NEW GLOBAL WORD! – LUSOPHONE
In an effort to expand our vocabulary and for those REPRESENT*ZA readers interested in throwing a few wordy mouthfuls around, BIG WORDS SMALL WORDS NEW WORDS! will feature words that one doesn’t hear frequently but which we’d love to use to impress at that dinner party on Friday or to stump the boss as he’s moaning at us about our natty dreads and bad attitude… Or in the case …
of TSIPA – to use on the dancefloor…
They don’t have to be in English – Kasiology, Zulu, Afrikaans etc all languages welcome but they must be relevant to *ZA. Please mail them to Editista
For your info we use Dictionary.com as our preferred online source.
Word 7
LUSOPHONE
Example: The prodigy of colonialism has resulted in the majority of the village being LUSOPHONES although their vernacular language is still spoken by the elders.
OR
Most of the people at the tables around us at Lusito Land were LUSOPHONES.
– Lusophone means PORTUGUESE speaking – It is derived from “Lusitania”, the Latin name for Portugal). People that speak Portuguese are LUSOPHONES… like people that speak French are FRANCOPHONES and people that speak English are ANGLOPHONES.
Word 5
TRIPTYCH
Example: In the apartment the lounge wall was taken up by a carved tryptych depicting the memorable years they spent living in Central Africa.
– A word used mostly in the ART world to depict a painting or carving that has three parts to it usually placed side-by-side to make up one artwork – an artwork that can be composed or presented in three parts or sections…for example three canvasses. Sometimed they are hinged but often they are just three sections that make up one artpiece.
WORD 4
TSIPA / Tsipa-Tsipa
Example: The white girl tried her best to TSIPA but her bums weren’t moving at all.
– a township dancestyle which involves the clenching and unclenching of the bum cheeks in time to the beat
– “Ritavi Police have welcomed this heavy sentence. ‘They are all dancing Tsipa-Tsipa and Twalatsa in Polokwane Prison,’ said Ritavi Police Communication Officer, Insp Thomas Ndou” Taken from an article in the Letaba Herald
– The nickname of Rowen Fernandez – a Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana goal keeper and soccer player
WORD 3
IMPASSE
Example: Negotiations were at an impasse at midnight so the committee decided to regroup in the morning.
Meaning –
– a situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible
– a street with only one way in or out
– Impasse comes from Old French – it literally meant a dead end, a blind alley… You can still find many narrow cul-de-sac’s in French speaking countries which are called IMPASSE.
WORD 2
PELF
Example: They were more than happy to show off their pelf by driving the porche up and down in front of the restaurant…
Meaning:
– A great amount of accumulated money and precious possessions – usually acquired through dodgy means…
– Pelf comes from Old French pelfre, “booty, stolen goods.” It is related to pilfer.
WORD 1
PAUCITY –
Example – The launch was pretty boring with a paucity of food and drinks all round.
Meaning:
– insufficiency, fewness, insufficient number, scarcity…
– the opposite of Abundance
– comes from the latin paucus which means ‘little’
