<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Bottom line (on the top line): In a close tally, the nod goes to
Fran's fur-schlepping sled. Schlep it away, Fran!<br>
_____________________________________<br>
<br>
General comments:<br>
Linda: I really like the goat and sheep defs<br>
Andrew: My own submission was eaten by the Dark Ones That Stalk The
Web. Shame about that. <i> (I don't think it came in and I missed
it, but if I somehow did, </i><i>I apologize -- J-J)</i><i><br>
</i>Hutch<i>: </i>Goats and sheep. There ought to be a Biblical
joke in there somewhere, but I'm not finding it. :-)<br>
Elliott: These are actually plausible, for a change. It's hard even
to find ones to strike off the list.
<br>
<br>
barachois - adj. - 1) Thickly forested. 2) Hairy.
<br>
by JC. Ranjit 1, Hutch 2, + 1 correct guess = 4 points<br>
Ranjit: 1 hirsute point <br>
Hutch: I like. Sensible pairing.<br>
Elliott: Wordmeisters sometimes put the real def first to make
people not vote for it.
<br>
<br>
barachois - n. - A Greek breed of hair sheep used primarily for
milk.
<br>
by Pierre. + 1 correct guess = 1 point<br>
Jim: "hair sheep"? So shearing them is the first part of the
wig-making process?
<br>
Hutch: Hair sheep, but "used" (not "raised") for milk? <br>
Elliott: Could be, sure. <br>
<br>
barachois - n. -A relative of the asparagus plant used in French
cooking.
<br>
by Linda. Nicolas 2 = 2 points<br>
Hutch: I'm not more than moderately familiar with French cooking,
but I've sure never heard of this vegetable.<br>
Elliott: Maybe, maybe.
<br>
Nicolas: 2 points for most likely, and not being afraid to avoid
French.<br>
<br>
barachois - n. - A transparent sea invertebrate, also known as a sea
raft.
<br>
by Jim. Linda 2, Pierre 2 = 4 points<br>
Elliott: Wouldn't a real def say what it was related to?
<br>
<br>
barachois - adj. - Courageous. Derived from Joseph Barra, hero of
the French Revolution.
<br>
by Nicolas. Ranjit 2 = 2 points<br>
Ranjit: 2 brave points<br>
Hutch: I'm just doubtful of a foreign language eponym making its way
to English.<br>
Elliott: Wait, I thought he was the Crippled Atlas of Capua. And
what happened to the other r?
<br>
<br>
barachois - n. - A technique for long-distance semaphore signalling
by means of a maneuverable kite.
<br>
by Elliott. David VS 1 = 1 point<br>
Jim: Elliott award. I can't believe kites would ever be
controllable enough not to have lots of distorted messages sending
France to war with Luxembourg all the time...
<br>
Hutch: I like the idea, but it seems like it would be a bit slower
than normal flag semaphore, to the point that relay stations would
probably work just as well. Close, but no cigar.<br>
Elliott: Surely someone, somewhere, has tried sending messages by
stunt kite.
<br>
<br>
barachois - n. - A dugout canoe of the Calusa tribe of Native
Americans (S Florida and the Florida Keys).
<br>
by Hutch. David R 2 = 2 points<br>
Elliott: Never heard of the Calusas, but no reason why I should
have. Also, are canoes much use off Florida?
<br>
<br>
barachois - adj. - In the style of a parapet, consisting of a
regular alternation of merlons and crenels; crenelated.
<br>
by a pair of Davids (VS&H). Andrew 1, Jim 1, Hutch 1, Elliott 1,
JC 2 = 6 points<br>
Andrew: my honest guess.<br>
Jim: 1 point because I have to vote for at least one adjective.
<br>
Hutch: Gotta choose something<br>
Elliott: Only a paladin would think of such a def, and paladins
never lie.<br>
<br>
barachois - n. - A horse/dog/human-drawn sled with slatted sides and
bent-wood gliders, generally used for transporting furs.
