etymology - English Language Usage Stack Exchange The cat in copy-cat means person The OED says at copy-cat n : Etymology: cat n 1 2 the referenced sense being: cat n 1 2 fig a As a term of contempt for a human being; esp one who scratches like a cat; a spiteful or backbiting woman spec an itinerant worker (U S slang)
Origin of the phrase, Theres more than one way to skin a cat. Other versions include “there are more ways of killing a cat than by choking it with butter”, and “there are more ways of killing a dog than choking him with pudding” The earliest version appears as far back as 1678, in the second edition of John Ray’s collection of English proverbs, in which he gives it as “there are more ways to
Alternatives to the expression poor mans lt;noun gt; Generic, Lite, no-name, off-brand, knock-off, dollar store, back alley (can indicate illegality), wannabe (or copy-cat but less so) The idea that “poor man’s X” is not gender neutral is hilarious though
What is the meaning of the idiom cats in the cradle? The refrain uses the phrase "cat's in the cradle" and these words bring up images of a young family and the short and sweet the time of infancy However, a cat in the cradle wasn't always a warm and fuzzy image (Rebecca K O'Connor, www petplace com) The song is from 1974 and the expression spread around that date as suggested by Ngram
How does pussy come to mean coward? The other one, which I copy below, is the purported source of pussy meaning "coward" Basically, using a pet name usually given to women, like sweetheart, princess, etc to refer to a man mockingly a Chiefly colloq A girl or woman exhibiting characteristics associated with a cat, esp sweetness or amiability
Which should I use with neither nor: has or have? Neither the first nor the second, fourth or fifth versions of the original, written in Latin (the language of science at the time) have survived until our time[, but fortunately a battered copy of the third edition shows ] So, if you use the singular 'version', use 'has'; if you use the plural 'versions', use 'have'
What do we call the “rd” in “3ʳᵈ” and the “th” in “9ᵗʰ”? @WS2 In speech, very nearly always In writing, much less so I think what may be going on is that one just assumes that “June 1” is pronounced “June First”, or “4 July” as “the Fourth of July”
grammar - Why use break out instead of broken out? - English . . . On the right lines, but I think it's to do with whether the thing (fire, purse) is the agent or patient of the verb, rather than with transitive intransitive per se: in "I had my best friend leave me" and "I had a fire break out", the friend and the fire are the ones doing the leaving breaking out, but "leave" is transitive and "break out" intransitive
nouns - Use of scan vs copy vs scanned copy referring to an email . . . A 'copy' feels more generic, hence the qualifying phrase above 'scanned copy' But I see 'copy' used quite ubiquitously for things like this But it also seems more correct with respect to 'scanned copy' as it is subjectively the same but without the qualifying 'scanned' part - it is expected that the reader would know it is scanned