<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;color:#000000">Thanks, guys! I'll start looking for a word in the next day or two. </div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Mar 1, 2024 at 11:29 PM J-J Cote <<a href="mailto:marydevinechandler@gmail.com">marydevinechandler@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>We have a clear-cut winner: Josh's fish whiskers successfully avoided the eight-sided king trap to take the lion's share of the points. Nice work!</div><div><br></div><div>Jean-Joseph</div><div><br></div><div>General comments:<br></div><div>Jim:
I like the variation of using a word that makes nearly *everybody* think
it refers to similar things — in this case eights, with a runner-up of
Greece. However, I want to reward diversity. <br></div><div>Ranjit:
Pretty much everyone had the same idea, eh? King of the octopodes! I
want to vote only for non 8-king defs, but that seems like an
overreaction. Hmm. <br></div><div>Pierre:
I am discounting anything involving eight or a king, including, of course, my <br>
own def, even if the eight is reduced to seven.<span><br></span>
</div><br><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. - A monarch of one of the eight states that result from the breakup of a kingdom.</div><div class="gmail_quote">by Pierre. No points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Nick:
Eight like me.<span><br></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span>Elliott: </span>
OCTO + ROI, natch.<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. -
The prince governors of the eight "Silver Cities" of Anatolia in the Seleucid Empire. Nick 2 = 2 points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">by Eric.</div><div class="gmail_quote">Nick:
This sounds right to me. <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Elliott:
OCTO + ROI, perhaps. The Octarchy..<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. -
The set of eight caretakers assigned to provide all-hours vigilance at a small temple or shrine for a local deity.</div><div class="gmail_quote">By Fran. No points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Nick:
Maybe?<span><br></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span>Elliott: </span>
OCTO + ... hmmm, dunno.<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. - A ring of small filaments surrounding the mouth, used by many bony fishes to find prey by detecting underwater vibrations and electrical fields.</div><div class="gmail_quote">By Josh. Eric 2, David 2, Pierre 2, Hutch 1, Elliott 1 plus two points for correct guess = 10 points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Nick:
Catfish whiskers? <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Eric:
Two points, for not being about eight Greek men. Or eight things, or Greek.
</div><div class="gmail_quote">Pierre:
Two points, though I know that such a filament is called a barbel.<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote">Hutch:
I usually don't go for scientific fictionitions, but this one feels right. <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Elliott:
Cthulhu-esque. Maybe inspired by OCTOPUS? But far-enough removed from OCTO to merit a one-point vote.<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. -
A large, ornate eight-spoked wheel design featuring the owner's coat of arms. Popular on the coronation coaches of late 18th century European monarchs.</div><div class="gmail_quote">by Nick. Josh 1, Ranjit 1 plus one point for correct guess = 3 points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Elliott:
OCTO + something.<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. - In the Scottish Rite, the seven member sovereign council
of a Lodge of the Northern Jurisdiction. (Note: the council consisted of
eight members until the reforms of 1879.) <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">by Ranjit. Jim 1, Nick 1, Fran 1 = 3 points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Jim: One point
for the bold move of pulling a “wait, why is September the SEVENTH month??” explanation. <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Nick:
Feels too recent. </div><div class="gmail_quote">Eric:
One point, for masons. <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Elliott:
OCTO + ROI.<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. -
(from oc troi, "against Troy") 1) A smuggler of arms to the Greek rebels during the Greek Wars of Independence. 2) A young man given to vain boasting. 3) A pretentious poet.</div><div class="gmail_quote">by David. Ranjit 2, Pierre 1, Hutch 1, Elliott 2 plus one point for correct guess = 7 points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Nick:
Avoiding the eighth temptation cleverly.<span><br></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span>Ranjit: </span>
Hard to resist a pretentious poet. <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Pierre:
"Oc" isn't a Greek preposition, and a Greek word ending in "-oi" is usually plural. One point.<span><br></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span>Hutch: </span>
