[Fictionary] fleer results!

[Ranjit Bhatnagar]

Here are the fleer results at last!   Nicolas's ghostly fog is the
winner with eight points, closely followed by Jean-Joseph's
seven-pointed crown and Lawrence's six cheerful points.

The real definition: "to laugh or grimace in a coarse derisive manner;
sneer" - which suffered an unusual meaning collision with Pierre's
def.  I found the word "fleer" while researching (for fictionary, of
course) the word "Lallans".  In the wikipedia article
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lallans> you can find not one but three
different poems referring to dialect discrimination.

I have no idea where I first saw the word "Lallans".

- ranjit

p.s. Take it away, Nicolas!



COMMENTS:

Linda: this has been so much fun, and the verses are a hoot!

Jean-Joseph: I will arbitrarily eliminate all entries where "fleer" is
a rhyming work in the poem, since I see no particular reason why it
would be, but someone inventing a poem would be tempted to use it in
that way.  Interesting that there are eight different words rhymed
with "fleer" among the entries, and no duplicates.

Elliott: The ballot was well worth the wait.  A good harvest.  It's
times like this when I wish I had paid more attention in History of
English, so that I some idea whether someone with vaguely 18th-Century
style would rhyme ``roe'' with ``crow'' or ``fleer'' with ``Lear''.
Oh, well.

The bogus attribution was stripped from my verse, and so presumably
from all of them; what could this tell me about the true def?  That it
contained an attribution which would have given it away?  But how
could an attribution betray the *true* def?  Hmmmm.  An obvious voting
strategy would be to eliminate candidates whose verses look bogus.
Perhaps Ranjit designs to foil this strategy by pairing the true def
with a deliberately bogus verse *of his own* --- which he can't
truthfully attribute, so to level the field he has to suppress all
attributions.  To counter-foil Ranjit, I should therefore vote for a
def that looks exaggeratedly bogus! But then he may have anticipated
that response, and made the verse only moderately bogus....

Or, I could just reward creativity and metrical skill.  What is
winning, after all?

[Now that I've looked it up:]  Amazing that no one submitted ``one who
flees''.  It never even occurred to me that the word had that parse
until I saw it in the OED.





JEAN-JOSEPH: 7

fleer - n. - a crown with points that curve outward, away from the head.

The Fox, the Duck, and MacCaulay the Crow,
Rule England under the fleer-topped Roe.

Judith: 2 points
Jim: Two points even though it seems obviously related to flare,
because the poem sounds so authentic.
Elliott: I like this because (a) the def is original and not
immediately suggested by the sound of ``fleer'', and (b) the couplet
is maddeningly enigmatic. ``The Fox'' could be Charles James Fox,
``MacCaulay'' could be Thomas Babington Macaulay, but did they overlap
at all?  Could it have been said of them that they were in cahoots
beneath a crowned mass of fish eggs? Or does the ``fleer-topped Roe''
refer to the outward-curving antlers of George III, which he shed and
re-grew every year?  Two points!
Pierre: 1 point
Jean-Joseph: I'm guessing that at least one of the learned people here
will recognize my rip-off of the actual British political couplet from
long ago:
  The Rat, The Cat, and Lovell the Dog
  Rule all England under the Hog.



NICOLAS: 8

fleer, n. 1. The disturbances made in a thick fog by a passing ship or
other vessel. 2. A ghost or apparition.

"Heed not the fleer, who'd lead you astray, keep watch for the light
what marks the bay!"

David: 2 points
Amy: 2 points
Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" is terminal, but not a rhyme.  Looks like this
gets the two-pointer.
Pierre: 2 points



LAWRENCE: 6

fleer: (adj) Sprightly, self-confident and cheerful; jaunty.

