10 English words used only by Indians…..!!!

January 18, 2016Natarajan1 Comment

Because English is such a funny language!

Close on the heels of the Lake Superior State University that published a list of banned words of 2016, we decided to have our own list of words which should be banned!

Why?

Because these words don’t make any sense, and it is funny to hear you use them.

If you have been using these words, here’s why you must stop using them right away!

Photograph: Courtesy Ross Rollock/Creative Commons

1. Mother Promise

For ages, you have always used this word without even knowing if it was a legit word, haven’t you?

So we decided to burst your bubble!

While the word ‘promise’ features in the Oxford Dictionary, there’s no mention of ‘mother promise’.

Surprised? Wondering how ‘mother promise’ came into being.

It’s the literal English translation of ‘ma kasam’ or ‘aai shapath’.

The next time you want to stand by something you really mean, try using just ‘promise’.

You don’t really need to drag your mother into everything, do you?

2. Cousin sister and cousin brother

According to the Oxford Dictionary a ‘cousin’ is a child of one’s uncle or aunt.

And Grammar Nazis would insist that the word ‘cousin’ does not need to be followed with words like ‘sister’ or ‘brother’.

Did you know that ‘cousin sister or cousin brother’ are words used only in India.

The right way is just to say ‘cousin’.

Wondering how you’d get to know their gender. Well, that’s what names are for, aren’t they?

3. Good name

When Indians meet strangers, why do they ask the question, ‘What’s your GOOD NAME?’

Every parent or grandparent who has named the child, does it with a GOOD intention.

So there’s nothing bad about a name.

The next time you meet a stranger, you could say ‘What’s your name?’

4. Revert back

Now this one’s tricky! Because that’s what you have been writing in e-mails, haven’t you?

Well according to The Free Dictionary ‘revert’ means ‘to reply to someone’.

Why use ‘revert back’ when you can just say ‘revert’?

5. Rubber

In India the ‘eraser’ is also called ‘rubber’!

But in the rest of the world, ‘rubber’ is a slang for ‘condom’.

Now it makes sense why your relatives and friends in foreign countries complain that people there burst out laughing when they ask for a ‘rubber’ instead of an ‘eraser’.

Wondering what’s the origin of the word?

Eraser is actually a piece of soft rubber used to rub out something written.

6. Picture

When was the last time you mentioned that you were going to ‘watch a ‘picture’?’

No one really knows when ‘picture’ became synonymous with ‘films’ or ‘movies’ in India.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘picture’ means a drawing or painting.

You could say ‘I am going out to watch a movie or film’.

7. Mention not

Isn’t it funny that every time someone thanks an Indian, they quickly turn around and say ‘mention not’.

We are still scratching our heads wondering how the word originated and what it means.

There are plenty of ways you can accept someone’s thanks.

You can use any of the following:

You’re welcome.
It’s my pleasure.
That’s alright.
No problem.

8. Pass out

How is it that every Indian graduating from college is passing out?

Confused?

Let’s tell you the difference.

When you are really drunk and become unconscious, you ‘pass out’.

But when you refer to a successful completion of a course or training, you use the word ‘graduate’.

9. Cheatercock

We all have used this word in our childhood.

Once, twice, thrice…we have lost count of the number of times we called someone a ‘cheatercock’!

But ever wondered what does the word mean?

We are still wondering!

According to the Oxford Dictionary, cheater is a person who acts dishonestly in order to gain advantage.

Won’t it be sufficient if we just said ‘cheater’?

10. Would be

How would you introduce your fiance?

Read the following conversation.

Amit: Hello uncle.

Uncle: Hello Amit.

mit: Uncle, I would like to introduce you to my ‘would be’.

Unfortunately Amit doesn’t know that ‘would be’ means nothing.

If you want to introduce your to-be bride then simply use ‘fiance’.

How easy is that!

Source……www.rediff.com

Natarajan

” These are the 51 words and phrases we commonly misuse….”

December 3, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

WE’RE all guilty of misusing words and using certain phrases in the wrong context.

Now a linguistics expert from Harvard, Steven Pinker, has written a book designed to help us all out.

In The Sense of Style, Pinker breaks down the 51 most common words and phrases people stuff up, and explains how we should be using them.

Here is the full list, as republished in The Telegraph UK:

1. Adverse means detrimental and does not mean averse or disinclined.

Correct use: “There were adverse effects.” / “I’m not averse to doing that.”

2. Appraise means to ascertain the value of and does not mean to apprise or to inform.

Correct use: “I appraised the jewels.” / “I apprised him of the situation.”

