Category: English

The Magister’s comment to Nick Nicholas’ answer to Do you find Thucydides hard to read in Greek? https://www.quora.com/Do-you-fin… I feel your pain. I am sorry to report that’s just Thucydides talkin’, too. Try reading Pericles’ famous speech if you want to develop trichotillomania. I understood the word, and now, you will too: Trichotillomania – Wikipedia: […]

None of the answers satisfy me, though Logan R. Kearsley’s is by far the closest to satisfying me. EDIT: Uri Granta’s answer satisfies me more than mine. Go read that. There is a colloquial register in English, in which the first person subject is omitted routinely. It predates social media; see, for example the Beatles’ […]

Michael Masiello’s answer to Was God a person? No, but it is refreshing to see someone flirt with euhemerism on Quora. Euhemerism – Wikipedia Euhemerism is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths […]

The true and honest and equitable answer is the Magister’s: Michael Masiello’s answer to Is it veridical to state that esoteric verbosity culminates in communicative ennui? Vote #1 Michael Masiello. Vote early and vote often. The petty and cavilling answer is mine. Others have gone part of the way there, but I’ll finish the task. […]

Is it veridical to state that esoteric verbosity culminates in communicative ennui? has triggered this from me: Nick Nicholas’ answer to Is it veridical to state that esoteric verbosity culminates in communicative ennui? Esoteric does not just mean “obscure”, it means understood only by very few select people, who are initiated into knowledge. The Greek […]

Michael Masiello’s answer to Why is it so hard for many to believe that the Earth and mankind were designed? If you can still believe in naive teleology after you read this essay by Stephen Jay Gould , try reading it again. And the panda’s thumb, I’m afraid, is the tip of a vertiginous iceberg. […]

A doctor has suggested me Combiflam trice a day for five days for a liquid problem discharge in my breast. Is it fine? What are some amazing pictures one has to see trice to understand? If the value of each letter in the alphabet series is made trice of its serial number then L-H+O=? … […]

Yes. Using tools from Online Etymology Dictionary: Humilis is Latin for humble. Humble is Old French humble < *humle < *humile < humilis. Humility is from Latin humilitas “humbleness”, which comes from humilis. Humiliate is to make someone feel like crap: you’re humbling them, you’re making them feel low (which is actually what humilis originally […]

Not that recondite a word, but any soupçon from the Magister is welcome here: https://necrologue.quora.com/201… I just want to say, publicly, and despite the possibility of offending some friends, that I thought the fake death gag puerile and unhelpful. puerile 1. Immature, especially in being silly or trivial; childish. 2. Archaic Belonging to childhood; juvenile. […]