declension

en-noun

declension (countable and uncountable, plural declensions)

From Middle English declenson, from Middle French declinaison (Modern French: déclinaison), from Latin dēclīnātiō. Doublet of declination.

(grammar) The act of declining a word; the act of listing the inflections of a noun, pronoun or adjective in order.

a page full of declensions

(grammar) The product of that act; a list of declined forms.

In Latin, 'amicus' belongs to the second declension. Most second-declension nouns end in '-i' in the genitive singular and '-um' in the accusative singular.

(grammar) A way of categorizing nouns, pronouns, or adjectives according to the inflections they receive.


ending

From Middle English endyng, endinge, endunge, from Old English endung, ġeendung (“ending”), equivalent to end + -ing. Cognate with Dutch ending (“ending”), German Endung (“ending”).

Spanish verb forms have different endings depending on the tense, mood and person.

(grammar) The last morpheme of a word, added to some base to make an inflected form (such as -s in "dogs").


interjection

/ˌɪn.tɚˈd͡ʒɛk.ʃən/

From Middle English interjeccioun, from Old French interjection (13th century), from Latin interiectiōnem, accusative singular of interiectiō (“throwing or placing between; interjection”), perfect passive participle of intericiō (“throw or place between”), from inter (“between”) + iaciō (“throw”). Displaced Old English betwēoxāworpennes (literally “between-thrown-out-ness”), a calque of the Latin.

cog

Some evidence confirming our suspicions that topicalised and dislocated constituents occupy different sentence positions comes from Greenberg (1984). He notes that in colloquial speech the interjection man can occur after dislocated constituents, but not after topicalised constituents: cf.
 (21) (a) Bill, man, I really hate him (dislocated NP)
 (21) (b) ^✽Bill, man, I really hate (topicalised NP)

1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 10, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 533:

(grammar) An exclamation or filled pause; a word or phrase with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence, often an expression of emotion.


infinitive

From Middle French infinitif, from Late Latin infinitivus (“unlimited, indefinite”), from Latin infinitus (“unlimited, infinite”).

der

The MANNERS of acting, in grammar called modes or moods, are four; Infinitive, Imperative, Indicative, Subjunctive or Conjunctive.

1847, J. J. P. Le Brethon, L. Sandier, Guide to the French language; especially devised for persons who wish to study that language without the assistance of a teacher. the tenth edition, revised and corrected, London, page 69:

There are four moods, the Infinitive, Imperative, Indicative, and Subjunctive. [...] the Infinitive is used to express a thing in a general manner.

1857, Henry Tindall, A grammar and vocabulary of the Namaqua-Hottentot language, page 38:

(grammar) The infinitive mood or mode (a grammatical mood).

(grammar) A non-finite verb form considered neutral with respect to inflection; depending on language variously found used with auxiliary verbs, in subordinate clauses, or acting as a gerund, and often as the dictionary form.

(grammar) A verbal noun formed from the infinitive of a verb.


infinitive

INFINITIVE MOOD or MANNER.
To Have, Avoir.

1847, J. J. P. Le Brethon, L. Sandier, Guide to the French language; especially devised for persons who wish to study that language without the assistance of a teacher. the tenth edition, revised and corrected, London, page 70:

In English there are four moods:–1. The Infinitive Mood. 2. The Indicative Mood. 3. the Imperative Mood. 4. The Subjunctive Mood.

1858, C. P. Mason, English grammar; including the principles of grammatical analysis, London, page 32:


copula

Borrowed from Latin copula (“connection, linking of words”), from co- (“together”) + apere (“fasten”). Doublet of couple.

bor

I begin by arguing in section 2 that there are in fact at least two Celtic copulas, a grammatical copula that simply spells out tense and agreement, and a substantive copula formed on a lexically listed verbal stem.

1994, Randall Hendrick, “8: The Brythonic Celtic copula and head raising”, in David Lightfoot, Norbert Hornstein, editors, Verb Movement, page 163:

The theory of conjunctively tensed copulae will be developed and stated with more precision in the following section.

2002, Quentin Smith, Language and Time, page 189:

This paper explores the position of the copula in the development of the verb system in second language acquisition of Italian.

2003, Giuliano Bernini, “The copula in learner Italian: Finiteness and verbal inflection”, in Christine Dimroth, Marianne Starren, editors, Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition, page 159:

The present study focuses on the acquisition of a specific verbal element, namely the copula, in predicative constructions in a cross-linguistic perspective (English, German, Croatian).

2006, Christine Czinglar, Antigone Katiĉić, Katharina Köhler, Chris Schaner-Wolles, edited by Natalia Gagarina and Insa Gülzow, Strategies in the L1-Acquisition of Predication: The Copula Construction in German and Croatian, page 95:

(linguistics, grammar) A word, usually a verb, used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate (usually a subject complement or an adverbial), that unites or associates the subject with the predicate.


in

PIE word
 *h₁en
Preposition and verb from Middle English in, from Old English in, from Proto-Germanic *in.
Adverb, noun and adjective from Middle English in, from Old English inn and inne, from Proto-Germanic *innai.
Sense 1/2 "in"/"into" are from the original PIE prefix, with locative/accusative case respectively. Sense 3/4 "qualification"/"means" are from the PIE metaphor of all infinitives coming from locatives.

Many English nouns in -is form their plurals in -es.

Used to indicate location, inclusion, or position within spatial, temporal or other limits.


head

en-noun

head (countable and uncountable, plural heads or head)

base

antonym(s) of “topmost part of anything”

→ Japanese: ヘッド (heddo)

Sranan Tongo: ede

Aukan: ede

Saramaccan: hédi

From Middle English hed, heed, heved, heaved, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; source, origin; chief, leader; capital”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput-. The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-, the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth.
cognates
Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved (“head”), Old English hafola (“head”), North Frisian hood (“head”), Dutch hoofd (“head”), German Haupt (“head”), Swedish huvud (“head”), Danish hoved (“head”), Icelandic höfuð (“head”), Latin caput (“head”), Sanskrit कपाल (kapāla, “skull”), Hindi कपाल (kapāl, “skull”).

頭

つぶり, tsuburi, つぃぶる, tsiburu, つぃぶるぃ, tsiburi

pää

principal operative part of a machine or tool

have one's head screwed on the right way

know one's head from a hole in the ground

run around like a chicken with its head cut off

would lose one's head if it wasn't attached

would lose one's head if it wasn't bolted on

would lose one's head if it wasn't glued on

would lose one's head if it wasn't screwed on

would lose one's head if it wasn't stuck on

would lose one's head if it wasn't tied on

would lose one's head if it weren't attached

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

you can't put a wise head on young shoulders

(linguistics) A morpheme that determines the category of a compound or the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member.

perusosa

linguistics: morpheme that determines the category of a compound


superlative

From Middle English superlatyf, from Old French superlatif, from Late Latin superlātīvus, from Latin superlātus (“extravagant, of hyperbole”), past participle of superfero (“carry over”), from super (“above”) + fero (“bear, carry”).

der

The superlative of "big" is "biggest".

(grammar) The form of an adjective that expresses which of several items has the highest degree of the quality expressed by the adjective; in English, formed by appending "-est" to the end of the adjective (for some short adjectives only) or putting "most" before it.


superlative

(grammar) Of or relating to a superlative.


attributive

en-adj

attributive (comparative more attributive, superlative most attributive)

more attributive (comparative)
most attributive (superlative)

In "this big house", "big" is attributive, whereas in "this house is big", it is predicative.

In "this tiger is a man-eater," "man" is an attributive noun.

Since both Attributes and Adjuncts recursively expand N-bar into N-bar, it seems clear that the two have essentially the same function, so that Attributes are simply pronominal Adjuncts (though we shall continue to follow tradition and refer to attributive premodifiers as Attributes rather than Adjuncts).

1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 197:

ATTRIBUTIVE NOUN. A noun that modifies another noun: steel in steel bridge; London in London house.

2005, Thomas Burns McArthur, Tom McArthur, Roshan McArthur, Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language:

Grammatically, three ways of using adjectives can be distinguished: the attributive use, the predicative use and the adverbial use. We will only deal with the attributive and the predicative use here. In the attributive use, the adjective, within an NP, is attached to the head noun, e.g. a dubious company, a red balloon, the stupid driver.

2013, Sebastian Loebner, Understanding Semantics:

(grammar, of a word or phrase) Modifying another word, typically a noun, while in the same phrase.


attributive

In "this big house," "big" is an attributive, while in "this house is big," it is a predicative.

(grammar) An attributive word or phrase (see above), contrasted with predicative or substantive.

定語

a word or phrase that modifies a noun and is part of the noun's noun phrase


irregular

irregular (comparative more irregular, superlative most irregular)

more irregular (comparative)
most irregular (superlative)

/ɪˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə/

/ɪˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/

From Middle English irreguler, from Old French irreguler, from Medieval Latin or Late Latin irrēgulāris, from in- + regularis, equivalent to ir- + regular.

"Calves", "cacti", and "children" are irregular plurals.

I hate learning all the irregular conjugations in French.

(grammar, of a word) not following the regular or expected patterns of inflection in a given language

heteroclite

not following the regular patterns of inflection


conditional

From French conditionnel, from Old French condicionel, equivalent to condition + -al.

a conditional word, mode, or tense

(grammar) Expressing a condition or supposition.


conditional

conditional sentence
conditional sentence

(grammar) A conditional sentence; a statement that depends on a condition being true or false.


genitive

/ˈd͡ʒɛnətɪv/

From Renaissance Latin cāsus genitīvus (literally “case pertaining to origin, birth”) (also spelled cāsus genetīvus), from genitus, the perfect passive participle of gignō (“beget”).

der

The student who had taken a German exam realised his error afterwards. He had used the dative case instead of the genitive case to show possession.

(grammar) Of or pertaining to that case (as the second case of Latin and Greek nouns) which expresses a quality, origin or possession. It corresponds to the possessive case in English.

إِضَافِيّ

of or pertaining to the case of possession


genitive

en-noun

genitive (countable and uncountable, plural genitives)

/ˈd͡ʒɛnətɪv/

(grammar, uncountable) An inflection pattern (of any given language) that expresses origin or ownership and possession.

