I was wondering on where the origins of the word tar to mean thank you came from. I have reached tar and have come up with this definition     Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation.   How does this relate to being thankful?
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Where does the expression "ta" come from?  Wikipedia has only  to say:     "ta!", slang, Exclam. Thank you! {Informal}, an expression of gratitude   but no additional information or links about its genesis.  I have only ever heard it from englishmen and -women. Is it used anywhere else in the world? How did it come about? What is its history?
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What is the 'molecular' origin of the viscosity? The molecular origin of elasticity is almost clear for me: at the very bottom the 'elasticity' comes from the attraction and repulsion between atoms when they are reasonably far from each other or very close (like Lennard-Jones potential). Is there a similar description for the viscosity as well? Where does it come from?
42006
I am looking for a word that describes the emotion or feeling of an intrinsic want of a new and better possession. Covetous or envious seem a bit too focused on the other other person's possession of the desired object whereas I am looking for something that is defined by the internal thoughts we have when seeing an advertisement for the latest iPhone or life-changing new service.    but I am wondering if there is a word with less emphasis on the second entity? Otherwise, would I covet new things from Amazon or Apple? Can I be envious of corporations?  For example, I just bought a new car and now, looking at my slightly out of date television, I feel the need to upgrade my T.V. with a newer, shiny one from Amazon. Would I be coveting that T.V. which Amazon sells?     I saw the ad for the latest iPhone, the iPhone 3000, and feel that my current phone is inadequate. I am a(n) ______ person, since I always desire something better than what I currently possess. If I was a caveman with a sharpened stick, I'd want your sharper, pointier stick.   I feel like there is probably some niche German word for exactly this, but I'm unsure it exists in English. Thanks!
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“It is an art where you’ve got to deal with the demands   of every day but at the same time place it strategically   at the heart of what the company is doing.”   — Jeroen   Tas, group CIO of Philips 5   I have problem in where meaning. I think it mean "what".  EDIT:
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While waiting for the kettle to boil this morning, I was idling and reading the label on the bottle of milk and was struck by the declaration: "Permeate free, made in WA". Here's a shot of the label for proper context:     It's clear that they want to state that the milk is produced in this state, but it sounds odd to me to say that milk is made&nbsp;— I've always associated that with products that require at least a nominal amount of manufacturing/processing (e.g. butter, cream, yoghurt).   For the raw produce though, I can't really recall anything using made but more specific terms like grown, harvested, farmed, raised, etc.  So in this context, does anyone has a suggestion what might be a more descriptive, or more appropriate word? The best I can come up with is milked but that sounds awfully clumsy.   Alternatively, if people have milk bottles from their side of the world that say something similar, then it could just be me that thinks it's a bit clunky.
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So I have this word problem and I’m a bit confused about it. I have the answer and explanation but I still don’t understand: The half-life of carbon-14 is approximately 5730 years, while the half-life of carbon-12 is essentially infinite. If the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 in a certain sample is 25% less than the normal ratio in nature, how old is the sample?     A. Less than 5730 years      B. Approximately 5730 years      C. Significantly greater than 5730 years, but less than 11460 years      D. Approximately 11460 years  Correct Answer: A Explanation: Because the half-life of carbon-12 is essentially infinite, a 25 percent decrease in the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 means the same as a 25 percent decrease in the amount of carbon-14. If less than half of the carbon-14 has deteriorated, then less than one half-life has elapsed. Therefore, the sample is less than 5730 years old. Be careful with the wording here—the question states that the ratio is 25% less than the ratio in nature, not 25% of the ratio in nature, which would correspond to choice (D). How is the ratio of the carbon isotopes relevant to half-lives? What is the purpose of saying the half-life of an isotope is infinite? What is meant by “the normal ratio in nature”? Just based on the answer, it seems like the question said “25% of a carbon sample decayed, how old is this sample?” Obviously it’s younger than 5,730 years (the time for its first half life) because if only 25% decayed that means half a half-life has passed. I don’t see how isotopes and ratios would change this problem at all. Edit: Every answer here was very informative and helpful. It was tough to pick a best answer. I picked Cosma’s because it clicked with me. If you’re reading this and want to understand radiocarbon dating, look at every answer because there is some useful information in every answer
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I have a tar that was generated on a linux machine. I need to upload part of that tar to another linux machine. The full tar is huge and will take hours to upload. I am now on a Mac OSX machine and this is my problem:   I extract the tar to a folder and locate what I need to upload to the new server I create a smaller tar containing just what I want to upload. I upload and extract that to the new linux machine When I look the server it is full of ._ files. For every file uploaded there is a ._ file, like text1.txt, ._text1.txt, text2.txt, ._text2.txt...   OSX is including these files on the tar.  I have tried to do this  tar --exclude='._*' -cvf newTar  .    without difference.   I do not have ssh access to the new server now.  What can I do to solve that? How do I generate a clean tar.
