[Fictionary] eu3 results!

[Pierre Abbat]

The words all *look* Greek, but only "eutely" is. "Lachon" doesn't mean "tear" 
(which is "dakru") or "milk" (which is "gala") but "being picked by lot to 
serve in turn" (Luke 1:9). This, of course, has nothing to do with the 
candlefish, which is called "eulachon", "ooligan", and maybe even "Oregon" in 
various Pacific Northwest dialects. "Euphroe" I've seen as coming from 
Dutch "juffrouw", but what girls have to do with holding up awnings I don't 
know. It's also called a crowfoot deadeye, a deadeye being a wheelless pulley 
and a crowfoot, I guess, the pattern of the ropes that hold up the awning.

General comments:
David: I confess I find this more complex than I care for.
Elliott: A tough ballot, but it full of interesting (and perplexing) 
defs.  Here 
are my votes.  I now repair to the OED to slake my curiosity.

Ranjit gets 15 points:
eulachon (n): any of Calliope's maidservants, or all of them as a group.
Judith: 1 point
Elliott: Mmmmm ... well, this def accounts for the Greekness, and the vaguely 
positive connotations of eu-.
euphroe (n): a flowering plant in which the sepals are a strongly-contrasting 
color to the leaves.
Elliott: The only one that plausibly accounts for the Greeky appearance of the 
word---but why would biologists need a name for this thing?  One point.
Judith: 1 point
David: 3 points.
eutely (n): the philosophical tenet that all things tend towards perfection.
David: 3 points.
Eric: *Lovely* use of two Greek roots.  Three points.
Elliott: I totally believe this one -- eu- plus the tel- of telic, teleology, 
etc. 
If it isn't right, it should be. 3 big fat points.

David gets 13 points:
eulachon - n. - tears of joy
Judith: 3 points
Elliott: I keep going back and forth on this one.  Could lachon be Greek for 
`tears'?  It looks singular, but then again, maybe it means `bout of 
tears'.  Latin has a word lachryma `tear' which is spelled as if borrowed 
from Greek, but then again, lachryma has an extra r, a feminine ending, 
and a history involving an alternate form dacruma, so maybe it's a red 
herring.  Then again, maybe the Romans started spelling it like a Greek 
loan because they thought it *was* a Greek loan, related somehow to a real 
Greek word lachon `tears'.  Sigh.  OK, you made me spend this long on it, 
here's two points for your trouble.
euphroe - n. - the abandonment of infants in the wilderness
Hutch: 2 points
Eric: "Euthanasia", except for youth, but what else is there to vote for? 
Three points.
Elliott: Too much like euthanasia for me to believe it.
eutely - n. - a peaceful death
Judith: 2 points, because I want there to be such a word.
Hutch: 1 point

Eric gets 13 points, 3 of them on fishhooks:
euphroe, n.  An attractive female accomplice employed by a pickpocket to 
distract the victim.  Also _flea-molly_, _ribbon_.
Elliott: Explains the eu- part, and the feminine-looking ending.  Maybe it's 
an eponym from some famous Euphroe of ... of somewhere, who made her living 
this way.  One point.
Linda: 2 points for the female accomplice or flea-molly
eulachon, n.  Any wheeled vehicle in which the load is balanced on a single 
axle -- as, a cart, gig, rickshaw, sulky, wheelbarrow, etc.
Ranjit: 2 pts
Linda: one point for the one-axle vehicle
Hutch: I like it: a generic term for single-axled, wheeled vehicles. Thus a
unicycle qualifies as a eulachon: 2 points
Elliott: Nice!  Makes good use of the eu-X = `true X' schema.  The Greek 
appearance would be accounted for if the word were coined by 
archeologists.  One point.
eutely, adj.  Advantageous, profitable.
Judith: 1 point

Nick gets 6 points:
eulachon, n. A contract that remains in force after the signer's death.
David: 3 points.
Judith: 1 point
Hutch: Can't decide about the rest of these: 1 point
Elliott: I like the idea, but all the law words I can think of are Italic or 
Germanic.
euphroe, adj. Nautical. Corroded by seawater.
Elliott: Eu- seems too complimentary for corrosion.
Hutch: 1 point
eutely, adv. Spoken in a style that sounds like a well-rehearsed lie.

