Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. Musings from someone who sees stories everywhere.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Addas in Oxford?

Yes, it's in. The word 'adda' in my own native Bengali, has been offcially inducted into the Queen's English. You'll find it listed in the updated Oxford Dictionary.

I love the dynamism of the English language. And I love addas, an untranslatable word meaning, well, you know, groups of like or unlike minded folks in freewheeling intellectual discussions about cabbages and kings. The sort of thing that happpens in writers' groups. I would say even Blogspot, with its galaxy of unique voices, is one gigantic adda.

Other Indian inclusions into English are;

bindaas (Hindi) = carefree

chamcha= toady, flatterer, yes-man

chaddi = underpants

yaar = buddy

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah, I see you've changed the commenting. I've been trying to leave a comment for the past few days, Moni, only now I can't remember what I was going to say!
I will say this through , I love the "internationality" of language that we all gain through blogosphere - so much colour - and how much we learn of one another's cultures.