Words are not what they mean

Back to blogging in the New Year. Last couple of weeks was very eventful with mostly good things happening. Hope it continues.

Coming to today’s post, I’ve often wondered how words have changed over time. They don’t mean the same over a period of time as they meant at the beginning. Ofcourse, I’m not talking about all words, but some words have transformed. Let’s look at some of them.

Homely:

What does ‘homely’ mean? If I had not been taught its meaning by a nice teacher, I’d probably say that it means ‘of home or suitable to a house’ or something of that sort. 

 But dictionary defines ‘homely’ as plain, pretentious and lacking in physical beauty.

We generally associate that term with a girl, usually a prospective bride. People say they’d prefer a homely girl. What they actually mean is that they’d prefer a girl, who’s traditional in nature, suitable enough to fit in anyone’s house adjusting herself to the surroundings. 

Are there such girls present today? ;-) Just kidding :-)

 I agree that it’s offensive to girls in general that such a demand for a ‘homely’ girl is being made in today’s world. Perhaps, girls should start demanding a ‘homely’ boy then. I’m not even venturing into the definition of a ‘homely’ boy. Please do if you wish ;-) :-)

But the point is that 99.9 percent of the people using that word, especially in South India, do not know its dictionary meaning. Like all other Indians, people were probably looking for a word that would aptly fit in and describe the characteristics mentioned and they hit upon this word. 

Another problem is in suggesting an alternative. What alternative would you suggest for ‘homely’?  ‘Traditional’ sounds fine but in today’s world that sounds more offensive than some swear words. Think of it? How would you react if you were called a traditional girl/boy? Does sound odd. Got to stick with ‘homely’.

Having been taught well, I don’t use it in that context, but I find everyone else using it. I can correct some but not everyone. So the simple solution lies in me not using it but understand what people mean by it if they use it. So many eminent people have used it. Time to accept that the word has undergone/is undergoing a transformation in our own unique Indian way. 

Guardians of the English language/dictionary writers at Oxford & Cambridge should perhaps realize that the words they define don’t mean the same in India :-)  Perhaps they must come up with an Indian edition, ‘cause we’re unique.

Dude:

Another interesting word. Dictionary defines it as “an informal way to address a man; a man who’s much concerned with his dress and appearance”.

But if you ask people using it, people like you and me, we’d say that it simply means a ‘cool guy’. But did you know what the word meant when it was first coined?

It meant a ‘dud’. Yes. The word was coined in the 1860s and at that time it was used to refer to males who were extremely well-dressed that their dressing was often incongruous (out of place). So they were called ‘dud’ (boring, fool, etc.). This became ‘dude’ and transformed in meaning to its present form. 

Another issue here is gender based. Though the word is used to refer to males, it has come to be more unisexual of late, being used for both genders.

But the actual female equivalent of a ‘dude’ is a ‘dudette’, which again is not the original term. According to Webster’s Dictionary, the female equivalent of a dude is a ‘dudine’. But again the term might have sounded uncool and someone thought of this term ‘dudette’.   

Again ‘dudette’ has come to mean something different, somewhere close to its original meaning.

In today’s college parlance, ‘dudette’ means a girl who’s dumb. She might be well-dressed, elegant and might talk only in English. Even if you talk to her in Tamil knowing that she can speak that language perfectly well, she’ll be like “Eniku Thaamil theriyaadhu” (I don’t know Tamil). If you ask her about who the Chief Minister or Governor of the state is, she’ll probably say “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t read politics, you see.”

So there’s your ‘dudette’ , atleast that’s what a ‘dudette’ means in today’s college parlance. So if someone calls you a dudette, be offended or perhaps, you really are one ;-)

That’s why ‘dude’ is being used unisexually these days.

Weather and Climate:

I’ve corrected the maximum no. of people with these words. We’ll talk a little Geography here. I owe a lot of my knowledge in Geography to a wonderful teacher named Sujatha Ma’am who taught me Geography at school. I did well in Geography & scored a 98pc in my board exam. I guess that qualifies me to teach you all a little Geography. 

When you talk about the weather of a place, you’re talking about the climatic conditions of a place over a short period of time like a day or a couple of days or a week at the maximum.

When you talk about the climate of a place, you’re talking about the climatic conditions of a place over a long period of time like 20 to 30 years or more.

You don’t say “Today’s climate is good”. You say “Today’s weather is good.” 

Similarly you say “Bangalore has a pleasant climate or Coimbatore has a pleasant climate or Chennai has a sultry climate” as you’re talking about the prevalent general conditions in those places for years together.

Guys/ Gals and the usage of Mrs./Ms.

Another issue that arises is with regard to the usage of ‘guys’. ‘Guy’ means a male and it’s plural form is ‘guys’. The apt female equivalent of this word is ‘gal’. But again, there’s this ‘uncoolness’ about that word. So people don’t prefer to use it. Even ‘guys and girls’ is more acceptable in today’s parlance than people calling ‘guys and gals’. This again has led to the word ‘guys’ being used unisexually. There’s a reverse gender bias here ;-) All words that were guys’ are being taken away from us ;-)  :-)

Another interesting word is the word ‘mistress’. Though in India people have taken to referring their wife as ‘mistress’, the word actually means an adulterous woman, signifying an illicit relationship. Unlike other words like ‘homely’, mistake in this word should be deemed unacceptable. So please don’t use the word ‘mistress’. Introducing them as your ‘wife’ or ‘spouse’ or as your ‘better half’ is good enough. While on this topic, I’m reminded of a joke that I read in some magazine a long time back.

A foreigner and his wife were travelling in a train and they were seated next to a village couple. The villager was strangely staring at the foreigner’s wife. The foreigner noticed this and to make things clear, he said to his wife, “I’m your husband and you’re my wife.” The villager saw this and trying to ape him, he turned to his wife and said “I’m your handpump and you’re my pipe.” :-D

For males, such a problem never existed as they were addressed as ‘Mr.’ irrespective of their marital status. This injustice to females was noticed and it was first suggested that the title of “Ms.” be used for women in 1901 in The Republican magazine.  This issue was later taken forward by American Business Writers Association and from 1970s onwards, the title “Ms.” has been used to refer to women.  Newspapers like The Guardian have given fillip to this usage by stating that they’d refer to all women by the title “Ms.” unless the women being addressed themselves state their preference to be addressed as either “Miss” or “Mrs.”

Hmmm/Hmm

If you’re wondering what this means,  be assured that you’re not alone. We are sailing in the same boat. Perhaps the most irritable response that you could get from someone in a text message is ‘hmmm’. It’s not even a proper word for heaven’s sake. People use it in oral conversations as means of letting the speaker know that he/she is being listened to. Stop it with that. Please don’t take it to written communication. Good communicators never use it in their writing. It’s just a conversation filler. There can hardly be anything more irritating than when you receive a reply “hmm” in response to a lengthy message that you typed and sent. If you want to acknowledge, you can atleast use words like “ok” or even a “smiley” would be a better response than “hmm”. Please avoid it if you’re in the habit of using it. I recently found a person, who I regard as a very good communicator, using it. I advised that  person not to use it, only to find the words “hmm” again in that person’s message to me. Old habits die hard, I guess ;-) :-)

 

Will update on more such words as and when I come across them.

Cheers,

Ashwin Murali