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July 20, 2005
Vishy's Indian English Dictionary: From the Queen's English
The British may have introduced India to English, but India has since taken English and made the language its own. On an unrelated note, I think it's high time the entertainment industry in India wakes up to this fact and makes Bollywood movies in Hinglish and Mollywood movies in Tinglish. Back to the related note, despite English being a thoroughly Indian language, some words in it are direct transplants from British English. Some of these transplants have died out in British English but still endure in Indian English, to amusing effects. Without further ado, I'll simply list the words and the U.S. English equivalents. This one may be a fairly mundane entry for some, but these words deserve to be included if only for the sake of completeness.
- Inverted commas. Quotes. "As in, the first punctuation mark in this sentence."
- Lorry. Truck.
- Dustbin. Trash can.
- Visiting card. Business card.
- Maths. Mathematics, sometimes abbreviated math.
- Petrol. Fuel used in automobiles. Gasoline.
- Postman. Employee of one of the huge government monopolies.
- Zebra crossing. Pedestrian crosswalk, marked with white stripes.
- Issue. Offspring. Progeny. If a Indian priest tells a newly married you "I hope you will have many issues", don't bear him ill will. He is more than likely hoping you'll get busy soon and often.
- To bunk. To remain intentionally absent from a class. Skipping a class.
- Capsicum. Bell peppers.
- Proximo. Of the next month. "I am going to take the GREs on the 12th proximo" means you're taking them on the 12th of next month.
- Ultimo. Of the previous month. "The American Independence day was on the 4th ultimo" would be a valid statement to make in August.
Posted by Vishy at July 20, 2005 01:52 AM
Comments
Who TF says proximo and ultimo in common speech? Or even in stilted correspondence these days?
Posted by: Punya at July 26, 2005 11:17 AM