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: December 2011. 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.

uplift: (1) (v) develop (e.g. an area), improve, upgrade (living conditions, etc.), raise (standards); (n) development, improvement, advancement
plans to uplift the rural poor
Sporting public commend President Rajapaksa for uplifting standards (Sunday Observer 15/11/09)
Tourism industry diversified for rural uplift (Daily News 03/03/10)
More projects to uplift Kilinochchi: The Government has taken action to launch new projects to uplift the livelihoods of the people in Kilinochchi as part of the North Development Programme. (Ministry of Defence website 17/06/10)
> 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’.

uplift: (2) (v) withdraw (money, e.g. from a bank account)
Customer wishes to uplift the funds from his account.



COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS:

uguressa: a small purple fruit (not red) (Sinhala)
(Click here to see a photograph)



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