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- single word requests - What do you call the sound of a bell? - English . . .
The sound of a hand held brass bell, to me, is "ding-a-ling " "Tinkle" would apply at best to a very small bell (and at worst is slang for urinate as I commented above), and "brrring" would apply to the repeated hammering on a bell such as one used to hear telephones or school bells make "Bling" is slang for gaudy jewellery!
- idioms - For whom the bell tolls - origin of ask not instead of . . .
HAGSTRUM: I was rather amused to read that after Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls came out with its quotation from John Donne's Devotions people came to the libraries and wanted the complete works of John Donne Here was one book which influenced another much in the same manner as a movie will influence the sale of the book
- etymology - What caused bell peppers to be called capsicums in some . . .
1707 H Sloane Voy Islands I 241 Bell Pepper The fruit is large somewhat shaped like a bell ("pepper, n " OED Online Oxford University Press, June 2016 Web 24 August 2016 Sense 3 ) Capsicum, on the other hand, is first attested as a botanical term for the plant in 1664, and as a term for the plant's fruit in 1725 ("capsicum, n "
- Lunch vs. dinner vs. supper — times and meanings?
@Mitch: As an American, I'd mostly agree with Matthias that "lunch" refers to a noon-time meal and "supper" to an evening meal regardless of size, while "dinner" specifically refers to a larger or more formal meal
- word choice - What Is the Real Name of the #? - English Language . . .
1996 New Scientist 30 Mar 54 3 The term ‘octothorp(e)’ (which MWCD10 dates 1971) was invented for ‘#’, allegedly by Bell Labs engineers when touch-tone telephones were introduced in the mid-1960s ‘Octo-’ means eight, and ‘thorp’ was an Old English word for village: apparently the sign was playfully construed as eight fields
- A figure of speech to illustrate the irreversibility of an action
Personally I like "You can't unring that bell" as deadrat mentioned above The phrase refers to the fact that you can't un-hear a bell that has been rung There's a nice essay about its history here: Unring the Bell (impossibility of taking back a statement or action)
- etymology - Origin of using clocked to mean noticed - English . . .
The second is based on the origins of 'clock', (OED ~ "Middle English clok(ke , clocke , was either < Middle Dutch clocke (modern Dutch klok ‘bell, clock’), or < Old Northern French cloke , cloque = Central French cloche ‘bell’"), and an alternative use for bell clock that was to have it tied around the necks of cattle to make them
- nouns - English Language Usage Stack Exchange
Tolling usually refers to one bell being sounded at intervals The carillon referred to by Theresa is something different, where a machine makes the bells play a tune Some church towers have both; a carillon linked to the clock which plays a tune mechanically at certain times of day, and the facility for ringing changes by hand
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