Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

I wonder what "untaking" may mean here?
Could it be
"unpleasant" (say, related to "to take to something")?
or

Alguien sabe traducir al Ingles la expresión "Verguenza Ajena"?
A lo mejor, simplemente no existe traducción porque en paises
anglófonos no saben lo que es el concepto de Verguenza Ajena ...
Fijaros por ejemplo en Jorton ...

The English and Australian slang for buttocks is arse.
The American equivalent is a.s.
Australian teenagers say "arse" but spell it "a.s", because they get all
their culture from TV and the Internet.

The other day my son said something that came out wrong because he
mispronounced a word in the sentence.  Knowing that he had
mispronounced the word, he kept saying the word attempting to get it
right.

When used as noun, what's the difference between swimming and going
swimming in this case: I enjoy swimming; I enjoy going swimming?
Or I enjoy go fishing; I enjoy going fishing?
Thanks!

Could I ask for some grammar expert's advice here, please?
I can identify the errors in the following sentences, but I also want to
explain why they are errors and to name the correct tense that should be
used.

I happened to notice an odd usage today: "unsurfaced" to mean "come
to light".
One example:
"Yes I know there is a massive Canadian Liberal scandal that has

«‘Now, I give you fair warning,’ shouted the Queen, stamping on
the ground as she spoke; ‘either you or your head must be off, and
that in about half no time! Take your choice!’»
from Alice In Wonderland, Chapter 9

how do you call the two dimples around the tail bone?
e.g. http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/skina/skina2ews.html
3rd image.
 Xah

omar khayyam is believed to have composed somewhere between 200 and
600 rubaiyat
omar khayyam is famous for another work which he contributed when he
worked for saljuq sultan

I saw the following sentence in a context where the discussion is about
a person's academic work. I think "reference" here means the author's
name, publication date, and info about where it was published, e.g.
journal name or book title. Am I right? I'd appreciate your help.

I extracted part of editorial from a newspaper. Could you help check
the writing style if it is good?? Is there any mistakes??
Thanks
____________________________________________________

Well, what lovely weather we are having.
Thunder showers, and now thunder snow!
Our entire winter in an afternoon! (I hope.)
Just calling to mind the messages the other day in which I cast doubt on

What part of speech, if there is a category, is it when you use, for
example, a person's name as a new (usually slang?) expression or term?
A recent, probably well-known, example would be the use of Monica
Lewinsky's (re: President Clinton) last name to refer to fellatio. As

I'm reading "Devil wears prada" and there's this line.
--
I had no idea that the city's most well-connected gossip columnists and
socialites and media executives obsessed over the flawlessly made-up,