Shift, Sift, Shifty

For a country (UK) that wants to recruit talented, productive immigrants, it is hard to think of a better sifting process than a university education. Welcoming foreign students is a policy that costs less than nothing in the short term and brings rewards in the long term.” –The Economist

Shift is common word, functions as a noun and verb, and has multiple meanings.

People shift their loyalties or allegiances from one person to another person, one political party to another political party unless rooted with an unchangeable ideology, one place to another place for a living…

Shift means to change place, change support, change direction; move around, change in quality (singers shift their tones or modulate their voices), change gear (to either slow down or ride faster), leave for another.

The derivatives of the verb ‘shift’ are shifts, shifted, shifted and shifting.

Shift as a noun refers to a qualitative change (East European countries have witnessed ideological shifts), a period of time at work (Employees normally work for 8 hours either in shifts or from 9am to 5pm), a crack in the earth’s crust (geology), a key on the typewriter (upon pressing the ‘shift’ key you can change the other key to another character for example from lower case to upper case, from @ to 2), a woman’s garment (chemise, slip, teddy).

Paradigm shift is the shift that is radical, a radical change in thinking from established and accepted point or belief or view to a new point or belief or view.

Paradigm shifts happen when new discoveries take place.

Shifter is the person who is changes the scenery in the background of a stage or theatre (sceneshifter) and a mechanical device.

“Small shifts in your thinking, and small changes in your energy, can lead to massive alterations of your end result.” –Kevin Michel

Shifty is an adjective, and has a complete different meaning from ‘shift’. If someone is a shifty person it means he or she is insincere, deceitful, evasive, changing position now and then.

Sift means moving as if through a sieve (the soldiers sifted through the woods), separate by passing through a sieve or other straining devise to separate coarser elements (sift the flour – device, devise), distinguish and separate out, check and sort carefully (sift the information)

When a natural disaster or man-made catastrophe takes place, people sift through their surroundings to pick up essential articles.

One of the principle of typography is to take the reader sift through the printed matter that has mass of information.

By: Kovuuri G Reddy