EH Poh Nim, I need your help. I’m supposed to come up with some fun quiz for the school’s English Week. I’ve been swamped with marking exam papers and I don’t have time to think of ideas and I’m supposed to hand in the quiz this Saturday! Give me some ideas, quick!” Shanti rattles off over the phone. 

Focus Thursday December 15, 2005   By LYDIA TEH   “Whoa, slow down. What sort of quiz are you looking at?” Eh Poh Nim asks.  “You know, fun type of questions. As long as they’re in Malayalam, they’ll do.”  “Malayalam? I thought you said it was for English Week?”  “I did, did I? Oh dear, oh dear. Must be all the Malayalam conversations I’ve been having with my aunt. She’s here on a holiday and has been staying with us for the past week. She doesn’t speak English so I have to talk to her in Malayalam. Sorry. Hello, hello, are you still there?”  Eh Poh Nim, who has been writing something on the notepad, exclaims, “Aha! I’ve got it! I’ve got what you want.”  “You have? So fast? Spill it out quick.”  “Malayalam. I did, did I? What are these words called?”  “What do you mean? You want me to write down these words? Okay, just a sec.”   Shanti grabs a piece of paper and writes down Malayalam and I did, did I.   “Spell them backwards,” instructs Eh Poh Nim.  “M-A-L-A-Y-A-L-A-M. It spells the same backwards! Palindromes! You’re a genius, Eh Poh Nim. Now you’ve got to help me come up with a quiz on palindromes. Ten questions would do. Please, pretty please?”  Shanti sounds so desperate that Eh Poh Nim doesn’t have the heart to turn her down. She has two hours before Desperate Housewives comes on, so she sits down at the computer to crank something up for Shanti. By 10.30, she has this quiz neatly typed up:  FUN WITH PALINDROMES  Palindromes are words that are the same spelt backwards. Some examples:  Don’t nod. I did, did I? A nut for a jar of tuna. Now, fill in the blanks with palindromes.  Ignore spaces and punctuation marks.  1. A straw full of moles is called _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.  2. When Father Christmas makes an appearance at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the newspaper headline may well read “ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.”  3. The class teacher announced that everyone but Delia has passed the exam. She said, “_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.”  4. The clumsy doctor’s nickname is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.  5. The headmistress asks Adam, “What’s your name, boy?” Adam replies, “_ _ _ _ _ _’_ _ _ _ _.”  6. If someone commits murder in order to steal a jar of red rum, the headline may well read, “_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.”  7. Linda tries to exchange some papayas for a rock melon with the fruit seller. However, he only wants to exchange it for lemons, not papayas. He says, “Sorry, Miss. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, _ _ _ _ _ _ _.”  8. The unique pet shop has little creatures like white mice and hamsters running loose all over the floor. It has a sign on the door that says, “_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.”  9. If you’re extremely short-sighted and can’t make out whether it was a car or a cat you just saw, you might ask, “ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?”  10. At the coffeeshop, the wonton mee seller asks, “Would you like some wontons?” You don’t feel like eating them at the moment, so you say, “_ _ _ _ _ _ _? _ _ _ _ _ _.”  Answers to Palindrome Quiz  1. Straw warts 2. A Santa at NASA 3. Delia failed 4. Dr Awkward 5. Madam I’m Adam 6. Murder for a jar of red rum 7. No lemons, no melon 8. Step on no pets 9. Was it a car or a cat I saw? 10. Wontons? Not now

IS a sentence like this correct: Two Italian and one Japanese drivers will be competing in the motor race. 

Should it be “drivers” or “driver”? – Reader 

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Friday December 9, 2005

By FADZILAH AMIN

It should be “drivers” because it’s an “and”, not an “or” construction, and there are three drivers in all. However, the sentence sounds awkward. It could be restructured in the following way: 

“One Japanese driver and two Italian ones will be competing in the motor race.” 

