Pep Talk; Texter’s Thumb

March 1st, 2020 in English Learning

Pep talk

The word peppy is used to refer to a person who is full of energy. It comes from the word pep. To pep somebody / something up is to make them more active and lively.

A nice drink would pep you up.
We must explore other ways of pepping up the sales.
A pep talk is a talk during which somebody tries to boost your morale.

We got a pep talk from our mentor.
The word peppy can be used to refer to both people and things.

She was a peppy girl whom everybody seemed to like.
Can you play a peppy song? I need something to cheer me up.
Note that a peppy person needn’t necessarily be happy because your high energy levels may or may not make you happy. In the same way, a happy person needn’t necessarily be peppy.

Texter’s thumb

Text messaging is quite popular among youngsters. Unfortunately, constant texting on the cellphone can injure your thumb. If you text excessively, you may notice a small or large callus on the tip of your thumb. Of course, this is painful and might even prevent you from texting for a couple of days. The injury that a person suffers from excessive text messaging is called texter’s thumb.

Alan has texter’s thumb and that is hardly surprising: he is always texting his friends.
BlackBerry thumb is a similar condition. It causes aching and throbbing pain in the thumb. This problem also affects people who overuse the thumb to operate a mobile device. BlackBerry is a brand of cellphones that hit the market in 1999. Although they have lost much of their popularity now, they were quite a rage until a few years ago.