When the nation wanted to know what Shashi Tharoor's tweet meant

Mumbai: 'The nation wants to know' franchise made a come back to news television last week, with a 'still' added to the punchline -- 'the nation still wants to know'.

But that was not the word in news.

Newsman Arnab Goswami's newly-launched Republic TV recently aired a series of audio tapes to imply Union minister Shashi Tharoor's 'misconduct' in connection with the mysterious death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar in 2014. He claimed evidence was tampered with after the death and that there might have been an attempt to conceal facts.

But Tharoor, who took the Raj to task in Britain, was not to be intimidated. He struck back in true Tharoor style -- with words. But this time, he outdid himself. He used a word most were not familiar with, and sent a nation scurrying to find a dictionary.

Here is what he tweeted, refuting Goswami's allegations.

Twitterati went berserk as a large number of internet users tried to find out what an ‘exasperating farrago’ meant.

Some users were positively hilarious. 

And then there were those who tried to use ‘farrago’ in different situations to make sense of it.

The graph for ‘farrago’ on Google search shows how exactly Shashi Tharoor stirred up a storm.

The MP known for eloquent speeches earlier also reacted saying he was happy to contribute a word to the national conversation.

Farrago means a ‘confused mixture’ and originated from a Latin term for cattle feed, which became a part of the English language in the  mid 17th century.