(grammar, countable) A word inflected in the genitive case; a word indicating origin, ownership or possession.


vocative

en-adj

vocative (comparative more vocative, superlative most vocative)

more vocative (comparative)
most vocative (superlative)

From Late Middle English [Term?], borrowed from Middle French vocatif, from Latin vocātīvus (“for calling”); a calque of Ancient Greek κλητῐκή (klētikḗ, “for calling; vocative case”) – from vocāre (“to call”), from Proto-Indo-European *wokʷ-, o-grade of *wekʷ- (“give vocal utterance, speak”). See Latin vōx.

(grammar) Used in address; appellative (said of that case or form of the noun, pronoun, or adjective, in which a person or thing is addressed). For example "Domine, O Lord"


comparative

From Middle English comparatif, from Middle French comparatif, from Latin comparātīvus, equivalent to comparātus, from comparāre (“to compare”) + -ive, from Latin -īvus.

(grammar) A construction showing a relative quality, in English usually formed by adding more or appending -er. For example, the comparative of green is greener; of evil, more evil.

(grammar) A word in the comparative form.


quantity

en-noun

quantity (countable and uncountable, plural quantities)

From Middle English quantite, from Old French quantité, from Latin quantitās (“quantity”), from quantus (“how much”).


helping verb

Such verbs as can be formed through the present and past times without the aid of any of these helping verbs, are called principal verbs, and are formed thus:

1814, Lindley Murray, The Young Man's Best Companion: And Book of General Knowledge:

(grammar) An auxiliary verb; a verb that accompanies the main verb in a clause.


close

en-adj

close (comparative closer, superlative closest)

closer (comparative)
closest (superlative)

open

antonym(s) of “articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate”

Borrowed from French clos, from Latin clausum, participle of claudō.

close only counts in horseshoes and darts

close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

(linguistics, phonetics, of a vowel) Articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate.


consonant

→ Swahili: konsonanti

From Middle English consonant or consonaunt, from Old French consonant, from Latin cōnsonāns (“sounding with”), from the prefix con- (“with”) + the present participle sonāns (“sounding”), from sonāre (“to sound”). The Latin is a calque of Ancient Greek σύμφωνον (súmphōnon).

(phonetics) A sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the dominant sound of a syllable, the dominant sound generally being a vowel.

ព្យញ្ជនៈ

pyŭəñcĕəʼnĕəʼ


tense

From Middle English tens, from Old French tens (modern French temps), from Latin tempus. Doublet of tempo and tempus.

Dyirbal verbs are not inflected for tense.

(linguistics, uncountable) The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.

English only has a past tense and a non-past tense; it has no future tense.

In ſo moche that if any verbe be of the thyꝛde coniugation
 I ſet out all his rotes and tenſes[…]

1530 July 18, Iohan Palſgrave, “The Introduction”, in Leſclarciſſement de la langue francoyſe […] , London: Richard Pynſon, Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, page 32; reprinted as Lesclarcissement de la langue françoyse, Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1972:

(linguistics, grammar, countable) An inflected form of a verb that indicates tense.

The basic tenses in English are present, past, and future.

(grammar, countable) Any of the forms of a verb which distinguish when an action or state of being occurs or exists.


tense

en-verb

tense (third-person singular simple present tenses, present participle tensing, simple past and past participle tensed)

tenses (present singular third-person)
tensing (participle present)
tensed (participle past)
tensed (past)

tensing a verb

(grammar, transitive) To apply a tense to.


tense

en-adj

tense (comparative tenser, superlative tensest)

tenser (comparative)
tensest (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin tēnsus, one form of the past participle of tendō (“stretch”). Ultimately identical to Etymology 1.

(linguistics) (of a vowel) Produced with relative constriction of the vocal tract.


masculine

masculine (comparative more masculine, superlative most masculine)

more masculine (comparative)
most masculine (superlative)

From Middle English masculyne, masculyn, from Old French masculin, from Latin masculīnus, diminutive of masculus (“male, manly”), itself a diminutive of mās (“male”). Displaced native Old English werlīċ (literally “manly”).

mashkullor

having male qualities, not feminine or effeminate

The noun Student is masculine in German.

(grammar) Of, pertaining or belonging to the male grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.

(of a noun) Being of the masculine class or grammatical gender, and inflected in that manner.

mashkullor

grammar: being of the masculine class, being inflected in the masculine manner

امذ (IMẔ; ism-muẕakkar, literally “m; masucline noun”)

German uses the masculine form of the definite article, der, with Student.

(of another part of speech) Being inflected in agreement with a masculine noun.

Coordinate term: feminine

(grammar, Mongolic languages, of any word) Having the vowel harmony of a back vowel.

Masculine caesura, masculine catalexis, masculine ending.

(prosody) Following or ending on a stressed syllable.


masculine

maskuliin

(grammar) a word of the masculine gender

The masculine functions as the negative term in the opposition, i.e. when the gender is not defined, the masculine is used.

2009, Carlos Quiles, Fernando López-Menchero, A Grammar of Modern Indo-European, Second Edition:

As to the class to which the masculines of the strong declension belong, we repeat that […]

1905, George Theodore Dippold, A German grammar for high schools and colleges:

(grammar) A word of the masculine gender.


vowel

→ Yoruba: fáwẹ̀lì

From Middle English vouel, from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle), from Latin vōcālis (“voiced”), itself a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen). Doublet of vocal and vocalis.

In Welsh, the w usually represents a vowel.

(phonetics) A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable.


vowel

en-verb

vowel (third-person singular simple present vowels, present participle vowelling or (US) voweling, simple past and past participle vowelled or (US) voweled)

vowels (present singular third-person)
vowelling (participle present)
voweling (US participle present)
vowelled (participle past)
vowelled (past)
voweled (US participle past)
voweled (US past)

However it should be vowelled – perhaps ‘Almaqah’ – his name seems to be composed of ‘Il’, the general name of the paramount Semitic deity […], plus another element that is possibly from the Sabaic verb wqh, ‘to command’ […].

2019, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Arabs, Yale University Press, page 52:

(linguistics) To add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew or harakat in Arabic).


time

en-noun

time (countable and uncountable, plural times)

Sranan Tongo: ten

→ Punjabi:

desc

Gurmukhi script: ਟਾਇਮ (ṭāima), ਟੈਮ (ṭaim), ਟਾਈਮ (ṭāīma)

Shahmukhi script: ٹائم (ṭā'im)

From Middle English tyme, time, from Old English tīma (“time, period, space of time, season, lifetime, fixed time, favorable time, opportunity”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīmō, from Proto-Germanic *tīmô (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂imō, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide”). Related to tide. Not related to Latin tempus.
cognates
*Scots tym, tyme (“time”)
*Alemannic German Zimen, Zīmmän (“time, time of the year, opportune time, opportunity”)
*Danish time (“hour, lesson”)
*Swedish timme (“hour”)
*Norwegian time (“lesson, hour”)
*Faroese tími (“hour, lesson, time”)
*Icelandic tími (“time, season”).

عَصْر

extended period of time, defined or undefined: age, era, etc.

at church every time the doors swing open

desperate times call for desperate measures

desperate times require desperate measures

serial time-encoded amplified microscopy

there is a place and time for everything

there is a time and a place for everything

there is a time and place for everything

there's a time and a place for everything

time spent laughing is time spent with the gods

time stretch analog-to-digital converter

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 106. Time

the time of a verb

Though we have, in the notes under the thirteenth rule of the Grammar, explained in general the principles, on which the time of a verb in the infinitive mood may be ascertained, and its form determined; [...]

1823, Lindley Murray, Key to the Exercises Adapted to Murray's English Grammar, Fortland, page 53f:

The participles of the future time active, and perfect passive, when joined with the verb esse, were sometimes used as indeclinable; thus, [...]

1829, Benjamin A. Gould, Adam's Latin Grammar, Boston, page 153:


homonym

en:word with same spelling or same sound or both

en:word with both same spelling and same sound

(broadly) A word that sounds or is spelled the same as another word (but not necessarily both).

(semantics, strictly) A word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word.


homophone

/ˈhɒməfəʊ̯n/

homofon (not infrequently spelled homofón)

azonos kiejtésű, de eltérő jelentésű szó (és gyakran eltérő alakú)

Coordinate term: homograph (can be coinstantial)

(semantics) A word which is pronounced the same as another word but differs in spelling or meaning or origin.


expression

en-noun

expression (countable and uncountable, plural expressions)

Borrowed from Middle French expression, from Late Latin expressiō, expressiōnem (“a pressing out”).
Morphologically express + -ion.

der

(programming) A piece of code in a high-level language that returns a value.

uitdrukking

(computing) a piece of code in a high-level language that returns a value


subject

From Latin subiectus (“a subject, an inferior”), subiectum (“the subject of a proposition”), past participle of subiciō (“throw, lay, place”), from sub (“under, at the foot of”) + iaciō (“throw, hurl”).

In the sentence ‘The cat ate the mouse’, ‘the cat’ is the subject, ‘the mouse’ being the object.

In this passive sentence, the subject (‘the early worm’) is the target of an action: ‘The early worm is caught by the early bird.’

(grammar) The noun, pronoun or noun phrase about whom the statement is made. In active clauses with verbs denoting an action, the subject is the actor. In clauses in the passive voice the subject is the target of the action.


neuter

en-adj

neuter (not generally comparable, comparative more neuter, superlative most neuter)

more neuter (comparative)
most neuter (superlative)

Inherited from Middle English neutre, from Latin neuter, from ne (“not”) + uter (“whether”), a semantic loan from Koine Greek οὐδέτερος (oudéteros); compare English whether and neither.

semantic loan

a neuter noun

the neuter definite article

a neuter termination

the neuter gender

In The Cook and the Carpenter, Arnold used the device of a neuter pronoun "na," instead of assigning gender to the characters.

1982 April 10, Maida Tilchen, “June Arnold Dies of Cancer”, in Gay Community News, page 3:

(grammar) Having a form which is not masculine nor feminine; or having a form which is not of common gender.

asnjanës

grammar: having a form which is not masculine nor feminine

a neuter verb

intransitiv

grammar: intransitive — see also intransitive


neuter

(grammar) A noun of the neuter gender; any one of those words which have the terminations usually found in neuter words.

Make one do, or act (to), fare fare, fare agire, with an accusative when the verb is a neuter, and with a dative when otherwise.