Chairmen of faculty boards 

WITH reference to your explanation of Nov 25, I’d like to ask: If the plural for “head of state” is “heads of state”, why is it “chairmen of faculty boards” (not “board”)? – LHY 

It does not seem logical that the plural of “head of state” is not “heads of states” but “heads of state”, as if all the heads rule over one state. But that is the plural form most commonly used for “head of state” and that some dictionaries record (e.g. Concise Oxford, Oxford Advanced Learner’s). The plural may be in that form because the whole phrase is a title and the plural form has been sanctioned by usage, not logic. 

“Chairmen of faculty boards” seems perfectly logical to me. Each chairman chairs a different faculty board, and so the chairmen are referred to in the plural as “chairmen of faculty boards”. Nobody ever says “chairmen of faculty board”: I tried finding the phrase on the Internet and drew a blank, but there were many sites with “chairmen of faculty boards”.  

If English was a perfectly logical language, it would be spelt phonetically and there won’t be irregular verbs or irregular plural nouns. But languages are man-made and human beings are not perfectly logical creatures! 

Trains do terminate 

I WAS on board the KLIA Express recently and I couldn’t help noticing and wondering about a word used in their announcement. 

At the end of the journey, when passengers were about to disembark, there was an announcement which sounded something like this: 

“All passengers are requested to remove their belongings as the train has terminated.”  

Is that word technically correct? How could a train terminate? In layman’s terms, “terminate” means finish or end. 

Could you clarify? – Penangite 

I answered a very similar question to yours a few months ago regarding the word “terminate” in the announcements of the KLIA Express. Let me reproduce my answer below: 

It is correct to say that the KLIA Express or any train terminates at a certain station. This sort of sentence can be heard in all the announcements in London Underground trains, e.g. “This train terminates at Walthamstow”, meaning that Walthamstow is the terminus of that particular train.  

When a train or bus “terminates” at a certain station, it means that it ends its journey there. 

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005), in its second definition of “terminate”, says: “(of a bus or train) to end a journey/trip” and gives the following example of the use of the word in that sense: “This train terminates at London Victoria.”

One of the basic difficulties in English is identifying if a noun is countable or uncountable and this is important in how you use it. 

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Wednesday December 7, 2005

By GUY PERRING

For example, the word information is uncountable, and therefore you cannot talk about two informations. If you do feel the urge to count information, then you need a counter such as two pieces of information or three bits of information.  

Further examples of uncountable nouns in common use are software, accommodation, travel and work.  

Uncountable nouns take the singular form of the verb so 揟ravel broadens the mind?and 揥ork saves us from boredom and need?(notice the s at the end of the verbs).  

Look at the following six sentences and decide if the nouns are countable or uncountable. 

Coffee tastes better when the beans are freshly ground. 

He picked up his suitcase from the airport carousel. 

There wasn抰 any paper in the photocopier. 

Fortunately, the flood didn抰 cause much damage. 

He doesn抰 have many friends. 

Luggage gets heavier as families get older. 

The above also illustrate a few more guidelines regarding countable and uncountable nouns.  

I’m a great supporter of Basic English. It refers to the name given by C.K. Ogden in 1929 to a simplified form of the English language that he invented, with a select vocabulary of 850 words.  

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Thursday December 1, 2005

By RALPH BERRY

Syntax was also simplified. But the system ran into criticism. Well, of course, restriction is difficult. Any writer knows that it’s easier to write 2,000 words on a given subject than 1,000. Besides, the language moves on, both vocabulary and syntax. When television and internet come into being, words have to be found for them. No straitjacket invented 76 years ago can hold English down. Yet Basic English, if not exactly as Ogden framed it, is the heart and soul of the language.  

English came out of the Norman Conquest of 1066. The victorious Normans imposed their language, Norman-French, on the land. Theirs was the language of Government, Law, the aristocracy. Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) stayed with the defeated masses. But just as the people, Norman and English, intermarried, so did the languages.  

