Know your English !! Part.II

Weasel Words: Words or phrases with a vague meaning- such as efficiency or not in the public interest- as used in official statements to avoid specific commitments. The idea behind the term is the supposed ability of a weasel to suck out the contents of an egg while leaving the shell intact.

Upper case: Capital letters, the larger and less common form of the letters of the alphabet, as used at the start of sentences or proper names.

The terms ‘Upper Case and Lower Case’ come from the early days of printing when type was stored in a case with capital letters at the top and small letters at the bottom.

Accent: Way in which words are pronounced in a particular region or by a particular social class. It also refers to DIACRITICAL MARKS such as ACUTE ACCENT and GRAVE ACCENT, which adjust the way letters are pronounced in some languages. The word can also refer to the emphasis or stress placed on a particular syllable in a word.

Acronym: Words formed by combining the initial letters or syllables of a name or phrase, and pronouncing it as if it were an ordinary word.

Example:  Radar, Radio Detection And Ranging.

Ante-: Prefix from Latin, meaning ‘before,’ as in anteroom.

Anti-: Prefix, from Greek, meaning ‘against’ or ‘opposed to’, as in anticlockwise

Back-formation: Words created accidentally, on the mistaken assumption that it is an earlier and more basic form of an existing word.

Example: burgle and laze are back formations of burglar and lazy

Know your English !! Part.I

Expletive: Any exclamation or oath, especially one considered to be blasphemous or obscene, whether currently or formerly, such as Damn! Or Heavens above! Nowadays, any obscene word can be loosely referred to as an expletive.

Feet of Clay: Phrase used of a highly regarded person revealed to have a character weakness or flaw: it probably comes from a passage in the Book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar had dreams of a huge statue with gold head, silver arms, and so on, down to feet or iron and clay. Daniel interpreted the dream to mean that a future kingdom would be divided, and would eventually crumble like the clay that supported the statue.

Gilding the lily: Trying to improve something that is already beautiful or perfect: dyeing her naturally
blonde hair would just be gilding the lily. The phrase is often taken to be a quotation from Shakespeare, but the words he actually used in King John were: ‘To gild refined gold, to paint the lily… is wasteful and ridiculous excess’.

In the doldrums: Gloomy, down in the dumps, feeling depressed and lazy. It can also be used of economic condition.
The phrase originated as a reference to equatorial seas, where ships were often becalmed.

Grist to the mill: Something that can be turned to one’s advantage or something that should prove useful even thought it may not appear particularly promising at first. The image is of an old grain mill such as a watermill, which treats anything presented to it as grist or grain, and grinds it regardless.

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.VI

In ancient Rome and Hellas, the people erected the image of Pariapus and Pan in the fields (usually pillars with a head or a phallus in the front) for the productivity of crops, flocks and family. In the temples of Pariapus, a figure of Pariapus in a sitting posture with the erected penis kept. The soon-to-be married brides were taken to the temple and the priestess elaborated them about the male genetic organs and its functions and the brides were usually sat on the lap of the nude god in a position such that their vaginas introduced on to the erected penis of the god, thus rupturing their hymens (which is an offering to the deity). Most of the male gods in Egyptian temples carries icas or their sex organs in their hands. Seti is a symbol based on male triangle. The Egyptian pyramids are the oversize seti symbols.

Male deities in Egyptian temples are often indicated by carrying- this pole in their hands, but frequently they held their real organs in their hands. In the ancient art work “welt Gemaelde Gallerie” one can see one copper plate cut of God appearing to Mosses in the burning bush. In that Jehovah is represented as a male triangle.

In India, the Kama Devan the god of love is represented by shooting an arrow made up of lotus bud which is the representation of male organ phallus or lingam and the bow is made up of sugar cane. The God is riding on the dove or sparrow both are the symbolic representation of coition. In ancient Greek, The god of wine Dionysus or Bacchus was worshiped the rituals on his festive days were accompanied by rampant sexual excesses.

 The god Dionysus scepter was a cane surmounted by the figure resembling grape punch or otherwise called thyrsus scepter ( the figure is not clearly represented and it resembles a pine cone also ). This symbol represents the penis erected on the influence of illicit love. This pine cone is the most frequent ornament of the ancient Christian churches. The arrow in the hand of god Eros is the lingam erect under the pressure of lawful love. The cane held by the god Bacchante or Bacchus is the symbol of lingam erect under the excitement of lust. The word erotic came from the name Eros.
                                                                   Cont....

