Know your English
“Devil’s advocate (A. Pradhan, Bombay)”
“A devil’s advocate is not one who tries to tell you that a bad thing is really good. He/she is one who gives the negative side of a case for the sake of argument. The expression is derived from the custom in the Roman Catholic Church which appoints an advocates diaboli to argue the case against a person proposed for canonisation. The idea is to know all about the person. Both sides of the case are presented before a decision is taken. So a devil’s advocate is ‘one who tests a proposition by arguing against it.’ Canonise’ means ‘ocially’ declare someone to be a saint.”
“Send about his business. (K. Lakshmi, Ramagundam)”
“‘To send someone about his business’ means ‘to dismiss with or without force.’ When you do not want someone to interfere in your aairs, you ask him to mind his business. Later you may tell others that you sent him about his business. One of the recent meanings of ‘send’ is ‘aect emotionally, put into ecstasy.’
This kind of music sends me.
The very name of Rama sends him.
One of the meanings of ‘send up’ is to ‘satirise or ridicule, especially by mimicking.’
These plays send up politicians and Ministers.
‘Send-up’ is noun. It means ‘a satire or parody.’
It was a hilarious send-up about society.
‘Send up’ and ‘send-up’ are colloquial expressions.”
“Rustle up a meal. (A.R. Kale, Nagpur)” “‘Rustle’ has several meanings. ‘Rustle up’ means ‘to produce quickly when needed.’
Please wait. I’ll rustle up a meal for you. I managed to rustle up some volunteers to distribute the invitations to the meeting.
‘Rustle up’ is a colloquial idiom.” “Arrivisti (S. K. Kumar, Warangal)”
“It is a French term used in English to mean ‘an ambitious or ruthlessly self-seeking person.’ The ‘a’ is pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘sat,’ the second and third ‘i’s like the ‘ea’ in ‘seat,’ the nal ‘i’ is silent. The stress is on the third syllable. It is a formal word.”
“Pig It (K. L Saxena, Lucknow)”
“‘Pig it’ or ‘pig together’ means ‘to live in squalor, to live in a disorderly, untidy, lthy fashion.’
It is an idiom. There are ten in a room and they pig it.”
“Caught and bowled.”
“The emphasis is not on the sequence of events but the way a batsman gets out, because the action of ‘bowling’ is always there whether one gets out or not. So it is appropriate to indicate rst how a batsman got out — caught, stumped, lbw, etc. Secondly, when the bowler himself catches the ball, it is not necessary to repeat his name twice and it is customary to say ‘caught and bowled’.” (D.K.S. Moorthy, Madras).
It is like ‘forget and forgive’ and not the other way. The stress is on the importance of action and not on the sequence of action.”
Published in The Hindu on November 26, 1991.