How Vocabulary Develops

 Right now, we all know what Remdesivir (or Dexamethasone) is, or what devices are used to measure Oxygen levels, or supply Oxygen to patients. Or have learnt that antibodies are good for us-they are not against our body. In other words, a lot of words about health or medicine.

In 2004, we were at IIM Bangalore for our batch (84) get-together, when I first heard the word Tsunami. It had started in Indonesia, and spread till India, causing huge damage. 

What I am trying to get at, is we get familiar with words that we need, more than others. If you are a writer, you may need a lot of words of all kinds. But for an average Joe (or Jane), we probably need a couple of hundred words for everyday use, and 2000 for non-everyday use. If you don't use it, you may lose it..the word!

But I do look up word meanings from Google (it has replaced maps, dictionaries, thesauruses among other things), and not just English words/phrases. It helps to make sure what I am saying is intelligible to most. I write a blog, you see, I have to be careful..

Urdu Words on Song

In songs, actually, is what I meant. Some Urdu words that are appealing when used in film songs-

Dagabaaz ho banke piya,...a very old song.

Iqraar karna mushkil hai, inkaar karna mushkil hai..Manisha sang it in a remake (there were many) of Sleeping With the Enemy.

Beqaraar dil tu gaaye ja khushiyon se bhare woh taraane (Ashok Kumar sang in Kishore Kumar's voice, and Sulakshana Pandit sang for Tanuja).

Mohabbat. Yeh jo mohabbat hai yeh unka hai kaam..

Qayamat- Kamar patli, nazar bijli, suraahidaar gardan, qayamat se meri jaan kam nahin ho..

Haseena- O haseena zulfonwali jaane jahan,..

Bekhudi- Bekhudi mein sanam uth gaye jo kadam.

Nonsensical Words in Song Lyrics

Yahoo, chahe koi mujhe Junglee kahe.. has one.

Aiyyayya karoon main kya, suku suku..seems like another one. Both Shammi Kpoor/Rafi songs.

Edlari odlari ohoo, in Zindagi ek safar hai suhana (the yodeling part) is a third. Kishore Kumar song.

Biri biri biri..meri jaan maine kaha, meri jaan tune suna, dil ne dil se kya kaha? Good question.

Oooooh, Mehbooba, mehbooba..an RD Burman song again.

Ek chatur naar has a couple in the middle of the duet/fight. om bram, aa ee oo a ai...etc.. adding to the fun quotient in a fun movie.

Eena meena deeka is full of them.

Cities

Simpli-city.

Elasti-city.

Electri-city.

Auda-city.

Tena-city.

Univer-sity.

Fero-city.

Toxi-city.

Feli-city.

Velo-city.

The Importance of being G

These ruminations are to prove that G is probably the most important letter in the alphabet. Wanna bet?

1. A lot of positivity comes out of words that start with a G- Good to Great.

2. Very commonly used term in Lucknow, U.P. is G Haan. In Delhi, or Punjab, it is turned around to Haan G, but still contains the all important letter.

3. Important dialogues in films start with the word Gaonwalon, like in Sholay. Used by Gabbar (G again) and Dharmendra on the water-tank.

4. Important countries of the world (those whose currency does not depreciate) are called G-10 nations.

5. GDP is a measure of how well you are doing, except in Bhutan, where only happiness is measured. Poor souls.

6. India's answer to James Bond, Mithun, went by the name Gunmaster G-9. Not F-9 or B-9. Even the cult movie on campuses is Gunday, starring him.

7. An often-used gaali (honourable term of address) in Hindi is Gadhey...

8. Ghotala, the Hindi word for scandal, also begins with a G. Where would news channels be without these?

9. Ganga and Godavari, two of our most important rivers, are G rivers.

Above all, two words that drive the spiritual, and the corporate sports-world start with a G-

10. God, and

11. Golf.

I rest my case.

Typically Indian Songs

Some words used in Hindi film songs are typically Indian, non-global ones. Some songs featuring such words-

Beedi jalile jigar se piya from Omkara. Beedi is very commonly smoked in India. Made Bipasha Basu famous.