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.V

Before 1896 cyclone, the old steeple of St. Vincent’s church in St. Louis was quite similar to phallic and after the cyclone it was modified. Very practically speaking no part of the pre historic world is without any phallic pillars or towers. The ancient man plainly created god in his own vision and idea as the penis which was named as “ Asher”, “The powerful” and ”The Opener”. The ancient people named the right testicle as Ann or On and the left testicle as Hoa. The right testicle was supposed to be superior since they believed the male offspring produced there and the left testicle was inferior since it produces the female offspring. There are various reasons ascertained by the researchers why right testicle was considered as male. Usually the right testicle is larger than the left and the left testicle hung lower than the right and hence it was considered inferior. According to the Hindu myths entire right part of the Lord Shiva is male and the left female. The same view is available in the  Theories of the Kabbalah, the Greek theories of conception(Note: In Pythagorean numbers right considered  as male and left considered as female  is worth mention here)

In Hebrew the syllable Ben means Son, hence Benaiah mean the son of the God. The name Ben-Oni means the Son of On (son of the right testicle), Benjamin means, The son of the right side. Not only the lingam represented the sacred male genital, the pyramid or upright triangle (or otherwise called sacred male triangle) with its apex upward derived from the shape of the pubic hair of man which is very much naturally different from the pubic hair of woman (the male pubic hair resembles the upright triangle with apex upward, where as the female pubic hair resembles the triangle with apex upward). The Hindus or the Aryans, Early Egyptians symbolized the Trinity with the symbol triangle.

In India the lingam was also symbolized and worshiped in the shape of lotus flower or the lotus bud. The lily is often the symbol of The Father in the Christian church art. It was come from the Pagan origin which transplanted into Christian art. The Madonna and the child with lily symbolical of the holy family and the Assyrian god Ashur having a pine cone in the hand is worth mention. The lingam is also shown as a divine rod or a two forked stick the two forked stick represents the penis with two testicles and the Clover leaf or shamrock also represents the same. The Russian and the Greek orthodox cross is with three  cross bars, that was later the cross of the pope of the Roman church and that was also a religious symbol of Ancient Egypt and on the lids of  Sarcophagi. The Shamrock is the emblem of Trinity in Irish.
In ancient times in India there are many shrines with realistic figures of lingam where the sterile women go on pilgrimage and touch those holy images with their vulvas with the hope to conceive. Some sects in Hinduism believes that a woman who dies as virgin cannot go to the heaven (remember child marriage is predominant in those days and the widow children could not re marriage).  Such girls goes to those temples with scared stone phallus and ruptures their hymen with the belief the angles guarding the gates of heaven  will examine them and they will find that she had done her duty(coition) in earth and allow them to proceed.
                                                                                                                              (to be continued...)

Know Your English Literature Part. XIV

Far from the Madding Crowd: Novel by Thomas Hardy published in 1874. It tells the story of farmer Batheheba Everdene and her three suitos- the good hearted Gabriel Oak, the dashing Sergeant Troy and the wealthy farmer Boldwood.

 The title came from the lines in Gray’s Elegy which says of those buried in the country churchyard: ‘Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife/ their sober wishes never learned to stray.’

Gray’s Elegy: Popular name for the poem Elegy written in a country church yard by Thomas Gray. The poem begins by considering the lives of those who lie buried in the village churchyard and then turns into a meditation on death. It contains many well known lines, such as ‘full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / and waste its sweetness in the desert air’.

Hamlet: Tragedy by William Shakespeare, written around 1599-1601. Before the play opens, the king of Denmark has been murdered by his brother, Claudius who has taken the throne and married the queen, Gertrude. The ghost of the dead king visits his son, Prince Hamlet, and urges him to avenge the murder. Hamlet tormented by this revelation, appears to be mad and cruelly rejects Ophelia whom he loved. Using a troupe of visiting players to act out his father’s death the prince prompts Claudius to expose his guilt. Hamlet then kills Ophelia’s father Polonius in mistake for Claudius, and Claudius tries but fails to have Hamlet killed. Ophelia drowns herself in grief, and her brother Laertes fights a duel with Hamlet. The play ends with the death by poison of the main characters and the arrival of Fortibras, prince of Norway, who assumes control.

Hamlet’s dilemma is often seen as typical of those whose thoughtful nature prevents quick and decisive action.. Hamlet contains several fine examples of Soliloquy, such as”To be or not to be” and the Hamlet’s earlier speech lamenting his mother’s hasty remarriage and Claudius’ reign which opens ’O! that this too too solid flesh would melt’. Much quoted lines include’ neither a borrower nor a lender be’, Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’, ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’, ‘To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the nub’; ‘the lady doth protest too much, methinks’, and ‘Alas, poor Yorick’.