Spoilers for Friday 8th February 2008

Conor · Post by **Conor** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:33 pm

STAPEDIAL.

Conor · Post by **Conor** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:37 pm

(9*9+1)*8

David O'Donnell · Post by **David O'Donnell** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:38 pm

STAPEDIAL is excellent, I have never heard of it. I had ADIPATES and STAPELIA in that round and thought I was doing well.

Conor · Post by **Conor** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:39 pm

David O'Donnell wrote:STAPEDIAL is excellent, I have never heard of it. I had ADIPATES and STAPELIA in that round and thought I was doing well.

Yeah, I try to remember it as a combination of those two words.

Conor · Post by **Conor** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:49 pm

This guy seems pretty damn good!
Edit: Commentators' curse!

Michael Wallace · Post by **Michael Wallace** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:58 pm

I think your edit made my post pointing out that his easy misses at the end of part 2 disappear!

but yeah, bandied and that numbers game miss...disappointing, let's hope it's just beginner's nerves

Conor · Post by **Conor** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 4:04 pm

AGEISTS there.

David O'Donnell · Post by **David O'Donnell** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 4:09 pm

I was completely crap today, I hope it's temporary.

Ray Folwell · Post by **Ray Folwell** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 4:10 pm

((4*75/3)+8+5)*7

Dinos Sfyris · Post by **Dinos Sfyris** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 4:40 pm

Not looked at the spoilers yet cause I'm watching it on 4+1 but for the first numbers game I got (9x9+1)x8

Joe Denniss · Post by **Joe Denniss** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 4:41 pm

Alternatively for that second numbers game...
(5 * 4 + 75 + 3) * 8 + 7

Ben Pugh · Post by **Ben Pugh** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:11 pm

I thought the champion was going to get FAVOURITE in the first round after she went for the 5th vowel.

Dinos Sfyris · Post by **Dinos Sfyris** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:25 pm

Ben Pugh wrote:I thought the champion was going to get FAVOURITE in the first round after she went for the 5th vowel.

I cant believe I missed FAVOURITE and PERSONATE but I did get PALISADE and SUNSHINE and congratulated myself on not guessing INNHOUSES

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:24 pm

dinos_the_chemist wrote:I cant believe I missed FAVOURITE and PERSONATE but I did get PALISADE and SUNSHINE and congratulated myself on not guessing INNHOUSES

I saw FAVOURITE, but I only came up with PERSONA for round 7. I equalled the contestants with ZEALOTS on round 11, which I think is okay.

Malcolm James · Post by **Malcolm James** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:57 pm

I'm surprised DC (and everyone else so it seems) has missed PALATISED in round 3.

Conor · Post by **Conor** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:21 pm

Probably because it isn't in.

Malcolm James · Post by **Malcolm James** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:50 pm

My dictionary gives PALATISE v.t. - to make palatal.

As in palatised consonants.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:04 pm

What dictionary is that?

Malcolm James · Post by **Malcolm James** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:19 pm

It's Chambers, but if you google "palatised consonants" you get loads of hits. They can't all be using a non-existent word. and I've heard it used a number of times before in this context.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:07 pm

The Countdown dictionary is the Oxford Dictionary of English 2nd Edition (revised.) Nothing else matters.

Ben Pugh · Post by **Ben Pugh** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:27 pm

Malcolm James wrote:It's Chambers, but if you google "palatised consonants" you get loads of hits. They can't all be using a non-existent word. and I've heard it used a number of times before in this context.

Then it's one of about a billion words that 'exist' but aren't in the OED.

Malcolm James · Post by **Malcolm James** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:05 pm

If I had offered PALATISED and had it disallowed, I would have been massively aggrieved. Marginal decisions aree one thing, but excluding words which so clearly DO exist and which are in regular use (albeit in a technical sense) is another. It's no good saying "Ah, but the dictionary can't include every word." Given some of the words which are included, excluding words like these is perverse in the extreme.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:14 pm

The words chosen for the ODE are based almost entirely on usage frequency information, so I would suggest that you're just disproportionately exposed to PALATISE. I've never heard of it and I've done some amount of formal linguistics, so it's not ultra-common even within technical circles. Admittedly the ODE corpus clearly has some oddities (eg DEINSTAL) but I wouldn't be too aggrieved by any of them.

Malcolm James · Post by **Malcolm James** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:46 pm

So, let me get this straight. Some US commentator invents LOSINGEST and it's in. PALATISED is a long-established technical word, and it isn't (and I assure you that I haven't been "disproportionately exposed to this word). The ODE needs a serious look at its priorities.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:01 pm

"Palatised" -> 1180 Google results (about half that for your suggested query)
"Losingest" -> 17800 Google results.

So even by your metric, losingest is 15 times more worthy of inclusion.

