English is a funny language

Published On: February 22, 2019 09:00 AM NPT By: The Week Bureau


Historical figures are quite amusing, aren’t they? They have their own resume of spectacular achievements to their names – some helped bring democracy and abolished useless cultural practices while some invented automobiles and many things that we use today to make our lives a little more comfortable. Although we hear and learn of their contribution in history lessons, we don’t know much about these people besides what they did to change the future of mankind.

Apparently, a lot of them were actually pretty fun human beings who made up words and spoke them without thinking much about it. Today we emulate their speeches to flaunt our vocabulary or just  set hilarious contexts. Here are a few words and phrases that you use quite frequently without giving them much thought that actually first came from the mouths of these great men.
 

Lend me your ears
It may be safe to say that no writer in history has ever had as profound an impact on literature as William Shakespeare. Without our knowing, we quote him on a daily basis and for the grandiloquent, he is quite the word supplier. In his play Julius Caesar, through the words of Mark Antony, Shakespeare beckons all, “Friends, Romans and countrymen” and asks them to hear Antony out. Thus the phrase, lend me your ears. Perhaps what also sticks about this phrase (besides the wordy phrase) is also the context of the speech itself: Antony being dictated to speak on Caesar’s funeral with the clear warning that he leave out all mentions of the conspirators behind Caesar’s death. 

Iffy
Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of the most celebrated presidents of the United States, was known as a person of excellent education background. Although he was quite verbose with his speeches and took particular care about the words he spoke, he was also, in modern terms, a pretty chill guy. Iffy is an English slang made up of the conjunction ‘if’ and the suffix ‘y’. And it basically means something that is doubtful or seems fishy. Iffy was only ever a colloquial expression until Roosevelt popularized it usage in his addresses to reporters. To all ambiguous and suggestive questions, Roosevelt would reply, “That’s an iffy question.” That was 1930, and it was very unusual for a president to speak anything else but from the book of “Select Words Reserved only for Head of States”. Although that clearly isn’t the case today, it was a pretty big deal back then. But we will thank you anyway Mr Roosevelt for putting this charming word as an official one in the English dictionary.

For the people, by the people, of the people
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most memorable speeches in history. And the sentence “for the people, by the people, of the people,” is one we have all used in our history answers at least once. There are quite a few interpretations of the speech today – ‘the cable is for the people, by the people and of the people’ being a popular one or ‘burgers are for the people, by the people, of the people.’ Lincoln could never have suspected that his words would be used 153 years later for people to express their love for food and cinematic indulgences. The Gettysburg Address was delivered four months after the conclusion of the American Civil War. A lot is still in dispute as regards to the speech as each historian has his/her own transcripts of it. The last line he did say, evidence suggests.

Pedicure
It isn’t just Shakespeare who made up words. American Presidents too were quite skillful in contributing to the addition of words. Thomas Jefferson was, legend has it, quite the word inventor. For him though, the motivations were different. He wanted to create distinctness in the American vocabulary. Although we may think differently, Americans consider their speech to be without any accents. And British accent has always been distinguished for being different. Like many people of his time, Jefferson thought so too. Even in literature, American and British literature have always been rivals so Jefferson, in his quest of distinguishing American English, made up slangs and popularized their usage. “Belittle”, “Mammoth”, “Pedicure” were some of these words. He borrowed the word “pedicure’ from the French to suggest foot care. Pedicure isn’t just the fancy cosmetic treatment of your feet but it means to take good care of feet. 

Running amok
What a fun phrase this one, isn’t it? Although it sounds like something we would say today (which it totally is) this word is some 300 years old. Running amok is what you say when someone behaves in a wild or unbecoming manner. The expression ‘run amok’ is now synonymous with ‘go crazy’ though it originally had a specific meaning. When Europeans visited Malaysia they heard of a rather unusual mental condition. Peace loving tribesmen who lived quiet lives and believed in nonviolence, affected by this condition, went on sudden killing sprees. And these people were called ‘Amuco’. James Cook, the British explorer, fascinated by this behavior wrote, “to run amok is to … sally forth from the house, kill the person or persons supposed to have injured the Amock, and any other person that attempts to impede his passage.” Then thought to be a work of evil spirits, this condition is now medically recognized. 


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