My Science School

Do you know what the following words have in common? Guffaw, snigger, chuckle, chortle, cackle and crack up? They are all words for laughter! Different words are available to describe different forms of laughter. They go from LOL a popular acronym, to the number 555. In between are words such as snicker and snort as well as idioms, for example: "The clown kept the audience in stitches with his antics." All words that stand for laughter have a history of their origin, or etymology. A lot of the regular words came down to us from Latin, Greek, German and other European languages. Now that we do most of our communication online, we have invented ways of creating words to align with our online life.

[1] The laughter emoji

In the mid-2010s, letters gave way to emojis. Two emojis that stood for laughter became extremely popular, and were attached to texts in social media in a big way. Do you know which ones they are? The face with tears of joy and rolling on the floor laughing. According to reports, Face with Tears of Joy' is consistently one of the most used emojis across the globe. and is used to express different degrees and types of happiness. The Rolling on the Floor Laughing emoji is meant to communicate something even more hilarious. Often, they are used together to express laughter online and in text messages.

[2] LOL (or lol)

This is one of the commonest ways to express laughter online. It is an acronym standing for "laughing out loud". It has been around since the time message boards appeared online in the 1980s. On message boards, conversations were conducted through typing, so typers had to come up with short forms. They made an acronym with the first letters of the words in the phrase "laughing out loud." Soon LOL became a word that everyone understood, and this gave birth to other contractions.

[3] Luiz and lel

Lulz is based on a colloquial pronunciation and informal spelling of the plural form of LOL or LOLS. Lulz usually refers to laughter that comes at someone else's expense.

Lel is a playful version of LOL- used generally in response to comments that troll. It emerged on the popular image-board site 4chan in the mid-2000s. Why the E? Just a random substitute for the O in LOL. Today some people pair lel with a trollface, and form a meme.

[4] ROFL and roficopter

The rolling on the floor laughing emoji was, you can imagine, inspired by its acronym ROFL This acronym rhymes with "awful" when you pronounce it as a word, and came into being in 1989. In the 1990s, ROFL was combined with LOL in ROTFLOL - rolling on the floor laughing, laughing out loud. Wow, whatever makes you laugh that much must be quite a joke!

Another version of ROFL is the roflcopter - a mix of helicopter and ROFL. The term is supposed to have been coined in 2003 by moderators on a forum for World of Warcraft III, an online game. The game, if you remember, had a vehicle called the gyrocopter. Gamers were asked to use roflcopter as a response to something they found extremely funny. For instance, Man, roflcopter, that was hilarious!" ROFL can also be ROTF (rolling on the floor) and ROTFL.

[5] MDR and PTDR

The French have their own acronyms and abbreviations for texting. When it comes to laughing, they type MDR which stands for mort de rire, or "dying of laughter."

Instead of ROFL they use the acronym PTDR short for pété de rire, an expression that translates to "broken with laughter." Go ahead, impress your friends with your “knowledge” of French!

[6] XD or SD

Before emojis, we used emoticons like XD or xD to convey laughter. XD/XD are supposed to resemble someone's eyes scrunched closed and mouth open wide in laughter. These were first seen in the 1990s and early 2000s. When emojis became popular and widespread, XD was largely dropped.

[7] Kek

Kek is an online term, similar in meaning to LOL or haha. Online gamers were the first to use it. It was launched in Blizzard's 1998 real-time strategy game Starcraft. Korean gamers could not add the Korean writing system, so the Korean equivalent to the English hahaha, became written as "kekeke." Kek is also the name of an ancient Egyptian deity often represented as a humanoid figure with the head of a frog. In 2015, an anonymous user on 4chan posted information and pictures of Kek, the god. Users compared the god to Pepe the Frog, an innocent cartoon character. The use of the term has since been stopped.

