Skip to main content

Socks in Kannada literally means Leg Bags

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 not ‘a’ but ‘aa’.
Just like the 'a' in father is pronounced.

~ ~ ~

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ambidextrous Vs. Ambisinister

Quite difficult looking words….aren’t they? Let’s start with ‘Ambi’ , which is common between the two words – Ambi is not a word but a root which means ‘both’ or ‘both sides’ . ‘Ambidextrous’ is someone who is skillful in using both the right and left hand equally well. Similarly, ‘Ambisinister’ is someone who is clumsy or unskillful with both the hands.

English borrowed the word ‘Market’ from Kannada Language

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...

Coming across 'Onamotapoeia' in the 1st Year of Linguistics

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. ~ ~ ~