tittup results
Snibor Eoj
jmrobins at oygevalt.org
Mon Sep 29 12:24:52 EDT 2003
In an exciting finish, Jean-Joseph squeaks past Ranjit with the points
from a correct guess, and earns the privilege of inflicting a new word
upon us! Take it away, J-J!
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tittup (v.) - (Bartender's slang) To leave a bottle upended in a glass to
get the last drops.
Ranjit - 2 Aussie, 2 Fran, 2 Elliott - 6 POINTS
Aussie: What a good one! TWO POINTS!
Linda: Originally I was going to give this one point but changed my mind.
Anyway, there is a simple red plastic contraption I got as a birthday
present from a cousin in which you put the bottle of ketchup or shampoo,
etc., upside-down to drain the bottle--very small and handy. Don't know
its name but I will call it a tittup.
Elliott: Brilliant! Both practical and plausible. I can see how it might
remind an old-timey bartender of, say, an udder.
tittup (v.) - A triple crown move in some variants of checkers.
Aussie - 1 Fran - 1 POINT
Linda: Not that advanced in this game, sorry.
tittup (n.) - One who regularly attracts gossip.
Arthur - 1 Pierre, 1 correct vote - 2 POINTS
Linda: cf. titter? twitter?
Pierre: Sounds more plausible than just "gossip".
tittup (n.) - An intrusive and unwelcome thought inseparably associated
with some other particular thought, idea, image, or the like, which the
tittup immediately displaces whenever the other comes to mind. (1869;
coined in a class lecture at Harvard by William James, who declined to
specify the etymology he had in mind.)
Elliott - 2 David, 1 Judith, 1 Linda - 4 POINTS
David: 2 points, for especial merit.
Linda: Am giving this one point after it wormed its way into my thoughts
and would not leave. A hint? I have heard that the James brothers (Wm
and ?--not Jesse's gang) were very intellectual as children and would play
games like, "Stand in the corner and try NOT to think of a white bear."
Of course the bear would show up. Weaning can be very trying, so perhaps
the coinage is from that--the desired object being a breast, of course;
perhaps the wet nurse was not the mom--in the olden days children were not
bottle fed, and a wet nurse ( a woman already nursing a babe of her own)
would take over if the mother died or was ill, or if the wealthy mom chose
NOT to nurse the child, leaving her free to maintain small tight breasts
to please her husband and to attend to more "important" tasks, such as
running the household and attending social gatherings, looking
fashionable.
tittup (v.) - (Golf) To intentionally distract an opponent, such as by
creating a sudden noise when he is playing his stroke.
Jean-Joseph - 1 David, 2 Arthur, 2 Pierre, 2 correct vote - 7 POINTS
David: 1 point, for moderate merit. Even though "To intentionally
distract" splits an infinitive, and therefore is unlikely.
Linda: I'm not a golf player, but many in my family are--in this sport and
even in bowling, distracting the player is frowned upon.
tittup (n., v.) - gossip
Judith - 1 Aussie - 1 POINT
Aussie: Simple enough to be likely.
Linda: cf titter, twitter???L
tittup (n.) - A difficult or perplexing situation.
Pierre - 1 Jean-Joseph, 2 Linda - 3 POINTS
Linda: In a masculine-dominated world, tittup would naturally arise as a
minor annoyance, while a really bad situation would be a "cockup"--I'm
gathering this use from Derek Robinson's Piece of Cake, a novel and PBS
series about WWII British pilots.
tittup (n.) - A mug of beer that is more than one half head.
David - 2 Judith, 1 Elliott - 3 POINTS
Linda: I kinda like this one.
Elliott: Also clever, though I don't believe it for a minute.
tittup (n.) - "The slip twixt the cup and the lip".
Linda - 0 POINTS
tittup (n.) - Lively, gay, or restless behavior. (v.) - To move in a lively
manner, often with an exaggerated or affected action.
Merriam-Webster (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?tittup) - 1 Arthur,
2 Jean-Joseph
Linda: cf. all a-twitter?
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Snibor Eoj
jmrobins at oygevalt.org http://journal.oygevalt.org/
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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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