[8] wwww

Wwww is pronounced "wah-rah-wah-rah wah-rah-wah-rah." It is the Japanese equivalent of the English hahahaha. The use of wwww to represent laughing comes from the Japanese wara, which means "to laugh." In the 1990s and 2000s, the Japanese adapted the kanji (a Chinese pictographic symbols used in Japanese writing) to denote laughter (similar to LOL). People eventually found it easier, though, to use the letter w, from the romanji (writing in Japanese with Roman letters), wara. Then someone pointed out that all those Ws looked like blades of grass, so people began to refer to wwww as kusa, Japanese for "grass." And just like haha or lol, a shortened w can be used sarcastically: "Haha or w, real funny. Not."

[9] 233

Why use the Latin alphabet to denote laughter, asked some on social media platforms. Why not do away with alphabets altogether? Some Chinese speakers use the number 233 as shorthand for laughter. This comes from the popular Chinese online forum Mop.com, which uses emoji-like characters. On Mop, the 233rd character is a GIF of a small, furry creature pounding the ground in laughter. As a result, 233 spread as shorthand for laughter. As in many forms of online laughter, the longer the string of numbers, the more enthusiastic and long-drawn the laughing. So, if 233 means "haha." 2333333333 is more like "hahahahahaha."

[10] Jaja and jeje

These two are from Spanish. In Spanish, J is usually pronounced with a strong H sound. The name José, for instance, is Hosé and mija is mee-hah. If you ask a group of Spanish speaking people to write "haha", they will write "jaja." A string of hahahaha (for laughter) will be jajajajaja for a Spanish speaker. Some will write jejejeje instead of jajajaja to refer to trollish, mocking laughter just as English speakers will write hehehe for snide laughter.

 

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Most of you may be involved in some initiative to preserve the health of the environment. And in the process, you must be coming across words and phrases associated with the environment and its conservation. Do you understand all of these words? Here is a check list of some words and their meanings.

[1] Anthropogenic [adjective]:

Anything caused by humans, especially in relation to climate change and global warming. Example: A series of environmental and anthropogenic events destroyed the bison in North America

[2] Biodegradable [adjective]:

When a substance is biodegradable it can be broken into very small parts by bacteria these parts are not harmful to the environment.

Example: Efforts are on to find biodegradable substitutes to plastic bags.

[3] Biological control [noun]:

A method of reducing the number of harmful insects by using other insects or small animals that feed on them. Example: Through biological control, she got rid of the harmful aphids that were damaging her plants.

[4] Carbon footprint [noun]:

The amount of carbon dioxide a person, organization, building, etc. produces, used as a measure of their effect on the environment. Example: We can reduce the carbon footprint we leave by using a bicycle to move around.

[5] Climate change [noun]:

Changes in the atmosphere that are thought to be affecting the world's climate-mostly resulting in a warmer world.

Example: A major result of climate change is the frequency of tornadoes in coastal areas.

[6] Conservation [noun]:

Management of land and water in ways that prevent it from being damaged or destroyed. Example: Forest conservation is necessary to preserve wildlife.

[7] Contaminate [verb]:

To make something dirty, polluted, or poisonous by adding a chemical, waste, or infected material. Example: Ground water is contaminated by sewage water that is let into the soil.

[8] Deforestation [noun]:

The process of removing trees from an area of land or water. To reverse this, we need to engage in "afforestation" - the planting of trees.

Example: Deforestation is considered a major reason for the decrease in rains.

[9] Dispersant [noun]:

A chemical substance used to break up a liquid, especially oil floating on the sea, into tiny pieces so that it spreads over a wide area and causes less harm. Example: The dispersant added more chemicals to the oil spill so a bio alternative was suggested.

[10] Endangered species [noun]:

A type of animal or plant that may soon become extinct and disappear from the face of Earth.

Example: Star tortoises are one of the endangered species of the sea.

[11] Eco- [prefix]:

This prefix relates to the environment.

Examples:

[a] Eco-friendly [adjective]: Programmed to cause as little harm as possible to the environment.

[b] Ecocide [noun]: Damage to or destruction of the natural environment, especially caused by human activity like pollution or war.

[c] Ecological [adjective]: Activities that protect the environment.

[d] Ecoterrorist [noun]: Someone who tries to stop or cause harm to people and organisations that try to protect the environment.