English expanded at the expense of French, and French became an optional extra rather than the indispensable language of the ruling class. Middle English assimilated what it could of French, and gradually asserted its rights even in the law-courts, where French had to give way.  

The character of the English language became stabilised as a meeting of two languages, Norman-French and Old English. What we have today is a fusion. And yet this fusion is not perfect. Basic English honours Old English.  

Our present-day English is grounded on those 850 words. You can add any number of later arrivals, like garage and automobile. You have to put the car somewhere. You have to put petrol in it. But the basic vocabulary comes from the words that King Harold knew.  

I’ve been looking at a key proof, the Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare. This is computer-driven, and sets out to print every word in Shakespeare in the context of every line in which it occurs. Obviously, this would be insane if taken to extremes – every line in which a occurs! So the editor decided to cut out the first 43 words in order of frequency in Shakespeare, and begin with the 44th.  

You won’t want me to list those 43 words. They are ordinary and dull. I’ll simply name the first three – the, and, I – and the last three, our, on, now. They are the foundation to everything. Every one of those 43 words would have been used, a thousand years ago. Harold could not do without them, nor could Shakespeare, nor can we. 

But what of today? I give you the successor and heir to Basic English: Plain English. 

That word plain is the key. The Oxford Concise gives “Clear, evident; simple, readily understood”, as in plain English. This is not a system, nor is it restricted to a certain number of words. It is rather a way of using the language, and of thinking about it.  

The guidelines were well put by President Clinton, in a memorandum issued during his Presidency: “Plain language in Government Writing” (1998). Government servants were advised to use 

Common, everyday words except for necessary technical terms  

‘You’ and other pronouns 

active voice 

short sentences 

This memorandum lapsed with the end of the Clinton Presidency, but it remains a benchmark. The advice it gives is excellent. To take one point alone, “common, everyday words” are the hallmark of good writing.  

For example, I found that I had drafted the words “originated from”, and then, after a moment’s thought, I changed to “came from”. That is simpler, means almost exactly the same, and is better.  

What is the enemy of Plain English? At one time, the answer would have been “Latin”, and the attempt of writers to gain status from Latinate words.  

These days, the enemy is bureaucratic English. It is the language of spin doctors, Government publicity agents, lawyers, civil servants. Know your enemy.

Eh Poh Nim parks her car and makes her way towards the public library. As she passes by the locker area to the left of the entrance, she hears someone talking loudly.  

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Wednesday November 30, 2005

By LYDIA TEH

“You’re a hopeless bibliobibuli!” a male voice says. 

She stops in her tracks. Bibliobibuli! That’s a person after her own heart. 

“Will you please get a grip on yourself? Look at this stack of books! How are you going to find time for me if you’re going to devour all these books during the weekend?” the voice continues. 

“So what if I’m a bibliobibuli, huh? You knew from the start that I’ve always read too much and you said you could handle this habit of mine. Now you want to change me?” a female voice replies. 

Eh Poh Nim creeps towards the locker area and peeps in. A young woman is standing with arms akimbo in front of the locker. With her hands on her hips and her elbows sticking out, she glares at the young man holding a stack of books in his arms. 

“Didn’t you try to change me too? Remember Linkin Park’s concert? You tried to stop me from moshing!” the man says. 

“That’s different. All that mosh was really mushing up my brain!” 

Eh Poh Nim’s ears prick up like a dog detecting an unusual sound. Mosh – that’s a new word. She must brave the crossfire to find out the meaning of this strange word. 

“Er ... excuse me, miss. Sorry but I couldn’t help overhearing what you said. May I ask the meaning of mosh?” Eh Poh Nim asks. 

“Ask Darren! He should know!” She glares at Darren, then continues, “Mosh is to dance to rock music in a frenzied way with other crazy fans.”  

“We’re not crazy! You’d better watch your tongue, Amy,” Darren says. 

