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Here, the judgmental words are "our very own sons" and "mercenaries", which imply not only professional soldiers but rather soldiers of fortune. This argument is also a false dilemma : nothing implies that coercion and fear of punishment produces better soldiers than voluntarily, and that a professional army could not be assembled from the ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
A bad excuse is better than none; A bad penny always turns up; A bad workman blames his tools; A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; A cat may look at a king; A chain is only as strong as its weakest link; A dog is a man's best friend; A drowning man will clutch at a straw; A fool and his money are soon parted [4] A friend in need (is a ...
The word derives from the Hebrew ḥuṣpāh (חֻצְפָּה), meaning "insolence", "cheek" or "audacity". Thus, the original Yiddish word has a strongly negative connotation, but the form which entered English as a Yiddishism in American English has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in film ...
Akrasia (/ ə ˈ k r eɪ z i ə /; Greek ἀκρασία, "lacking command" or "weakness", occasionally transliterated as acrasia or Anglicised as acrasy or acracy) is a lack of mental strength or willpower, or the tendency to act against one's better judgment. [1]
Sextus Empiricus, in the 2nd or 3rd century CE, argued for the existence of "nonassertive" statements, which indicate suspension of judgment by refusing to affirm or deny anything. [4] Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 6th century, argued for the existence of "non-privatives", which transcend both affirmation and denial. For example, it is ...
Obiter dictum (usually used in the plural, obiter dicta) is a Latin phrase meaning "other things said", [1] that is, a remark in a legal opinion that is "said in passing" by any judge or arbitrator. It is a concept derived from English common law , whereby a judgment comprises only two elements: ratio decidendi and obiter dicta .
In historical linguistics, the process of an inoffensive word becoming pejorative is a form of semantic drift known as pejoration.An example of pejoration is the shift in meaning of the word silly from meaning that a person was happy and fortunate to meaning that they are foolish and unsophisticated. [3]