Pension is in Danger????

 Relax, Refresh your English knowledge 29

141. What is the meaning of ‘Kilkenny cats'?

First, let's deal with the pronunciation of this word. The first syllable sounds like the word ‘kill', while the second rhymes with the words ‘pen', ‘ten', and ‘den'. The final ‘y' is like the ‘i' in ‘it' and ‘bit'. The word is pronounced ‘kill-KEN-i' with the stress on the second syllable. When you say that two people fought like Kilkenny cats, you mean they fought valiantly till the bitter end.

*The two political parties fought like Kilkenny cats over the matter.

Kilkenny is actually the name of a small town in Ireland. According to one theory, the people in this town took great delight in tying the tails of two cats together and enjoyed watching the terrified animals fight each other in order to get free. If the stories doing the rounds are to be believed, on one occasion, the two cats ended up eating each other – the only thing that remained were the ‘tails' of the two animals. A tall tale indeed!

142. How is the word ‘dossier' pronounced?

The first syllable ‘doss' rhymes with the words ‘toss', ‘boss', and ‘cross'. The following ‘i' is like the ‘i' in ‘sit', ‘knit', and ‘kit', and the final ‘er' sounds like the letter ‘a'. The word is pronounced ‘DOSS-i-a' with the stress on the first syllable. A dossier is a file containing information about a person or about something important.

*I'm sure we have a dossier on our main political rival.

143. What is the difference between ‘bravado' and 'bravery'?

Both ‘bravery' and ‘bravado' are derived from the Italian ‘bravo' meaning ‘brave' or ‘bold'. The similarity ends there; the two words have very different meanings. Bravery is courage; it is a quality which we all admire. It is not something which we all have, but something which we wish we possessed. In films, bravery is a quality that a hero has. He acts fearlessly, and though things may not go according to plan, his determined attitude does not diminish.

*Bravery is not something we can expect from our politicians.

As for ‘bravado', first let's deal with the pronunciation of the word. The first ‘a' is like the ‘a' in ‘china', while the second sounds like the ‘a' in ‘path', ‘bath', and ‘fast'. The final syllable rhymes with the words ‘toe', ‘no', and ‘so'. The word is pronounced ‘bre-VAA-doe' with the stress on the second syllable. Politicians are not noted for their bravery; they are, however, well known for their bravado — in other words, they only pretend to be courageous. They put on an act of being brave only for the sake of impressing or intimidating others.

144. What is the meaning of ‘spinning one's wheels'?

This is something that all of us do sometime or the other. When your boss or your fellow worker tells you that you've been spinning your wheels, he means that you've been wasting your time; you have not made progress of any kind. You have neither moved forward nor backward. You are like a car with its wheels stuck in mud; the wheels keep moving, but the car remains stationary. You've put in a lot of effort for nothing.

*Sandhya is just spinning her wheels in this job. She needs to go back to college.

145. What is the meaning and origin of ‘to upstage someone'?

When you ‘upstage someone', you succeed in becoming the new centre of attraction; you divert attention from someone towards yourself. Something that you have done or said grabs everyone's attention; the person who was earlier in the spotlight fades into the background. One can upstage someone either intentionally or accidentally.

*At the conference, the professor was upstaged by the young scholar.

*The veteran actress had been upstaged by a ten-year old.

The expression comes from the world of theatre. In the old days, a stage wasn't level; it was designed in such a way that the back portion was slightly raised. This part of the stage which was slightly elevated was called ‘upstage'. The front, or the area that was closer to the audience, was called ‘downstage'. One way an actor ensured that he remained the focus of attention of the audience was to move upstage. This compelled the actors who were downstage to turn around to carry on the conversation with the individual. When they did this, the man who was upstage ended up facing the audience, while those who were downstage had their back to the audience. Since people in general are more interested in the face rather than the back, the actor who was upstage became the centre of attention of the audience.

A collection from the Open Page Supplement of The Hindu Newspaper 

Courtesy: Sri Upendra, the writer of the above