A new wordrobe for trysexuals

It will pay to enrich your word power if you are a wannabe metrosexual trying to get in touch with your feminine side. For starters, declare yourself a trysexual -someone who likes to try everything once- and that's going to help liven up your life considerably.

Your «wordrobe» is in danger of being labeled «wack» if you still go around telling people you are «fine». F.I.N.E, in this day and age, means «F**ked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional». It's something you say about your boss, not yourself.

The English language is evolving so fast that meanderthals -slow, annoying people- are having a tough time keeping up. «Increased interface with multinationals has moved the focus from the Queen's English to global English, which is a lot more contemporary and informal,» says Chetna Bhatt, English Language Teaching consultant.

Increasingly, words are being welded together to describe situations that did not exist when Dr Johnson compiled the first English dictionary. If you have to wait longer than others at the airport baggage belt, you don't get angry, you get baggravated. If you are a celeb, you dodge the stalkerazzi -mix of stalker and paparazzi.

«Languages change every minute for them to remain effective communication tools. In the last decade, the mainstreaming of tech terms is the most notable phenomenon in the English language,» says Prof Ganesh N. Devy, linguistics scholar and author of After Amnesia, a comparative study of languages.

Since this is not mere earwitness account, it's time you gave your wordage an overhaul.


Article by Sanchita Sharma
published at Hindustan Times, New Delhi, September 19, 2004