[Fictionary] morphew results

[Jacob Mattison]

A lot of people guessed correctly (10 points), so perhaps the real definition was too easy, but based on comments I suspect several people selected it while believing it was fake.

Interestingly, the winner, David, did not guess correctly, but collected enough points (6) for a narrow win just from his definition.  Melissa (who also didn't get any guessing points) was right behind with her finial.

I'm noticing that the folks at the top of the ballot got more points (the ballot was in order of submission).  Is there a benefit to being at the top, or do the folks who answer first do a better job?  Or is it luck?  Why take a chance -- get your definitions in early!

And over to you, David.

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morphew, n. (Irish dialect, fr. Gaelic morbha)  1. a wild animal that has escaped from a trap by chewing off its leg; 2. an evicted tenant who has murdered his landlord.
--David (6)

Eric: One point, for being bloody.  Eireann go braugh!

Melissa: 2

Judith: One point

Hutch: With that Gaelic spelling, I would expect it to be "morva"

Nick: Grisly.

Pierre: What does one have to do with the other?

Jim: Multiple definitions that suggest an ambitious repurposing of the original meaning + explicit word-origin = David-or-Elliott Award. (Few fictionary players do either of those; fewer still do both)

Nora: This is just bizarre, so it gets 2 points!

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morphew, n. A relative who shows up unexpectedly when least wanted, usually at dinner time.
--Linda (3)

2 points for correct guess

Ranjit: 1 pt

Jim: That's more of a Sniglet than a dictionary definition, mostly due to that last phrase.

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morphew, n. 1. A blemish or mark on the skin  2. Blisters cause by scurvy. "Even the pox is afraid to touch thy morphewed carcase."  John Fowles, A Maggot
--The real definition

Jacob: The definition was copy-pasted from Wiktionary, where the typo appears (I would have fixed it if I noticed -- I've now fixed it on Wiktionary).  Interestingly, while "A Maggot" by John Fowles is a real book in properly archaic language, it is actually a modern novel (published in  1985).

Ranjit: 2 pts

Eric: Two points, for being not-ridiculous and giving an example.

Linda: Two points

Nick: 2 points for the quote :oD.

Pierre: One point for the quote, but I think if you're that deficient in vitamin C, you should have no problem getting pox.

Jim: Typo in the def?

Nora: This makes sense to me, so I will give 1 point.

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morphew, n. A finial in an animal shape, most often a raven or an owl
--Melissa (5)

David: 2 points

Judith: Two points (Clearly, I have no idea...)

Hutch: 1 point

Nick: What's a finial? (Jacob: a finial is a carved knob kind of thing that might be, for example, on the top of the post at the end of the banister.)

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morphew, v.i. 1. to juggle 2. to throw props onstage [fr. Cecil Morphew (1720-1787), a stage juggler famous for performing a two-person juggling act in which he and his partner began a short distance from one another, then backed away until they were in the wings with only the juggled items visible to the audience]
--Hutch (1)

Hutch: I got the idea for this from a Star Trek novel, in which Spock and a "cousin" juggle between them. They get 15 or so items (knives, clubs, torches, etc) going between them before Spock says to the cousin that he doesn't know how to *end* such a juggle. The cousin demonstrates how to end it by throwing a last item and then stepping out of the way, leaving Spock to juggle each item once more to crash off-stage behind where the cousin had been standing. *LOL*

Linda: one point

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morphew, n. A goat with the canoe-face mutation.
--Ranjit (4)

2 points for correct guess

Pierre: The what mutation??

Jim: Wow, this just fits my head with its unblinking silliness.  2 points.

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morphew, n. A coarse woollen cloth made for the Indian trade.
--Pierre (4)

1 point for correct guess

Hutch: 2 points

Jim: 1 point

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morphew, n. An opium-based medication, popular in the early 19th Century, which lost favor after the deaths of many users and was eventually banned.
--Judith ()

Pierre: Morphine.

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morphew, n. A sacrificial ceremony in certain Germanic cultures circa 200CE in which a youth was pressed into a peat bog under heavy stones. See Tacitus.
--Nick (4)
2 points for correct guess

David: 1 point

Melisa: 1. Clearly going for the ones I found most entertaining this time, because obviously none of the submissions is actually it. 

Nora: I think this person saw the same NOVA I did about perfect corpses in peat bogs.  I don't remember a morphew, but maybe I missed something...  :)

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morphew, v. In construction, to strip old asphalt from a road.
--Nora (1)

1 point for correct guess

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morphew, n. Sketches, models, failures, and other by-products created by an artist in the course of making a finished work.  "Mr Reynolds is to become Painter at Balmoral, and the Prince of Wales is to have the morphew of him."
--eLLioTT (2)

Pierre: two points

Jim: Schubert is said to have written some of his symphonies by imitating the developmental structures (though not the melodies) of Beethoven symphonies -- e.g. Schubert's Eighth is said to be Beethoven's Fifth with different tunes.  I can't help thinking that this def is my afflatus def, palimpsested. ("loose change, pens, toupees, and other small items found beneath the loop-the-loop on a roller coaster.")  I almost gave it a point, but decided against it based on my knowledge of Jacob -- I just can't see him choosing to include that example sentence.