Rid Dictionary Of New Words

[DavidHouston]

The Royal Institue's New Supplement

The new Royal Institute's "Dictionary of New Words", "พจนานุกรมมคำไหม่" just arrived at the Phuket Central Festival B2S store. I bought mine today. There are lots of interesting words here, some which we have known for a long time and some which are new to me. I would like to suggest that we start a new thread for those who have the book to make observations and provide information on new or interesting words or phrases which you have found in your copies of the dictionary supplement. For those who do not have the new book, your comments and questions would be very much appreciated. (BTW, the cost for the 175 page book is only 100 baht. Lines are beginning to form.)

Some of the entries are additional definitions for words existing in the original dictionary. For example, "ไข่แดง" was previously defined as "egg yolk". A second and third definition have been added. The second definition is, "ผู้ชายคนเดียวที่อยู่ที่หมู่ผู้หญิง", "a boy who is the sole male living in a group of girls". The third definition is , "คนที่นั่งอยู่กลางวง" "a person who is sitting in the middle of a circle [of other people]." Cool, I didn't know that.

Some words were in the original volume but explanatory and illustrative sentences have been added. This is also of great benefit to students like me who are forever incorrectly associating the wrong prepositions or adverbs with a particular verb.

Many of the entries are of English origin which have been take up into Thai. Examples include "นอมินี่" "nominee" (note the tone mark over the last syllable; that's contrary to expectations), "คีย์" "key person" (as in "เขาเป็นคีย์ของบริษัทของเรา" "he is a key person to our company"), and "เซเล็บ" "celebrity".

Finally the full title indicates that the supplement is "เล่ม ๑" "Volume I". Since this supplement goes all the way from "ก" to "ฮ", the RID staff must believe that this will be the first of multiple supplements until, we hope, a new complete, integrated volume is issued.

BTW, Rikker has just begun a series of articles on the Royal Institute Dictionary in his blog, http://thai101.blogspot.com/ or http://rikker.blogspot.com/. If you are interested in Thai dictionaries, I suggest you start there.

This is all going to be great fun! Now to read the introduction. Let's hear what y'all have to say. Thanks.

[mangkorn]

Just a comment on the Thai use of the word "nominee," which is a loan word, but not in the way it is used. I don't believe anyone ever uses it in English the way that it is meant in Thai.

A nominee in English means someone in contention for a job opening, or an elected political position, or for an award of some kind.

In Thai, it is usually used in business terms, to hide the real owners ("straw man"), or to refer to some hack politico like Samak who is merely doing the bidding of the real big shot, in which case it would clearly be "puppet" in English.

Cheers.

[DavidHouston]

We have had lots of discussions in this forum regarding proper transcription and transliteration of Thai words into roman script and some discussion regarding the opposite direction, the rendering into Thai script of English words. One of the issues springing up in the latter contexts is the question of whether the last syllable accent which the Thais generally place on the articulation of English words via the use of implied tone marks should be replicated in the physical spelling of these "loan" words in Thai. We have been told that the policy of the Royal Institute is that such tone marks should not be physically represented in the spelling.

The Royal Institute seems to have changed its policy in this regard. From the introduction to the "Dictionary of New Words, Volume 1" comes the following:

"๓.๑ คำที่ยืมมาจากภาษาต่างประเทศเขียนตามเสียงที่คนไทยส่วนใหญ่ออก"

"3.1 Foreign loan words should be written in a manner reflecting the manner in which most Thai people pronounce such words."

One of the examples provided is the English word "เหรตติ้ง" or "rating". Note the addition of the "ไม้โท" "mai tho" to the second syllable.

Another interesting decision concerns word origins or etymology:

"๖.๓ คำที่ยืมมาจากภาษาต่างประเทศ และภาษาต่างประเทศนั้นยืมมาจากภาษาอื่นอีกทอดหนึ่ง จะบอกที่มาเฉพาะภาษาที่ภาษาไทยยืมมาโดยตรง"

"6.3 When a word is borrowed from a foreign language and that word is, in turn, borrowed from another language, [this dictionary] will indicate only the language from which Thai did the borrowing directly."

The example provided is the word "กูรู". The dictionary will state that this is an English loan word, even though English borrowed the word from Sanskrit and even though Thai has a perfectly good Sanskrit loan word of its own,ครู.

[Richard W]

Just a comment on the Thai use of the word "nominee," which is a loan word, but not in the way it is used. I don't believe anyone ever uses it in English the way that it is meant in Thai.

In Thai, it is usually used in business terms, to hide the real owners ("straw man"),

Here is an example of this usage:

"In fact, the Queen even has an extra mechanism to ensure that her investments remain secret - a nominee company called the Bank of England Nominees. It has been available for decades to all the world's current heads of state to allow them anonymity when buying shares. Therefore, when a company publishes a share register and the Bank of England Nominees is listed, it is not possible to gauge whether the Queen, President Bush or even Saddam Hussein is the true shareholder."

or to refer to some hack politico like Samak who is merely doing the bidding of the real big shot, in which case it would clearly be "puppet" in English.

"Front man", I think. However, if every knows who the big shot is, you may find the word 'nominee' used in English, e.g.:

"Avitus advanced from southern Gaul to Rome but was deposed by his able general, the Suevian Ricimer. Ricimer retained power by securing the consent of the eastern emperors to his nominees, who were Majorianus (457–461), Severus (461–465), and, after a two-year interregnum, Anthemius (467–472) and Olybrius (472). When in 472 both Ricimer and Olybrius died, the eastern emperor, Leo I, appointed Glycerius (473) and Julius Nepos (473–475)."

Here 'nominee' means 'appointee' rather than 'candidate'.

[DavidHouston]

Another one of the words we have been discussing in this forum also shows up in the "Dictionary of New Words": "เช็กบิล" or "check bill" in two usages. The first, as has been pointed out, to ask for the tab after a meal or drink, and, second, "to do physical violence as a payback."

[mangkorn]

Just a comment on the Thai use of the word "nominee," which is a loan word, but not in the way it is used. I don't believe anyone ever uses it in English the way that it is meant in Thai.

In Thai, it is usually used in business terms, to hide the real owners ("straw man"),

Here is an example of this usage:

"In fact, the Queen even has an extra mechanism to ensure that her investments remain secret - a nominee company called the Bank of England Nominees. It has been available for decades to all the world's current heads of state to allow them anonymity when buying shares. Therefore, when a company publishes a share register and the Bank of England Nominees is listed, it is not possible to gauge whether the Queen, President Bush or even Saddam Hussein is the true shareholder."

or to refer to some hack politico like Samak who is merely doing the bidding of the real big shot, in which case it would clearly be "puppet" in English.

"Front man", I think. However, if every knows who the big shot is, you may find the word 'nominee' used in English, e.g.:

"Avitus advanced from southern Gaul to Rome but was deposed by his able general, the Suevian Ricimer. Ricimer retained power by securing the consent of the eastern emperors to his nominees, who were Majorianus (457–461), Severus (461–465), and, after a two-year interregnum, Anthemius (467–472) and Olybrius (472). When in 472 both Ricimer and Olybrius died, the eastern emperor, Leo I, appointed Glycerius (473) and Julius Nepos (473–475)."

Here 'nominee' means 'appointee' rather than 'candidate'.

"Front man" - okay, that's a good alternative.

I have seen some references like this to nominee, but they are fairly obscure; it is not used in that way in common speech, nor in contemporary English newspaper language, I don't believe.

Cheers.