1820, M. Santagnello, A Dictionary of the Peculiarities of the Italian Language, G. and W. B. Whittaker, page 185

Compound verbs other than those already spoken of whereby neuters are made active, are very rare, as I have already hinted under the head of nouns.

1847, Brian Houghton Hodgson, Essay the First; On the Kocch, Bódo and Dhimál Tribes, in Three Parts, J. Thomas, page 119

In all the Apachean languages, verbs are divided into two major categories, neuters and actives, each of which may be further divided into intransitives, transitives, and passives.

1971, Harry Hoijer, “Athapaskan Morphology”, in Jesse O. Sawyer, editor, Studies in American Indian Languages, University of California Press, published 1973, →ISBN, page 130:

(grammar) An intransitive verb or state-of-being verb.

непреходен глагол

grammar: intransitive verb — see also intransitive verb


anterior

Borrowed from Latin anterior (“that is before, foremost”).

bor

(anatomy) Nearer the forward end, especially in the front of the body; nearer the head or forepart of an animal.

(phonetics) Pronounced with an obstruction located in front of the palato-alveolar region of the mouth, e.g. b, p, d, t.


stem

From Middle English stem, stemme, stempne, stevin, from Old English stemn, from Proto-West Germanic *stamni, from Proto-Germanic *stamniz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, stay”).

der

the apple does not fall far from the stem

(linguistics) The main part of an uninflected word to which affixes may be added to form inflections of the word. A stem often has a more fundamental root. Systematic conjugations and declensions derive from their stems.


future

en-noun

future (countable and uncountable, plural futures)

From Middle English future, futur, from Old French futur, from Latin futūrus, irregular future active participle of sum (“I am”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become, be”). Cognate with Old English bēo (“I become, I will be, I am”). More at be. Displaced native Old English tōweard and Middle English afterhede (“future”, literally “afterhood”) in the given sense.

noncog

(grammar) Verb tense used to talk about events that will happen in the future; future tense.


habitual

en-adj

habitual (comparative more habitual, superlative most habitual)

more habitual (comparative)
most habitual (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English habitual (“of one's inherent disposition”), from Medieval Latin habituālis (“customary; habitual”), from Latin habitus (“character; disposition; habit; physical or emotional condition; attire, dress”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship); analysable as habit + -ual. Habitus is derived from habeō (“to have; to hold; to own; to possess”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ- (“to grab, take”)) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs).
The noun is derived from the adjective.

der

In English, for instance, the Habitual Aspect (used to construction) can combine freely with Progressive Aspect, to give such forms as used to be playing.

1976, Bernard Comrie, “Perfective and Imperfective”, in Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics; 2), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1998, →ISBN, section 1.2.1.1 (Habitual and Other Aspectual Values), page 30:

The majority of South Arawak, Pareci-Xingu, and Peruvian Arawak languages have a three-fold aspect distinction: completive (completed, perfective or telic action); progressive (action/state in progress; also a durative meaning); and habitual.

1999, Alexandra Y[urievna] Aikhenvald, “The Arawak Language Family”, in R[obert] M[alcolm] W[ard] Dixon, Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, editors, The Amazonian Languages (Cambridge Language Surveys), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, section 6.4 (Other Verbal Categories), page 93:

(grammar) Pertaining to an action performed customarily, ordinarily, or usually.


habitual

Since any situation that can be protracted sufficiently in time, or that can be iterated a sufficient number of times over a long enough period – and this means, in effect, almost any situation – can be expressed as a habitual, it follows that habituality is in principle combinable with various other aspectual values, namely those appropriate to the kind of situation that is prolonged or iterated.

Indeed, [Thomas] Givón (1994: 323) suggests the habitual is a 'hybrid modality', sharing some features of realis (higher assertive certainty) and some of irrealis ('lack of specific temporal reference; lack of specific evidence; …').

2001, F[rank] R[obert] Palmer, “Subjunctive and Irrealis”, in Mood and Modality (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics), 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 191:

Stative verbs such as know and see are not associated with [+perf] since, like habituals, they are associated with a generic operator.

2004, Elly van Gelderen, “Aspect: The Tense Aspect Parameter and Inner to Outer Aspect”, in Grammaticalization as Economy (Linguistik Aktuell = Linguistics Today; 71), Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, →ISSN, section 5 (Giorgi & Pianesi: The Demise of the Infinitival Ending and Aspect), page 221:

As an expression of the iterative habitual suffixal -s is by no means recent. It is found in emigrant letters from the early nineteenth century. [...] O'Hara's uses as an inflected first person singular as an iterative habitual, e.g. I hopes the [ ] family are well …, I hopes you will except [sic!] my thanks for the same … (Kean O'Hara, 1818–19). This usage is still to be found in east coast varieties of Irish English.

2007, Raymond Hickey, “The Emergence of Irish English”, in Irish English: History and Present-day Forms (Studies in English Language), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 216:

For example, repeated occurrence (iteratives or ‘habituals’) in English may be signalled by repeatedly or several times (‘He shouted repeatedly’), or it may be part of the meaning of the verb (‘The bird fluttered its wings’).

2007, Howard Jackson, “Grammar: Morphology and Syntax”, in Key Terms in Linguistics, London, New York, N.Y.: Continuum, →ISBN, page 23:

(grammar) A construction representing something done habitually.


accident

en-noun

accident (countable and uncountable, plural accidents)

First attested in the late 14th century. From Middle English accident, from Old French accident, from Latin accidēns, present active participle of accidō (“happen”); from ad (“to”) + cadō (“fall”). See cadence, case. In the sense “unintended pregnancy”, first attested in 1932.

qawwalayla

unexpected event with negative consequences

accident

logic: quality or attribute in distinction from substance

befalling

unexpected event that takes place without foresight or expectation

An adjective, so called because adjectitious, or added to a substantive, denotes some quality or accident of the substantive to which it is joined […]

a 1799, John Parkhurst, A Hebrew and English lexicon without points, page 25

en:philosophical sense, versus essence or substance

Any property, fact, or relation that is the result of chance or is nonessential or nonsubstantive.

(grammar) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, such as gender, number, or case.


argument

argument (countable and uncountable, plural arguments)

From Middle English argument, from Anglo-Norman and Old French arguement, from Latin argūmentum (“argument (for a position); evidence, proof; point, theme; thesis, topic; plot (in theatre)”), from arguere + -mentum (suffix indicating the instrument, medium, or result of something). Arguere is the present active infinitive of arguō (“to argue, assert, declare; to make clear, prove, show; to accuse, charge with, reprove; to blame, censure; to denounce as false”), either ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ- (“silver, white; glittering”), or from Hittite [script needed] (arkuwā(i)-, “to make a plea, state one’s case”). The English word is analysable as argue + -ment. Doublet of argumentum.
Displaced native Old English racu and ġeflit.

der

/ˈɑːɡjʊmənt/

/ˈɑɹɡjʊmənt/

argument

fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason

وَسِيط

variable that is being passed to a function

In numerous works over the past two decades, beginning with the pioneering work of Gruber (1965), Fillmore (1968a), and Jackendoff (1972), it has been argued that each Argument (i.e. Subject or Complement) of a Predicate bears a particular thematic role (alias theta-role, or θ-role to its Predicate), and that the set of thematic functions which Arguments can fulfil are drawn from a highly restricted, finite, universal set.

1988, Andrew Radford, “The Lexicon”, in Transformational Grammar: A First Course (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1999, →ISBN, section 7.10 (Thematic Relations), pages 372–373:

(countable, linguistics) Any of the phrases that bears a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.


article

[ˈɑːtʰɪkʰəɫ]

[ˈɑ(ː)ɹɾɨkɫ̩]

From Middle English article, from Old French article, from Latin articulus (“a joint, limb, member, part, division, the article in grammar, a point of time”), from Latin artus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂értus (“that which is fit together; juncture, ordering”), from the root *h₂er- (“to join, fit (together)”). Doublet of articulus.

‘A song called “Freak Like Me” by the Sugababes,’ said Jesse.
‘Just Sugababes, no article,’ the man said, enjoying the stunned reaction on Jesse’s face.

2020, Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk, Dialogue Books (2021), page 118:

(grammar) A part of speech that indicates, specifies and limits a noun (a, an, or the in English). In some languages the article may appear as an ending (e.g. definite article in Swedish) or there may be none (e.g. Russian, Pashto).


suffix

Borrowed from Latin suffīxus (“suffix”), from sub- (“under”) + fīxus (perfect passive participle of fīgere (“to fasten, fix”)), equivalent to sub- + -fix.

af

perfect passive participle of <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">fīgere</i> (“to fasten, fix”)

The suffix "-able" changes "sing" into "singable".

(grammar, linguistic morphology) A morpheme added at the end of a word to modify the word's meaning.

Suffix

Suffixum n, Affix n (narrow sense), Affixum n


regular

en-adj

regular (comparative more regular, superlative most regular)

more regular (comparative)
most regular (superlative)

/ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə/

/ˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/

[ˈɹɛɡ.jɪ̈.lɚ]

From Middle English reguler, from Anglo-Norman reguler, Middle French reguler, regulier, and their source, Latin rēgulāris (“continuing rules for guidance”), from rēgula (“rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“move in a straight line”).

der

"Walked" is the past tense of the regular verb "to walk".

(grammar, of a verb, plural, etc) Following a set or common pattern; according to the normal rules of a given language.


case

→ Swedish: case n

From Middle English cas, from Old French cas (“an event”), from Latin cāsus (“a falling, a fall; accident, event, occurrence; occasion, opportunity; noun case”), perfect passive participle of cadō (“to fall, to drop”).

The accusative case canonically indicates a direct object.  Latin has six cases, and remnants of a seventh.

Now, the Subject of either an indicative or a subjunctive Clause is always assigned Nominative case, as we see from:
(16) (a) I know [that they/*them/*their leave for Hawaii tomorrow]
(16) (b)   I demand [that they/*them/*their leave for Hawaii tomorrow]
By contrast, the Subject of an infinitive Clause is assigned Objective case, as we see from:
(17)   I want [them/*they/*their to leave for Hawaii tomorrow]
And the Subject of a gerund Clause is assigned either Objective or Genitive case: cf.
 (18)   I don't like the idea of [them/their/*they leaving for Hawaii tomorrow]

1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 6, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 292:

(grammar) A specific inflection of a word (particularly a noun, pronoun, or adjective) depending on its function in the sentence.

Jane has been studying case in Caucasian languages.  Latin is a language that employs case.

