WHAT COULD IT BE?

Let's listen to some real fun part of the english language now:

“My home is not quiet but I am not loud.

The lord has meant us to journey together.

 I am faster than he and sometimes stronger.

 But he keeps on going for longer.

Sometimes I rest but he runs on.

 For as long as I am alive I live in him.

If we part from one another it is I who will die.”

                   Honestly, I thought it was some poem written referring  to a wife.

The 1^st  line implying quarrelsome family members,

the 2^nd  line implying marriage,

3^rd line her strength,

4^th line her busy working husband and

 the rest telling us about her love and commitment.Actually I read it again and again and could not get even a marginal clue that I am going 2 b wrong.

                    

                 That was a riddle and the answer is A FISH  IN A POND.Since I  let u know d answer , just let me know how many of u were wrong about d riddle  just like me.

                Poet vairamuthu’s lines go like this:”kavithai variyin suvai artham puriyum varai”(roughly translated:til u get the meaning of the poem,u get the taste of the poem). Applies for this riddle too,right? 

  If u r ready for one more Anglo-saxon riddle here it goes:

"I am wonderful help to women,

The hope of something to come. I harm

No citizen except my slayer.

Rooted I stand on a high bed.

I am shaggy below. Sometimes the beautiful

Peasant's daughter, an eager-armed,

Proud woman grabs my body,

Rushes my red skin, holds me hard,

Claims my head. The curly-haired

Woman who catches me fast will feel

Our meeting. Her eye will be wet."

Before finalising yr answer,try 2 google anglo-saxon riddles .  

sandwich-wins in taste;wins in convenience;wins in story

NAMES AS WORDS:

BOUGAINVILLEA:

I have always expected big,interesting, even magical story behind the flower name bougainvillea  since my childhood.And it turned out that bougainvillea was named after the botanist who found it.Real honour to the botanist.About the flower, even after knowing the reason,the name is still charming.ThoughI felt a little like how I would feel when the movie for which I had high expectations flopped utterly.Anyone who wonders why Tupperware is called Tupperware?

SILHOUETTE:

The word silhouette comes from the name Étienne de Silhouette.From the name ,it is easy to guess that it is a French name.And anything more than that we can’t guess,we will have to know that  Étienne de Silhouette was a finance minister

 who had to impose heavy tax charges from the wealthy people due to an economic crisis.People were not obviously happy with his new plans that stood on the way of their luxury.Result:silhouette  became a name for anything that is cheap.It now actually refers to a painting that just shows the outline with the outlined part darkened,maybe because it took less work from a painter,it got its name silhouette.

SANDWICH:

I always liked  Sandwich and its name.The fact that it is also named after a person is not quite a story I expected.But the fact that sandwiches were prepared for a person who is so addicted in playing cards that he did not even want to get off the

table even for lunch has a great essence of a great story.

                                                            see u friends.

I thought mascara was a hindi word so far

BEHIND THE WORDS:

The next time you hear these words I hope you remember their stories too.

ECHO:

The Greeks named the phenomenon of reverberation of sound through reflection as echo.On looking for a reason and some background for this word ,I found this story.Zeus was a Greek God and his wife was Hera.Zeus asked Echo to accompany his wife Hera whenever He has to do some business that Vera does not like.And so Echo engaged in good and interesting conversations with Vera to take away her focus off of what Zeus is upto.But later Vera found out about their plan.Feeling cheated,vera cursed Echo that she could only speak only which was spoken to her.

MASCARA:

The film mummy gave a good picture of how the ancient Egypt would look.I mean desert everywhere and hot like a hell.The Egyptians in the effort to protect their eyes from the sun,applied kohl (mascara or something like eyeliner)to their eyes.Seems they did not have coolers at that time.Good for us ,we have both mascara and coolers now.But anyways we can’t show off with mascara and coolers at the same time.whatever,back to the story,the Arabs did not like the practice of applying kohl to eyes.So they called it ’masq hara’ meaning the clown.And the name stuck but people forgot what it means.

BEDLAM:

Sometimes it just takes a rumour for a word  like bedlam to be created.There is going to be a scary reason.watch out. St. Mary of Bethlehem's hospital is  in London.Long long back, there was a rumour that some of the patients of that hospital were treated badly and there were patients inside the hospital wandering with chains and this rumour spread,spread and spread till Bethlehem became bedlam and bedlam referred to a place full of chaos and disorder.End of story.

