tamglish

as·sault

–noun

1.	a sudden, violent attack; onslaught: an assault on tradition.

2.	Law. an unlawful physical attack upon another; an attempt or offer to do violence to another, with or without battery, as by holding a stone or club in a threatening manner.

3.	Military. the stage of close combat in an attack.

4.

rape1.

–verb (used with object)

5.	to make an assault upon; attack; assail.

dictionary. com states the above as the meaning of assault...... u must be wondering why this is up here....well, go on read!

assault-a mudichudivean............................................assault-a iruku ma!


how often have u heard this? if u stay in Tamilnadu, more specifically Chennai....and u speak the local lingo, you def must have come across this statement, esp with d urchins and college going crowd. I've often wondered how this English word became so very Tamil! and more than that, what bugs me is how did its meaning change? from its original meaning?? the Tamil version of assault is quite simply put, as follows;

assault = easy


so when someone says "assault-a mudichudivaen" they mean that they'd finish watever it is, quite easily.....in other words it is like a "cakewalk"


so from where did this term stem? and how did its meaning change? i have seen the English adapt Tamil words into their language...catamaran etc etc and we are often proud tat they did so! the buggers couldn't just pronounce and couldn't find another word so they just added it to their vocab! though i fail to understand whats there to be proud about it, i appreciate English as a language, coz it adapts, borrows and evolves with time. Most purists of any language would disapprove of such "borrowing" or adapting.... they'd say it spoils the language and dilutes its form.

I beg to differ! a language is to communicate! to bring people together and make them understand each other, not to fight over its purity! and in tat case no matter what purists stand for, English is by far one of the languages that has managed to adapt and penetrate world over...

Kudos to English...

as for how "assault" came into Tamil and that too with a different meaning........ go figure it yourself! and if you do find any other such words do let me know!