Session 41

1) Jaaahnwar!! Tumh… tumh… aaadmi ho yah… yah… jaaahnwar??(Hema Malini style)

Bovine – bovis(ox/cow)+ine(like, Similar to)
A bovine person is lacking in any strong feelings. Unlike what traditional Indian women may think, it is NOT complimentary.

Other adjectives in which humans are compared to animals :

Word – animal - root – traits – other words

Leonine – like a lion - leo – appearance/temperament
Canine – dog - canis– as in canine teeth
Feline – cat – felis - grace(complimentary)/temperament(insulting)
Porcine – pig – porcus - trait not mentioned in NL, but I guess it must be uncleanliness – pork
Vulpine – fox – vulpus - appearance/temperament (shrewd)
Ursine – bear – ursus – probably weight or shape – ursa major, ursa minor(the great bear and little bear constellations)
Lupine – wolf - lupus
Equine – horse - equus
Piscine – fish – piscis


2) Life always seems pleasanter in retrospect

Nostalgia – nostos(a return) + algos(pain)

I’m sure there is no need to explain this.


3)
Kakos – bad, harsh, ugly
Phony and optics we all know is related to sound and vision
Cacophony – harsh sounding
Cacopsis/cacoptic – eye offending


4) Main tujhaay kaccha khaaa jaaauungaaa…(yes, Dharmendra style. of course)

Carnis – flesh
Herba – herb
Omnis - all
Voro – to devour

Hence, the words carnivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous. Omnivorous actually eat everything(digestible, ie). Supposedly, only humans and rats have this kind of diet. And also some domestic cats and dogs. This can be a nice quiz question, what is common between humans and rats?
Omnivorous can be used to describe other things, like reading habits too.

Also derived from voro is voracious – devouring, hence greedy or gluttonous. It may or may not refer to food.

5) More on omnis(all)

Omnipotent – omnis + potens/potentis(powerful) - All powerful, usually used for god, or an extremely powerful ruler.
Omniscient – All knowing. I think no one can be literally omniscient, its just used for extremely wise people. Or used as, ‘You think you are omniscient? Well, you are not!’
Omnipresent – Present in all places at once. Synonym – ubiquitous – fairly common words
Omnibus – No, this has nothing to do with Maruti Omni, or may be it does. I think its' punchline was the car for your whole family? Omnibus is etymologically, ‘for all, including all’. Bus is a short form of this word, a public vehicle for all who can pay(and in Delhi, for all who can find a place to step into it). An authors’ omnibus has all his works, and other such usages.


6) More on carnis(flesh)

Carnelian – a reddish gemstone, the colour of red flesh
Carnival – season of merry making. Apparently, there was some celebration after which people(one flesh) bid farewell to each other(another flesh) by saying ‘carne vale’ or ‘oh flesh, farewell’… and so it became carnival. I wonder if NL actually makes all this up sometimes, or is all this true.
Carnal – pleasures of appetites of the flesh rather than spirit, so it is used for sensual, lecherous, lascivious, lubricious pleasures.
Carnage – great destruction of life(flesh), as in war or mass murders.
Reincarnation – To bring a soul back in another bodily form(flesh)
Incarnate – in the flesh. The Devil incarnate (devil in the flesh) had his birthday on 6.6.6.
Thus, incarnate is to give bodily form to, or make real.

7) clandestine vs surreptitious

clam – secretly

Clandestine is some abstract thing or idea which is secret, surreptitious is an undisclosed, secretly performed action or movement. Sometimes these words are used interchangeably, like clandestine meetings or surreptitious meetings.


Thats all!