Bombilation

A very large number of teachers on ESLP are extremely highly qualified linguists and should be complimented.  Why?  Because hundreds of thousands of them can speak a �foreign� language, (apart from a few in the USA and Australia who speak only English).  Even their children are fluent in the language!

By contrast, few English people can manage anything more than �Zwei Bier, bitte!� (�Two beers, please!�) when they take their annual holiday on the Costa del Sol, in Greece.

Not content with learning one language, huge numbers of overseas teachers have learned a second language, English.

This ESLP site encourages investigating English, by promoting the game �Word of the Day�.  When I say �investigating�, no laws have been broken,

but I offer a word of warning.  Discourse analysis is not easy!  (Even I had to use the spell-checker twice!)

Those of you who own the English cassette, �Speak in a Week� costing �557, published by Charlatan Press, agree that it�s very educational.  (After buying it, most people say, �That�s taught me a lesson I�ll not forget!�)  I remember the author, before he was a Doctor of Languages, when he toured theatres with his toothless budgerigar - �An Act that always Sucks Seeds!�

So remembering his linguistic advice, I am in a position to examine the unsavoury word �Bom-bil-ation�.

The first syllable �Bom� refers to an Anglo-Saxon word for a part of the anatomy.  For those with a sense of delicacy, please forgive my directness.  It is mentioned in the medical term: �Trauma in the Gluteus Maximus!� (�A pain in the backside!�)

The second syllable �bil� has Norse connections, leading to �bile�, �byle� or �boil� (�a very large infected eruption on the skin�; a �furuncle�).

The final syllable �ation� comes from Latin through the Italian word �azione� (�action�).

Once again, I apologise for the indelicacy!

�Bombilation = �The action of getting a boil on your bum!�

Les Douglas (ldthemagicman)