[Fictionary] OCTROI results

[Joshua Randall]

Thanks, guys! I'll start looking for a word in the next day or two.

On Fri, Mar 1, 2024 at 11:29 PM J-J Cote <marydevinechandler at gmail.com>
wrote:

> We have a clear-cut winner: Josh's fish whiskers successfully avoided the
> eight-sided king trap to take the lion's share of the points. Nice work!
>
> Jean-Joseph
>
> General comments:
> Jim: I like the variation of using a word that makes nearly *everybody*
> think it refers to similar things — in this case eights, with a runner-up
> of Greece. However, I want to reward diversity.
> Ranjit: Pretty much everyone had the same idea, eh? King of the octopodes!
> I want to vote only for non 8-king defs, but that seems like an
> overreaction. Hmm.
> Pierre: I am discounting anything involving eight or a king, including, of
> course, my
> own def, even if the eight is reduced to seven.
>
> octroi - n. - A monarch of one of the eight states that result from the
> breakup of a kingdom.
> by Pierre. No points.
> Nick: Eight like me.
> Elliott: OCTO + ROI, natch.
>
> octroi - n. - The prince governors of the eight "Silver Cities" of
> Anatolia in the Seleucid Empire. Nick 2 = 2 points.
> by Eric.
> Nick: This sounds right to me.
> Elliott: OCTO + ROI, perhaps.  The Octarchy..
>
> octroi - n. - The set of eight caretakers assigned to provide all-hours
> vigilance at a small temple or shrine for a local deity.
> By Fran. No points.
> Nick: Maybe?
> Elliott: OCTO + ... hmmm, dunno.
>
> octroi - n. - A ring of small filaments surrounding the mouth, used by
> many bony fishes to find prey by detecting underwater vibrations and
> electrical fields.
> By Josh. Eric 2, David 2, Pierre 2, Hutch 1, Elliott 1 plus two points for
> correct guess = 10 points.
> Nick: Catfish whiskers?
> Eric: Two points, for not being about eight Greek men. Or eight things, or
> Greek.
> Pierre: Two points, though I know that such a filament is called a barbel.
> Hutch: I usually don't go for scientific fictionitions, but this one feels
> right.
> Elliott: Cthulhu-esque.  Maybe inspired by OCTOPUS?  But far-enough
> removed from OCTO to merit a one-point vote.
>
> octroi - n. - A large, ornate eight-spoked wheel design featuring the
> owner's coat of arms. Popular on the coronation coaches of late 18th
> century European monarchs.
> by Nick. Josh 1, Ranjit 1 plus one point for correct guess = 3 points.
> Elliott: OCTO + something.
>
> octroi - n. - In the Scottish Rite, the seven member sovereign council of
> a Lodge of the Northern Jurisdiction. (Note: the council consisted of eight
> members until the reforms of 1879.)
> by Ranjit. Jim 1, Nick 1, Fran 1 = 3 points.
> Jim: One point for the bold move of pulling a “wait, why is September the
> SEVENTH month??” explanation.
> Nick: Feels too recent.
> Eric: One point, for masons.
> Elliott: OCTO + ROI.
>
> octroi - n. - (from oc troi, "against Troy") 1) A smuggler of arms to the
> Greek rebels during the Greek Wars of Independence. 2) A young man given to
> vain boasting. 3) A pretentious poet.
> by David. Ranjit 2, Pierre 1, Hutch 1, Elliott 2 plus one point for
> correct guess = 7 points.
> Nick: Avoiding the eighth temptation cleverly.
> Ranjit: Hard to resist a pretentious poet.
> Pierre: "Oc" isn't a Greek preposition, and a Greek word ending in "-oi"
> is usually plural. One point.
> Hutch: I like this one: from a smuggler to a stuck-up pen-wiper. 2 points
> (not that I think it's actually the definition :-)
> Elliott: Maybe they said "Troy" as a synecdoche for "Turkey"?  Two points,
> plus the Byron Medal with the Rupert Brooke Cluster.
>
> octroi - n. - An order of men at Athens, in the time of Pericles, who had
> been proved by their mutual testimony to have ascended the Nile past the
> Seventh Cataract to its source in the eternal ice of the Equatorial
> mountains.
> By Elliott. No points.
> Nick: Legendary!
> Elliott: Liars!  The Nile only has six cataracts, and I don't think the
> ancients got anywhere near the Sixth (_vide_ the round about "Nero's
> Expedition Up the Nile").  I made it seven rather than eight in case
> someone decides to automatically vote against definitions containing the
> word "eight".
>
> octroi - n. - 1) A concession or privilege granted by an absolute
> sovereign and serving as a limitation on his authority. 2) a: A tax on
> commodities brought into a town or city especially in certain European
> countries, a municipal customs. b: The agency for collecting such a tax
> or the city entrance at which it is collected.
> by merriam-webster.com. Jim 2, Nick 1, David 1, Josh 2 = 6 points.
> Nick: I like the specificity.
> Pierre: This involves a king, and I already knew that "octroyer" means
> "grant". Recused. (see note below -- J-J)
> Elliott: This likely the right one.  I vaguely recollect a German verb
> "oktroyieren" or "oktroiieren" or the like, which I thought meant something
> along the lines of "to impose something on someone".  What the heck is the
> etymology? [...] Checking after voting: The OED traces it to the French
> verb "octroyer", of which it says: "<Middle French, French octroyer (late
> 14th cent.; compare Anglo-Norman octrier), alteration of Old French otroier
> ottroye v. after classical Latin auctor auctor n. and auctorāre to
> authorize (see auctoration
> n.)."  German "oktroyieren" does in fact mean "to impose something on
> someone", says dict.cc.  Well, I guess taxes are imposed, aren't they?
>
> Octroi - n. - The ruling council of the islands of the northern Aegean
> Sea, during at least the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE); no remaining
> records identify the full extent of its rule, but the name leads scholars
> to conclude that it controlled at least the eight largest islands (Lesbos,
> Chios (aka Scio), Lemnos, Samos, Thasos, Imbros (today Gökçeada), Icaria,
> and Samothrace) of the region.
> by Hutch. Fran 2 = 2 points.
> Nick: Greek but don't recall this history. Maybe?
> Fran: I feel like all that detail deserves some POINTS
> Elliott: OCTO + ROI.
> ________________________________
>
> joke definition: Octroi, proper noun. The eighth Deanna clone created by
> Thomas Riker trying to recreate the transporter accident that created him.
> Nick: Everyone can probably figure out this was me. 😆
> Eric: Nice. Eight points.
> Ranjit: I'll give this one 2 grams of gold-pressed latinum (approximately
> equal to 5 quatloos)
> Elliott: Star Trek?
> ________________________________
>
> Note below: You try real hard, but you inevitably screw up anyway. When I
> sent this word out, two people said they thought they might know it, but
> neither one identified the "tax" definition that I had found. Pierre wrote,
> "I don't know this in English, but I know the French verb "octroyer", which
> means "grant". And upon learning the Spanish verb "otorgar", I pretty much
> figured out their common etymon, which is "*auctoricare" (IIRR this is
> unattested, hence the asterisk). I think I first saw the word "octroyé" on
> some machine saying that a patent had been granted." Pretty good, but
> nothing to do with taxes that I could see. But when it came time to put the
> ballot together, I went to the dictionary website and grabbed the whole
> definition, not noticing that meaning #1, which I had not previously
> encountered, contained the word "grant" that Pierre had mentioned. If I had
> just gone with meaning #2, Pierre wouldn't have felt the need to recuse
> himself. But it doesn't appear to have affected the outcome.
>
>>
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