Dear Comrades,
During 1980 & 1990s, the Hindu newspaper published in
its Tuesday supplementary called Open Page the Know Your English written by
Sri Upendra. It was really interesting and I used to cut the relevant portion
and pasted them in sheets and still I am preserving them. It contains more than
1000 episodes. I want to share the collections of Dr Upendra who is still doing
the yeomen service through private channel. Thanks to him. Readers are
requested not to repost the matter in any group since I don’t know whether the
author got any copyright. I am sharing this with closed circulation in my
website for the postal fraternity just for reading and enjoy. The following is
the collection published in one month on three Tuesdays . Hope you will enjoy.
1.
What is the
meaning and origin of ‘clean bill of health'?
When you visit the doctor and he
gives you a clean bill of health, you should be happy because it is an
assurance that there is nothing wrong with you physically. The doctor is
informing you that you are in the pink of health! When used with things, the
idiom means that the object is in good condition.
*Of the 20 buildings inspected, only
four were given a clean bill of health.
The ‘bill' in the idiom has nothing
to do with the amount of money you have to pay the doctor. Such bills seldom
bring happiness! In the old days, the captain of a ship was handed over a document
by the port authority which certified that there was no infection or epidemic
at the port from which the vessel set sail. This document was called the Bill
of Health and unless it was presented at the next port, the ship was refused
entry.
2.
Who or what
is a ‘fax potato'?
We have several different types of
potatoes these days. A ‘couch potato' is someone who sits in a chair or a sofa
and watches TV all day; he eats and drinks sitting in front of the tube. A
‘mouse potato' is someone who spends his time sitting in front of a computer,
surfing the web. A ‘fax potato', another addition to the growing list of human
potatoes, is someone who specialises in sending faxes to people: the receiver
may be less than a hundred feet away, but instead of getting out of his chair
and talking to the person concerned, he sends him/her a fax. Like the couch
potato, the fax potato is rather lazy and remains glued to his seat.
3.
Why is the
abbreviated form of ‘will not' ‘won't' and not ‘willn't'?
There was a time when it was
‘willn't'. In Old English there were two forms of ‘will': these were ‘will' and
‘wyll'. With the passage of time ‘wyll' became ‘woll'. When the negative ‘not'
was added to the two existing forms, they became ‘willnot' and ‘wollnot'. The
latter, over a period of time, changed to ‘wonnot'. When ‘willnot' and ‘wonnot'
were contracted, they became ‘willn't' and ‘wo'not'. Later, ‘wo'not' became
‘won't'. For some time, both ‘willn't' and ‘won't' were used. It was only in
the 18 {+t} {+h} century that ‘won't' became the preferred contracted form of
‘will not'. In the battle of wills, ‘will' won the first round, while ‘woll'
took the second. ‘Will' muscled out ‘woll', while ‘won't' knocked out
‘willn't'.
4.
Is it okay
to say, ‘I described him what I had seen'?
No, it isn't. You usually describe
something to someone or you describe to someone something. In the sentence you
have given, you need to include the word ‘to' before ‘him'.
*I described to him what I had seen.
5. Do you ‘part from' or ‘part
with' someone?
It is possible to use both. When you
‘part from someone', you take leave of the individual.
*I think the time has come for you to
part from him.
When you ‘part with' someone or
something, you let go of them.
*Ram's new landlord didn't allow
pets. Since he wasn't willing to part with the dog, Ram moved to another place.
“A little inaccuracy sometimes saves
tons of explanation.” — Saki
6. What is the meaning and origin of
‘wing it'?
The expression is mostly used in
informal contexts. When you get up on stage and ‘wing it', you give an
impromptu speech. You have had no time to prepare, and therefore end up
speaking extemporaneously. The expression has more or less the same meaning as
‘off the cuff'.
*Shanthi left her notes in the taxi.
In class, she had to wing it.
The expression comes from the world
of theatre. The sides of a stage which cannot be seen by the members of the
audience are called ‘wings'. Actors often wait here before they make their
entry. Sometimes, actors go on stage without really knowing their lines. In
such circumstances, they depend on the prompters hiding in the wings to whisper
the lines to them. If they cannot hear the prompter, they make up their lines.
They wing it!
7. What is the difference between
‘momentary' and ‘momentous'?
Something that is ‘momentary' lasts
for a very short period of time. The word is pronounced ‘MO-men-tri' with the
stress on the first syllable.
