Vocabulary Bites From The Hindu

Here’s a snatch of a conversation overheard at a kiosk on Old Mahabalipuram Road.
“He’s a virus spoiling the whole environment. He plays one flatmate against another. I want him out of the apartment,” a distraught young man shares his predicament with a friend.
“From what you tell me about him, he’s a stubborn malware that just won’t go away. Press the back button; move into the flat where you stayed previously. I’m certain your old flatmates will be glad to have you back,” is the advice given by the commiserating friend.
On Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) or in any other region, anywhere in the world that has a mammoth presence of software professionals, non-IT conversations punctuated with tech terms are common. Software professionals who utter such lines are often unaware of this. It takes someone from outside the industry to point it out to them.
Until recently, when he paused to think about it, software professional Aritra Biswas (who used to work at the office of an IT major on OMR and is now posted in Bengaluru) was oblivious to the fact that the function and modifier keys had been imparted additional meanings by his colleagues and friends from the industry.
To the uninitiated ear, usages like ‘Control-C-Control-V’ may strike a jarring note and even sound unreal. But the fact is, IT terms have also invaded the non-IT world and keep rolling off the tongues of people more often than they realise.
“It’s common to hear people say ‘ping me’ and a majority of them are not aware that it’s a network terminology,” says PV Bharadwaj, who lives a short jog away from the IT Corridor and has been engaged in the development of tech-based products.
Similarly, multi-tasking is a term straight out of the IT industry. Computers can carry out a raft of tasks simultaneously, which is where the term comes from.
After all, information technology has invaded almost all aspects of our lives and it’s only to be expected that the words we speak will partly bear its influence.
If you agree with what I just said, please ‘Control-C-Control-V’ it.

(Source: The Hindu)

Meaning of Highlighted Words

Snatch

Meaning: A portion of song or talk.
Example: They sing snatches of popular songs.
Synonyms: fragment, snippet, smattering, bit, scrap

Kiosk

Meaning: A small open-fronted hut or cubicle from which newspapers, refreshments, tickets, etc. are sold.
Example: We bought bus tickets at a nearby kiosk.
Synonyms: booth, stand, stall, counter, refreshments kiosk, news stand, bookstall, telephone kiosk

Distraught

Meaning: Very worried and upset.
Example: They were too distraught to talk.
Synonyms: distressed, fraught, devastated, shattered

Predicament

Meaning: A difficult, unpleasant, or embarrassing situation.
Example: She was completely alone in her predicament.
Synonyms: mess, difficulty, problematic situation, issue, plight, quandary, trouble, muddle

Stubborn

Meaning: Not ready to change one's attitude in spite of good reasons to do so.
Example: She is a silly, stubborn old woman.
Synonyms: obstinate, mulish, headstrong, strong-willed, self-willed, recalcitrant, refractory

Commiserate

Meaning: Express or feel sympathy or pity
Example: She must come to commiserate with the poor woman.
Synonyms: offer condolences to, feel pity for, feel sorry for

Mammoth

Meaning: Huge.
Example: It was a mammoth task.
Synonyms: enormous, gigantic, giant, colossal, massive, vast, immense

Punctuate

Meaning: Interrupt or intermix something with.
Example: She punctuates her conversation with snatches of song.
Synonyms: break up, pepper, sprinkle, scatter, strew, dot

Oblivious

Meaning: Unaware.
Example: His eyes were closed and he was completely oblivious to what was happening around him.
Synonyms: unconscious, heedless, unmindful, insensible, unheeding, impervious, ignorant

Uninitiated

Meaning: Without special knowledge or experience.
Example: The topic was not easy to follow for the uninitiated.
Synonyms: inexpert, untutored, unqualified, unskilled, amateur

Jarring

Meaning: Inappropriate in a striking or shocking way.
Example: The text makes jarring jumps from one subject to another.

Raft

Meaning: A large amount of something.
Example: A raft of government initiatives.

Invade

Meaning: Enter into a place, situation, or sphere of activity.
Example: Activists once again invaded his farm.
Synonyms: permeate, pervade, fill, spread over, diffuse through, imbue

Take Quiz 

We are providing the Quiz as per latest pattern of Vocabulary Questions.

 A word is given followed by four alternatives. You have to mark the synonym or antonym of the given word.

1. Distraught

A. Permeate
B. Diffuse
C. Shattered
D. Mature

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