We have heard MP Shashi Tharoor impress us with his English language skills often enough. Well, we will just add another one to that long list and this one was indeed, quite tough, to say the least.
Shashi Tharoor just proved, yet again, that he is on top of his game, as far as his English language skills are concerned. The Member of Parliament took the Internet in general and Twitter in particular by storm by conjuring up a word that had most of the English-speaking world stumped. For the unversed ones here, we are referring to the fact that the key phrase, ‘Shashi Tharoor Wordle’ actually started trending after he solved today’s Wordle game problem. And what is Wordle? Wordle is an online 5-letter word game that is to be completed in just six attempts. The game itself has turned into a global rage that was big enough for the venerable New York Times to buy it from its creator Josh Wardle recently.
However, to put things in perspective, Tharoor was not the instigator of the trend. The instigator-in-chief was none other than senior journalist Barkha Dutt, who started matters rolling when she lobbed the Wordle problem into Tharooor’s court after failing to come up with the answer.
Dutt tweeted, “The number of us baulking at caulk. Lol. @ShashiTharoor – tell me even if you did not know the meaning?” True to form, Tharoor took up the challenge, and guess what? Within 20 minutes and in just three attempts, he had cracked the word and responded by sending a screenshot of the answer and nonchalantly asking, “What was the fuss about @BDUTT?”
So, what does caulk actually mean? As far as most of us commoners are concerned, the word didn’t even exist, but not so, exist it actually does. It means “a substance used for filling in the gaps around the edge of something, for example, a bath or shower,” according to the Cambridge dictionary. In case you are used to taking a second opinion, then it means “a substance that keeps out water and is used in building work and repairs to fill holes and cracks,” according to the Oxford dictionary.
Needless to say, Twitter was impressed as was clear from the rush of responses there. Clearly flustered and impressed at the same time, Dutt responded by doffing her hat at Tharoor with this tweet, “ok that is plain infuriating :-))))) Sigh for the rest of us who got the word by clever elimination but had never heard of it”
Tharoor is of course, not new to making waves with his penchant for grabbing everyone’s attention, and the headlines, with the use of intriguing and brain-twisting words like Farrago, Perspicacity, Gonzo or for that matter, Rodomontade – each has a Shashi Tharoor-related story behind it.
Now, we could provide the meaning of these words, but if you have reached till here, we are absolutely sure that you would love to check out the meaning yourself. So, grab that dictionary.
Happy hunting!
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