“How’s your neighbour doing after the accident? Is his leg okay now?”
“According to his doctor, it will take him another two to three months to recover.”
“Wow! That’s a long time. Is he still confined to bed right now?”
“No, he is able to move around a bit. He dodders along with the help of a walker.”
“Dodders along? Does it mean to walk slowly or something?”
“The word ‘dodder’ suggests that your walk is not only slow, but also unsteady. You move like really old people do. This is just one of the meanings of the word.”
“I see. How about this example? At the park, early morning walkers often get upset with people who just dodder along.”
“That’s true. Sometimes, they accidentally knock them down. Every morning, my grandmother dodders over to the balcony and sits there for an hour.”
“After the accident, it took my friend half an hour to dodder from one end of the corridor to the other.”
To be doted on
“Are you talking about Ravi? The chap who has five cats?”
“That’s right! Ravi loves cats. He.... tell me, how do you pronounce d..o..t..e?”
“It rhymes with ‘boat’, ‘float’ and ‘coat’. Do you know what ‘dote’ means?”
“I think I do. Doesn’t it mean to be extremely fond of someone or something?”
“Very good. You like or love the person so much that you fail to see their faults.”
“In other words, you love the person blindly. You fail to be objective. You remain uncritical.”
“That’s correct. The word is usually followed by ‘on’ or ‘upon’. Here’s an example. Like most fathers, Ganesh dotes on his daughter, Nisha.”
“My friend Suresh, on the other hand, hates everyone in his family. He, however, dotes on his dogs.”
“We all have to shower our love on someone, I guess. ‘Dote’ can also be used as an adjective. Surprisingly, Chethan proved to be a very doting husband.”
“How about this example? Kohli’s doting fans waited patiently in the pouring rain to catch a glimpse of him.”
“Sounds good! Why did you cancel our dinner plans yesterday?”
“I had to take my mom to the dentist. She had a toothache. Tell me, is it ‘She had a toothache’ or ‘She had toothache’?”
“Actually, both are possible. Americans always prefer to use ‘a’. The British, on the other hand, sometimes drop the ‘a’.”
“So, is it okay to say, ‘I have headache’?”
“No, it isn’t. In the case of ‘headache’, both the British and the Americans always include ‘a’. Sandhya has a terrible headache.”
“I see. I always get a headache whenever I have to go to the dentist.”
Restlessness
“When it comes to going to the dentist, many people I know act as if they have ants in their pants.”
“Ants in their pants? What does it mean?”
“When you say that someone has ants in his pants, what you’re suggesting is that the person is very restless. He can’t sit or stand still. He’s excited or anxious about something.”
“In other words, he has excessive energy.”
“That’s right. Being a kindergarten teacher can be demanding. Most kids have ants in their pants. They can’t sit still for even two minutes.”
“I have had ants in my pants all day — waiting to hear from the company that interviewed me on Friday.”
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Some tortures are physical and some are mental. But the one that is both is dental.
Ogden Nash
The author teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. upendrankye@gmail.com
