Category English Language

The expression “eight ball” for the black pool ball numbered 8 is from the early 1900s, and the expression “behind the eight ball,” meaning “in a highly disadvantageous position,” entered American English. The expression may have come from a pool game in which players attempt to pocket the numbered balls in order – with the eight ball to be pocketed last. If the player hits the eight ball first, he is penalised; if he pockets the eight ball, he loses the game.

“A piece of eight” is an old Spanish silver dollar, or peso, which once had the value of eight Reales and was therefore stamped with a large figure 8. In Colonial America, the piece of eight became legal tender, and it remained so till the Civil War. Its value was almost the same as that of the United States dollar.

 

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 “On cloud none” means “a feeling of well being or elation.” It derives from the nine classes of angles in Christian cosmology. The ninth and highest class – the seraphim – are, according to one source, “one cloud nine” by virtue of their close proximity to God.

Another possible explanation connects cloud nine with Dante’s Divine Comedy. Dante’s “Paradiso” depicts a series of heavens, the highest being the ninth. The souls in the ninth heaven are in the greatest state of bliss because they are close to God.

Meteorologists classified clouds in the late 19th Century and this was officially accepted by the scientific world. Ninth in the classification is the big, puffy cumulonimbus cloud.

The expression nine days’ wonder is based on the proverbial belief that something novel retains attention for just nine days. A “nine-day wonder” is something that creates a short-lived sensation.

The expression “the whole nine yards” is used to include all of a related set of circumstances, conditions or details. Example: “A huge Thanksgiving dinner was served: turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls and pie – the whole nine yards.”

Why nine yards, not eight, seven or ten? A yard is a unit of measurement and the whole nine yards could be any of these: The nine cubic yard capacity of either a cement mixer or the scoop on a front-end loader, the nine yards of cloth required to make a formal dress (a full gown or a saree); the configuration of old square-rigged ships having three masts, each of which could have three yards (long spars tapered toward the ends that supported and spread the head of the square sails) – “the whole nine yards” in total.

 

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The expression “I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole” conveys contempt or extreme dislike. Originally, a ten-foot pole was simply a measure of distance. Nineteenth-century songwriter Stephen Foster used it to describe the depth of a mud hole in his popular song “Camptown Races.” In 1884, American author William Dean Howells used the phrase metaphorically in his novel the Rise of Silas Lapham: “Do you suppose a fellow like young Corey… would touch mineral paint with a ten-inch pole?” wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole” emerged around the same time.

Ten-gallon hat has been used to refer to a cowboy hat since the early 1900s. The hat like the gallon measurement, was extremely large, perhaps the largest hat in the West. Large cowboy hats became known as ten-gallon hats. Another explanation is that the wide-brimmed hats worn by cowboys and ranchers were originally decorated with braids. A Spanish word for braid is galon.

 

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I consider the learning of the subject and the predicate – the way the sentence is divided – the major need for writing without error. The subject tells you what the sentence is talking about. The predicate tells you what the subject is doing, or the subject’s state of being (I am tired). You need to know your subject and the predicate to ensure that the verb (in the predicate) matches the subject in number and tense. If your verb does not match your subject, the sentence is grammatically wrong.

Incorrect: My kitten always chase its tail. The verb “chase” does not agree with the singular subject “kitten.”

Correct: My kitten always chases its tail.

 

Determine with subject and then choose the verb to match it! If you are not sure of the number and the tense of the subject, you will end up choosing a non-matching verb.

Incorrect: A section of top leaders want Mr. Sukhu to continue in his post.

The verb should be “wants” since the subject is “section” (singular). The writer of his sentence has taken “leaders” as the subject. It is not!

So, how do I find the subject? Pick the verb and place “what” or “who” before it.

“Who” is for people and “What” is for the rest. The answer is your subject. So, who want Mr. Sukhu to continue? “A section” (not all leaders). “Section” is singular, so you have to use the singular verb “wants” to match “section.”

When you learn to identify the subject of a sentence you realize that

1. The subject need not look like a standard noun, for example, a book, boy, tree. Swimming is a good exercise. Subject: Swimming
2. The subject is not always found in the beginning of the sentence. After a long walk, he found the house. Subject: He
3. The subject is not always present in the sentence. It can be implied, understood. Please switch off the fans. Subject: You. In most command (imperative) sentences, which are addressed to people, “you” is dropped.
4. The verb is not always placed next to the subject, as in “The kite flew.”

Sentences are made where there is a group of words between the subject and the verb. “The beauty of the mountains, rivers, snow and the gardens of Kashmir overwhelmed me.”

Subject: The beauty

Verb: Overwhelmed

5. Infinitives like “to walk”, “to sit” can also be subjects. They do the work of nouns.

To err is human; to forgive is divine.

Subjects: “to err”, “to forgive.”

6. The verb need not always follow the subject as in “She completed the work before the children arrived.” Subject: She, Verb: Completed.

The verb may be placed BEFORE the subject.

There are many people in the garden. Subject: People. Verb: Are.

7. What do you do with questions? For example: What is your age? In this sentence, the subject (your age) is deliberately placed after the verb (is). First rewrite with the subject in the beginning. Your age is what? Now, separate the subject and the predicate. Your age – subject, is what – predicate. The predicate starts with the verb.
8. Sonia’s friends have all left the town. In this sentence, Sonia is not the subject. It is “Sonia’s friends.” So, pick your verb, place “what” or “whom” before it and the answer is the subject! Who have left the town? Sonia’s friends.

Predicate

A predicate is the part of a sentence, or a clause, that tells us what the subject is doing or what the subject is. In the sentence, “The man is sleeping under the tree,” the part “is sleeping under the tree” is the predicate. This part tells us what the man is doing.

Let’s take a simpler sentence. He dances. He is the subject, the doer. Dances is the verb and the predicate.

He dances at all local functions. In this sentence, He is still the subject. It does not change. But the words “at all local functions” have been added to the predicate “dances.”

How can we be sure which part is the predicate? For example, look at this sentence.

While herding cattle, he blew a whistle.

We first find the verb. The verb is the word that shows action or the state of being (is/was) and changes according to number and tense.

In this sentence, “blew” is the verb. You pick the verb in the sentence, place what or who before it and the answer is the subject, right? Then, the predicate starts with the verb.

In the sentence above, “He” is the subject (who blew? He). The predicate is, “blew a whistle while herding cattle.” We add “while herding cattle to the predicate because it points to action and has nothing to do with the subject or the doer. The subject is the “doer.”

 

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Apophenia is the common human tendency to see meaningful patterns in random data. For example, gamblers claim to perceive patterns in the numbers that appear on lottery tickets, playing cards or roulette wheels. If the same series of numbers or a particular number repeats far too many times to be a coincidence (but it is in fact a random occurrence), this is taken as a winning pattern!

People believe that they have a ‘lucky number’ if a few positive events happen to fall on that date. They start seeing he number everywhere or other numbers which add up to it! So-called ‘cursed’ numbers like 13 or 666 may have arisen due to apophenia.

The term was coined by German psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in 1958 to describe a phase of schizophrenia in which patients have delusions of seeing and hearing things which are apparent to no one else.

However, today apophenia does not necessarily signify mental illness. Those who have a creative imagination such as artists or writers are also known to display aphophenia.

Pareidolia is another form of apophenia in which people infer shapes and sound patterns in meaningless data. The best known instance is seeing shapes in clouds or concluding that the static hiss of a radio has a message in it!

 

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