Colour me happy!

I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but I have a certain fixation with painted nails. I am thus rather curious about when and by whom, certain terms are used, as I have become acquainted with both 'polish' and 'varnish' terms, to refer to the same material used to colour nails. Of course, one of the terms, 'polish' is more familiar to me, and as there were two main 'standards' of English varieties used relatively widely, I suspected that each term was primed for either the British community of English speakers, or the American community and their 'proponents'. I looked both terms up in the various online dictionaries and here are the results:

Merriam-Webster-

Main Entry: ¹var·nish

Pronunciation: \ˈvär-nish\

Function: noun

3 chiefly British : a liquid nail polish

Macmillan-

nail varnish

noun [countable/uncountable] British
a shiny liquid that goes hard when it dries that women sometimes paint onto their nails

Oxford Learner's-

nail polish (BrE also nail varnish) noun [U] clear or coloured liquid that you paint on your nails to make them look attractive: nail polish / varnish remover

(BrE) Josie was sitting at her desk, varnishing her nails. [vn-n] Her nails were varnished a brilliant shade of red.

Merriam-Webster's Learner's-

nail polish

Function:

noun

Meaning:

[noncount] : a liquid that is used to paint fingernails and toenails ▪ red nail polish ▪ nail polish remover —called also (Brit) nail varnish; —see picture at grooming

Longman's-

nail polish also nail varnish British English [uncountable]

DCB coloured or transparent liquid which you paint on your nails to make them look attractive:

As an added measure, I also Google-d both terms to find out if the websites which use the term 'polish' was non-British and whether only British sites used the term 'varnish' in place of 'polish'. However, I noticed that out of the top 20 search results, only 2 sites (both UK sites) used varnish in place of polish,

whereas polish still showed up in 16 of the search results, and both terms being used interchangeably in 3 of the sites, with some of them including UK sites. Hence, I feel that although it does support the finding that 'varnish' is a term predominantly used by British English speakers, it also shows that 'polish' is a term more widely employed by English speakers worldwide, including some British English speakers. Hence, although I am a speaker of Singapore English, which tends to take after Br EL, I am still more lexically primed to use the term 'polish', than 'varnish'.

Under my umbrella ella ella...

I was just skype-ing with my friend in Notts, when she brought up how she was amused to no end by how the British refer to the umbrella as 'brolly'. Perhaps this is because us, Singaporeans are not lexically primed to use the word 'brolly' to refer to the device which provides us with shelter from the rain and sun. Yet, I was not unable to recognize the term, and so I wondered if it may be used by a select group of Singaporeans as well. Also, it made me wonder about the various other terms used to refer to the same device, like 'parasol'. I decided to conduct a miniature analysis of the terms through looking at the dictionaries at hand.
Brolly

OED:
colloq.

1. Clipped and altered form of

UMBRELLA 2. Term used at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

2. slang. A parachute. Also attrib. and Comb., as brolly-hop, a jump made with a parachute; so brolly-hopping vbl. n.

Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: brol·ly

Pronunciation: \ˈbrä-lē\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural brollies

Etymology: by shortening & alteration

Date: circa 1874

chiefly British : umbrella

As can be seen by the above lexical entries, it is quite unanimously primed for Br English speakers and is used informally.

Now for the term, 'parasol', which is also seen to be used to refer to the same device, but not quite in exactly the same manner. There is no entire overlap in meaning. My findings are below:

Parasol

OED:

1. Something that screens or protects as if from the rays of the sun.

2. Something that gives shade from the rays of the sun; spec. a screen or canopy, usually in the form of a small light umbrella, often ornamental or brightly coloured; (hence more generally) a sunshade, sun-umbrella.

Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: par·a·sol

Pronunciation: \ˈper-ə-ˌsȯl, -ˌsäl, ˈpa-rə-\

Function: noun

Etymology: French, from Old Italian parasole, from parare to shield + sole sun, from Latin sol — more at parapet, solar

Date: 1660

: a lightweight umbrella used as a sunshade

Macmillan:

a type of umbrella designed to provide protection from the sun

Oxford Learner's:

para•sol /prsl; NAmE sl; sl/ noun
1 a type of light umbrella that women in the past carried to protect themselves from the sun
2 a large umbrella that is used for example on beaches or outside restaurants to protect people from hot sun—compare sunshade

As can be seen, the term parasol is usually used to refer to a sun shade, and hardly ever for the device used to shelter from rain, which is where the chief distinction lies, across most varieties of English.