(grammar, uncountable) Grammatical cases and their meanings taken either as a topic in general or within a specific language.


merger

From Anglo-Norman merger (verb used as noun).

-ɜː(ɹ)dʒə(ɹ)

the cot-caught merger

(phonology) A type of sound change where two or more sounds merge into one.


TL

(translation studies) Initialism of target language.


CS

(linguistics) Initialism of Church Slavonic.


AP

en-noun

AP (countable and uncountable, plural APs)

adjective phrase
adjective phrase#English

adverbial phrase
adverbial phrase#English

(grammar, sentence parsing) Initialism of adjective phrase; adverbial phrase. (Note: to disambiguate, one can use the abbreviations AdjP and AdvP instead.)


PA

(linguistics) Initialism of Proto-Algonquian. (sometimes abbreviated PAn to distinguish it from Proto-Algic, but usually just abbreviated PA with Proto-Algic being abbreviated PAc)

Proto-Algonquian

(linguistics) Initialism of Proto-Algic. (sometimes abbreviated PAc to distinguish it from Proto-Algonquian)

Proto-Algic

(linguistics) Initialism of Proto-Athapaskan.


person

Nigerian Pidgin: pesin

From Middle English persoun, personne et al., from Anglo-Norman parsone, persoun et al. (Old French persone (“human being”), French personne), and its source Latin persōna (“mask used by actor; role, part, character”), perhaps a loanword from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”). In this sense, displaced native man, which came to mean primarily "adult male" in Middle English; see Old English mann. Doublet of parson and persona.

der

чолові́к m (čolovík) (now only means male (man) or husband)

yura

specifically a human being — see also human, human being, man

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class III § 372. Mankind

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 3. Substantiality

(grammar) A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom they are speaking. See grammatical person.


PU

(linguistics) Initialism of prosodic unit. (IU for intonation unit is preferred)


CI

en-noun

CI (countable and uncountable, plural CIs)

comprehensible input
w:comprehensible input

(linguistics) Initialism of comprehensible input.


SL

SL (countable and uncountable, plural SLs)

(translation studies) Initialism of source language.


GA

General American
General American#English

(England phonology) Abbreviation of General American.


IA

IA (countable and uncountable, plural IAs)

(linguistic morphology) Initialism of item-and-arrangement.

internal argument
internal argument#English

(grammar) Initialism of internal argument.


ME

(linguistics) Initialism of Middle English.


ML

(linguistics) Initialism of Medieval Latin.

(linguistics) Initialism of Middle Latin.


CA

CA (countable and uncountable, plural CAs)

(linguistics, uncountable) Initialism of conversation analysis.


pronoun

From pro- + noun, modeled on Middle French pronom, from Latin pronomen, itself a calque of Ancient Greek ᾰ̓ντωνῠμῐ́ᾱ (antōnumíā).

The possessive conjunctive pronoun is always repeated before a substantive, and after a conjunction; as my brothers and sisters, mes frères & mes sœurs; […]

1789, Jean Baptiste, A grammar of the French tongue, page 193:

Dalia: Why are you playing the pronoun game?
Alyssa: What? What are you talking about? I'm not even.
Dalia: You are. "I met someone." "We have a great time. "They're from my home town." Doesn't this tube of wonderful have a name!

As here the possessive pronoun 'our' has inclusive reference in that it a priori includes both the editor and reader, its presence amounts to a kind of pronominal bonding between writer and reader.

2013, Nicholas Brownless, “Spoken Discourse in Early English Newspapers”, in Joad Raymond, editor, News Networks in Seventeenth Century Britain and Europe, page 72:

(grammar) A type of word that refers anaphorically to a noun or noun phrase, but which cannot ordinarily be preceded by a determiner and rarely takes an attributive adjective.


clause

From Middle English clause, claus, borrowed from Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa (Latin diminutive clausula (“close, end; a clause, close of a period”)), from Latin clausus, past participle of claudere (“to shut, close”). See close, its doublet.

مُرَكَّبٌ إِسْنَادِيّ

grammar: group of words which include a subject and any necessary predicate

(grammar) A verb, its necessary grammatical arguments, and any adjuncts affecting them.

However, Coordination facts seem to undermine this hasty conclusion: thus, consider the following:
 (43) [Your sister could go to College], but [would she get a degree?]
 The second (italicised) conjunct is a Clause containing an inverted Auxiliary, would. Given our earlier assumptions that inverted Auxiliaries are in C, and that C is a constituent of S-bar, it follows that the italicised Clause in (43) must be an S-bar. But our familiar constraint on Coordination tells us that only constituents belonging to the same Category can be conjoined. Since the second Clause in (43) is clearly an S-bar, then it follows that the first Clause must also be an S-bar — one in which the C(omplementiser) position has been left empty.

1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 6, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 300:

(grammar) A verb along with its subject and their modifiers. If a clause provides a complete thought on its own, then it is an independent (superordinate) clause; otherwise, it is (subordinate) dependent.

جُمْلَة

grammar: verb along with a subject and modifiers


predicate

From Middle French predicat (French prédicat), from post-classical Late Latin praedicātum (“thing said of a subject”), a noun use of the neuter past participle of praedicō (“I proclaim”), as Etymology 2, below.

der

In the light of this observation, consider Number Agreement in a sentence like:
 (120) They seem to me [_S — to be fools/^✽a fool]
 Here, the Predicate Nominal fools agrees with the italicised NP they, in spite of the fact that (as we argued earlier) the two are contained in different Clauses at S-structure. How can this be? Under the NP MOVEMENT analysis of seem structures, sentences like (120) pose no problem; if we suppose that they originates in the — position as the subordinate Clause Subject, then we can say that the Predicate Nominal agrees with the underlying Subject of its Clause. How does they get from its underlying position as subordinate Clause Subject to its superficial position as main Clause Subject? By NP MOVEMENT, of course!

1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 438:

Thus, in (121) (a) persuade is clearly a three-place Predicate — that is, a Predicate which takes three Arguments: the first of these Arguments is the Subject NP John, the second is the Primary Object NP Mary, and the third is the Secondary Object S-bar [that she should resign]. By contrast, believe in (121) (b) is clearly a two-place Predicate (i.e. a Predicate which has two Arguments): its first Argument is the Subject NP John, and its second Argument is the Object S-bar [that Mary was innocent].

1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 6, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 323:

(grammar) The part of the sentence (or clause) which states a property that a subject has or is characterized by.

kallëzues

grammar: part of sentence that states something about its subject


predicate

en-adj

predicate (comparative more predicate, superlative most predicate)

more predicate (comparative)
most predicate (superlative)

(grammar) Of or related to the predicate of a sentence or clause.

сказу́емен

grammar: of or related to the predicate of a sentence or clause


predicate

en-verb

predicate (third-person singular simple present predicates, present participle predicating, simple past and past participle predicated)

predicates (present singular third-person)
predicating (participle present)
predicated (participle past)
predicated (past)

From Latin praedicātus, perfect passive participle of praedicō (“publish, declare, proclaim”), from prae + dicō (“proclaim, dedicate”), related to dīcō (“say, tell”). Doublet of preach.

(transitive, grammar) To make a term (or expression) the predicate of a statement.

whakapaparangi

to make a term (or expression) the predicate of a statement


juxtaposition

en-noun

juxtaposition (countable and uncountable, plural juxtapositions)

From French juxtaposition, from Latin iuxtā (“near”) (from Latin iungō (“to join”)) + French position (“position”) (from Latin pōnō (“to place”)).

съпоставяне

the nearness of objects with little or no delimiter

Example: mother father instead of mother and father

The nearness of objects with little or no delimiter.

(grammar) An absence of linking elements in a group of words that are listed together.

juxtaposició

grammar: absence of linking elements in a group of words that are listed together


island

From earlier iland, from Middle English iland, yland, ylond, from Old English īeġland, from Proto-West Germanic *auwjuland, from Proto-Germanic *awjōlandą (from Proto-Germanic *awjō (“island, waterland, meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂) + *landą (“land”), equivalent to ey + land.
Doublet of Öland. Cognate with Scots island, iland, yland (“island”), West Frisian eilân (“island”), Saterland Frisian Ailound (“island”), Dutch eiland (“island”), Low German Eiland (“island”), German Eiland (“island”), Swedish ö (“island”), Öland (“Sweden's second largest island”), Danish ø (“island”), Norwegian øy (“island”), øyland (“large island”), Icelandic eyland (“island”).
The insertion of ⟨s⟩—a 16th century spelling modification—is due to a change in spelling to the unrelated term isle, which previously lacked s (cf. Middle English ile, yle). The re-addition was mistakenly carried over to include iland as well. Related also to German Aue (“water-meadow”), Latin aqua (“water”). More at ea.

адгьылбжьаха

area of land completely surrounded by water

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Adverbial subordinate clauses are islands for extraction: "They have a billion dollars of inventory that they don't know where *(it) is".

(grammar) A phrase from which a wh-word cannot be extracted without yielding invalid grammar.


oral

Early 17th century borrowing from Late Latin ōrālis, from ōs (“the mouth”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

af

(phonetics, of a speech sound) Pronounced by the voice resonating in the mouth, as the vowels in English.

(relational) Spoken rather than written.

(sociolinguistics, of a society) Not having reached the stage of literacy.


kind

en-adj

kind (comparative kinder, superlative kindest)

kinder (comparative)
kindest (superlative)

From Middle English kinde, kunde, kende, from Old English cynde, ġecynde (“innate, natural, native”), from Old English cynd, ġecynd (“nature, kind”).

you get more with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone

Thy words aſſure me of kind ſucceſſe:
Go valiant Souldier, go before and charge
The fainting army of that foolish King.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:


given name

Japan: Use family names first, followed by given names, but be aware that some may introduce themselves to Westerners with their given name first.

2004, Gwyneth Olofsson, When in Rome or Rio or Riyadh...: Cultural Q&As for Successful Business Behavior Around the World, page 17:

This may explain why some Chinese Americans write their Chinese name backwards. For example, the Chinese characters to Ching Tien Chay′s name show that his given name is really Tien Ching.

2008, Emma Woo Louie, Him Mark Lai, Chinese American Names: Tradition and Transition, page 89:

In one experiment, the researchers had people rate the characteristics of people with various given names or nicknames.[…]A person with a nickname like Liz, for example, would probably be rated as friendlier and more popular than a person with the given name Elizabeth, but Elizabeth would probably be rated more intelligent and trustworthy.

