Subject: define this! -- sort of

From: Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 08:58:09 -0500

Aussie wrote:
>I decline!  I decline!  I couldn't think of a word if it came up and
>kicked me in the keister!
>Jean-Joseph, the mantle falls upon you.

NOT having won fair and square, I will hereby take the opportunity to
present a "variety" round.  The rules will be different. The word will
be:

   sebaggle

BUT... do not submit a definition that is calculated to make people think
that it's correct.  In the time I've been playing this game, the most
consistent participant seems to have been David Randall.  David is also
the person who others (including myself) most often attempt to identify
from his definitions.  I've never even met the man, and I'll bet that
that's true for most of the rest of you as well.  But we think we know
how he thinks.

SO... please submit a definition that sounds as if it was written by
David Randall!  (And this applies to you, too, David, submit a definition
that sounds as if you yourself wrote it.)  The voting will be not for the
real definition, but rather it will be an matter of trying to find the
real David Randall definition.  Yes, David will have an advantage there,
as he'll know which one he wrote, but you'll have to live with that.  Get
your definitions in by American Thanksgiving.

UNLESS... Mr. Randall objects to this spotlighting, of course, in which
case I'll find other means to amuse you all.  But I suspect he's a good
sport.

"WAIT...", you say, "I've been playing for only a short time, and don't
yet have a feel for the characteristics of Randallism".  Not to worry. 
Herewith follows a collection of definitions that David has submitted
over the past few years.  I's possible that I screwed up and grabbed a
definition from somebody else in one or two cases, but they're mostly
his, anyway.

wlonk - n.   - Overcooked tapioca.

xerclod - n. (19th cent. Brit.) - a messenger boy at a newspaper. See
'Fleet-Street Lad'.

sastruga - n. - (Texan dial.) A tailor; a weakling. [Spanish, from
_sastre_]

pernio - n. - a stony field

skep - v. - to clear a field of stones and tree stumps (word withdrawn,
Judith knew it)

fidola. - n. - (Shropshire dial.) a viola.

baubee - n. - (Scots dialect) a coracle.

glusk, v.  (fr. Icelandic) to etch ivory.

salacacabia (n): (fr. Arapaho) a teepee made of coyote
skins; used in deserts and steppes.

guimpe - n.  (Middle English) An unspecified method of birth
control mentioned in the fifteenth-century Caxton Letters.

loco-foco - n. (Oxford slang) a loquacious vulgarian.

modesty - 1. self-abnegation   2. chaste demeanor (another variety round)

nosema - n. - An enema of the nasal passages.

cottabus, n.  1. A monastic copyist of manuscripts 2. An apprentice
linguist.

jequirity - an Australian drink made of gin steeped in eucalyptus leaves.

cypripareunia.  n.  1. Love that arises between husband and wife after
marriage; usually referring to arranged marriages.  2. Conjugal
affection.

manille. n. 1. a loosely-woven Flemish cloth patterned after
Manila silk.  2. a cheap fabric.  3. (slang) a prostitute.

temulent - n. - A living man possessed by a revenant.

bagasse - (n) a sixteenth-centurey French court dance adapted from a
peasant dance of the Auvergne

gonotheca, n. a thief of automobiles.

afflatus - (n) a constriction of the sphincter

holothurian - (adj.) 1. Extremely bloody.  2. In accordance with the
principles
of Holothur the Lusatian (1320? - 1378), founder of the lay Catholic
Order of 
Ecstatic Flagellants.

sulcate - n. - A residue of slag and coke ash produced in steel
foundries.

stringhalt  (n.) a peppercorn goat's milk cheese from the Stringhalt
district
of Bavaria

latticinio - n. black-and-gray stippled marble

gosport, n. -- the sterile offspring of two species of falcons.

murnival, adj. Deeply furrowed.

hutchet, n. (fr. Xhosa _*u-che_ [log]) a ventilation pipe in a mine

murrey - n. - A thin needle used by furriers to stitch together pelts.

garbure  (v)  [fr. Hindi] 1. to act disrespectfully.  2. to profane a
temple.

littress - n. - (fr. Dutch) a drained marsh

cabomba (n) - (fr. Portuguese) a rapid dance usually performed at
weddings

contango - n. - The portion of a slush pile at a publishing house that
has arrived without a self-addressed stamped envelope.

costean - adj. - cheap, shoddy

vigoro - n. - A one-armed strong man.  cf. Giuseppe Vigoro (1842-1915),
a.k.a. Joe Vigor, The Ringling Brothers' Crippled Atlas of Capua.

lanternise (v) - (Welsh dialect) to macadamize a road (after
David Lantern, who built the first macadam road in Wales).

pistareen n. - (fr. Uighur) the water-brigands of the Pisetayur sect of
the Takla Makan.

raffinose,  adj. -- (18th cent.) gossipy, malevolent.  From Sydney
Raffin, the
villain of Farquahar's _The Maid of Fleet Street_ (1754).

meristic - n. - Benthamite machine proposed by Charles Babbage to
quantify happiness.  Attacked by MILL in _On Liberty_ and parodied by
TROLLOPE in _The Curate's Device_.  Cf. ORWELL's essay, "Marx, the
Meristic, and _The Manchester Guardian_."

kist (n.) (fr. Icelandic) a family feud caused by breach of promise of
marriage.

slype - adj. - (Scots dial.) disorganized, chaotic, incompetent.  Cf.
"The Earl of Slype's Raid on York"

FESCENNINE (n) rust-colored marble quarried in the Tuscan town of Fescia

spancel (n): 1. an officer of the Austro-Hungarian armored motorcycle
corps.
2. a veteran serving in rightist paramilitary organizations.

fordo   n.   A lucky marble

paphian - adj - susceptible to sensual enthusiasms

cothurnus - (n) improperly healed scar tissue containing pus

eruke, n. A broad, curved harpoon with a serrated tip.

tip-stretcher -- (n.) [Aus. slang] a man proficient at sexual activities.

ambrette, n. 1. A small glass bottle containing ambergris or other
perfumes. 2. An aphrodisiac. 3. A flirtatious young woman

colorstruck - n. - a flock consisting solely of white-fleeced sheep

darapti, n. (fr. Hindi) A railway porter.