This fortnightly feature was published on August 22

Young words

JOHN AYTO in his introduction of The Longman Register of New Words refers to ‘the never-finished jigsaw of the English Language.’ A graphic account of the prolific growth of English vocabulary indeed! Every year, new words are added on. Created, blended, broken up or borrowed from other languages — what does it matter ? The fact remains that every time you pick up a newspaper, magazine or book, you add some new items to the vocabulary. And this introduction of new words and of new meanings to old ones, reflects developments and innovations in the world at large and in society.

The word adultify reflects the single-child trend of society and the all-round shortening of childhood. Adultify is a verb; ‘to cause a child to take on adult, behavioural features prematurely.’ In society, as the age of physiological puberty falls, more and more children grow up without siblings and are thrust into the rat-race too early, they start exhibiting adult behaviour too early.

Earlier, an air crash was an air crash and an averted air crash was called so. But now, with the ever-increasing volume of air traffic the noun airmiss has come into being; probably coming from near miss it refers to a near-collision of two aircraft in flight.

In the world of takeover bids, synergy as a vogue word has caught on. Synergy is the potentiality of two individual organisations to be more successful, efficient and productive when joined together than either of them had been on its own. And in all cases synergy may not result. If joined together, two individual organisations are less successful or efficient than when they were solitary, the combination radiates dysergy and not synergy.

When computers hit the scene, hands-on emerged as an adjective used in relation to computer-training, when opportunities to learn sitting down at the keyboard and actually getting one’s hands on it were a hands-on experience. By and by, a number of new applications began to develop; practical experience in a job led to a hands-on job. In hands-on management executives are expected to get involved in the business at all levels, including the production process itself. The opposite policy, in which managers interfere as little as possible and give their subordinates maximum room for manoeuvre is called hands-off management. The expression has been taken up by museums in a more literal way, where experimental learning is encouraged by letting visitors handle and use the exhibits. Hands-on is applied in a wide variety of different contexts to direct, practical participation.

Tap-root

Words in Hindi are constantly contracting and expanding in meaning, giving rise to lexical births and deaths. The word sabzi, for instance, was used only for green vegetables like spinach, lady finger, peas and fenugreek. Today, we use the word for all vegetables whether red tomatoes, purple brinjals, white radish or green coriander. Then, Shradhh was any deed or work done with devotion or shradhha, whereas now it has contracted to a ceremony conducted on the death anniversary of an ancestor.

— Deepti