2011, Anne Myers, Christine H. Hansen, Experimental Psychology, page 296:

A personal name chosen for a child, usually by their parents.

Professor: Lady Bird, is that your given name?
Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson: Yeah.
Professor: Why is it in quotes?
Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson: I gave it to myself, it’s given to me by me.

2017, Greta Gerwig (scriptwriter), Lady Bird

(uncommon, humorous) A name bestowed by oneself or another, as opposed to the name given by one's parents.


phrase

From Late Latin phrasis (“diction”), from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “manner of expression”), from φράζω (phrázō, “I tell, express”).

der

Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?

2013 November 30, Paul Davis, “Letters: Say it as simply as possible”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8864:

(grammar) A word or, more commonly, a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence, usually consisting of a head, or central word, and elaborating words.

frazë

grammar: group of two or more words that express an idea but do not form a complete sentence

csoport or szerkezet

following an adjective that specifies it


breath

Breath (disambiguation)
Brill Publishers

From Middle English breeth, breth, from Old English brǣþ (“odor, scent, stink, exhalation, vapor”), from Proto-Germanic *brēþiz (“vapour, waft, exhalation, breath”) (compare German Brodem (“haze, vapor; breath”), of a different but related formation), of unknown origin; perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gʰwer- (“smell”) or alternatively from *bʰreh₁- (“to blow; breath, vapor, steam”), but without certain Indo-European cognates outside Germanic.

inh

(phonetics, of a consonant or vowel) voiceless, surd; contrasting with voice (breath sounds, voice sounds)


perfect

en-adj

perfect (comparative perfecter or more perfect, superlative perfectest or most perfect)

perfecter (comparative)
more perfect (comparative)
perfectest (superlative)
most perfect (superlative)

flawed

antonym(s) of “fitting its definition precisely”

faulty

antonym(s) of “without fault or mistake”

From Middle English perfit, from Old French parfit (modern: parfait), from Latin perfectus, perfect passive participle of perficere (“to finish”), from per- (“through, thorough”) + facere (“to do, to make”). Spelling modified 15c. to conform to Latin etymology. Doublet of parfait.
Displaced native Old English fulfremed.

let the perfect be the enemy of the good

(grammar, of a tense or verb form) Representing a completed action.

зако́нчаны

grammar: of a tense or verb form: representing a completed action


perfect

(grammar) The perfect tense, or a form in that tense.


accomplishment

en-noun

accomplishment (countable and uncountable, plural accomplishments)

* First attested in the early 15th century.
* (completes, perfects, equips): First attested around 1600.
* accomplish + -ment
* Borrowed from French accomplissement, from accomplir

Thus it is attested that some children have taken an accomplishment verb like disappear, which does not have a causative counterpart, and used it as a causative accomplishment in sentences like He disappeared it, i.e. ‘He made it disappear.’

1997, Robert van Valin, Randy LaPolla, Syntax, pages 183-84:

(grammar, semantics) The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that change over time until a natural end point.


activity

activity (countable and uncountable, plural activities)

From Middle French activité, from Latin activitas. Equivalent to active + -ity.

[…]distinctions among states of affairs are reflected to a striking degree in distinctions among Aktionsart types. That is, situations are expressed by state verbs or predicates, events by achievement verbs or predicates, and actions by activity verbs or predicates.

1997, Robert van Valin, Randy LaPolla, Syntax, page 92:

(grammar, semantics) The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that change over time and have no natural end point.


preposition

/ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/

From Middle English preposicioun, from Old French preposicion, from Latin praepositio, praepositionem, from praepono (“to place before”), equivalent to pre- + position. Compare French préposition. So called because it is placed before the word with which it is phrased, as in a bridge of iron, he comes from town, it is good for food, he escaped by running.

And in (121) below, we see that when a wh-NP is used as the Object of a Preposition, the whole Prepositional Phrase can undergo WH MOVEMENT:
 (121) (a) [To whom] can I send this letter —?
 (121) (b) [About what] are they quarrelling —?
 (121) (c) [In which book] did you read about it —?

1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 9, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 495:

I love this girl. “On which I can get my hands” — even in her darkest moment, she cannot bring herself to end a sentence with a preposition.

2014 June 1, “Net Neutrality”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 5, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

(grammar, strict sense) Any of a class of non-inflecting words and multiword terms typically employed to connect a following noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word: a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word.

voorsetsel

grammar: a type of word like "of, from, for, by"

ဝိဘတ် (wi.bhat) (postpositional marker, equivalent of a preposition in Burmese)


linguistics

Etymology tree
Latin lingua
English -ist
English linguist
English -ics
English linguistics
From linguist + -ics, akin to linguistic and Latin linguisticus, coined by English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell in 1847 from German Linguistik.

coin

a branch of linguistics

to study linguistics

The systematic and scholarly study of language.

የቋንቋ ጥናት

yäḳʷanḳʷa ṭənat

ഭാഷാശാസ്ത്രം

bhāṣāśāstraṁ


past participle

en-noun

past participle (plural past participles)

(grammar) A participle indicating a completed action or state.


participle

/ˈpɑɹtɪˌsɪpəl/

From Middle English participle, from Old French participle (1388), variant of participe, from Latin participium.

(grammar) A form of a verb that may function as an adjective, noun or adverb. English has two types of participles: the present participle and the past participle. In other languages, there are others, such as future, perfect, and future perfect participles.


voice

→ Russian: войс (vojs) (slang, from "voice message")

From Middle English voice, voys, vois, borrowed from Anglo-Norman voiz, voys, voice, Old French vois, voiz (Modern French voix), from Latin vōcem, accusative form of vōx (“voice”), from Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs, root noun from *wekʷ- (“to utter, speak”). Cognate with Sanskrit वाच् (vāc), Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps), Persian آواز (âvâz). Displaced native Middle English steven (“voice”) (from Old English stefn (see steven)), Old English hlēoþor, and Old English woþ. Broadly overtook Old English reord. Compare advocate, advowson, avouch, convoke, epic, vocal, vouch, vowel. Doublet of vox.

the voice of the people, the voice of God

(phonetics) Sound made through vibration of the vocal cords; sonant, or intonated, utterance; tone; — distinguished from mere breath sound as heard in whispering and voiceless consonants.

صَوْت

sound made through vibration of the vocal cords

The verbal system of Latin has two voices, active and passive.

There are four tenses of the subjunctive (present, perfect, imperfect, and pluperfect) and three voices (active, passive, and deponent). [...] See 12.8 for the formation of the deponent voice.

2012, Drew Arlen Mannetter, I Came, I Saw, I Translated, page 197:

(grammar) A particular way of inflecting or conjugating verbs, or a particular form of a verb, by means of which is indicated the relation of the subject of the verb to the action which the verb expresses.

սեռ

grammar: particular mode of inflecting or conjugating verbs


voice

en-verb

voice (third-person singular simple present voices, present participle voicing, simple past and past participle voiced)

voices (present singular third-person)
voicing (participle present)
voiced (participle past)
voiced (past)

From Middle English voysen, voicen, from the noun (see above).

(transitive, phonology) To utter audibly, with tone and not just breath.


part of speech

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-part of speech.wav

From Middle English parte of spech, a calque of Latin pars ōrātiōnis.

PARTS OF SPEECH. There are ten parts of speech, viz. Article, Substantive or Noun, Adjective, Numeral, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection.

1828, Charles Follen, A Practical Grammar of the German Language, Boston, page 9:

322. The parts of speech which are neither declined nor conjugated, are called by the general name of particles. 323. They are adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

1844, E. A. Andrews, First Lessions in Latin; or Introduction to Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, 6th edition, Boston, page 91:

One group of substantives, the gerunds (scolding), belongs to a form-class with infinitives and with other verb-forms, in serving as head for certain types of modifiers, such as a goal (scolding the boys). For this reason a system of parts of speech in a language like English cannot be set up in any fully satisfactory way: our list of parts of speech will depend upon which functions we take to be the most important.

1933, Leonard Bloomfield, Language, page 269:

The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.]

2008 (1894), B. L. Gildersleeve & G. Lodge, Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar, third edition, reprint by Dover, p.9

Following this, coding was added to delineate multiple senses within entries and nested terms within entries; then part of speech labels were added for every sense[.]

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 489:

(grammar) A linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties, such as noun or verb.


gerund

From Latin gerundium, from gerendus (“which is to be carried out”), future passive participle (gerundive) of gerō (“carry, bear”).

Compounds in which gerunds are the second element look exactly like compounds in which present participles are the second element, but different principles of hyphenation apply.

1991, Edward Johnson, The Handbook of Good English, page 208:

Like any noun, the gerund functions as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, or predicate nominative. The gerund phrase is made up of the present participle ("-ing") and can contain an object and/or a modifier (and sometimes many modifiers). The gerund is a verbal noun.

2002, Dan Mulvey, Grammar the Easy Way, page 25:

Gerunds and gerund phrases are always nouns, so they are always predicate nominatives when used as complements. Do be careful to distinguish progressive-tense verbs from gerunds used as subjective complements.

2005, Gary Lutz, Diane Stevenson, The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference, page 55:

(grammar) A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. (In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently; however, this distinction may be ambiguous or unclear and so is no longer made in some modern texts such as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language)

The Spanish gerund is quite unlike the English -ing form (‘walking’, ‘replying’, ‘saying’, etc.), which can function as a gerund, a present participle, a noun or an adjective; and it is also unlike the French form ending in -ant, which covers the functions of both the Spanish gerund and the adjectival form in -ante, -(i)ente discussed at 19.4.

2013, John Butt, Carmen Benjamin, A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish, Kindle edition, Routledge, →ISBN:

adverbial participle
adverbial participle

(grammar) In some languages such as Dutch, Italian or Russian, a verbal form similar to a present participle, but functioning as an adverb to form adverbial phrases or continuous tense. These constructions have various names besides gerund, depending on the language, such as conjunctive participles, active participles, adverbial participles, transgressives, etc.


icon

From Latin īcōn, from Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”). Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982.

der

(linguistics, semiotics) A word, character, or sign whose form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons.


linguistic

Borrowed from German linguistisch, equivalent to linguist + -ic. Compare linguistics. Ultimately from Latin lingua (“tongue, language”). Attested in English since 1825.

