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

[Joe Robins]

Ack!  I wasn't expecting to win, and don't have any words ready, and was 
away all weekend.  Sorry for the delay, I'll try to find some good 
candidates and send out a new word shortly.

-Joe


On Thu, 16 Feb 2012, Pierre Abbat wrote:

> 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
>