Blog

What are the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Niggle’?

(pronounced as nig.ael)

Meaning:  The word niggle is used to denote things that cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety. It is also used to refer to criticising or annoying someone in a petty way.

Origin: The word, which is of uncertain origin, has been around since the 1590s. It is possibly from a Scandinavian source and compared with Norwegian nigla. The current sense of the word dates back to the late 18th Century.

Even though the word has been around for hundreds of years, it has grown hugely popular in terms of usage in the last few decades. This can perhaps be attributed to its usage in sports, as it is often employed to convey minor injuries of sportspersons.

Usage: Some players were rested for the tour as the selectors did not want to risk aggravating their niggles.

Picture Credit : Google 

What are the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Tenuous’?

(Pronounced teh-nyoo-uhs)

Meaning:  This adjective refers to what is weak and possibly does not exist.

Origin: In use since the 16th Century, it formed irregularly from the Latin word tenuis, meaning "thin, drawn out, meager, slim, slender' and figuratively referred to "trifling, insignificant, poor, low in rank". The correct form with respect to the Latin is tenuious. The figurative sense of "having slight importance, not substantial" is found from 1817 in English.

Example: They had a tenuous grip on reality.

Picture Credit : Google 

What are the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Canon’?

(Pronounced kan.uhn)

Meaning: A noun, canon refers to a generally accepted rule or principle by which something is judged. This 'canon' is spelt with one 'n' in the middle, whereas 'cannon' refers to a large artillery gun.

Origin: The term canon was derived from the Hebrew-Greek word kanon meaning "cane or measuring rod." It entered Old English from Old French or Late Latin canon meaning "church rule." The use of the word "canon" is said to have originated in reference to a set of Biblical texts regarded as scripture. The sense of the term as "a rule or principle" has been in use since the late 14th Century, and as a "standard of judging" since the 17th Century.

Usage: The recent actions by Russia violate all canons of international law, experts say.

Picture Credit : Google 

What are the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Conundrum’?

(Pronounced: conundrum)

Meaning: A noun, conundrum means a difficult problem. It also means a problem that has only a conjectural or hypothetical answer.

Origin: While the word was first used in 1645, the origin of the word is not known.

Usage: Ensuring water supply throughout the year in the kingdom was one of the biggest conundrums the king faced.

Picture Credit : Google 

What is the main point of around the world in 80 days?

French author Jules Verne’s sci-fi classic ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ is a riveting story that perfectly captures the spirit of adventure and is impossible to put down. Let us find out why this story resonates with modern readers.

A weekly column that introduces young readers to the world of literary classics. It focusses on one celebrated book each week and finds out what makes it relevant today.

About the author

Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in Nantes, France in a well-to-do family. His father was an attorney andok his mother came from a long line of navigators and ship owners.

He spent his childhood in a small maritime port city. Nantes and would often visit the docks to see the ships arrive and depart. This set-up gave a boost to the future sci-fi writer’s imagination and instiled a love for travel and adventure in him. The author took to writing while he was still at school. His passion, however, was not favoured by his father, who wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer.

When the young man went to University in Paris to study law, he fell in love with literature and theatre all over again. He decided to stay in Paris instead of joining his father’s law firm after his graduation. Verne took up a low-paying job at a Parisian theatre and started putting up and writing his own plays.

Known for his experimental take on the classic adventure novel, Verne is famed as the father of the science fiction genre. A masterful genius and a storyteller with an awesome imagination, his books are loved across the globe although they were originally written in French. His works are translated into around 150 languages, which makes him the second most translated author to have lived after Agatha Christie. Verne became famous and gained a large readership after the publication of his voyages Extraordinaires, a series of 54 novels that were originally published by the French publisher and author Pierre-Jules Hetzel between 1863 and 1905. Some of his most celebrated novels from the series include Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864). From the Earth to the Moon (1865). Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (late 1869-70), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872).

Around the World in Eighty Days

Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel that chronicles the thrilling journey of the meticulous English gentleman Phileas Fogg and his French valet Passepartout as they attempt to traverse the globe in eighty days to win a wager of £20,000 set by his friends at the Reform Club. Along the way, the two are interrogated by a Scotland Yard detective named Fix, who believes Fogg has robbed the Bank of England. During the course of this journey, the travelling duo also rescues an Indian princess named Aouda, from being sacrificed as a sati (Sanskrit for good wife) at her husband’s funeral pyre.

Exploring the scope of globalisation

This novel ushered in the idea that the world was shrinking with the aid of modern means of transportation and communication. It captured the Scope of globalisation and the role technology plays in allowing exploration and inter-mingling of different human societies in ways that was largely absent in literature before.

Inspiring a sub-genre of sci-fi

Verne’s works often highlight the authors fascination with technology and scientific discoveries. Coined in 1987 by American sci-fi author K.W. Jester, the sub-genre of sci-fi called steampunk draws inspiration from the adventurous and futuristic writing of English authors Jules Verne. Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells and the Industrial revolution that rapidly gained pace during Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) championing the power of steam.

Phileas Fogg’s ambition and can-do attitude can be credited with turning a potentially ruinous bet into an adventure of a lifetime. This kind of belief that partnering technology and courage can help one conquer the unknown is fundamental to Verne’s stories and to steampunk’s individualist culture. making it relevant today.

Picture Credit : Google 

What is Sci-fi?