NAMES AS WORDS

There are meanings behind the names.But threre are also words with meanings that originated from the names.English names it as follows:

STEEPLEJACK:

We have seen spiderman and most of us might have seen the making of spiderman noticing all the safety arrangements but it really continue to keep us amazed. Though  for a short time Also we are  also amazed by people who stand on ladders as high as coconut trees painting some ads on the cut-out,people who repair or build something standing on an edge of  the buildings we look at with our chin upwards,people who have to climb trees which look quite promising at touching the sky.We could call them spidermen or go on with the word ‘sleeplejack’ that refers to such people.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN:

“சரோஜா  சாமான்  நிக்காலோ ” could be one expression that could match with this one in English.Needless to say ,but it is my pleasure to say that it means to get ready to do something.

DOUBTING THOMAS:

 I have encountered this phrase while reading sujatha’s katrathum petrathum long back and I am sure it has become a popular phrase among many now.But still let me retell one more time.It is said that Jesus Christ had to appear before Thomas and to show him his wounds as he refused to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.So who ever refuses to believe in something they have not seen by themselves are called Doubting Thomas.

GREAT SCOTT:

It is just an exclamation said at times of surprise.It maybe originated from the name of sir Winfield Scott,an American general who became too fat to ride a horse.

When I think the most famous phrase  in this category all over the world ,the phrase that comes to my mind is ” Elementary,my dear Watson”. c u with more English.

ENGLISH NAMES IT AS:

        RANGE ANXIETY:

• Ever got in this situation? when petrol is getting over ,just when no petrol  bunk is nearby,we fall in an anxiety, feeling if we could reach the destination. This kind of anxiety if felt over the battery when driving an electric car is called range anxiety. That that technology,that that problem.

            HUMP DAY:

• Over the hump actually means 'pathi kenaru thanditom' in Tamil.so hump is somehow linked with the word 'middle'. Wednesday, the middle of the working days is called as hump day like half of the week got over and half more we will get our holidays.hurray! Just a word for my mind voice.

           SILLAGE:

•           Sometimes we just wonder if we really need a word for it.such is the case with sillage,I felt.To add-up,sillage means the duration our deo  or perfume  stays.

5 TAMIL WORDS FOR WHICH I DID NOT KNOW THE ENGLISH EQUIVALENT TILL YESTERDAY:

அமுதம்        -  elixir

அபிஷேகம் - anointment

அஞ்சறைப்பெட்டி -spice box

நகசுத்தி -agnail

எழுத்தாணி -stylus

Now for  அச்சாணி can I go with bolt or stud-bolt or is there any other word for it?Let me please know what  you think.

Hope ur weekend is fun.C u.

BEHIND THE WORDS:

                                                          KANGAROO

                     This word was accidently created and the credit goes to the English explorers and the local natives of Australia. Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks were among the English explorers. They were amused to see that hopper kind of creature. So naturally, they asked the name of that new creature to the localites. And they promptly noted down what they said-Kangooroo. The beauty of this story is ‘kangooroo’ in the local language actually meant “I don’t understand” .It became kangaroo and  was accepted even by the localites later.

                             

                                                       

                                                           TAWDRY

                      St.Audry was an English princess who abdicated all the luxury. She wore chains around her neck. Then one day ,she had to depart from the Earth. Those who attended her funeral wore laces around their neck in memory of her. Soon the laces became popular in the market and the sellers were calling it as St.Audry’s lace. From what they used to call ,came the word tawdry and started to mean anything that is cheaper like the laces available in the market.

BEHIND THE WORDS:

                                                      TANTALISE

This word actually comes from a story, to be exact, from Greek mythology in which Tantalus  was a king who became famous when he received  ‘anniyan’ kind of  punishment designed for  the evildoers .The Greek Gods have put him inside a river below some tree. Whenever he wanted to eat a fruit from the tree, the height of the tree rose above his limits. Whenever he wanted to drink the water ,the river dried. .Now the story ends. The moral of the story is when something we want is off-limits for us , we say we are tantalised by it.

                                                                        

                                                     ABOVEBOARD

     For this word, we have  to thank the game of cards since this word came from it.It is said that the French insisted that the cards should be held above the table  i.e  above the board  so that the players couldn’t cheat by switching the cards. Maybe now, there are other tricks for cheating and it is not our concern .our concern is when something is done honestly, we say it is done aboveboard.

BEHIND THE WORDS:

                                                                  

                                                 BY THE GRAPEVINE

When we hear a news that has travelled from someone to someone and then again from  someone to someone and then again ……………………… okay and finally to us ,we say we heard the news by the grapevine. But why should be it ‘by the grapevine’? The answer is in the history and telecommunication. Telegraphy was seen as a  wonder boon for transfer of information .But it needed a bundle of wires to be erected near the building.During the civil War ii, people found the bundle of wires to be the only source of information and they did not know what to believe and what not to believe.And the bundle of wires looked like grapevine.So how did they get to know the information? Ofcourse, by the grapevine.

