Subject: (S)CULCH results

From: Elliott A Moreton <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 19:52:16 -0500 (EST)

The results are in, and the winner is ...  THE AMERICAN HERITAGE 
DICTIONARY, with 22 points!  Take it away, Dictionary!!!!!!!!!!!

What?  Oh.  Okay, I'll tell them.  The AHD says it isn't going to be 
able to access its email for a couple of months.  It was playing to lose 
and is every bit as surprised as yall are.  The victory therefore 
devolves upon the first runner-up, JACOB MATTISON, with 8 points!!!!!  
Take it away, Jacob!!!!!!!!!!

em

PS  

I blunderingly left out a def by Hutch which correctly tagged the word 
as New England dialect:

culch -- (v.)  To sleep with a member of the opposite sex without the 
intention of or committing intercourse.  See bundle.

My apologies to Hutch!
_______________________________________________________________________

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (n.)  The coiled heating element on an
electric stove
BY:  Melissa Shaner (MyS)
3 = Amy 1 + correct guess 2

culch (_also_ sculch, < squelch _and_ scuttle) -- (v.) To sabotage and
then hide evidence of existence.  "We were going to hold a shower for
Lisa at the office, but plans were effectively sculched when the
invitations disappeared and the office kitchen was damaged by the
microwave when it exploded."
BY:  Fran Poodry
0
JJ:  Interesting definition, but the example doesn't really match it.  
Question is, who sculched the microwave?  (And I think the example 
would work with the word "scotched" -- oops, is that an ethnic slur?)
Hutch:  *giggle* The definition is ALMOST believable, but the example 
sentence simply goes TOO FAR!!
Kir:  Amusing example sentence.

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (v.) To remove seeds from a pomegranate.
BY:  James Kushner
2 = correct guess 2

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (v.) To capture.
BY:  Judith Schreier
2= correct guess 2

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (v.) (Naval) To tighten a rigging line by a
small amount.
BY:  Jacob Mattison (NEW!)	
8 = Kir 2 + James 1 + Ranjit 2 + Jean-Joseph 1 + correct guess 2
JJ:  "Bos'n!  Sculch the jib,we're going to approach on their starboard 
side!"
Jacob:  "Midshipman!  Culch that topgallant halyard!  What d'you think 
this is, the merchant marine?"
Ranjit:  Horribly believable. 2 points.  Although I am here 
disregarding everything I have learned about Fictionary Nautical 
Syndrome.
MyS:  Too much like Fran.

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (n.) 1.  A natural bed for oysters.  2.  The
spawn of the oyster.  3.  Clean trash or rubbish.  4.  Someone or
something held in contempt.
BY:  American Heritage Dictionary
22 = Kir 1 + Amy 2 + James 2 + Ranjit 1 + Judith 2 + David Randall 2 + 
phma 2 + Jacob 2 + MyS 2 + Hutch 2 + Eric 2 + Aussie 2
Ranjit:  FOUR definitions!  ONE point!  Though I can't imagine a word 
keeping its two variants through four different meanings.  [Here's where 
I cheated.  The AHD says that the variant pronunciation is for meaning 3 
only.  It is "possibly" related to _couch_. -- em]

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (v.) To walk in a lighthearted manner, to
prance
BY:  Jean-Joseph Cote
0 = Amy (NEW!) honorable mention
JJ:  Mine.  I guess it's sort of the opposite of "skulk".
Jacob:  Very useful in sappy popular songs:
"The garden is now mulch,
 	where once we used to culch..."

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (n.)(Stanleyshire dialect) A juvenile
delinquent who specializes in stealing recordings of classical music.
BY:  David Randall
2 = correct guess 2
Aussie:  "Culcha snatcha!"
Hutch:  Like our droogy Alex, in _A Clockwork Orange_.
phma:  LOL!
Jacob:  Of course, nowadays they just use Napster.

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (v.) To wake someone up by pulling the covers
off him.
BY:  Pierre Abbat (phma)
4 = David Randall 1 + Aussie 1 + correct guess 2
Kir:  Been there, done that, got cold..

culch (_also_ sculch; Gullah, of Mende origin - 1805) -- (n.)  Lemon
punch.
BY:  Aussie Meyer
4 = MyS 1 + Eric 1 + correct guess 2
JJ:  I suspect Pierre of perpetrating the punch.
Ranjit:  "Punch" is already some kinda durn furrin word.  [Indeed.  
"Punch" as in brawl or awl goes back to Lat. _pungere_ and so is kin to 
_puncture_.  "Punch" as in the drink is thought to be through Hindi from 
Sanskrit pan~ca 'five', as in Punjab.  "Punch" as in Judy is short for 
Punchinello.  All furriners, all of them.] 

