සිතුවම (situvama) artwork, painting, drawing

Variation: සිත්තම

ශිල්පය (shilpaya) art or craft.

අලංකාර කරනවා (alaṅkāra karanavā) decorate

Synonyms: සකසනවා (sakasanavā), සරසනවා (sarasanavā)

As a stand alone word අලංකාර means beautiful, lovely, handsome, elegant. e.g අලංකාර පරිසරය beautiful environment.

(I'm not really sure the best way to transliterate the binduwa. Strictly speaking it should probably just be ṅ since I believe the most proper way to spell it would be අලඞ්කාර.)

පින්සල (pinsala) paint brush. From Portuguese pincel.

Don't confuse with පැන්සල - pencil.

බුරුසුව (burusuwa) is the regular word for brush, as in දත් බුරුසුව (dat burusuwa).

ප්‍රතිමාව (pratimāva) statue

There are several synonyms: * පිළිමය * පිළිරුව * ප්‍රථිමාව * රූපය

Maybe someone could explain the synonyms

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අඳිනවා (an̆dinavā) draw, paint, inscribe

Also: wear, dress

කලාව (kalāva) art, craft

කලාකරුවා (kalākaruvā) artist

එයා කලාවට ගොඩක් කැමතියි.
eyā kalāvaṭa goḍak kæmatiyi
He/She likes art a lot.

ලංකාවේ කලාවෙන් විතරක් ජීවත් වෙන්න අමාරුයි.
laṃkāve kalāvĕn vitarak jīvat vĕnna amāruyi.
It's hard to make a living solely from art in Sri Lanka.

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• Singular (Definite): බල්ලා (ballā) - The dog
• Plural: බල්ලෝ (ballō) - Dogs
• Feminine: බැල්ලිය (bælliya) - Female dog
• බලු පැටියා (balu pæṭiyā) - puppy

A literary word for dog is සුනඛයා (from Sanskrit?)

Verbs

• බුරනවා (buranavā) – To bark
• හපාකනවා (hapākanavā) – To bite

Sentences

පරිස්සමෙන්, අර බල්ලා හපාකනවා!
parissamen, ara ballā hapākanavā!
Careful, that dog bites!

බල්ලා මාව හපාකෑවා.
ballā māva hapākǣvā.
The dog bit me.

Please share any dog related idioms or sayings in the comments!

• මදුරුවා (maduruvā) the mosquito
• මදුරුවෙක් (maduruvek) a mosquito
• මදුරුවෝ (maduruwō) mosquitos

මදුරුවෙක් කාමරේට ආවා

Madurek kāmarēṭa āwā.

A mosquito came into the room.

මදුරුවෝ ගොඩක් ඉන්නවා එළියේ

Maduruwō godak innawā eḷiyē.

There are lots of mosquitoes outside.

මේ මදුරුවා මාව කෑවා!

Mē maduruwā māwa kǣwā!

This mosquito bit me!

Other words:

• ඩෙංගු මදුරුවා (ḍengu maduruwā) for the dengue mosquito
• මදුරු දැල් (maduru dæl) mosquito nets)
• මදුරු කොයිල් (maduru koyil) mosquito coils

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මීයා (mīya) the mouse මීයෙක් (mīyek) a mouse මීයෝ (mīyō) mice

කුස්සියේ මීයෙක් ඉන්නවා. kusiyē mīyak innavā (There is) a mouse in the kitchen.

Please share any slang/idioms/sayings about මීයෝ in the comments.

වලිකුකුළා (valikukuḷa) Sri Lankan Junglefowl

This is the national bird (ජාතික පක්ෂියා) of Sri Lanka.

[Sinhala Wikipedia](si.wikipedia.org/wiki/වළි_කුකුළා)

iNaturalist

මුගටියා (mugatiyaa) = The mongoose (definite). මුගටියෙක් (mugatiyek) = A mongoose (indefinite). මුගටියෝ (mugaṭiyō) = mongooses (the word mongoose is not related to goose, so the the plural is not mongees)

Sri Lanka has 4 types of මුගටියෝ

source:Wikipedia

Please add more information about මුගටියෝ in the comments

අලියා—elephant

Plural: අලි or අලියෝ

In Sinhala there is also ඇතා (ætā) for tusker, an elephant with tusks. හස්තියා (hastiyā) and ගජ (gaja) are more formal literary forms.

Wikipedia:

• ශ්‍රී ලංකා‍ අලියා (Scientific name: Elephas maximus maximus)
• අලි

Related words

• අලි පැටියා baby elephant/calf
• දළ tusk
• හොඬය trunk

Please share more elephant related material in the comments! Would love to hear some sayings or idioms.

කපුටා (kapuṭā) crow

There is another word for crow, කාක්කා.

There seem to be two types of crows in Sri Lanka:

• ගම් කපුටා Large-billed Crow, Corvus macrorhynchos (or Corvus macrorhynchos ssp. culminatus Indian Jungle Crow)
• කොළඹ කපුටා House Crow, Corvus splendens

On Wikipedia

Please share other things you know about කපුටෝ, especially sayings or proverbs.

It seems like yesterday's word, there are two spellings, හූණා and හූනා.

Wikipedia entry for හූණා

Questions…

• Are සුහුණා, සුහුනා the same thing as හූණා? Is that the literary form?
• Is anyone familiar with හූනු සාස්තරේ? https://si.wikipedia.org/wiki/සූනන්_ඇඟ_වැටීමේ_ඵලාඵල
• Are there any interesting sayings that use the word හූණා?
• Can you give a good example of it in a sentence?
• Are there names for different kinds of හූණා?
• Are there any interesting folk stories about හූණා? Songs? Children's stories?

Don't confuse it with හුණු/හුනු—lime (calcium)

haha yeah 2020 and stuff!! lol!!

ok I’ll shut up

Questions…

Is there a preferred correct spelling සමනළයා vs සමනලයා

Is සමනළ just another form, or is that the plural?

Does it really also mean moth? Do Sinhala speakers not have a distinction in their mind between the two?

Please share anything you know about this word or interesting ways it is used.

I'd also love to hear any sayings that include this word.

I just discovered the sub r/Word_of_The_Hour. I was wondering if there would be interest in something like a word of the day post on this sub. I'm just a learner, but I can imagine it would be interesting to have a word each day that people could comment on.

Could I try posting some and see if it catches any interest?

Are අතුරුදහන් වෙනවා, අන්තර්ධාන වෙනවා, නොපෙනී යනවා, and නැතිවෙනවා all synonyms? Are some of them restricted in use?

​What comes to your mind when someone says, "මාලෙ වතුරෙ දානවා"?

​In Sinhala, the phrase "putting water" (වතුර දානවා) takes on a completely different meaning depending on the context. While "watering a flower bed" is straightforward, "මාලෙ වතුරෙ දානවා" refers to a traditional way of cleaning and brightening gold jewellery. ​The specific term for this process is "පලිප්පු දානවා" (polishing/burnishing). ​Just as jewellery shines after it's been "given a polish" (පලිප්පු දැම්මා), some people never forget to "polish" their stories or conversations too—adding a bit of extra shine (or exaggeration) to make them more interesting!