A couple of columns ago I used the typically Indian phrase 'with folded hands', a gesture implying, among many other things, entreaty or surrender. A reader has pointed out that while the phrase is, indeed, in common use, it represents an anatomical impossibility much more so than that suggested by the other choice Indian Englishism: my head is eating circles (a direct translation from the Hindustani 'Mera sir chakkar kha raha hai').
Rae Greiner has the kind of deep dive into word history that I love, in
this case “1909: The Introduction of the Word ‘Empathy’ into English.” She
begins t...