<br>
by Fran. Linda 1, Jim 2, David VS 2, Elliott 2 = 7 points<br>
Hutch: Somebody else was thinking "travois"?<br>
Elliott: Tempting, tempting ... but slashes don't look definitiony
to me. (Yeah, sure, definitions don't have to come from a
prescriptivist dictionary, but still.)
What the heck.<br>
<br>
barachois - n. - (Atlantic Canada) A coastal lagoon separated from
the ocean by a sand or shingle bar. Salt water may enter the
barachois during high tide. Also "barrasway".<br>
real definition, condensed from wikipedia (see below for more).
David R 1, Pierre 1, JC 1 = 3 points<br>
Jim: Cognate with 'barrier'?
<br>
Elliott: The salt-water-may-enter comment doesn't sound like part of
a definition.
<br>
<br>
barachois - n. - (fr. French) The pygmy goat of the Savoyan Alps.
Now extinct in the pure form, although the word is still used to
refer to descendants hybridized with the domestic goat.<br>
by David R. Andrew 2, Nicolas 1, + 1 for correct guess = 4 points<br>
Andrew: 2 points to the pygmy goat of the Savoyan Alps! Not because
I believe it, but because that's almost exactly what I tried to
submit when my Internet died (I didn't come up with the part about
extinction and hybridization).<br>
Elliott: Aren't there fiber people on this list who would have
recognized this one at the word-selection stage? Other than that,
it's a lovely definition.<br>
Nicolas: 1 point for goats. Sorry, other goats def.<br>
_____________________________________<br>
<br>
Elliott: Wikipedia says it's from Basque! Very nice. The article
also mentions St. Pierre and Miquelon, which is interesting. I
hadn't known that France still had any sovereign territory in N.
America. Especially not Vichy France.
<br>
<br>
So, the backstory on how I found this word is that some years ago
(probably about 15), I went to a folk music festival, and one of the
acts was a quartet from Prince Edward Island called Barachois.
Didn't seem like it would be all that interesting, but they were on
the main stage, so we saw them, and they were fantastic. I think it
was fiddle/guitar/keyboards/bass, with some switching of instruments
(I remember that the guy who I think played bass also switched to
tuba at some point, and maybe the keyboardist doubled on fiddle).
All of the lyrics were in French. And they did percussion with
their feet, wearing tap shoes, usually seated but occasionally all
standing and basically tapdancing. We went back to see them in the
dance tent the next day, and a month or two later they were touring,
and I tried to get somebody to go with me, and the only one I could
find was my friend Stephen who was 2 or 3 years old at the time. He
had to stand on my lap for the whole show and he loved it, and
during intermission we went up to the stage and he asked them to
autograph a CD for him (all I could teach him to say was "Can you
write your name on this?"). I chatted with the band, all of whom
had the last name Arsenault, and I asked the tuba guy if all of the
Francophones in PEI are named Arsenault, and he thought for a
second, then said, "Yeah, pretty much, either that or Bergeron".
Anyway, during the stage patter, the lead vocalist talked about how
pleased they were to be able to come down and play in the USA (we
were in New Hampshire), and said that people often ask him what
"barachois" means. He said it was a French word that translates to
"barachois". And on to the next song they went. So last fall I
went to PEI with my girlfriend Nancy (Stephen's mother), and I had
looked up the word, and sure enough, there are a number of these
lagoons up there. I had brought the CD along to play in the car --
or I thought I had, but it was just the case, and the disc wasn't in
it (it's probably in the cardboard box with the other CDs). During
our trip we visited the Bottle Houses, a very weird tourist
attraction, and unlike all of the gift shops up there, this one had
Barachois CDs. I had figured that they were the hottest act to ever
come out of that province, but you can't find their music, except in
the small French-speaking parts of the island. So I bought one, and
I was chatting with the kid behind the counter, and mentioned that I
had seen the band a few times back in the late 1990s. Yeah, he
said, they broke up not long after that, the two guys still perform,
but the two women in the band didn't like touring. In fact, he
said, Helene is the head gardener here.<br>
<br>
Jean-Joseph<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>