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

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

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)?

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 …

Aug 17, 2010 · I read a sentence containing the word thy, but I cannot find the meaning of that word. Is it older English, or is it still used in contemporary English today?

I hear three different sounds for the letter e in precious, bean, and Peru. Is there a rule that covers the different pronunciations that a written letter e can represent in speech?

OED has wheal n.3 Etymology: < Cornish huel. local. A mine. 1830 Eng. & For. Mining Gloss. Wheal is an Anglicisation of the Cornish word. It's interesting that Wiktionary's earliest citation …

Oct 4, 2010 · There is a suffix that is written only as -ize in American English and often -ise in British English (but not always, as ShreevatsaR points out in the comments). This suffix …

Dec 21, 2012 · 1966 G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Austral. & N.Z. vi. 135 A different influence of written language is seen in the use of same as a pronoun equivalent to it, as in ‘put the …

Yes it did, and the formal version was (drumroll, please....) you. In Early Modern English, thou was the singular and you was the plural. Plural you came to be used as a polite form of address …