Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2004

Dan Brown, of "The Da Vinci Code" fame, offers up this etymology
in the "Digital Fortress":
"During the Renaissance, Spanish sculptors who made mistakes while
carving expensive marble often patched their flaws with cera - wax.

<DJ pokes her nose into AEU and looks around carefully.  Hmmm.  Still
no sign of that Wallace fellow.>
<Sound of door closing>

In the first page of Ulysses there is this word I just cannot find the
definition of: "gunrest".
From the context, it would seem some sort of scaffold or staircase.
Anybody knows?

(I almost wrote 'Towcester' but decided not to confuse the non-Brits)
Until a few months ago I had a small typical toaster-oven. It served
me well for many years. But I recently bought a new one, which is
large enough to take a 9" pie dish - more economical than the main

I received this (re-typed exactly as received)  from the company I work for.
Is the portion, "and that you declined recall to your former position.",
referring to the position in this sentence or to another formerly held
position?

Flamin' Nora.

I'm looking for a piece of software that can be added on as a plugin to MS
Word that would help to review english grammar.  What I need most is
something that is very good in detecting which words should be hypenated and
when to use to/too etc.

Kenny Miller, who scored the only, winning, goal for Wolves against Man. U.
on Saturday was quoted in an AP story as saying " It was a hard, hard game
against an unbelievable team. But we set our stall out and it paid off."
"Set our stall out" -- what  a lovely turn of phrase.

"I do not know (who, whom) to believe."
Which is it and why?

Bawks?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-01-30-bbc_x.htm

I've always wondered about phrases such as the one below, where the
second 'I' is omitted:
    I can be contacted at the above address and am happy to supply    
    any further information should you desire it.

Quickie: BO (body odor) I know.  PU is the same, but what does the
acronym stand for?

Let me ask a question about the follwoing sentence from a novel.
Keep her on the deck, he told himself. Play the game by the
rules you've practiced out.  (p175, T.Clancy)
Context:  He is a pilot of F19-A which is going toward the enemy's

The yotta- and yocto- prefixes allow SI units to represent measurements
from a fraction of 10e-24 to a multiple of 10e24 units of some
characteristic.
There are some 'metrophiles' who believe no more prefixes beyond these are

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