My sekelumit of hope officially turned into a sekelumat one this morning. We’re definitely staying home this weekend. Sharjah will have to wait another month. IKEA will have to wait ’til another time. And my bergebang session with my best friend sambil bertempik-tempik in excitement, too, will have to wait until next time. Disappointment is an understatement, but hey…Be is feeling much better than he has been the last four days or so. What could be more important than your beloved’s well-being eh?
On another note…
I used the word sekelumit yesterday and today I got thinking of the word gerumit pulak for some reason. Have you ever heard of it? It goes way way back when I was in elementary school. Well, really…a gerumit is a pencil sharpener. I used to use the word sharpener, but when everybody else was using gerumit, I guess I had to blend in. And I used it so blindly that I never thought of the origin of the lexis. Of course! A word was a word, and if it did you good, for goodness’ sake, you’d use it…right?
It took me decades before I finally realized that the word gerumit might have come from “groom it”. Yeah, not overly accurate grammatically or lexically, I know. Like, you don’t groom a pencil. You sharpen it. But hey, the logic is there. The interesting point is that, gerumit was used as a noun. Not a verb. (I have to say WAS used here, because I have no clue if gerumit is still widely used today or not.)
Example:
Could I borrow your gerumit please?
Could I borrow your gerumit please?
Pinjam gerumit hang kejap, boleh?
You’d never hear this:
I’d like to gerumit my pencil now.
Kami nak gerumit pensil kami lah kejap.
Funnier thing now though, is…being away from my homeland, I often think of those words those kids and I used back then. And then my mind would go jalan-jalan wondering where all those kids have gone and what they have become. I am sure some have traveled the world like I have. Some have probably written books on grammar – the nouns, the verbs, the tenses and the whole Itinerario on how to find yourself speaking a foreign language in your own country sort. And some of those kids I knew back then, I know now…are lost.
I, too, have found myself lost in words lately.
Questa è Enida 
Hi Dan,
Thanks for posting a comment. “Gesset” is interesting. I’ve heard of ‘gesek’ used for matches in Kelantan, is that right? My grandma in Perak used the word ‘gores’ which I thought was so lah modern because that’s what was written on the kotak mancis api back then. GORES API. Years after barulah ada MANCIS API KESELAMATAN.
If you grew up in Kelantan, you must know the term “mata kechengg” [Read: http://enida.blogspot.com/2005/03/buah-berangan-vs-buah-fikiran.html]
Okay… I’ve been reading your blog for hours now and I still couldn’t find a clue who you are. I give up (my wife too). And we thought we knew every M’sian in Oman then.
When I grew up in Kelantan, we used words like “gesset” which I think is a mini version of flame producing gas – thus gassette.