[Fictionary] SNATTOCK results!

[eLLioTT morEton]

Pierre's garden sniffer, Emily's forest clearing, and Linda's pruning hook 
tied with the dictionary, but Fran's caudal peduncle beat them all, by the 
thinnest of margins --- but that's all it takes.  Haul it away, Fran!

Regards,
em

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GENERAL COMMENTS

Linda:  Great minds, same gutter syndrome, what with all the plants and
tools, and mine last;

Jim:  Lots of tempting definitions this round. Apparently a lot of people 
thought it sounded like a gardening term?  And an ever greater number 
thought it sounded like a tool. The question is, does that make it more or 
less likely that the actual definition is {a tool, a gardening term, 
both}?

Hutch:  "Mattock" look-alikes abound ... including my own. I guess that 
*was* too obvious.

Nick:  Difficult to pick this time - tons of great defs. Interesting that
there's a general trend towards a tool - I wonder what word feature
made a number of us converge on that?

Jean-Joseph:  Gotta do something, so I'll disregard all definitions that 
appear to be influenced by "mattock".  Which includes any and all tools. 
[After voting:]  Google says it's the chip/slice, so the small amount def 
was a lucky close guess, it seems.

Elliott:  So many mattocks, so few hammocks.  Or buttocks.

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*FRAN: 6 = Jim 1 + Jean-Joseph 2 + Nora 1 + 2 for correct guess
snattock (n.)  Fisherman's term for the caudal peduncle, that portion of 
the fish's tail to which the tail fin (caudal fin) is attached.

Jim:  I can picture an ancient profession like this having all sorts of 
jargon like this.

Hutch:  A "haddock"?

Jean-Joseph:  This is the one left standing after I made all my snarky 
comments about the others, so I'll give it the two-point vote.

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*JIM: 2 = 2 for correct guess
snattock (n.)  An aerial maneuver in which an aircraft uses the gyroscopic
precession of its propeller to rotate about different axes while at the 
peak
of a steep ascent.

Jean-Joseph:  I think I would have heard of this, and I think the 
propeller itself doesn't actually have enough angular momentum to make 
this happen, as opposed to the rest of the drive train.  There were WWI 
era planes that had engines with a lot of rotating mass that allowed them 
to do a very quick turn, but only in one direction (to the right, I 
think).  But from what I know about hammerhead turns, Immelman turns, and 
Lomcovaks, I don't remember precession coming into play.

Elliott:  Is this really a maneuver, or a failure mode?

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*JEAN-JOSEPH:  2 = Hutch 2
snattock (n.)  A pickpocket specializing in watches and rings.

Jean-Joseph:  Hey, how come mine got a line before it instead of under it? 
:-)  [Elliott:  Dunno, sorry!]

Nora:  rings? How would you remove a ring from someone without their 
knowledge? but it is an intriguing idea...

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*AMELIA:  4 = David 2 + Linda 1 + Nick 1
snattock (n.)  The pipe or channel used to divert water from a river in 
order to power a watermill.

Linda: as I really love water power

Hutch:  either "flume" or "leet"

Zero-point honorable mention from Andrew

Jean-Joseph:  I think that's a "sluiceway".

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*DAVID:  1 = Hutch 1
snattock (n.) (Leicester dial.)  A badly-constructed weir.

Jim:  Overly specific.

Jean-Joseph:  More of a snafu than a snattock?

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*PIERRE:  5 = Linda 2 + Ranjit 1 + Nora 2

snattock (n.)  A gardening tool consisting of a handle with a sharp point 
at
one end and a thin tube fastened at the upper end to the user's nose, used 
to
smell the ground while working it.

Linda:  as it sounds silly but may uncover moldy odors

Jim:  Extremely funny to picture, equally difficult to believe. I would 
totally give this the "probably by Elliott" award if he wasn't running the 
round. So I'll give it the Grand Elliott Impersonation award.

Ranit:  The domestic smelescope.

Hutch:  A not-"mattock"

Jean-Joseph:  A sniffer's mattock.

Nora:  This one is just weird! But I love it.

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*HUTCH:   4 = Amelia 2 + Emily 2
snattock (v.)  To remove the branches from a felled tree [from an obs. 
tool, specialized for the task]

Hutch:  My not-"mattock"

Jean-Joseph:  Sort of a mattock.

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*RANJIT:  1 = Jean-Joseph 1
snattock (n.)  A three point whirly in Tip-the-Peg.

Jean-Joseph:  We're going to need rules for this, and we'll have to play 
it if we ever have a fictionary get-together, along with gleek, and that 
game where you throw things at people in a tree (and its other apocryphal 
variants).  But game definitions are just so typically fictionary that 
I'll give this my one-pointer, because it sounds rather joyful.

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*DICTIONARY:  5 = Fran 2 + Jim 2 + Andrew 1
snattock (n.)  A chip; a slice.

Fran:  I always go for brevity. It pulls me in every time.

Jim:  for being conspicuously simple

Hutch:  Two 'random small stuff' fictionitions? Hmm, no.

Jean-Joseph:  Hmm, similar to the small amount one above.

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*ANDREW:  2 = Pierre 1 + 1 for correct guess
snattock (n.) (Northumberland dialect)  A small amount of a substance.

Hutch:  Two 'random small stuff' fictionitions? Hmm, no.

Jean-Joseph:  Hmm, similar to the chip/slice one below.

Nora:  Forgive me, but I can't help it:

For a snattock of sugar helps the medicine go down,
the medicine go do-own, the medicine go down.
Just a snattock of sugar helps the medicine go down
In a most delightful way!


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*EMILY:  5 = Fran 1 + David 1 + Amelia 1 + Pierre 2
snattock (n.)  A clearing in the midst of thick vegetation, esp. 
vegetation that is thorny or otherwise difficult to traverse.

Fran:  I like that it is not a tool.

Jim:  A sort of anti-oasis... nifty thought!

Hutch:  An orienteering fictionition? I'm guessing this is either J-J or 
Linda.

Pierre:  Two points for being plant-related but not a tool.

Jean-Joseph:  Cleared with a mattock, no doubt.

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*NICK: 2 = Ranjit 2
snattock (n.)  A wire comb for removing tangles.

Ranjit:  Waaay too believable.

Hutch:  Another not-"mattock"

Jean-Joseph:  Is a wire one going to work better than plastic for getting 
tangles out?  I know the best ones for removing nits are made of metal.

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*KIR: no points
snattock (n.) (hist.)  Narrow-bladed metal tool, with flattened sharpened 
side at upper end below grip. Used to dig and top root crops.

Jim:  Unfortunately, now I can't stop thinking of this as needing a hose.

Hutch:  And another not-"mattock"

Pierre:  How can something be both flattened and sharpened? Is it doubly 
unnatural?

Jean-Joseph:  Definitely a mattock

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*LINDA:  5 = Andrew 2 + Nick 2 + Emily 1
snattock (n.)  A curved and hooked pruning tool.

Hutch:  And still another not-"mattock"

Jean-Joseph:  And another mattock-like thing