Discussion Groups / English Usage / August 2010

Are
"she knew _to look_ down there for too long would bring on nausea"
and
"she knew _looking_ down there for too long would bring on nausea"

What do these terms have in common?
money
paycheck
cash

So there we were, finishing our evening meal, and on comes a thematic
evening we couldn't resist. In amongst the Illuminations (not to be
confused with Illuminati), Jayne Mansfield, and Keith Allen doing
cheesy dance routines, was a little song whose lyrics rhymed something

Can one say:
a. I did something so that they would lose the match.
b. I did something for them to lose the match.

In discussing the Theory of Natural Selection, I was wondering whether
it would be better or unnecessary to use 'the existence of" with
"hypothesized" in the following sentence:
"Scientists who subscribe to the Theory of Natural Selection

I hear this dell roar in a moment with the joint voice of wind and
fire, I see myself gallop for my soul, and the flying conflagration
chase and outflank me through the hills...
This is from 'Two Matches', by R. L. Stevenson.

Any difference between:
"he works out of"
and
"he works at?"

Who has stood between Gene Autry and Andy Williams for over thirty
years, and where?

Does "hooking up" always have a sexual connotation in American English, or can
it simply refer to a meeting or association of two people? The latter has been
my experience in the past, but it seems to have moved in a sexual direction
... however, I'm not in the U.S. at the moment, ...

Lots of phobic words are being bandied about now -- homophobia,
islamophobia, francophobia, etc.  What suffix can be used to indicate
indifference or rejection rather than fear?

Little Noddy is a wooden toy who lives in Toytown with his friends who
include Big Ears and Mr. Plod the policeman.
The first book I ever read was Noddy Goes To School; Noddy begins to learn
things, his head swells, he can't put his long, blue hat with a bell on the

"you're a pistol"
is it frequent for
"you're amazing/fantastic?"
----

I hear this dell roar in a moment with the joint voice of wind and
fire, I see myself gallop for my soul, and the flying conflagration
chase and outflank me through the hills...
He is imagining what will happen if the dell catches fire.

"sought him"
for
"pursued him,"
is that obsolete these days?