Jean-Joseph gets 6 points:
eulachon - n. - The pool of customers who are subject to the terms of an end 
user license agreement.
Linda: 2 points for the pool of customers
Elliott: Lovely.  I picture everyone in Redmond snickering into their 
cappucinos.
euphroe - n. - A scalp ointment with aromas of wintergreen, cloves, vanilla, 
and menthol.
Ranjit: 1 pt
Elliott: I doubt there'd be vanilla and cloves in anything with a Greek 
name.  But 
maybe this word isn't really Greek?
eutely - n. - A small pair of wooden tongs used for removing hosts from a 
chalice.
Ranjit: 2 pts
Linda: one point for the tongs, because I love tongs
Jean-Joseph

Judith Schrier gets 5 points:
eulachon (n)  really super delicious organic coffee with organic honey, 
organic milk, and (usually) organic vanilla flavoring
Eric: Disqualified, as coffee with honey is, in fact, disgusting.  (And I 
kept trying, back when we kept bees.)
Linda: Bonus points for the lure of delicious drinks, very clever.
Elliott: Sounds much too enthusiastic to be a real definition.   Needs lachon 
to be Greek for `milk'; is it?
euphroe (n)   the very finest caviar, from Caspian or Black Sea sturgeon
Ranjit: 1 pt
Elliott: Roe with just the right pH?
eutely (adv)  done with grace and dignity
Linda: 2 points for grace and dignity, because I could use some today
Hutch: 2 points

Hutch gets 4 points:
eulachon - n. - a container holding a wide variety of objects, e.g., a 
cornucopia
Ranjit: 3 pts
Elliott: Or a Robe of Useful Items.
euphroe - n. - a waterproof jacket, usu. of heavy cloth or canvas; sou'wester; 
mackinaw
Elliott: Greece is a seafaring country, but it's warm there.  Hmmm.  I suppose 
they have winters in the Eastern Mediterranean.  OK, one point.
eutely - n. - an ancient musical instrument, consisting of two to five strings 
on a slightly bowed neck, some examples have a hollow in the base

The true meanings are:
eulachon, n. A candlefish.
Eric: Three points.  Usually fish (like parts of a ship) are disqualified, 
but lord knows there's nothing else plausible on this ballot.
euphroe, n. A device similar to a pulley, but with no wheels, used for the 
ropes that hold up an awning.
Elliott: Why only for that?
Linda: one point for the device associated with awnings.
eutely, n. The property of a species that all members have the same pattern of 
cell division, and thus the same number of cells, either in the whole body or 
in the nervous system.

Linda Owens gets one hole in a crowfoot deadeye:
eulachon--true tears, as opposed to crocodile tears.  Poetic, from Alice's 
Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
David: Somebody else was thinking of "lachrymose".
Elliott: Finally, one I can feel confident rejecting!  I've read the Alice 
books too many times not to have noticed it.
euphroe, the original form of a tool that was like a pick axe but flattened on 
one side.  From the Book of Garden Tools by Hiram Hess
Elliott: I suspect this one of having something to do with "hoe".
eutley, an herb of the water parsnip family that is edible, as opposed to a 
similar form that is poisonous.  Fromm's Herbal
Elliott: *Water-parsnip??*

Elliot gets 0 points:
eulachon (n.) -- (sport.) In eulachon-euphroe-eutely, the grimace which beats 
euphroe and is beaten by eutely.  No exact description survives, though 
Socrates is said by Aristophanes (_Clouds_) to have worn this expression 
permanently.
Elliott: I almost never vote for game-related defintions.
euphroe (n.) -- (sport.) In eulachon-euphroe-eutely, the grimace which beats 
eutely and is beaten by eulachon.  No exact description survives, though 
Alcibiades is said by Aristophanes (_Clouds_) to have worn this expression 
permanently.
Elliott: Alcibiades is supposed to have been charming; I don't think he'd 
grimace 
permanently.  What was I thinking?
eutely (n.) -- (sport.) In eulachon-euphroe-eutely, the grimace which beats 
eulachon and is beaten by euphroe.  No exact description survives, though 
Aeschylus is said by Aristophanes (_Clouds_) to have worn this expression 
permanently.
Hutch: I love the Rock-Paper-Scissors game with facial expressions rather
than hand gestures. I just don't believe in it *G*

Pierre
-- 
.i toljundi do .ibabo mi'afra tu'a do
.ibabo damba do .ibabo do jinga
.icu'u la ma'atman.