lexicon
Rainbow of words
Deepti

During the Second World War, many lovers were separated by duty towards the country. So, love letters remained the main connection. In the fashion of lovers worldwide, many thoughts came up once the envelope was sealed. So, acronyms were coined that could be scrawled on the envelope as secret messages. Maybe today’s e-lovers can revive some that follow: ILYA or ‘I love you always, SWALK or ‘sealed with a loving kiss’ and CHINA or ‘come home, I need affection’.

Knowing a word is like making a new friend; just as you cannot make friends with a person’s CV, you can’t learn words by just reading them once. To acquire a new word, you must know: one, where and when it can be used, two, its spelling and pronunciation, three, its part of speech and forms, and four, its literal and metaphoric meaning, the kind of associations it forms, for example, negative or positive like the difference between the words ‘argument’ and ‘discussion’.

Ancient China was known by the name of the dynasty that ruled because its people would diplomatically give the name of the ruling dynasty when asked about the name of their country. This word Ch’in was Latinised by the Romans as Sina, later becoming the English ‘China’. By which time, China had become a fascinating subject for close study, hence, an expert specialising in everything Chinese is a Sinologist and not a Chinologist.

Two words that look alike are ‘classic’ and ‘classical’ but are not synonyms. The word ‘classic’ means ‘of recognised value or merit’ or ‘serving as a standard of excellence’ as in ‘a classic work on history’ or ‘a classic performance’. It can also be used as a noun in sentences like ‘the film has become a classic’. Generally speaking, ‘classic’ is also used for ‘simple and tasteful’ as in ‘the classic dress’ or ‘typical’ as in ‘classic symptoms of the disease’. ‘Classical’ is used as an adjective only for traditional forms that are distinct from modern forms as in ‘the classical language of Greek’ or ‘the classical music of the Hindustani school’.