phrases - What is the grammar behind "Thanks be to God"?


What is the grammatical interpretation of the phrase? I don't understand what verb tense or voice is used.




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

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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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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First floor vs ground floor, usage origin

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meaning - What is synonyme of "scale"?

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punctuation - Is "et al" always accompanied by a period?

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word choice - Is it offensive to call people with autism "mentally disabled"?

I recently posted a post on Reddit about my app for people with autism, cerebral palsy and other diseases . Someone pointed out usage of "mental handicap" as offensive, but the comment has disappeared before I read it. Are these considered offensive? Mental handicap Mental disorder Mental disease Mentally disabled Person with special needs Mentally challenged Could you please help me? I don't want to offend anybody. What are the best/"safest" terms to use? Answer Mental handicap - offensive. (period) Mental disorder - not true of Cerebral Palsy (it affects physical movement only in a majority of cases) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy . Not universally accepted as true of all autism. https://www.mencap.org.uk/learning-disability-explained/conditions/autism-and-aspergers-syndrome Mental disease - Not true of Cerebral Palsy (see above). Not universally accepted as true of all autism. Mentally disabled - Not true of Cerebral Palsy (see above). Not ...
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