O sweeter than a mother's milk,
'Tis sweeter far to me;
how sweet to hear a jig so fleer
in goodly company

Linda: 2 points for sprightly, self-confident, cheerful, and
jaunty--the virtues I have lacked in this last bout of stormy weather,
but it's sunny out now, so I am fleer!
Eric: It *sounds* like what it is, which is usually wrong.  But here
goes. Two points.
David: 1 point
Judith: 1 point
Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" rhymes with "hear".




DAVID

Fleer - v. - to whet a blade in a threatening manner.

In Gloucestershire
The bully peer
Did lour and fleer.

Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" rhymes with two other words.
Elliott: As if one were going to flay or flense the threatenee.



HUTCH

fleer - n - that portion of the labia alongside and covering the clitoris

Mrs. Stewart she was there,
Came down from Loch McLear.
Her joyful screams cracked every ear
When touched upon her fleer
--The Ball of Kirriemuir--

Hutch: (Why do I think that NO ONE will vote for this? *LOL*)
Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" rhymes with "ear".



PIERRE

fleer, n. A facial expression indicating contempt. -v. To make such a facial
expression.

Why do you give a haughty fleer
Toward your Creator?
Humble yourself, or He'll make clear
Which one is the greater.

Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" rhymes with "clear".
Pierre: Combination of Lojban "flira" and English "jeer".



DICTIONARY: 1

fleer (v): to laugh or grimace in a coarse derisive manner; sneer

We've come intil a gey queer time
Whan scrievin Scots is near a crime,
'There's no one speaks like that', they fleer,
-But wha the deil spoke like King Lear?

Linda: One point for the coarse derisive laugh because it reminds me
of many cartoon villains.
Jim: A pair of definitions that both come from sneer? They cancel each
other out.
Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" rhymes with "Lear".



LINDA: 1 + 1 for guessing

fleer, v.  To conjure up something.

There are them that sez
Nothing rhymes with oranges
Among those be poets
Who though they don't know it
Often fleer verse
With golds and silvers

Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" doesn't rhyme with anything... nor, arguably,
does anything else.  But by default, it gets the one-point vote.
Elliott: The last two lines really want to be ``Often frill verse /
With golds and silvers'', don't they?



ERIC

fleer, n.  Alcoholic beverage produced through freeze distillation of
beer.  Usually 30-40% alcohol by volume, with a harsher taste than
traditional distilled spirits due to the conservation of fusel
alcohols in freeze distillation.

I went to bed
But oh my head
I'd thought it beer
'Twas fleer.

Judith: Shouldn't that be "freer"?
Jean-Joseph:  Suds-jack!  Yecch!  "Fleer" rhymes with "beer".
Elliott: ```Twas'' and ``freeze distillation'' at first seem
incompatible.  But then, I suppose you could freeze-distill something
in any era by leaving it out on a cold night.  I can imagine desperate
Northeasterners, during Prohibition, buying legal near-beer in
quantity and amplifying it via this process.  One point.


JUDITH: 1

Fleer: (n)  a mouse-like rodent, native to the Alps.

I thought I saw a butterfly
That lingered in the rear;
I looked again
And saw it was
A very tiny fleer!
I told it to go home before
It tangled with the gear!

Amy: 1 point
Jim: Ten honorable mention points for such a nice Carroll imitation,
but no actual points.
Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" rhymes with "gear".
Elliott: I admire the inspiration, but IIRC the real ones are
third-person and have German-like capitalization.  Please accept the
Bar of Mottled Soap Award in lieu of points.




ELLIOTT: 1

fleer (n.) -- A hand tool with a pickaxe-like head, used in climbing
difficult stairs.

Pray bethink the exaltation of young Cecil's future station
 Should he resolve upon a Ministry career!
He will tap down Whitehall tamely with his Rod of Office, namely
 His malacca, his umbrella, or his fleer.

Jim: 1 point (would have been two if the scansion were more consistent
between lines 2 and 4)
Jean-Joseph: "Fleer" rhymes with "career".
Pierre:  I was going to give this a point for the poem, but "climbing
difficult stairs"
sounds unlikely.