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- idioms - For whom the bell tolls - origin of ask not instead of . . .
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls" is a popular cliche My understanding is that it comes from John Donne's Meditation XVII (1623) But in Donne's poem, the line is any man's death diminishes me,
- etymology - What is the origin of rings a bell? - English Language . . .
For example, he struck a bell when the dogs were fed If the bell was sounded in close association with their meal, the dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell with food After a while, at the mere sound of the bell, they responded by drooling Another possible origin is the one this page advocates:
- etymology - What caused bell peppers to be called capsicums in some . . .
A person working in an Indian supermarket was shocked when I told her it's called Bell Pepper in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland I had to pull out Wikipedia to convince her it was true (Probably because she associated pepper with the spice ) What is the historical etymological explanation for this divergence in names between countries?
- orthography - Bell crank, bell-crank or bellcrank? - English Language . . .
The first form, " bell crank " tells me that we are talking about a crank which turns actuates a bell The second form " bell-crank " tells me that we are talking about bell-shaped crank, or a specialty crank that is only useful for cranking bells, without saying anything of its shape
- grammar - Why go off, as in alarm went off? - English Language . . .
The picture is that the alarm is loud (a siren, bell, etc) and indicates danger of some sort In a computer system, an "alarm" might simply be a light or a sentence printed, but the mental picture still applies A light "goes on", so you might even see an indicator light "go on" indicating that an alarm has "gone off"
- single word requests - Is there a term for the sound of a bicycle bell . . .
A bicycle bell is a percussive signaling instrument mounted on a bicycle for warning pedestrians and other cyclists Wikipedia says that a bicycle bell produces a "ding-ding" sound, and so, since
- colloquialisms - Words are not sparrows; once they have flown they . . .
The bell, once rung, cannot be unrung or You cannot unring the bell Google books traces "cannot be unrung" to 1924: what is learned or suspected outside of court may have some influence on the judicial decision It may be only a subtle or even subconscious influence, but a bell cannot be unrung Adverse claimants have at least some reason to fear By 1948 it is in the Utah bar
- adjectives - Is calling a gerund in calling bell? - English . . .
2 calling-bell It all boils down to whether "calling bell" means a static door bell or a bell that is actively calling in order to seek attention In the static door bell reading it's a compound noun, hyphenated, consisting of a gerund-participle verb + noun, with a purposive meaning: "bell for calling"
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