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (n.) 1. Pepper.  2. Previously, a variety of
coarse black pepper, crudely processed in India for export.
BY:  Eric Cohen
6 = Jacob 1 + Hutch 1 + Fran 2 + correct guess 2

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (v.)  To withdraw one's pledged support;
reneg.  n. A person who is known for having sculched.
BY:  Lawrence D. P. Miller
1 = Fran 1
Jacob:  See, now, this is why the "X, also Y" format is particularly 
tricky -- this one seems right to me for "sculch" but not so much for 
"culch".

culch (_also_ sculch) -- (n.) A decorative trench or haha.
BY:  Ranjit Bhatnagar
5 = phma 1 + Jean-Joseph 2 + Judith 1 + correct guess 1
Many people want to know more about hahas.  Do tell.
Hutch:  Unless I'm mistooken, a ha-ha is hyphenated, and is specifically 
intended to not be seen. (Thus, it isn't decorative.)
MyS:  Too much like gulch.

________________________________________________________________________
GENERAL COMMENTS

>From Kir:  

Lots of things I wanted to give 1 pt to...

>From James: 

Good batch of definitions. You know how, in many rounds, none of the
definitions seem at all plausible? This time round, far too many of them
might be true.

>From Aussie:

*****Martha Stewart on Culch***** 
 
"First you peel and culch the fruit, (or 'sculch' as my Nana used to 
say) 
because adding a pomegranite garnish to the punchbowl complements the 
tartness of the traditional Gullah culch. This should provide a 
refreshing  
accompaniment to the oysters (which I raise in my own culch off 
Martha's  
Vineyard). I like to bake them over hot coals in an ornamental culch  
and serve them steaming with coarse Malabar culch.  Cooking over the 
coals  
can save the party when your social secretary has attempted to culch 
the  
event (the rotten culch!) by savaging the guest list and shorting out  
the culch on your electric stove. It happened to me once, I assure you,  
and it was as rude an awakening as being culched in Girl Scout camp!" 
 
"If you can culch a culch to deejay some nice Verdi, it's very festive  
to culch up your own hand-rigged tightrope for the young people to 
culch  
up and down upon.  It's a Good Thing. "

>From Jean-Joseph:
Lots of things I wanted to give 1 pt to...

It was an unusual day.  I was tripping along near a ditch with a kid I 
knew, who had a had a habit of lifting wax cylinders of Mozart 
recordings.  In one hand I had a citrus drink, in the other a 
pomegranate 
which I was vigously eviscerating with a grapefruit spoon, and spicing 
up 
with some ground seasonings.  But that little jerk (who had roused me 
that morning by cruelly stealing my down comforter) went back on his 
promise to financially help out the public radio station where I was a 
volunteer, irking me no end.  Next thing I knew, the local constabulary 
descended upon him, slapping on the cuffs.  Turns out he was the one who 
had intentionally shorted out the electric range in the rectory, almost 
starting a fire.  I didn't want them to think I had anything to do with 
this, so I made myself scarce, and went down to the docks to meet a 
friend who was teaching me to sail, that day taking lessons in making 
fine adjustments to the sheets.  In other words: 
 
As I sculched with a sculch by the sculch, 
I drank sculch, sculched and added some sculch, 
But that sculching sculch sculched, 
The sculch-sculcher got sculched, 
So I shipped out and learned how to sculch.

---

From: Aussie Meyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 20:48:58 -0800

> Punchinello.  All furriners, all of them.] 

Foof.  If Latin & Sanskrit roots constitute furrin-ness, then ALL words
is furrin.

---

From: Pierre Abbat <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 22:14:54 -0500

Are you in cahoots with tsuwm? I looked at wwftd, after not having looked at it
for at least ten days, and there it was!

phma

---

From: Elliott A Moreton <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 11:06:26 -0500 (EST)

> Foof.  If Latin & Sanskrit roots constitute furrin-ness, then ALL words

Welllllll, Latin and Sanskrit may be Indo-European, but they *are* foreign 
languages, aren't they?  I guess you might make a case that English was 
forcibly married into the Romance subfamily and acquired Latin as an in-law, 
but Indo-Iranian?

em