Digram/digraph definition

Digram/digraph are two adjacent letters or symbols which are pronounced as a single entity.
Examples(underlined letter forms the digram)
Shoe
Heat
Beat

Forty or Fourty ???

When it comes to 40 spelling remains the same in case of British as well as American English. 40 is spelled as ‘Forty’ and not ‘fourty’. It may be because of the difference in pronunciation of ‘Four’ and ‘For’ during the evolution of the language. Fortieth also doesn’t contain ‘u’ in it. 14 retains ‘u’ and is spelled as fourteen. Though four, fourteen, fourty appear correct by logic, forty stands separate by dropping u from it saying logic doesn’t apply everywhere and definitely not always in English !!!

"Please respond" to RSVP

 RSVP stands for "répondez s'il vous plaît" in French language. The meaning translates to please respond.
RSVP on Invitations?
The guest need to confirm their presence or absence for the particular event if an invitation has a RSVP. The confirmation ensures that the host can adequately plan for the event according to the number of participants.

Overcomed a situation : that's a bluff

Believe - believed
Refine - refined
But this rule does not apply to overcome; the past tense of overcome is overcame not overcomed as in John overcame all his personal adversities to reach the present position.

Difference between Human and Humane

Humane is an adjective which is used to describe an emotional feeling like compassion, caring attitude towards other living beings.
Human on the other hand is a noun which describes any living being belonging to the family Hominidae whether extinct or not and is characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech and erect carriage.
But the word human can also be used as adjective which might give the same meaning as Humane

Acid test : An Idiom

Upcoming election is going to be an "acid test" for the Republicans.
Acid test originally implies to the test where they extracted the purest part of the gold using Nitric acid. Nitric acid dissolves all the other metals and alloys leaving behind the pure gold.
In general, acid test means a precise test that filters the unwanted things and gives a pure, concise results and finally confirms its purity.

Ramification meaning

1.Ramification
Is the act of branching out or dividing into branches
Eg : Ramification of the nerve fibres near the target organ is sparse

2.Ramification
Complicated
The recent federal moves has unforeseen ramification on global markets

NEWS - North, East, South, West - Is it the real definition ?

News
Does it means North, East, South, West.
Or just anything that is new is news?
Or is it anything new and noteworthy from all the diections that is north, east, south, west ?

Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism means ‘employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct’. The 16th century Italian diplomat, Niccolo Machiavelli, formulated this term.

The story of one and only Sanskrith daily : SUDHARMA

http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2011/07/worlds-only-sanskrit-daily-turns-42.html

Philanthropist definition

Philanthropist is someone who makes charitable donations intended to increase human well being.

Heist meaning

A heist is a term used to describe a robbery from an institution such as a bank or a museum, or any robbery in which there is a large haul of loot which means the robbery is not a mere robbery but a big deal ....!!!!

Difference between objective and subjective

Objective is the one which is based on facts and there is a clear cut definition or direction is there.
But on the other hand subjective is something how you perceive or the thinking that is taking place in your mind or there is no clear cut definition or direction.
Objective doesnt vary from person to person where as subjective varies.
For eg : For clouds
Objective description is white mass against blue sky
Subjective description varies from icecream in ocean to some strange looking objects in the sky.

CV : curriculum vitae

CV forms an important aspect of your proffessional life and how many of you know it full form and real meaning, here is a sneak peak into its full form and meaning
CV stands for curriculum vitae in Latin for "course of life", a summary of academic and professional history and achievements.

Bane

Bane is a Modern English word meaning "that which causes ruin or woe", as Globalisation ruins the poor farmers; it is from the Old English bana ("slayer", "murderer"), from the Proto-Germanic *banon, cognate with *banja ("wound").

Bane (plant), a poisonous plant, name from the original meaning.

Homonyms definition and the list of Homonyms

A homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings, usually as a result of the two words having different origins. The state of being a homonym is called homonym.
Eg:two/to/too, accept/except, and there/their/they're

Homonyms complete list

Snowball effect

Snowball effect is a figurative term for a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger (graver, more serious), and perhaps potentially dangerous or disastrous...
The common analogy is with the rolling of a small ball of snow down a snow-covered hillside. As it rolls the ball will pick up more snow, gaining more mass and surface area, and picking up even more snow and momentum as it rolls along.
Most of the disasters that happen in and around nature are indeed a replication of this snowball effect, whether it is a an earthquake, a sandstorm, a cyclone or a impulse transmission in our nerve cells or the disasters that occur in our life, everything begins in a small way and hits us when it gathers momentum.

Catch-22 origin

It's from the title of a book by Joseph Heller, called "Catch-22."

Anyway, it means a situation where you can't do A without first doing B, and you can't do B without first doing A.

Click here for the document where Joseph Heller introduces catch 22

"Mea Culpa" Meaning

While i read these phrase MEA culpa in one of the blogs I thought MEA means Ministry of External Affairs but it was a phrase and its real definintion goes like this ..........
"I'm to blame. The literal translation from the Latin is 'through my own fault'. Even those who don't speak Latin could probably make a guess that this phrase means 'I am culpable', or words to that effect."