The message is that we need language features that deal with schematic and linguistic discrepancies.

1993, Dimitris N. Chorafas, Manufacturing Databases and Computer Integrated Systems, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 114:

(computing) Relating to a computer language.


inflect

en-verb

inflect (third-person singular simple present inflects, present participle inflecting, simple past and past participle inflected)

inflects (present singular third-person)
inflecting (participle present)
inflected (participle past)
inflected (past)

From Latin īnflectō, from in- (“in”) + flectō (“I bend”).

(transitive, grammar) To vary the form of a word to express tense, gender, number, mood, etc.

In Latin, adjectives and nouns inflect a lot, but inflection is minimally found in Modern English.

(transitive, grammar, of a word) To be varied in the form to express tense, gender, number, mood, etc.


bleed

bleed (third-person singular simple present bleeds, present participle bleeding, simple past and past participle bled)

bleeds (present singular third-person)
bleeding (participle present)
bled (participle past)
bled (past)

From Middle English bleden, from Old English blēdan (“to bleed”), from Proto-West Germanic *blōdijan, from Proto-Germanic *blōþijaną (“to bleed”), from *blōþą (“blood”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots blede, bleid (“to bleed”), Saterland Frisian bläide (“to bleed”), West Frisian bliede (“to bleed”), Dutch bloeden (“to bleed”), Low German blöden (“to bleed”), German bluten (“to bleed”), Danish bløde (“to bleed”), Swedish blöda (“to bleed”).

кровоточи́ть

seldom used, име́ть кровотече́ние (imétʹ krovotečénije), идёт кровь (idjót krovʹ)

Labialization bleeds palatalization.

(phonology, transitive, of a phonological rule) To destroy the environment where another phonological rule would have applied.


syntax

en-noun

syntax (countable and uncountable, plural syntaxes)

Partly from Late Latin syntaxis and partly from its etymon, Ancient Greek σύνταξις (súntaxis), from σύν (sún, “together”) + τάξις (táxis, “arrangement”), from τάσσω (tássō, “I arrange”). Doublet of syntaxis.

(computing, countable) The formal rules of formulating the statements of a computer language.

(linguistics) The study of the structure of phrases, sentences, and language.

сі́нтаксіс

study of the structure of phrases and sentences


vocal

en-adj

vocal (comparative more vocal, superlative most vocal)

more vocal (comparative)
most vocal (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-vocal.wav

Late Middle English vocal, borrowed from Latin vōcālis (“uttering a voice, sounding, speaking”), from vōx (“a voice, sound, tone”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of vowel and vocalis. Compare Old French vocal.

af

Of, pertaining to, or resembling the human voice or speech.

(phonetics) Consisting of, or characterized by, voice, or tone produced in the larynx, which may be modified, either by resonance, as in the case of the vowels, or by obstructive action, as in certain consonants, such as v, l, etc., or by both, as in the nasals m, n, ng.

vokaali

characterized by voice or tone produced in the larynx


vocal

(phonetics) A vocal sound; specifically, a purely vocal element of speech, unmodified except by resonance; a vowel or a diphthong; a tonic element; a tonic.


frozen

en-adj

frozen (comparative more frozen, superlative most frozen)

more frozen (comparative)
most frozen (superlative)

From Middle English frozen, frosen, ifrozen, variant of froren, ifroren ("frozen"; > see frorn), past participle of Middle English fresen, freosen (“to freeze”). By surface analysis, freeze + -n.

"Dice" is a frozen plural.

(grammar) Retaining an older, obsolete syntax of an earlier version of a language, which now operates only on a specific word or phrase.


feed

en-verb

feed (third-person singular simple present feeds, present participle feeding, simple past and past participle fed)

feeds (present singular third-person)
feeding (participle present)
fed (participle past)
fed (past)

From Middle English feden, from Old English fēdan (“to feed”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdijan, from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with West Frisian fiede (“to nourish, feed”), Dutch voeden (“to feed”), Danish føde (“to bring forth, feed”), Swedish föda (“to bring forth, feed”), Icelandic fæða (“to feed”), and more distantly with Latin pāscō (“feed, nourish”, verb) through Indo-European. More at food, fodder.

der

give a man a fish and you feed him for a day

teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime

Nasalization feeds raising.

(phonology, of a phonological rule) To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before another rule.


inflected

en-adj

inflected (comparative more inflected, superlative most inflected)

more inflected (comparative)
most inflected (superlative)

(grammar) Changed in form to reflect function (referring to a word).

(An inflected language is one in which words change form when their function changes.)

(linguistics) Having inflected word forms; fusional.


grammar

en-noun

grammar (countable and uncountable, plural grammars)

/ˈɡɹæ.mə(ɹ)/

From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line of writing”), from γράφω (gráphō, “write”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). Displaced native Old English stæfcræft; a doublet of glamour, glamoury, gramarye, and grimoire. Piecewise doublet of grammatic.

قَوَاعِد

in computing: formal system specifying the syntax of a language

glomery

study & field of study in medieval Latin contexts

morpho-syntax

from the relationship between morphology and syntax

(uncountable, linguistics) The study of the internal structure of words (morphology) and the use of words in the construction of phrases and sentences (syntax).

gramatikë

study of internal structure and use of words


bound

From Middle English bound, bund (preterite) and bounden, bunden, ibunden, ȝebunden (past participle), from Old English bund- and bunden, ġebunden respectively. See bind.

(linguistics, of a morpheme) That cannot stand alone as a free word.


contraction

en-noun

contraction (countable and uncountable, plural contractions)

PIE word
 *ḱóm
From Late Middle English contraccioun, contraxion (“spasm, contraction; constriction, shrinking; act of pressing together”), from Old French contraction (modern French contraction), from Latin contractiō(n) (“a drawing together, contraction; abridgement, shortening; dejection, despondency”), from contrahō (“to draw things together, assemble, collect, gather; to enter into a contract”) + -tiō(n) (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or their results). Contrahō is derived from con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of objects) + trahō (“to drag, pull”) (probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull; to run”)). By surface analysis, contract + -ion (suffix denoting actions or processes, or their results).

verkleining

In the English words didn’t, that’s, and wanna, the endings -n’t, -’s, and -a arose by contraction.

Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.

A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.

(linguistics) A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are reduced or lost, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word.

contracció

process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme are reduced or lost

(linguistics, phonology, prosody) Synonym of syncope (“the elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable”)


inflection

en-noun

inflection (countable and uncountable, plural inflections)

From older inflexion, borrowed from Middle French inflexion, itself borrowed from Latin inflexiōnem (“alteration”, literally “bending”). The English spelling with ⟨ct⟩ is due to influence from inflect or related words like correction.

der

In English, word order often does the work that inflection did in Latin

(grammar, uncountable) A change in the form of a word (morphologic change) to express different grammatical categories.

eptim

change in the form of a word that reflects a change in grammatical function

an inflection for gender, number, or tense

(grammar, countable) An instance of such change.

English's regular inflection for number in plural nouns is the suffix -s.

(grammar) An affix representing such an instance.

An instance of such change.
An affix representing such an instance.

Recite every inflection for each of these words.

(grammar, countable) Any form produced by such an instance of a change, such as the principal parts for any given stem: any of the declined or conjugated forms that constitute its declension or conjugation.


force

en-noun

force (countable and uncountable, plural forces)

From Middle English force, fors, forse, from Old French force, from Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“to rise, high, hill”).

der

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

When the aspectual force of the verbal categories weakens, the 'terminative', punctual or determinative value of the prefix gains in importance,...

1962, J Gonda, The aspectual function of the R̥gvedic present and aorist, S̓-Gravenhage, Mouton, page 43:

(linguistics, semantics, pragmatics) Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning.

voima

linguistics: ability of an utterance to effect a given meaning


archaic

en-adj

archaic (comparative more archaic, superlative most archaic)

more archaic (comparative)
most archaic (superlative)

From archaism (“ancient or obsolete phrase or expression”) or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀρχαϊκός (arkhaïkós, “old-fashioned”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “from the beginning, antiquated, ancient, old”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning, origin”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “I am first”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “I begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”).

der

The language of the Faerie Queene was made archaic Language:— in order to be in keeping with the chivalry of bygone ages that formed its subject.

1893, Harrington Hugh Melville Percival, “Introduction”, in The faerie queene: Book 1, page lxi:

Almost every writer of power will occasionally use with strong effect an archaic term that he has unearthed from the treasures of the older English vocabulary. This is especially true of poets, who recognize that the unusualness of the archaic word will sometimes heighten the poetic effect.

1900, Mary Hall Leonard, “The Revival of Old English Words”, in The Writer, volume 13, page 23:

When generations pass and the object or institution referred to by the archaic word is no longer part of present, lived experience, though the word has been retained, its meaning is commonly altered or simply vanishes. African talking drums, as used for example among the Lokele in eastern Zaire, speak in elaborate formulas that preserve certain archaic words which the drummers can vocalize but whose meaning they no longer know.

1982, Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: the technologizing of the word, page 46:

his resistance to censorship blends nicely with his scorn for the common folk, so a limited edition, in beautiful archaic language incomprehensible to the masses, of rude or blasphemous material such as one can find in the Decameron, would simultaneously satisfy both impulses.

2005, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, “Editor's Introduction”, in Decameron, page lxvi:

Cabell also uses a kind of stylistic dissonance to reinforce his novel's thematic ironies at the sentence level. An inflated speech in archaic language might end with a modern pinprick: "And so on, and so on!"

2008, Susan F. Beegel, “Introduction”, in John Steinbeck, Cup of gold: a life of Sir Henry Morgan, buccaneer, page xx:

(chiefly lexicography, of words) No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity and are still likely to be understood by well-educated speakers and are found in historical texts.


morphology

en-noun

morphology (countable and uncountable, plural morphologies)

morfologie

a scientific study of form and structure

марфало́гія

geological study of the form and structure

morfologji

linguistic study of the form and structure

There are many ways to show that word structure is different from phrase and sentence structure. We will mention two here. First, free constituent order in syntax is common cross-linguistically; many languages lack fixed order of the kind that one finds in English. In morphology, on the other hand, order is always fixed. There is no such thing as free morpheme order. Even languages with wildly free word order, such as the Pama-Nyungan (Australian) language Warlpiri (Simpson 1991), have a fixed order of morphemes within the word. Second, syntactic and morphological patterns can differ within the same language. For example, note the difference in English in the positioning of head and complement between syntax and morphology.

