Words You Would Have Thought...

Adam Gillard · **Posted:** Tue Apr 13, 2010 2:31 pm

*diablo/diablos

You know the toy on the string that you throw up and catch...

Charlie Reams · **Posted:** Tue Apr 13, 2010 2:55 pm

Adam Gillard wrote:

*diablo/diablos

You know the toy on the string that you throw up and catch...

Diabolo?

Gavin Chipper · **Joined:** Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:37 pm **Posts:** 2589

*diablo/diablos

You know the devil...

Miriam Nussbaum · **Joined:** Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:20 am **Posts:** 44

Charlie Reams wrote:

Liam Tiernan wrote:

I've seen a similar thread before (HEPTANES/ethanes etc.), but is there any good reason why BOVINE, FELINE & EQUINE are listed as nouns as well as adjectives,(allowing BOVINES, FELINES, EQUINES as valid words) while similar words like CAPRINE, PORCINE, VULPINE etc. are not ? CANINES (teeth) and LUPINES (flowers), are understandable exceptions, but these three just seem totally arbritrary to me. Is there some rule that i'm missing?

Probably not. Statistical lexicography is often inconsistent when you slice it in a different direction, for example TRIGRAM, TETRAGRAM, PENTAGRAM but not bigram. It just depends on coincidences of usage frequency.

Not even 'digram'?

Charlie Reams · **Posted:** Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:15 pm

Miriam Nussbaum wrote:

Not even 'digram'?

Nope.

Gavin Chipper · **Joined:** Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:37 pm **Posts:** 2589

Charlie Reams wrote:

Miriam Nussbaum wrote:

Not even 'digram'?

Nope.

Diabolical! You know the toy on the string that you throw up and catch...

Ian Volante · **Posted:** Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:21 pm

Fairnesses.

Simon Le Fort · **Joined:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:29 pm **Posts:** 41

In French versus Matt B:

NOYERAI.

Karen Pearson · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:00 pm

Simon Le Fort wrote:

In French versus Matt B:

NOYERAI.

NOIERAI

Bloody irregular verbs!!!

Simon Le Fort · **Joined:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:29 pm **Posts:** 41

NOYERAI is the correct spelling of will drown, as confirmed by a simple google. I'll paste a little bit:

noyerai
will drown verbe

All the --YER verbs keep their Y in past and future forms, just the present and the noun forms modify. Making the rule up myself, I think it's like that. (Essuyait; payerez; tutoyerai etc)

Apterous just doesn't like the word NOYERAI.

Karen Pearson · **Posted:** Thu Apr 29, 2010 10:33 am

Simon Le Fort wrote:

NOYERAI is the correct spelling of will drown, as confirmed by a simple google. I'll paste a little bit:

noyerai
will drown verbe

All the --YER verbs keep their Y in past and future forms, just the present and the noun forms modify. Making the rule up myself, I think it's like that. (Essuyait; payerez; tutoyerai etc)

Apterous just doesn't like the word NOYERAI.

Sorry, not according to my dictionary. Payer is the only one that can be PAYERAI or PAIERAI. Admittedly my dictionary is pretty old. But an online translator also comes up with NOIERAI.
http://www.worldlingo.com/en/products_s ... lator.html

Maybe Jeff Clayton could clarify for us - his French is a lot more up-to-date than mine!

Jeff Clayton · **Joined:** Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:47 pm **Posts:** 253

I believe it's NOIERAI.

"Nettoyer" is another -oyer verb that follows the same rule in the future tense.

Jeff

Ryan Taylor · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 7:53 pm

Shocking

Michael Wallace · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 7:56 pm

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Shocking

Err...

Ryan Taylor · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 8:03 pm

Michael Wallace wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Shocking

Err...

That's at least some relief that the word exists, but quite frightening how bad my spelling is!

Simon Myers · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 9:00 pm

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Michael Wallace wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Shocking

Err...

That's at least some relief that the word exists, but quite frightening how bad my spelling is!

You're not the first to have made that kind of mistake...

Dinos Sfyris · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2010 12:14 pm

Has mauves recently been removed? I've played it a few times before and it's been fine but played it in this game yesterday only to have it disallowed (although bizarrely I still got a Page of Page for my efforts). I'm guessing it's been taken out because you can't have different shades of MAUVE because mauve is a specific shade of purple. Bizarrely AZURES was acceptable in the same round and on the same basis should this be removed :?:

Michael Wallace · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2010 12:19 pm

Dinos Sfyris wrote:

Has mauves recently been removed? I've played it a few times before and it's been fine

Really? If you look down the list in word search it's been played loads of times and doesn't seem to have ever been valid. I can remember playing MAUVES months and months (possibly years) ago and having it disallowed.

Edit: Although from searching the forums it seems it has been allowed on the show, so hmm...

Liam Tiernan · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2010 3:47 pm

MELLOWER http://www.apterous.org/lexplorer.php?g=1&word=mellower&dic=0 ended up costing me the game.

Adam Gillard · **Posted:** Mon May 31, 2010 8:54 pm

Liam Tiernan wrote:

MELLOWER http://www.apterous.org/lexplorer.php?g=1&word=mellower&dic=0 ended up costing me the game.

On a similar note, *SHALLOWER isn't in. SHALLOWED, SHALLOWING, SHALLOWLY and SHALLOWNESS all are. So it doesn't make much sense to me.

NB: Of course Liam could have declared the obvious 7 EELWORM to win that round, so I don't see why he's complaining.

Ian Volante · **Posted:** Tue Jun 01, 2010 7:58 am

Adam Gillard wrote:

Liam Tiernan wrote:

MELLOWER http://www.apterous.org/lexplorer.php?g=1&word=mellower&dic=0 ended up costing me the game.

