Oh My Word:Rein, Reign

Reins mean straps of a horse with which the rider controls the movement while reign is a rule of a king or a leader of a country. Reign as a noun refers to sovereignty, rule (now it is Modi’s reign at the Centre), the period during which a ruler rules (K Chandrasekhar Rao’s reign and the birth of Telangana began in 2014), in this sense the word Reign has its etymology in French referring to kingdom, to reign; assuming office and being dominant or his or authority prevailing on the land; reign as a verb indicates to ruling a state such be king or queen (usually monarchy) or President or Prime Minister (in most instances democratically elected), hold royal office such as the Queen of the Kingdom; and reigning is an adjective: reigning rulers assemble once in New York for the United Nations General Assembly albeit located in the US.

Derivatives of reign are reigns, reigned, reigning (adjective), “The 30-year-long reign of Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, came ever closer to an end, as hundreds of thousands of Egyptians filled the centre of Cairo, calling on him to step down.”

-The Economist, 5 November 2011 Rein (noun) is a long narrow strip used to guide or check a horse (harness), a similar device used to restrain a child, a means of control (figuratively or literally i.e. with controlling or managing with reins: rein in); govern, restrain, control, give free rein to (rule or run the governance: Did Sonia Gandhi gave free rein to Manmohan Singh?), keep a tight ‘rein on’ means giving little freedom to others.

Derivatives of rein are reins, reined, and reining. You can rein in a horse but can you rein in a human being? Perhaps it was possible like in the reign of Stalin or Saddam Hussein. Cyrus Mistry took the reins of the Tata Group in 2012, and this was reported extensively in the media because his reign began. “It’s time Obama reins in his spies” - S i k k i m Mail, 29 October 2013 -

Kovuuri G