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- Why . . . ? vs. Why is it that . . . ? - English Language Usage Stack . . .
11 Why is it that everybody wants to help me whenever I need someone's help? Why does everybody want to help me whenever I need someone's help? Can you please explain to me the difference in meaning between these two questions? I don't see it
- Why was Spook a slur used to refer to African Americans?
I understand that the word spook is a racial slur that rose in usage during WWII; I also know Germans called black gunners Spookwaffe What I don't understand is why Spook seems to also mean 'ghos
- How did the letter Z come to be associated with sleeping snoring?
Edit: Another Wikipedia page: The big Z It is a convention in American comics that the sound of a snore can be reduced to a single letter Z Thus a speech bubble with this letter standing all alone (again, drawn by hand rather than a font type) means the character is sleeping in most humorous comics This can be seen, for instance, in Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strips Being such a long
- Why does No mean Number? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange
Why does English use "No " as an abbreviation for "Number"? It's a preserved scribal abbreviation like the ampersand (formed by eliding the letters of et to mean and)
- Why is “bloody” considered offensive in the UK but not in the US?
As to why "Bloody" is considered obscene profane in the UK more than in the US, I think that's a reflection of a stronger Catholic presence, historically, in the UK than in the US, if we're accepting the above etymology, as Catholics venerate the Virgin to a greater extent than Protestants
- etymology - Why shrink (of a psychiatrist)? - English Language . . .
I know it originates from "head shrinking", but it doesn't help me a lot to understand the etymology Why are psychiatrists called that? Is it like "my head is swollen [from anguish, misery, stress
- etymology - Why is “number” abbreviated as “No. ”? - English Language . . .
The spelling of number is number, but the abbreviation is No (№) There is no letter o in number, so where does this spelling come from?
- Why is pineapple in English but ananas in all other languages?
The question is: why did the English adapt the name pineapple from Spanish (which originally meant pinecone in English) while most European countries eventually adapted the name ananas, which came from the Tupi word nanas (also meaning pineapple)
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