"The English word closest to it is 'scion', but this Marathi word is meant to parody a leader or man of importance," says literary critic GN Devy. "An English translation of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai's classic novel, Chemmeen, translated this term quite literally and caused quite an uproar," recalls K Sachidanandan, the Malayali poet and critic, "But a subsequent translation made do with an English term of endearment like 'darling', I think. The English language doesn't lack in fantastical pejoratives for women (termagant, harpy, vixen), but none that include the woman's demolition drive. Seeing how multilingualism is the word on the street, who knows, we may soon be on speaking terms with lexical rarities from other Indian languages.Like the word lethi. "The root iaid (walk) is accompanied by different modifiers to indicate the terrain one walks on, the gait of the walker, the speed, etc," she says.

Source: Times of India February 19, 2017 04:29 UTC