Know your English

“Mr. P.V.S. Vasan, Mandaveli, Madras, wants to know the difference between ‘magazine’ and ‘journal’.”

“Magazines contain articles, stories, poems and other writings of general interest. They are intended for the general reader. Journals are serious in nature and deal with specialised subjects. This is a medical journal.

This library subscribes to all literary journals.”

“Mr. R. Janakiraman, R.S. Puram, Coimbatore, wants to know the pronunciation of ‘a’ in ‘classicism’.”

“It is pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘man’. The ‘a’ in ‘class’ is pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘path’.”

“Ms. G. Annapurna, Yellareddiguda, Hyderabad, wants to know the meaning of ‘dog days’.”

“The hottest period of the year is called dog days. In Europe, it is the period between July 3 and August 11. The

Romans called the hottest days Caniculares dies. They believed that

Sirius, the dog star, rising with the sun, added to its heat. Dog days are, therefore, oppressively hot. There is also a feeling that during this period dogs are likely to go mad. The ‘dog star’ is our ‘agni nakshatram’ (fire star). The hottest period varies from country to country, region to region.”

“Mr. Shanti Swaroop Verma,

Trilokpuri, Delhi, wants to know the meaning of ‘between Scylla and Charybdis’.”

“According to Greek mythology, Scylla was a female sea monster and Charybdis a whirlpool on the coast of Sicily. Scylla and Charybdis are ‘two dangers such that avoidance of one increases the risk from the other.’ If one is the frying pan, the other is fire. If you are between Scylla and Charybdis, you are between the devil and the deep sea. ‘Scylla’ is pronounced ‘sila’ and rhymes with ‘killer’. ‘Charybdis’ is pronounced ‘karibdis’; the ‘a’ like the ‘a’ in ‘India’, and the ‘y’ and the ‘i’ like the ‘i’ in ‘fit’. The stress is on the first syllable in ‘Scylla’ and on the second in ‘Charybdis’.”

“Mr. M. Venkateswaran, Laxmi Bai Nagar, New Delhi, wants to know the distinction between: haggle, higgle, hassle.”

“You haggle about or over something. When you haggle over something, you bargain over its price, terms and the like. She haggled over the price of mangoes. ‘Higgle’ is from ‘haggle’ and means the same. ‘Higglehaggle’ also means ‘to bargain’. A haggler is one who bargains much of the time. The ‘g’ in these words is pronounced like the ‘g’ in ‘get’, ‘give’. ‘Hassle’ means ‘difficulty, struggle, argument, quarrel.’

It is a real hassle for me to fill in the incometax form.

I got into a hassle with the auto driver over the fare.

Published in The Hindu on May 28, 1991.