Meanings behind some Telugu Expressions

 Common Telugu Expressions


Just like in English, Telugu also has expressions and idioms of its own. For example, in English we say "tying the knot" to mean marraige, but in Telugu we say anṭu-kaṭṭuṭam (అంటుకట్టుట), which means "grafting". Like that, Telugu has interesting phrases that we shall explore. 


Pick up the Phone

In Telugu, we have two expressiosn related to the use of a phone.

1) phōn ettu (ఫోన్ ఎత్తు)  "lift up the phone"

2) phōn peṭṭu (ఫోన్ పెట్టు) "put down the phone"


Now a days we have mobile phones like iPhone or Android, but in the old timey days, we had those landline telephones. Refer to the image below [a]: 




To answer the phone, you would lift up the handset (the "phone"). To end a phone call, you would have to put the handset back onto the body. I still have such a land line phone in my my ammamma's house. Those expressions are called linguistic skeumorphs.


Grafting Two Trees

In very informal Telugu, when we say that two people got married we say:

"vāḷḷu aṃṭukaṭṭāru" ("వాళ్ళు అంటుకట్టారు")

This literally means "they grafted the tree".

Grafting is when you cut a knotch into one tree and take a part of one tree like a branch and insert that into the notch of the former. The branch fuses with that tree as it is a part of that tree. This is some Frankenstein type science!

Farmers use grafting to repair injured plants or make plants with certain string qualities. 

Now in some parts of India, they would graft together the branches of two trees in proximity of each other, such that the tree branches fuse. This is practically marrying the trees together. This is done at weddings to symbolise the life long union between a newly wed couple.The expression must have come from this wholesome wedding practice.

[b]



Wither that or the grafting of trees was used to describe wedding first (out of poeticism maybe?) and a practice was built around that expression. 

This expression is also used when someone is forced to do a task they don't want. They may say "you have grafted me to this task"!


To Get Ready to Go to the Open Feild

In Telugu, to say that we are about to go out or to depart, we use the expression:

bayalu dēraṭaṃ (బయలు దేరటం​)

The word "bayalu" ("బయలు ") means an "open space", an "open feild", or "outside" from Proto Dravidian vayal. The word "bayalu" ("బయలు ") is actually a Kannada word borrowed into Telugu.The Telugu word of the same etymological root is "vēvili" (వేవిలి ). 


[c]




Again, the word means an open feild, but colloquially became an expression to mean "outside". 

Now the word "dēraṭaṃ" ("దేరటం") is from the root "tēru" ("తేరు"), which means "to occur", "to develop", "to be formed", "to appear", "to be settled". 

You would use this verb to say "a wart appeared on my skin" or a "a weed developed on the lawn", 

So the expression would trasnlate literally in either of the following ways:

1) to occur at the outside; to occur at the open feild
2) to settle at the outside; to settle at the open feild
3) to appear at the outside; to appear at the open feild 

I guess to depart from your house is to "occur at the outside" of your house. However, I need more information.  

Loosely it is parallel with the English expression "to head out".  

To Take off The Skin

So when our parents got mad, they may threaten us by saying:

"tāṭa tīsta" ("తాట తీస్తా"​)
Now "tāṭa" ("తాట") means "skin", so what you are saying is "I will take off the skin", like an orange or the hide of an animal. In English, we would say "I will skin you alive".


A Maddnes Has Arisen 

When some one becoems crazy mad, crazily bold, frantically angry, as if in a frenzy, we would say about that person:

picci ekkindi (పిచ్చి ఎక్కింది)

The expression would literally translate as "maddness has arisen". 

"picci" ("పిచ్చి") means "madness", "craziness", or a "frenzy".  

"ekkaṭam" ("ఎక్కటం") means "to climb" or "to climb onto". 


So "maddness has climbed", but it is better translated as "maddness has escalated".   

This is used with the Daitive so you would say "vāḍiki picchi ekkindi" ("వాడికి పిచ్చి ఎక్కింది") which translates to "for him, maddness has escalated". 

This expression can also mean to have a mad crush on someone. So to express "he has a mad crush on her" you would say:

 "vāḍiki āme mīda picci ekkindi" ("వాడికి ఆమె మీద పిచ్చి ఎక్కింది")

This translates as "for him, the frenzy upon her has escalated".


To Mess Up  

I once heard one of my older cousins say when they messed up in a game:

"dobbesāvu" ("దొబ్బెసావు")
This means "you messed up", but what does it literally translate to?

dobbēyaṭaṃ (దొబ్బేయటం) is from the root "drobbu" ("ద్రొబ్బు") means to push, thrust, or shove. In the form "dobbēyaṭaṃ" ("దొబ్బేయటం"), it means "to have just pushed it". 

I am not sure how this literal phrase would get the connotation of "mess up" 

I guess this would be parallel to the English expression "I have blown it" . 

I am Going But I am Existing 

Sometimes when you are leaving someone's home, you will tell them:

"nēnu unṭānu" ("నేను ఉంటాను")

This is confusing because this may translate as "I will stay" or "I will be (here)". This is because unṭaṃ (ఉంటం) means both "to be" and "to stay" and also in some cases "to exist". How can you be staying uf you are going. 

That is because that is not the right understanding. The phrase must be understood as "I will be", more specifcially as "I will be there". It can also mean "I will exist" or "I am existing". 

In English, when you are away from someone for a temporary period, you might say to them, "I will be there if you need me". 

That is roughly what is being conveyed here with the Telugu expression. You are telling the person that you bid them farewell but you will be in touch with them. Another way is saying that while you are goign away you are reminding them that you still are and will be existing in case if they may meet in the future. 

Atleast this is what I think the phrase literally means. 

Engili

engili (ఎంగిలి) is a word that has no English equivilant. In the common usage, it refers to food or water that has gone into the mouth but spat back out. It is unfit to be eaten or drink. Think of it as backwash when drinking a soda. You simply don't share it with others. 

But it has come to mean anything that has been contaminated, not just by mouth, but even by the touch. There is a bit of ritual purity aspect to this. 

A western equivilant would be at the buffet, where if you touch the food in the buffet tray, you take it, because that food is "contaminated", or in Telugu: engili (ఎంగిలి)

Spit Out Nonsense

In Telugu, to say that someone is pattering nonsense, we say:

sollu vāguḍu (సొల్లు వాగుడు)
This literally translates as "spit pattering", where "sollu" ("సొల్లు ") means "spit".

 


Citations:


Image Sources:

b)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inosculation#/media/File:Husband_and_Wife_trees_-_detail.JPG
c) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%B0%AC%E0%B0%AF%E0%B0%B2%E0%B1%81#/media/File:Konza1.jpg 


 

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