English knowledge Spectrum 8. What is the meaning and origin of ‘plumb the depths'? What is the meaning of ‘shenanigans'? How is the word ‘fiancée' pronounced?

36. “And you know what they say. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going? What does it mean?”

“The first 'going' refers to the situation or circumstances. When the circumstances become tough or difficult..”

“The people who are tough or brave get going.”

“Exactly!”

“But where do these tough people go?”

“They don't go anywhere. It means they work harder to solve the problem. They swing into action.”

“In other words, people who are tough will never give up. No matter how difficult the situation, they will face it bravely.”

“That's right. Whenever our team is in trouble, everyone turns to Tendulkar and Dravid. And these two usually come through. You know what they say...”

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Any idea who came up with the saying?”

“Many people believe it was Joseph Kennedy, the father of President John F Kennedy, who came up with it.”

37. “That's interesting. Did you manage to meet your friend Ram?”

“I tried to. I went to his house, actually. I saw that terrible bore Chandu talking to him. So I decided to leg it.”

“Leg it? Does it mean to run away from something?”

“It could be someone or something. When the robbers saw the policemen, they decided to leg it.”

“Most students leg it when they see the Principal coming.”

38. What is the meaning and origin of ‘plumb the depths'?

The idiom has several different meanings; we'll deal with just two of them here. When you ‘plumb the depths of something', you get to the bottom of it. As a result, you have a thorough or complete understanding of things which other people may find difficult to comprehend.

*Some people are interested in plumbing the depths of the human mind.

The expression is also used to refer to the sad experiences that one undergoes in life.

*When his dog died, Chethan plumbed into the depths of despair.How is the word ‘fiancée' pronounced?

The idiom comes from the world of sailing. In the old days, when a captain wished to know how deep the water was, he ordered a crew member to drop the ‘plumb line' overboard. This ‘line' was actually a rope to which a ball of lead had been attached. The Latin word for lead is ‘plumbum', hence the expression ‘plumb the depths'.

39. 

The ‘i' in the first syllable sounds like the ‘i' in ‘fit', ‘bit', and ‘sit', and the following ‘a' is like the ‘a' in ‘father', ‘bath', and ‘park'. The final syllable is pronounced like the word ‘say'. The word is pronounced ‘fi-AAN-say' with the stress on the second syllable. The Americans, on the other hand, pronounce the ‘i' like the ‘ee' in ‘fees', ‘bees' and ‘sees'. They pronounce the word ‘fee-aan-SAY' with the stress on the third syllable. ‘Fiancée' refers to the woman a man is engaged to, while ‘fiancé' (spelt with a single ‘e') refers to the man a woman is engaged to.

40. What is the meaning of ‘shenanigans'?

First, let's deal with the pronunciation of this word of Irish origin. The ‘e' in the first syllable is like the ‘i' in ‘sit', ‘bit', and ‘knit'. The next two syllables are pronounced like the word ‘nanny', and the following ‘a' like the ‘a' in ‘china'. The final ‘s' is like the ‘z' in ‘zip' and ‘zoo'. The word is pronounced ‘shi-NA-ny-genz' with the stress on the second syllable.

The word is mostly used in informal contexts to refer to the dishonest practices or immoral behaviour of an individual.

*All news channels have focussed on the shenanigans of Kalmadi and his associates.

According to one theory, the word comes from the Irish saying “Shee nanna gasne” meaning “the Shee are rattling the dishes”. The Irish believed that ‘Shee' were spirits, which took great delight in moving furniture around in a house!

A collection from the Open Page Supplement of The Hindu Newspaper

Courtesy: Sri Upendra, the writer of the above