Fun with words – Page 3

Words of the day : Juggernaut, Catamaran

Today’s words, juggernaut and catamaran, are of Indian origin.

Juggernaut dictionary definition : A huge, powerful, and overwhelming force or institution.
Origin (source Wikipedia): The English loanword juggernaut in the sense of “a huge wagon bearing an image of a Hindu god” is from the seventeenth century, inspired by the Jagannatha Temple in Puri, Odisha (Orissa), which has the Ratha Yatra (“chariot procession”), an annual procession of chariots carrying the statues of God. The word is derived from the Sanskrit/Odia Jagannātha , combining jagata (“world”) and natha (“lord”), which is one of the names of Krishna found in the Sanskrit epics.

Catamaran dictionary definition : A yacht or other boat with twin hulls in parallel
Origin (source Wikipedia): Catamaran is from a Tamil word, kattumaram, which means “logs tied together”. A catamaran (informally, a “cat”) is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stabilized craft, deriving its stability from its wide beam, rather than from a ballasted keel as with a monohull sailboat.

Fun is in usage. Below is an attempt

To avoid the juggernaut caused by devotees packing the roads of Indian port city Puri during the Jagannatha Rath Yatra some visitors for the festival preferred to travel to the city by sea in a catamaran

East is East, and West is West, and the Twain shall meet

The Twain met in 2015 on the west shore of the writers’ beloved Mississippi river in Dubuque, IA when Raj and family drove in from east of the river and visited the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium!
Thought the East and West part fit in with Easterner/s driving in from East of the river meeting with Westerner on West side of the river and the fact that the phrase “West/East of the Mississippi” is sometimes symbolically used as demarcation for Western and Eastern parts of the country 🙂

Words of the day: Debrief, Brief

Debrief dictionary definition below

verb : question (someone, typically a soldier or spy) about a completed mission or undertaking.
noun : a series of questions about a completed mission or undertaking.

Brief dictionary definition below

adjective : of short duration.
noun: a concise statement or summary.
verb: instruct or inform (someone) thoroughly, especially in preparation for a task.

Fun is in usage. Below is an attempt

Members of the committee, selected to debrief the counsel, were surprised when he did not exceed his brief by sticking to his script and kept his response brief

Words of the day: Bindaas, Jhakaas!

In a nod to the city I grew up in, Bombay (or Mumbai as it is officially known now) in India, the words of the day are: Bindaas, Jhakaas!

Meaning of the words:

Bindaas: independent and carefree; admirable, cool.

Jhakaas (not to be confused with jackass 😀 ): excellent

A bit of background helps. Bombay like other great cities is a melting pot. Everything is bigger compared to the smaller towns. Business, employment opportunities, commute times, real estate price, entertainment, hustle and bustle, getting to meet folks from different backgrounds etc. People from all over the country come to the city and enrich the cultural fabric with their own language, culture and traditions. The effect of which is spawning of a culture which is a bit of everything that is also uniquely Bombayish 🙂 The city’s version of national language Hindi is also influenced by locally spoken language, Marathi, further influenced by languages spoken by people from other parts of the country. Bombayites/Mumbaikars are proud of their own lingo: Bambaiya Hindi 🙂 The original Hindi speaking people may consider calling what is spoken as Hindi a sacrilege but who cares, language is just for communication, right? 😀
Inevitably some of the Bambaiya Hindi lingo has made its way to Bollywood movies too as Bombay is home to the very popular Bollywood entertainment industry. Bindaas and jhakaas have made it to Bollywood movies too! Bindaas is generally used in a positive way to suggest something fearless yet not reckless. Jhakaas is used to convey one’s extremely positive reaction about a place, event etc.

Usage of bindaas in sentence

Person 1: क्या मैं यह करून? (Shall I do it?)
Person 2: बिंदास करो (Do it bindaas!)

Usage of Jhakaas in sentence

Person 1: फिल्म कैसे थी? (How was the movie?)
Person 2: एकदम झकास (Absolutely excellent!)

