English Matters

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Ansuya, Dec 20, 2008.

  1. shantana

    shantana Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,010
    Likes Received:
    1,159
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Female
    i've seen most english people ask 'how do u do?' and the other party also replies asking 'how do u do?' not 'im fine, thanks. how do u do?'.

    unlike other phrases, when one asks 'how are u?" the other party replies "im fine, thanks.' how about u/ how are u?"
     
  2. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    Raised verbalism

    The pumping of my aorta rises every time I've to choose a word to describe raised platform - is it dais, pulpit, podium or rostrum? Space crunch means dais wins but a vale of sheet and my hands tremble. OK , so what is the difference, in the OED they are all listed as synonyms.

    (adjusting my pince-nez)
    (bada-bing!)

    As I swot over my tabbed browsers, I have a Father Brown moment.

    Pulpit : a raised enclosed platform in a church or chapel from which the preacher delivers a sermon.

    Though all the terms are used secularly in print these days, the origin of the word pulpit has religious connotation.

    Podium has a secondary meaning in sporting: (of a competitor in a sporting event) finish first, second, or third, so as to appear on a podium to receive an award.

    Rostrum unwilling to occupy subordinating stile also has a less-known encapsulation - 'a beak-like projection, especially a stiff snout or anterior prolongation of the head in an insect, crustacean, or cetacean.'

    Next time you are stumped, don't fall off the dais, with the array of words and their nuances explained, rise to the occasion (winks).
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2014
  3. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    3Cs


    Don't run away expecting a discourse on Kenichi models. I was reading Miguel De Cerventes' Don Quixote few weeks back and 3 words beginning with letter 'C' used throughout the book enchanted me for different reasons.

    Verb it: How often have you used the phrase 'to express/show contempt' , manacling the noun form of the word with a verb but there is a not-so-common word that just does the job with less knuckles creaked, here comes - 'contemn' (treat or regard with contempt). Isn't it beautiful , soft and crisp conveying the same meaning? I would certainly rejoice than be offended if someone uses this disyllabic decoy on me, almost melting the contempt with this tempting con (deceive)


    e.g. I contemn your effort to woo me ;)


    Overload it: Familiar with countenance as facial expression. How about countenance as 'support or approval'. Overloaded usage, with a sophisticated twang.


    e.g. She was giving her specific countenance to the occasion


    Override it: Do you recommend, then why don't you start to commend? commend= present as suitable for approval or acceptance.


    e.g. I think I have read that Don Galaor, the brother of valiant Amadis of Gaul, never had any special lady to commend himself.


    The greatest of these Cs is Cervantes himself , loaded with humor, Don Quixote is a fulfilling read for any avid parody and satire readers.
     
  4. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    Tell me the word

    Nothing distracts me when I watch my Cary Grant on screen and last week was no different whilst watching Hitchcock movie Suspicion. But something was pricking to the extent that I had to pause the player and hunt for the word I was looking for. In the movie Cary and Joan Fontaine ride along the edge of a steep coast ( yes being Hitchcockian I should focus more on cameo'ed peddlers selling roasted chestnuts on winding road but I didn't).

    Bingo!

    My screen lits up with corniche : a road cut into the edge of a cliff, especially one running along a coast.

    OK- back to the corn selling peddler who carved a niche in hollywood. Do watch the film, more than suspense it has sweet wordings of romance - oh! and that renowned scene where the screenwriter invents a word to describe the indentation of the neck.

    [Lina starts to button her blouse]
    Johnnie Aysgarth: Don't do that.
    Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth: Why not?
    Johnnie Aysgarth: Because your ucipital mapilary is quite beautiful.

    Later Johnnie sends a letter - 'Come to the ball and don't forget to bring your ucipital mapilary along with you'.

    Do an image search to get an idea of what jabberwocky I'm typing.

    (OK- I was distracted twice not once)
     
    1 person likes this.
  5. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    Idle Idli!

    Jaya writes about idli and my idle brain recollects another similar culinary implement called 'bain-marie'.

