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- idioms - For whom the bell tolls - origin of ask not instead of . . .
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls" is a popular cliche My understanding is that it comes from John Donne's Meditation XVII (1623) But in Donne's poem, the line is any man's death diminishes me,
- etymology - What is the origin of rings a bell? - English Language . . .
For example, he struck a bell when the dogs were fed If the bell was sounded in close association with their meal, the dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell with food After a while, at the mere sound of the bell, they responded by drooling Another possible origin is the one this page advocates:
- etymology - What caused bell peppers to be called capsicums in some . . .
A person working in an Indian supermarket was shocked when I told her it's called Bell Pepper in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland I had to pull out Wikipedia to convince her it was true (Probably because she associated pepper with the spice ) What is the historical etymological explanation for this divergence in names between countries?
- What do you call the sound of a bell? - English Language Usage Stack . . .
If you wanted to describe the sound of a small brass bell that you can hold in your hand (this is an example image of what I mean - what word would you use? Brrring? Bling?
- Interjection for the sound of a bell - English Language Usage Stack . . .
The sound of Big Ben over the radio was traditionally rendered "Bong" (and sometimes referred to as the bongs, though I wouldn't recommend that in a normal context) Church bells are supposed to go "Ding-dong" when rung, e g , for a wedding I have seen the sound of a full peal rendered "Tin-tan-din-dan-bim-bam-bom-bo" (Dorothy Sayers, if I remember correctly), but, again, would hesitate to
- single word requests - Is there a term for the sound of a bicycle bell . . .
A bicycle bell is a percussive signaling instrument mounted on a bicycle for warning pedestrians and other cyclists Wikipedia says that a bicycle bell produces a "ding-ding" sound, and so, since I'm not sure that "ding-ding" sound is the better choice currently in use, I wonder whether there is a single term with which one can more properly
- 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)
- consonants - Why is there a double ll in bell? - English Language . . .
I am trying to understand some of the idiosyncrasies of the English language One is the use of double consonants Why does the word bell have two letter L?
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