Verb preposition collocations

The preposition 'at'

The verbs that go along with this are :
Aim: You must aim at the target.
Gaze: Tom gazed at the masterpiece in the Art gallery.
Glance: She shot an angry glance at the offending student.
Hint: The National Budget hinted at a new focus on health.
Jeer: The Opposition jeered at the politician mired in the scandal.
Jump: The businessman jumped at the opportunity to make a profit. 
Laugh: Susan laughed at the ridiculous proposition.
Look: Let's look at your proposal tomorrow.
Peck: The patient, who had no appetite, pecked at his food. 
Smile: He smiled at the joke.
Stare: Bystanders stared at the acrobatics of the young street performer.
Wonder: I wonder at your temerity in bringing up such a ludicrous suggestion.

Suck it up

A dear friend visited me from Auckland, after visiting India. He happened to use this phrase, about  the common man in India getting used to "sucking it up" about the non-governance that successive governments have indulged in so far. I got to thinking about the origins of this phrase. Here it is: when pilots in the World War 2  happened to vomit into their Oxygen masks, they had two options - suck up the vomit and continue breathing or die of the acidic fumes. Naturally, those braves made the sensible choice and lived to fight another day. 

The adopted children of English

Calabash: This was a Turkish word called 'kharabuz', corrupted by Spanish to 'calabaza', the French to 'carbusse' and the English to 'Calabash'

It is a kind of gourd which is dried to form a bottle like vessel to carry liquids.

Gung-ho: Originally from Chinese meaning ' work together' in English this has come to mean 'very enthusiastic about' something.

Plaza: This is borrowed from Spanish, meaning an open public area.

Jodhpurs: These riding pants are from the Indian city of Jodhpur where polo was played.

Bungalow: A corruption of 'Bangla' from Hindi.

Singapore: A corruption of Simhapur from Sanskrit.

Safari:  Stolen word from Arabic

Proper nouns as adjectives

Sometimes Proper nouns can become adjectives. Look at the following :
London taxi
Paris metro
Have you come across such words? Sometimes you will come across such proper nouns and you must recognise this and not get confused. 
Common nouns are also used and adjectives, for example:
a glass bottle 
a grass skirt
a garden gnome.
Pay attention to these and do not get confused.

"Cry Blue murder"

When we say that someone cries out blue murder when we feel that he/she is making a hue and cry about nothing significant. Nobody is quite sure why this idiom has evolved so; it is possible that the fuss was so significant that it seemed that the alarmist was in a 'Blue' funk or it may have a connection with"bloody murder". Again it may be that the murder was so cold-blooded that it chilled the observer 'blue'!!

The prefix 'En

The prefix 'en' means 'into or in', which gives rise to several derivative words, but the curious thing is that if the prefix is attached to a word that starts with b, m and p, the consonant n in this prefix is replaced by the consonant 'm'!
Some examples are given below:

• enslave - make into slaves
• endanger - put into danger
• enable - make somebody able to do a task
• encourage - give courage to a person
• enfeeble - make a person weak
• enrol/enroll - put someone on the rolls 
• encircle - to surround
• environs- surroundings
• embrace - give a hug
• empower - give some the power 
• embitter - make someone's nature bitter
• employer - person who puts another in a job

and so on!

Knuckle Down

Believe it or not, this phrase has its origin in that childhood game of marbles

This is how you place your hand when you were about to shoot a marble at another one. The idiom means getting on to the job and doing it.
You can see the knuckles touching the ground, which is where the phrase came from.