1. What is the meaning of ‘gobsmacked’?
(S. Veerababu, Coimbatore)
This is a word which is mostly used in informal contexts in British English. It is a combination of two words: ‘gob’ and ‘smacked’. The word ‘gob’ is often used in informal contexts to refer to the mouth. The word ‘smacked’, as we know, means to hit someone rather hard. If someone were to hit you hard on the mouth, how would you react? Your automatic reaction would be to cup your hand over the mouth. You would render yourself speechless for a few seconds. The word ‘gobsmacked’ is used to mean ‘utterly astonished, astounded’; you are left totally speechless.
*When the CEO was arrested, we were, like everyone else, gobsmacked.
2. What is the meaning and origin of ‘get the pink slip’?
(C. K. Anbazhagan, Namakkal)
Not the ideal thing to be writing about when people are scared of losing their jobs. This is an expression that was coined in the United States. A pink slip is the unwanted letter or document which you receive from your employer informing you that your services are no longer required. To put it more bluntly, it’s your boss’ way of telling you that you’ve been fired!
*More than 20 workers were given the pink slip today.
The word can be used as a verb as well.
*They pink slipped nearly 200 people yesterday.
The story goes that in the late 1800s, workers sometimes received, along with their pay cheque, a letter written on pink stationery. The letter usually informed the receiver that his services were no longer required. This letter written on pink paper began to be referred to as the ‘pink slip’. In Germany, when a person gets fired, he doesn’t ‘get the pink slip’, but ‘the blue letter’. The French, on the other hand, refer to such a letter as ‘yellow paper’.
3. How is the word ‘litterateur’ pronounced?
(K. Vaithinathasamy, Kumbakonam)
The ‘i’ in the first syllable is like the ‘i’ in ‘it’ and ‘bit’; the vowels in the following two syllables are pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘china’. The ‘eu’ in the final syllable sounds like the ‘ir’ in ‘shirt’, ‘dirt’, and ‘birth’. One way of pronouncing the word is ‘lit-e-re-TIR’ with the stress on the final syllable. It comes from the Latin ‘litterator’ meaning ‘critic’. A ‘litterateur’ is a literary person; someone who is devoted to the study or writing of literature. He is usually a man of letters: a professional writer.
*The university is planning to honour some of the well known litterateurs.
4. What is the difference between ‘callous’ and ‘callus’?
(T. Ondodi, New Delhi)
Although spelt differently, the two words are pronounced the same way. The ‘a’ in the first syllable is pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘act’, ‘pact’, and ‘fact’. The ‘ou’ and ‘u’ in the second syllable sound like the ‘a’ in ‘china’. Both words are pronounced ‘KA-les’. If someone accuses you of being ‘callous’, what he means is that you are rather cruel; you have no sympathy for other people.
*It may sound callous. But I don’t’ think you should lend her the money.
If you play a lot of cricket, tennis or shuttle, you will notice that your hands become rather rough. The skin around the area where your fingers meet the palm becomes extremely hard. These areas of thickened skin are called ‘calluses’.
*Ramu’s hands and feet were covered with calluses.
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“It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.”
— Henry Allen
S. UPENDRAN
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