Apr 10, 2023 · What is the origin of the term ‘blue movie’ to mean porn film? Were there for example ‘blue photos’ before film? The usage of ‘blue’ for nasty, lewd, deviant, seems to go back at least as …

Apr 5, 2020 · Blue has nothing to do with color in this expression, and everything to do with alliteration, as @HotLicks pointed out. Blue blazes is just a more emphatic version of the euphemism blazes for …

Jul 24, 2013 · Not only is a needle in a haystack nearly impossible to find (without a magnet), but more importantly it is very dangerous for the animals consuming the hay. It is a problem with a dire …

Oct 20, 2016 · What's blue in the picture above? It's called “blue” because it has a blueish color. Beef meat has a blueish (or purplish, depending on your color perception) color, changing to red with …

Jan 21, 2017 · I dislike 'table stakes' to describe the bare essentials. Looking for a better way to describe it. For example: Email and SaaS applications are just table stakes. Custom enterprise software gives...

As will be deduced from the currency of the stakes, if nothing else, that 1858 use, although it appears in a US newspaper, refers to an English horserace. Setting aside the US transitional, figurative uses of …

I typically don’t use an apostrophe with plurals in any situation, but I always assumed that the use of an apostrophe in constructions like acronyms: Forty BA’s were given out to students this ye...

Oct 13, 2015 · There are no special rules for capitalizing the word "state" in ordinary, non-technical English. It should be capitalized when at the start of a sentence, or when it is part of a proper noun. …

Oct 31, 2012 · I would need to understand the following: They tried very hard to mislead the interviewer, for the stakes were very high. What is the meaning of the second clause?

Jul 18, 2020 · Is there a more formal term for when one person calls "shotgun" for these collisions (i.e. calls dibs, or claims ownership)? In formal language, it's to stake a claim. [Merriam-Webster, from …