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What word (or how do you phrase things) do you use when the ostensible word for the class is the same as the word for a subset of the class?  For example, in the United States, there are many brands of sugared, carbonated soft drink that one can buy: Coca-Cola (or Coke), Pepsi, RC Cola, Sprite, 7-Up, A&amp;W or Mug Root Beer, etc). The first two are kinds of 'coke' or 'cola' (but no one says 'cola').  , one asks for any type of such drink as 'coke'. How does one then ask for the particular kind of 'coke' that is 'Coke' (pronounced the same)? Does one reduplicate and say a 'Coke coke', does one repeat with emphasis (or without), does one use a different word like 'coca-cola' (co-cola), or what?  The (perceived) difficulty (surely those in the South are able to get the drink they want somehow) isn't limited to there. Where the drink is called 'soda', if you ask for a 'coke', you'll still sometimes have the choice among Coca-Cola, Pepsi, etc. "Can I have a Coke?" the response might be "Is Pepsi OK?". "Sure, Pepsi, Coke, whatever." You don't use 'cola', you just ask for the particular kind and hope the listener will help differentiate.   Given these multiple strategies for disambiguating, what do you do say to get a 'Coke' in the southern US? are there any other examples of a hypernym being the same as the hyponym, and so creating a disambiguation problem?
114751
What is the origin of the expression hashing out plans? I can't find a definition when googling for:  definition "to hash out plans" definition "hash out plans" definition "hashing out plans"
113127
What's the name for a part of speech which is not quite rhetorical, but not expected to be answered directly, either? I know the word exists, it refers to greetings such as "How are you" and similar. There's a very specific term for those greetings and I cannot recall it.  It's not perfunctory or pro forma; it very specifically refers to a common query that isn't really a question but a conversation opener. Might be from a specialized field like linguistics.  Frustrating!
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The original use of  is from      Ancient Greek φυλακτήριον phylacterion, form of phylássein, φυλάσσειν meaning “to guard, protect”   —    and was originally meant to refer to ‘Tefillin’, boxes that contain script from the Torah.   The first time I heard of it, though, it was as the ‘soul jar’ of a . I can’t find a reference for this being the first time it was used to mean ‘Soul Jar’. None of the examples of  on Wikipedia reference a phylactery at all.  Box of Scripture to Soul Jar seems like a bit of a leap, though not an unimaginable one.  Were there any intervening steps? If not, can it be pinned down to a design choice of a D&amp;D rules writer?  What is its first use in fiction?
107605
What is the origin of the word badass? Why a "bad" ass/"bad" + "ass"? What is an ass that is bad and how can an ass that is bad describe a tough person?
95612
I once heard the late John Ciardi (NPR's "A Word in Your Ear") try to explain that the 1920s idiom, "copacetic" (meaning completely satisfactory), entered into the African-American vocabulary in Harlem from the days when Jews and African Americans lived there together.  He argued that copacetic has the same meaning as the Israeli idiom "kol b'seder" which literally means "all is in order."  The problem with that, said my Harlem-raised father-in-law, is that the Jews in Harlem spoke Yiddish and kol b'seder was not used in Yiddish.  The dictionary I've got is not helpful. Can someone come up with a better explanation?
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I'd like to know the etymology of the word "ginger" in reference to red-headed people.  In particular, if "ginger" in this context is related to the plant root used in cooking, I'd like to know how the color red became associated with it. I am only familiar with ginger roots that do not possess any red coloring.  A quick google search yields vague and somewhat conflicting results. An authoritative answer with references would be appreciated.  Edit: Although an answer has pointed out a distinction between the term "ginger" and "red-head" in terms of physical features, there is certainly a tendency to see the term applied to people with hair that is any shade of red. I would be interested to trace the usage history of how the word ginger has been applied in that more broad sense.
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What does &quot;all but&quot; mean in this expression?  Today, under pressure from P2P distribution, optical disc piracy in wealthy countries is &quot;all but eliminated&quot; and profit margins elsewhere are slim.   I have seen this used as an intensifier to mean &quot;I only have gratitude&quot;, but logic says the sentence means &quot;I have all kinds of feelings towards you, except gratitude.&quot;
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I sometimes have heard somebody replying with Why, thank you. instead of Thank you.  What is the meaning of the first phrase? What is the difference between the two phrases?
69655
I do not know how else to put the question.  On my third attempt, what is the origin of the word "pink" in the English language?