
verb:
couple;
3rd person present:
couples
past tense:
coupled
past participle:
coupled
gerund or present participle:
coupling
1.
combine."a sense of hope is coupled with a palpable sense of loss"
join to form a pair.
"the beetles may couple up to form a pair"2.
mate or have sexual intercourse.
"as middle-class youth grew more tolerant of sex, they started to couple more often"
#Discourse of the use of the word/phrase in this particular case
You
"how many would you like?"
Them
"just a couple."
When someone requests 'a couple of...' I respond with something similar to: 'How many do you want specifically?', which leads to the discourse of, 'A couple is two, a few is >2, several is <x' and so on.
I agree with the first two clearly stated definitions of 'couple', but in the informal use of a couple (eg. a depiction of a quantity) is not specifically two...nor is 'a few' three. How many specifically is several..?
I understand the semantics within the conversation. But, the expectation of understanding that two, and only two, is implied in the use of the phrase 'a couple' in a request; is ambiguously stating what one party desires. I'm the asshole now, just tell me how many you want.
And now...your thoughts, please.
12 votes -
Ace Linguist: Dialect Dissection: ABBA
5 votes -
Dead as a doornail
3 votes -
Gender in Latin and beyond
3 votes -
Squid Game and the “untranslatable”: The debate around subtitles
15 votes -
With climate change emerging as a primary issue in this month's Norwegian parliamentary election, there are signs people are questioning the country's reliance on crude oil
6 votes -
Mayor suggests Helsinki declare itself an English-language city – Juhana Vartiainen says too many highly skilled foreigners shun Finnish capital because of difficult language
13 votes -
Kempt, couth, ruth: On the disappearing antonyms of “grumpy” words
7 votes -
I signed up to write college essays for rich kids. I found cheating is more complicated than I thought.
29 votes -
Change in the implied meaning of "masked men"
Has the sentence "the masked men entered the store" changed meaning post the pandemic. I think it feels less ominous than perhaps it used to. Now the words could imply "responsible men that wear...
Has the sentence "the masked men entered the store" changed meaning post the pandemic. I think it feels less ominous than perhaps it used to. Now the words could imply "responsible men that wear masks in accordance with guidelines entered a store" where it would previously almost certainly imply "robbers entered the store". Since I'm not a native speaker I'm curious if this is just in my head or a more general thing? Are there other similar statements that has change?
11 votes -
Surprising shared word etymologies
10 votes -
The Green Knight | Official trailer
17 votes -
Tower of Babble: Non-native speakers navigate the world of 'good' and 'bad' English
4 votes -
After twenty-two years, cult-classic PS1 adventure Mizzurna Falls is playable in English
6 votes -
Why the Buzzfeed News style guide will no longer hyphenate "antisemitism"
6 votes -
A brief overview of popular slang of the 1920s in the US
2 votes -
Are there any gender-neutral or non-binary honorifics?
I've been thinking a good bit about gender-neutral language lately, and I've been making an effort to eliminate unnecessarily gendered language from my day-to-day speech. However, there are a few...
I've been thinking a good bit about gender-neutral language lately, and I've been making an effort to eliminate unnecessarily gendered language from my day-to-day speech. However, there are a few sticking points for me that I am having a hard time with finding my way around. One of the most difficult for me, having been brought up in the deep south and still living there, are honorifics like "sir" and "ma'am". I use these when addressing pretty much anyone, and it's a habit I'm having a hard time breaking. It's got me thinking about whether there are any good alternatives that would feel respectful of the person I'm addressing while not sticking out too much. If that's not an option (and I suspect it would be asking too much) then what are your ideal alternatives, either neologisms, borrowed from other languages, or just repurposed words that are in current use?
Examples of usage that I would love to replace:
"Yes, sir/No, ma'am"
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am"
"Mr./Mrs./Ms." (I use this less often but still catch myself at times. I also think this one has the best alternative currently in use, with Mx. catching on in some places)Also, if this question is missing the mark or disrespectful in any way, please let me know. I'm still learning!
21 votes -
Why is the shape (❤) called a heart? And why is biological heart called a heart as well?
4 votes -
335 year old recipe, 'Rice Puddings In Guts' (beef bung casing), from The Acompliſht Cook
5 votes -
Why we say "OK"
7 votes -
Hard liquor and soft drugs aside, the chip butty is the most reliable way we have to mentally shut out this harsh world and, momentarily, transport ourselves to a happier, more innocent place
11 votes -
Paul Taylor - #Franglais - Bilingual stand-up comedy
7 votes -
War of words as Nigerian English recognised by Oxford English Dictionary
8 votes -
Ə: The most common vowel sound in English
14 votes -
500-year-old manuscript contains earliest known use of the “F-word”
9 votes -
Appalachian English
6 votes -
United Nations guidelines for gender-inclusive language in English
16 votes -
The History of English Podcast
6 votes -
The English Wikipedia has reached 6,000,000 articles
21 votes -
Why I'm possessive about apostrophes
13 votes -
Merriam-Webster singles out nonbinary 'they' for word of the year honors
26 votes -
Merriam-Webster's Time Traveler: Words by year of appearance
6 votes -
A dialect dissection of Britney Spears
8 votes -
Medieval Myth Busting - Arrows vs Armour, using historically accurate reproductions from time of the Battle of Agincourt (1415)
MEDIEVAL MYTH BUSTING - Arrows vs Armour from Tod's Workshop YouTube Channel Other extra videos in the series: Find out More - The Battle Find out more - The Armour Find out More - Medieval Arrows...
MEDIEVAL MYTH BUSTING - Arrows vs Armour from Tod's Workshop YouTube Channel
Other extra videos in the series:
Find out More - The Battle
Find out more - The Armour
Find out More - Medieval Arrowsedit: Tod also re-uploaded the previous video with better sound:
Find out More - Medieval Arrows*12 votes -
There was no committee
6 votes -
"You can't say that! Stories have to be about white people"
12 votes -
Politics and the English language
11 votes -
Merriam-Webster adds sense of ‘they’ as a pronoun for nonbinary people to the dictionary
22 votes -
English is not normal: No, English isn’t uniquely vibrant or mighty or adaptable. But it really is weirder than pretty much every other language.
12 votes -
‘Like’ isn’t a lazy linguistic filler – the English language snobs need to, like, pipe down
13 votes -
Americanisms the British public can't bloody stand
14 votes -
People often complain that English is deteriorating under the influence of new technology, adolescent fads and loose grammar. Why does this nonsensical belief persist?
11 votes -
Absolute English - Science once communicated in a polyglot of tongues, but now English rules alone. How did this happen – and at what cost?
6 votes