Kajra re kajra re tere kaare kaare naina...kajra is an Indian tradition, for the eyes. Other songs have also emphasised the word, such as Kajra laga ke, gajra saja ke..Gajra is also a flower decoration for hair typically used by Indian women.

Sharm is another such word..Sharm aati hai magar aaj yeh kehna hoga, is a song using the word. Sharmilee was a whole movie based on the idea, with a title song that went O meri, o meri o meri sharmilee,...

Panghat is a place where water is filled, typically by women in villages. Recently used in the song Radha teri chunri in Student of the Year.

Bombast

This is not the short form for bomb blast, please note. This refers to generally showing off with words. This is what journalists, lawyers, academicians, Public Relations guys etc. do to 'add value' to themselves, their professions, and whatever they are talking about, such as events. Use of meaningless words in the right places adds to the mystique of things. Examples-

Global
Strategy
Transformation
Metrosexual (no one is quite sure what that means, unlike bi- or trans-)
Revolutionary (new product, technology)
Game-changing (THAT usage IS the game, my friend)
Breaking news (I hear laughter breaking out among readers)
Breakthrough (while you are at it, might as well break a few more)
Fantastic (savings- when you spend a lot, that is)
Out-of-the-world (holiday destination- is it on Mars?)
Plagiarism- won't plain old copying do?
Big Data- anything can be this
Cloud- this is apparently not the pieces of fluff that you encounter in the sky, but here on earth
Soulmate- by definition, the soul is invisible. So how do you know if the soul has found a mate?
Millennium- what exactly is it? A thousand, million, or in between?
Baby-boomers- may a thousand babies bloom
Boundary-spanning
Bounded Rationality (I assume it's the the opposite of Unlimited Stupidity)
X-gen, Y-gen, Z-gen.....take your pick

Words That Resonate With You

There is a woman in the Oscar Wilde play "The Importance of Being Earnest" who is in love with the word 'Earnest' and therefore wants to marry only a person with that name, because the word evokes "vibrations" that Jack, for instance, does not have. This got me thinking about words that resonate with me. This is not a definitive list. Also, my theory is that it depends on who is saying the word, for it to resonate- or not.

Nineteen to the dozen- this is phrase that someone I knew used often, and it had a nice ring to it.

Paushtik bonda- this was food at Uncle's, a low-fi establishment on the IIMB campus long time ago, and kept body and soul together when we were 'fed up' of the food in the mess (why do they call it the mess? So appropriate). The words resonated, and conjured up images of desirable food.

Chai- this resonates as no other substitute for it would. Not tea, which sounds like a coloniser's word. Say Adrak-wali chai, and the resonance goes up manifold. Particularly at this time of the year.

Like/matlab- these are general words used as substitutes for other words that may not be on your tongue at that given moment. Excellent to keep a sentence going, or even start a sentence with, matlab...facebook has given a totally new dimension to the word 'like', of course..

Cat- Like the proverbial one, this word refuses to go away. My first fling with this was in an exam by that name (acronym) I wrote in 1983, and ever since, I am involved in conducting it, or involved with (teaching) students who have been through it. Therefore the resonance with this word. In Indore, we even have a CAT road leading to our campus.

Baba- Used by my daughters, this does have a lovely ring to it. Except when I annoy them; then it takes on an ominous ring..

Find and Found

Major confusion rules in this world about silly things. Examples-

The difference between finding and founding.

The difference between lose and loose.

The meaning of beside and besides.

The meaning of alternate and alternative.

A woman and a doormat.

A woman and a model for an ad- any ad.

Politics and Economics.

Governance and Anarchy.

Nepotism and Impartiality.

Exams and Evaluation.

Looks and  abilities.

You are welcome to add those you have observed.

English Bites- Book That Does Not

This is a book that tickles. Manish Gupta is the author, and the byline of the book, or its subtitle is-My Fullproof English Learning Formula.

