84
votes
What do you call the things inside a fruit?
There are several terms used, depending on the size, number and where you live.
If there are lots of small ones (grapes, apples, oranges): if you are American, you would call them seeds and, if you ...
- 61.4k
64
votes
"Transgender" versus the obsolete term "transgendered"
I am an actual transgender person, so perhaps I should speak to this issue.
It is overwhelmingly preferred among my peers that the term transgender be used and that transgendered be avoided. I am a ...
- 729
47
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of the phrase "tack against"?
Tacking is a sailing technique that allows you to sail against the direction of the wind.
The speaker is using a metaphor, regarding how they can progress despite the problem of misinformation.
- 776
46
votes
What is the inner cover of the winter shoes called in English?
This is called a lining:
material that lines or that is used to line especially the inner surface of something (as a garment)(MW)
You would ask questions such as:
What are those boots lined ...
- 5,156
39
votes
In how many ways can something not be right?
There are a multitude of ways we can approach this. There are a lot of classifications and labels for things that can be reasonably marked as wrong in language. For instance, an error might happen in ...
- 7,361
39
votes
"Transgender" versus the obsolete term "transgendered"
Language is at the core of political and social struggles for rights and equality.
Word usages often have meanings that could affect political rhetoric. One of the key issues in gender and sexuality ...
- 18.9k
36
votes
Accepted
What does 'a hairline crack where the grip meets the graphite shaft on my 3-wood' mean in this English joke?
A "hairline crack" is a very thin crack that threatens the integrity of some object.
The "grip" is where you hold the golf club.
The "graphite shaft" is the long part of the club, which these days ...
- 88.5k
34
votes
What is the soft part of the palm called in English?
The anatomical term for it is the thenar eminence:
However, this is a scientific term, known mostly to medical students and doctors. It's not in general use. I had never even heard of it until I ...
- 27.7k
30
votes
The act of declaring and revoking a structure a church
A place can be consecrated as a church and later deconsecrated.
- 137k
27
votes
Accepted
What do you call the "collars" of a bathrobe?
Most generically, they would be called lapels (the left lapel and the right lapel). And, to the best of my knowledge, it's absolutely irrelevant whether it's a coat or a bathrobe that you're talking ...
- 37.7k
27
votes
What is the meaning of the phrase "tack against"?
Tack against prevailing winds is a nautical sailing term.
Sailing against the wind is very difficult for a sailing ship – the force of the wind prevents the sails from moving the ship in that ...
- 271
27
votes
"I am appeared to redly" - This sentence is making me very puzzled and confused
"I am appeared to [adverb]" is a very unusual phrase, only found in philosophy texts and certainly not in everyday English.
A search in Google Ngrams reveals that it appears to be a fairly ...
- 9,502
27
votes
What word is used instead of ‘coast’ for rivers?
The word is riverbank or banks of the river.
Merriam Webster:
riverbank
: the bank of a river
bank, also Merriam Webster
2
: the rising ground bordering a lake, river, or sea or forming the edge ...
- 49k
26
votes
What is the name of such a "lamp"?
As you noted, "chandelier" does normally refer to larger, more ornate pieces than this, despite its literal meaning of "candle holder".
In general, a light that is fixed is called a "light fitting" ...
- 231k
25
votes
What do you call a group set up to undermine a political argument?
This is a False Flag operation, almost exactly by definition.
- 4,791
23
votes
Accepted
How does a "parent" generate a "sister"?
It doesn't.
You've made an error in your classification.
ELU is not a parent site to ELL. ELU and ELL are each other's sister sites. They are on even levels of the SE architecture.
The main parent ...
- 25.4k
23
votes
Accepted
What do "high sea" and "carry" mean in this sentence?
There's a lot of specialist nautical terminology here. I'm not an expert on this, but I've done a bit of checking with people who know more, and I'm reasonably confident.
For a sailing ship to be ...
- 22.9k
22
votes
Accepted
What is a non-prime number greater than 1 called in English?
From Wikipedia:
Composite (number)
A composite number is a positive integer that can be formed by multiplying together two smaller positive integers. Equivalently, it is a positive integer that ...
- 618
21
votes
Smart/casual dress is encouraged with longs/shoes a must : What is "longs"?
I've never heard of this either in the US. I was able to find it in the Collins Dictionary online. It appears to be BrE and what we in the US would call "pants". Maybe someone else can speak to how ...
- 45.4k
21
votes
Accepted
"I am appeared to redly" - This sentence is making me very puzzled and confused
Academic writing like this is often obscure and hard to understand. In this case, it does make logical sense when explained.
The passive form of “appears to me” would be “I am appeared to,” except ...
- 8,499
20
votes
What is the English equivalent of the Russian word тормоз which is used for very slowly working software?
If software is тормоз because too many poorly implemented features have been added, then it is "bloated." This bloating might be the result of feature creep, as many 'small' features get added on one ...
- 8,222
18
votes
Accepted
The act of declaring and revoking a structure a church
I can only speak for the Catholic Church. My next door neighbor is a Catholic priest and according to him:
A church is commissioned/decommissioned. The same term as used for many other types of ...
- 552
17
votes
Accepted
Draw or tie in sports
There are so many sports, all have their own terminology, and I couldn't possibly comment on them all.
From my point of view as a native British English speaker I believe the following to be ...
- 111k
17
votes
Accepted
Term for words that seem like they should rhyme because of the way they are spelled, but don't
They are called eye rhymes (or visual rhymes or sight rhymes). Other examples are Sean Bean (pronounced Shawn Been), love and move, wood and food, come and home, bough and though mind and wind (...
- 18.1k
16
votes
Accepted
rollover -- what does this word mean in the following context?
Have you ever seen a car with a mechanical odometer?
Many cars and trucks built during the 1960s had odometers that showed mileages between 0.0 miles and 99,999.9 miles. The odometers were connected ...
- 24.4k
16
votes
What is the inner cover of the winter shoes called in English?
Lining.
Usually any substance which covers the interior surface of a garment is said to line the garment and will be called a lining.
So you will have silk-lined dresses and fur-lined coats and ...
- 176k
16
votes
What is the English equivalent of the Russian word тормоз which is used for very slowly working software?
A software application that is relatively small in size, works quickly, and probably has a somewhat limited feature set could be referred to as lightweight. So more full-featured software that moves ...
- 3,003
16
votes
Should we use "kelvins" or "kelvin" when referring to temperatures higher than one?
You should say "two hundred kelvins", and write "200 kelvins" (or "two hundred kelvins") with a small 'k', or "200 K", with a capital 'K'.
The revised SI (...
- 75.7k
15
votes
What do you call the things inside a fruit?
As another suggestion, most generally, you can refer to the central "inedible" part of a fruit as the core:
the hard central part of some fruits, such as apples, that contains the seeds
...
- 37.7k
14
votes
What's the meaning of “spike” in the context of “adrenaline spike”?
One refers to a spike in a measurement, or a sharp rise (often followed by a fall that may not be as sharp, but is clear). This is because such measurements would be drawn with a moving needle on ...
- 22.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible