[Fictionary] CUCULORIS is a went

[lindafowens at netzero.com]

Congrats to Hutch after a raft of silly defs!  I might mention that my husband and two of our three kids went to the same college (Dartmouth) as Dr. Seuss, and that Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo spent a year there each, with the Captain's daughter actually graduating years later.  In honor of their prized alum, Theodore Geisel, green eggs and ham are served for breakfast on the freshman hiking trips at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge.  Also, a Madeline book has a bearded character named Lord Cucuface (sp?).  Linda

---------- Original Message ----------
From: J-J Cote <jjcote at alum.mit.edu>
To: fictionary group <fictionary at swarpa.net>
Subject: [Fictionary] CUCULORIS is a went
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:35:57 -0400

A late surge of plausibility brings Hutch's monk's hood definition to the podium.  It's all yours, Jeff!

Jean-Joseph

General comments and joke definitions:
Pierre: I know what Cuculus is (a parasitic bird), but not Cuculoris. You can't cross a cucu and a loris either.
Hutch: Something to do with the bird "Cuckoo" ("cuculus" is the Latin name for the bird and is the genus name) or with "cowls" or "hoods"
("cucullatus" is a part of the scientific name of a number of birds and it means "cowled" or "hooded").  Well if that's not what it is, I'll use it for my fictionition.
Elliott: Finally, a scientific-sounding word!
Fran: My first thought is that the cuculoris is that one loris in the zoo exhibit that isn't slow, instead it races around like a cat at midnight.
but that would be silly.  
Joe: cuculoris (n.) - An animal sound, esp. a bird call, which consists of a simple phrase repeated two or more times.  Actually, scratch that.  It occurred to me just after sending that def that I just recently did a def that was bird song.  Don't want to become too predictable.
Eric: cuculoris, n.  A rabid or otherwise demented strepsirrhine. Treat with extreme caution. 
Elliott: OK, I'll contribute a joke def:  ``A long, green prosimian''.   (I take it back if anyone has contributed a similar def as their real one.) 
Jim: Wow, so much wackiness on a single ballot! 
Elliott: This was a pretty good harvest.  Aside from the baffling (to me, anyway) dentistry theme (enamel filler, tongue membrane, neotenous baby tooth), there was a lot of variety, which is good.  Deucedly difficult to decide which is the least implausible.
Elliott: (After looking it up:)  Wow.  Where the heck does *that* come from?  The Wikipedia article doesn't give an etymology, and not one of those spellings is in the OED. 
Joe: I'm only slightly later filing my cuculoris votes than I was filing my taxes... 
______________________

cuculoris - n. - A catamite's concubine.
>From David.  Eric 2 = 2 points
Eric: Two points.  For being funny in only three words.  (Also for showing that the operations are not commutative, as a catamite's concubine does not equal a concubine's catamite.) 
Linda: Oh, dear don't know what a catamite is.
Joe: Nice alliteration.  Not point-worthy, but nice. 
Nick: What's a catamite?
Pierre: Is a catamite old enough to have a concubine?

cuculoris - n. - A transparent dental filler, primarily for enamel reinforcement not replacement.
from Fran.  No points
Hutch: Too modren
Linda: Just had my apt for a small filling postponed, whew!
Elliott: Baffling Dental Theme. 
Nick: I'm never sure if I should be happy or sad that someone else came up with a definition in the same field as me.

cuculoris - n. - A small arborial primate of South Asia, distinguished by its characteristic two-note song.
from Ranjit.  No points
Jim: I've never seen the term 'song' applied to non-birds. Well, and humpback whales... 
Hutch: Primates have "song"s? Usually that would apply only to birds?
Fran: loris
Linda: Cuckoo and loris?  
Elliott: CUCKOO plus LORIS? 
Joe: Do primates have characteristic songs?  I'm skeptical. 
Nick: Loris seems too obvious.
Pierre: Is Judith playing?
[Yes, some primates have characteristic songs.  Like Helen Kane, who had the song "I Wanna Be Loved By You". - J-J]

cuculoris - n. - 1. A working scale model of the solar system. 2. A navigational device that tracks the motions of the moon and near planets.
from Pierre.  Joe 2, guess 1 = 3 points
Hutch: "orrery"
Fran: orrery
Linda: Wait a minute, the def sounds familiar.
Elliott: CYCLE?  It sounds medieval, so I might have been convinced if the def had stopped with #1.  But #2 sounds too technically advanced to be medieval.  [Elliott, you should look up the "Antikythera Mechanism" - J-J]
Joe: I'm sure there's a word for this, and I don't know what it is, so 2 points to this one. 
Nick: Isn't this just an orrery?

cuculoris - n. - (also cucoloris, kookaloris, cookaloris or cucalorus) A device for casting shadows or silhouettes to produce patterned illumination, in lighting for film, theatre and still photography.
real definition, see note at bottom.  Jim 2, Hutch 2, Eric 1, Linda 1, Elliott 2, Nick 1, Pierre 1 = 10 points
Jim: 2 points. I was lured in by the alternate spellings. 
Hutch: I like ... and I don't know why: 2 points
Fran: light
Eric: This happens every round.  I am amazed at how implausible every definition is, and surprised every time.  So one point, for being less implausible.  Honestly, my definition seems the least implausible. 
Linda: Neato, 1 point
Elliott: I'm voting for this one because it's the *only* one that I don't have a good reason to vote against.  Just like in a real election.  Two points. 
Nick: I suppose I could believe the implied Australian origin of this. 1 point.

cuculoris - n. - The part of the base of the flower to which the petals attach.
from JC.  Hutch 1 = 1 point
Linda: calyx?  
Elliott: Maybe, but ... this is awfully tame. 
Nick: I never remember my plant biology... but I thought these were the sepals.
Pierre: Receptacle or hypanthium.

cuculoris - n. - The membrane beneath the tongue which attaches it to the gums.
from Joe.  No points
Jim: How odd that both of these definitions (this and the flower one) were proposed! Is there some cognate that has to do with attaching? 
Hutch: I think this is the "frenulum"
Linda: I had this membrane cut at birth, as did one of my sons.  He had to go back for another trim.  People have said that both of us chatter too much and should have not had the operation.  My husband refused to let me kiss the Blarney stone.
Elliott: Baffling Dental Theme.  What *is* the medical name for the floor of the mouth? 
Nick: Another mouth def... but I've already used my points.
Pierre: Thrum or frenum.

cuculoris - n. - The binding energy liberated when a dollar bill is broken down into more massive change.
from Elliott.  Ranjit 2, guess 2 = 4 points
Ranjit: 2 points in the form of two two-third-pointlets, a point and an antipoint, and one clockwise and one anticlockwise third-pointino.
Jim: Of the several silly definitions, this gets my vote as silliest. 
Hutch: *LOL*
Fran: hahahahaha
Linda: What a wonderful concept!  
Nick: This wasn't one of the joke definitions? :oD
Elliott: That would be a lot.  A dollar bill masses about one gram, while post-1982 pennies weigh 2.5 grams, so the mass defect is 249 grams, or 6.3 gigawatt-hours.  Are there any U.S. currency units which can be exchanged for an equal value of *less*-massive change?  [Elliott, you have it backwards, when you're making change like that, you don't get energy, you have to pump a ton of energy in, because the resulting coins are heavier.  But to answer your question, I will pose another, that was in a book of brain-teasers that I has when I was a kid: "Which is worth more, a quart of half-dollars or a quart of dimes?" - J-J]

cuculoris - n. - The bristles or bumps on members of the squash family, such as crooked neck and zucchini, not to mention cucumbers.
from Linda.  Ranjit 1, Fran 1, guess 1 = 3 points
Ranjit: 1 point that doesn't mention cucumbers.
Fran: ooh, nice one!  I wish I'd thought of it! 1 point
Linda: I suspect the "not to mention" saved me from lots of points.
Elliott: But it *did* mention cucumbers!  I saw it!  Did you see it?  Did you see what they did? 
Nick: Icky.

