Posts by dsr
Let's disregard vestments (clothing) for a moment and consider hats. In many cultures, specific hats are associated with different social roles. Sometimes these are strictly regulated by sumptuary ...
He/she may be used to refer to an object. The accepted practice in English is for boats and ships to be considered female; this is unusual enough to be remarked upon by non-sailors. All other uses...
If you rephrase this question to ask about "the influence of Norman French on English", you will discover a myriad of searchable sources and references, and the book Contact: The Interaction of Clo...
Let's look at the described phenomena, as they changed over the years. First we have ownership: the idea that a particular person has a right to determine what is done and not done with a physical...
A pimple is a small theft of beauty.
It would take a literature search to prove it, but I think that the claimed etymology is not precisely correct for English. It is often the case for English that a word is adopted and then a mutati...
Remember that lawyers love to put their own stamp on language, and hold on to fanciful usages while pretending they are the clearest, most common parlance. https://dictionary.thelaw.com/demise/ is...