A member of the Reading Club casually remarked about sci-fi and elaborated, “Science fiction is abbreviated as sci-fi or at times, SF, and this genre yokes the two contradictory disciplines together. As we know, fiction is fictitious and science stands for rationality. But some novelists have succeeded in bringing them together. This popular genre transports readers to a future hinging on the concepts such as time travel, space exploration, aliens, parallel universes, and so on, and, to our amazement, some of them are turning out to be real now.” His explanation aroused our interest in reading and discussing H.G. Wells’ ‘The Time Machine’ in the following meeting.

Four of us participated in a group sharing. Each one focussed on an aspect, and the following are some of our key ideas.

Popularity of sci-fi

Although the origin of science fiction can be traced back to the previous centuries, its golden age is the 1940s and 1950s. These were the decades of significant scientific discoveries, namely space exploration and nuclear energy, which the novelists subsumed in their imagination. As is the case with all genres of fiction, sci-fi too has all the elements such as setting, characters. plot development, theme, climax, and point of view. What makes it unique is all these elements are heavily dependent on scientific facts, theories, and principles hinged on an imaginative story.

Sci-fi movies

Sci-fi movies also have become very popular in the last few decades. It is rare to come across anyone who has not watched or heard of films such as ‘Avatar’, ‘Jurassic Park’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Alien’, ‘The Matrix’, and so on. They also share the same features as the novels, and, in fact, most of them are based on them.

As many as 23 novels and stories of H.G. Wells alone have been made into films, including The Time Machine. These are immensely popular with moviegoers as they are full of action, adventure, and twists and turns, gripping them.

H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells, the “Father of Science Fiction”, was born in Kent, England, in 1866 and died in 1946. He was the son of domestic helpers, and because of his inexhaustible love for reading, he rose to become one of the most influential British authors. He was a prolific writer, equally known for fiction and non-fiction works, which not many have managed to achieve. He wrote more than 50 novels, dozens of short stories, and many non-fiction, including in the areas of politics, history, and social commentary. But he is more known for his sci-fi novels.

The Time Machine

The novel is about a time traveller who builds a machine and travels to a distant future – the year 8,02,700 A.D., and narrates his experiences at ‘the world of the remote future’ to a group of his friends. It is worth sharing the traveller’s initial encounter with the people/creatures living there:

“He (Eloi) was a slight creature-perhaps four feet high… they looked so frail that I could fancy myself flinging the whole dozens of them about like nine-pins… one of them asked me a question that showed him to be on the intellectual level of one of our five-year-old children…”

“A flow of disappointment rushed across my mind. For a moment I felt that I had built the Time Machine in vain.”

The time traveller elaborately describes the two races of humanity occupying the landscape-child-like Eloi and monstrous Morlocks. Eloi are small, unintelligent, weak but kind and happy people but Morlocks are the labourers forced to live underground working for the overlanders. The traveller has varied experiences with them and finally manages to locate his stolen machine and escapes from the dark world. What initially appears like a utopia turns out to be a dystopia to him.

 The story ends with an unnamed narrator informing us about another trip of the time traveller to reach the end of Earth’s existence and bring back proof of his adventure. But three years have elapsed, and the narrator If wonders whether the traveller is still wandering in time or has perished.

‘The Time Machine’, Wells’ first novel, brought him immediate fame, and till today, has been regarded as a masterpiece of science fiction.

Picture Credit : Google 

How was the ball pen invented?

It was the Biro brothers who invented the ball-point pen in the late 1930s which changed writing forever

The ball-point pen or ball pen, as we know it today, was invented by Hungarian journalist and painter Laszlo Biro.

Biro hated the way fountain pens blotted and smudged on the paper. Once, when he was visiting a newspaper printing press, he saw them using quick-drying ink and rollers. The first thing he did was use the newspaper ink inside a fountain pen but found that the ink was too thick and slow to make it to the nib of the pen.

So he approached his brother, Gyorgy Biro, who was a chemist. Together, they created a rolling ball mechanism for the tip of the pen. This ball picked up ink from a cartridge as it turned in its socket and then rolled again to deposit it on paper. They also created just the right consistency of ink for this kind of nib. They patented their invention in 1938 and called the pen Biro. In some countries, the pens are still known by this name.

Unfortunately, the advent of World War II forced the Biro brothers to flee Hungary because they were Jews. They shifted to Argentina where they began selling their pen commercially under the brand name ‘Eterpen’. That’s how the ball-point pen was born.

Picture Credit : Google 

How was the ball pen invented?

It was the Biro brothers who invented the ball-point pen in the late 1930s which changed writing forever

The ball-point pen or ball pen, as we know it today, was invented by Hungarian journalist and painter Laszlo Biro.

Biro hated the way fountain pens blotted and smudged on the paper. Once, when he was visiting a newspaper printing press, he saw them using quick-drying ink and rollers. The first thing he did was use the newspaper ink inside a fountain pen but found that the ink was too thick and slow to make it to the nib of the pen.

So he approached his brother, Gyorgy Biro, who was a chemist. Together, they created a rolling ball mechanism for the tip of the pen. This ball picked up ink from a cartridge as it turned in its socket and then rolled again to deposit it on paper. They also created just the right consistency of ink for this kind of nib. They patented their invention in 1938 and called the pen Biro. In some countries, the pens are still known by this name.

Unfortunately, the advent of World War II forced the Biro brothers to flee Hungary because they were Jews. They shifted to Argentina where they began selling their pen commercially under the brand name ‘Eterpen’. That’s how the ball-point pen was born.

Picture Credit : Google