Why is gauge spelled with a u? - English Language Usage Stack . . . The figurative use is from 1580s As a noun, "fixed standard of measure," early 15c (surname Gageman is early 14c ), from O N Fr gauge "gauging rod " Meaning "instrument for measuring" is from 1680s Is it just a quirk, or is there a deeper reason?
Major, Minor: Any words for gauging more importance or less? But I'm not sure about prime We will have multiple items with the label prime, and I am not sure if prime should only be used with a singleton Are prime, major, minor, and slight the best set of items for a choice list for gauging importance or for describing magnitude of impact or value?
What is the origin of weighing the pig doesnt make it fatter It seems fairly clear that the controversy over focusing on standardized testing as a means of gauging the quality of education that a school offers has caused this small geyser of pig-weighing analogies
More so or moreso? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange @rintaun: Those are not "examples the other way", since "anymore" and "everyday" are both cases where a compound was standardly written open ("I don't eat any more") or at least hyphenated ("an every-day affair") and eventually became closed Grammarian's answer is asserting that the whole reason some people write "moreso" is that there's no history of using "more so" that way
Where does the exclamation F***ing Hell originate? Hi didn't mean for you to heat it it, you hinfernal rogue you!" It seems to me extremely likely that the blushworthy "bloody hell" of the 1800s was rendered in some quarters as the unspeakably filthy alternative "fucking hell " But gauging how far back in informal speech either expletive goes is quite difficult, owing to their taboo character
reestablish vs. re-establish - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Therefore and returning to the case of re-establish vs reestablish, it comes down to a question of popular usage and somehow gauging if one spelling trumps the other On ELU, we do this by comparing Google Ngrams The following Ngram for reestablish vs re-establish suggests that the hyphen is steadily becoming unnecessary
A phrase to use in lieu of the air was thick with anticipation. . . ? Replacing "the anticipation that hung thickly in the air" with "the collective sense of expectation" in the final sentence of the quotation would at least avoid repeating the air-thick-anticipation triad from the first sentence Cutting the quoted paragraph by at least one full sentence would improve it even more, in my opinion However, that suggestion amounts to writing advice, which is off
meaning - Is Blitzkrieg a word that average native speaker would . . . Just as most parents think their kids are smart, when definitional reality says half of all kids are below average, personal assertions of one's "averageness" are not at all useful in gauging information about a group They could be underselling themselves, or arrogantly tooting their own horn, etc etc
What’s the origin and history of the phrase “ten foot pole”? To effect the same [gauging a means of conveying water over a distance of 1,000 yards] by the Water or Spirit-Level, you are to stand at the Spring-head, and having turn’d your instrument on the hanging Level, or, in other plainer Words, on the Hang of the Hill where the Water is to pass, let your Assistant set forwards with a ten Foot Pole