Does anyone use both whinge and whine? The words "whinge" and "whine" have separate (albeit very similar) definitions in the OED, and they have distinct pronunciations "Whinge" seems completely restricted to BritE; I have never heard it
Are the origins of the idioms on the fly and just wing it related? 3 I was recently trying to think of another way to say "on the fly", in the context of a performance, speech, or action I thought of the idiom "winging it" I then wondered if the origins of these two idioms are in any way related, because of the words "wing" and "fly" Did one of these idioms spawn from the other?
Past tense of to wing? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Is there a past tense of the verb "to wing," meaning to make up on the fly? Inspired by a blog post of Wil Wheaton, quoted partially below "Is it from a recipe, or are you winging it?" "
What is the origin of the Australian slang “pommers” to refer to . . . Wikipedia has a list of Australian slang words for people, and says: pom or *pommie - an Australian nickname given to English people Somewhat derogatory in nature the term can be used in both a positive and negative context There is a debate as to how the word came about, some believe the original term "POME" is an anacronym for "Prisoner Of Mother England" the title given to convicts sent
Origin of the term Pom - English Language Usage Stack Exchange 6 I am fishing for an explanation The term 'Pom' for an Englishman is used in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa The common explanation is that it is derived from 'pomegranate' - saying the British have red cheeks or 'Prisoner of Her Majesty' Neither of these are satisfactory as 'Pom' only applies to the English, not the British in general or other red-faced immigrants who turn up The
What is the origin of the phrase zero, zip, zilch, nada? The phrase, with variants, predates Batman: The Animated Series (1992 to 1995) The earliest result in Google Books is a snippet of Me, Minsky Max by Bruce Pollock (Page 221, 1978): This whole dumb trip might have been for nothing! Zero, zilch, zip, nada, nothing I wondered how I'd recognize him Would he give off some kind of winning quintessential Stillman gleam, or would he come laden
What does Homer mean when he says, her words had wings? Nobody knows for sure The Greek phrase is “ἔπεα πτερόεντα”, and “winged words” is a literal translation The idiomatic meaning of this expression is not known, and it has spurred considerable debate amongst translators and scholars Herbert Jordan, who translated Homer into English, shares some of the issues he encountered on his website He discusses winged words A
Winged or Wingèd? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Okay here is the problem: In a certain story I am writing, I have a place called the "Winged Lion Inn" which serves as a locus for several story-related events I have a friend that insists it