[e] Ecotourism [noun]: Creating, promoting and selling holidays that give people the chance to learn about a natural environment, done in a way that causes little damage to the environment.

[f] Ecotown [noun]: A new town that is designed in a way that reduces people's impact on the environment to a minimum.

[12] Green [verb]:

Designed to protect the environment or to limit damage to the environment, used about places in which the environment is protected.

[a] Green issues [noun]: Issues that affect the environment.

[b] Green audit [noun]: A systematic examination of what a company/city is doing to prevent its activities from harming the environment.

[c] Green belt [noun]: An area of land around large cities where no buildings are allowed so that the countryside is protected.

[d] The greenhouse effect [noun]: The process in which heat is unable to escape from the atmosphere and causes the temperature of the Earth to rise.

[e] Greening [noun]: The process of taking an interest in environmental issues and acting to protect the environment.

[f] Greentailing [noun]: The use/sale of products that are not harmful to the environment; the business of selling such products.

[g] Greenwash [noun]: Any dodgy method by which a business or organisation tries to show that it is concerned about the environment.

[13] Geoengineering [noun]:

Action taken to change an environmental process that affects the earth's climate. Example: Coal burning affects the environment and needs geoengineering to stop its adverse effects.

[14] Global warming [noun]:

The slow increase in the temperature of the Earth caused partly by the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Example: Global warming is so serious that all the glaciers are melting, causing a rise in the ocean levels.

[15] Naturalise [verb]:

To encourage plants to grow or animals to live in an area where they are not usually found. Example: Such naturalisation of animals and plants helps to preserve species that are endangered.

[16] Pollute [verb]:

To make air, water, or land too dirty and dangerous for people to use. A "polluter" is a person or company responsible for causing pollution. Examples: They should take care not to pollute the river.

Nature lovers ask for stiff penalties for polluters of lakes.

[17] Rainforest [noun]:

A forest in a tropical region with plenty of rainfall. Trees that grow here thrive on rains and have thick leaves. Rainforests are considered to be important environmental areas.

Example: The Silent Valley in Kerala, a rainforest is protected by law.

[18] Reclaim [verb]:

To improve an area of land so that it can be used.

Example: Land reclaimed from the sea must be used for research on sea animals and sea plants.

[19] Recycle [verb]:

To break waste materials such as newspapers and bottles down into their raw materials which can be re-used to make the same product again, or different products. Words related are "upcycle", "downcycle", "manycycle." Example: The government wants us to separate recyclable material from the garbage that is used for composting.

[20] Rewilding [noun]:

A form of conservation in which animals and plants are reintroduced into an area to help it return it to its natural wild state. Example: It will be wonderful if every city rewilds at least a small portion of its area.

[21] Sanctuary [noun]:

A specially designated area where animals live in a natural environment protected from people. Example: Tiger sanctuaries in India have worked hard to protect tigers from poachers.

[22] Sustainable development [noun]

Managing the lives of people and natural resources in such a way as to preserve both; using resources judiciously to ensure their future.

Example: Using water carefully is one example of sustainable development.

[23] Toxic [adjective]:

Poisonous and harmful to people, animals, or the environment. Example: The rubber factory was letting out toxic fumes into the air.

[24] U-value [noun]:

A measure of how well a part of a building, for example a window or a roof, prevents heat/cool-air from escaping. Example: New lining on windows can help preserve their U-value.

[25] Zero carbon [adjective]:

Not causing carbon emissions, that is, not letting carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere.

Example: The government has proposed new standards for car engines to reduce carbon emissions.

 

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There are a number of ways: ranging from those used by great writers, to inventions and discoveries and those that come into being from new ways of life.

When boats, trains and computers were invented, they were added to our vocabulary. Now, there's one more avenue through which new words are created - our lives on Twitter and YouTube.

The Wadsworth Constant

This is a theory about YouTube content. What is it? "The Wadsworth Constant is the idea that one can safely skip past the first 30% of any YouTube video without missing any important content." Have you ever skipped the first part of a video? Check this theory out at once!

