Sri Lankan English

This page contains updates to the dictionary beginning with the letter L. 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.

NEW ENTRIES:

lamp-post: (v) tie someone to a lamp-post and kill them, a common punishment meted out by the LTTE during the war; also lamp-posting, lamp-post killing
Occasionally, the victim would be lamp-posted (shot after being tied to a lamp-post), … (The Broken Palmyrah, by Rajan Hoole et al, page 85)
As late as 2 July, 1987, Thileepan took part in a lamp-post killing at Urumpirai junction. (The Broken Palmyrah, by Rajan Hoole et al, page 173)
… those who were taken from their beds in the night, those who were lamp-posted, those who were pitched into the rivers, … (Island of a Thousand Mirrors, by Nayomi Munaweera, page 224)
I don’t think it was long before prisoners like that were finished with a shot to the head or a lamppost killing. (A Long Watch, by Ajith Boyagoda and Sunila Galappatti, page 144)
Another brother was ‘lamp-posted’ by a LTTE kangaroo court. (Island 19/10/12)
Terrorism of the kind the the LTTE practiced - suicide bombers, land mines, lamp posting, torturing, mass executions etc., are long gone. (comment on colombotelegraph.com 12/09/14)

Landmaster (= hand tractor) (brand name)
The best known example of Ray’s innovation is the Land Master (1955) -- the world’s first two-wheeled hand tractor intended to help small farmers in the tropics to mechanise their field work. (raywijewardene.net)
Nine dead after land master falls into canal (Ceylon Today 18/04/14)

land phone: land line telephone (SAE)
A missive addressed to top Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) officials of a decision to stop issuance of land phones to subscribers has raised eyebrows. (The Nation online 08/04/07)

lanket/lunket: men’s underwear (from Hindi langot = loincloth)
I hated when Leandro washed and hung his multicoloured lankets. His normal washing he hung outside, but his lankets he always hung inside the room … Leandro had a string drawn right across the room to hang his lankets. (Sam’s Story, by Elmo Jayawardena, page 12)
The most they did was to call a master Red Lunket for wearing red underwear … (The Moon in the Water, by Ameena Hussein, page 93)
Incidentally we attempted to discover the meaning of the word Lanket but the Chambers or Oxford dictionaries failed to help us. So we thought it might be a word borrowed from the Indian subcontinent next door. Lo and behold we found it at last to come from a Hindi word Lankothi meaning the underwear of men in India. (Daily News 06/11/01)
Even as Weerawansa went public with the JVP position, other MPs of the Marxist party were huddled in intense discussions in the parliamentary lobby with firebrand MP, K.D. Lalkantha telling opposition members the President had presented a budget that had removed the government’s ‘lunket.’ (Sunday Leader 11/11/07)

leafy: (of tea) with large leaves
He said that Orthodox leafy tea production is accelerating in the country with even high grown areas moving towards leafy tea manufacture. (Sunday Observer 20/07/08)

learners: (coll.) driving school (also in names, e.g. Daya Learners)
You’ll see a learners on the left side.

lemon puff: a popular lemon-flavoured biscuit
She picked up a Maliban lemon puff and held it out to Devi. (On Sal Mal Lane, by Ru Freeman, page 61)
… and we sit beneath fans, sipping iced drinks and eating lemon puff biscuits, … (The Line of Lanka, by Sunela Jayewardene, page 224)

less number of, lesser number of: fewer, a smaller number of (SAE)
Less number of accidents and casualties were reported during the New Year
Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission (HRC) has received less number of complaints this year in comparison to last year … (colombopage.com 23/06/12)
About half of them were Sinhala students, with almost the same number of Tamil students and a lesser number of Muslim students … (peace-srilanka.org 02/12/16)
November recorded less number of serious crimes (hirunews.lk 15/12/16)
This has lesser number of visa pages and the processing fee is lower than that of the All-countries passport. (immigration.gov.lk 01/17)

let: to let somebody to do something: to let somebody do something (> make)
> This is recognised as an error in standard usage, but is common in South Asian English and other varieties.
I will not let my children to contest election – President (DM 13/04/15)

Lion Lager: a popular brand of lager (brand name)
On our last night in Hikkaduwa, we are perched on a fishing boat bobbing in the water when it is discovered that the last Lion Lager has been drunk. (Island of a Thousand Mirrors, by Nayomi Munaweera, page 198)
A waiter came up, and knowing what Mili liked I ordered two Lion Lagers. (The Hungry Ghosts, by Shyam Selvadurai, page 199)
… plates of devilled cuttlefish, washed down with soapy wet Lion Lagers. (Strange Fruit, by Afdhel Aziz, page 117)

