Subject: thirl results

From: Snibor Eoj <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 13:52:42 -0400 (EDT)

And the winner is...  Jean-Joseph, barely eking ahead of Merriam-Webster!

I thought that the noun/verb forms sounded too contrived, but a lot of you 
saw right through that.  Guess I'll have to try to find something a little 
less dictionarious next time 'round.

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thirl - 1. (n.) The drizzle of sweat flung up from the legs of a horse
into the face of the coachman.  2. (n.) Hence, any indignity attendant
upon a humble occupation.
ELLIOTT - 7
Eric 2, Ranjit 2, Melissa 1 + 2 Correct Guess

Hutch: Too close to my fictionition, but there ought to be a word for it.
Certainly I take my share of this sort of thirl from my boss every day.
Jean-Joseph: David. Or maybe Ranjit.
Eric: Two points.  Lovely def, as I've experienced my share of thirl.
Melissa: David Randall, but so nice an etymology.  1 point.
Linda: Good progression.

thirl - (n.) A female impersonator by occupation but not by inclination.
RANJIT - 2
Elliott 1, Eric 1
Elliott: GIRL, perhaps with a soupcon of lisp.  One point for the vaguely
Samuel Johnsonesque wording.
Hutch: I know this guy *chuckle*
Jean-Joseph: David.  Or maybe Elliott.
Linda: Some people will do anything for a buck.
Pierre: Huh? A female who impersonates? Someone who impersonates females?
Why would anyone be this?
Will: I'm stupified.

thirl - (n.) The part of a sewing machine that brings the thread around
the lower bobbin.
PIERRE - 9
Hutch 1, David 1, Amy 1, Jean-Joseph 1, Fran 1, Linda 2 + 2 Correct Guess
Elliott: THREAD.  There is no "part" that brings the thread around.  It's
a physical impossibility and is accomplished by a powerful spell.
Hutch: Sewing machines, anyone? 1 point.
Jean-Joseph: I doubt it.  But it wins the coin toss over the finial: one
point.
Linda: There should be a word for this, and since I have hemmed pants on
my old machine lately, I award this 2 points.
Pierre: Needles to say...

thirl - (n.) A Medieval henchman
LINDA - 0
Elliott: CHURL.
Hutch: Also, too close to mine.
Jean-Joseph: Churl.

thirl - 1. (n.) A hole or perforation.  2. (v.) To pierce or perforate
MERRIAM-WEBSTER (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=thirl) - 13
Elliott 2, Aussie 2, Hutch 2, Judith 1, Jean-Joseph 2, Melissa 2, Pierre 2
Elliott: NOSTRIL (nose-thirl)?  And maybe THROUGH?  I can believe it.  
Two points!
Aussie: I like the hole - two points worth!
Hutch: The verbification of the noun (or was it nounification of a verb?)
is just too tempting to resist: 2 points.
Jean-Joseph: I like this.  Two points.
Linda: Probably it, but it does not grab me.  Or thirl me, luckily.

thirl - (n.) Use of two or more similarly patterned fabrics with some
significant difference in color or pattern size, in the same ensemble.
AUSSIE - 3
Linda 1 + 2 Correct Guess
Elliott: THREADs.  The word sounds too old to belong to an era when people
have a choice of patterns and colors.
Hutch: These certainly sound very like real dictionary definitions. But
they're boring: which means one of them is probably right. *sigh*
Jean-Joseph: I always get criticized for my poor fashion sense when I
inadvertently do something like this
Linda: Does Laura Ashley know about this?  1 point for pattern
coordination.

thirl - (n.) A teardrop-shaped metal channel, used to maintain a minimum
radius of curvature in a cable when forming a terminating eye.
JEAN-JOSEPH - 14
David 2, Amy 2, Judith 2, Fran 2, Ranjit 1, Kir 2, Pierre 1 + 2 Correct Guess
Elliott: THREAD.  Eric?  (For some reason, I always assume engineering
defs are Eric.)
Hutch: These certainly sound very like real dictionary definitions. But
they're boring: which means one of them is probably right. *sigh*
Amy: Two points - very nicely done if not real <grin>.
Jean-Joseph: You can buy these in any well-stocked hardware store, but
they're actually called thimbles.
Linda: Trying to blind me with science again.
Will: Ooh, this sounds good.

thirl - (n.) The sound of a bagpipe or similar instrument.
JUDITH - 1
1 Correct Guess
Elliott: SKIRL.  I might have believed it if it had said "pennywhistle".
Hutch: I'm almost positive this is "skirl".
Jean-Joseph: These are the same definition, right?
Ranjit: Um, skirl, right?
Melissa: Skirl.  Or ayeegareegronk, if you read Frank & Ernest.
Linda: Wouldn't that be a nasal whine with a drone? Or is that too trite?
Pierre: Skirl?