*There was a momentary pause before
the child started screaming again.
The word can also be used to mean
‘constant' or ‘present at every moment'.
*Revathi lived in momentary fear of
being found out.
‘Momentous', on the other hand, means
very important. When you make a momentous decision, you make one which has
serious consequences.
*The signing of the treaty was a momentous
occasion for both countries.
The word is pronounced ‘me-MEN-tes'
with the stress on the second syllable.
8. How is the word ‘quixotic'
pronounced?
There seem to be different ways of
pronouncing this word. One way is to pronounce the first syllable like the word
‘quick', and the final syllable like the word ‘tick'. The ‘o' is pronounced
like the ‘o' in ‘pot', ‘got', and ‘hot'. The word is pronounced ‘kwik-SO-tik'
with the stress on the second syllable. The word comes from the title of a
satirical novel that Miguel de Cervantes wrote: ‘Don Quixote'. The main
character, Quixote, is a slightly eccentric individual who decides to become a
knight in shining armour and save the world. He has romantic notions of
performing chivalrous deeds. Unfortunately for the ageing hero, the goals he
has set for himself are so lofty that they are practically impossible to
achieve. Every time he attempts to perform a chivalrous deed, it ends in
disaster. After several misadventures, the hero returns to his village a dejected
man. When you refer to someone's ideas or plans as being quixotic, you mean
they are not practical.
*The members of the secret society
lived by a quixotic code of honour.
9. Is it okay to say, ‘His condition
got deteriorated on Saturday'?
Careful users of the language would
avoid using ‘got' with ‘deteriorate'. If you are keen on using the word ‘got',
you can say, ‘His condition got worse on Saturday'.
*The ageing star's condition suddenly
deteriorated on Sunday.
“Balancing the budget is like going
to heaven. Everybody wants to do it, but nobody wants to do what you have to do
to get there.” — Phil
Gramm
10. What is the meaning and origin of
‘turncoat'?
In India, when a politician is denied
a ‘ticket' to contest in an election, he usually quits the party, and joins
another. People who switch allegiances or change their opinion radically
whenever they find it convenient to do so are called ‘turncoats'. The word is
mostly used to show disapproval.
*Why would you want that political
turncoat to preside?
In the old days in Europe, people
used to wear reversible coats. When one side of the coat became dirty, the
owner turned the coat inside out and wore it. According to one story, it was
the Duke of Saxony who made the word ‘turncoat' popular. This individual lived
very close to the French border, and therefore made it a point to keep both the
Saxons and the French in good humour. The Duke's reversible coat was blue on
one side, and white on the other. Traditionally, blue was the colour of the
Saxons. Whenever a Frenchman visited his place, the Duke was seen wearing a
white coat. When he wanted to please the Saxons, the Duke turned the coat
inside out, and wore the blue side.
11. What is the difference between
‘nervous' and ‘edgy'?
A person who is nervous or edgy is
tense or worried about something. Of the two, ‘nervous' is the more general
term. Someone who is nervous need not necessarily show that he is worried about
something. He may be outwardly very calm, but on the inside, he may be
extremely agitated. A person who is ‘edgy' shows he is worried; the tension is
there for all to see. He is anxious and is therefore very irritable. Small
things set him off; he may argue or fight with those around him.
*Gayathri said she was nervous, but
she certainly didn't look it during the presentation.
*The soldiers were edgy as they
waited for their orders from the Captain.
12. Is it okay to say, ‘She was
terminated by her publisher'?
In terms of grammar, there is nothing
wrong with the sentence. It suggests that this person was killed by her
publisher! Of course, given the times we are living in, authors getting bumped
off by their publisher wouldn't be considered unusual. If you want to say that
the publisher didn't kill, but merely fired the individual, then the sentence should
be written in the following manner: ‘Her services were terminated by her
publisher.' Not all publishers are like Arnold Schwarzenegger; they are not
‘Terminator(s)'.
A
collection from the Open Page Supplement of The Hindu Newspaper
Courtesy:
Sri Upendra, the writer of the above
Thanks for sharing sir
ReplyDeleteThanks sir
ReplyDeleteEager to read and refresh English vocabulary 🙏
It's refreshing sir .. touching various topics without banality
ReplyDeleteThe thirst for your knowledge is unbelievable sir. Preserving them more than 3 decades???? If computers were put in use by that time....you would have reached the peak now sir. Enjoyable English sir.
ReplyDelete