[Fictionary] CATABIBAZON results

[eLLioTT morEton]

Dear Fictionary,

Jim's Laputan translating ear trumpet ran away with the round, funnelling in ten points and blowing away the runner-up, the Oxford English Dictionary, which only got six points (or eight, if it is given credit for a correct guess).

Haul it away, Jim!

Regards,
Elliott


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Submitted:  Nick, Jim, Linda, Ranjit, Pierre, Hutch, Eric, Jean-Joseph, David
Voted:  Fran, Jean-Joseph, Pierre, Linda, David, Eric, Ziv, Ranjit, Hutch

Linda:  Nice selection.

Hutch:  I am utterly stumped. None of them seem vaguely realistic.

Ranjit:  This is a difficult one - I love every definition equally.
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%%% Nick
catabibazon, n. A short musical quotation from another Broadway theatrical
production.
2 = Ziv 1 + Ranjit 1
Pierre:  Other than what?
Ziv:  One point for Broadway, to give my regards to it
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%%% Jim
catabibazon, n. A translating ear-trumpet, mentioned in Jonathan Swift’s "A Voyage to Laputa”.
10 = Eric 1 + Linda 2 + Jean-Joseph 1 + Fran 2 + Hutch 2 + Ranjit 2
Eric:  Another great idea.
Jean-Joseph:  *My first thought was that this is clearly the work of Elliott. But he's running this round. Then I thought, too absurd. But it's not real, it just has to be something Swift thought up. Is Laputa part of Gulliver's Travels? I read that, but it was over 40 years ago. Do I remember this? All I remember is people with little bags of pebbles on sticks that they used to remind the forgetful elite to do normal life activities. Anyway, one point. *
Pierre:  I've read Gulliver's Travels, and I don't remember such a thing or word. 
Bezides, "catabibazon" is Greek, not Laputan. [paragraph] Laputan apparently sounded like Italian, so presumably "Flandona Gagnole" is pronounced as if it were Italian. Which word means "astronomer" and which means "cave"? [paragraph] Also, that part of Gulliver's Travels is "A Voyage to [several countries, including Japan]".
Hutch:  Any mention of Swift is a winner in my book.
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%%% Linda
Catabibazon, n. A Southern Italian street opera featuring various comic characters and instruments like a hurdy-gurdy..
0 = 
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%%% Ranjit
Catabibazon, an early online commerce startup focusing on solutions for messy pets, raised $55 million in two rounds of funding in 1998 and 1999 but closed abruptly in May of 2000 just months before a planned IPO.
0 = 
Eric: Cat a bib is on?
Jean-Joseph:  *Cat bib Amazon?*
Hutch:  Cat bibs *LOL*
Ranjit:  Mine, from "cat" + "bib" + "amazon", of course.
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%%% Real def:  Oxford English Dictionary
catabibazon, n.  In Astronomy, the Moon's descending Node; call'd also Dragon's Tail.
6 = Eric 2 + Pierre 2 + Ziv 2
Eric:  I'm a sucker for "call'd", and lovely overall.
Jean-Joseph:  *Nice gratuitous contraction! [and after peeking: doh! that should have been the giveaway!]*
Pierre:  Two points for having a sensible cata- (the ascending node is the anabibazon?) 
and for looking like it's at least a century old.
Ziv:  Two points because I really hope someone pulled out some cool archaic dictionary that would use "call'd"
OED:  Greek καταβιβαζόν bringing down, lowering.
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%%% Pierre
catabibazon, n. Suppression of an insurrection by the Byzantine army.
4 = David 2 + correct guess 2
Jean-Joseph:  *Is the Byzantine army the party doing the insurrecting or the suppressing?*
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%%% Hutch
1 = Linda 1
catabibazon, n. An early style of photograph in which images were made of disassembled objects at very close range, occasionally touching the lens.
Linda 1
Jean-Joseph:  *Fascinating. I'm not sure that early equipment had macro lenses, though, and lighting may have been a problem as well.*
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%%% Eric
3 = Hutch 1 + correct guess 2
catabibazon, n. A drinking party ending in unconsciousness. Coinage (1655) of John Milton.
Jean-Joseph:  *Catastrophic imbibing. Sure, why not? Two points.*
Pierre:  One point for having a sensible cata-. But "bib" meaning "drink" is Latin, not 
Greek. I know where "symbibazon" is (Acts 9:22, and other forms elsewhere in 
the Greek Bible).
Hutch:  In my experience, all drinking parties are such
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%%% Jean-Joseph
catabibazon - n. - A fire-heated tool for creating waves in hair, predecessor to the modern curling iron.
2 = David 1 + Fran 1
Pierre:  Calamistrum. Once the pastor's wife, Clara (I won't give her whole first name, 
as it's pretty unusual), came to church with curly hair. "¿Te calamistraste?" 
I asked. No, she answered, that's how her hair naturally is, and she usually 
straightened it.
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%%% David
0 = 
catabibazon - n. - a substance untransmutable by alchemical processes.
Jean-Joseph:  *So... everything, then?*
Hutch:  My impression is that alchemists thought that EVERYTHING was transmutable ... with the right methods and the Philosopher's Stone.
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%%% Ziv
No definition
2 = correct guess 2