“Sorry I’m late. The traffic was really bad today, and I had a horrible time trying to...”
“No need to explain. Tried reading this book I found on your table, and I...”
“The book on the table? Oh, you mean the ‘blook’?”
“Blook? I’ve never come across that word before.”
“It’s a combination of ‘blog’ and ‘book’. A blook is actually...”
“Let me guess. It’s a blog that’s been published as a book. It is...”
“Very good! It may not be the entire blog. Sometimes, it’s just a few selections from it.”
“This blook I’m reading is pretty bad. The author uses a lot of words I’ve never come across before. Tell me, how is ‘c..u..s..s..e..d pronounced?”
“The ‘cuss’ rhymes with ‘bus’ and ‘fuss’ and the following ‘ed’ is like the ‘id’ in ‘hid’, ‘bid’ and ‘did’. The word is pronounced ‘CUSS-id’. Any idea what it means?”
“That was my next question, actually! What does it mean? The writer talks about a cussed problem.”
“When you refer to a person as being ‘cussed’, what you’re suggesting is that he is pretty annoying. He’s stubborn and rather unreasonable. This is just one of the meanings of this informal word. Nobody wants to work with Laxman because he is plain cussed.”
“It’s very difficult to work with people who are cussed all the time. Last summer, we didn’t have power for three to four hours in the mornings. It became a cussed nuisance.”
Disapproval
“No power for four hours! I’m sure it didn’t sit right with your mother.”
“Sit right with my mother? What are you talking about? What does...”
“When someone does something and it doesn’t sit right with you, it means that you don’t approve of what he did. You’re rather unhappy. The expression can also be used to disagree with someone.”
“How about this example? I tried telling my teacher why I hadn’t done my homework. The excuse I offered, however, didn’t sit right with her.”
“That’s a good example. It’s also possible to say ‘to sit well with someone’. My sense of humour doesn’t sit well with some of my aunts and uncles.”
“That’s understandable. You don’t have a sense of humour. The idea of going to parties and staying out late doesn’t sit well with my parents.”
“It doesn’t sit right with most parents. So tell me, what do you...”
“The fact that this blook is a bestseller doesn’t sit right with me.”
“I don’t think the writer really cares what you think. Thanks to that blook, he’s got money coming out of his ears.”
“Money coming out of his ears? Does it mean he’s making a lot of money?”
“In that sentence that’s exactly what it means. When you say that ‘something is coming out of one’s ears’, it means that the person has a lot of it. The expression is mostly used in informal contexts.”
“I see. Federer and Nadal have talent coming out of their ears.”
“Very nice example. My neighbour is very inquisitive. He has questions coming out of his ears.”
“Just like you!”
* * * *
Sure, reading a book under a tree is peaceful, but imagine how stressful it is for the tree to see a bunch of its dead friends in your hand. — Kyle Lippert
The author teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. upendrankye@gmail.com