                                                                  

                                                  GREENHORN

Since the word young means something young ,people used this word  ‘greenhorn’to denote young calves that have not grown horns yet. Beautiful name,Isn’t it? Then in course of time ,this word started  to mean people who are new and without experiences in something.e.g He is a greenhorn in share market .

ENGLISH NAMES IT AS:

                         “people can’t resist when something is free”. I don’t  remember where I heard this. As far as I think,in reality, we actually can’t resist when anything is less than free. That’s why we use office internet for our own use . The word Cyberslacking word appears quite like a cybercrime .And it is ,in one way. It is something  we can’t resist when internet is less than free i.e using office net for personal use. Happy browsing!

BEHIND THE WORDS:

                                                      BLOG

’Web-log ‘ in 1970’s denoted the articles posted in a website. Then the word blog was born from it to give you what u r looking at now.

                                                     NICKNAME

Those  who have a friend can never escape from having nicknames that they don’t like.And Every one has a friend. And this nickname thing is nothing but having an additional name or an ‘eke’ name as per old English.Here is the thing. Eke rhymes with nick and ekename settles down with  a nickname .c u soon.

THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD:                                                                                                                                  
                         “ There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter which luckily I am”.
                            Do u remember Johnny Depp saying this dialog in ’Alice in Wonderland’?  Have u guessed ‘as mad as a hatter’ is going to be discussed now?  s? Then  let me start with Once upon a time hatters used mercury for making some sort of hats.They faced a health hazard called ‘Mercury poisoning’.Getting mad is the symptom of it and most of the hatters were really mad. Maybe as a similie ,this phrase might have appeared.

ENGLISH NAMES IT AS:
                       It has become more than usual to see people spending more time in internet.And English has a name for those where 'those' include us where' us' being NETIZENS according to the English language.
                       If u come across the word ’NETBOOK’,please don’t  think that it is a book about Internet.According to the English language,it is a Small laptop computer which weighs less than 3 pounds and has a 7 to 10 inch screen.                                                                                                                                     

                        If  u already alreay come across etiquette(disciplined social behaviour) , EnglishVinglish introduces you to  wat it calls disciplined internet behaviour-NETIQUETTE.

     

ENGLISH NAMES IT AS:

                                            We often have to sound sweet even when or mostly when we have to point out others’ mistakes.More often we hear those talkings from our beloved superiors.These talkings as English calls them as euphemisms, sometimes make truth less bitterful and sometimes they hide the very message .Eupemism is a loan word from Greek meaning auspicious usage of words.

                                         Euphemistically speaking, we never copy in our exams. We just use peer homework help (or) we collaborate in our exams.        We never lied. some ‘terminological inexactitudes’ (I like this one)might be there in what we said.The beauty of euphemism is that it makes a second-hand car a pre-owned car (or) a pre-loved car.The term ‘correctional facility’for jail actually brings better meaning to the public and the prisoners.

                                             On the contrary,there are some euphemisms that actually take away the feelings we would have if stated otherwise.Some hospital mentioned a death of a patient by some medicine they administered as ‘therapeutic misadventure’.I heard the officials in crime department call ‘an extended interrogation technique’which is what those who are interrogated call as torture.

THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD:

                                 Excuse me as I have to go on with a phrase now and whenever applicable.                                                                                             

                                              BREAK THE ICE                   

                         We say this to mean breaking the silence and to make a good start with a conversation.Earlier, in cold countries, people had to pass frozen river to start their business in new places.what they did for a good start in their business?They broke the ice. ofcourse that’s the reason why we call starting a conversation as breking the ice.c u soon with some more English.

STORY BEHIND THE WORD:                                                                          

HAZARD

Some of u who speak Arabic would know that al zahr in Arabic means dice.And the rest of us now.u realise al zahr and hazard sound similar.The Western Europe called all the games(including gambling) that use a die by this name.since there is a chance of getting conned in gambling,this word became a synonym to danger.

ENGLISH NAMES IT AS:

  

Some people tend to make funny statements simply by using inappropriate words by mistake becoz those words are similar to the words they intended to tell.English names those funny statements as malapropism.

EXAMPLES FOR YR FUN:

1)Good punctuation means not to be late.

2)Isn't that an expensive pendulum around that man's neck?(pendulum for pendant)

3)He had to use fire distinguisher.

If u care for some History,this word is derived from the name of the character 'Mrs.Malaprop' created by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 'The rivals'.

Still if u r in the mood of hearing some more,malapropism is almost same as dogburryism and this word dogburryism is derived from the name of the character Officer Dogburry created by Shakespeare.

Now malapropisms of Mrs.Malprop:

1)Oh! It gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree.(for hysterisis)

2)..to illiterate him,I say, quite from yr memory.(obliterate)

For more, pls google for malapropisms.

