[Fictionary] reremouse!

[Ranjit Bhatnagar]

FIRST, THE RESULTS:

Jean-Joseph's soggy Belgian beet takes the round, with 6 points; Jacob's
fondue was a close second at 5 points, and the bat was the real reremouse
all along!


THE LOST DEF, FROM ERIC:
reremouse, v. In bezique, to remove a card from a common marriage or royal
marriage and incorporate it into a different meld. n. Any such move.

I'm sorry, Eric - somehow I lost your definition while assembling the
ballot.


THE JOKE DEFS, FROM NORA
reremouse: to attach a mouse back onto a laptop after it has been removed
twice.
reremouse: to humanely capture and let go of the same stupid mouse over and
over again!


AND NOW THE VOTES!


DICTIONARY: 2 points
reremouse - n - an archaic or dialect word for bat [Old English hrēremūs,
probably from hrēran "to move" + mūs "mouse"]

David - 1 point: Elliottic.
Pierre - 1 point: One point, as I know several words for "bat" related to
"mouse", but not this
one.
Elliott - The non-ASCII characters are showing up as question marks in my
mail reader, but I'm guessing that OE ``mouse'' would have been m?s rather
than m??s.
Ranjit - In case anyone else has the problem with funny characters: [Old
English hreremus, probably from hreran "to move" + mus "mouse"]  Somehow the
u with a line over it turned into TWO question marks.
Elliott again - So apparently a vowel with a macron over it shows up in my
mailreader as two question marks rather than one.  Bummer!   I guess that
makes sense, if the reader is expecting 8 bits per character and the source
character is 16 bits wide.
Jean-Joseph - I don't want to vote for mouse definitions.


NORA:
reremouse n. a device used to deliver poison deep into crevices where rodent
nests are known or suspected of being.

Elliott - More details, please!
Jean-Joseph - I still don't want to vote for mouse definitions.


JIM M: 2 points
reremouse - n. - 1. Extreme concern over the well-being of another. 2.
Obsession.

Jean-Joseph - 2 points: By elimination, I'll give this the two-points vote.
 Because it's slightly more boring.
Elliott - REMORSE?


JACOB: 5 points
reremouse (n.) a form of fondue popular in Bretagne, believed to be the
inspiration for Welsh rarebit.

Jim - 2 points
Elliott - 2 points: Food defs are inherently implausible to me, but
everything else on this ballot is even more implausible.  The Breton-Welsh
Celtic connection is vaguely reassuring.  Two points.
Hutch - 1 point
Jean-Joseph - 1 point: Also by elimination, this gets the single-pointer.



ELLIOTT: 1 point
reremouse (n.) -- A magic portal to a world that is even more mundane than
the one you already live in.

Linda - 1 point for the magic portal to an even more mundane world, which is
almost ridiculous, as my world is seldom mundane, because it is a bit
oddball: outdoor animals, indoor cats, beautiful grounds, songbirds, with
lousy weather and too many deer ticks and weeds, loving husband who works
too much but at least he's not underfoot, wonderful beaches, woods, all in a
tiny state with loads of amenities and lousy government, too much traffic,
 etc.  A wonderful life with glitches.  I also have a nice selection of
movies on DVD and videotape, which keep me entertained through this pinched
nerve/herniated disk/sciatica or whatever it is until the PT fixes it all
up.
Elliott - A definition in search of a name, and along came ``reremouse''.
 The resemblance to ``reredorter'' clinched the deal.
David - Heh.
Jean-Joseph - So if you're hanging out in Narnia, and you head for the
lamppost in order to get back to the wardrobe, I suppose that would qualify.
 Or maybe by the "grass is greener" principle, there can be no such thing.
 Although in the His Dark Materials books, I guess the subtle knife could
cut you into some pretty boring places.  And it always seemed to.  I hated
those books.



JEAN-JOSEPH: 6 points
Reremouse is a member of the beet family, whose sweet-tasting leaves serve
as an excellent complement to more bitter greens in a salad.  It thrives in
cool, damp growing conditions, and is especially popular in the cuisine of
the French-speaking region of Belgium.

Jean-Joseph - This one is mine, unlikely to get any votes, but I felt like
going for a description that looks like it comes from a cookbook or
something rather than going for dictionary style.
Hutch - 2 points
Pierre - 2 points: Two points for the goose's two feet. Do any of you know
two members of the
family that both end in "ach"?
Nora - 1 point: I know how much you love beets, so this is my number two
choice with one vote. Now I want a reremouse salad! :)
Elliot - 1 point: Being a food def, this is plausible only in comparison to
the rest of the ballot.  One point.
Jean-Joseph, later - Google sez: old bat, hmph.



LINDA: 2 1/2 points
reremouse, adj.  prone to backward thinking. Linda

David - 2 points, because you left her name on!
Nora - 1/2 a vote because I would have given it serious consideration and an
honorable mention. :)
Jean-Joseph - Well, I can rule this one out...
Ranjit - sorry about that, Linda!



HUTCH: 3 points
reremouse - n. - (occ. rere mouse) a railroad handcart (fr Maori rere moza,
railroad + man [="human-powered railroad"])

Linda - 2 points for the Maori handcart, as NZ sounds great right about now
(still cold and snowy here in RI)
Jim - 1 point
Elliott - IIRC Maori's rather frugal consonant inventory doesn't include
[z].
Elliott, later - In fact, not only does Maori lack [z], it doesn't even have
[s], which is normally a prerequisite.
Pierre - There is no Z, X, J, or drum in Maori, and I guess the word for
"man" is something like "tau" (I once saw "tau" and "hahine" together on a
linguistic competency test). Z and J both exist in its distant relative
Malagasy.
Jean-Joseph - Yeah, easy to imagine the Maori having a compact word for
"railroad" -- not.  One of the few words that I do know in Maori is "puha",
which means "white man", particularly in a menu context, alongside "pakeha"
meaning potatoes.  Or else it's the other way around.


DAVID: 3 points - 2 + 1 point for correct guess
reremouse - n. - thick hair on the tops of one's shoulders

Nora - 2 points: Two votes! So hilarious, that I had to gasp. Not sure it's
the right one, but it was too funny not to pass up!
Elliott - Like hobbit feet, only for arms.  Maybe this is part of a
cheap-alien-costume schema a la _Star Trek_ --- non-human races are
distinguished by thick hair on different body parts.
Jean-Joseph - Lovely.  What do you call it when it's behind the knees?


PIERRE: 1 point for correct guess
reremouse, n. An unidentified bird reported by Capt. John Hawkins in
Cartagena, Colombia.

Elliott - Was that the kid in _Treasure Island_?
Elliott again - The kid in _Treasure Island_ was *Jack* Hawkins. Wikipedia
says there was an Admiral John Hawkins who was the ``chief architect of the
Elizabethan navy'' in more ways than one.  He also invented the triangle
trade (goods-slaves-rum).  I hope Stevenson didn't name young Jack after old
John.
Jean-Joseph - If it's unidentified, how does it come to have a name?
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