Know your English
“Plausible (C. S. Kamini, Thiruvananthapuram)”
“It means ‘apparently fair, reasonable or valid but often specious’. It also means ‘appearing worthy of belief, convincing’. It is a plausible argument.
Whether it has a positive or a negative connotation depends on the context. When used of a person, it always has a negative connotation. ‘He is a plausible salesman’ means he is persuasive but deceptive.
He is a plausible liar.”
“Archive or archives? (L. Panigrahi, Bhopal)”
“An archive is (a) ‘a collection of public or corporate documents or records,’ (b) ‘the place where these are kept’. It is generally used in the plural.
He goes to the National Archives almost every day.
We have a State Archives in the city. The rst ‘a’ is pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘path,’ ‘ch’ as ‘k’; ‘chives’ rhymes with ‘dives.’ In ‘archivist,’ the two ‘i’s are pronounced like the ‘i’ in ‘bit.’”
“Careless, carefree (S. K. Shah, Nagpur)”
“A careless person is one who does not pay attention.
He is not careful.
A carefree person is one who is free from cares and anxiety.
She is a careless driver. Everyone wants to be carefree, but only a few are.
‘Careworn’ means ‘showing the eects of grief or anxiety.’
He used to be cheerful, but these days he looks careworn.
This is a beautiful painting of a careworn face.”
“Spoils of oce (C. Ram Mohun, Vijayawada)”
“‘Spoils’ here means ‘public oces made the property of a victorious party in an election.’ ‘Spoils system’ is a ‘system by which important public positions are given to supporters of the political party that wins power.’ The system is American in origin. It was Senator Marcy who in 1831 popularised the phrase ‘to the victor belongs the spoils.’ One of the meanings of ‘spoils’ is ‘plunder taken from an enemy in war, loot’.” “Economic crunch (A. S. Shanmugam)” “‘Crunch’ means ‘to chew, press or grind with a noisy crushing sound.’
He crunches apples and cashew nuts while watching TV.
When it is used as a noun, it means ‘the act or sound of crunching.’ In informal English, it means ‘a showdown, a tight situation, speci cally an economic squeeze.’”
“The Prime Minister said on Aug. 27, 1991 that the aim of the Government was to ensure that an increasing number of Indians got good things, increase in income and improvements in the overall life standards.’ Is the expression life standards correct? (V. S. Murugan, Palayamkottai)”
“I have not come across ‘life standards.’ Perhaps the Prime Minister meant ‘living standard’ or ‘standard of living.’”
Published in The Hindu on September 24, 1991.