3. As far as means the same as but cannot be used the same way as as for.

Correct use: “As far as the money is concerned …” / “As for the money …”

4. Begs the question means assumes what it should be proving and does not mean raises the question.

5. Bemused means bewildered and does not mean amused.

Correct: “The unnecessarily complex plot left me bemused.” / “The silly comedy amused me.”

6. Cliché is a noun and is not an adjective.

Correct use: “Shakespeare used a lot of clichés.” / “The plot was so clichéd.”

7. Credible means believable and does not mean credulous or gullible.

Correct use: “His sales pitch was not credible.” / “The con man took advantage of credulous people.”

8. Criteria is the plural, not the singular of criterion.

Correct: “These are important criteria.”

9. Data is a plural count noun not a mass noun. Note: “Data is rarely used as a plural today, just as candelabra and agenda long ago ceased to be plurals,” Pinker writes. “But I still like it.”

Correct use: “This datum supports the theory, but many of the other data refute it.”

10. Depreciate means to decrease in value and does not mean to deprecate or to disparage. Correct use: “My car has depreciated a lot over the years.” / “She deprecated his efforts.”

11. Dichotomy means two mutually exclusive alternatives and does not mean difference or discrepancy.

Correct use: “There is a dichotomy between even and odd numbers.” / “There is a discrepancy between what we see and what is really there.”

12. Disinterested means unbiased and does not mean uninterested.

Correct use: “The dispute should be resolved by a disinterested judge.” / “Why are you so uninterested in my story?”

13. Enervate means to sap or to weaken and does not mean to energise.

Correct use: “That was an enervating rush hour commute.” / “That was an energising cappuccino.”

14. Enormity means extreme evil and does not mean enormousness. [Note: It is acceptable to use it to mean a deplorable enormousness.]

15. Flaunt means to show off and does not mean to flout.

Correct use: “She flaunted her abs.” / “She flouted the rules.”

16. Flounder means to flop around ineffectually and does not mean to founder or to sink to the bottom.

17. Fortuitous means coincidental or unplanned and does not mean fortunate.

Correct use: “Running into my old friend was fortuitous.” / “It was fortunate that I had a good amount of savings after losing my job.”

18. Fulsome means unctuous, excessively or insincerely complimentary and does not mean full or copious.

Correct use: “She didn’t believe his fulsome love letter.” / “The bass guitar had a full sound.”

19. Homogeneous is pronounced as homo-genius and “homogenous” is not a word but a corruption of homogenised.

Correct use: “The population was not homogeneous; it was a melting pot.”

20. Hone means to sharpen and does not mean to home in on or to converge upon.

Correct use: “She honed her writing skills.” / “We’re homing in on a solution.”

21. Hotbutton means an emotional, divisive controversy and does not mean a hot topic.

Correct use: “She tried to stay away from the hot button of abortion.” / “Drones are a hot topic in the tech world.”

22. Hung means suspended and does not mean suspended from the neck until dead.

Correct use: “I hung the picture on my wall.” / “The prisoner was hanged.”

23. Intern (verb) means to detain or to imprison and does not mean to inter or to bury.

Correct use: “The rebels were interned in the military jail.” / “The king was interred with his jewels.”

24. Ironic means uncannily incongruent and does not mean inconvenient or unfortunate.

Correct use: “It was ironic that I forgot my textbook on human memory.” / “It was unfortunate that I forgot my textbook the night before the quiz.”

25. Irregardless is not a word but a portmanteau of regardless and irrespective. [Note: Pinker acknowledges that certain schools of thought regard “irregardless” as simply non-standard, but he insists it should not even be granted that.]

26. Literally means in actual fact and does not mean figuratively.

Correct use: “I didn’t mean for you to literally run over here.” / “I’d rather die than listen to another one of his lectures — figuratively speaking, of course!”

27. Luxuriant means abundant or florid and does not mean luxurious.

Correct use: “The poet has a luxuriant imagination.” / “The car’s fine leather seats were luxurious.”

28. Meretricious means tawdry or offensively insincere and does not mean meritorious.

Correct use: “We rolled our eyes at the meretricious speech.” / “The city applauded the meritorious mayor.”

29. Mitigate means to alleviate and does not mean to militate or to provide reasons for.

Correct use: “The spray should mitigate the bug problem.” / “Their inconceivable differences will militate against the treaty.”

