[Fictionary] AFICOT: Results
lindafowens at netzero.net
lindafowens at netzero.net
Mon Jun 15 16:50:45 EDT 2020
My great-grandmother was a lace-maker, but although she lived to be 101, and she died when I was in my twenties, I never talked with her about lace-making and never saw any of her work. Alas! LInda
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Elizabeth Heffner <elheffner at googlemail.com>
To: fictionary <fictionary at swarpa.net>
Subject: [Fictionary] AFICOT: Results
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2020 13:37:43 -0400
This round drew a wide range of definitions, inspiring these comments:
EM: That word drew some clever defs. Although it sounded a lot like APRICOT, it looked unrelated to other English words, which made it hard to assign votes based on etymological plausibility.Â
JH: Wow! This one is absolutely all over the place!
The correct definition was the wooden burnishing tool in the form of a lobster claw, primarily used in lacemaking. I have one; pic attached.   Burnished threads are fuller and lie more smoothly adjacent to one another when this is desired.
Three people correctly guessed the definition and it received the following comments:
EC: I’m pretty certain that lobster claws are essential to lacemaking. 1 pt.
EM: Can you burnish *lace* with *wood*? This is delightfully surreal. Two points.Â
PA: “But the Barrister, weary of proving in vain
        That the Beaver’s lace making was wrong,â€
         One point.
JH: I thought “burnish†was something you did to metal???
The winner of the round is Fran P with 9 points for the popular definition of the living box.   Elliott M and Simon H were not far behind with 5 each.
I thoroughly enjoyed running this round and dealing with the clever definitions.  Many thanks!
Now to the results and comments!Â
Joe R: Aficot, adj: filled to less than half capacity, usually in regard to a vessel for holding liquid.Â
JH: Somebody is thinking of “aliquot†I suppose?
Dave R:Â Aficot, adj: (British army slang) engaged because the lady was pregnant. 2
EC: Clearly “AFIanced Cos Of Tummy†2 points.
EM: Oddly plausible. The etymology isn’t transparent, but the British military did bring back a lot of words from India.
JM: I’m trying to work out if this would come from rhyming slang, the military concatenated-abbreviation thing, or something else. But I got nothin’. So, no points.
Elliott M: Aficot, n: 1. a bell hung as a clapper in a larger bell. 2. a pair of identical bells hung side by side so as to rebound alternately off each other. 3. a pair of argumentative guests, neither of whom will let the other have the last word. 1 + 2 + 2 for correct guess
RB: 1 point and probably by Elliott or David.
EM: Newton’s Cradle with bells instead of balls. Why not?
JM: Whimsy = Elliott. Honorable mention points for making me smile.
PA: “Navigation was always a difficult art,
        Though with only one ship and one bell.â€
        Two points for the two bells.
JH: The bells striking each other strikes me as a bad idea. But I like the development into the third definition from the first two. Give this an imaginary tie-breaker point.
Linda O: Aficot, n: any of the early, small dropped fruit resulting from too much pollination which drop off the tree to ensure a crop of larger fruit.
JM: I like the concept, but it’s soooo close to “apricot†that I’m deterred from guessing it.
EM: Too close to APRICOT.
PA: Â Why would too much pollination cause fruit to drop?
JH: I don’t think that trees do this naturally; I think that people have to manually pick those “too many fruitâ€.
Helen P: Aficot, n: a string, leather thong, or metal cuff placed at the ankle to prevent socks from slipping. 2 + 1
EM: Used to AFFIX COTTON?
JM: So much like the horse-sleeve definition! But I have less trouble believing people would wear it than horses, so this one gets the (2) points!
JH: A garter?
SH: One point to the sock cuffs, out of sock solidarity.
Nicolas W: Aficot, adj: (botany) having pairs of unequally sized embryonic leaves. 2
EM: Too close to APRICOT
HP: This sounds good, except for “embryonicâ€. Can leaves be embryonic?
FP:  Sounds legit. 2 points.
E Cohen: Aficot, n: the smeared fruit exudate inevitable upon consuming a particularly juicy fruit. 1 + 1 for correct guess
EC: Mine. From “affectionate apricotâ€.
EM: Too close to APRICOT.
JM: Doesn’t sound like any dictionary writing style I’m used to. I like the image, though!
JH: Would there be a different word for the juice that runs down your chin when you eat something other than fruit?
Ranjit B: Aficot, n: (computational geometry) The affine cotangent. 2
EM: But what happened to the other f?
PA: I know affine and cotangent separately, and I’ve heard of some modified trig functions such as the haversine, but not the aficot.
Pierre A: Aficot, n: the double crown worn by Carolingian kings in the 700s, formed by combining the crowns of Austrasia and Neustria. 2 + 1 + 1 for correct guess
FP: Honorable mention.
EM: Weren’t the Carolingian kings post-Charlemagne, and hence post-800?
JM:  See, this is where Know Thy Roundrunner can be useful. This seems like the kind of word Liz would have come across. But the image of two crowns on one head is silly enough that I’ll give it only 1 point.
Jim M: Aficot, adj: having exactly three prime factors.
EM: Mathematicians use each others’ names as adjectives (“Suppose towards a contradiction that S is not Hausdorffâ€), so maybe there was a number theorist named Aficot?
PA: I know of uses for numbers with exactly two prime factors, such as RSA, but what are numbers with three prime factors used for?
JH: I would expect this to have some form of “tri†in it.
Â
Simon H: Aficot, n: a sock-like sleeve used to protect the lower leg of a horse from extreme cold, flies, or infected wounds or sores. 1 + 2 + 1 + 1
HP: This gets my two points. Why would there be two sock definitions if one were not right? And the other is mine, so it must be this one.
FP: Horse stuff also sounds legit. 1 point.
JM: So much like the anti-sock-slipping definition! And after all, everyone’s heard of horseshoes, so why not horsesocks? And yet I don’t buy it. Honorable mention, though.
JH: I know this is a thing, but I’ve never heard a name for it. 1 point.
Â
Fran P: Aficot, n: a living box made by growing fruit trees espalier-style on all sides of a wooden structure, then removing the inner structure. 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2
HP: I planned to stay away from fruit on this one – the apricot connection was too tempting. But this is such a beautiful idea! One point.
RB: I would like to see one of these!
EM: I want to vote against it because it’s too close to APRICOT, but I like the idea so much I can’t help giving it ONE POINT.
JM: Why would these need to be *fruit* trees? Unless the idea is that it supplies you with food as well as lodging…but don’t the trees keep on growing inward once the walls are removed?
JH: Kinda cool idea! I’m doubtful that this is it, but I like the idea! 2 points.
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