Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is well known for his penchant for rarely used, difficult-to-pronounce English words. From floccinaucinihilipilification to rodomontade - the parliamentarian has had even the most articulate among us scratching our heads and reaching for a dictionary. But even the greatest of experts can sometimes learn new things. And much like others, Tharoor's first instinct upon learning a new word was to try and use it in a sentence.
Taking to Twitter on Thursday night the Thiruvananthapuram MP said that his friend and economist Rathin Roy had taught him a new word. Pogonotrophy, he added, meant "the cultivation of a beard". And in case there were netizens wondering how to use the word in a sentence, he elaborated.
"As in, the PM's pogonotrophy has been a pandemic preoccupation..." he quipped.
This incidentally is not the first time that the politician has been preoccupied with thoughts about 'beards'. Earlier in January this year, he had tweeted out a poem titled "Beards" alongside a caricature.
"Came across this remarkable poem by Brian Bilston, published 2015.... The illustration is of course more contemporary! Will we too get ourselves a hairy tale ending?" he asked.
In another incident GDP growth rate contractions to the Prime Minister's beard length. "This is what is meant by a graphic illustration!" read the caption.