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The English language was introduced to the Americas by the arrival of the British, beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The language also spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and settlement and the spread of the former British Empire, which, by 1921, included 470–570 million people, about a quarter of the world's population. In England, Wales, Ireland and especially parts of Scotland there are differing varieties of the English language, so the term 'British English' is an oversimplification. Likewise, spoken American English varies widely across the country. Written forms of British and American English as found in newspapers and textbooks vary little in their essential features, with only occasional noticeable differences.
A slang is a vocabulary of an informal register, common in verbal conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception.
A gender-specific job title is a name of a job that also specifies or implies the gender of the person performing that job. For example, in English, the job titles stewardess and seamstress imply that the person is female, whilst the corresponding job titles steward and seamster imply that the person is male. A gender-neutral job title, on the other hand, is one that does not specify or imply gender, such as firefighter or lawyer. In some cases, it may be debatable whether a title is gender-specific; for example, chairman appears to denote a male, but the title is also applied sometimes to women.
Naphtha is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Generally, it is a fraction of crude oil, but it can also be produced from natural gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and the fractional distillation of coal tar and peat. In some industries and regions, the name naphtha refers to crude oil or refined petroleum products such as kerosene or diesel fuel.
Elegant variation is the use of synonyms to avoid repetition or add variety. The term was introduced in 1906 by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler in The King's English. In their meaning of the term, they focus particularly on instances when the word being avoided is a noun or its pronoun. Pronouns are themselves variations intended to avoid awkward repetition, and variations are so often necessary, that they should be used only when needed. The Fowlers recommend that "variations should take place only when there is some awkwardness, such as ambiguity or noticeable monotony, in the word avoided".
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the name no longer suitably applies. A misnomer may also be simply a word that someone uses incorrectly or misleadingly. The word "misnomer" does not mean "misunderstanding" or "popular misconception", and a number of misnomers remain in common usage — which is to say that a word being a misnomer does not necessarily make usage of the word incorrect.
Inshallah, also spelled In shaa Allah, In sha Allah, Insya Allah, and İn şa Allah, is an Arabic-language expression meaning "if God wills" or "God willing". It was mentioned in the Quran which required the use of it when speaking on future events. In an Islamic context, it expresses the belief that nothing happens unless God wills it, and that his will supersedes all human will; however, more generally the phrase is commonly used by Muslims, Arab Christians and Arabic speakers of other religions to refer to events that one hopes will happen in the future, having the same meaning as the English word "hopefully".
A contronym, contranym or autantonym is a word with two meanings that are opposite each other. For example, the word cleave can mean "to cut apart" or "to bind together". This phenomenon is called enantiosemy, enantionymy, antilogy or autantonymy. An enantiosemic term is by definition polysemic.
Faggot, often shortened to fag in American usage, is a term, usually a pejorative, used to refer to gay men. In American youth culture around the turn of the 21st century, its meaning extended as a broader reaching insult more related to masculinity and group power structure.
The Spanish language employs a wide range of swear words that vary between Spanish speaking nations and in regions and subcultures of each nation. Idiomatic expressions, particularly profanity, are not always directly translatable into other languages, and so most of the English translations offered in this article are very rough and most likely do not reflect the full meaning of the expression they intend to translate.[c]
In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change. Linguistic reclamation can have wider implications in the fields of discourse and has been described in terms of personal or sociopolitical empowerment.
Hopefully is an adverb which means "in a hopeful manner" or, when used as a disjunct, "it is hoped". Its use as a disjunct has prompted controversy among advocates of linguistic purism or linguistic prescription.
A privative, named from Latin privare, "to deprive", is a particle that negates or inverts the value of the stem of the word. In Indo-European languages many privatives are prefixes; but they can also be suffixes, or more independent elements.
A combustible material is a material that can burn in air under certain conditions. A material is flammable if it ignites easily at ambient temperatures. In other words, a combustible material ignites with some effort and a flammable material catches fire immediately on exposure to flame.
A girlfriend is a woman who is a friend, acquaintance or partner to the speaker, usually a female companion with whom one is platonically, romantically, or sexually involved. In a romantic context, this normally signifies a committed relationship where the individuals are not married. Other titles, for example "wife" or "partner", usually signify that the individuals are legally married. The analogous term for men is "boyfriend", which almost always implies romantic involvement.
Corporate jargon is the jargon often used in large corporations, bureaucracies, and similar workplaces. The language register of the term is generally being presented in a negative light or disapprovingly. It is often considered to be needlessly obscure or, alternatively, used to disguise an absence of information. Its use in corporations and other large organisations has been widely noted in media.
"The F Word" is the twelfth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 193rd overall episode of the series, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 4, 2009. In the episode, the boys attempt to change the official definition of the word fag from an anti-homosexual slur to a term describing loud and obnoxious Harley bikers.
This list comprises widespread modern beliefs about English language usage that are documented by a reliable source to be misconceptions.
In modern usage, retard is a pejorative term either for someone with a mental disability or for someone who is considered stupid, slow to understand, or ineffective in some way. The adjective retarded is in the same way used for something very foolish or stupid. Because it is now considered offensive, the word is commonly referred to by the euphemisms "r-word" and "r-slur".
References
- ↑ Bryan A. Garner, Garner's Modern American Usage, 2009, p. 306f
- 1 2 Ben Yagoda, How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them, ISBN 1594488487, 2013, p. 82 and passim.
- 1 2 Brenner, Erin (13 March 2014). "The Politics of Writing: Should You Use Skunked Terms?" . Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- ↑ Brenner, Erin (22 February 2012). "The Story Behind "Fulsome"" . Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- ↑ Baggini, Julian (18 May 2013). "'I feel so humble' – the common cry of heroes and villains". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- ↑ "Flammable vs. Inflammable". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
- ↑ "Be (all) downhill definition". Cambridge English Dictionary. Archived from the original on Dec 20, 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ↑ Hawkes, Steve (13 August 2013). "Uproar as OED includes erroneous use of 'literally'". The Telegraph . Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- ↑ Marsh, David (16 January 2015). "The meaning of 'moot' is a moot point – whichever variety of English you speak | Mind your language". The Guardian . Retrieved 2018-07-27.
- ↑ Zimmer, Ben (February 8, 2013). "A "Steep Learning Curve" for "Downton Abbey"". Word Routes. Vocabulary.com. Retrieved April 6, 2023.
- ↑ "Opinion | In a Word" . The New York Times. 1999-01-30. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-12.
- 1 2 Perlman, Merrill (20 October 2014). "How common descriptors fall out of favor". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on Nov 22, 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- ↑ "faggot (noun)". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
- ↑ Prynne, Miranda (1 November 2013). "Man banned from Facebook for liking faggots". The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
- ↑ "Definition of biweekly". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2021-02-14.
- ↑ Cinemassacre (May 6, 2020). Pavlou, Chris (ed.). "You Know What's BS!? The Word Bimonthly". YouTube. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
- ↑ "Disinterested definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Archived from the original on May 20, 2023.
- ↑ Liberman, Mark (May 27, 2012). "The H-word". Language Log. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- ↑ Beaujon, Andrew (19 April 2012). "Hopefully, this is the last we'll write about 'hopefully'". Poynter. Archived from the original on Sep 27, 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.