WORD: Teepoy

Teepoy

noun

a small three-legged table or stand

What is the origin of teapoy?

Teapoy “a small three-legged table or stand” is adapted from Hindi tīpāi, with a spelling change likely because of the association with tea. Hindi tīpāi, however, is not related to tea; instead, tīpāi comes from Persian sipāya “three-legged stand.” The phonetic change from Persian s to Hindi t is due to a replacement of the Persian word for “three” with its Hindi cognate tīn, while the instrument sitar “a lute with a small, pear-shaped body” preserves this Persian numeral. Sipāya is a compound of Persian sē “three” and pāy “foot,” which are distant relatives of English three and foot, Latin trēs and pēs, Ancient Greek treîs and poús, and Sanskrit trí and pád. Teapoy was first recorded in English in the 1820s.

How is teapoy used?

Infront of the fireplace were placed three cane stools with a long, low, mahogany teapoy. Richard often sat there, his pipe in hand and browsed through his books and ancient manuscripts. … On the long teapoy lay half-open books and periodicals. At one end of it stood a pipe stand with half a dozen pipes of different shapes and sizes hanging in it. The round lampshade over the teapoy had been so arranged that, switched on, the light fell only on the three cane stools and the teapoy, leaving the rest of the room in semi-darkness.

​Khushwant Singh, Memories of Madness: Stories of 1947, 2002

There was a small wooden teapoy near the sofa, with an embroidered cross stitch tablecloth on it, with designs of Mistress Mary, quite contrary, watering her flowerbeds. Naomi had done it for her craft class in the ninth standard. A beautiful crystal vase, filled with wilting red roses stood on the teapoy. There were faded yellow half-curtains for the windows strung on taut springs. But the windows were shut.

Elizabeth Kottarem, “A Treat for the Orphans,” Mehbub Gulley: Short Stories from India, 2014

WORD: Sanguivorous

SANGUIVOROUS 

(adjective) feeding on blood, as a bat or insect.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF SANGUIVOROUS?

Sanguivorous “feeding on blood” is a compound of the combining forms sangui- “blood” and -vorous “devouring.” Sangui- derives from Latin sanguis, of the same meaning, but the story does not stop there. Continuing a common pattern in the Indo-European language family, the Romans had two words for “blood”—sanguis and cruor—and while sanguis implicitly referred to blood inside the body, cruor referred to blood outside the body, particularly in violent contexts. In this way, it should come as little surprise that cruor is distantly related to English raw (Old English hrēaw) and Ancient Greek kréas “raw flesh,” while sanguis may be a compound of the Proto-Indo-European roots for “blood” and “to pour.” While cruor survives today to some extent in modern Romance languages, it is sanguis that serves as the root of most Romance words for “blood,” such as French sang, Italian/Portuguese sangue, and Spanish sangre. Sanguivorous was first recorded in English in the mid-1800s.

HOW IS SANGUIVOROUS USED?

“In humans, anaphylactic shock can be fatal; in sanguivores, it’s less dangerous but still extraordinarily unpleasant. Garlic is to you as peanuts are to your cousin; I cannot overemphasize the importance of this—and it’s not just garlic, it’s several other members of the allium family to lesser extents .… Sanguivore just means ‘eater of blood’ .… The older term was hemophagous, but these days, all creatures who feed on blood are known as sanguivorous.”

 

Vivian Shaw, Dreadful Company, 2018

Only three mammalian species are sanguivorous—that’s blood feeding—and they are all bats. Blood, apparently, is not that nutritious. It has almost no carbs, fats, or vitamins; its high iron levels can disrupt heart, liver, and pancreas function; its obscenely high protein and salt levels can cause renal disease if nitrogenous waste products build up. It contains pathogens. It clots. Vampire bats have some obvious adaptations to allow them to survive on their limited and macabre diet.

