Saturday, May 10, 2008

Pretty Girls Make Graves?

My Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary came in the mail (and I almost wrote Oxford-Hindi, like the languge of the university was being translated...which sometimes wouldn't be a bad idea), and I've been flipping through it. I happened along a word that's quite familiar to me from songs: "gori." (An amusing clip of the song "Chori Chori Hum Gori Se," from the movie The Guru, is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ot_igKBZHM. It's supposed to be originally from the movie Mela, but I can't find any clips...although YouTube is full of people lip-synching in their apartment and dancing to it at weddings).

The dictionary defines "gori" as "1. a fair-complexioned woman; a beautiful woman. 2. a Caucasian woman." That sounds perfectly logical, the way it's used in context. But thanks to the wonders of alphabetical order, I found "gori" just a tish past "gor": "1. a grave. 2. a tomb."

I draw no conclusions: just a word nerd.

1 comment:

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

Neat! And possibly creepy! Can't wait to take a look in my OHED when I get home.