Know your English

WHAT IS the meaning of ``apple polishing''? (Rahul Sharma, Kota, Rajasthan)

It means ``flattery''. Believe it or not, this is an expression which owes its origin to the practice followed by school children. What is it that people do in order to win the approval of their superiors? They either give them gifts or flatter them. Some school going children did the same thing in order to be in the teacher's good books. These kids took apples to school and polished them till they gleamed. Then they presented them to the class teacher! They hoped that by doing this, the teacher would overlook their poor performance in class and instead give them good marks.

* Vani's apple-polishing didn't get her anywhere.

* Apple-polishing is something that my boss detests.

* People who indulge in apple-polishing are called ``apple polishers''.

* Venkat, the apple polisher, doesn't know how silly he looks.

* Jaya's apple polishers surrounded her as soon as she stepped out of her car.

* When he ran out of money the apple polishers left him.

Do not use this word in formal contexts. It is considered slang.

What is the difference between ``homophone'' and ``homonym''? (P.V.V.S. Lakshmi, Kakinada)

In everyday contexts these two words are used interchangeably. But there is a difference in meaning between the two. The word ``homophone'' comes from the Greek ``homo'' meaning ``same'' and ``phone'' meaning ``sound''. Strictly speaking therefore, the word homophone is used to refer to words which sound alike, although they have a different spelling and meaning. Here are a few examples: mail, male; wear, ware; metal, mettle; etc. A homonym, on the other hand, is used to refer to words which have the same spelling and pronunciation but have a different meaning. For example May (month), may (possibility); can (be able), can (put something in container); bear (the animal), bear (to carry). As I mentioned earlier, this distinction is seldom maintained in everyday conversation. People in general tend to use ``homonym'' to mean ``homophone''.

A note about the pronunciation. The first ``o'' in both the words is pronounced like the ``o'' in ``hot'', ``pot'', and ``got''. The second ``o'' is like the ``a'' in ``China''. It's the first syllable which has the stress in both words. This is one way of pronouncing the words.

How do you answer someone who says ``Nice to meet you''? (P. Lokeshwar Rao, Mosopalli)

When you are introduced to someone and the person says, ``Nice to meet you'' the standard reply is ``Nice to meet you'' with the emphasis on ``you''. It's like ``How do you do?'' When someone says ``How do you do?'' your reply is, ``How do you do?''. Other ways of responding to ``Nice to meet you'' are ``Likewise'', ``It's a pleasure meeting you'', ``Same here'', etc.

What is the origin of ``Jeep''? (S. Sadagoppan, Chennai)

These days whenever a new vehicle is launched, it comes with a fancy name - Alto, Accent, City, Matiz, etc. The vehicle which we now call the Jeep, however did not come with a fancy name. In fact this army vehicle had no real name at all; people in the army merely referred to it as ``General Purpose Vehicle''. Since this was a fairly long name, it was abbreviated to ``GP''. From GP we get ``Jeep''. Some people argue that the word ``Jeep'' became popular because of a comic strip character who was quite popular in the days prior to World War II. The character was a tiny creature with supernatural powers and his name was Eugene the Jeep.

Is the word ``orange'' a Tamil word? (P. Somasundaram, Chennai)

Many Tamilians would like to think so! Some argue that the word orange comes from the Tamil words ``six'' and ``five'' respectively. The good news is that the word does come from an Indian language - Sanskrit. Scholars who have studied the origin of words contend that the word ``orange'' comes from the Sanskrit ``naranga''.

How is the word ``paradigm'' pronounced? (Sudha, Nellore)

The first ``a'' is like the ``a'' in ``apple'', ``act'' and ``cat''. The ``a'' in the second syllable is pronounced like the ``a'' in ``China'', ``amount'', and ``about''. The final ``digm'' rhymes with ``time'', ``dime'', and ``lime''. The stress is on the first syllable. One of the meanings of the word is ``typical example of something''. This is a word used in formal contexts.

*For many the Holocaust is a paradigm of evil.

*The incident that took place yesterday is a paradigm of the destructive side of human nature.

*As far as I am concerned, she is a paradigm of all that is good in this world.

*A paradigm is also a model which explains how something works or shows how something is produced.

Why do we abbreviate ``example'' to ``e.g.''? (Soji Mathew,

Pondicherry)

The abbreviation ``e.g.'' comes from the Latin ``exempli gratia''. It means ``for example''.

Is it O.K to say, ``What class are you reading?'' (K. Krishnamurthy, Vishakapatnam)

Although one hears this question very often in India, it is however not acceptable in standard English. ``What class are your reading?'' is a translation of how we ask the question in our mother tongue. Native speakers of English would probably say, ``What class are you in?'' or ``What class are you studying in?''

***

``Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow they may cancel your VISA.'' Anon

S. UPENDRAN

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