If one goes by the media, the present era will be remembered in the future for the tremendous changes witnessed in terms of inter-gender relationships and values. What today's poor policeman faces with confusion was accepted and recognised by language long ago and, accordingly, neologisms were added to its repertoire in order to cope with these radical deviations.

A form from the Australian High Commission uses the expression 'de facto' as a part of the options given under the information asked for vis-`E0-vis marital status. Along with single, divorced, married and widowed comes de facto. Normally used as an adverb or an adjective, de facto is from Latin and denotes what is in fact or in practice the case, irrespective of what is legally or in theory, should be the case. In Latin, it means, literally, 'from the fact' and it came to English in the sixteenth century. In the late seventeenth century, people who recognised William III as the de facto king of England were popularly known as the de facto-men. De facto is used to designate someone who actually wields power, even though someone else may officially be in charge; as a contrast to de jure. Today, in Australian and New Zealand English, a de facto is a live-in lover or common-law spouse, an expression that will sooner or later be adopted by the world.

The dictionary defines bimbo as 'an attractive but unintelligent or frivolous young woman'. Originally a direct borrowing from the Italian, bimbo meant 'little child, baby'. Slang had made use of the word in the sense of an attractive girl, but other senses were in circulation before the dominant one caught on. Perhaps, today's bimbo may have had some connection with the use of 'baby' for girlfriend and may have been influenced by the rhyming 'dumbo', again slang. In the early 1920s, bimbo was used as a contemptuous term for a person of either sex. By the 1930s, it came to be used for a prostitute. Come 1980 and bimbo began to enjoy a new vogue in the media, the implication of prostitute receded into the background and the typical bimbo was more likely to 'kiss and tell'. In the 1990s, bimbo acquired derivatives: the teenage bimbo became bimbette; the male bimbo, bimboy; and an affair with a bimbo, bimbology. Of course, all in the area of slang. Further developments today are the power bimbos and the killer bimbos combining the traditional attractions of the bimbo with career success on their own terms.

All these new words can be very confusing, which this dialogue demonstrates:

"Do you know, she has joined a call centre, she goes to work at 9 pm and returns at 6 am."

"Really? Oh, I knew that so many others have joined call centres but I didn't know she has also become a call girl (!)" The conversation didn't end here, of course, but the eavesdropper was too amused to be able to eavesdrop silently any longer!

Shriman, shrimati and shrimat all emerge from the Sanskrit shri, masculine, feminine and neutral forms. In Sanskrit, these are terms of regard holding connotations of beauty, fortune, wealth and respect. This is proved through the prefix shri used before Rama, the Bhagavadgita and so on. When Hindi adopted these words, the connotations remained the same but blurred over time. Hence, today, the use of shri and shrimati, like Mr and Mrs, is merely a social obligation, mostly.

This feature was published on November 22, 2003