In the 1940s, a young Englishman who was the manger of a coir factory in Alleppey—which was then the coir capital of the world—asked his assistant, a middle-aged woman, to write a letter. In her draft, a vital point was missing. When he asked her about it, she said, “Sir, please look at the backside carefully.” Circumstances did not permit him to burst into laughter, though as a natural speaker of English, he was familiar only with the primary meaning of the word ‘backside’, which is ‘buttocks’.
A few years later, a woman invited her boss to her new house. He gracefully visited it, but did not go to the backside of her charming abode, where she had a lovely garden. But the woman wanted the boss to see her backyard. She asked, “Sir, why don’t you check my backside?”
Many of us say ‘zib’ for ‘zip’, and ‘momento’ for ‘memento’. Perhaps, we feel that a gift has something to do with the ‘momentous’ occasion, without realising that ‘memento’ comes from the family of ‘memo’, memory, and memorial—a souvenir that would remind the guest of the occasion. We say podium instead of ‘a raised platform’ or a pulpit. We frequently hear PIN number, though the ‘N’ in PIN has already covered ‘number’.
Welcome speakers greet honourable members on the ‘dias’, not on the dais. Our Bank Managers often say fix-ed (deposits), though the pronunciation should be something like fikst. Many pronounce gas as ‘gyaas’, and radar as ‘radaar’ or ‘raadar’, whereas it should be ‘reida’.
We would use the word ‘appreciable’ in the sense commendable, though it means considerable or substantial. Many who would raise their eyebrows at ‘furnitures’, are happy with ‘equipments’ and ‘machineries’.
Some are endowed with a great deal of innovation—they coin words like ‘recordical’ and ‘genuinity’. ‘Mouth-looker’—a term popular in Kerala, for those who ‘ogle’ is not found in any good dictionary.
“Since my wife is serious, my presence near her is essential. So kindly grant me leave for a week” goes a leave application. The word ‘serious’ to indicate ‘critical’ is not in good taste. We needlessly insert the words ‘actually’ and ‘simply’ in our speech. One need not be too fussy with language. But should we not follow accepted norms?
B S warrier
Email: bswarrier@gmail.com