    Wikipedia's article states -

    A bain-marie also known as a water bath or double boiler in English) is a piece of equipment used in science, industry, and cookingto heat materials gently and gradually to fixed temperatures, or to keep materials warm over a period of time.

    The bain-marie comes in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and types, but traditionally is a wide, cylindrical, usually metal container made of three or four basic parts: a handle, an outer (or lower) container that holds the working liquid, an inner (or upper), smaller container that fits inside the outer one.

    Typically the inner container is immersed about halfway into the working liquid. The smaller container, filled with the substance to be heated, fits inside the outer container, filled with the working liquid (usually water), and the whole is heated at, or below, the base, causing the temperature of the materials in both containers to rise as needed.


    Now can one make idlis in a bain-marie needs another discussion on a weekend when I crave less for home-made chutney with tomato dip, today I am a pavlovian pug just writing about it ;(
     
  6. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    Breaching Breeches!


    2014 marks 300 years of Georgian/Hanoverian ascension to the British crown. Now if you have missed out all the fanfare surrounding it, you are right in time to join the processing of cavalry adorned in breeches , hold on ...what did the anchor pronounce , bree (long vowel) +ches. Lawrence Olivier corrected me few years back in movie adaptation of Baroness Orczy's 'Scarlet Pimpernal' that breeches is pronounced 'bri [short vowel]- ches'.

    Time to ballot from both sides of the channel to declare the winner from the War of the Breeches , aah! what ?! I hate battles with a standoff. It can be pronounced either ways! How sweet if we had such acceaptable breaches in the language without vying for pronounciation of victuals ..(is that only vit-als?, yes it is)
     
  7. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    -temp-


    Pattern, pattern, look for patterns and nothing is stochastic! OK- what do I make out when I read distemper, temperance and temporize in the same page of a book. Surely the author's affinity for -temp- is loud and does not look temporary as more words in temp suit follow throughout the book.


    distemper: political disorder.; a viral disease of some animals, especially dogs, causing fever, coughing, and catarrh.
    temporize: avoid making a decision or committing oneself in order to gain time.
    temperance: abstinence from alcoholic drink.


    Handy words! And if you are not on those temperamental souls like me placing bets with friends in writing lipogrammatic (text that uses every letter of the alphabet except one) mails, tap away to the glory of these tempting words.
     
  8. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    What color is that?


    I was in the store trying some new shoes , and it caught my eyes. Lovely, strapped shoes but but ...I could not verbalize what color it was, darker than beige, lighter than bisque, what color is that for bichromatic blindness sake! I had to walk to the salesgirl and enquire- 'Hey do you have a lower size, and what color is it ?'


    To which she responds - 'NUDE'. That is the first time I ever heard of a color called 'NUDE'. Check out the color on the web and you will find jewellery, accesorries , blouses in nude color. So you are no longer a nudist when you don't wear something, you are a fashionasta nudist even when you wear something ;)
     
  9. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    Small is beautiful!


    Why do they say that small is beautiful because it can be spelled and uttered beautifully? I'm often surprised by the fraying and jading of the word 'iota' to the extent that people are no longer using small even for an iota above or below the 'iota'.


    What options do you have? Language is colorful, brilliant, and tastes toothsome when you have words at your doorstep.


    Les see what we have -

    quark (from physics)
    mantissa (from mathematics),
    minim (from calligraphy/music)
    tessera (from construction/architecture)
    pip (from farming)
    shrapnel (from mlitary)
    spall (from mining)


    And if you want more all you need is tittle of passion to explore.
     
  10. Aria

    Aria New IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,651
    Likes Received:
    1,752
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gender:
    Female
    Ding dong bing!


    Yes my usage of bada-bing in post #1522 was not spontaneous, injected in my writing to see if it turns your attention to the beautiful exclamations of the language.


    Last week, one of my friends emails with subject as 'bada-bing', a shoddy translation renders it as 'big bing' but I knew that he was teasing me to bound to the nearest dictionary.


    bada-bind: used to emphasize that something will happen effortlessly and predictably (or) voila


    Origin - probably imitating the sound of a drum roll. Rings a loud ding to remember it next time ;)
     

Share This Page