Q&A for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts

Jun 3, 2012 · What is the correct abbreviation of engineer? In my organization, some of my colleagues use Eng. and some use Engr.

Nov 28, 2021 · 3 Mostly because -eng, -enk didn’t survive Middle English We don’t have native words in -eng, -enk because of a regular sound-change that any such words underwent in their evolution from …

May 17, 2011 · Question pretty self-explanatory. Should the abbreviation of the Latin term philosophiae doctor be written as PhD (no periods) or Ph.D. (with periods)?

As long as reportedly Americans commonly designate an area of land, usually planted with plants, trees, flowerbeds, etc., adjoining a house as a yard (front yard/backyard); and a plot of land used ...

British English makes the distinction between 'practise' (verb) and 'practice' (noun). Based on this, I would judge the following sentence as incorrect: In practise, computers often crash.

I was reading this Reddit post's comments: ' I am the guy with two penises. AMA ' (NSFW), and came upon this discussion (of sorts), where the plural of "penis" has been suggested to be either: …

According to the OED renumeration / remuneration are interchangeable. So too are the associated verbs - renumerate / remunerate. However, some commentators have strong feelings about …

Aug 18, 2011 · This doesn't help to explain why "combobulate" never became an actual word, but it gives a time frame for when "discombobulate" came into use. According to etymonline: 1834, …

Apr 8, 2017 · In civil engineering, the words invert and obvert are used in the context of pipe elevations. I gather that invert means: interior bottom elevation of pipe, and obvert means: interior top elevation...