One day in 1972 at my Father's place in Gudur, I was so peeved with him that it still rankles.
A couple of years earlier my medico elder sister (didi) got married to a young and bright IAS Officer and they were visiting Father's place and I too happened to be there on a Puja Vacation from KGP.
Those days IAS Officers were scarce and those who got that label as an appendix to their holy names were really proud; and Father, being a retired HM, always had a thing for these Bosses; and our IAS Raja being the eldest S-i-L, added to his veneration. Father practically used to stand up in his presence and keep standing till asked to sit down...like all School Teachers expected their students to do.
And there were a few more Admirers in the Gathering.
Talk somehow veered to old age and its problems and I said there is an entire science about it called: Gerontology.
Raja looked at me quizzically as if saying:
"That must be your invention!"
Upon which Father went in and fetched his 1950's Abridged Dictionary which was Bible to him, flipped its pages, and announced (gladly):
"No, there is no word like that in English"
Everyone else smirked and to them I looked like a bluffoon.
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Bluffoon:
Definition:
v. To deny that you have stupidly injured yourself for fear of punishment or ridicule.
n. A person who won't admit it when they shoot themselves in the foot (which they seem to do quite often).
http://b.verbotomy.com/?p=verbottle&edit=3&vote=1&jargonism_id=17690&username=Guest&definition_id=511&jid=tweezers&game_id=3
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Father was always overawed by his IAS S-i-L; while, being a KGPian Physics buff, I was underawed by everyone except Feynman, like all of you, I'm sure.
There you are!...
'underawe' is not listed in any Dictionary till date and so I claim my patent for it.
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During our College Years, English Teachers used to drill into our bones ad nauseum that 'prepone' is a foul preposter (my patent again, back formation from 'preposterous', not to be confused with 'impostor') not to be used by us, because there is no verb like 'pone' to which you can prefix and suffix as you like; and 'postpone' is one goddamn word. But we cared two slips and used it anyway except in Exams.
'pone' is a noun though... but it has nothing to do with 'doing'.
These old fossils don't know that English is a living and kicking language.
Surprisingly 'prepone' is not listed in the online Webster, but just type:
"prepone meaning"
in Google and see for your self: you get 261 results (0.21 seconds); without the quotes you get 4,750 results (0.10 seconds).
It is listed in every other major dictionary.
One of them has this entry:
"Definition: To advance a date or appointment.
..Suggested Usage: Usage of this term seems to be rising in the medical profession, especially in Canada, and it has been in wide usage in India for 50 years.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/wotd/prepone
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I was hunting for a title for today's blog, and 'overwhelmed' popped up from nowhere.
And naturally I looked for 'underwhelm' and found it everywhere.
Google gives 38,300 results ( 0.10 seconds):
"under·whelm (-hwelm′, -welm′)
transitive verb
to fail to make a good impression or have a significant impact on
Origin: ironic allusion to overwhelm"
http://www.yourdictionary.com/underwhelmObviously I 'underwhelmed' Father by my 'gerontology'...he was a lovely specimen of that science...he was only 58 then compared to my 68 now...
(crow!!!)
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Well, what was it that 'overwhelmed' me last night?
It was this link Aniket sent me:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/04may_epic/
Those nuts who had read the blog:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/06/water-born-ideas.html
in my 'spin' octalogy would be happy to look up Anket's link above (final proof of Schiff's Nude Sensation).
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This time I hit the jackpot:
Octalogy has 5,400 results (0.12 seconds), some of them hilarious.
But Wictionary has this entry:
- (rare) A collection of eight books in a series, as one single unit.
It also has:
Related terms
- dilogy (2)
- trilogy (3)
- tetralogy (4)
- pentalogy (5)
- hexalogy (6)
- heptalogy (7)
- ennealogy (9)
- decalogy (10)
- polylogy (2+)
Well, with the latest Ishani booklet, post-retirement, gps has a 'hexalogy' to brag about (so far).
Cheers!
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