“ipso facto”

“Ipso facto” comes from Latin and it means “by the fact itself”. It is an expression which is mainly used in formal contexts.

 Here are a few examples. * Hema is a snob; ipso facto she is disliked by all her colleagues. * If a crime occurs then there is ipso facto a guilty party. * An American, ipso facto, has no right to an Indian passport.

S. Upendran , The Hindu- ‘Know Your English’ Series, November 19, 2002  

“squeaky clean”

When you say that an individual is “squeaky clean” what you are implying is that you cannot find any fault with him/her. He/she has lead a very moral life and has never done anything wrong. The expression is mainly used in informal contexts.

Here are a few examples. * When I got to know him, I realised that he wasn’t so squeaky clean after all. * Prakasham claims that he is squeaky clean, but we all know better.

 The expression comes form the world of window washing. When you run your finger along a clean pane of glass, you’ll find that the glass squeaks!

S. Upendran , The Hindu- ‘Know Your English’ Series, November 19, 2002

“Heard it on the grapevine”

The expression “hear something on/through the grapevine” means the information you hear from someone who in turn has heard it from someone else! The information therefore may or may not be totally reliable.

Here are a few examples. * Mahesh heard through the grapevine that he was being promoted. * We heard through the grapevine that the students were unhappy with the course.

This is an expression, which has been a part of the English language for well over one hundred years. According to one theory, the idiom came into existence when F. B. Morse came up with the idea of the telegraph.

When Morse managed to send his message “What God hath wrought” over the wire between Washington and Baltimore, many companies got interested in the telegraph. They put up telegraph poles and lines from one place to another. During the early years, the workmanship was very poor; the telegraph lines often crisscrossed. The wires reminded people of the crooked grapevine. Since information was being received through these wires, people came up with the expression “through the grapevine”.

As to why people began to believe that the information received through the grapevine was unreliable, we have to go back to the American Civil War that took place between 1861 and 1865. During this period, military commanders began to send battlefield reports in the form of telegrams. What the enemy used to do was to send false reports of the same battle and as a result people were unsure which report to believe. Therefore anything heard through the grapevine was considered unreliable.

S. Upendran , The Hindu- ‘Know Your English’ Series, November 19, 2002

“swap” and “swop”

As far as the meaning is concerned there is no difference. “Swap” is much more common than “swop”. When you “swap” something with someone you exchange things with him/her.

Here are a few examples. * Last week I swapped cars with Narender and went for a long drive. * The terrorists wanted to swap hostages for political prisoners.

The word can also be used to mean to replace something with something else.

 * Bhaveen swapped his suit for a pair of jeans and T-shirt. * Jyothi refused to swap the laidback lifestyle of a student for that of an actress.

S. Upendran , The Hindu- ‘Know Your English’ Series, November 19, 2002