Where does the exclamation F***ing Hell originate? As we all know, the underworld cannot fornicate as it is not a living being (probably) Where then, did the natural-feeling pairing of swear-words "Fucking hell" come from?
Is half-a-dozen an accepted term? - English Language Usage Stack . . . Mod Would you like another half-dozen? b c 1401 Jack Upland in Pol Poems (Rolls) II 69 The cloith of oo man Myȝte hele half a doseyne 1420–1555 [see dozen n 1] 1648 Gage West Ind 12 He offered unto me halfe a dozen of Spanish pistols Ibid 80 Halfe a dozen Hollanders leapt into the boat after him 1711 Addison Spect No 1
grammaticality - Can you use many, many in this way? - English . . . This is strictly spoken or informal written English Unless you're writing some kind of serious formal report, business letter, or academic paper that's going to be published in a reputable journal, it shouldn't matter Who's gonna contend that "many, many" is unreasonable colloquial English? I'd still say "very many people", "myriad people", or "scads of people" instead of "many, many
Why is head over heels used as if it were exceptional rather than . . . The Oxford English Dictionary describes "head over heels" as a corruption of "heels over head" (my emphasis) The latter phrase it cites from 1400 My own experience is that as a small child "head over heels" was the first term I knew for what was later called a "somersault"