Solid crab!

I ate at Mellben Seafood Restaurant recently and saw this sign, which involved the use of 'solid' as an adjective to describe food positively, this struck me as something distinctly Singaporean, or at most, Malaysian as well. However, upon referring to various online dictionaries, I realized that it was actually primed for other groups of English speakers like the Am, and Br English speakers too. I also Googled the term 'solid steak', and one of the top search results was of an American steak house, BLT Steak, which guaranteed a solid steak experience, as can be seen on the website, http://steakclub7.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/bltsteak/.

Here are the dictionary results which supported the use of 'solid' to describe food as 'good' were,
OED:
c. Of food or liquor.

1711 STEELE Spectator No. 43 4 A Bottle or two of good solid Edifying Port, at honest George's, made a Night chearful, and threw off Reserve.

Merriam-Webster:
4 : of good substantial quality or kind

Merriam-Webster's Learner's:
5 [more sol*id; most sol*id] a : good and able to be trusted to do or provide what is needed ▪ He plays solid defense. ▪ The team's defense is very solid. ▪ She gave a solid performance. ▪ She's a good, solid player. b : having a strong basis : good and dependable ▪

Longman:

11

good

British English informal good

Cambridge:
of a good standard

However, some dictionaries stated that 'solid' be meant as something good and dependable and substantial, but not exceptionally special, which is probably not what the proprietors of Mellben intended for the meaning of 'solid'.

Oxford Advanced Learner's:
GOOD BUT NOT SPECIAL
5 definitely good and steady but perhaps not excellent or special: 2004 was a year of solid achievement. He’s a solid player.

Dictionary.com:
not flimsy, slight, or light, as buildings, furniture, fabrics, or food; substantial.

Please let me know your views regarding how the word 'solid' as an adjective to describe the quality of things is primed for you!(:

Please mind the gap!

Hello! I had a project meeting at Changi Airport 2 days ago and being a Westerner (I live at Buona Vista), I spent a relatively long amount of time in the MRT. This provided me with ample time to stare at various signs when I got bored of my music. the 'mind the platform gap' sign caught my attention as it brought to mind the 'watch the gap' sign used in New York's subway stations, for it again demonstrated the variation in lexical priming for different groups of English speakers, for they have different words for the same purposes. Here are pictures I took of Singapore's(second picture) MRT sign and one I found on the web of NY's.

Clean-n-Seat!

I saw this sanitizer yesterday, at a toilet cubicle in NUH. I did a double-take as the phrasing, 'Clean-n-Seat', if interpreted as 'clean and sit'--- as the contents of the dispenser was supposed to be used in that manner, to clean the toilet seat before the user sits on it, then the spelling of 'sit' as 'Seat', is not primed in this manner for me. However being a brand name, it may be read as a pseudo pun on the word 'sit' and 'seat' which sound similar when pronounced by most Singaporeans who are guilty of sloppy speech. Hence, as the sanitizer is to be used to clean the seat before sitting, hence the aforementioned interpretation, and will also result in a clean seat upon usage, there is some form of word play whereby 'Seat' is meant as both the verb 'sit' in the 1st interpretation, and meant as the noun 'seat' in the clean seat interpretation. It is rather clever, I suppose, as in the Singapore context, people will generally be able to fully appreciate the creative brand name. I assume that this is a Singapore brand, but am unable to confirm this as I was unable to locate this brand upon running a Google search of it. If anyone knows where this brand originates from, do let me know! It will help me further analyze this hypothesis that 'Seat' was used due to it's similar pronounciation as 'Sit' in the Singaporean context.

your costume is so fail!

Hello again! This is the first time I posted in such quick succession but I heard something last night during my Hall's Dance Production (DP) vetting which reminded me of an instance of how my own lexicon has changed recently. The Stage Manager was giving us feedback on our first run, and was evidently rather close to panicking due to DP being a few days away. Hence she was using the 'fail' word quite a bit, and in exasperation, had used it in a form most commonly heard nowadays, in that of a noun and an adjective. I thought nothing of it and understood it very well indeed.
E.g.)
'That costume is so fail!' (~adjective to describe the noun, 'costume'; an adjective as it can be preceded by a quantifying adverb, 'so')

'Why was your facial expression so off? You are an epic fail!' (~noun)

A search for 'fail' in the OED, Macmillan, Longman, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster did reveal that it could be used as a noun, but the phrasing of 'fail' in the dictionaries was different, with the noun mainly used in forms like Longman's:

1

without fail

a) if you do something without fail, you always do it:

Tim visits his mother every day without fail.

b) used to tell someone very firmly that they must do something:

I want that work finished by tomorrow, without fail!

