Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

The following is an excerpt from books review.
-quote-
I grew up with those books. In their pages I discovered a host of
great

Today's Dilbert seems pertinent to one of AUE's recurring themes:
<http://www.dilbert.com/>

Hi everyone--
I'm working on adding several new definitions to www.videodictionary.tv.
It's a site that gives users a place to define words using videos. I'm
going to make video definitions of words I see this group discussing

Can one really nod other parts of the body than the head? Isn't this a
bit redundant, "nod the head?"
-------
Sunny Farebrother showed no sign of resenting this capricious treatment.

"shifted the port in my direction"
is this
"changed his stance/position to face me?"
This must be from navy.

What's going on here?:
   Glamorous gowns, million-dollar jewellery, international guests and
even a bedazzled swine flu mask have graced the red carpet at tonight's
51st Logie Awards.

Your collected thoughts would be much appreciated on a paraphrase for
the following, from a paper on football business management which I'm
proofreading today (between moving carpets).
"... Mitchell et al. (1997) proposed a model that sought to identify

I was reading a document in Word 2007 when I came across the title
phrase,
    The harder the task, the greater the glory.
Word flagged it as having a syntax problem. I realize that it has no

Google Books shows comparable frequencies for:
"Pour him out some tea"
"Pour him some tea"
Any differences?

I've been listening to BBC 7 via my computer. It's interesting to hear
how people spoke BrE on radio shows made in the 50s and 60s. To me
that's yesterday, but of course 40-50 years have passed and some things
have changed, notably the slang.

I've found "to proceed, head" as meanings of "to make," but not "to go":
------
[Le Bas is the housemaster]
Then I noticed that there was a policeman making across the field

How would you take "attenuated" here?
Is it "showing no relief, flat?"
-------
Like her legs, her face was thin and attenuated, the whole appearance

About "on":
"Took me on to"
should probably mean
"Took me further (on) to"

Is there any difference added by the "in" in "sketched in?"
Could it be
"adding to the existing picture/tableau" (for "sketch in")
as opposed to

Could the author have equally used "from the hands of?"
-------
... had accepted a baronetcy at the hands of Lloyd George ...
A Dance to the Music of Time, Spring, by Anthony Powell, p. 50