For Lovers Of English...

[mr.s.k.abhi]

Hey Guys This Thread Is One With A Difference.... At Least I Have Thought Of It As A Being Different From Others...

We At Pg Have All Sorts Of Threads Catering To Different Sections Of Verbal Aptitude Pertaining To Different Management Exams...

But Here I Have Thought Of This Thread As A Pg-log Where Guys/gals Who Love English As A Language And Think It To Be More Than Just Being A Part Of Some Exam.... Can Pitch In An Pool In There Knowledge And Interesting Facts About The Origin Of Language And Etymology Of Different Words.

Mind It There Are Lot Of Stuff Which We Dont Know And Is Worthy To Be Known.... Which Are Hilarious In Itself Or Awe Inspiring..... Some Are Simply Interesting And Some Really Stunning....

I Will Start It..... Hope Many Will Join In....

[jhaji]

Originally Posted by mr.s.k.abhi

Hey Guys This Thread Is One With A Difference.... At Least I Have Thought Of It As A Being Different From Others...

We At Pg Have All Sorts Of Threads Catering To Different Sections Of Verbal Aptitude Pertaining To Different Management Exams...

But Here I Have Thought Of This Thread As A Pg-log Where Guys/gals Who Love English As A Language And Think It To Be More Than Just Being A Part Of Some Exam.... Can Pitch In An Pool In There Knowledge And Interesting Facts About The Origin Of Language And Etymology Of Different Words.

Mind It There Are Lot Of Stuff Which We Dont Know And Is Worthy To Be Known.... Which Are Hilarious In Itself Or Awe Inspiring..... Some Are Simply Interesting And Some Really Stunning....

I Will Start It..... Hope Many Will Join In....

count me as one of the regulars.....

[mr.s.k.abhi]

OH I THOUGHT I WOULD BE THE 1ST TO POST A REPLY .... BUT JHAJI U R WELCOME....

I M STARTING WITH WAT I POSTED IN THE THREAD (WORD GAME--PAGE 49)....

THE LONGEST WORD IN ENGLISH IS:-

"supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is having 34 alphabets...was used in MARY POPPINS childrens book in 1964...

"pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis " is a 45 letter word and is the name of a lung disease....

but the longest word in english is an 8000 letter behemoth representing a protein derivate... n for that all i can say is "pn.....osis"

[mr.s.k.abhi]

AGAIN THIS ONE FROM (WORD GAME THREAD-PAGE 49)

WORDS WITH ALL THE FIVE VOWELS IN IT:-

THE MOST COMMON WORD IS "EDUCATION"

there are many words lik 'education' which have all the vowels of english lang.....
but mostly nouns...

here are few to ponder on...

"sequoia" ----> large coniferous trees of California
"eunoia "----> term denoting a normal mental state (THIS IS THE SMALLEST WORD CONTAINING ALL THE VOWELS)
"Oxyuridae "---->a family of parasitic nematodes




there are many...

[mr.s.k.abhi]

WORDS COMPOSED OF ONLY VOWELS (NOT NECESSARILY ALL OF THEM IN A SINGLE WORD):-

THERE ARENT MANY WORDS WITCH ARE COMPOSED OF ONLY VOWELS...

HERE ARE A FEW OF THEM...

-> EUOUAE ===> A TERM USED IN GREGORIAN MUSIC
-> AIAIAI ===> A ROSEATE SPOONBILL

-> OUEIOI ===> AN ANCIENT TUSCAN CITY
-> AEAEA ===> AN IMAGINERY ISLAND OF CIRCE

THERE ARE FEW MORE BUT NOT MANY...

[writetotanveer]

Collected from the net..various sources...



Assassin

During the time of the Crusades the members of a certain secret Muslim sect engaged people to terrorise their Christian enemies by performing murders as a religious duty. These acts were carried out under the influence of hashish, and so the killers became known as hashshashin, meaning eaters or smokers of hashish. Hashshashin evolved into the word assassin.

Hazard

This term evolved from the Arabic al zahr, which means the dice. In Western Europe the term came to be associated with a number of games using dice, which were learned during the Crusades whilst in the Holy Land. The term eventually took on the connotation of danger because, from very early on, games using dice were associated with the risky business of gambling and con artists using corrupted dice.


Phony

British thieves and swindlers of old used many secret codewords. One such word was fawney, which referred to a gilt ring. They would sell these, saying that they were made of real gold. But the rings were not genuine gold, and the word phony – from fawney – came to be used for anything that is fake or not genuine.

[mr.s.k.abhi]

WELL U KNOW WORDS TOO HAVE GENDERS AND SOME ARE HERMAPHODITES TOO....

hahhahahha

Well hope u all might have heard of JANUS words.... Also known as VERBAL HERMAPHODITES..... These are single words with opposite meanings........


example:-
The farmer went ahead with DUSTING of his tomato plants for milddue.
The pianist spent his whole day DUSTING his piano.

here DUSTING in the first sentence means "to put dust on"
while in the second one it denotes "cleaning"....

similarly there are various words which have different meanings for same syntax....
eg:- SANCTION
FAST
HANDICAP
CLEAVE
DRAW (Lik when u draw curtains u open it or close it)

[mr.s.k.abhi]

Well the close cousins of JANUS WORDS are those words which appear to be opposites but have same meanings....

INFLAMMABLE & FLAMMABLE

BEND & UNBEND

PASSIVE & IMPASSIVE

And phrases lik:-
GETTING UP & GETTING DOWN from a dinner table

SLOWING UP & SLOWING DOWN in a car...

[seshadri.r]

Reg "Kick The Bucket"

I heard that in England the life sentence would be done by making the criminal
stand on the bucket with neck tied to a rope and the bucket would be
kicked so that he hangs safely .some shd authenticate this..

i wanna know what's the diff b/w idiom and phrase..

ATB

[trushinbarai]

idiom is generally a metaphor whereas a phrase is taken in its literal sense...!!