What does that mean?

Sandwich is supposed to have been popularized during the mid-18th century due to John Montague , the 4th Earl of Sandwich (a historic town). Lord Sandwich was a busy man often occupied with long hours of work or was busy gambling and playing cards. To avoid getting his hands greasy, while at work/play; he ordered for meat to be served between two slices of bread. Gradually others started ordering food in the same fashion, calling it as "the same as Sandwich" , which later went on to be called just "Sandwich" . ~ ~ ~

Cassandra is a person who predicts the future, especially about disasters and the bad things that are to happen. But that's not all. Even though each of the prophesies are true, no one will believe them This word too is derived from Greek mythology and Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, the King of Troy. Apollo, the Greek god fell in love with Cassandra and promised her the gift of prophecy. But Cassandra cheated him, once she received the gift. Enraged at this, Apollo cursed that no one will believe her prophecies. Cassandra foresaw the Trojan Horse (a plot by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy), the doom of Troy and even her own death. ~ ~ ~

The meaning for Achilles Heel is literally related to the heel of Achilles, which lead to his death. First let's know a little about Achilles, the Greek hero. In Greek mythology, it's believed that when Achilles was a baby, his mother dipped him in the River Styx holding him by the heel. Since the river had miraculous powers, Achilles' whole body turned powerful and invincible; except for the heel which was held by his mother and so did not get dipped in the waters. His heel turned out to be the most vulnerable / weakest part in his body, despite him being the strongest warrior. During the time of Trojan War (not exactly in the war), Achilles, the strongest warrior was killed by a fatal wound to his heel by Paris's arrow (probably poisoned). So Achilles heel means a weakness or a vulnerable part. Now, if you want to know a little more about the story of the Trojan War & why exactly Achilles was not killed in the war - Here it goes: Achilles killed Hecto...

Have you ever uttered a sentence such that the initial sounds of several words got misplaced? Actually, a slip of the tongue. I am sure, you are not clear what I am talking about; let me quote some examples. By the way, the examples I am quoting were actually the errors made by Reverend William Archibald Spooner after whom the term ' Spoonerism ' is named. "You have hissed all my mystery lectures" Actually should have been - You have missed all my history lectures "A well-boiled icicle" (well-oiled bicycle). Sometimes, these Spoonerisms can change the meaning altogether, take a look: "Save the whales" instead of...Wave the sails "The pain is roaring" instead of.. The rain is pouring ~ ~ ~

Brunch = Breakfast + Lunch Moped = Motor + Pedal Liger = Lion + Tiger Smog = Smoke + Fog FedEx = Federal + Express Spork = Spoon + Fork Camcorder = Camera + Recorder Got it? Portmanteau morphs or portmanteau words are formed by two existing words and their already existing meanings are combined in the newly formed word. ~ ~ ~

Whenever I come across a place name, I tend to wonder how did this place get this name!!! ' Delhi ' - I was told in one of my Linguistics classes that Delhi was derived from the Hindi language word - ' Dehleez ' meaning ' Threshold ', as it was a kind of threshold to enter India. ~ ~ ~

I have literally been procrastinating updating this blog of mine; even though it's my favorite. Procrastinating? You got it right.... delaying, postponing...... will update tomorrow, tomorrow and those endless tomorrows. ~ ~ ~

Knowing more about how words originate (Etymology) is interesting. I always wondered why my granny often called ‘ Socks ’ as ‘ Kaalcheelā ’, which literally in Kannada translates to Leg Bags. Kaal + Cheelā = Kaalcheelā Leg + Bag = Socks May be, when Kannadigas saw people (probably Britishers) wearing socks for the first time, they might have felt they wear some kind of woven bags on their feet. But isn’t it humorous to think – we wear bags on our legs (Leg + Bag)? Well, I know that bags are worn on the shoulders. BTW, I remember tying up plastic bags on my feet and walking in my childhood, just to make some noise :) Similarly, ' Gloves ' are called as ‘ Kaicheelā ’ = Kai + Cheelā = Kaicheelā Hand + Bag = Gloves It’s amazing to know how our perception of things shows up in the words in a language. If you have been wondering what’s ‘ā’ that I have been using here - The dash on top of a vowel indicates that it’s a long vowel. It means it’s ...