On a similar note, *SHALLOWER isn't in. SHALLOWED, SHALLOWING, SHALLOWLY and SHALLOWNESS all are. So it doesn't make much sense to me.

NB: Of course Liam could have declared the obvious 7 EELWORM to win that round, so I don't see why he's complaining.

Well SHALLOWER (and MELLOWER for that matter) are comparative forms of two-syllable words, which mostly aren't allowed. The other forms of SHALLOW aren't particularly relevant.

Charlie Reams · **Posted:** Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:50 am

Ian Volante wrote:

Well SHALLOWER (and MELLOWER for that matter) are comparative forms of two-syllable words, which mostly aren't allowed. The other forms of SHALLOW aren't particularly relevant.

This.

At some point I might invest some time in making a list of the longer adjectives which do have inflections.

Miriam Nussbaum · **Joined:** Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:20 am **Posts:** 44

After having DC give SEXTETTES many times, I was pretty surprised to discover that *nonettes was invalid.

Charlie Reams · **Posted:** Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:07 pm

Miriam Nussbaum wrote:

After having DC give SEXTETTES many times, I was pretty surprised to discover that *nonettes was invalid.

Variations with numbers are often weird. For some reason QUARTETTE, SEXTETTE and SEPTETTE are accepted, but there's no DUETTE, QUINTETTE, OCTETTE or NONETTE. Incidentally the usual spelling is SEXTET, and NONET is indeed valid.

Miriam Nussbaum · **Joined:** Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:20 am **Posts:** 44

Yeah – this was in unlimited and I was feeling confident, never having bothered to check it and assuming it was like the fencing guards, which are also numbers and valid.

Dinos Sfyris · **Posted:** Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:07 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:

Variations with numbers are often weird. For some reason QUARTETTE, SEXTETTE and SEPTETTE are accepted, but there's no DUETTE, QUINTETTE, OCTETTE or NONETTE. Incidentally the usual spelling is SEXTET, and NONET is indeed valid.

This is true. In the audience for The Series 61 final I was sat next to Innis who had NONUPLET^ written down which I thought was a brilliant beater. Turns out its invalid

Ian Volante · **Posted:** Mon Jun 28, 2010 9:43 pm

Swatter.

Ian Volante · **Posted:** Sun Jul 04, 2010 7:24 pm

Liam Tiernan · **Posted:** Sun Jul 04, 2010 7:34 pm

Ian Volante wrote:

SUD!

One just doesn't wash.

*Marc Meakin is on holiday.

Ian Volante · **Posted:** Thu Jul 29, 2010 4:57 pm

Unclotted. Humph.

Graeme Cole · **Joined:** Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:59 pm **Posts:** 9

FANBASE. Also, you can have UPTIME but not DOWNTIME.

Andrew Feist · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:43 pm **Posts:** 381

ferrites. Especially when DC chides me for not playing FERRATES.

Peter Mabey · **Posted:** Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:58 am

Andrew Feist wrote:

ferrites. Especially when DC chides me for not playing FERRATES.

Whereas NODE records FERRATE as a ferric salt, it does not have FERRITE as a ferrous one :roll:

, so it's only there as a mass noun (in two senses) :shock:

Miriam Nussbaum · **Joined:** Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:20 am **Posts:** 44

On the flip side, I'm surprised that WYSIWYG is in.

Gavin Chipper · **Joined:** Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:37 pm **Posts:** 2589

Graeme Cole wrote:

FANBASE.

I got that a couple of years ago, but it looks as though it's built up quite a fanbase since then.

Ryan Taylor · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 12:55 pm

I can't believe FATTENER isn't a word. Pfftttttt

Hugh Binnie · **Joined:** Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:46 pm **Posts:** 178

Graeme Cole wrote:

FANBASE. Also, you can have UPTIME but not DOWNTIME.

Good news and bad news wrt the 3rd edition — DOWNTIME is in [mass noun] but fan base is two words.

Miriam Nussbaum · **Joined:** Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:20 am **Posts:** 44

LENITION is in but not FORTITION^. :cry:

Adam Gillard · **Posted:** Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:00 pm

Yes that is strange Miriam. One that just came to my attention was FRO*. I suppose it's only ever used in the set phrase "to and fro" / "to-ing and fro-ing", so that would be why it isn't in. Or, as Mark James suggested, is it an abbreviation of "towards and from", hence the disallowedness. Thoughts?

Matt Morrison · **Posted:** Fri Sep 03, 2010 9:27 am

...Ought Not Be Valid As Conundrums.

Had two conundrums recently that have confused me.

FLESHPOTS - without the S it is not valid, but I can still not find a definition of the word which isn't a plural definition of a singular fleshpot.
HOOKAHS - to me, clearly a plural, and also in this case HOOKAH without the S is valid on apterous.

Not saying anything's wrong, just need them explained to sate my curiosity and understanding.

Dinos Sfyris · **Posted:** Fri Sep 03, 2010 4:32 pm

Nasty numbers 15 rders include plurals as conundrums. Some of these have been included in recent duels inc fleshpots

Charlie Reams · **Posted:** Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:20 pm

Matt Morrison wrote:

FLESHPOTS - without the S it is not valid, but I can still not find a definition of the word which isn't a plural definition of a singular fleshpot.

I see what you mean, it's difficult to know how to handle the plural-but-no-singular cases (BEESTINGS is another example). I tended to allow them where I wasn't sure.

Quote:

HOOKAHS - to me, clearly a plural, and also in this case HOOKAH without the S is valid on apterous.

Yep, just a mistake. Will remove.

Miriam Nussbaum · **Joined:** Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:20 am **Posts:** 44

I would have beaten my Junior Unlimited personal best just now if I'd declared PEEWEE or even WEEP instead of BEWEEP^. >>;

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