conjunctions - Omission of "and" in headlines


What is this phenomenon called?


Is it common in all English-speaking countries?




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etymology - Origin of "s--t eating grin"

What is the origin of the phrase shit eating grin ? How did it come to mean showing smugness or self-satisfaction of an individual's actions? Answer From the Urban Dictionary: ...these uses are documented in the Oxford English Dictionary no earlier than 1957 There have been similar expressions used quite far back: In Book XXI of his History of Rome, Livy describes a Carthaginian sect of coprophages, the risus faecivorus, or shit-eating grin, being commonly displayed by its adherents. Although, its origin is undetermined, they may have been incidents which caused the invention of this phrase. Below is an excerpt: "1944 Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis. XCIX. 959 Among demented patients in advanced stages of their illness,..it is not rare to see some of them grasp their own feces, chew them and eat them often with great pleasure and satisfaction (coprophagia).
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usage - "there doesn't seem" vs. "there don't seem"

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Abbreviation of "Street"

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First floor vs ground floor, usage origin

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The term a hot minute can be found all over blogs and in casual speech, meaning essentially, "a long time." The term is mostly slang, but seems to have become popular enough to appear on sites as reputable as PBS.org. Delia pretends to be mad about it for a hot minute but gets over it pretty quickly because the love of her life is finally home. I can't find it defined in reputable dictionaries, but The New York Times confirms the meaning in this article about slang uses of the word "hot." Hottie is still bandied about on campus by not-quite-with-it seniors, and a hot minute is defined as “a long time.” There is life left in the cleaned-up meaning of hot mess, which has come to mean “disheveled” or “incompetent,” as in “I was a hot mess this morning before I hit the shower.” The term reminds me of "A New York Minute," which means the exact opposite, "a very short time." So what is the origin of the term "a hot minute," and how lo...
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meaning - "Instable" or "unstable"?

From my experience, it seems that although unstable is more commonly used, instable is often preferred in engineering and scientific contexts, e.g. "aircraft instability", "instable algorithm". Are there any differences in the implied meaning of the two terms? Should unstable be preferred? Answer I have not seen the word "instable" being used often. The word "instability" exists, though. Funnily, the word "unstability" does not exist. And even in engineering, the same two words are used - "unstable sorting algorithm", "unstable equilibrium", and as you said, "aircraft instability". Instability is just the noun form of unstable. EDIT from comments: The word "unstability" does exist, apparently, but is rarely used. I personally have never seen it. Even the spell check in Firefox marks it as a spelling mistake and suggests "instability" instead.
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