[Fictionary] First prize for singing like South American Robins!

[Pierre Abbat]

Well, there are apparently no robins in South America, but there's a bird 
Turdus migratorius called a North American robin, and there are other species 
of Turdus in South America, though the common name, and cognate, of Turdus is 
thrush.

A few days before my turn came up, on January 28, Tony de Morais 
(http://claydoc.com) came to my church and talked about curing various 
ailments with camu-camu, French green clay, and borututu. (I'm not sure I 
spelled his name right. The spelling looked funny on the flyers. De Morais is 
from Angola, and there's only one church member who speaks Portuguese 
fluently.) I've been taking camu-camu for years (it's one of the two highest 
fruits in vitamin C, the other being the Kakadu plum, which is an Australian 
fruit in the same genus as an Indian fruit unrelated to plums), and I've read 
about therapeutic use of clay, but borututu was new to me. By the end of the 
presentation, people were saying "burututu", "borutututu", and other variants.

Nicolas: Heh. Couple of sounds-like groupings, African and Polynesian, with 
one
isolate ;o).
Hutch: VERY good selection of fictionitions.
J-J: I'm surprised that nobody submitted the obvious:
borututu - v. - To get a ballet skirt on loan.
(after voting) [Hmm, tree bark.  Oh well.]

borututu - n. - A South American style of singing, in which the singer mimics 
the sounds of animals, especially birds.
by Joe. 9
Ranjit: tutu point
Nicolas: I like that this is also a sort of onomatopoetic def. 2 points
Linda: 1 point for the bird-song-inspired songs, as it's much too quiet around 
here bird-wise for a while, and even the dogs aren't barking much, although I 
did hear two or three crows caaing away today.  And my two hens did a little 
squawky tune when I went out to feed them.  OH, yeah, and the pitiful baaing 
of two of my three goats, the whiney ones.
David: 2
Hutch: Again, feels more African than Spanish or Portugese.
Jim: 2 points

borututu - n. - A stampede. (From Luo; onomatopoeic.)
by Nicolas. 5
Nicolas: Mine.
Hutch: Is Luo an African language? Again, it feels right. ... Now down to two
choices, which do I like best? ... I like this one best: 2 points
Jim: 1 point
Joe: I kind of like this, but I'm having trouble feeling that this is 
onomatopoeic for a stampede.  I'm sitting at my desk, trying to say 
"borututu" in a stampede-like fashion, and it just ain't working.
J-J: Tutu.

borututu - n. - An African tree in the achiote family, Cochlospermum 
angolense, used medicinally.
the truth. 4. Some botanists segregate C. and Bixa into separate families.
Eric: Two points, because I like achiote seed.
David: 1
Hutch: "Never vote for scientific names". Hmm, however, this is a "common
name" rather than scientific name. And it does feel African ... So,
down to two choices ... and the stampede gets the top spot: 1 point.
[After looking it up: close, but no see-gar]

borututu - n. - A freighter on a leg of its shipping route where it carries 
very little cargo, and therefore offers heavily discounted rates.
by Jean-Joseph Cote. 4
Nicolas: Too specific?
Linda: 2 points for the freighter, because I know of two guys who worked their 
way around the world in such a manner, tending bar and unloading cargo as they 
went, staying on land for a while,etc.
Hutch: If this had some slightly believable origin, I might have voted for
it. But as an ordinary English word, I just don't believe it.
Joe: 2 points.

borututu - n. - The style of rugby football play popularized by coach Richard 
Rongen (1924-1989), characterized by a highly athletic offensive game that 
emphasizes taps and toe-throughs and attempts to avoid rucks and scrums.
by Eric. 3
2 points for the lips of the lipstick tree
Nicolas: I suppose there could be maori-sounding terms in rugby?
Hutch: Rugby? Naah!
J-J: Wanwan.

borututu - n. - [Luba] 1) A wide, shallow area in a river where hippopotamus 
congregate. 2) An unsafe ford.
by Hutch. 3
1 yellow showy point
Eric: One point, because I like hippoi potamus.
Nicolas: Sounds good to me. 1 point.
Hutch: Mine

borututu - v. - fr. Fijian. A special dance move in which men and women in 
native dress (or undress) flaunt their decorative genital wraps by lifting 
their fringe-like skirts.  A similar word exists in Samoan, and thoroughout 
Melanesia and Polynesia.  When this was first featured in Margaret Mead's work: 
Growing Up in Samoa, some startled or misinformed wags termed the study: Groin 
Up in Samoa, not realizing the true religious and practical needs for 
fertility.  However, in an infrequent bow to public opinion, Mead retitled her 
work shortly after its initial publication to Coming Of Age in Samoa.  
(Wikipedia)
by Linda. 1
Ranjit: wanwan point
Nicolas: The word sounds plausible, but the Wikipedia def is just too much!
Hutch: I'm pretty sure that Margaret Mead never changed the name of that
study, though I do like the awful pun.

borututu - n. - (fr. Basque) The decoy of a robber band, dressed in sheep's 
wool.
by David Randall. 1
1 bixaceous point
Nicolas: I feel like Basque looks more complex than this. Sounds like a
tutu->clothing fake def, too.
Hutch: I don't know Basque, but the little that I do know of it doesn't
have this kind of feel. Feels more African.
Joe: Again with the Basque?  It would be very clever to have chosen a word 
actually from Basque, right after we had a fake Basque definition, but I 
don't think this is the case, so I can't vote for this.

borututu - n. - (also Borututu) A gentleman of Borutu.
by Ranjit. 1
Hutch: Rather than a gentleman of Verona?
Joe: One point for its brazen simplicity.

Borututu - n. - A ritual dance of welcome performed to celebrate the arrival 
of visiting chiefs in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
by Dominus. 0
Nicolas: Hmm... plausible, but I worry tutu->dance is sign of a fake.
Hutch: The similarity of this to Margaret Mead's Fijian dance move makes me 
say no.

Pierre
-- 
li fi'u vu'u fi'u fi'u du li pa