thirl - (v.) To snore lightly with a musical note.
FRAN - 0
Elliott: SKIRL, and probably CHURL too -- aren't they always snoring
soundly after a revel?
Hutch: And this sounds too much like the "skirl" definition.
Jean-Joseph: These are the same definition, right?
Ranjit: Also skirl, then?
Linda: Like a cartoonish spurl?  Linda No, that is the sign of
unconsciousness.
Will: :-)

thirl - (n.) On a three-masted schooner, the third sail.
WILL - 1
Aussie 1
Elliott: THIRD.
Aussie: One point for having a reasonable sound to it.
Jean-Joseph: Ah, yes, and at some intermediate point it was called the
thir's'l.
Eric: Mizzensail.
Ranjit: Between the secol and the fourl, I assume.
Linda: After voting, I looked into The Sea Scout Manual of 1943.  I found:  
"It is now seriously agreed that in all vessels carrying a fore and aft
sail on the aftermost mast, this shall be known as The Spanker!"  I
couldn't find a picture of a 3-masted schooner, but on the three-masted
frigate, the aft mast was called the mizzen.

thirl - (n.) The felt-chinked water-cooled earth-brick hut of the Uighur
people, used to store ingots of soured yak-butter.
ERIC - 2
Kir 1, Will 1
Elliott: I'm a bit suspicious of this one -- IIRC the circular,
cone-roofed Uighur outbuildings are cooled with yak milk, not water.
Aussie: Gee, I was totally believing this until I got to "soured" yak
butter. There's no call for pre-souring one's ingots of yak butter -
that's taking convenience food a bit too far.
Hutch: yurt alert! Yurt Alert!! YURT ALERT!!!
Jean-Joseph: The Uighur have traveled quite a bit in their history.  
Originally, I think they were spanish.
Ranjit: More advanced Uighurs use liquid nitrogen for cooling their butter
ingots.
Melissa: Yurt alert!
Linda: no-no, ha-ha, not-yurt.
Pierre: which have been cooked over Pope smoke.
Will: 1 point for coolness!  Wow.  I am in awe.

thirl - (n.) A peon whose work in the fields belongs to his
lord, but who has the right to all or some proceeds from
his animal husbandry.
HUTCH - 2
2 Correct Guess
Elliott: CHURL, perhaps plus THANE.
Jean-Joseph: Another churl.  Or a thrall.
Ranjit: Are peons, fiefs, and serfs the new yurts?
Melissa: It's a churl!  It's a thane!  It's THIRL MAN!
Linda: In Charlestown, Sc, The Slaves' Market was where the slaves sold
their surplus (farmers are not sold at farmers' markets, I was told, and
neither were slaves). Today many craft items are still sold there.
Will: Interesting... probably David Randall.

thirl - (n.) Art whose wretchedness induces nausea.
DAVID - 2
Will 2
Elliott: The sleep of taste brings forth monstrosities.  Honorable
mention, but I'm out of points.
Hutch: There certainly *ought* to be a word for this *LOL*
Jean-Joseph: Or specifcally, makes you want to hurl.
Linda: It's art, but is it nice?  Too much schlock around. Have you seen
the big box of dirt in NYC?  Somewhere in Soho, if I recall.  Old and
moldy. Yuck.  Vomit.  Linda PS I once had a cat I called "My Art Critic"  
He used to spray on my art portfolio and vomit on a lot of household
stuff. We gave him "degree of difficulty" points for along the fringes of
a rug or down a stack of records.  Otherwise he was very friendly and even
let babies mangle him with love.
Will: 2 points.  If this isn't it, there should be a word for this!

thirl - (n.) A finial at the top of a gatepost.
MELISSA - 2
2 Correct Guess
Elliott: Plausible, since I don't know what a finial is.  But I'm all out
of points.
Hutch: These certainly sound very like real dictionary definitions. But
they're boring: which means one of them is probably right. *sigh*
Jean-Joseph: Loses the coin toss to the bobbin guide.
Linda: Nice sleeper at the end--almost missed it, as it printed on a
second page.

Snibor Eoj

[email-masked]
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I'm a member of the Non-Sequitur Association of America
  "You can lead a yak to water, but you can't teach an old dog to make
   a silk purse out of a pig in a poke."  - Opus

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From: Elliott Moreton <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 14:13:08 -0400 (EDT)

> Ranjit: Are peons, fiefs, and serfs the new yurts?

This would make an excellent Newsweek cover story.

em

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 17:50:40 -0500

>frigate, the aft mast was called the mizzen.

If I recall correctly, the distinction would be that if your first 
two masts are square-rigged, then the (gaff-rigged) largest sail on 
your mizzen mast would be the spanker.  On a schooner, all three 
masts will be fore-and-aft rigged, and the big sail on each mast 
would be (in order) the foresail, mainsail, and mizzensail.

Unless I'm wrong.  Only one person ever really understood rigging, 
and he's dead.

-- 
   -- Eric | Of course, no honest person claims that happiness is *now*
silent-e@ | a normal condition among adult human beings; but perhaps
myrealbox | it *could* be made normal, and it is upon this question
      .com | that all serious political controversy really turns.
                                                       -- George Orwell

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From: Aussie Meyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 19:17:17 -0500

>the big box of dirt in NYC? 
>
Hmmm.  I've found in my other life in The Sims Online, that a number of 
conceptual artists in the town of Jolly Pines have independently begun 
working on the (Sim)world's largest stack of dirty dishes.  This is one 
of the few creative outlets that a Sim can really indulge in.