Questions tagged [terminology]
This tag is for questions seeking or discussing a term (or terms) belonging or peculiar to a science, art, or specialized subject (e.g. linguistics, mathematics, physics, biology, finance, theatre, music, philosophy, astronomy, medical, nautical etc.). Consider adding [single-word-requests] and [phrase-requests] tags also if relevant.
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"log in to" or "log into" or "login to"
When writing an instruction about connecting to a computer using ssh, telnet, etc., I'm not sure what spacing to use in this familiar spoken phrase:
"Log in to host.com"
"Log into host.com"
"Login to ...
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What is the word for things that work even when they aren't working (e.g. escalators)?
I'm looking for a word (or phrase) to describe mechanisms that are perfectly functional even when they aren't functioning as expected.
Examples of these include:
Escalators & Electric Walkways: ...
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What does 'TL;DR' mean and how is it used?
I do my best, at my advanced age, to come to grips with the apparent acceptability of such widely used words/expressions/abbreviations as lol/LOL, IMHO, AFAIK, etc. However, TLDR/tl;dr defeats me. ...
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Is it "falsy" or "falsey"?
I have seen both spellings of this word, falsy and falsey.
It can mean "something that is equivalent to false" in computer science, such as "The only two falsy values in the Ruby Language are false ...
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What is the origin of "daemon" with regards to computing?
Daemon has an interesting usage in computing. From my local dictionary:
a background process that handles requests for services such as print spooling and file transfers, and is dormant when not ...
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What is the correct word for "dependee"?
What is the correct word for "dependee"?
In other words, what is the word for something that is depended upon? The relationship here is in the context of software engineering
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“kinda”, “sorta”, “coulda”, “shoulda”, “lotta”, “oughta”, “betcha”, "tseasy", etc. What are these?
In linguistics, is there a term describing this phenomenon, i.e., when the syllables of two words are slurred together in the spoken language? They are not contractions. While contractions are ...
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How to pronounce the programmer's abbreviation "char"
In many programming languages, char is a type name for character values. The word character is pronounced with a [k] sound, but what about char?
While trying to find the answer elsewhere, I learnt ...
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When does thousand turn into thousands?
My boyfriend and I are arguing whether thousands of miles means 1000+ or 2000+ miles.
The first argument is that 1000+ is over 1000 and therefore 'thousands of miles' by rounding up.
The other ...
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X, Y, Z — horizontal, vertical and ...?
When working in a 2D coordinate system you could say that X is the horizontal axis and Y is the vertical axis.
Extending this to 3D, is there a similar word for the Z axis?
(I'm aware of Width, ...
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Which term correctly identifies those who enjoy programming/technology: "geek" or "nerd"?
Which term correctly identifies those who enjoy and are involved with programming and technology, geek or nerd?
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What is the first part of a joke called?
How does one refer to the first part of a joke?
The follow up is often referred to as a punchline but I'm unsure how to refer to the first part. Is it a 'joke' or does a 'joke' include the punchline?
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What does the idiom "batteries not included" mean?
In a comment on a Stack Overflow answer to my question, somebody said that "it is a very 'batteries not included' approach":
it doesn't look like there's any easy way to make a strict RFC 4627-...
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What is the word for always YES (100%) or always NO (0%), never in-between
For example:
1) In statistics, this attribute will always either be 0% or 100%, never in-between.
2) The boundary is either safe or destroyed, because there is never a state where it is only '...
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"Insecure" or "unsecure" when dealing with security?
Which is the appropriate word to be used in the sentence:
The system we were testing was determined to be insecure/unsecure.
The usage is in the context of security, specifically a lack thereof.
...