Interestingly I see bindaas has made it to Oxford English dictionary! Wouldn’t be too long before jhakaas also makes it there. Strength in numbers certainly doesn’t hurt (roughly one in seven world citizen is an Indian or of Indian origin) 😀

Words of the day: mulled , barred

Dictionary meaning of the words:

Mulled: think about (a fact, proposal, or request) deeply and at length

Barred: In legal context it means obstructed by a bar; subject to hindrance or obstruction by a bar or barrier which, if interposed, will prevent legal redress or recovery; as, when it is said that a claim or cause of action is “barred by the statute of limitations”. Banned, debarred, disallowed, excluded, precluded, prohibited, proscribed, shut out are some of the synonyms for barred.

Below is my attempt to keep up with the times and also have some fun using the words in sentences!

While Mueller mulled, Barr barred prosecution 🙂
The fallout: Mueller can’t mull going public with his findings, Barr finding speculation can’t be barred 😀
Likely path ahead: Folks dissatisfied with the outcome, who feel Barr should have been debarred from announcing his verdict, are mulling about preparing for the Barr exam 😉
With both sides deeply entrenched in their held positions it promises to be a no-holds-barred battle in the weeks ahead!

“Got Barred” is likely to become a phrase used to indicate obstruction in pursuing obstruction charges and we will all be scratching our head while the lawyers and lawmakers battle it out. This situation is clear as mud to me, so much for a definite answer!

Words of the day: Perchance, Penchant and Predilection

P’s to all who visit this page 😉 Below are the words of the day!

perchance : by some chance; perhaps.
penchant : a strong or habitual liking for something or tendency to do something.
predilection : a preference or special liking for something; a bias in favor of something.

Now let’s try to all three words in a sentence.

Perchance you did not know the celebrity lawyer, with a penchant for publicity and predilection for courting controversy, was on TV defending his client charged with POT USE 🙂

Hubris, zugzwang, schadenfreude!

Words are used to convey meaning to one’s utterances and writings. Some words get used more than others depending on the person and the language. There are some words that are used less frequently and it piques your interest when you come across their usage the first time. The words that come to my mind today are: hubris, zugzwang and schadenfreude.
If you are interested in etymology hubris has its roots in Greek, zugzwang and schadenfreude have German roots. When I first came across these words I was naturally interested in knowing what they meant. Below is meaning of those words

Hubris: excessive pride or self-confidence
Zugzwang: a situation in which the obligation to make a move in one’s turn is a serious, often decisive, disadvantage
Schadenfreude: pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune

It’s tempting to say I knew the word hubris from the time I was in kindergarten 😀 but that wouldn’t be true and I don’t remember when I first heard or saw that word. Zugzwang I remember more clearly. One episode in TV series Criminal Minds had that title. Retaining that word in memory was also helped by the fact my son used to play chess at that time and the word is also used to describe a situation in the game which is kind of hopeless for the player who has to make the next move. About 10-15 years ago I must have come across the word schadenfreude. Haven’t seen or heard that word much in recent times. Probably it is not used much now. I set out to see if I could use all those words to describe a situation. Here is my attempt.

Imagine a person who is a congenital liar given to boasting all the time. Assume that person is also supremely confident that someone else will always take a bullet for his/her lies and deceptions. If that person claims he can get away with murder, shooting another person in broad daylight at Times Square, that is HUBRIS!
If the liar gets caught in his/her own web of lies and deceit and not able to come up with a proper explanation for his/her words and actions that is ZUGZWANG!
If people who have been repeatedly mortified or affected by the liar’s words and actions find that person in zugzwang the feeling that they experience is SCHADENFREUDE!

Link to snippet of Criminal Minds episode ‘Zugzwang’ which has ‘Say something’ song playing in background:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G67zP4X9IY

It’s poignant.

Link to zugzwang explanation in chess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4zNsJ46MQY