Diana Gitig, "Gut Bacteria Key to the Vampire Bat’s Ability to Survive on Blood," Ars Technica, March 1, 2018

‘We can still unlearn’: Food blogger urges people to stop calling all Indian dishes ‘curry'.

"There's a saying that the food in India changes every 100km and yet we're still using this umbrella term popularised by white people who couldn't be bothered to learn the actual names of our dishes," blogger Chaheti Bansal said

August 11, 2021 

The food blogger said that that while she did not want the word "curry" to be cancelled entirely, there needed to be an end to its use by "people who don't know what it means". (Source: pixabay)

In a viral Instagram post, Indian-American blogger Chaheti Bansal called on people to “cancel the word ‘curry'”, deemed a universal term for Indian dishes in the West.

In a recipe video for Rajasthani dish ‘Gatte ki sabji’, Bansal said that the term “curry” has been misused by “white people” to name any dish made in India.
Stating that one can “still unlearn”, she said, “There’s a saying that the food in India changes every 100km and yet we’re still using this umbrella term popularised by white people who couldn’t be bothered to learn the actual names of our dishes”.

In an interview with NBC News, Bansal was quoted as saying that while she did not want the word to be cancelled entirely, there needed to be an end to its use by “people who don’t know what it means”.

Speaking on the issue with indianexpress.com, renowned chef Manjit Gill, president, Indian Federation of Culinary Association, said, “In the 14th century, a book was written titled The Forme of Cury, in which, the meaning of the word was ‘art of cooking’. My hypothesis is that in their imperial journey, the British did not experience any food which is so evolved in technique and skills and its diversity till they reached India.”

No Indian dish traditionally has the word “curry”, added the chef. “In Bengali, for instance, we call it ‘jhol’. Likewise, we have ‘korma’, ‘kalia’ or ‘salan’ (a Sanskrit word). There are dishes which fall into these categories but the word ‘curry’ does not really justify any food that comes from India or Asia. Our dishes are diverse, they have their own character defined by the manner of cooking. In India. too, we tend to use this word very loosely, which should be avoided,” he said.

Agreed Chef Jagadish Purushotama, executive culinary chef, APCA (Academy of Pastry and Culinary Arts). He said that while using the term “curry” for all Indian dishes is “not racist”, it has more to do with “a lack of information about the variety of Indian cuisine”. He added, “Curries are very common in the coast and now it has become a standard phrase.”

Talking about the prevalence of the word “curry”, chef Niklesh Sharma, founder, ACPA, further added, “When it comes to the word ‘curry’ it is usually used to describe a dish with a liquid base and our Indian cuisine is overflowing with such delicacies, though the term is used globally and describes a variety of dishes from the Asian sub-continent”.

WORD: Mickle

Mickle

[mik-uhl]

adjective

great; large; much.

ORIGIN

Mickle is often found in the expression “many a little makes a mickle,” which sometimes appears instead as “many a pickle makes a mickle” or “many a mickle makes a muckle” and points to how a vast number of small quantities can form a great quantity. Mickle has many cognates in other Indo-European languages that pertain to greatness, whether literal size or figurative influence—from mickle’s Latin cognate, we have magnify and magnitude; from its Greek cognate, we have megabyte and megalomania; and from its Sanskrit cognate, we have maharajah “a ruling prince,” and maharishi “a respected teacher of mystical knowledge.” The adjective much originated as a shortened form of mickle likely in the 12th century and is not related to Spanish mucho, which derives instead from the Latin word for “many”—the same word that gives us multiple and multitude.

USAGE

[M]ight never any man bethink of bliss that were greater in any country than in this; might never man know any so mickle joy, as was with Arthur, and with his folk here!

Layamon (12th century), Brut

WORD: Arete

[ ahr-i-tey ]

noun

the aggregate of qualities, as valour and virtue, making up good character.

