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Sri Lankan English - Updates U
This page contains updates to the dictionary beginning with the letter U. 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: July 2010. New additions
are in red.
NEW ENTRIES:
unknown: unfamiliar
They began to drive crazily through unknown streets. (All is Burning, by Jean Arasanayagam, page 241)
My brother had died guarding some unknown road that went to some unheard place. (Sam’s Story, by Elmo Jayawardena, page 117)
The few benches at the back full of unknown jobless gossips. (Learning to Fly, by Shehani Gomes, page 122)
upcountry Tamil: a member of the Sri Lankan Tamil community
brought from South India to Sri Lanka by the British in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries to work on the tea estates
It’s true that if Velu had been arrested for the murder, the official
line on upcountry Tamils would have hardened. (The Hamilton Case, by Michelle
de Kretser, page 292)
> Upcountry Tamils are also referred to as estate
Tamils, Indian Tamils, or Tamils of
Indian Origin, in order to distinguish them from the larger Tamil
community concentrated mainly in the North and East of the country. The
latter are often referred to as Sri Lankan Tamils, although
this term is ambiguous as it can also refer to any Tamils from Sri Lanka.
uplift: (v) develop (e.g. an area), improve (living conditions, etc.), raise (standards)
plans to uplift the rural poor
Sporting public commend President Rajapaksa for uplifting standards (Sunday Observer 15/11/09)
> In BSE, to uplift means to raise someone’s spirits. It is normally used in the passive (‘We felt uplifted by his words’) or in phrases like ‘an uplifting sermon’.
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.