“I shall say what I like. Moshing at rock concerts is a waste of money!”  

“How dare you say that! We mosh at rock concerts because we’re passionate about rock. It’s not a waste of money. Your reading addiction is. You bust your bank account every month buying new books,” Darren says. 

“Books aren’t a waste of money! Reading expands the mind and increases knowledge. For example, do you know what bodewash is? See, you don’t. Thanks to reading, I do. It’s dried buffalo dung, used as fuel for fire.”  

“So what if you know what bodewash is and I don’t. You’re not going to use it for barbeque, are you?” Darren shoots back. 

Eh Poh Nim weighs her options. Should she back off and let these two fight it out or should she try to arbitrate? She can’t let a fellow bibliobibuli have a lover’s tiff. She’s been there and done that and she knows the heartache that follows. She decides to jump in at her own peril. 

“Amy and Darren, listen to me.”  

The feuding couple turn to look at Eh Poh Nim. 

“If you guys want to have a donnybrook, I suggest you do it in the privacy of your home. A library is not the place for a heated public dispute,” Eh Poh Nim says. 

“Excuse me. We were having a private discussion until you butted in. It’s none of your business,” Darren says. 

“Yeah, but your argument was loud enough to be heard by everyone in the building. Even if my ears were stuffed full of cerumen, I’d still be able to hear it,” Eh Poh Nim says. 

“What’s cerumen?” Darren asks. 

“It’s another word for earwax,” Amy says. “She’s a show-off popinjay and a busybody to boot.” 

“I’m not talkative and conceited!” Eh Poh Nim protests angrily.  

“There she goes again. Showing off her knowledge of words. Do you know the meaning of kibitz?” Amy asks. 

“To offer unwelcome advice,” Eh Poh Nim replies quickly, then wishes she hadn’t. 

“That’s what you’re doing. Kibitz,” Amy says. 

“For your information, ‘kibitz’ is usually used in the context of a card game,” says Eh Poh Nim. 

“Whatever. I need to go to the biffy to puke, Darren,” Amy says. Seeing the blank look on his face, she adds, “Let’s go to the toilet where I can throw up and then we can continue our argument in private away from pokey noses.” 

“Just a sec,” Darren says as he puts the books into a plastic bag. Then he pulls Amy towards him and drapes his arm around her shoulders. 

“Goodbye, popinjay,” Amy says as they walk off arm-in-arm like Siamese twins. 

Eh Poh Nim pulls a face. She can’t stand the mawkish display of affection. It’s overly sentimental. Well, her strategy has worked but she feels maligned. Is she a popinjay? Of course not. She gives herself a mental shake and strides into the library for a dose of quiet bliss. 

Lydia Teh is the author of Life’s Like That – Scenes from Malaysian Life, available at major bookstores.

Could you please enlighten me on the meaning of “Smart Casual”, the dress code that we find on invitation cards to certain events? 

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Friday November 25, 2005

By FADZILAH AMIN

My perception of its meaning is: no jeans or T-shirts. And yet, I sometimes see people turning up in jeans and T-shirts. – Cecilia 

This term is fairly new, and even the comprehensive Oxford English Dictionary online has only added it to its entries in 2004, and only as a draft entry. It defines “smart casual” as “designating or characteristic of (a style of) dress which is informal yet smart, esp. smart enough to conform to a particular dress code”.  

The perception of “smart casual” varies with different countries and different circles. It depends on what is considered “smart” in a particular country or circle, and what is considered “casual” there.  

In urban Malaysia, I imagine that for men, it would be shirts (including batik shirts and traditional tops like kurtas), trousers and shoes, and perhaps a sports jacket (in an air-conditioned venue), i.e. no T-shirts, ties, suits, and slippers (except for traditional ones like capals). Polo shirts, jeans and smart sandals may be considered acceptable by some, as long as the jeans are not torn and tattered, but may not be considered acceptable by others. 

