negation - When a negative question is asked, what is the grammatically correct way to answer?





How to answer a negative question without ambiguity?
Response to “Would you not do it?”



When a negative question is asked, what is the grammatically correct way to answer? If someone asks you Didn't you come by car today?, what is the correct answer?




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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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First floor vs ground floor, usage origin

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usage - "there doesn't seem" vs. "there don't seem"

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pronunciation - Where does the intrusive R come from in “warsh”?

My grandmother, who grew up in western Pennsylvania, pronounced wash and Washington with an intrusive R : “warsh” and “Warshington.” Where does the intrusive R come from in that dialect? It doesn’t seem to be produced by the same mechanism that changes law and order to “lawr and order” in non-rhotic dialects (plus, my grandmother’s dialect was rhotic, if I recall correctly). Answer According to John Kelly of the Washington Post ( Catching the Sounds of the City ), he claims: "warsh" is the predominant characteristic of what linguists call America's midland accent. The accent can be found in the swath of the country that extends west from Washington, taking in Maryland; southern Pennsylvania; West Virginia; parts of Virginia; southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; most of Missouri; and Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, much of Kansas and west Texas. With the help of Barbara Johnstone, of Carnegie Mellon University , he traces it back to Scotch-Irish immigrants at ...
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Abbreviation of "Street"

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

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meaning - What is synonyme of "scale"?

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