30. New Age means spiritualistic, holistic and does not mean modern, futuristic.

Correct use: “He is a fan of New Age mindfulness techniques.” / “That TV screen is made from a high-end modern glass.”

31. Noisome means smelly and does not mean noisy.

Correct use: “I covered my nose when I walked past the noisome dump.” / “I covered my ears when I heard the noisy motorcycle speed by.”

32. Nonplussed means stunned, bewildered and does not mean bored, unimpressed.

Correct use: “The market crash left the experts nonplussed.” / “His market pitch left the investors unimpressed.”

33. Opportunism means seizing or exploiting opportunities and does not mean creating or promoting opportunities.

Correct use: “His opportunism brought him to the head of the company.” / “The party ran on promoting economic opportunities for the middle class.”

34. Parameter means a variable and does not mean a boundary condition, a limit.

Correct use: “The forecast is based on parameters like inflation and interest rates.” / “We need to work within budgetary limits.”

35. Phenomena is a plural count noun, not a mass noun.

Correct use: “The phenomenon was intriguing, but it was only one of many phenomena gathered by the telescope.”

36. Politically correct means dogmatically left-liberal and does not mean fashionable, trendy. [Note: Pinker considers its contemporary roots as a pejorative term by American and British conservatives, not its more casual use as meaning inoffensive.]

37. Practicable means easily put into practice and does not mean practical.

Correct use: “His French was practicable in his job, which required frequent trips to Paris.” / “Learning French before taking the job was a practical decision.”

38. Proscribe means to condemn, to forbid and does not mean to prescribe, to recommend, to direct.

Correct use: “The policy proscribed employees from drinking at work.” / “The doctor prescribed an antibiotic.”

39. Protagonist means active character and does not mean proponent.

Correct use: “Vito Corleone was the protagonist in The Godfather.” / “He is a proponent of solar energy.”

40. Refute means to prove to be false and does not mean to allege to be false, to try to refute. [Note: That is, it must be used only in factual cases.]

Correct use: “His work refuted the theory that the Earth was flat.”

41. Reticent means shy, restrained and does not mean reluctant.

Correct use: “He was too reticent to ask her out.” / “When rain threatens, fans are reluctant to buy tickets to the ball game.”

42. Shrunk, sprung, stunk, and sunk are used in the past participle, not the past tense.

Correct use: “I’ve shrunk my shirt.” / “I shrank my shirt.”

43. Simplistic means naively or overly simple and does not mean simple or pleasingly simple.

Correct use: “His simplistic answer suggested he wasn’t familiar with the material.” / “She liked the chair’s simple look.”

44. Staunch means loyal, sturdy and does not mean to stanch a flow.

Correct use: “Her staunch supporters defended her in the press.” / “The nurse was able to stanch the bleeding.”

45. Tortuous means twisting and does not mean torturous.

Correct use: “The road through the forest was tortuous.” / “Watching their terrible acting for two hours was a torturous experience.”

46. Unexceptionable means not worthy of objection and does not mean unexceptional, ordinary.

Correct use: “No one protested her getting the prize, because she was an unexceptionable choice.” / “They protested her getting the prize, because she was an unexceptional choice.”

47. Untenable means indefensible or unsustainable and does not mean painful or unbearable.

Correct use: “Now that all the facts have been revealed, that theory is untenable.” / “Her death brought him unbearable sadness.”

48. Urban legend means an intriguing and widely circulated but false story and does not mean someone who is legendary in a city.

Correct use: “Alligators in the sewers is an urban legend.” / “Al Capone was a legendary gangster in Chicago.”

49. Verbal means in linguistic form and does not mean oral, spoken.

Correct use: “Visual memories last longer than verbal ones.”

50. An effect means an influence. While to effect means to put into effect, to affect means either to influence or to fake.

Correct use: “They had a big effect on my style.” / “The law effected changes at the school.” / “They affected my style.” / “He affected an air of sophistication to impress her parents.”

51. To lie (intransitive: lies, lay, has lain) means to recline; to lay (transitive: lays, laid, has laid) means to set down; to lie (intransitive: lies, lied, has lied) means to fib.

Correct use: “He lies on the couch all day.” / “He lays a book upon the table.” / “He lies about what he does.”

Source…………www. news.com.au

natarajan

” Why Do Many Countries’ Names End in “-stan,” …?

December 2, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Stan, An, and Ish

Denoting that it is a piece of the earth associated with a particular group of people, the suffix -stan simply means “land of.”

