Posts

BARREL AND ITS VARIOUS MEANINGS (PART 2)

Image
  BARREL AND ITS VARIOUS MEANINGS (PART 2)  OTHER  MEANINGS AND USAGE OF ‘BARREL’ Barrel Bag (noun)           A sports bag which is cylindrical in shape.   It is also called gym bag or duffel bag.   Please see picture below: Picture Credit:   konga.com/product   Barrel Bomb (noun)           A barrel or container loaded with explosives and dropped from airplane/ helicopter as an improvised bomb, without any guiding system.   Barrel bomb is also called dumb bomb. Barrel Race (noun)           A kind of horse race in which horses are raced or ridden around standing barrels, to determine adroitness and championship.   Please see picture below: Picture Credit:  Pixabay   Barrel Bulk (noun)           A measure that is equal to five cubit feet or approximately 142 litres.   Barrel bulk is used to estimate capacity (volume, size, etc.) in relation to vessels or freight.   Barrel Cactus (noun)           Any cactus plant with barrel-like shape.     Some of the barrel
Post a Comment
Read more

BARREL AND ITS VARIOUS MEANINGS (PART 1)

Image
  BARREL AND ITS VARIOUS MEANINGS (PART 1)              Curiously, one of our blog readers asked me recently:  “Uncle Sam, How big is a barrel?”   DESCRIPTION OF BARREL AS A CONTAINER           A barrel (noun) is a big container, made of wood, metal or plastic, with a flat top and bottom and curved sides that make it fatter in the middle, with metal hoops or bands round it.   Please see the picture of a typical barrel (as a container) below: Source:   Wili Wiki/Fandom              It is necessary to explain here that barrels that are used for wine or fermented/distilled beverages hold or contain 31 gallons or 117.34 litres.   But those used for petroleum, hold or contain 42 gallons or 159 litres.   (This appears to be the explanation that the inquirer referred to at the onset, is looking for).           Let us take note, however, that in the oil industry, crude oil is not poured into barrel containers first, before being transferred into storage tanks or exportation vesse
Post a Comment
Read more

HOW MANY WORDS DO WE HAVE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE VOCABULARY?

  HOW MANY WORDS DO WE HAVE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE VOCABULARY?             There are over one million words in the English Language.   Notably, i n December 2010, a joint Harvard/Google study found that “the language contains 1,022,000 words ( including of course, different forms of the same words and some archaic words) and expands at the rate of 8,500 words per year”.   B ut the average user uses only about 60,000 to 100,000 words.   It is impossible for anyone to be able to understand every word in the English Language; more so, there are terminologies and registers in every profession, all of which have made the English Language to be very vast.           Now, let us use the remaining space of our column to discuss other pertinent areas. Origin of the English Language             English Language had its developmental origin in England in the 5th century AD, out of Anglo-Saxon or Old English, which was a language introduced there by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes --- three
Post a Comment
Read more

THE ROLE OF ARTICLES

  THE ROLE OF ARTICLES   Grammatically, articles are the words ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’.     The words ‘ a’ and ‘ an’ are indefinite articles while the word ‘ the’ is a definite article.         We usually use the indefinite articles (a, an) first to mention a person or thing.   By doing that, we don’t have to be clear about which particular person or thing we are referring to.  When we refer to the same person or thing again, we use the definite article (the), as ‘ the’ is used to indicate the person or thing already mentioned. Now, let us use the following information to illustrate the explanation: ‘There is a newspaper which connects the Urhobo people with other ethnic groups in Nigeria and in the Diaspora.   The newspaper is The Urhobo Voice.   The Urhobo Voice has an amiable publisher.   The publisher is Ogbemure Imene’.           In the illustration above, a and an are indefinite articles (as they were used to first mention the newspaper and publisher) while the is
Post a Comment
Read more