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.