Bring two sheets of full scape paper for tomorrow’s test,” was the message written in a student’s diary by a teacher handling class 1 at a reputed school in Chennai. A parent who read the message wrote this note to the teacher: “No printing paper is called full scape paper. The correct term is ‘foolscap paper’.”
The term is commonly mispronounced and also misspelt by most speakers of English in India. It is pronounced like the term fool’s cap. Foolscap is a size of paper that measures 8½ by 13½ inches, and the term is used loosely to refer to any large format paper. Foolscap gets its name from the watermark once used to identify it, in the shape of a jester’s hat, or “fool’s cap.”
“What is the meaning of the word ‘knock’ in the sentence “Please stop knocking me. I have been quite sincere and have carried out my responsibilities to the satisfaction of everyone in the department”?
The meaning of the word ‘knock’ in the sentence above is ‘to criticise someone unfairly’. Here are a few examples:
n ;Everyone is quite happy with the secretary. John is the only person in the office who knocks her.
n ;Our maths teacher does not like all the students in the class. She knocks some of them always.
“He was throwing light in a law point, but at the end of the day Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee was caught foot in mouth.” What does the expression ‘foot in mouth’ mean?
The meaning of the idiom “to put one’s foot in one’s mouth” means to say something that is really embarrassing. Here is an example:
n ;Ramesh put his foot in his mouth when he asked a young colleague if she was forty years old.
The idiom “to stick one’s foot in one’s mouth” means the same.
Here is a query from a reader in Chennai: I came across the headline ‘Jail warder commits suicide’. Does the word ‘warder’ exist in English?
The word ‘warder’ is an old-fashioned term. In British English a ‘warder’ is a person who is in charge of people in prison. In modern English the term ‘prison officer’ is used. In American English the term ‘warder’ also refers to a person who guards something, as a doorkeeper or caretaker.
n;The warders of the gate — Dryden
The Americans are identical to the British in all respects except, of course, language — Oscar Wilde n
— rayanal@yahoo.co.uk