An ancient suffix of Persian origins, for many people, particularly in Central Asia, the addition of –stan to the name of their cultural or ethnic group identifies that a certain place belongs to them, e.g., Kazakhstan is the “land of the Kazakhs.”

-Stan‘s roots go even further back than Persia, however, to the Indo-Iranian element, *stanam, which meant both “place” or even more literally, “where one stands.” This old construction is derived from the even earlier Proto-Indo-European root *sta, which also meant “to stand.”

The use of a suffix to denote “land of” is not unique to -stan, however. In English, we often use –land to identify a nation or place, and familiar words include England, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, and Thailand, as well as Maryland and Newfoundland. Other languages use the convention as well, such as the German Deutschland.

Adding –an at the end of country or place names to identify a person’s heritage or ethnicity also traces its origins back to ancient times, and the Proto-Indo-European root *-no-, which meant “pertaining to.” More recently (but still relatively ancient), in Latin this element gave rise to –anus, as in Rōma ‎(“Rome”) → Rōmānus ‎(“Roman”). Over the years this has in turn morphed into our current ending –an, as in American, Mexican and Romanian. Not exclusive to regional references, we also see this nomenclature in many other words like Christus ‎(“Christ”) → christiānus ‎(“christian”).

In addition, in English, this –an is often modified with the addition of an “i,” such as in the aforementioned Romanian and christian, as well as in things like Brazilian, Canadian and Parisian.
And if you’re wondering, the suffix –ish, as in British, comes from the Proto-Germanic suffix *-iska which meant “of the nativity or country of.” It morphed into the Old English –isc before becoming the modern English, Irish, Spanish, etc.

Source…….www.today i foundout .com

Natarajan

Origin of the Phrase …” Run Amok “….

September 8, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

If like me, you ever found yourself using the phrase “run amok” and began wondering, “What’s an ‘amok’?” look no further, because here’s your answer.

For those not familiar, today the phrase “run amok” (also spelled “amuck”) is often used to describe such things as children making a mess while they run around and play or the like. Classically, though, it more resembled the modern phrase “going postal” or someone who just snaps for various reasons and goes on a murderous rampage, very similar to what is depicted in the Michael Douglas’ film, Falling Down.

One false etymology of “run amok” derives from sailors running a ship aground, literally running the ship into “muck”. This isn’t where the word came from. The English word most directly comes from the Malay “amuck” (also spelled amuk, and amuco) more or less meaning “attacking furiously” or “attacking with uncontrollable rage” or more aptly “homicidal mania”.

Some theorize this Malay word may have Indian origins or be from the name of a group of professional assassins in Malabar, the “Amuco”. Others theorize that it came from the Malay word “amar”, meaning “fight”, specifically via “Amar-khan”, which was a certain type of warrior. Yet another theory is that the Malay “amuck” ultimately comes from the Sanskrit “amokshya”, meaning “that cannot be loosed”.

Whatever the case, “amok” first popped up in English around the 16th century, associated with the people of Malaysia and Java, first described in the 1516 text The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and Their Inhabitants]:

There are some of them [the Javanese] who go out into the streets, and kill as many persons as they meet. These are called Amuco.

The phrase “run amok” was partially popularized by Captain James Cook in 1772. From Cook’s book:

To run amock is to get drunk with opium… to sally forth from the house, kill the person or persons supposed to have injured the Amock, and any other person that attempts to impede his passage… indiscriminately killing and maiming villagers and animals in a frenzied attack.

In the Malay culture at the time, some believed the state of amok was caused by an evil spirit, “hantu belia”, entering the body of a person, who would then run amok, attacking and attempting to kill anyone they came across, only to recover later and return to normal, if they weren’t killed first. Because it was thought an evil spirit caused this, rather than the person doing it of their own free will, punishments for someone who ran amok and survived were typically light or even non-existent, with the person sometimes getting off scot-free.

However, usually the person would be killed while running amok and some speculate this was generally the point of doing this as people who ran amok were and are often those who suddenly experience great trauma in their life, like the death of several loved ones or the loss of the ability to provide for themselves or their family. So basically, the person wants to die, but doesn’t want to commit suicide directly, so goes on a murderous rampage until someone kills them. Even today, this sort of thing can be seen in the news practically every day where someone is really just attempting “death by cop”, going on a rampage until the police manage to kill them.

Source….www.todayifoundout.com

Natarajan

Image of the Day… Mars’ Early Atmosphere…Image Credit NASA

September 3, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

This view combines information from two instruments on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to map color-coded composition over the shape of the ground in a small portion of the Nili Fossae plains region of Mars’ northern hemisphere.