2 [countable]SE an unsuccessful result in a test or examination [≠ pass]:

I got a fail in history.

Also, 'fail' was not used as an adjective in the dictionaries mentioned above. I feel that these new usages of 'fail' which I have adopted into my mental lexicon are a result of the recent websites like the Failblog.org, whereby instances of screw ups by people are posted on the blog, and labelled as a 'fail', or something to be ridiculed.

Doughnuts or Donuts? having the munchies!

Have you all wondered which term was the appropriate one? Or simply, where lies the difference in their usages? Well they were pretty much my favourite snacks so and I've always wondered so I decided to run a search for both word forms in the some of the dictionaries we have available.
Based on the Macmillan Dictionary and the Longman Dictionary, 'doughnut' was the generally more common variant whereas 'donut' was mainly used in American English. Here are the lexical entries.

Macmillan:
definition of

donut

noun [countable] mainly American
a doughnut(main entry)

Longman:

do‧nut especially American English

x-ref another spelling of doughnut

Most other dictionaries also agree that 'doughnut' was the more commonly used variant, for that was the main entry, with 'donut' listed as the variant.

Oxford English dictionary
Also donut.
1. A small spongy cake made of dough (usually sweetened and spiced), and fried or boiled in lard. Freq. made in the shape of a thick ring.

Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: dough·nut

Variant(s): also do·nut \-(ˌ)nət\

Function: noun

Date: circa 1809

1 : a small usually ring-shaped cake fried in fat
2 : something (as a mathematical torus) that resembles a doughnut especially in shape

— dough·nut·like \-ˌlīk\ adjective

Encarta Dictonary:

doughnut
	dough·nut [ dṓ nùt ] (plural dough·nuts) or do·nut [ dṓ nùt ] (plural do·nuts) noun

Toward(s)?

A friend of mine just rang me up with a urgent question, she did not know whether her use of 'towards' was correct or if 'toward' was more accurate. She told me she has been using 'towards' all her life, but lately have been hearing her lecturers use 'toward' instead. I realize that I have always been using 'towards' as well, and wanted to investigate the possible differences between the two forms. I ran a Google search on the difference between the terms and one search which showed a brief preview of a book, Painless Grammar by Rebecca Elliott Ph.D. She stated that the main difference between the 2 forms is 'that 'towards' is traditionally used in British English and 'toward' is more traditionally used in American English. The two words are both correct and can be used interchangeably.' Perhaps this is the reason why my friend and I were more familiar with 'towards' but her lecturers may have been educated in the US, and hence are 'primed' towards (:P) using 'toward'.
Having referred to a few online dictionaries, I can observe some patterns with regards to how subtle the affiliation between the British and American Englishes are, with 'towards' and 'toward', respectively.
The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary presented the lexical entry as such:

to•wards /twdz; NAmE trdz/ (also to•ward /twd; NAmE trd/ especially in NAmE) prep.
1 in the direction of sb/sth: They were heading towards the German border. She had her back towards me.
2 getting closer to achieving sth: This is a first step towards political union.
3 close or closer to a point in time: towards the end of April
4 in relation to sb/sth: He was warm and tender towards her. our attitude towards death
5 with the aim of obtaining sth, or helping sb to obtain sth: The money will go towards a new school building (= will help pay for it).

The OED was more neutral, in that it had separate entries for both 'towards' and 'toward', even going to the extent of pointing out subtle differences in usage like how 'toward' had an additional word class of being used as an adjective, on top of the common usages of preposition and adverb, which are shared with 'towards'.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (Am EL) in turn, presented its entry as such:

Main Entry: ¹to·ward

Pronunciation: \ˈtō-ərd, ˈtȯ(-ə)rd\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English toward, from Old English tōweard facing, imminent, from tō, preposition, to + -weard -ward

Date: before 12th century

1also to·wards \ˈtō-ərdz, ˈtȯ(-ə)rdz\ [Middle English towardes, from Old English tōweardes, preposition, toward, from tōweard, adjective] a : coming soon : imminent b : happening at the moment : afoot
2 a obsolete : quick to learn : apt b : propitious, favoring

The fact that NUS' Vision, 'Towards a Global Knowledge Enterprise'uses 'towards' also shows how 'towards' is primed as the word form of choice by our community, which officially follows the BrEL version.