Medical terms, Food, and Mathematics

Medical terms

Often the cause of undesirable confusion.

§  allopathy - Used by homeopaths to refer to conventional medicine.

§  jaundice - Acute hepatitis. While standard medical terminology uses jaundice for a symptom (yellow discolouration of skin), in India the term is used to refer to the illness in which this symptom is most common.

§  viral fever - Influenza

  

Food

Most Indians are more familiar with local names for food items and ingredients than their English translations. To accommodate this, Indian English frequently uses local (especially Hindi) names for food items. On an Indian cooking show, it would not be uncommon to see "bhindi" and "apple" in a single list of ingredients.

§  non vegetarian : meat

§  brinjal : aubergines / eggplant

§  capsicum : called chili pepper, red or green pepper, or sweet pepper in the UK, capsicum in Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India, bell pepper in the US, Canada, and the Bahamas; paprika in some other countries

§  curds : Yogurt

§  karahi, kadai : wok

§  ladyfinger, bhindi : okra

§  pulses, dal : pulses, e.g. lentils

§  sabzi : greens, green vegetables

§  nago : tapioca

§  sooji or Rava : Semolina

Mathematics

§  Maths : Same as English, Math (in American English)

§  by : divided by, as in "10 by 5 equals 2", rather than "10 divided by 5 equals 2"

§  into : times, as in "2 into 2 equals 4", rather than '"2 times 2 equals 4", which is more common in other varieties of English. The use of into dates back to the 15th century, when it had been common in British English.

§  When giving a fuzzy estimate of numbers, the words 'to' or 'or' are omitted. For e.g. "Add four or five teaspoons of sugar" would be "Add four-five teaspoons of sugar". This usage is derived from the grammar of local languages.