Fy Fy Fy.

I was teasing a friend on Whatsapp for his ideology and he responded with “I know that you are chavifying me….”

I bet that none of my non Indian readers can decipher that, and perhaps some Indians too!

Let me explain. Adding the fy at the end of a word is to signify an action explained by the first part. In English for instance, if you say nullify, it would mean that the action makes whatever has happened null and void or whatever. Other words such as diversify, intensify, exemplify, indemnify, demystify, personify, speechify, electrify etc, come to mind.

We Indians simply take Indian language words and add the fy to achieve the same result. Tamilians are particularly fond of doing this.

In the case of my friend’s comment in the first paragraph, chavi means a key. Particularly a key that is used to wind up things like clocks, mechanical toys etc. What my friend meant to convey was that he was aware that I was winding him up.

There are many other words like this and some are given below.

Maskafy – Applying maska. Maska means butter. Buttering up someone.

Ragdofy – To make someone slog.

Chaakufy – stabbing with a knife. Chaku means knife.

Keechofy – Pull.

Khichdify – Khichdi is a mixed dish with rice, lentils, nuts etc. In other words, make a hash of things.

Samaichufy – A Tamil concoction Samayal meaning to cook.

This has become so much part of the Tamil culture that a very popular song has been written around it. Kalaachify in the title means, mix it well.