English thread. Why not?

[Gez]

Asset is something valuable. Amusingly, the etymology for "assets" ultimately comes through Old Norman "asetz" from Latin ad satis, which translates to "to satiety". The meaning it had when it made its way into English was "enough". It was used in a legal sense: for example, if someone couldn't pay back their debt in money, but had asetz to pay it back with their property, then justice seized asetz from their property to settle the debt. So this was an adjective ("assets" meaning "enough"). The phrase was used in a rote way, so people knew the meaning of the phrase but not necessarily of each individual word. So eventually the adjective was interpreted as a plural noun, and the singular "asset" was invented to design the kind of things that were seized: valuable things. Since then, it has acquired other close meanings, such as something advantageous or useful. (Note that in modern French, "assez" still means "enough".)

Resource is something that you can use freely. The etymology also comes through Old French and ultimately from Latin. It's basically re- for again (as in many other words beginning with re-) and source which means rising up. Resource is therefore etymologically the same word as resurrection and resurgence, all these words have the same ultimate origin. So a resource is something that comes back up, like the crops growing after the winter, or the metals that you mine, or a source of water surging from the rock...

Therefore, both words are nearly synonymous especially in the context of video game stuff, but they have different meanings initially. You can consider that resources are things that you can use, while assets are things that you own. So if you rip the sprites from Doom, it might be your resource, but it's id's assets!


Volley comes from the French volée, which is past participle of voler, meaning to fly. So it's basically flight. Specifically, flight as an instance of things flying, not flight as the capacity for things to fly. Flight as in "Example Airline offers regular flights between Whateverville and Destination City." A volley designates shooting several projectiles so that they fly together. Like a formation flight. In sports, it also designate the fact of striking the ball "in flight" before it hits the ground.

Salvo comes from Italian this time. While it also designates the same thing (shooting several projectiles simultaneously) the meaning is slightly different. It's basically the same word as "salute" -- remember that Latin did not distinguish between U and V (nor between I and J). Originally, salus was Latin for "safe". (It gave us words like salubrity.) From this word meaning "safe" came the expression "salue" or "salve" which can basically be translated as "be well!" and was used as a greeting. This use as a greeting means that to salve people, or to salute them if you prefer, was to hail them. Now the military types have always loved using their weapons to hail their friends, leaders, and enemies, and everything, so as soon as the first firearms were invented they started having the idea to salute by simultaneously shooting several cannons at once. It demonstrates the army's strength and coordination -- perfect way to give homage to whoever or whatever they're hailing.

So basically, a salvo should preferably be used for a non-aggressive use of cannons; while there is no such restriction for volley.

[Reactor]

Excellent! That explains it all! I was damn confused about how should I distinguish these words, but now the fog has been cleared up! )

[Naniyue]

wrkq: Great gut level interpretations!

Gez: Excellent research! Have you studied linguistics before? If not, you should!

[lil'devil]

Well, it's not so hard to find original meanings and etymology of words. There's this site: http://www.wiktionary.org. Type any word in it and it'll tell you everything about it, from pronounciation to etymology to translations. This site helps me a lot with learning languages.

[Ravick]

Just a quick question: in Portuguese, a huge, slow program is a "heavy" program. Is it ok to call it the same way in English? Are there more 'popular' ways to say it in English?

[wildweasel]

"Heavy" would make sense, in the sense of "resource-heavy" or "processor-heavy." Because we understand "heavy" to mean "burdening or taxing" as much as it would mean "physically difficult to lift."

[Naniyue]

Funny how "light" can be the opposite of "heavy", but can also mean that stuff from the sun. The pun potential of the English language is crraaaazyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's one I got from a YouTube video:
Does a coffee shop have the grounds to operate in the black?

[Naniyue]

Has anyone here tried Grammarly yet? I've only seen the commercials, but I'm afraid it will be used by many as a substitute for paying attention in English class.

[Reactor]

"Heavy" would make sense, in the sense of "resource-heavy" or "processor-heavy." Because we understand "heavy" to mean "burdening or taxing" as much as it would mean "physically difficult to lift."

Funny...now that you mention it, I met the word "heavy" in totally meaningless context as well. It was used in a video game on a desert. Heavy desert, just like that. What the actual f is a "heavy desert"?

[Naniyue]

Was it a Japanese game?

It might mean that that desert is even hotter than normal. Heavy with heat haze.

[Reactor]

Hmm...my memory used to be better. If it was, then "heavy desert" was probably a mistranslation It appears that English has no such expression for a desert such as "heavy".
Your guess is probably the best one. The word "heavy" was used to symbolize or signify that this particular desert is even hotter and more deadly than your average desert. Come to think of it, there aren't many words, which could emphasize this when it comes to a desert. The word "super" is also commonly used, but that'd sound even dumber. Super desert Maybe Rachael or wildweasel could have a better idea.

[Gez]

"Extreme" might be used for that, e.g. "extremely hot desert".

That said, a desert doesn't need to be hot, it merely needs to be dry. There are cold deserts, like the Takla Makan.

[Naniyue]

Maybe the place is extra windy, or the sand is abnormally dense, slowing down the player/party? Again, was this a Japanese game? They do borrow many of our words in quirky ways. One of my favorites is saabisu, or "service", which means free of charge. You can see where the idea comes from, but you wouldn't use it quite that way in English. If I remember correctly, the Japanese version of Omega Boost has some interesting Engrish in the manual or something. You will understand what is trying to be said, but you would never in your life have thought of wording it like they did!

[vólentiæn]

my native language is German. but i think the strange pronunciation in English came from the normans invading england in 1066

[Gez]

Nah, it's a more recent phenomenon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_vowel_shift

In fact, it's a whole series of phenomenons, which have started the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the British Isles, and have continued into the contemporary era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonologi ... of_English