PSTH‭

Why do most Asian, Middle Eastern and European languages greet with words anent health or peace? I know that "salutation" itself meant "health". salute [14] Salute goes back ultimately to ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Jirka Hanika‭

as. Do not use the conjunction as when you mean “since,” “because,” “when,” or “while.” Its broad and vague meanings can create confusion. For example, As a potential work stoppage threatened to ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  edited 4y ago by PSTH‭

quibble [17] _Quibble _probably originated as a rather ponderous learned joke-word. It is derived from an earlier and now obsolete _quib _‘pun’, which appears to have been based on quibus...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Jirka Hanika‭

I fail to understand this etymology for bail (n.1), particularly the first paragraph. [3.] "bond money, security given to obtain the release of a prisoner," late 15c., a sense that apparently de...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by PSTH‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Ullallulloo‭

I screenshot Collins and Lexico. Let's treat this like a math problem. How exactly does "the better to —" = 'So as to — better'? Please show all steps between these two expressions.

0 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  edited 5y ago by Moshi‭

Etymonline on "-able" doesn't expound the origin of "requiring". -able common termination and word-forming element of English adjectives (typically based on verbs) and generally adding a notion...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  edited 4y ago by PSTH‭

This French StackExchange post merely paraprhased "histoire de/que" as afin de / afin que, meaning pour / pour que — all this can be translated as "in order to/that" in English. But nobody in fact...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by PSTH‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Jirka Hanika‭

I admit I'm unschooled at Googling! Only after I wrote this post, did I stumble on Draconis's answer on Latin SE. While emō normally means "buy", the ancestral meaning seems to have been somethi...

posted 4y ago by PSTH‭

encyclopedia [16] Etymologically, encyclopedia means ‘general education’. It is a medieval formation, based on the Greek phrase egkúklios paideíā (egkúklios, a compound adjective formed ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Jirka Hanika‭

        The name of Consideration appears only about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and we do not know by what steps it became a settled term of art. The word seems to have gone throug...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  edited 4y ago by PSTH‭

Kindly see the embolded phrase below. Etymonline is written too abstrusely. issue [13] The words issue and exit are closely related etymologically. Both go back ultimately to the Latin v...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Jirka Hanika‭

Attempts to fashion a purer form of literary English can be seen in the poetry of Edmund Spenser in the 16th century and William Barnes in the 19th century. Barnes’ arguments against borrowing ...

0 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  edited 5y ago by PSTH‭

What did the etymons of "on by out", "on by up", "on by over" mean? Why did Old English tack and jam these different prepositions together? E.g. didn't ufan alone mean "above"? Why prefix...

0 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭

I don't understand the "semantic progression" that I emboldened. The steps in the "semantic progression" feel farfetched and unconnected to me. Can someone please fill in, and elaborate, the steps...

0 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  edited 5y ago by Moshi‭

An ESL student was asking about the quotation below at my school, but I don't know how to expound or simplify to her that "A problem or puzzle can be thought of as a knot." Any ideas? She knows wha...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by PSTH‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Jordan‭