Delving deep

THE expression Achilles’ heel refers to a person’s most vulnerable spot. The metaphor comes from Greek mythology, in which Achilles appears as one of the most formidable heroes. The reason why he came through so many battles unscathed was largely because of his mother Thetis, who had dipped him as a baby into the magic waters of the Styx river. This made Achilles virtually invulnerable. His one weak spot remained the heel by which Thetis had held him during the dipping and which had not entered the water. During the siege of Troy Achilles’ luck ran out when, after slaying Hector, he was mortally wounded in the heel by an arrow from Paris.

To bowdlerize a play or a book is to expurgate it of words considered by its expurgator to be vulgar. The word owes its origin to Thomas Bowdler, a medical doctor who, after his retirement, published a 10-volume edition of Shakespeare in 1818.Prompted by the prudery of the age, Bowdler omitted from the volumes all the words which, in his own words, "could not with propriety be read aloud in a family". The family edition of Shakespeare was followed in 1825 by a similarly cleaned-up version of Gibbons’ Decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Even in his own day, however, much of Bowdler’s censorship was regarded as excessive and the word bowdlerize soon acquired the negative tone that it has today.

A person who pretends to be sorrowful or sympathetic is said to shed crocodile tears. Well, there actually did live such a crocodile! According to an ancient folk legend, a cunning crocodile would utter loud moans and shed tears as a ploy to allure the curious passer-by. Once within reach, the victim would be promptly seized and devoured!

Ever wondered why an eavesdropper is called so? An eavesdropper is a person who furtively listens in to private conversation, often from a hidding-place. Well, eave refers to a part of the roof, the part that projects beyond the walls and the eavesdropper would hide under that to listen in! He stood on the strip of ground adjoining the walls. Now, since this strip was called the eavesdrop or eavesdrip, the origin of the word becomes quite clear.

Tap-root

Bungalow originally meant a single-storeyed house with mud walls, a thatched roof and a garden on all sides. Such structures were common in Bengal as they remained cool in the hot, humid weather. The Mughals took this architecture to the rest of India and it came to be known as Bung (old name for Bengal) + la (belonging to), i.e. belonging to Bengal. The journey from bangla to bungalow can be easily understood.

— Deepti

This feature was published on September 11, 1999