Lions: the Lions: the Sri Lankan cricket team
The whole nation was glued to the television watching the Lions battle it out with India for the most prestigious Cup in cricket. (Nation 03/04/11)

liquor: (of tea) the brew in the cup (as opposed to the dry leaf)
The taster sips the liquor, swirls it round his mouth and expectorates into an oil-drum-sized spittoon, … (Ceylon Tea: The Trade that Made a Nation, by Richard Simon, page 71)
… what Arab and Levantine consumers wanted were strong, dark-liquored low- and mid-grown teas that they still, often, bought in bulk at the local grocer’s shop. (Ceylon Tea: The Trade that Made a Nation, by Richard Simon, page 163)

liquoring: (of tea) having a good liquor
Liquoring tea market weakens
A sharp decline in buyer interest was witnessed for liquoring teas at this week’s tea Auction. (Island 19/06/03)
Very light liquoring teas made from ‘tippy teas’ are also sought after in the Middle-East. (Nation 04/06/06)

LKR: Sri Lankan rupees
… gas cylinders at LKR 1950, milk powder at LKR 400, … (Postcards to Bentham, by Vihanga Perera, page 105)
Exchange Rates for converting Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) (themoneyconverter.com)

lobaya: (coll.) a stingy person (Sinhala)
....jst a suggestion frm a budget traveller…not a lobaya...:D.:D (comment on flickr.com)

loku: (coll.) big (Sinhala) (> podi)
You have blood relationship with all these loku people in the Govt. (comment on lankahotnews.net 08/13)

loku (aiya/akka/duwa/putha): elder, eldest (brother/sister/daughter/son) (Sinhala)
Waiting for a letter from his loku aiya. (All is Burning, by Jean Arasanayagam, page 13)
I give instructions to loku duwa to feed the children and put them to sleep … (All is Burning, by Jean Arasanayagam, page 355)
“Loku Akka will have to have first choice no Sharmini, after all she is my elder sister.” (The Mango Tree, by Anthea Senaratna, page 28)
“You know what Loku Aiya said about me, no?” (Chinaman, by Shehan Karunatilaka, page 61)
"Loku Putha, mind the little ones until I come" Karlina said, taking the pail in one hand and the water pot in the other. (Island 01/08/04)

loku hamuduruwo (= chief monk, chief incumbent): the head monk at a Buddhist temple (Sinhala)
Loku Hamuduruwo had done so much for him. (Shrapnel, by Neil Fernandopulle, page 35)
The Loku Hamuduruwo had warned us that venturing further along was not advisable. (Sigiriya & Beyond, by Neranjana Gunetilleke et al, page 189)
The resident loku hamuduruwo is friendly and full of stories. (Sigiriya & Beyond, by Neranjana Gunetilleke et al, page 220)

loku maama; loku nenda: uncle (mother's elder brother); aunt (father's elder sister) (Sinhala)
There were helpless young mothers in our extended family circle who professed to learn how to bathe their infants from their Loku Amma or Loku Nanda as the case may be. (Somewhere, by Vijita Fernando, page 114)
To this date I remember my Loku Nenda saying, ‘Pray for your team to win, but never pray or ask that the opponent should lose’. (Daily News 14/01/10)
I still recall vividly our first meeting in the early 1970s when we joined Loku Maama, Aunty Lillian and family for a wonderful holiday at your family estate Kabaragala, in the salubrious climes of the hill country. (The Island 27/07/13)
Now he will start making the transfers of the people 'loku maama' wants to get rid of. (Daily Mirror 18/01/13)

long cut: a long route (opp. short cut)
From there, Lal tried to direct the driver to the Buddhist Cultural Centre nearby, but the man refused to follow directions, even in Sinhala, and we ended up taking a long cut. (brelief.org 12/10/11)

long whistle: (in newspaper reports) full time in a rugby or football match (> short whistle)
The score line at the long whistle read 17-10 in favour of the Royalists. (lankanewspapers.com 09/06/08)
… and then just prior to the long whistle Vishwamithra Jayasinghe … sneaked in to run almost 35 yards to touch down. (Sunday Times 14/12/14)

low-grown: (of tea) grown at a low elevation (below 600m or 2000 ft)(> high-grown, mid-grown)
Meanwhile, the low-grown districts of Galle and Matara had doubled in size. Driven by growth in new markets, strong, inexpensive low-grown teas now made up a far higher share of Sri Lanka’s total production. (Ceylon Tea: The Trade that Made a Nation, by Richard Simon, page 241)
The tea industry is in a cash crunch with over half of low grown teas remaining unsold at the Colombo Tea Auctions. (Sunday Times 26/10/08)
New all-time high for low grown teas (Daily Mirror 06/09/13)
Good demand for low growns this week (Daily News 08/05/17)

lunumidella: Ceylon mahogany (Melia azedarach), a type of wood used for ceilings, etc. (Sinhala)
Iron trusses and Lunumidella ceiling planks and Calicut tiles have replaced the original half round tile roof, which was on timber rafters and reepers. (The Nation online 07/01/07)

COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS:

lamprais (not lamprai): a rice meal baked in a plantain leaf (from Dutch lomprijst)
(Click here to see a photograph)

leading: not only leading school, also common with other nouns, e.g. available at all leading bookshops

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