cuculoris - n. - The featherdown pheasant aloft in a gale, who has to be careful to tie up his tail (from The Unfamiliar Fowls by Doctor Seuss).
from Jim.  Linda 2, guess 2 = 4 points
Linda: Loved this book, or I would have had it been real. Or maybe it is. 2 points.
Elliott: LORAX, maybe?  (Another Seuss character.) 
Nick: Pretty sure I've read every Dr. Seuss, and this wasn't one.

cuculoris - n. - The doubled diagonal bandoliers introduced into the uniform of the British Grenadier Guards in 1726 by the regiment's colonel, William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan.
from Eric.  David 2, Elliott 1, Joe 1, guess 1 = 5 points
Linda: Great def.
Elliott: Are bandoliers ever not diagonal?  Nonetheless, I'm going to give it one point to reward the upstream swimmer:  When everyone else parsed it as singular, they parsed it as plural, and in such a way as to imply a singular that everyone else *would* have parsed as a plural! 
Joe: 1 point for creative specificity. 
Nick: I imagine this having a more British-sounding name.

cuculoris - n. - [Lat. cucullum, hood] The distinctive dark maroon cowl worn by monks (and, during the late 13th through mid-16th Centuries, knights) belonging to the Order of Saint George the Great.
from Hutch.  Nick 2, JC 2, Pierre 2, guess 2 = 8 points
Linda: Another great def.  
Elliott: I could believe cucullum, but how's it supposed to have turned into cuculoris? 
Joe: Honorable mention. 
Nick: Sure, I'll fall for the Latin trap. 2 points.

cuculoris - n. - In human dentistry, a "baby" tooth that has never been replaced by an adult tooth.
from Nick.  David 1, Jim 1, Fran 2, JC 1, guess 1 = 6 points
Jim: 1 point, because it specifies 'human'.
Fran: Ah, this MUST be it because I made a dentistry definition too, but mine is fake so this must be real!  2 points
Linda: More dentistry!
Elliott: Baffling Dental Theme.  Does this ever happen?  It sounds like it might, and if it did it would need a name.  But the scare quotes around ``baby'' scare me.
Joe: I wish I knew what the word for this was, since I had two of these until very recently, but I feel like this isn't it. 
Pierre: Mummery award.
______________________

So, I don't own a TV, but I recently decided to watch an entire TV series, in episode order, on my computer.  I had done this once before, with "My Mother The Car", and this time it was the sci-fi western "Firefly", including the feature film "Serenity" that wrapped up the story after the show got cancelled mid-season.  I watched the movie a second time, with the director's commentary from Joss Whedon.  He spends a lot of time praising the various people involved in the production, and a lot of time talking about what the focal length was of the lens used in a particular shot, or explaining how the lighting was done.  In one scene, when the ship is sneaking through the Reaver fleet on the way to Miranda, the lighting is such that it looks like they're moving past some light source and the light coming through the window sweeps through the room.  He explained that this was done by having a lighting technician walk by carrying a cuculoris, and that he had no idea why it was called that.

It's reportedly often just referred to as a "cookie".  You can also just use a tree branch in front of the lights if you want it to look like the light is coming down through the trees, and that's called a "brancholoris" or a "dingle".  The etymology is apparently obscure.  I found this:
Etymological Note: A claimed etymology is that kukaloris is Greek for “breaking of light,” but there seems to be no evidence to support this, nor can the etymological claims in the 2001 cite below be verified. Another claim is that it is named after its inventor, a Mr. Cucoloris; however, this, too, lacks supporting evidence.
2001 cite: Also called coo-koos, or cucaloris, these metal or wood templates are placed in front of instruments to create shadow patterns, often of clouds or leaves. The word “cucaloris” comes from the Greek for shadow play.
Another theory is that "cookie" came first, from "cookie cutter", and that cuculoris was invented later, but there's no evidence to support that either.
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