Sri Lankan English

This page contains updates to the dictionary beginning with the letter B. It is divided into 2 parts: New Entries, and Comments and Corrections. Click here to return to the main updates page, or on the links on the left side of the page to go to another letter.

These pages are updated regularly; please contact me if you have any suggestions or feedback which can be included.

Latest update: December 2011. New additions are in red.

NEW ENTRIES:

babul: an illegal variety of betel (also beeda or babul beeda)
A stock of ganja mixed babul worth nearly Rs. Two million was recovered by the police today during a raid in Wellampitiya after information gathered from a suspect. Police said that the suspect had confessed that he had hidden several kinds of intoxicants used for the manufacturing of babul including dyed arecanut, tobacco and dates in a house in Wellampitiya. The suspect was produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate Court. The police are conducting further investigations. (Daily Mirror online 21/10/10)
Small kiosks near schools that sell babul and beeda, with betel leaves, were the main contributors to the increase in oral diseases affecting school children, the Oral Health Unit of the Health Ministry warned yesterday. (Sunday Island online 28/10/10)

backhoe: a mechanical digger (US term, less common in the UK, where it is commonly referred to as a JCB)
At the time of the raid the accused was engaged in filling the land with a backhoe. (Daily Mirror 10/06/08)

bank holiday: a holiday for banks (> mercantile holiday, public holiday)
> In the UK, a ‘bank holiday’ is a public holiday – or what is called in Sri Lanka a ‘public, bank and mercantile holiday’.

bare-bodied: bare-chested, not wearing a shirt (also India, but suggests naked in BSE)
Bare-bodied farmers in paddy fields dug up the hard earth with their mammoties, … (The Flower Boy, by Karen Roberts, page 160)
Like when I saw him bare-bodied with a thread over his shoulder and a firebrand in his hand as he went around the pyre of the old man. (Shrapnel, by Neil Fernandopulle, page 27)
… bare-bodied beggars, run-down shacks, ugly women bathing at a roadside tap, … (Can You Hear me Running, by Lal Medawattegedara, page 67)
… and I see Janaka, bare-bodied in a sarong … (Arathi, by Nihal de Silva, page 293)
Sitting at the foot of the tree, eating as papaw was a bare bodied little man … (Mythil’s Secret, by Prashani Rambukwella, page 96)
Logan, bare-bodied, with only a sarong around his waist and folded above his knees and tied firm with a knot, … (The Whirlwind, by Ayathurai Santhan, page 131)
A bare-bodied man emerged from the kitchen … (The Mirror of Paradise, by Asgar Hussein, page 15)

Basnayake Nilame: the secular head of a Buddhist temple (Sinhala)
Incident mars Basnayake Nilame elections (Sunday Times online 22/07/07)

bat: (coll.) eat
“It’s time to start batting.” (The Mirror of Paradise, by Asgar Hussein, page 58)

batana: a small pear-shaped variety of pumpkin, also known in Sinhala as ‘Dubai wattakka’ or ‘rata wattakka’
(Click here to see a photograph)

beeda: see babul

bhakthi gee: Buddhist songs traditionally sung on Vesak and Poson poya days (Sinhala)
A Poson bhakthi gee ceremony was held at Temple Trees yesterday ... (Daily Mirror 21/06/08)

bhootaya: a dead spirit (Sinhala)
Scholaris observed a skeleton with a huge stomach that was being eaten by a bhootaya. (Theravada Man, by Manuka Wijesinghe, page 247)

biscuit packet: packet of biscuits
> Pronunciation: the second syllable of both words is pronounced with a weak ‘i’ in BSE, but with a ‘schwa’ in SLE.
Mrs. Senarath bent down to pick up the biscuit packet and the necklace. (The Banana Tree Crisis, by Isankya Kodithuwakku, page 99)
The little houses on her side of the road stood up against each other like biscuit packets. (The Mango Tree, by Anthea Senaratna, page 24)

