Is there a word in English that distinguishes between the mother’s brother and the father’s brother, or the mother's sister and the father's sister? The words ‘uncle’ and 'aunt' don't seem to do the job.
23641
Please refer the following questions asked elsewhere on this site:       I am a native Hindi speaker; Hindi has a plethora of terms referring to relationships. To take a trivial example, the term uncle may refer to father's elder brother, father's younger brother, mother's brothers, father's sister's husband, mother's sister's husband, all of which have specific addresses in Hindi.  I discussed the same with one of my teachers. She had the opinion that the development of language mirrors the cultural moorings of the society that uses the language. Now, since all of the above relationships have distinct status and reverence in the Hindi speaking society, that calls for different addresses. That may well not be the case in English speaking societies.  Is that correct? What other linguistic reasons may account for such a dearth of vocabulary in English in this area?
105466
I am looking for a word that I could use instead of "friend of a friend". On certain occasions, it happens that you may want to talk about a friend of a friend with someone else.   In such cases how would you refer to this friend?
87744
What I want to know is whether there is an adjective within the same word family as "stereotype" for that.  So, if it exists, it would be something like "stereotypist" or "stereotyping".  I know that "stereotypist" exists as a noun and "stereotyping" exists as a present participle but I wonder whether either (or both) of them has/have also been used in literature as an adjective.
37141
I'm looking for a pejorative word that describes one who cares only about their own, and others' appearances, and cares nothing for personality to the point of obsession. Something that fits in like: "The son had inherited his mother's ______". Shallow is not the word I'm looking for - it wouldn't exactly fit in that sentence (and shallowness seems a bit awkward).  Vanity is the closest word I have to a fit, but it only describes an excessive care of oneself, and not others.
51861
With all the "Royal baby" craze comes something that really confuses me. All the news media used pretty much the same sentence to make the announcement:      The Duchess of Cambridge has been delivered of a son.   A couple of questions:   Why not "The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a son" or "delivered a baby", or something along those lines? Why is "of" used in this structure, and what purpose does it serve?   From a non-native English speaker's perspective, this sentence doesn't seem to make any sense at all to me.
109217
Growing up there was a friend of my family who would often use son of a gun as a slang term. For example,     And that son of a gun has a 300hp motor in it.   Like any father, my Dad wanted to raise me right, so he banned me from using the phrase. He implied that the phrase was synonymous with son of a bitch. However in more recent years I've often wondered: What is the origin of son of a gun, and does it really have anything to do with illicit relationships?
16745
Is it correct to say "I wrote him" or "I wrote to him"?  My Mother was a stickler for English grammar and would say "I wrote your Uncle..." rather than "I wrote to your Uncle..."
66919
I am confused between these words. Dictionaries say they are similar, but I vaguely remember my schoolteacher apprising me of a difference between them. I would love if someone could elucidate.
1571
When I'm talking about my friend, who is a girl, but not a girlfriend, what word or phrase should I use? If the gender was unimportant, it would not be a problem. But if I want to note that the friend is female, not male, how should I say that, to avoid ambiguity?
97182
With relatives in the US south, I always thought that the definition of "kissing cousin" was a second cousin (or more distant) whom you could kiss and subsequently marry (FWIW I never did either!).  However, a number of dictionaries have a very different definition: namely, a relation close enough to kiss on meeting (sort of like a hug, I gather).  I never heard the term used this way.  Is it a recent "invention"?    Example:        noun   1. A relative close enough to be kissed in salutation, hence anyone with whom a person is fairly intimate:   The two species will often prove to be kissing cousins, for they'll crossbreed.   You guys talk like kissing cousins    and  confirm The Dictionary of American Slang's definition.  The closest reference I found to the idea I mentioned was the discussing of  in Wikepedia.  Has any else heard the term used to refer to cousins who can be married?
116168
Is there a word in English to describe words that can be spelled more than one way?  For example:   colour and color favourite and favorite   However, this shouldn't be limited to words spelled differently in different dialects, though I'm not sure what other case there would be.
73215
I’m going to the christening of my cousin’s first son soon. What is the proper name for his relation to me?  Second nephew? Nephew once removed? Nothing?  Looking at the overall picture, what's the accepted rule for the naming of all of our various relations?
52100
When we refer to a house that belongs to a family, we say "family's house". Pluralizing family gives us "families". Referring to the houses of several families, we say "families' houses". Forming the plural possessive in such a case is rather simple.  I encountered a more complex use of this recently - referring to a single house owned by a single family in a set of houses owned by a set of families.  We can say "the families' houses" to refer to all of the houses owned by all of the families.  We can say "one of the families' houses" to refer to one of the houses owned by one or more of the families. In this context, "one of" applies to "the families' houses".  If we were instead to apply "one of" to "the families", and want to refer to the one house owned by "one of the families", how would this be written?  My first though was "one of the families's house", taking "one of the families" as a single noun and appending 's to it. This looks (and sounds) a bit strange, though. "One of the families' house" and "one of the family's house"/"one of the family's houses" seem wrong to me, and I can't really determine the correct way to say/write this.  Is there a definitively correct way that this should be written?  EDIT: To clarify, although I think I made it clear, in this context, there are several families, and each owns one house. The goal of the sentence is to refer to one of those houses without stating which specific house. Example: "The players and their families want to celebrate their team's victory; this will likely entail a party at one of the families's house".
115869
Example:     When my mother came back from the island, she came back as a newborn Christian. [...]   was shocked, especially since none of them belonged to that religion.   (In this case, they refer to the mother's parents/brothers/sisters, and also the husband's parents/brothers/sisters. Not the husband because he was dead. And not the speaker because he was still a baby. So there's no immediate family.)  What would a native English speaker use in cases like this? Her family, my family, our family, or my relatives?
19188
Possible Duplicate:             I've done a bit of research and I understand that "family" should be preceded by  singular or plural verb depending on how you want it to be treated. For example,      His family is one of the oldest in the county.   and     His family are all doctors.   These are apparently both correct.   But in the following instance, could a grammar expert tell me which should be be?     When his family are abducted   or      When his family is abducted   ?  Thanks.
61564
Example sentence: Racism was a ____ in the Elizabethan Era.  I'm looking for a word/phrase that works with "breaking". I was considering "social norms" but it doesn't really mean what I want it to convey.   Even if it doesn't work with "breaking", I'd be happy to hear your suggestions anyway!
48328
I'm looking for an appropriate word to describe someone who is a man of his word.   Trustworthy springs to mind but doesn't seem appropriate, as it doesn't imply an honorable connotation associated with a person who keeps their word.