This site is part of the largest known carbonate-rich deposit on Mars. In the color coding used for this map, green indicates a carbonate-rich composition, brown indicates olivine-rich sands, and purple indicates basaltic composition.

Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on early Mars reacted with surface rocks to form carbonate, thinning the atmosphere by sequestering the carbon in the rocks.

An analysis of the amount of carbon contained in Nili Fossae plains estimated the total at no more than twice the amount of carbon in the modern atmosphere of Mars, which is mostly carbon dioxide. That is much more than in all other known carbonate on Mars, but far short of enough to explain how Mars could have had a thick enough atmosphere to keep surface water from freezing during a period when rivers were cutting extensive valley networks on the Red Planet. Other possible explanations for the change from an era with rivers to dry modern Mars are being investigated.

This image covers an area approximately 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometers) wide. A scale bar indicates 500 meters (1,640 feet). The full extent of the carbonate-containing deposit in the region is at least as large as Delaware and perhaps as large as Arizona.

The color coding is from data acquired by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), in observation FRT0000C968 made on Sept. 19, 2008. The base map showing land shapes is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. It is one product from HiRISE observation ESP_010351_2020, made July 20, 2013. Other products from that observation are online at http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_032728_2020.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been using CRISM, HiRISE and four other instruments to investigate Mars since 2006. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, led the work to build the CRISM instrument and operates CRISM in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities, government and the private sector. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and collaborates with JPL to operate it.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL/Univ. of Arizona

Source…www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

What is a Kudo , as in ” Kudos to You…” ?

July 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

First, it should be noted that “kudos” is not the plural form of “kudo”, so a “kudo” was once technically nothing. However, because so many people in the last century, mainly in the United States, have thought kudos was plural, in some dictionaries today “kudo” is considered a valid word meaning the same thing as kudos (yet another word created via back-formation).

To answer your question, kudos in English means:

1) Praise / Accolades

2) Credit for one’s achievements

The word “kudos” comes from the Greek κῦδος (kudos), meaning “glory” or “fame”. The “-os” ending in Greek typically indicates a singular noun and is supposed to be pronounced like “-ose”, rather than “-oze”, as many Americans usually pronounce it, “koo-doze”, or as a lot of British people tend to pronounce it “-oss”, “cue-doss”.

The word made its way into English around the late 18th century / early 19th century, meaning pretty much the same thing as it means today. The first documented instance of the “singular” word “kudo” didn’t pop up until 1926.

Source….www.today i foundout .com

Natarajan

” Do You Know the Meaning of the Word ” Mortgage ” ?…..Read This !!!

July 11, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The English language has roots in Ancient Greek, Latin, German, French and several more languages. Because of that, the meaning of certain words we use today have come a long way since their origins, tosometimes mean something else completely. This short list shows you some of the more bizarre origins of modern English words, many of which are quite surprising.

Bellwether” refers to a leader or a trendsetter, generally used for a products or stock that serves as an indicator of the state of the market. In old English dialect, “wether” was the name of a castrated ram, and the lead wether in a herd would usually have a bell hung around its neck, helping the herdsman could locate it.

“Arctic” comes from the Greek word “arktos”, meaning “bear”. It refers to the “Great Bear” (also known as the “Big Dipper” or Ursa Major), a constellation that remain in the same place year-round in the northern sky.

Canopy comes from the Greek word for mosquito – “konops”. The Greek referred to a bed or a couch fitted with mosquito netting as a “Kanopeion”, which eventually became “Canopy”.

The flower “Dandelion” got its name from the French “dent de lion” (the tooth of the lion), referring to the shape of the petals.

When you hear the word “Sturdy”, you think of something robust and solid, but in the 14^th century, it actually meant “unruly” or “unmanageable.” It is believed to originate from the Latin name for thrush – “turdus”. Thrushes had a tendency to eat leftover fermented grapes in wineries, making them drunk and frenzied. To this day, the French use the term soûl comme une grive, meaning “as drunk as a thrush”…

These days, “Pedigree” is used to refer to lineage or heritage, but it originally was a genealogical diagram (A family tree). French scholars in medieval times thought the connecting lines resembled a stork’s leg – “pied de grue”.

When we hear the word “Henchman”, we often associate it with the nameless guards for the main villain in a Bond movie, but the origin of the word has noble roots. “Hench” comes from the old English word “hengest” (horse), and a henchman would be a knight or a servant who would ride along a nobleman on long journeys.