birth anniversary: birthday, esp. of someone who has died (also India) (> death anniversary)
The 66th birth anniversary of charismatic film star-turned-politician Vijaya Kumaratunga falls on October 9. (Daily Mirror 03/10/11)

blue magpie: a large blue and brown bird, endemic to Sri Lanka, and commonly seen in the Sinharaja rainforest

bodhisattva: (in Buddhism) a person aspiring to be a Buddha (Sanskrit)
Tales of the several lives of the Bodhisattvas. (All is Burning, by Jean Arasanayagam, page 2)
That was only limited to bodhisattvas. (Theravada Man, by Manuka Wijesinghe, page 45)

body wash (2): car wash

boru show, boru shok (= pada show): (coll.) a false display, affectation, ostentation (Sinhala: boru = false)
Bush & Co. have managed to put on what Sri Lankans would call ‘boru-shok’, or a grand public display … (Sunday Island online, 31/07/05)
Clearly the focus in the training programme was on boru shok, not on efficiency. (Nation online, 04/11/07)
The people are greatly inconvenienced by these boru show politicians … (UNP website, 10/01/08)
This BORU SHOW WON´T last long Mr MR. (comment on www.adaderana.lk, 31/08/10)

bothal karaya (= bottle man): (coll.) a man who collects bottles and old newspapers for recycling (Sinhala)
Then there was the bothal karaya. ... That morning they had hidden themselves in the dense foliage of the tree till the bottle man was just passing the gate. (The Far Spent Day, by Nihal de Silva, page 11)

boys: the boys (= our boys): (coll.) the Sri Lankan cricket team
The boys are so dedicated and they play so much for the people of this country that even I stop … to watch a bit of the matches on television every day. (The Banana Tree Crisis, by Isankya Kodithuwakku, page 105)

break (a house): pull down, tear down, demolish
We’re planning to break the rear part of the house.

break (cobwebs): clear, get rid of, e.g. with a broom (from Sinhala kadanava)

buckled: (coll., dated) messed up, sabotaged (from Sinhala ‘bakal una’)
The whole thing got buckled.

buddy: a small bottle (of Coke, Sprite, etc.) (25cl as opposed to standard 33cl)

budu amme!: holy mother! (Sinhala exclamation)
“Budu amme, but why iskolemahaththayo?” (Theravada Man, by Manuka Wijesinghe, page 225)

budu ge: shrine room containing an image of the Buddha, e.g. in a house or temple (Sinhala)
Breath that echoed slightly across the Budhu Ge. (Learning to Fly, by Shehani Gomes, page 156)
Scholaris was singing and plucking flowers to place at the Buddha’s feet in their budu ge. (Theravada Man, by Manuka Wijesinghe, page 200)

bystander: a person (usually a relative) who accompanies a patient in hospital
A total of 226 patients in the company of their 139 relatives and bystanders have been brought to the Vavuniya government hospital from Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaittivu by UN and ICRC officials this evening (Jan 29), military sources reveal. (Ministry of Defence website, 30/01/09)
If the policy of TH Kandy is not to allow “bystanders” a solution has to be worked again meeting the Director and Consultants to accommodate them temporarily. (www.actlanka.org/2009/04/)

COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS:

baba: not only used to refer to small children; also a term of endearment between adults, like ‘darling’.

beach boy: This expression can refer simply to any boy or young man hanging out on the beach, but in SLE it is commonly used euphemistically to refer to a male prostitute.

b-i-i-g: Pronunciation note: a way of emphasising a word by pronouncing it with an exaggeratedly long vowel
… wore flares, side burns and b-i-i-g collars … (The Moon in the Water, by Ameena Hussein, page 28)

bioscope: pronounced “biscope”

bolo folhado (not bola): a sweet made with layers of thin pastry (Portuguese)

bull’s eye: an egg fried on one side only (US ‘sunny side up’)

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