Just today I was writing an email, in that I had to inform the recipient that I had done what he had asked me to do the Friday before the last, that is November 30 (today is December 09, so last Friday was December 7...) So immediately one word that I had heard some time ago came to my mind. The word was... preantepenultimate. Now I know what you are thinking... where in the world could have I heard this? Well, let's just not talk about that, okay? Okay... So from that word another word came to mind. Penultimate. And guess what does that mean? Second from the last, i.e. second-last. Exactly the word I am looking for, for that email. And I type 'penultimate' in the email, and I look at what I have typed. And I think, man this guy would think I am a freak! He would think I went out of my to find a word that means exactly this thing, to show off. Now, yes, I did go out of my way to confirm and recall the word, but it was Not for showing off. It was, for the sheer respect for the creator of the word ;) Anyway, so I didn't use that word. There. Instead I decided I will make this growing list of such words, which are so so so useful, but which no body seems to use, we always use their alternatives, since they're so commonly used. I am not limiting the list to English words, Urdu words are as much welcome, but I guess mostly will be English.
penultimate - second last
soorat e haal - condition, situation
bandy - to pass back and forth, or to pass around freely (gossip)
Well, these are the ones I can think up right now, if you know any words that you think we're better off using more of, let us know in the comments below.
2 comments:
how prudent that the penultimate line of this post revealed the meaning of penultimate.
Hahaha.. I must confess that's a very happy coincidence.
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