Subject: Fw: Fictionary Results

From: Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 15:06:47 -0400

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: 2 Oct 2002 18:55:09 -0000
Subject: Fictionary Results
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

J-J, one more time, please send this out: Thanks!

A very close race this time. Pierre's 'backwater' finally wins out (due
to his correct vote), but it, Joe Robins's 'lonely', Elliott's
'factitious gesture', and the dictionary's 'winter' all battled for the
lead as the results came in.

So, take it away, Pierre!

BB,
Hutch

P.S. I did lose a correct vote somewhere: I think J-J or Fran also voted
for 'wintery'. But it doesn't affect the results.

=====

hyemal - n. - The ubiquitous fish soup sold from roadside stands
throughout Johannesberg.
Ranjit Bhatnagar 1
J-J Cote: Fish soup is not a telefictionary totem, but it is a fictionary
totem to me, since the first time I heard of this game was when my friend
Mike related to me the tale of a game of Balderdash played with his
family over the holidays. He said that it was easy to tell which
definitions came from his brother-in-law, because they would always start
out good, but then get too specific. The example he gave was, "A Cuban
fish soup served to visiting dignitaries".
Linda F. Owens: What a neat def! Yum!
Pierre Abbat: 1 point for fun. Is it made from shark (hyfish)?

hyemal - adj. - Lonely; desolate; forlorn. [From Greek myth, the Three
Sorrows: Lothos, Mendra, and Hyema, who represented Poverty, Illness, and
Loneliness, respectively.]
Joe Robins 8
J-J Cote: Trying to remember enough of my limited Greek to see if this
make sense, or to remember enough Greek mythology ot tell if there really
were Three Sorrows, and if they had these names. But I can't. It looks
plausible. But I guess it looks too good to be real, or something. Makes
me nervous. Wasn't there a fourth Sorrow called Paranoia? Or am I
thinking of d'Artagnan?
Ranjit Bhatnagar: All too believable
Amy L. Swift: I'm not sure I buy it, but I really like it, so, one point.
Eric: One point, for an interesting dissection of sorrow.
Linda F. Owens: Have no idea if this is true, but I like the derivation!
2 points.
Pierre Abbat: This sounds made up. Poor is ptocha or penichra.
Elliott Moreton: Two points for creativity.

hyemal - adj. - Positioned behind and to one side; diagonally behind.
James Kushner 1
J-J Cote: Reminds me of a definition I once submitted, something like
"diagonally upstream".
Linda F. Owens: New idea for me. Never thought I'd need a word for this,
but perhaps if I bowl or march in parades.
Pierre Abbat: Catty-after.
Elliott Moreton: One point for utility.

hyemal - adj. - Of a gesture, factitious and calculated to elicit a
similar, but sincere, response, e.g., an apology which disguises a demand
for an apology, or a compliment meant to evoke a compliment.
Elliott Moreton 4
J-J Cote: I like this a lot. And it looks completely like fictionary.
Ranjit Bhatnagar: Brilliant fakery
Snibor Eoj: 1 point for the "there should be a word for this" award,
though I'm skeptical that this is right.
Linda F. Owens: This is very intellectual and complicated. Very nice.

hyemal - n. - (med.) A disagreeable experience with psychedelic drugs; a
"bad trip".
J-J Cote 0 [Note from J-J: From the French "le 'high' est mal", of
course.]
Linda F. Owens: Sorry, never did drugs, so I don't know the lingo.

hyemal - adj. - Belonging to winter; done in winter.
Webster's 1828 Dictionary 5
J-J Cote: Related to "hiver", I suppose. But it looks more Greek than
Romance to me.
Snibor Eoj: Winter was my first thought on seeing this word, which makes
me think that this has to be wrong, because if that was right, someone
would surely have known the word, nu?
Eric: Was about to give it two points. But wait, that's "hibernal", isn't
it. Oops.
Linda F. Owens: Isn't that hibernal?
Aussie Meyer: Sounds good. 2 points
Pierre Abbat: 2 points. Sounds most plausible.
Elliott Moreton: This is bound to be the real one -- a funny English
spelling of Latin _hiemalis_, from _hiems_ 'winter'. I shall recuse
myself from voting for it.

hyemal - adj. - Of or pertaining to a backwater in a river.
Pierre Abbat 7+2 (correct vote)
J-J Cote: Not particularly interesting. And thus worth a point.
Snibor Eoj: For some inexplicable reason, I like this. 2 points
Amy L. Swift: Two points; sounds plausible...
Eric: Such a useful word, even if wrong -- hyemal gravels, hyemal
sediment, hyemal flora.... Two points.
Linda F. Owens: One point for the sleepy backwaters, which I love,
canoeing-wise.

hyemal - adj. - Not allowing the passage of various substances through a
membrane. Ant. porous.
Linda Owens 3
J-J Cote: Similarly ho-hum. And good for two points.
Aussie Meyer: heh, heh. One point
Elliott Moreton: HYMEN. Dear me.

---

From: Elliott Moreton <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 19:09:36 -0400 (EDT)

> for an apology, or a compliment meant to evoke a compliment.

There's something wrong with the wording here, but I wasn't able to fix it 
in time and still can't.  There are two problems.  One is "gesture", which 
is meant metaphorically but comes so early in the sentence that the reader 
is likely to take it literally.  Is there a word for "gesture, in the 
metaphorical sense"?  The other problem is "a similar, but sincere, 
response".  A stronger word than "similar" is called for -- something that 
means "a gesture (or whatever the best word is) of like type".  Can anyone 
think of one?

---

From: Aussie Meyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2002 14:36:55 -0500

I had to vote for Linda's membrane, in nostalgia for a chap I knew of 
named Buster Hyman.

---

From: "lindafowens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 08:35:06 -0400

Aussie, So it's my membrane, is it? But, I'll take votes for any old reason.
Actually, can't quite think of why I came up with that def--totally
arbitrary. Linda----- Original Message -----
From: Aussie Meyer <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 3:36 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Fictionary Results

> I had to vote for Linda's membrane, in nostalgia for a chap I knew of

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