The word Wadsworth' is the user name of a Redditor who first formulated this constant.

The theory is so popular that bots, browser extensions and scripts are being created to automate the skipping of the first 30% of any programme online.

Sites such as YouTube have transformed the Internet - and our lives as we know them, including our language.

So, get internet-sawy with these words and expressions born from our new, digital normal.

Subtweet

There is a "sub" for everything, like sub-urban and sub-collector. But a subtweet is a somewhat different idea.

Tweets, as you know, are messages sent out on Twitter. Subtweets are known as their evil twins. A subtweet is "a negative post especially on Twitter, targeting a certain person without directly mentioning them or their username." Example: "Some people think I cannot read well. That is not true."

The term "subtweet" appeared on Twitter in 2009. According to a report, someone who went under the name @Chelsea_x Rae tweeted: "1 hate when I see people who dnt txt [sic or call me or even tweet me anymore make general tweets. ... Yes that was a SubTweet."As you can see, this tweet avoids blaming anyone directly, but still makes a clear complaint. A subtweet is a subliminal (under the surface) tweet.

Snitch-tagging

Snitch-tagging happens when you are actively aggressive while tweeting. It is the act of tagging the subject of a negative post about them, especially on Twitter, when they weren't already tagged in." It works this way: A subtweets about B. Now B doesn't know A has made a subtweet about him/her. Then C comes in, and tags A's subtweet to B. or makes a response to A's subtweet, tagging B. The idea is, C makes sure that B comes to know what A has said about him/her. Now B has seen A's shady comment about him/her it is like saying, "Hey B, A has been talking about you behind your back!" Let me add quickly. Snitch-tagging is considered cowardly and disrespectful.

Twitterstorms & tweetstorms

Have you had to face a twitterstorm? You know what a storm is - a sudden strong assault by wind, rain, snow or dust. On Twitter, it is an unpredictable flurry of interest and activity around a topic, which can feel chaotic." Twitterstorms are known to damage a person's name or brand. They often begin when one user posts an angry reply to a controversial statement by someone.

This response to an insensitive tweet invites responses for or against the original tweet or the angry response. Then it snowballs into a twitterstorm of posts. Messages get retweeted and quoted

A twitterstorm can also be started by an individual tweeter. If you unleash a rapid series of tweets within minutes, and these are angry in tone, you have launched a twitterstorm. But if you want to discuss a topic in depth and put out a series of tweets about it, you just create a tweetstorm.

Unboxing

Now let's go to YouTube for new words. Have you seen an "unboxing" video? "Unboxing" is "the act of documenting oneself, mostly on video, of opening a packaged product from a box and displaying, reviewing, and showing off its contents." Unboxing videos generally have the object that is being unboxed as part of the title.

There are YouTube channels dedicated to unboxing everything from toys, to food to devices. These videos get millions of views!

Why are they so popular One is the surprise element. Another is the information you get from the review. The third must be that it is one way to kill time. It could be the feeling that you are doing the unboxing yourself. Whatever the reason, the word "unboxing" is here to stay.

Ratio

You have heard of the word "ratio" in your maths class. It is the relation between two amounts showing the number of times one value is contained within the other. On social media, the term ratio is understood differently. On Twitter, you get "ratioed" when "replies to a tweet vastly outnumber likes or retweets. This means people are objecting to the tweet and thinking that the content is bad. Expressing approval is easy on Twitter, right? You just like or retweet the post.

Obviously, it takes more time and effort to make a negative comment. So, if lots of people do so, it is a sign the tweet is not appreciated. You are "ratioed!" Getting "ratioed" started on Twitter, but this can happen on any social media platform - Reddit Instagram - wherever you can leave a comment.

Vlogmas

All of us enjoy celebrating Christmas. There are some who look forward to Vlogmas, which also happens in December. Vlogmas is a tradition among YouTubers to "Vlog, or video-blog, every day in December until Christmas (December 25)."

