nouns - Are there any specific words for the first events and first things



Are there any specific words for the first events and first things like the first rain, the first fruit of a plant, the first grey hairs, etc.?




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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"

I know that Street is abbreviated as St . But does the t in St represent the first t or the last t in Street ? Drive is abbreviated as Dr , which means it could be the first t , but Road is abbreviated as Rd , which means it could be the last t , if we were following the same pattern. (Please note that this question is not opinion based. By looking at the patterns of other common abbreviations we can conjecture as to, or even deduce, the origin of St .) Answer The "t" in "st" should be taken as the first "t" of "street." Consider that abbreviations of common nouns (especially in the domain of roadways) beginning with a consonant-vowel pair usually take the first consonant and the last consonant (or strategic consonants which appear throughout), as evinced by: road --> rd lane --> ln point --> pt cove --> cv view --> vw highway --> hwy parkway --> pkwy boulevard --> blvd doctor --> dr Abbreviations of common nou...
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First floor vs ground floor, usage origin

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etymology - Since when has "a hot minute" meant a long time?

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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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