I like this one: from a smuggler to a stuck-up pen-wiper. 2 points (not that I think it's actually the definition :-) <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Elliott:
Maybe they said "Troy" as a synecdoche for "Turkey"? Two points, plus the Byron Medal with the Rupert Brooke Cluster.<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. - An order of men at Athens, in the time of Pericles, who
had been proved by their mutual testimony to have ascended the Nile past
the Seventh Cataract to its source in the eternal ice of the Equatorial
mountains. <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">By Elliott. No points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Nick:
Legendary! <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Elliott:
Liars! The Nile only has six cataracts, and I don't think the ancients got anywhere near the Sixth (_vide_ the round about "Nero's Expedition Up the Nile"). I made it seven rather than eight in case someone decides to automatically vote against definitions containing
the word "eight".<span><br></span>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">octroi - n. -
1)<span><span><b> </b>A concession or privilege granted by an absolute sovereign and serving as a limitation on his authority. </span></span>2<span><span>) a:</span></span><span><span><b> </b>A tax on commodities brought into a town or city especially in certain European countries,<b> </b>a municipal customs. </span></span><span><span>b:</span></span><span><span><b> </b>The agency for collecting such a tax or the city entrance at which it is collected.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span><span>by </span></span><a href="http://merriam-webster.com" target="_blank">merriam-webster.com</a>. Jim 2, Nick 1, David 1, Josh 2 = 6 points.<br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Nick:
I like the specificity. <br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Pierre:
This involves a king, and I already knew that "octroyer" means "grant". Recused. (see note below -- J-J)</div><div class="gmail_quote">Elliott:
This likely the right one. I vaguely recollect a German verb "oktroyieren" or "oktroiieren" or the like, which I thought meant something along the lines of "to impose something on someone". What the heck is the etymology?<span> [...] </span>
Checking after voting:
The OED traces it to the French verb "octroyer", of which it says: "<Middle French, French octroyer (late 14th cent.; compare Anglo-Norman octrier), alteration of Old French otroier ottroye v. after classical Latin auctor auctor n. and auctorāre to authorize (see auctoration<br>
n.)."
German "oktroyieren" does in fact mean "to impose something on someone", says dict.cc. Well, I guess taxes are imposed, aren't they?
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div><div><br></div><div>Octroi - n. - The ruling council of the islands of
the northern Aegean Sea, during at least the Peloponnesian War (431–404
BCE); no remaining records identify the full extent of its rule, but the
name leads scholars to conclude that it controlled at least the eight
largest islands (Lesbos, Chios (aka Scio), Lemnos, Samos, Thasos, Imbros
(today Gökçeada), Icaria, and Samothrace) of the region.</div><div>by Hutch. Fran 2 = 2 points.<br></div><div>Nick:
Greek but don't recall this history. Maybe? <br></div><div>Fran:
I feel like all that detail deserves some POINTS <br></div><div>Elliott:
OCTO + ROI.<span><br></span>
</div><div>________________________________<div><br></div>
joke definition: Octroi, proper noun. The eighth Deanna clone created by Thomas Riker trying to recreate the transporter accident that created him. <br></div><div>Nick:
Everyone can probably figure out this was me. 😆</div><div>Eric:
Nice. Eight points. <br></div><div>Ranjit:
I'll give this one 2 grams of gold-pressed latinum (approximately equal to 5 quatloos) <br></div><div>Elliott:
Star Trek? <br></div><div>
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</div><div><br></div><div>Note below: You try real hard, but you inevitably screw up anyway. When I sent this word out, two people said they thought they might know it, but neither one identified the "tax" definition that I had found. Pierre wrote, "I don't know this in English, but I know the French verb "octroyer", which means "grant". And upon learning the Spanish verb "otorgar", I pretty much figured out their common etymon, which is "*auctoricare" (IIRR this is unattested, hence the asterisk). I think I first saw the word "octroyé" on some machine saying that a patent had been granted." Pretty good, but nothing to do with taxes that I could see. But when it came time to put the ballot together, I went to the dictionary website and grabbed the whole definition, not noticing that meaning #1, which I had not previously encountered, contained the word "grant" that Pierre had mentioned. If I had just gone with meaning #2, Pierre wouldn't have felt the need to recuse himself. But it doesn't appear to have affected the outcome.<br></div></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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