2001, Yehuda Falk, “Lexical-Functional Grammar”, in CSLI Publications, retrieved 2014-02-25:

(uncountable) A scientific study of form and structure, usually without regard to function. Especially:

(linguistics) The study of the internal structure of morphemes (words and their semantic building blocks).

Mathematical morphology
mathematical morphology


neologism

neologism (countable and uncountable, plural neologisms)

/niːˈɒləd͡ʒɪzəm/

From French néologisme, from Ancient Greek νέος (néos, “new”) + λόγος (lógos, “word”) + -ism.

(linguistics, lexicography, countable) A word or phrase which has recently been coined; a new word or phrase, or an existing one which has gained a new meaning.

Neologizing, the practice of coining new words, may seem to be an arcane, specialized activity, but it's everywhere -- and the skillful employment of neologism is what gives English much of its verve.

2002 August 25, Erin McKean, “THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 8-25-02: ON LANGUAGE; Neologist”, in The New York Times:

(linguistics, uncountable) The act or instance of coining, or uttering a new word.


pronominal

en-adj

pronominal (comparative more pronominal, superlative most pronominal)

more pronominal (comparative)
most pronominal (superlative)

/pɹəʊˈnɒmɪnəl/

From Late Latin prōnōminālis, from Latin prōnōmen, prōnōminis.

Neither of these pronominal compounds was found in current sources.

2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 120:

(linguistics, grammar) Of, pertaining to, resembling, or functioning as a pronoun.


pronominal

/pɹəʊˈnɒmɪnəl/

(grammar) A phrase that acts as a pronoun.


sound

en-noun

sound (countable and uncountable, plural sounds)

→ German: Sound

→ Japanese: サウンド (saundo)

→ Swedish: sound

* Noun: from Middle English sownde, alteration of soun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sun, soun, Old French son, from accusative of Latin sonus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- (“to sound, resound”).
* Verb: from Middle English sownden, sounen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suner, sounder, Old French soner (modern sonner), from Latin sonō.
* The hypercorrect -d appears in the fifteenth century. (Compare dialectal drownd, gownd for the same development.)
Displaced native Middle English swei, from Old English swēġ, from Proto-Germanic *swōgiz.

der

(phonetics) A segment as a part of spoken language, the smallest unit of spoken language, a speech sound.


sound

en-verb

sound (third-person singular simple present sounds, present participle sounding, simple past and past participle sounded)

sounds (present singular third-person)
sounding (participle present)
sounded (participle past)
sounded (past)

The "e" in "house" isn't sounded.

(transitive, phonetics, of a vowel or consonant) To pronounce.


reading

en-noun

reading (countable and uncountable, plural readings)

From Middle English reding, redynge, redunge, from Old English rǣding (“reading”), equivalent to read + -ing.

Some Chinese characters have numerous readings.

Recent reports from Taiwan (Formosa), although fragmentary, begin to give a picture of economic conditions following the conclusion of the war. Now officially referred to as Taiwan Province, the island's former Japanese administration is being replaced by Chinese officials with little change, at least as yet, in the administrative pattern. Although there is no indication that ideographs will be changed, Chinese readings rather than Japanese will be followed for place names. Taihoku, for example, will be read in our alphabet as Taipei. This city presumably will continue to be the capital of Taiwan.

1946 February 16, “China”, in Foreign Commerce Weekly, volume XXII, number 7, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, United States Department of Commerce, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 26, column 2:

(linguistics) A pronunciation associated with a particular character or word; particularly in East Asian scripts.


catch

catch (countable and uncountable, plural catches)

From Middle English cacchen, from Anglo-Norman cachier, variant of Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Akin to Modern French chasser (from Old French chacier) and Spanish cazar, and thus a doublet of chase. Compare ketch. Displaced Middle English fangen ("to catch"; > Modern English fang (verb)), from Old English fōn (“to seize, take”); Middle English lacchen ("to catch" and heavily displaced Modern English latch), from Old English læċċan.
The verb became irregular, possibly under the influence of the semantically similar latch (from Old English læċċan), whose past tense was lahte, lauhte, laught (Old English læhte), until becoming regularised in Modern English.

gloss

The glottal stop or glottal catch is the sound used in English in the informal words uh-huh 'yes' and uh-uh 'no'.

2006, Mitsugu Sakihara et al., Okinawan-English Wordbook, →ISBN:

(countable, phonetics) A stoppage of breath, resembling a slight cough.


recast

Adults may use recasts to suggest corrections to mistakes in children's speech.

(linguistics) An utterance translated into another grammatical form.


comparison

en-noun

comparison (countable and uncountable, plural comparisons)

From Middle English comparisoun, from Old French comparison, from Latin comparātiō, from comparātus, perfect passive participle of comparō.

vergelyking

act of comparing or the state of being compared

In English, adjectives and adverbs have three forms when making a comparison: the plain form "hot", the comparative form "hotter", and the superlative form "hottest".

(grammar) A feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe.


hard

en-adj

hard (comparative harder or more hard, superlative hardest or most hard)

harder (comparative)
more hard (comparative)
hardest (superlative)
most hard (superlative)

easy

antonym(s) of “requiring a lot of effort to do or understand”

bearable

antonym(s) of “requiring a lot of effort to endure”

low-alcohol

antonym(s) of “of drink”; antonym(s) of “low in alcohol”

alcohol-free

antonym(s) of “of drink”; antonym(s) of “non-alcoholic”

→ Finnish: haarti

→ Spanish: hard

From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”). Cognate with German hart, Swedish hård, Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).

صَعْب

There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre".

(phonetics, not comparable) Fortis.
Plosive.

Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j.

(phonetics, not comparable) Fortis.
Unvoiced.


law

en-noun

law (countable and uncountable, plural laws)

From Middle English lawe, laȝe, from Old English lagu (“law”), borrowed from Old Norse lǫg (“law”, literally “things laid down or firmly established”), originally the plural of lag (“layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“that which is laid down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”). Cognate with Scots law (“law”), Icelandic lög (“things laid down, law”), Faroese lóg (“law”), Norwegian lov (“law”), Swedish lag (“law”), Danish lov (“law”), Finnish laki (“law”). Replaced Old English ǣ and ġesetnes. More at lay.
Not related to legal, nor to French loi, Spanish ley, all of which ultimately derive from Latin lēx, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”).

азакуан

body of rules established in a community by its authorities

Grimm's law

Dahl's law

(linguistics) A sound law; a regular change in the pronunciation of a language.


actor

→ Scottish Gaelic: actair

→ Welsh: actor

Inherited from Middle English actour, from Anglo-Norman actor, Middle French actor, and their source, Latin āctor (“doer”), from agō (“to do”). Equivalent to act + -or. Cognate with Ancient Greek ἄκτωρ (áktōr, “leader”), from ἄγω (ágō, “lead, carry, convey, bring”).

(grammar) The subject performing the action of a verb.


increment

/ˈɪŋkɹɪmn̩t/

From Middle English encrement, increment, from Latin incrēmentum, from incrēscō (whence increase), from in- + crēscō (“grow”). Equivalent to increase + -ment.

(grammar) A syllable in excess of the number of the nominative singular or the second-person singular present indicative.


foot

en-noun

foot (plural feet or (UK colloquial, unit of measure) foot)

→ Assamese: ফুট (phut)

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">feet</i>

→ Japanese: フット (futto), フート (fūto); フィート (fīto) (from feet)

→ Russian: фут (fut)

Sranan Tongo: futu

Aukan: futu

Saramaccan: fútu

→ Swahili: futi

→ Thai: ฟุต (fút)

Tok Pisin: fut, put

→ Urdu: فٹ (fuṭ)

→ Phalura: fuṭ

From Middle English fot, fote, foot, from Old English fōt, from Proto-West Germanic *fōt, from Proto-Germanic *fōts, from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds. Doublet of pes, pie (“Spanish unit of length”), and pous.

doublet

not touch something with a ten-foot pole

you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

(prosody) The basic measure of rhythm in a poem.

(phonology) The parsing of syllables into prosodic constituents, which are used to determine the placement of stress in languages along with the notions of constituent heads.


sentence

Borrowed from Middle French sentence, from Latin sententia (“way of thinking, opinion, sentiment”), from sentiēns, present participle of sentiō (“to feel, think”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).

der

The children were made to construct sentences consisting of nouns and verbs from the list on the chalkboard.

(grammar) A grammatically complete series of words consisting of a subject and predicate, even if one or the other is implied. In modern writing, when using e.g. the Latin, Greek or Cyrillic alphabets, typically beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop or other punctuation.


arbitrary

en-adj

arbitrary (comparative more arbitrary, superlative most arbitrary)

more arbitrary (comparative)
most arbitrary (superlative)

/ˈɑɹ.bɪˌtɹɛ(ə).ɹi/

From Middle English arbitrarie, Latin arbitrārius (“arbitrary, uncertain”), from arbiter (“witness, on-looker, listener, judge, overseer”).

der

(linguistics) Not representative or symbolic; not iconic.


diminutive

en-adj

diminutive (comparative more diminutive, superlative most diminutive)

more diminutive (comparative)
most diminutive (superlative)

From Middle French diminutif (1398), from Latin dīminutīvum, from dēminuō (“diminish”).

(grammar) Of or pertaining to, or creating a word form expressing smallness, youth, unimportance, or endearment.


diminutive

Booklet, the diminutive of book, means ‘small book’.

But I was frightfully fond of the universe and wanted to address it by a diminutive. I often did so; and it never seemed to mind.

When we come to occupative names, we are again confronted by crowds of diminutives.

1916, Ernest Weekley, Surnames, page 287:

(grammar) A word form expressing smallness, youth, unimportance, or endearment.


verbal

implied

antonym(s) of “expressly spoken or written”

From Old French verbal, from Late Latin verbālis (“belonging to a word”). Equivalent to verb + -al.

der

(grammar) Derived from, or having the nature of a verb.

foljor

derived from, or having the nature of a verb


verbal

en-noun

verbal (countable and uncountable, plural verbals)

(countable, grammar) A verb form which does not function as a predicate, or a word derived from a verb. In English, infinitives, participles and gerunds are verbals.


phonetics

This dictionary shows the phonetics of the words.

