# Forum Other Languages English for Russians - Изучаем английский язык Learn English - Грамматика, переводы, словарный запас  Kipling's word shortening

## CoffeeCup

Reading Kipling's stories I've met words which beginning is replaced with an apostrophe: 
'scruciating = excruciating
'scuse = excuse
'vantage = advantage 
these were easy to recognise but I can't figure out what 'satiable stands for?   

> But there was one Elephant — a new Elephant — an Elephant's Child — who was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions.

 The curtiosity is obviously (to me) stands for curiosity though I've no idea why Kipling used such a spelling.

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## fortheether

> Reading Kipling's stories I've met words which beginning is replaced with an apostrophe: 
> 'scruciating = excruciating
> 'scuse = excuse
> 'vantage = advantage 
> these were easy to recognise but I can't figure out what 'satiable stands for?  
> The curtiosity is obviously (to me) stands for curiosity though I've no idea why Kipling used such a spelling.

 Insatiable? 
Scott

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## Demonic_Duck

Yes, presumably "insatiable", although actually "satiable" means the exact opposite of insatiable. 
"'Scuse" is fairly commonly used colloquially, as in the phrases "'scuse me", "'scuse my French", etc.

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## CoffeeCup

Thanks!

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## CoffeeCup

What about 'Stute?  

> Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small 'Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale's right ear, so as to be out of harm's way.

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## Lampada

_astute_

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## CoffeeCup

> _astute_

 Thanks!

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## chaika

Probably not a good idea to think that these abbreviations are in general use. They aren't, and I doubt if they were even when he was writing. The one you'll hear nowadays is *'scuse me*. But if someone knew the meaning of the words *insatiable*, *curiosity*, and *astute*, they would not abbreviate them. But my curiosity is piqued and I'd like to know the context in which you found these things!

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## Seraph

Just so stories? http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/ http://www.freeclassicaudiobooks.com...ks/JustSo/mp3/ Plain Tales from the Hills? LibriVox  
Another author from Victorian times good for a chuckle, http://librivox.org/three-men-in-a-b...rome-k-jerome/

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## CoffeeCup

Yes, these are from the Kipling's "Just so stories" published in1902. Mostly such words are used in fixed phrases:  'Stute fish is referred to a character from "How the whale got his throat"  'Scruciating idle is used to describe the camel from "How the camel got his hump"  'Satiable curtiosity is used to describe the elephant's child from "The elephant's child"
When the elephant's child got his new nose he got some advantages referred to only as 'vantage. 'Scuse me was used by the elephant's child only.

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## Throbert McGee

> Probably not a good idea to think that these abbreviations are in general use. They aren't, and I doubt if they were even when he was writing. The one you'll hear nowadays is *'scuse me*.

 I think the only occasion one might hear _'satiable_ or _'scruciating_ (outside of Kipling!) would be from a young child who had heard an adult use the word and was trying to imitate it. In this case, "imitating" the word not quite successfully! So, Kipling was an adult imitating a little kid imitating an adult. 
Sample dialogue with my nephew, who recently turned four:  *NEPHEW:* Omple Rob, I got a new LEGO for my birfday! Guess what it is?!?! It's a BULLDOZER!!!!! *ME:* A *bull*dozer? _[confused voice]_ Oh, that's like a boy cow, right? *NEPHEW:* NO!! Not a bull!! A bulldozer's a *'struction* machine!! *ME:* Okay, then, let's put the bulldozer together. *NEPHEW:* Wait! _[with immense gravity]_ Omple Rob, FIRST we gotta lookit da *'structions*... 
(Note that to him, _'struction_ can mean either "construction" or "instruction." Young children often have difficulty with unstressed prefixes, especially when the unstressed prefix comes before the stressed syllable. Sometimes, my nephew will pronounce "the instructions" as "*dun* _'structions_" -- i.e., "dun" = "the-in." So in that case, he's not totally dropping the prefix _in-_, but instead the prefix becomes "elided" to the definite article.) 
P.S. I agree with what others have said, that _'scuse me_ is очень часто встречается even in the speech of highly-educated adults.

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## Throbert McGee

BTW, I think that the "lazy" pronunciation _'scuse me_ is most commonly heard when the meaning is *Дайте пройти, пожалуйста* -- for example, when you're trying to exit a crowded bus or metro: "'Scuse me, trying to get off. 'Scuse me! 'Scuse me, please! Thanks! 'Scuse me..." 
But when the meaning is more like *Можно задать вам вопрос?*, people will tend to use careful pronunciation: "Excuse me, do you know where I could find a drugstore nearby?" 
P.S. The all-time greatest example of "'Scuse me, 'scuse me, 'scuse me..." in the sense of дайте пройти (starting at 1:14 mark) -- from Tim Burton's classic 1985 comedy _Pee-Wee's Big Adventure_, when Наш Герой accidentally walks into a motorcycle bar filled with Hell's Angels. (Also, don't miss the "ventriloquism" at 2:02, when the bikers are trying to decide the best way to kill him...)

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## CoffeeCup

> I think the only occasion one might hear _'satiable_ or _'scruciating_ (outside of Kipling!) would be from a young child who had heard an adult use the word and was trying to imitate it. In this case, "imitating" the word not quite successfully! So, Kipling was an adult imitating a little kid imitating an adult. 
> Sample dialogue with my nephew, who recently turned four:  *NEPHEW:* Omple Rob, I got a new LEGO for my birfday! Guess what it is?!?! It's a BULLDOZER!!!!! *ME:* A *bull*dozer? _[confused voice]_ Oh, that's like a boy cow, right? *NEPHEW:* NO!! Not a bull!! A bulldozer's a *'struction* machine!! *ME:* Okay, then, let's put the bulldozer together. *NEPHEW:* Wait! _[with immense gravity]_ Omple Rob, FIRST we gotta lookit da *'structions*... 
> (Note that to him, _'struction_ can mean either "construction" or "instruction." Young children often have difficulty with unstressed prefixes, especially when the unstressed prefix comes before the stressed syllable. Sometimes, my nephew will pronounce "the instructions" as "*dun* _'structions_" -- i.e., "dun" = "the-in." So in that case, he's not totally dropping the prefix _in-_, but instead the prefix becomes "elided" to the definite article.) 
> P.S. I agree with what others have said, that _'scuse me_ is очень часто встречается even in the speech of highly-educated adults.

 In Kipling's stories "How the first letter was written" and "How the alphabet was made" there is a little girl Taffy who talks with many words shortened this way, (oh, and she is the only who talks this way in these stories): 
'splaining - explaining
'fended - offended
s'prise - surprise
etc. 
So it seems that using such a shortening Kipling did wish to imitate childish talking or to narrate these stories to children in their own children's language.

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## Windup Merchantski

It's just the English way of pronouncing long words. The English have a reputation for having bad teeth. When you have an inferior set of teeth at your disposal you can't be expected to say every syllable in words like Cholmondeley and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, you naturally end up saying "chumley" and "soufflé" instead.

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