ORIGIN

Not every word has a direct translation in other languages, and arete falls into this category; though it is frequently translated as “excellence,” using “excellence” alone ignores all the nuances, such as bravery, intellect, and productivity, that arete implies in the original Greek. You may also know that Ancient Greek had multiple words for “love,” and “love” alone can’t fully communicate how philia is a type of brotherly love, how eros signifies passion and desire, or how agape refers to the love between spouses or for fellow humans. These translation issues also arise with philosophical terms such as pathos, which can be translated succinctly as “feeling”–its intended meaning in compounds such as apathy, empathy, and sympathy. However, pathos is more than another word for “emotion”; it refers to the feelings of pity, sorrow, or compassion that result when hearing, seeing, or listening to another person’s story or experiences. As with arete, no single English word can capture all these subtle meanings.

USAGE

Arete can most easily be recognised on the playing field, where outstanding performance can be judged quickly and succinctly. But arete was not the exclusive possession of the winner. Anyone who exceeded the performance reasonably expected of him could be said to have shown his arete, and arete was essentially an individual, rather than a collective, characteristic.
STEPHEN G. MILLER, ANCIENT GREEK ATHLETICS, 2004

Flourishing starts with knowing who you are and what your job is. If you’re not in an ideal job yet, consider your strengths and weaknesses and what you want to achieve. Also known as arete, virtue or excellence is about more than earning money.
BRYAN COLLINS, "THIS UNUSUAL GREEK WORD REVEALS THE SECRET TO FINDING HAPPINESS AT WORK," FORBES, JULY 11, 2019

WORD: Hegira

noun

Any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place.

ORIGIN

Hegira, “a flight to a more desirable or safer place,” comes from Medieval Latin hegira, a Latinization of Arabic hijrah “emigration, flight, departure,” a derivative of the verb hajara “he departed.” Hijrah specifically refers to the flight of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution in July c.e. 622. The Arabic form hijrah (more fully al hijrat) for Muslims marks the beginning of the Muslim Era. Hegira entered English in the late 16th century; the spelling hijra in the late 19th.

USAGE

After The San Francisco News assigned [John] Steinbeck to write a series about the pathetic living conditions of the Dust Bowl refugees in California’s San Joaquin Valley, he actively began The Grapes of Wrath, his touching 1939 novel about the hegira of these Oklahoma sharecroppers.

BRENDA WINEAPPLE, "JOHN STEINBECK, BARD OF THE AMERICAN WORKER," NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 6, 2020
[T. S.] Eliot’s hegira from starchy student to the Nobel laureate who packed out baseball stadiums on an American tour remains one of the most compelling and strange of modern poetic careers.

DAVID WHEATLEY, "THE POEMS OF T.S. ELIOT: THE ANNOTATED TEXT REVIEW–A MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT," THE GUARDIAN, NOVEMBER 13, 2015

WORD: Apopemptic

adjective

Pertaining to leave-taking or departing; valedictory.

ORIGIN

The English apopemptic is a straightforward borrowing of the Greek adjective apopemptikós, “pertaining to dismissal, valedictory,” a derivative of the adverb and preposition apό- “off, away” and the verb pémpein “to send,” a verb with no clear etymology. The Greek noun pompḗ, a derivative of pémpein, means “escort, procession, parade, magnificence,” adopted into Latin as pompa (with the same meanings), used in Christian Latin to refer to the ostentations of the devil, especially in baptismal formulas, e.g., “Do you reject the devil and all his pomps?” Apopemptic entered English in the mid-18th century.

HOW IS APOPEMPTIC USED?

As Opal Codd said sweetly my last day, her apopemptic word for me was “agathism.” Once again, I could do no more but ask her to translate. “My dear,” she said, “apopemptic! Pertaining to farewell, of course.” “Of course. But ‘agathism’? A belief in Agatha Christie?”
GILLIAN ROBERTS, ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS, 2007

For you the gods of song forgo their quarrel; / Panther and Wolf forget their former anger; / For you this ancient ceremony of greeting / Becomes a solemn apopemptic hymn.
A. D. HOPE, "SOLEDADES OF THE SUN AND MOON,"