For women, I imagine “smart casual” to mean dresses, trouser suits, traditional clothes like baju kurung, kebaya, kebarung, shalwar kameez, saris and shoes or ‘dressy’ sandals and slippers.  

I’m not sure if the cheongsam is considered casual enough and whether jeans worn with a shirt or jacket would qualify as “smart casual” for women in Malaysia. 

The rule is, when in doubt, err on the “smart” side rather than on the “casual” side.  

It would be interesting to hear from readers who are more fashion-savvy than I am, or who actually issue those invitations that say “smart casual” as the dress code. 

Can you say ‘straighter’?  

The word “straighter” in an advertisement caught my eye (see above). It appears in the sentence: “Straighter is shorter as well as faster in many cases.”  

When a road or a particular route is straight, it makes no sense that there is a straighter road or route. Straight is straight, there are no two ways about it.  

But after giving the matter a bit more thought and taking into account the context in which it is used, I gather that what the ad is trying to convey is that although there are two straight routes to a certain destination, theirs is the shorter one. Does it make sense? – Pola Singh 

The adjective “straight” does have comparative and superlative forms, i.e. “straighter” and “straightest”.  

There are degrees of straightness even in highways. Isn’t it true that highways are not built dead straight nowadays, so that motorists and motorcyclists won’t get bored and drowsy?  

As for routes to a certain place, surely we talk about “a direct route” or “a more direct route” to a place, rather than “a straight/straighter route”? 

How to write essays?  

I’m sitting my SPM this year. And I’d like to know how I could do well in my Paper 1 (essay) because my marks seem to be always getting lower for whatever essay I write.  

Can you teach me how to write, use correct words and tenses? My teacher says my essays are written as if I’m talking to people. Is that a problem, and why? – Poh, Klang 

During the school holidays, you can spend your time reading novels, newspapers, or whatever else you like to read. Then you can see how people actually write good English and your English will improve. 

You must also practise writing English in a more formal way, not the way you speak.  

Try and write some essays on your own. I can’t teach you to write, and use the correct words and tenses through this column. What you need is to get a dictionary and a grammar book. Refer to the dictionary when you don’t know the meaning of a word that you read, and refer to the grammar book when you are not sure what tenses to use.  

Also, if you can afford it, you should try to get an English tutor or go to a tuition class to get more help in your writing.  

Please write again if there is something else you want to ask. 

With deepest sympathy/sympathies  

I am confused about the following: 

a) With deepest sympathy and condolences – I wonder why sometimes the plural “sympathies” is used and not at all times. 

b) Head of Departments – why it is not “heads of departments”? – C.A. Ooi 

a) According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005), “sympathies” in that context is more formal than “sympathy”. 

b) “Heads of department” is the correct plural form, just as “heads of state” is the correct plural form of “head of state”. 

Below are examples of the use of this plural form: one from an Oxford University website and the other from Sheffield University: 

“Heads of department and chairmen of faculty boards” http://www.learning.ox.ac.uk/iaul/ IAUL+2+6+main.asp 

“Support for Heads of Department” http://www.shef.ac.uk/sheffield/jsp/ polopoly.jsp?a=22208&d=3271

Thanks to MOE’s effectiveness in promoting good English, I hardly see any newspaper these days misusing “premise” as a singular of “premises”.  

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Thursday November 24, 2005

Radio announcers are now pronouncing “bombers” and “bombings” correctly as “BOMmers” and “BOMmings”, respectively.  

I’m now careful about not saying “someone’s off-day” when I mean “it’s his day off”. Your readers are now more aware and pointing out in ‘Boob Watch’ that it should be “salon” and not “saloon”. 

Speaking of which, do you remember your reader pointing out Light & Easy’s Thompson Activated Ginkgo (another word commonly misspelt as “gingko”) ad misusing “saloon” instead of “salon” (July 27)?  

