Subject: Marbelous! Simply marbelous!

From: Pierre Abbat <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 13:01:18 -0400

abrin, n. A marble with a combination latticinio and ribbon core. Also see 
abie.
by Aussie Meyer. 11
2 tiny pellets
Amy: Two.
Fran: I love this: 2 points!
Ranjit: 2 pts
Linda: My last point for more latticinio.
JJ: Two points..

abrin, adj. (a-BRIN) (railroad terminology) Temporarily loose or disengaged 
from the engine, as when engaged in a sawby.
by Ranjit Bhatnagar. 6
Amy: One.
Fran: honorable mention for sounding very real!
Linda: This is a great def! Wish I had another point.
David: 1 point
Hutch: 2 points
JJ: When I submitted "sawby", I did a bunch of reading up on railroad stuff to 
assemble the definition, and I don't recall having seen this word.  In this 
sense, it looks more nautical, as in "When the painter broke, the tender was 
abrin for a half-hour until we coerced the cabin boy to swim out and retrieve 
it".
Elliott: Nice morphology.  Two points.

abrin, n. A poison found in jequirity beans, similar to but more poisonous 
than ricin.
the truth. 4
Linda: Well, it has the right ending....
David: 2 points
Aussie: Very convincing!  Two shiny points.
JJ: I'd think we would have been hearing about this.

abrin, adj. Cross-hatched, dotted, speckled, flecked; as latticinio.
by Jeff Hutchinson. 4
Ranjit: 1 pt
Linda: I really like latticinio--1 point
JJ: One point.
Elliott: Vaguely plausible.  One point.

abrin, n. The molded insert in a jewelry box that comes from the manufacturer, 
that holds the ring or bracelet, etc. It is often sulcate, the better to bond 
the flocking, sateen, velveteen, or other glitzy top-facing.
by Linda Owens. 3
Fran: very nice: 1 point
Aussie: A plus for word-splicing!  One point.
Hutch: This one has the best use of the previous fictionary word (except for 
my own, of course :), but the whole structure isn't quite believable as a 
dictionary definition. The sentence break and the word "glitzy" make it not 
quite on. But, 1 point.
JJ: "the better to"?  "glitzy"?

abrin, n. The hormone behind the epinasty.
by Jean-Joseph Cote. 2
2 red and black beans
JJ: Mine.  Actually close to the real definition of "auxin", though I tried to 
give that Abbat flair.

abrin, n. A meristic debt collector. (After "Claude Abrin", pseudonymous 
author of _Collateral Damage:  My Rise and Fall in the New Orleans Mob_ 
(1973).)
by Elliott Moreton. 1
Linda: This sounds so well-researched.  1 point  And I like meristic, despite 
forgetting its meaning.
Hutch: The alleged source material is too new for the author's pseudonym to 
have become a recognized word.
JJ: Too new.

abrin, n. A stylized animal depiction on a small scoop used for cerumen 
removal.
by Fran Poodry. 0
Linda: Sounds like brain surgery (is it surgery after death?) in mummification 
among the Ancient Egyptians??? Can't recall what cerumen is, though.
JJ: That's certainly specific and obscure.
Pierre: I'd like to have one of those. I use pen caps, and they don't get it 
all out.

abrin, n. Surgery necessary to treat pernio.
by David Randall. 0
JJ: I don't think surgery would help, as it's kind of an allergic reaction.

abrin, n. A chemical (di-hydroboric acetate) used in the manufacture of inks 
and dyes.
by Judith Schrier. 0
Linda: This sounds the most realistic--to me---at this moment.
JJ: Hmm.... I'm not seeing any fictionary words here that I recognize...

Hutch: Obscure words in the definition make for VERY obscure 
words. Very tough decision.

JJ: Looks like I'm down to the two latticinio definitions

JJ (after voting): Hmm... I guess maybe if I had been reading the news more 
carefully, I would have heard of it.  There's concern about the terrorism 
potential. There's also a naturopathic physician out there with the 
unfortunate name of Dr. Thauna Abrin.

The reason you don't hear much about abrin as a terrorist weapon is that there 
isn't much jequirity processed. Castor is used by the millions of tons per 
year, and for each liter of castor oil produced, enough ricin is byproduced 
to arm a sea of umbrellas.

phma
-- 
li fi'u vu'u fi'u fi'u du li pa