Discussion Forum
This is a forum to discuss the gray areas of the English language for which you would not find answers easily in dictionaries or other reference books.
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Latest Posts : Expression
A friend of mine told me that “colored people” is offensive, but “people of color” isn’t. As far as I can see, they mean exactly the same thing. Why is one offensive but not the other?
‘Couch potato’ is a phrase, which everybody knows already. I’ve also found ‘mouse potato’, which means a person glued all the time to the computer or tv screen, (treated as one of the English neologisms). Do you know any other types of ‘potatoes’?
Does anyone know the origin of the word okay or O.K. or OK? I once heard that that has to do with French and is derived from some Mississippian dialect and so. Does that make any sense at all? The bad thing is that I do not quite remember what I was told, neither I remember the supposedly original French word.
Is there any informal, figurative and rather impolite way of calling someone lazy? Any slang etc.?
What does the “K” in “the Y2K problem” stand for?
Which one is correct? “As far back as I remember, the country was at war.” “As far back as I remember, the country was in war.” If both are correct, what’s the difference?
What is the word for the olive oil or garlic whose smell has been taken away? What’s the verb and what the noun? (And does anyone know how they do it?!)
Why is pawshop called pawshop?
Why are the music instruments in the definite form when they are “being played” in the sentences? “I play THE guitar”
How do you negate the word deliberate? Undelibertae is not correct according to dictionaries. What then?