Remember, when you wake up in the morning - yawning and stretching yourself. Now, in a word, that’s what’s called ‘ Pandiculation ’. Well, you may or may not be pandiculating, but cats surely do pandiculate. Even dogs do. BTW, there’s one particular way my pet dog pandicualtes, that I like the best – ‘He stretches his hind legs on a cushioned chair and the front legs are stretched out on the carpet (on the floor). In all, he stretches out a 180 degrees. ~ ~ ~

First, let’s collect some words used in different languages to say Mother or Father. Mother: Mom, Mummy, Amma, Maa, Ammi, Mater, Mama, Matra, Mere, Awwa, Ammijaan Father: Papa, Paa, Padre, Pere, Pitaji, Appa, Pitra, Baba, Pater, Fader, Vader, Abbajaan Think about what were your first words as an infant. In most cases, children are taught to say words that stand for mother and father as their first words. And what do most kids do? Imitate. They observe the lip movements of whoever is teaching them those words. The easiest sounds for a baby to learn or imitate are Bilabials - sounds produced by closure or near closure of both the lips ‘bi’ + ‘labial’ Bilabial sounds as ‘ p ’, ‘ b ’, ‘ m ’, ‘ w ’ Please do not pronounce them as ‘pii’, ‘bee’, ‘em’ and ‘double u’ We are not speaking about English alphabets, but just sounds. So, they can be pronounced as - ‘ pa ’, ‘ ba ’, ‘ ma ’, ‘ wa ’ After, the bilabials, the next easiest sound for a baby are the...

Wish I had come across this word in the 1990’s when my cousin often threatened my little sister that he will throw her out of the window (kiddingly - the intention was to show her that she’s so small that she can be thrown out of the window, despite the little space between the window grills). So must be clear by now – the next time you want to tell someone – I’ll throw you out of the window – you can save yourself some words and instead say – I’ll defenestrate you :) Hey, it’s not just for throwing people out; you can even defenestrate things!!! ~ ~ ~

We so often use the words ‘Market’, ‘Marketing’ and rarely stop to think if this word is really from the English language. It’s very likely that ‘ Market ’ is borrowed from a South Indian language, Kannada during the British rule in India. Maaruva + Kaţţe = Maarukaţţe ‘Maaruva’ stands for selling ‘Kaţţe’ stands for a platform ‘Maarukaţţe’ – a place for buying and selling In Kannada, if people were to say I’m going to the market, they would call Market as ‘Maarukaţţe’. But in the recent past, we much rather hear people saying ‘Maarkeţţige’ (to the market) rather than ‘Maarukaţţege’. It’s like, the Kannada word gets added as a Loan word in English; and then again Kannada speakers use the English form of their word back in their language. BTW, if you have been wondering how to pronounce ‘ţ’ that I’ve been using for ‘Kaţţe’ Curl your tongue backwards to touch the soft palette and say T as in ‘eighT’. That’s called a ‘ Retroflex ’ sound. Now, getti...

The first few classes of Linguistics and the strangest (funny to pronounce) word I came across was ' Onamotapoeia '. Looks like quite a complicated meaning to be unveiled, isn't it? But you have come across Onamotapoeic words ever since you were a toddler. Remember those 'Bow-wow', 'meow', 'tick-tock', - those are what it means. Words that imitate the sounds of what's been described. Words that resemble natural sounds like - the 'buzz' of bees, the singing 'cuckoo', the 'quack-quack' of ducks and 'oink-oink' of pigs. Onamotapoeic sounds can be understood beyond language barriers. They belong to the language that uses these natural sounds in their vocabulary and for that matter even a kid can interpret what that word stands for - we've all heard those bow-wows and meow meows. ~ ~ ~

I love words and it's fun to know how words and names originate. Kind of, this is a blog that links me to my subject 'Linguistics' as well. Let me start with my last name ' Vernekar ' Well, that's made up of 2 morphemes, Verne + kar 'Verne' stands for a place in Goa, India 'kar' stands for 'Taxes' In short, my last name stands for someone who paid taxes in Verne or is from Verne Similarly, here are some other Goa-based last names: Netalkar = Netarli + kar Revankar = Revana + kar Shirodkar = Shiroda + kar Mangeshkar = Mangeshi +kar Another word - ' Onomastics ', that's where the basics for Place Name and Proper Name dissection can be studied. ~ ~ ~