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Posted By: lachapakhan vip and vim - 06/17/07 12:44 AM
i was wondering what you can tell me about the word "vip" ... not the
acronym VIP, but just vip.

i was playing scrabble, the other day, and i was challenged on the word vip.
none of our dictionaries and none of the online dictionaries had this word
listed, but i clearly remember the phrase "vip and vim" as a reference to
having a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

is "vip" a word or not? if so, why can't i find it? why is "vim" listed in
various dictionaries, but not "vip"?

my friends all said they were familiar with the phrase "vigor and vim", but
i have never heard that phrase, myself. am i living in a weird vip bubble of
some kind?
Posted By: polyglot Re: vip and vim - 06/17/07 01:30 AM
Well, I've never seen 'vip and vim'. I have seen 'vim and vigor'. I did a quick look through Google's OBSCURE WORDS, and I did not find the word 'vip' there either. I did a search for just the word 'vip'. I did not even find an entry in the 1913 version of Webster's Unabridged dictionary...
Posted By: lachapakhan Re: vip and vim - 06/17/07 02:09 AM
i did find usages of "vip and vim" when i searched for that string (quotes and all) in google ... i just didn't find any kind of definition or dictionary entries.
Posted By: tsuwm Re: vip and vim - 06/17/07 02:42 AM
vim and vigor : 62,500 ghits

(the 10 hits for "Vip and Vim" mostly have to do with Voltage)
Posted By: Faldage Re: vip and vim - 06/17/07 11:40 AM
Originally Posted By: tsuwm
vim and vigor : 62,500 ghits

(the 10 hits for "Vip and Vim" mostly have to do with Voltage)


Vip might could be peak input voltage and Vim could be mean input voltage, except it seems they aren't. In the voltage examples Vip is positive input voltage and Vim is negative(?!) input voltage. Maybe a typo. I get more hits for "vip and vin". About a 3 to 1 ratio not correcting for other meanings for "vip and vim".

Some of the other "vip and vim" hits it's really "VIP and vim" where VIP seems to be our old friend Very Important Person.
Posted By: lachapakhan Re: vip and vim - 07/07/07 09:16 AM
several of the google hits are unrelated to my question ... some of the relevant examples are:

http://harpist.typepad.com/twangtwangtwang/2007/01/index.html
http://weight-loss.fitness.com/156283-post1337.html
http://pitbullsrock.tribe.net/thread/12933124-17d0-4860-a1d5-f4ec37dbaabe

these links seem to be using things they way i would expect ...
Posted By: sjmaxq Re: vip and vim - 07/07/07 11:32 AM
Even though I'm much more familiar with the "vim and vigour" version, I have actually heard "vip and vim" used in this way. Not often, and not for a VERY lnog time, but I have a memory of from my childhood, which means it was likely from my Dad. His Anglo-Indian background and hill station boarding school education still throw up some usages and phrases that surprise me.
Posted By: Jackie Re: vip and vim - 07/07/07 03:37 PM
What is a hill station, please?
Posted By: zmjezhd Re: vip and vim - 07/07/07 04:09 PM
What is a hill station, please?

It's a town in the mountains that is cooler than the towns down on the plains mainly in India. Just last month I visited one, Udagamandalam, (or Ooty for short) while in South India.

Here's a list of them.
Posted By: Jackie Re: vip and vim - 07/07/07 05:47 PM
Whoa, you went to India? Cool! Yes, I've read about people there seeking the cool of the mountains in summer; but the word station made me wonder if they were some kind of fort.
Posted By: sjmaxq Re: vip and vim - 07/08/07 03:16 AM
Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
What is a hill station, please?

It's a town in the mountains that is cooler than the towns down on the plains mainly in India. Just last month I visited one, Udagamandalam, (or Ooty for short) while in South India.

Here's a list of them.


You went to Ooty? Lucky you! A friend's father grows tea there, and it's on my list of places to visit if I can make it over next year.
Posted By: zmjezhd Re: vip and vim - 07/08/07 03:47 AM
You went to Ooty? Lucky you! A friend's father grows tea there, and it's on my list of places to visit if I can make it over next year.

I went to a tea factory, and watched them processing leaves. It was very interesting. And the weather was almost Bay Area San Franciscan in comparison to 40 degree cee Chennai (aka Madras). I haven't posted any steam train or Ooty photos yet, but see me blog for some India pix.
Posted By: Jackie Re: vip and vim - 07/09/07 02:38 PM
Udagamandalam, (or Ooty for short) Either of you know why this particular spelling of the short version? There's not an o, a t, or a y in the full name at all!
Why not Udi, Uda, or even Udy?
Posted By: zmjezhd Re: vip and vim - 07/09/07 07:18 PM
Either of you know why this particular spelling of the short version? There's not an o, a t, or a y in the full name at all!

It's also called Ootacamund or Udhagai. The double-o in English usually sounds like a u in other languages. Another city I was in is called Trichy (or sometimes Tiruchi) for short, but its official name is: Tiruchirappalli. Part of the reason might be what the town was called originally in the native language of the area which is Toda. The language of the area is now mostly Tamil. Then it was the British who had alternate names more easily pronounced by anglophones. Ooty was pronounced in English so as to rhyme with snooty, and I've heard it used to be called Snooty Ooty by some.
Posted By: Jackie Re: vip and vim - 07/10/07 04:09 PM
The double-o in English usually sounds like a u in other languages. I thought that might be at least part of it. So the initial sound is oo, not yew. In trying to think of other foreign (to me) place names that start with U, I realized that I most always hear Yewganda.
Posted By: zmjezhd Re: vip and vim - 07/11/07 02:10 PM
So the initial sound is oo, not yew.

Yes. The forms beginning in u are transliterations of the Tamil words for the town.
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