(linguistics) The study of the physical sounds of human speech, concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds (phones), and the processes of their physiological production, auditory reception, and neurophysiological perception, and their representation by written symbols.

fonetiek

study of speech sounds and their representation by written symbols


International Phonetic Alphabet

the International Phonetic Alphabet (canonical)

/ˌɪntəˈnæʃ(ə)nəl fəˈnɛtɪk ˈælfəˌbɛt/

[ˌɪntəˈnæʃ(ə)nəɫ fəˈnɛtɪk ˈæɫfəˌbɛt]

/ˌɪntɚˈnæʃ(ə)n(ə)l fəˈnɛɾɪk ˈælfəˌbɛt/

[ˌɪntɚˈnæʃ(ə)n(ə)ɫ fəˈnɛɾɪk ˈæɫfəˌbɛt]

The International Phonetic Alphabet is commonly used in books about Shanghainese because none of the existing romanizations are very popular.

(phonetics, phonology) A standardized set of symbols for representing the sounds of human speech.

اَلْأَبْجَدِيَّة الصَّوْتِيَّة الدُّوَلِيَّة

الْأَلِفْبَائِيَّة الصَّوْتِيَّة الدُّوَلِيَّة

халкьуннал дянивсса фонетикалул алфавит

xalqʼunnal daˤniws:a fonetikalul alfawit

אינטערנאַציאָנאַלער פֿאָנעטישער אַלפֿאַבעט


complex

From French complexe, from Latin complexus, past participle of complector (“I entwine, encircle, compass, infold”), from com- (“together”) and plectere (“to weave, braid”). May be analyzed as com- + -plex. See complect. Doublet of complexus.

համալիր

assemblage of related things, collection

coordination complex

coordinated complex, metal complex, Werner complex

(linguistics) A multimorphemic word, one with several parts, one with affixes.


diphthong

/ˈdɪfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/

/ˈdɪpˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From French diphtongue, from Ancient Greek δίφθογγος (díphthongos, “two sounds”), from δίς (dís, “twice”) + φθόγγος (phthóngos, “sound”).

der

(phonetics) A complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with the sound of another vowel, in the same syllable.


common

en-adj

common (comparative more common, superlative most common)

rare

antonym(s) of “occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity”

From Middle English comun, from Anglo-Norman comun, from Old French comun (rare in the Gallo-Romance languages, but reinforced as a Carolingian calque of Proto-West Germanic *gamainī (“common”) in Old French), from Latin commūnis (“common, public, general”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱom-moy-ni-s (“held in common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to exchange, change”). Displaced native Middle English imene, ȝemǣne (“common, general, universal”) (from Old English ġemǣne (“common, universal”)), Middle English mene, mǣne (“mean, common”) (also from Old English ġemǣne (“common, universal”)), Middle English samen, somen (“in common, together”) (from Old English samen (“together”)). Doublet of gmina.

cog

gender of coalescence of masculine of feminine

(grammar) Of, pertaining or belonging to the common gender.

epicè

grammar: of the gender resulting from the coalescence of the masculine and feminine genders

feminine

(grammar) Of or pertaining to common nouns as opposed to proper nouns.


twang

Onomatopoeic. Compare Middle English twengen (“to pinch, tweak”), from Old English twenġen (“to pinch, twinge”); Middle English twingen (“to afflict, torment, oppress”), from Old Norse þvinga (“to weigh down, oppress”); Old English twingan (“to force, press”).

Near-synonym: nasality

nasal twang

(phonetics) The sound quality that appears in the human voice when the epilaryngeal tube is narrowed.


shut

From Middle English shutten, shetten, from Old English scyttan (“to cause rapid movement, shoot a bolt, shut, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *skutjaną, *skuttijaną (“to bar, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *skuttą, *skuttjō (“bar, bolt, shed”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- (“to drive, fall upon, rush”).
Cognate with Dutch schutten (“to shut in, lock up”), Low German schütten (“to shut, lock in”), German schützen (“to shut out, dam, protect, guard”).

cog

Whenever a syllable is formed with a long, that is an open vowel, they account the syllable long; and whenever formed with a short, that is a shut vowel, they reckon it short.

1810, Benjamin Humphrey Smart, A practical grammar of English pronunciation, page 344:

(linguistics, phonetics, archaic) Synonym of close


demonym

From Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos, “people”) + ὄνυμα (ónuma, “name”); demo- + -onym. Possibly coined or revived in 1997 by Paul Dickson of Merriam-Webster.

Why is it that people from the United States use American as their demonym?

A name for an inhabitant or native of a specific place, usually derived from the name of the place.


fricative

From New Latin fricativus, from Latin fricāre, present active infinitive of fricō (“I rub”).

Watt listened for a time, for the voice was far from unmelodious. The fricatives in particular were pleasing.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

(phonetics) Any of several sounds produced by air flowing through a constriction in the oral cavity and typically producing a sibilant, hissing, or buzzing quality; a fricative consonant.


fricative

en-adj

fricative (comparative more fricative, superlative most fricative)

more fricative (comparative)
most fricative (superlative)

(phonetics) produced by air flowing through a restriction in the oral cavity.


understand

en-verb

understand (third-person singular simple present understands, present participle understanding, simple past and past participle understood)

understands (present singular third-person)
understanding (participle present)
understood (participle past)
understood (past)
understand (infinitive)

[ˌʌɾ̃ɚˈstæ̃nd]

[ˌʌɾ̃ɚˈsteə̯nd]

From Middle English understanden, from Old English understandan (“to understand”), from Proto-West Germanic *understandan (“to stand between, understand”), from Proto-Germanic *understandaną (“to stand between, understand”), equivalent to Old English under- (“between, inter-”) + standan (“to stand”) (Modern English under- + stand). Cognate with Old Frisian understonda (“to understand, experience, learn”), Old High German understantan (“to understand”), Middle Danish understande (“to understand”). Compare also Saterland Frisian understunda, unnerstounde (“to dare, survey, measure”), Dutch onderstaan (“to undertake, presume”), German unterstehen (“to be subordinate”).

cog

In the imperative mood, the word “you” is usually understood.

‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying.

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

(transitive, grammar) To regard as present when not.


slide

→ Czech: slajd

→ Japanese: スライド (suraido)

→ Persian: اسلاید (eslâyd)

→ Polish: slajd

→ Portuguese: slide

From Middle English sliden, from Old English slīdan (“to slide”), from Proto-West Germanic *slīdan, from Proto-Germanic *slīdaną (“to slide, glide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sléydʰ-e-ti, from *sleydʰ- (“slippery”). Cognate with Old High German slītan (“to slide”) (whence German schlittern), Middle Low German slīden (“to slide”), Middle Dutch slīden (“to slide”) (whence Dutch slijderen, frequentative of now obsolete slijden), Vedic Sanskrit स्रेधति (srédhati, “to err, blunder”).

cog

(phonetics) A sound which, by a gradual change in the position of the vocal organs, passes imperceptibly into another sound.


agreement

en-noun

agreement (countable and uncountable, plural agreements)

/əˈɡɹiːmənt/

From Middle English agrement, agreement, from Old French agrement, agreement. Morphologically agree + -ment.

Having clarified what we mean by ‘Personʼ and ‘Numberʼ, we can now return to our earlier observation that a finite I is inflected not only for Tense, but also for Agreement. More particularly, I inflects for Person and Number, and must ‘agreeʼ with its Subject, in the sense that the Person/Number features of I must match those of the Subject.

1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 6, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 306:

(uncountable, linguistics, grammar) Rules that exist in many languages that force some parts of a sentence to be used or inflected differently depending on certain attributes of other parts.


syllable

From Middle English syllable, sillable, syllabylle, sylabul, from Anglo-Norman sillable, from Old French sillebe, from Latin syllaba, from Ancient Greek συλλαβή (sullabḗ), from συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “I gather together”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

Meronyms: onset, nucleus, coda, rime

I wanted to look up velleity and quotidian and memorize the fuckers for all time, spell them, learn them, pronounce them syllable by syllable—vocalize, phonate, utter the sounds, say the words for all they're worth.

2007, Don DeLillo, Underworld: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Scribner Classics, →ISBN, page 543:

(linguistics) A unit of human speech which often forms words corresponding to one opening of the mouth; a vowel and its surrounding consonants.


family

family (countable and uncountable, plural families)

Jamaican Creole: faambli, fambili

Tok Pisin: famili

Sranan Tongo: famiri

→ Chuukese: famini

→ Malay: famili

→ Maori: whāmere

From Late Middle English famylye, from Latin familia (“a household”). Displaced native Old English hīred. Doublet of familia.

عَائِلَة

group of people related by blood, marriage, law, or custom

the family that lays together stays together

the family that prays together stays together

the family that sleeps together keeps together

the Indo-European family

the Afroasiatic family

(countable, linguistics) A group of languages believed to have descended from the same ancestral language.

أُسْرَة

linguistics: a group of languages believed to have descended from the same ancestral language


expletive

From Late Latin explētīvus (“serving to fill out”), from Latin explētus, the perfect passive participle of expleō (“fill out”), itself from ex (“out, completely”) + *pleō (“fill”).

bor

(linguistics) A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.

(linguistics) A word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning.


decline

en-verb

decline (third-person singular simple present declines, present participle declining, simple past and past participle declined)

declines (present singular third-person)
declining (participle present)
declined (participle past)
declined (past)
decline (infinitive)

From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from de (“down”) + clīnō (“I bend, I incline”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). The senses arrived from two separate pathways in Middle English:
* The grammatical sense came from Old English declīnian, which was borrowed directly from the Latin etymon.
* All senses except the grammatical sense were derived from those of Old French decliner. Old French itself borrowed the verb from Latin.

der

(transitive, grammar, usually of substantives, adjectives and pronouns) To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like.

after the first declining of a noun and a verb

1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, 1st edition:

(transitive, grammar) To recite all the different declined forms of (a word): to recite its declension.


control

en-noun

control (countable and uncountable, plural controls)

From Middle English controllen, from Old French contrerole, from Medieval Latin contrārotulum (“a counter-roll or register used to verify accounts”), from Latin contrā (“against, opposite”) + Medieval Latin rotulus, Latin rotula (“roll, a little wheel”), diminutive of rota (“a wheel”).

der

(linguistics) A construction in which the understood subject of a given predicate is determined by an expression in context. See control.