etymology - Where does the phrase doctored originate? - English . . . The earliest Google Books match for an instance of doctored in a transitional (or perhaps post-transitional) sense between "amended" and "adulterated" appears in William Marshall, The Rural Economy of Glocestershire; Including Its Dairy: Together with the Dairy Management of North Wiltshire, and the Management of Orchards and Fruit Liquor, in Herefordshire, volume 2 (1789): Men in general
How did “to doctor” come to mean “to falsify? [duplicate] She doctored him all up and he was good as new Interestingly Merriam-Webster lumps the use of 'doctor' "to fix" together with "doctor" to alter There is then implied humor in the use of the term 'doctor' when the 'good result' is actually an ignoble one, though as desired by the implicit 'doctor'
What do you call it when a scam artist modifies the contents of a . . . To distinguish between the legitimate document and the one that was altered to be deceptive, you could refer to the falsified document as doctored Merriam-Webster provides the definition under doctor as a transitive verb: 2 b to alter deceptively The OED provides a more detailed definition: 3 fig To treat so as to alter the appearance, flavour, or character of; to disguise, falsify, tamper
word choice - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Is there a pronoun I can use as a gender-neutral pronoun when referring back to a singular noun phrase? Each student should save his questions until the end Each student should save her questions
Which was the first doctor, M. D. or Ph. D. ? But which of Ph D or M D was first referred to as a doctor? Are you saying that at the year such degree titles letters started to be conferred, those people were already referred to as 'doctor'? And if so, then the answer boils down to which of PhD or MD was the first to be conferred?
adjectives - English Language Usage Stack Exchange The belief in this as an innate property of things is resistentialism Somebody let a feral object loose As a mechanic and engineer, I have been gamekeeper of a resistential menagerie for 40 years Resistentialism is a jocular theory to describe "seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects", [1] where objects that cause problems (like lost keys, printers, or a runaway bouncy
Is it correct to use their instead of his or her? Is this sentence grammatically correct? Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in their bookcase or should it be: Anyone who loves the English language should hav
Tug at your heart or tug at your heart strings? "Tug (or 'pull') at one's heartstrings" is an established idiom "Tug at one's heart", is not, though it is a perfectly valid expression, with the right meaning Your question is slightly ambiguous, because of the word "make": to be clear, it is the thing that elicits compassion (which might be a person, an action, or an event) which "tugs at your heartstrings" You wouldn't use it of the