He pointed out in jest, but wrongly, that the mother’s tiredness was because she was a boozer; actually, it’s the DAUGHTER who’s the boozer, because the mother told the latter where to buy the product that she’d bought for grandma to take (but, strangely, not for herself; whether or not she was using grandma as a guinea pig first, I’m not sure), by answering her daughter’s query, “Mom, where can I buy it?” with “You know, next to the saloon (sic) you always go to!”  

The downside to what you’re trying to do through ‘Boob Watch’ is when the perpetrators of these boobs do nothing about them. Worse, they continue making the same error(s).  

Take Light & Easy’s abovementioned ad, for instance. After MOE’s pointing out their mistake (incidentally, prior to your publication of this error, I had also e-mailed them about it), the radio station continued to air the same ad, uncorrected.  

Likewise, after MOE’s publishing my feedback on the wrong word “accomplice” used in TNB’s ad, and after TNB’s acknowledging my feedback through MOE, the same full-page ad – with the “accomplice” still uncorrected – appeared in yet another issue of the New Straits Times later!  

Nevertheless, the positive benefits to the country from MOE’s efforts far outweigh the downsides. Keep up the good work! – Richard 

‘Vineyard’ pronunciation 

This is in regard to the pronunciations of “vineyard” offered by LP and Fadzilah Amin (Nov 17).  

Neither is correct. “Vineyard” is pronounced “vinyahd” or “viny’d”. That is to say that the ‘r’ in “yard” is silent or the second syllable is truncated so that there is virtually no vowel sound between the ‘y’ and the ‘d’.  

There certainly is no sound like the ‘e’ in “moment”. – Stewart West, Kajang

Do you know how many words are borrowed in English ?

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Thursday November 24, 2005

List of adopted words

I refer to siang buaya’s question on how many English words were adopted from other languages (Nov 17). 

Krysstal.com lists about 2,000 words borrowed from over 130 languages: http://www.krysstal.com/borrow.html – J. Tan 

The Beatles covered Buddy Holly’s Words of Love and Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven, while 3,000 entertainers covered the Beatles’ song Yesterday. Peter, Paul and Mary covered Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind, and Soft Cell covered Gloria Jones’ Tainted Love.  

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Thursday November 24, 2005

By WILLIAM SAFIRE

I uncover extended meanings in our lexicon with the fervour of a recovering undercover journalist covering cover-ups for a cover story and have discovered that in the pop-music world, another sense of “cover”, noun and verb, ranges over much of what we hear.  

“A cover is an artist doing a version of another artist’s original song,” says Joe Levy, an editor at Rolling Stone magazine.  

In olden times – three generations ago – the singer who first popularised the song was often resentful of a younger or more famous singer who revived it; for example, at the Cotton Club in Harlem in 1933, Ethel Waters became identified with Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s Stormy Weather and was not happy when the young Lena Horne revisited it in a movie with that title a decade later and seemed to make it her own.  

Such discomfort largely ebbed in the 1960s, when artists began writing their own songs. “Dylan and the Beatles inspired people to write and sing their own songs,” Levy recalls. “Nobody expected Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra to write a good song. Cover came along in the early 60s with the singer-songwriter.”  

Most were pleased with other singers’ cover versions – recordings of their works, now clipped to covers. At the start, the covers were often bowdlerised; Georgia Gibbs (“Her nibs, Miss Gibbs”) changed Hank Ballard’s Work With Me, Annie and Etta James’s retort, The Wallflower, to Dance With Me, Henry.  

Now a singer frequently covers a song twice removed from the writer, a technique Lena Horne pioneered. Dionne Warwick first recorded “Wishin’ and Hopin’”, but it was Dusty Springfield’s subsequent cover version of the song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David that became the big hit.  

