The conjunction while, for example, tends to pop up in contexts in which a different conjunction may be the better choice.
Overloading While - 0 views
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temporal conjunction
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to introduce clauses that express opposition
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Cynics and Cynosures - 0 views
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cynic comes from a Greek word meaning “dog-like, currish, churlish.”
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The word cynosure comes from a Greek word meaning “dog’s tail.” This was the name given by the Greeks to the northern constellation Ursa Minor, the “Small Bear” in whose tail is the Pole-star, also known as the North Star. Because the North Star is bright and a means of finding the direction of north, the word cynosure acquired the figurative meaning of “something that is bright and serves as a guide.”
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In modern usage, a cynic is a person disposed to find fault with everything and to rant about it to everyone. A cynic trusts no one’s sincerity or good intentions. The adjective is cynical; the noun is cynicism.
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Final U in English Words - 0 views
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“English words don’t end in u,”
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The only two native English words that end in u are the pronouns thou and you, but they probably shouldn’t count because they really end in ou.
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There remain 50 or so “English” words that do end in u. I put English in quotation marks because most of these u-words obviously came undigested from some other language, most from French.
Hyphenating Prefixes - 0 views
Janus Words - 0 views
Loan Translations - 0 views
Anecdote and Anecdotal - 0 views
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The earliest meaning of anecdote in English is “Secret, private, or hitherto unpublished narratives or details of history.” Later, the word came to have its present meaning: “The narrative of a detached incident, or of a single event, told as being in itself interesting or striking.”
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The adjective anecdotal dates from the 18th century. It can mean simply “pertaining to anecdotes,” but in modern usage it is often used in the sense of “unreliable.”
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