It is, as you can guess, a combination of the words "vlog" (a video version of a blog) and Christmas. Like for Christmas, Vlogmas celebrators begin planning the content of videos even before Thanksgiving. Since it coincides with Christmas, a lot of vlogmas content is related to Christmas.

 

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What are articles?

Many nouns have a little grammar word in front of them. Often it's one of the articles a, an or the. It is not necessary, however, for every noun to have an article before it

Articles are of two types: Indefinite, which are a and an: and Definite, which is the.

A and AN are called indefinite articles as they can refer to any one thing. They are usually placed before a common noun, which is in the singular.

For example: She gave me a gift. I bought an umbrella.

THE is the definite article, referring to a specific noun. For example: I read the books you gave me.

Indefinite articles: 'a' and 'an'

"A" or "an" means one person or thing. When do we use indefinite articles? We use them:

[1] Before singular nouns: I watched a movie last night. We saw an elephant and an antelope outside the resort.

[2] Before the name of a job: My sister wants to be an engineer.

[3] Before consonant sounds: a chair, a horse, a laptop This includes letters u and eu when they are pronounced like the consonant y: a university, a euro.

[4] We use "an" before vowel sounds. These words usually start with a, e, i, o, u: an architect, an idea, an umbrella, an instant

[5] We use "an" with words that start with the letter "h" when the "h" is not pronounced: an hour, an honour.

[6] Indefinite articles are used when a singular countable noun is talked about for the first time: I took a taxi from the station. I had to buy a new computer after my old one crashed.

[7] They can be used when dassifying, describing and generalizing: It's a flower. It's an enormous flower. A flower is used for decoration, worship and as a mark of friendship.

[8] They are commonly used in exclamations following words such as what and 'such'. What a fantastic movie! It was such a loud noise that people rushed out of their homes.

[9] Indefinite articles are also used in expressions like: 'a kind of a sort of and 'a type of’. It is a kind of plant that survives in deserts. It is a sort of bread that is supposed to be organic. It is baked in a special type of oven.

Definite article: 'the

We use the definite article the when both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about. The books you gave me are priceless. We use the definite article with:

[1] Countries with plural names or with Republic or Kingdom in the name: The United Arab Emirates, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom.

[2] Geographical areas in noun phrases: I live in the north-west of Egypt in the east.

 

[3] The names of rivers, seas, oceans and mountain ranges: The Ganges, The Black Sea, The Atlantic, The Himalayas.

[4] Parts of the day: in the morning/afternoon/ evening.

[5] Most prepositional phrases of position and place in the middle of at the back on the left, at the office/bank/cinema

Rule for school/ university:

There is a special rule for these places: school, university, college, hospital, prison, church. Compare these examples:

The children go to school by bus. I go to the school to learn Sanskrit twice a week.

My sister is studying maths at university. He works in the library at the university.

She was in hospital for three weeks. Is there a gift shop at the hospital?

He was in jail for fraud. The group visited the jail to teach yoga to prisoners.

The rule is this: If someone is at the place because he/she is a student / is sick / a prisoner, etc. we don't use "the".

If they are there for another reason, or we are talking about the building, we use "the".

Rules for zero articles

Now, let's look at the rule for zero articles or when no articles apply. There is no article before:

[a] The names of most cities, countries and continents: Addis Ababa, New Delhi, Warsaw, Beijing, Argentina Canada, Europe. Asia.

[b] Geographical areas in adjective phrases: I live in (x) north-west Chennai, (x) eastern Europe

(c) The names of single mountains and lakes: Mount Kilimanjaro, Lake Baikal

[d] Exact days, months and times: on (x) Friday, in (x) June, at (x) 8 o'clock

[e] Some prepositional phrases of place: at (x) home, at (x) work, in (x) bed, at (x) sea

Nouns that don't need an article:

[1] Plural nouns: Birds fly with their wings.

[2] Uncountable nouns for generalisations: Fruit is healthier than sweets. Ink is used for marking fingers. Man is mortal.

[2] Proper nouns Mina is looking for a nursing job.