This is the second book about English I have read recently, after Etymologicon, and it does not disappoint. I will give you some free samples from it, and let you decide for yourself, whether it will disappoint you or not.

Darling literally is 'little dear', from the ancient 'dar' for dear, like duckling, or pigling. Remember that, the next time you use the word to address an endearing personality.

Amphibology is any ambiguous usage in English. Examples in the book-

1. Fine for parking. Get the double meaning?

2. Eat our curry- you won't get (any) better!

3. A quote by Groucho Marx- I once shot an elephant in my pajamas-er,  how did the elephant get in them?

4. Our dog eats everything and loves children.

About punctuation, there is a famous Oscar Wilde quote- 'I spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.' A common problem authors face, and editors too, I am sure.

Well, lots of nuggets like this, and footnotes that explain meanings like in a Barron's guide, are lovely features of the book.

Since we are on words and language, I read an interesting term for an unmarried spouse in the papers the other day- POSSLQ, or Person of Other Sex Sharing Living Quarters. How's that for making your day?

The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth

This is a book in the whodunit tradition, but not about murder- unless you think language has been murdered over the centuries. It is about the origin of English words, etymology. But written in a way that is part Wodehouse, part Hitchcock, and well, part (Frederick) Forsyth.

The most hilarious one I have come across so far is the one on the origin of testify. Apparently people in olden days swore on something with their hands either on their own testes or those of the high official before whom they swore! What could be funnier? Sounds like a Mel Brooks movie scene.

Disaster comes from misplaced planet, or dis-astro. And now, a story, the story of Frankfurt. Once upon a terribly long time ago, there was a tribe called the Franks. They invaded Gaul and Gaul became Franc(k)e. They oppressed the native Gauls horribly, forcing them to eat garlic. Only the Franks themselves were free. Thus they were enfranchised. They were able to speak freely or frankly, and everyone else was disenfranchised and not able to approve things just by franking them.

How did the Franks get to France? They had to cross the river Main. They did it by finding a ford to ford it. The place became known as the Frank-ford on the Main, or Frankfurt am Main. It may be noticed how the good things were named after themselves. It's an absolute truth of linguistics that bad things are foreign (Is the Shiv Sena/CPI(M) listening?)

In medieval times, black and white were often confused with one another, however implausible it may sound. The author's comment about this- "Chess must have been a confusing game (as a result of this confusion), but on the plus side, racism must have been impractical."

The blank in point blank means white, from the French word blanc, meaning white. When the white in the centre of the shooting targets is shot from a close range, it becomes point blank. Literally, it means you point (aim) at the blanc- the white spot, and not aim high, as when you shoot from a distance, and to account for gravity, aim higher than the target.

Another thing I gleaned from the book is that Milton (of  Paradise Lost fame)  invented hundreds of words. Apparently when he didn't find what he wanted, he just invented one. Like Etymologicon, used in the title of this book. Fascinating stuff!

Word Play

The Washington Post's Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from 
the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and 
supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners (some censored for this blog): Enjoy!

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding a stupid person that stops bright 
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign 
of breaking down in the near future.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject 
financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person 
who doesn't get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these really 
bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a 
serious bummer.

10 Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming 
only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when 
they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've 
accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your 
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the 
fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the lot:

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an a-ole.

Urdu Words

Urdu words fascinate me no end. I don't always understand them but here are a few I looked up or defined based on my best guesses.

Tilismath- Magic (Hyderabad has a unani medicine called Zinda Tilismath)

Jazbaat- Emotions

Zarra- Particle (not to be confused with Zorro)

Tarkash- Quiver, a container for arrows

Tamanna/Arzoo- Wish

Justaju-Quest

Maikada- made famous by Pankaj Udhas (India's answer to Punk) in his ghazal 'Ek taraf uska ghar ek taraf maikada' , means 'Bar'

Happened to see two songs starring heroines who disappeared after a (presumably) brief career- Vimi in Hamraaz, and Kumud Chugani in a nice song from the movie Vaasna. No idea what became of them.