Wordly Wise

You must have asked yourself or your parents at some point of time or the other what your name means or signifies. But have you ever wondered at the meaning of your car’s or bike’s name?

Today as I was browsing through my dictionary, I stumbled over a word which was so much familiar that it never occurred to me to look up for its meaning until I read it somewhere as a part of a sentence. And then I went blank! So here, I present to you, a compiled list of such words with their literal meaning which you might miss otherwise, owing to their very familiarity.

(Names of some popular four wheelers)

ACCORD - (v.) give, bestow; be in agreement, agree; match, fit; complement; (n.) agreement; settlement; harmony; (Music) three or more different notes that play at the same time

ALTO – (n.) a singing voice with a lower range than a Soprano, a person with an alto voice

AZURE - (n.) sky-blue color

BOLERO - (n.) Spanish dance; sweater, short coat

CAYENNE - (n.) capital city of French Guiana; (n.) type of plant that produce hot peppers; fruit of the cayenne plant; hot red spice made from the dried ground pods and seeds of hot peppers

COROLLA – (n.) petals of a flower

FIAT – (v.) do, let it be done (Latin); (n.) decree, command

FIESTA -holiday, festive celebration; celebration of a religious holiday (in Spain and Latin America)

FORD – (v.) cross a river; (n.) shallow place where a river can be crossed

GYPSY - (n.) member of a nomadic people originally from India; (adj.) of or pertaining to the Gypsy people; of or pertaining to the language of the Gypsy people; (n.) Romany, language of the Gypsy people

HONDA - (n.) knot at the end of a rope through which a loop can be pulled

IKON - (n.) figure, image; statue; idol, sacred image; image of holy person; holy statue of Jesus Christ or Virgin Mary

INDICA – (n.) class of cannabis(hemp plant) found in hot climate

LANCER – (n.) soldier on horseback armed with a lance(steel-tipped wooden spear)

MARINA - (n.) small harbor with docks and services for pleasure boats

MONTERO – (n.) hunter, huntsman, one who hunts; round Spanish cap with earflaps worn by hunters

NANO – (pref.) one billionth, extremely small

OMNI - (pref.) all; everything (Latin origin)

ROVER – (n.) wanderer, roamer, one who meanders; machine that stretches and twists fibers to prepare them for spinning; operator of a roving machine

SAFARI – (n.) expedition for hunting or exploration; people participating in a hunting or exploratory expedition; equipment needed for a hunting or exploratory expedition; long journey, adventure

SONATA – (n.) musical composition of three to four movements for one or two instruments

SUMO - (n.) form of Japanese wrestling in which a contestant loses if forced from the ring or if any part of his body except the soles of his feet touches the ground

ZEN – (n.) a Japanese form of Buddhism

(Names of some popular two-wheelers)

ALBA (Yamaha) - n. troubadour love song or poem

APACHE (TVS) - n. criminal, ruffian; n. member of the Apache tribe (American Indian tribe); name of an American military helicopter;

AQUILA (Kinetic) - n. constellation in the northern hemisphere lying across Milky Way portrayed by the figure of an eagle (Astronomy); eagle, genus of eagles (Ornithology); town in Italy; town in Mexico

AVENGER (Bajaj) - n. person who seeks revenge

CHARISMA (Hero Honda) - n. persuasive charm or attractiveness; person's flair; magnetism, leadership ability; (Christianity) given talent in a heavenly manner

CRUX (Yamaha) - n. heart of the matter, main point

GLADIATOR (Yamaha) - n. armed man who fought people or animals in public shows (in ancient Rome); one who participates in a public fight or controversy; boxer, wrestler

KINE (Kinetic) - n. tamed bovine animals as a group not taking into account sex or age; cattle or cows

LIBERO (Yamaha) - n. (Soccer) sweeper (defender who plays closest to his own goal behind the rest of the defenders)

MACHISMO (Bullet) - n. assertive masculinity which is often characterized by aggressiveness and dominance over women, male chauvinism, quality of being macho

NINJA (Kawasaki) - n. feudal mercenary agent trained in martial arts and employed for undercover operations such as assassination and sabotage (Japanese)

NOVA (Kinetic) - n. star which suddenly becomes very bright and then returns to its previous brightness over a period of time (Astronomy)

PULSAR (Bajaj) - n. (Astronomy) celestial body which radiates electromagnetic pulses at regular intervals (believed to be a rapidly spinning neutron star)

SPLENDOR (Hero Honda) - n. magnificence, grandeur; brilliance, brightness, radiance

UNICORN (Honda) - n. mythical horse-like creature with one spiraling horn growing from its forehead

ZEUS (Suzuki) - n. Olympian king of all gods and father of the human race (Greek mythology)

ZING (Kinetic) - v. move quickly; make a sharp whistling sound; n. energy, excitement; something lively; sharp whistling sound

In fact there are a lot of other words with positive and beautiful connotation used as brand names and product names which go unrecognized by us. To list a few more:

(From the computer world)

VISTA – n. prospect; (from Italian) view, sight, panorama; comprehensive mental view of a visualized future situation or event which will happen in the future

DELL – n. small valley, vale

FEDORA – n. type of hat

ADOBE – n. brick made from dried clay

UBUNTU – n. the idea that people are not only individuals but live in a community and must share and care for each other

…

So what are you waiting for, grab your dictionaries and let such rather unexplored words become a part of your vocabulary. And then flaunt your enviable vocab!

Courtesy: Babylon Pro English – English Dictionary