Typewriter Fact

Originally the letter 'R' was not placed in that part of the Keyboard.
It was later replaced to its current position just because of the fact that the word "TYPEWRITER"
can be typed using the single rows of keys in a Keyboard.

q W E R T Y u I o P
Interesting ...Isn't it?

Relplace confused--->flummoxed

‘flummox' use it man...Redefine Indian English

The first syllable rhymes with the words ‘plum’, ‘glum’, and ‘slum’; the ‘o’ in the second syllable sounds like the ‘a’ in ‘china’. The final ‘x’ is like the ‘cks’ in ‘sucks’, ‘bucks’, and ‘ducks’. The word is pronounced ‘flumex” with the stress on the first syllable.

This is a word that is mostly used in informal contexts. When you are flummoxed by something, you are bewildered or confused by it. In fact, you are so confused you don’t know what to do.

As expected, the Minister was flummoxed by the questions posed by the reporters.

Oh God... No more PowerPoints..

‘PowerPoint singalong’?

Nowadays, whenever someone gives a talk or makes a presentation, it is usually accompanied by PowerPoint slides. It is something that the audience expects; a presentation is incomplete without one. These slides which the speaker shows often contain the main points that he is trying to make.

There are occasions, however, when the speaker includes in his slides everything that he is going to say. As a result, during the presentation, all he does is merely read from the slides; he doesn’t add anything new.

Such a presentation where the speaker reads verbatim from the slides without providing any comment is called ‘PowerPoint singalong’.

The presentation was nothing more than a PowerPoint singalong.

Uppercase for I...ever reasoned?

Why is the word ‘I’ always capitalised?

I understand that English is the only language where the pronoun ‘I’ is always written in the upper case; in most other languages spoken in Europe, it is written in the lower case. I guess this goes to show that the English have a big ego! Just kidding! The only explanation that scholars have for this is that when the Old English ‘ich’, meaning ‘I’, was reduced to ‘i’, it was thought to be too small to be considered a real word. Also, printers and scribes were worried that ‘i’, when written separately, would get attached to the word before or after it. Since they didn’t want this to happen, they began to capitalise the word.

Peruse-careful Browse-casual

What is the difference between ‘peruse’ and ‘browse’?

‘Browsing’ is something that we normally do when we are in a bookshop. Before we decide what to buy, we invariably take a look at the books and magazines available. Sometimes we read the blurbs, at other times, we sample a paragraph or two in order to decide whether the book is worth buying. When you browse through a book or magazine, you look at it in a very casual way; you do not read it carefully.

*He was browsing through the sports section when the phone rang.

*Could you browse through the first draft and give us some feedback?

‘Perusing’, unlike ‘browsing’, suggests very careful reading. When you peruse a document, you go through it very carefully. You examine the document in detail; you read each and every word.

*The CEO perused the ten page document before signing it.

Don't tell Mug up

‘academic bulimia’?

First, let’s deal with the pronunciation of ‘bulimia’. The ‘u’ in the first syllable is like the ‘u’ in ‘full’, ‘pull’, and ‘bull’. Some people pronounce the first ‘i’ like the ‘ea’ in ‘feat’, ‘meat’ and ‘seat’; others pronounce it like the ‘i’ in ‘it’ and ‘bit’. Whether you pronounce the word ‘bu-LIM-ia’ or ‘bu-LEEM-ia’, the stress is on the second syllable. These are just two of the ways of pronouncing the word.

Bulimia is a disorder. Some people have a craving for food, and when they eat, they proceed to stuff themselves. Once they have finished eating, they usually rush to the bathroom and force themselves to vomit. This act of eating enormous amounts of food and then proceeding to vomit everything is called ‘bulimia’.

Academic bulimia is something that we Indians specialise in. What is it that we do during the time of exams? We usually mug up the answers to all possible questions, and the following day we reproduce everything we have memorised; most of the time, with little or no understanding. This ability that we have to ‘disgorge’ answers is called ‘academic bulimia’.

Don’t be fooled by his marks. He doesn’t know a thing. What you see on paper is academic bulimia.

Yo...check it out?

What is the meaning of ‘Hippopotomonstro- sesquippedaliophobia’?

Pretty long word, isn’t it? Let me tell you it is not the fear of the hippopotamus. We all know what ‘phobia’ means: it is the fear of something. ‘Hippopoto’ comes from ‘hippopotamus’, and ‘monstro’ comes from of ‘monstrum’ meaning ‘monster’. ‘Sesquippedalio’ comes from ‘sesquipedalian’ meaning someone who loves to use extremely long words. ‘Sesquipedalophobia’ means the fear of long words. And that’s what the 15 syllable word hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia means: the fear of long words. The ‘hippopoto’ and ‘monstro’ have been merely added to make the word longer! The word can be spelt in different ways.

*I’m not like you. I suffer from a mild form of hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.