[Fictionary] OCTROI results
Joshua Randall
joshuarandall.nyc at gmail.com
Thu Mar 7 14:48:21 UTC 2024
Does anyone know the word soroban?
On Sun, Mar 3, 2024 at 8:48 AM Joshua Randall <joshuarandall.nyc at gmail.com>
wrote:
> 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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