[Fictionary] Lirp Results

[David Van Stone]

Where I grew up in Palo Alto, CA, local birds would often get drunk on
overripe berries in our yard and smash themselves silly into our clear
windows, even with stickers on the windows.

I've found articles about blackbirds getting drunk on fermented rowan
berries and having mid-air collisions; redwings getting drunk on holly
berries; waxwings on berries from a Brazilian pepper tree.

As someone noted, I didn't craft the definition in a way that plausibly
felt like it came from an actual dictionary. The craft of plausibility
grows slowly.

JC: Great word, and great final story. Yay smaller tapir!!

-dvs-



On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 10:22 PM, JC Ravage <ravagio at gmail.com> wrote:

> This was a close one.  A lot of disagreement on how many definitions were
> even plausible.  Every definition got at least one vote, but in the end
> Jean-Joseph Cote's elongated knoll beat out Elliot Moreton's cheese grater
> by 1 point.
>
> Well played!
>
> David Van Stone: (2)
> 1)  Lirp - v. To fly in an uncontrolled manner, such as a bird would do
> after eating overripe berries.
> -At first I was thinking "birds don't get drunk". However, I have seen
> both cows and deer drunk and have heard it of several predators as well
> (from fruit fermenting naturally in a puddle). However, from what I know of
> birds' metabolism, I would imagine that an EXTREMELY small amount of
> alcohol would kill them, long before they got drunk. If this *is* the real
> word, I don't believe that the 'drunk birds' bit was in the actual
> dictionary definition.
> -Two points for being least implausible.  A goldfinch lirping would be
> especially amusing, but do they eat berries?
>
> Elliot Moreton: (4), plus 1 for correct guess
> 2) Lirp – 1: n. A cheese grater that cuts on both the push and the pull.
> 2: n. A nimble opportunist, a Vicar of Bray.
> -I had never heard of a "Vicar of Bray" before. Cool! But I don't believe
> it for "lirp"
> -Is there a Vicar of Bleat?
> -I'm going to give this the Most Likely To Be By David Randall Award on
> the strength of the Vicar of Bray reference, even though it's by me.
>
> Linda Owens: (3)
> 3) Lirp - n. The tip-most ring on a fishing pole through which to thread
> the line.
> -Loop?
>
> The Grandiloquent Dictionary: (3)
> 4) Lirp – 1: v. To snap one's fingers. 2: n. The sound produced by
> snapping one's fingers.
> -I can recall seeing a noise from a cat being described as "chirrup". I
> can see "lirp" being onomotopoetic
> -*My* fingers don't sound like that.  This one is so blatantly
> anti-plausible that I'm going to give it one point, on the grounds that why
> would anyone make it up?
>
> Pierre Abbat: (3)
> 5) Lirp – v. To surreptitiously affix a label or card, such as a fish
> cutout, to someone's back.
> -I understand why one might want to "surreptitiously affix" a sign to
> someone's back. What I don't understand is why one would want to put a fish
> there. "Kick me", self insults of many varieties, yes. A fish?????
> -I considered submitting a definition based on "lirpa loof", so no points
> to whoever did.
> -Partial anagram of April?
>
> Jean-Joseph Cote: (6)
> 6) Lirp - n. An elongated knoll.
> -2, Because I know where one is
> -The short squat ones are called goblins.
>
> Jim Moskowitz: (1)
> 7) Lirp - n. The sound made by a tapir.
> -I can recall seeing a noise from a cat being described as "chirrup". I
> can see "lirp" being an animal sound. Tapirs make squeaky, bird-like sounds
> (as well as snuffly nasal sounds).
> -Partial anagram of tapir?
>
> Nick Ward: (2)
> 8) Lirp - v. To issue a challenge to a rival, typically by sound
> utterance.
> -While I like it as a 'sound' word, it doesn't sound "challenging" to me.
> -Sound made by ... territorial crickets?
>
> Ranjit Bhatnagar: (3)
> 9) Lirp - v. To align by eye
> -Short and sweet, but I'm out of points.
>
> A Short Story:
>
> The two tapirs stood on the lirp, one at each end.  The larger one lirped
> at the smaller, a low, gruff lirp that echoed off the valley below.  The
> smaller responded with a lirp of its forepaws and a gesture to the other’s
> back.  The larger one turned to glance at its own back, only then noticing
> the fish cutout lirped onto its fur.  Enraged, it pawed the ground and
> began to charge across the lirp toward its rival.  The smaller one kicked
> up a small rock and, carefully lirping its trajectory, sent it flying
> toward the larger tapir.  However, the wind caught the small rock and sent
> it lirping harmlessly to one side.  The charging tapir was nevertheless
> distracted by the sound, and tripped over the lirp of a discarded fishing
> pole.  The smaller tapir, its attack foiled, acted the lirp, taking the
> opportunity to nimbly scamper down off the lirp.  By the time the larger
> one had recovered, the smaller had made good its escape.
>
>
> --
> 1027 S Humphrey Ave
> Oak Park, IL 60304
> Cell: 917-526-0483
> Email: ravagio at gmail.com
>
> "Thus Aristotle laid it down that a heavy object falls faster than a light
> one does. The important thing about this idea is not that he was wrong, but
> that it never occurred to Aristotle to check it."
> — Albert Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt, winner of the Nobel Prize in
> Physiology or Medicine.
>
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