“Cover version still hasn’t quite transcended its purloinious (is that a word?) roots,” says Rob Hoerburger, a former music critic at Rolling Stone. “Rock critics, who usually champion the writer’s aesthetic, still use the term with mild derision, though I’m sure songwriters like Dylan and Carole King – whose You’ve Got a Friend was a hit for James Taylor – are only too happy to have the royalties that the cover versions have accrued for them.”  

As artists reinterpret original works, they risk derision that is not always mild. A Michigan critic sent me this excerpt from his review: “He covers these songs in much the same way as a stud horse is said to ‘cover’ a brood mare.”  

The singer Bono was described by Glenn Gamboa as a “lover and fighter, gadfly and peacemaker, politician and preacher and, oh, yeah, front man for the best rock band around today”.  

One sense of “front” has a sinister connotation: A Communist front was a cover, in its non-musical usage, for subversive activities. But as far back as 1936, American Speech quarterly defined front man as “the leader of the band”.  

Today that term – along with front woman – means “main attraction of the group.”

Language is so much more than words printed in a book. It’s an audio-visual medium. There’s a pleasure in pronouncing words when they rhyme or sound similar – pitter-patter, boogie-woogie.  

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Wednesday November 23, 2005

By HASMITA CHANDER

If there’s an uproar about something, it’s fun to describe it as “a big hoo-ha”. 

One park nearby that is favoured by romantic couples has a signboard that clearly states its views: “No hanky-panky on the premises!”  

When your domestic help fails to arrive for work, you end up willy-nilly doing the housework yourself – whether you want to or not. This may have originated in Old and Middle English “will ye, nill ye” where “nill” meant the opposite of “will”.  

Talking about willies, I recently came across willy-willy which means a whirlwind or a dust storm. The root is from an aboriginal language in Australia. 

Many paired words seem to have a “little of this, a little of that” meaning that started from a casual usage and then became an accepted part of English. Hodgepodge is an alteration of hotchpotch, which is similar to mishmash – a confused mixture. 

“The show put up by the residents of the apartment complex was a hodgepodge of fancy dress, song and dance, skits and joke-telling.” 

Wishy-washy has nothing to do with wishing or washing – it means unable to make up one’s mind. “That fellow is so wishy-washy about marrying my daughter, I don’t know what kind of a husband he will make for her!”  

A two-wheeler can zigzag through traffic.  

People ran helter-skelter when they felt the tremors.  

This is a pretty box to keep all your knickknacks in – your bric-a-brac. 

Some paired words are linked by sound. Poems are predictably read aloud in a singsong manner – la-LA-la-LA-la-LA-la-LA. The common rubber slippers are called flip-flops because of the sound they make as you walk in them. Table tennis is called Ping-Pong after the sound of the ball being played and was adopted as a trademark for table tennis equipment. 

And then there are those that are linked visually, most meaning, in some way, up and down. Seesaw is up and down motion in the game children play and it is also an adjective for anything that behaves that way – emotions can seesaw, so can prices.  

Teeter-totter is a synonym of “seesaw”.  

Upside down: “Our new puppy turned our home topsy-turvy within the hour we left him at home alone.” 

Believed to have its roots in the Philippines, yo-yo is also something that goes up and down. To yo-yo is to vacillate.  

Other words come from assorted origins. A hillbilly is a disapproving name, of American origin, for a person who lives in a backwoods area, away from towns and cities – from “hill Billy (William)”.  

“Chong thinks he’ll be popular if he hobnobs with the who’s who of the city.” To hobnob is to socialise. The word arrives from the Old English meaning of buying alternate rounds of drinks at a public house. 

The candied tutti-frutti comes from the Italian meaning “all fruits”.  

“My boss is so hoity-toity, it’s no wonder few people like her.” To be hoity-toity is to behave in a silly manner, assuming more importance than necessary. 

“My grandmother plants her seeds and bulbs higgledy-piggledy, so her garden looks untidy even though it produces all kinds of vegetables and flowers.”  

Ain’t it fun getting into the nitty-gritty of this wonderful English language?