ENGLISH NAMES IT AS:

opposites:
1)nagpunchme      X     nagdon'tpunchme
2)copyright           X     copyleft
3)Fastfood            X     slowfood
About 1) It is a joke I heard long back

About 2)It is  a pair of opposites.copyleft means any book or written material free to be copied and used.

About 3) Not actually opposites but may get u grace marks becoz slowfood is something cooked locally presumably taking long time.And for more information, locavore is someone who eats local food only.




I just intend to write in this blog whatever  I find interesting and new to me in English.
1) Annoyed,                 Angry,                     Furious

2) Happy,              pleased,        glad,             delighted,         cheer up

These words aren't new.Ofcourse we know wats the meanings of these words but maybe we miss how specific they are.
About 1) annoyed is less than being angry.Furious is very angry.Longman's essential activator says that we can't be very furious but we can be absolutely furious.

About 2) pleased is being happy+satisfied with other's actions.
             - glad is being happy becoz nothing worse happened though it could have.
             - delighted is being very happy.
I came to know about this while reading Longman's essential activator.This book introduces us the right word in the right situation.But I gave up reading it sometime later and  

contented with wat  I know.I am not much of a heavy book reader and that book is a heavy one to me.

newbie is a 'not so new but new' word doing rounds recently.Have u also seen these words newb,noob,n00b?
Newbie is ofcourse someone new to a group or an activity .
Newb is someone who has the interest and potential to learn  the new activity.
And noob or n00b is someone who lacks the  interest and potential to learn  the new activity.
Speaking of n00b, I am reminded that
                                          1)It is the only English word with numerals.
                                           2)It is the 999998th word added to the English language that has got more than 1,20,000 words in it.
That brings up the question what s the next word and the millionth word added to it?
The next word is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!JAI HO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The millionth word is web 2.0 meaning the electrnic gadgets and internet services of use today.If u want to know the 9999911th to1000001th  wordlist,please 

visit:www.languagemonitor.com/no. of words/.

The STORY BEHIND THE WORD:
                                                JAI HO 
And we have witnessed the story behind this word. Jai ho and c u soon.

  THE STORY BEHIND WORDS :

                                                        CATCH-22

 John Yossarian is a character created by Joseph Heller in his novel ‘catch-22’. John Yossarian is a U.S. Army Air Forces bombardier and he unconditionally wishes to escape from combat flight.For that he needs to be evaluated,found insane and only then can be declared unfit for combat flight.But if he passes the request for evaluation, that is enough to prove that he is sane and so he can’t get grounded from combat flight.

 For someone sane enough, even if he wants to escape from combat fight,it is impossible.For someone who is insane,he would not pass the request for evaluation in the first place and so it is improbable to get grounded from combat fight.So wen v can’t  get a solution or avoid a problem bcoz of contradictory rules,we call it as catch-22.

ENGLISH NAMES IT AS:

Humming the same  tune all through the day  again and again?  English names it as earworm .

Ever said or heard ,” I am a vegetarian.But I also eat non-vegetarian sometimes”-meaning more than a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian,that was a flexitarian.

  

This is smiley .okWhat do we call the following?

Emoticons.sorry to bother u if u already knew.

see u soon with some more english

                                            

ENGLISH-I want to write about two things about the English language.
                 (1)This language sometimes confuses us ,maybe to let us know how fine,fun and wealthy it is.
                 (2)It gives a word for almost all our feelings and actions.

Now in detail:

•  ever wondered/wonder why u have to read 3/3 as three by three and 3X3 as the same three by three?
•  ever confused by sentences like this:
• "Though I want to help him to feel comfortable,I can't help laughing at his stupidity."- what this little word 'help' actually means? to help or not to help?
•  "screen the film"         and         "screen the windows".-???????

Take ur time.Now u see that there are some words that could also mean their opposites?good.They are called contronyms.some people say wen a girl says no,she actually means yes and vice versa.Just to be clear,they are not contronyms.If u ask for more contronyms,please visit:www.rinkworks.com/words/contronyms.shtml


English has a name for everything.want to know some examples:
A for APPLEPICK:
have ur iphone ever got stolen, yes or no .  u r most welcome to know that it was an applepick rather to pickpocket.

B for BAGGRAVATION:
wen all the luggages of ur co-passengers 've come back safely but not yours,ungalukkula oru kalavaram nadakkumla athuthan-baggravation.

C for CAPTCHA:
 In the interet, we have to type some information (consisting of numbers and letters) displayed for getting something processed.that thing has a nameor an acronym in specific.
Captcha Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart.It s to ensure that a response is not generated by a computer, in order
to prevent spamming.
With some more English ,see u soon.