[3] When talking about the normal role of an institution

What time does school finish on Fridays?

After serving his sentence he was released from prison.

[4] Times of day, year and named holidays and special days/festivals

Do you let your cat out at night? I always go home for Diwali.

The weather is usually best in December

How do you pronounce articles?

We usually pronounce a/an with a weak vowel sound, (uh).

It sounds like the vowel sound in fun, and not the vowel sound in cat.

Before consonants and the letters 'u' or 'eu' when they are pronounced 'y' we pronounce the with this weak sound uh, too. For example: the doctor, the party, the uniform.

But when the is before a vowel sound, we pronounce the with the long ee sound in see. For example: the afternoon, the ice, the open door, the upstairs rooms

The "schwa" sound

Schwa is a short vowel sound. It is the most common sound in the English language. It is never stressed. It appears in many words of more than one syllable. It is the sound of many grammar words like articles and prepositions when they are not stressed.

In the word "banana", the first and the third "a" have the schwa sound.

 

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Have you used proverbs in your writing? You may have because a proverb is a brief simple and popular saying. It is a short sentence that gives advice and stands for a commonplace truth. A proverb may also have an allegorical meaning behind its everyday message.

Proverbs explain a specific point. We can easily understand them by looking at what they refer to. The meaning of the higher you go, the harder you fall is clear, isn't it? Proverbs teach and educate readers and listeners. They often contain expert advice. They tell us what will happen at different times in our lives.

They are accepted universally because of the wisdom they contain. By remembering proverbs, we are able to accept the difficult and awkward situations we find ourselves in.

Proverbs are so useful in making arguments clear that authors use them as they are, twist and bend them or create anti-proverbs to add strength to their writing.

Poets use proverbs in titles of their poems - "A Bird in the Bush by Lord Kennet is an example. Some poems contain multiple proverbs.

Since proverbs are usually metaphorical and indirect, they allow writers to express their messages in a less harsh way. The Bible has a "Book of Proverbs."

Popular proverbs in speech

All of us grew up listening to proverbs in everyday speech. Are you familiar with the following common proverbs?

• Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.


• Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.


• All that glitters is not gold.


• A bad workman always blames his tools.


• Spare the rod and spoil the child.


• It is no use crying over spilled milk.


• Look before you leap.


• Two wrongs don't make a right.

When proverbs clash

It is an interesting pastime to collect proverbs from conversations you hear around you. Some magazines have listed proverbs that are opposite to one another. Read these:

Look before you leap. BUT He who hesitates is lost. So what should you do? Plunge or think well before you do? How about this? Many hands make light work. BUT Too many cooks spoil the broth. Figure it out!

Many proverbs came out of the writings of great authors. These writers crafted precise sentences with a lot of meaning. These sentences were quoted often and they became part of our everyday speech and writing. They became proverbs.

Alexander Pope gave us many proverbs such as: "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" and "To err is human, to forgive, divine." Proverbs come in handy and make our writing look good and classy. But our writing can be very cliched (boring, because people have read them so often) when we overuse proverbs. We cannot write sentences that are nothing but a string of proverbs. We cannot expect the reader to understand all the proverbs. So use proverbs for additional explanations, to sum up what you have written.

Proverbs in literature

(1] Things Fall Apart (By Chinua Achebe)

 "If a child washes his hands he could cat with kings."

Meaning: If you work to make yourself better, you can have a great future. Everyone can build his or her own fame.

[2] Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare)

“The weakest goes to the wall."

Meaning: Weak people may not do well or struggle in difficulties.

[3] The Power and the Glory (By Graham Greene)

"There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in ...We should be thankful we cannot see the horrors and degradations lying around our childhood, in cupboards and bookshelves, everywhere."

Meaning: Childhood is a blessing for us, as we do not face horrible experiences like humiliation and degradation from people.

[4] Aesop's Fables: An Astrologer and A Traveller (By Aesop)

"We should make sure that our own house is in order before we give advice to others."

Meaning: We should act upon our own words, before advising others to do the same.

[5] The Buddha

"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace."

 

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