Category: Words and phrases

Head over heels

By Simon

When you’re head over heels about something or someone it means that you’re very excited, and/or turning cartwheels to demonstrate your excitement. This idiom is often used in the phrase ‘head over heels in love with’. It was probably first used in the 14th century, when it was ‘heels over head’, which makes more sense. At some point the components got reversed.

Other idioms used to indicate that things are not as usual include ‘upside-down’, ‘topsy-turvy’, ‘arse over tea-kettle’, ‘higgledy-piggledy’, and ‘arse over tit’.

The Spanish equivalent of this idiom is patas arriba (paws on top) – this is one I learnt today, and in Chinese it’s 亂七八糟 (luànqībāzāo = confusion seven eight rotten). What about in other languages?

Fireworks

By Simon

Tomorrow is Bonfire Night in the UK, a time when there are many firework displays, and large bonfires upon which we burn guys – effigies of Guy Fawkes, who was part of a failed plot to blow up the British parliament on 5th November 1605. Quite a lot of fireworks are being set off tonight as well.

The English word fireworks is not as interesting as the equivalent in other languages. For example, in Spanish they’re ‘artificial fires’ (fuegos artificiales), in Chinese they’re ‘smoke flowers’ (煙花), in Japanese they’re ‘flower fire’ (花火), in Welsh they’re ‘wild fire’ (tân gwyllt), and in Irish they’re ‘fire art’ (tinte ealaíne).

Word of the day – rio

By Simon

Today’s word, rio, means frost, freezing or ice in Manx, and river in Portuguese. In Spanish, río means river, stream, torrent, lengthy, long-lasting, epic or interminable.

Related Manx words and phrases
riojey = ice up, freeze, frost, icing
rioeeagh = frosty
rioghar = icicle
rioee = glacial
crammag rio = ice hockey (lit. “ice snail”)
moddey rio = husky (lit. “ice dog”)
coyr rioee = fridge
Eean y ghob jiarg = Jack Frost (lit. “Red-mouthed John”)
Ta Eean y ghob jiarg mooie jiu = it’s frosty today

Example of usage
Chan nel bodjal er-egin ‘syn aer jiu as bee rio ayn noght, son shickyrys.
There’s been barely a cloud in the sky today and it’s certainly going to freeze tonight.

The sun’s been shining most of the day here and it’s been pleasantly warm indoors, but the moment you step outside you’re hit by the cold. There’s a ring around the moon as well – a sure sign of frost.

Are there equivalent names for Jack Frost, the personification of frost or winter weather, in other languages?

Context matters

By Simon

This morning I’ve been chatting with a friend in Shanghai who asked me how to say various things in English, and about the meaning of various English words and phrases. In each case I had to ask about the context to be sure that I chose the appropriate meaning or translation.

Some words have a number of possible meanings. In some cases you can only work out which meaning is intended from the context. In some cases though, the context might be ambiguous, either deliberately, perhaps for comic effect, or unintentionally.

When reading text or listening to speech in a foreign language, you can often guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context. Or you can at least work out whether they are nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. It’s very useful to develop this skill and not to rely on dictionaries all the time.

When words fail you

By Simon

When you find yourself unable to recall a particular word, there are quite a few alternative filler words you can call on. In English these include thing, thingumy, thingumybob, thingamyjig, wotsit, doobree, doodad, and whatchamacallit. Few of these words have a standard form, so you can spell them how you like.

Knowing the equivalents of these words in other languages is very useful because there will always be gaps in your vocabulary. What kinds of filler words do you use in your language?

Lusophilia

By Simon

I came across an interesting report in the New York Times today in which they talk about the recent opening of The Museum of the Portuguese Language (Museu da Língua Portuguesa) in São Paulo, Brazil. The objective of the museum is to create a living representation of the Portuguese language, where visitors may be surprised and educated by unusual and unfamiliar aspects of their own native language. The report also mentions that inspite of having more native speakers than French, German, Italian or Japanese, the Portuguese language is often overlooked by the rest of the world.

On a related matter, I’ve noticed that quite a few of the Brazilians I know think their version of Portuguese is inferior to the Portuguese spoken in Portugal. This quite surprised me as I personally prefer the sounds of Brazilian Portuguese, and it was the singing of Astrud Gilberto on a Stan Getz album that first attracted me to the language.

In case you’re wondering, lusophilia is the love of Portugal or the Portuguese language. The Luso- part comes from the Roman province of Lusitania, which occupied the same area as modern Portugal and part of Spain.

Transliterations of Omniglot

By Simon

One of my regular correspondents has suggested that I add a page to my main site showing how to write Omniglot in various different writing systems. He’s also sent me a list of transliterations to get me started – you can see the beginnings of the page here.

Could you provide any new transliterations of Omniglot, and corrections to the existing ones, if necessary? Could you also try to come up with translations of the word Omniglot in your language(s)? It means ‘all languages’ in the context of my site.

Semicolonical

By Simon

After the fun we had yesterday with apostrophes, I thought it was time to become a bit semicolonical and to discuss the often over-looked semicolon, which is perhaps the punctuation mark most likely to fall out of use in the not too distant future. In fact many people rarely if ever use it already, except in emoticons ;).

The semicolon was first used by Aldus Manutius the elder (1449-1515) to separate words opposed in meaning and to mark off interdependent statements. It was introduced into English in 1560, and was used throughout Europe by the late 18th century.

There are two main uses of the semicolon in English:

1) It can be used to join independant clauses not linked by a co-ordinating conjunction such as and or but. For example:

regular exercise helps reduce blood pressure; a balanced diet is also important.

2) It can be used in lists containing commas within each point. For example:

Henry’s mother believes three things: that every situation, no matter how grim, will be happily resolved; that no one knows more about human nature than she; and that Henry, who is thirty-five years old, will never be able to do his own laundry.

Source: www.uottawa.ca

In some languages, such as Greek and Church Slavonic, the semicolon is used as a question mark. How are semicolons used in your language?

New phrases page

By Simon

I’m just putting together a new phrases page, which you can see here, and wonder if you could help. The phrase in question is “Do you speak … language?” with the reply “Yes (a little)”. In each case the language in question is the language of the question, for example, the phrase in French is “Parlez-vous français? / Oui (un peu)”.

This is the kind of question other people might ask you, rather than you asking them, but it’s useful to be able to understand it.

Muppet shuffling

By Simon

If modern management-speak, buzzwords and other jargon leaves you confused, then Shoot the Puppy: A survival guide to the curious jargon of modern life, by Tony Thorne, which I borrowed from my local library today, will help to enlighten you.

The title of this post, muppet shuffling, refers to the practise of moving underperforming or troublesome employees into other departments or positions where they can’t do too much harm, while the term, shoot the puppy, means to do the unthinkable.

Other intesting terms in the book include infobia, the fear of not having enough information, or of having too much, which is also known as data-glut and knowledge pollution; stoozing, profiting from credit card special offers; proctoheliosis, overweening self-importance, and cubicle monkeys, low-level employees who work in cubicles.