Know your english

“Did you see the match? Wasn’t it really exciting?”

“I didn't find it exciting, I’m afraid. The match was pretty well over by the time I switched the TV on. I had a ...”

“Pretty well over? Does it mean the match was nearly over?”

“That’s right! The expression ‘pretty well over’ can be used in informal contexts to mean ‘nearly’. It has more or less the same meaning as ‘pretty much over’ and ‘almost over’.”

“I see. Can I say the party was pretty well over by the time I reached the venue?”

“You certainly can. The play was pretty well over when the fire broke out in the theatre.”

“But tell me, why didn’t you watch the match? You were looking forward to it. You’d ...”

“Yes, I really was looking forward to it. I had even taken the day off. But unfortunately, I woke up with a headachy cold, and that ...”

“Headachy cold? Does the word ‘headachy’ even exist?”

“Of course, it does! It means to have or suffer from a headache. After listening to my boss’ two hour lecture, I was feeling tired and headachy.”

“Meaning that by the end of the lecture, you had a bad headache.”

“Exactly! It could also mean there were symptoms of a headache.”

“I see. Prema is probably coming down with a fever. She has a sore throat and is complaining of feeling headachy.”

“I took a cold shower and went for a walk. The headachy feeling gradually disappeared.”

“So, how are things at work? Have the problems that you were talking about last week been taken care of?”

“The exact opposite has happened. The problems have come to a head.”

“Come to a head? What does it mean?”

“We have reached a crisis. If a problem comes to a head, it means it has become quite serious. It makes sense for someone to step in and do something about it.”

“In other words, take matters into his own hands.”

“I guess you could say that. The couple has been having problems. But things came to a head last week, when Reema asked for a divorce.”

“How about this example? Things came to a head in the afternoon when the members of Union staged a walk out.”

“Everything came to a head in our office when my boss fired Ram.”

“Your friend Ram? Why was he fired?”

“Same old problem. My boss caught him cyberloafing again.”

“I've heard of people loafing. But what is cyberloafing? Is it when you loaf on the Net?”

“I guess you could say that. Cyberloafing is when people who work in an office use the Net for their own personal work.”

“In other words, check their personal email and order things online. And ...”

“It could be anything. They do all these things while pretending to be doing their official work. People in government offices spend a lot of their time cyberloafing.”

“I’m sure there are cyberloafers in every office across the world.”

“You’re probably right. It is also possible to say ‘cyberslacking’ instead of ‘cyberloafing’. There are many cyberslackers in my office.”

“And poor Ram was one of them!”

******

“Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.” — Mitchell Kapor