Julian Fell · Post by **Julian Fell** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:42 pm

Lay off the ODE Malcolm! As Charlie says, the compilers don't decide on a whim whether to include a given word or not - it's based on analysis of the British Reading Corpus which has billions of texts from all contexts, registers etc. I think it's an excellent, well-balanced dictionary - and even if it weren't, I would find your apparent thought process of "my word isn't in ergo the dictionary is rubbish" to be a bit bizarre. Whichever dictionary you used - Oxford, Chambers, whatever - it would exclude some words which some viewers somewhere think should be in. C'est la vie, the rest of us just get on with it, we don't get "massively aggrieved".

Jon O'Neill · Post by **Jon O'Neill** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:52 pm

Why is it that people think they know better than the Oxford Corpus?

Maybe their parents don't love them.

Julian Fell · Post by **Julian Fell** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:10 am

Anyway back to the game - today's challenger (sorry, can't remember his name) looks like a goody. He reminds me a lot of series 49 champ John Davies - I imagine he must, like John, have Asperger's or something similar - and is he blind in one eye as well? Before you all come down on me like a ton of bricks, I'm not in any way saying he's less worthy as a contestant for those reasons - quite the opposite in fact.

He really impressed me... ASTOUND (which beat me), PERSONATE and MONETARY were great winners, and he showed he has a lot of flair by going for AEROSOL instead of something like LOOTERS in that round. To whoever said BANDIED was a bad miss by him - well, I missed it as well, and I was sitting at home under no pressure! Ok, he was all at sea on the first two numbers rounds, but he did well on the third and I'm sure he'll improve on the numbers as he gets wins under his belt and gains confidence. I hope he goes on to be an octochamp because he's got the game to do really well.

For the second game in a row, I missed four maxima despite, I thought, not playing all that badly... really tough rounds over the last couple of days. I wouldn't be too worried about doing badly David, I think (I hope) it's temporary for both of us! DC and Carol have been struggling as well, after all...

Dinos Sfyris · Post by **Dinos Sfyris** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:20 am

Think his name was Tim. Didn't catch his surname? How many times did Des O say okey-doke today? I didnt notice anything til Stuart mentioned it but it IS quite annoying after a while! *grinds teeth*

Julian Fell · Post by **Julian Fell** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:53 am

dinos_the_chemist wrote:How many times did Des O say okey-doke today? I didnt notice anything til Stuart mentioned it but it IS quite annoying after a while! *grinds teeth*

I still haven't noticed it, even after Stuart drew our attention to it...

Edit to say: that said, Des maybe did say one too many times today to the champion, things along the lines of "I think you can still win/not sure if you can still do it/can maybe just about still beat him but you'll have to get everything". He must have said it about four or five times in the space of a few rounds and if I'd been Nichola I might have started to get a bit pissed off...

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:05 am

Julian wrote:Anyway back to the game - today's challenger (sorry, can't remember his name) looks like a goody. He reminds me a lot of series 49 champ John Davies - I imagine he must, like John, have Asperger's or something similar - and is he blind in one eye as well? Before you all come down on me like a ton of bricks, I'm not in any way saying he's less worthy as a contestant for those reasons - quite the opposite in fact.

He really impressed me... ASTOUND (which beat me), PERSONATE and MONETARY were great winners, and he showed he has a lot of flair by going for AEROSOL instead of something like LOOTERS in that round. To whoever said BANDIED was a bad miss by him - well, I missed it as well, and I was sitting at home under no pressure! Ok, he was all at sea on the first two numbers rounds, but he did well on the third and I'm sure he'll improve on the numbers as he gets wins under his belt and gains confidence. I hope he goes on to be an octochamp because he's got the game to do really well.

I was certainly impressed with him on the letters rounds, apart from missing the niner in the opening round. But I feel his numbers ability will let him down. His offerings with round 5 and 10 were certainly not good. 10 was easy, and a much closer solution than he gave in 5 was also easily achievable.

Although I may be wrong, I fear he won't get past seven more contestants. Even I managed to beat him, and I rarely beat anyone who goes on to octochamp status.

Malcolm James · Post by **Malcolm James** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:16 pm

I've had a chance to check the ODE and PALATISED is IN. I withdraw any slurs against the ODE and OUP.

Julian Fell · Post by **Julian Fell** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:55 pm

Malcolm James wrote:I've had a chance to check the ODE and PALATISED is IN. I withdraw any slurs against the ODE and OUP.

Sorry but - unless it's in a completely bizarre and un-cross-referenced place - I'm afraid your word definitely isn't in the ODE (2nd edition revised); it wasn't in the NODE either so I don't know where you've been looking - are you getting the ODE confused with the (20-volume) Oxford English Dictionary, or with another Oxford dictionary? Or are you getting PALATISED confused with PALATALISED, which is in the ODE (2nd ed. revised)?

David O'Donnell · Post by **David O'Donnell** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:31 pm

Malcolm James wrote:My dictionary gives PALATISE v.t. - to make palatal.

As in palatised consonants.

This is rather strange as I always thought the word was PALATALISE/PALATALIZE meaning the term from phonetics to make palatal: are we thinking about the word even?

Edit: Whoops, Julian beat me to it. I should read the whole thread before commenting.

DaveC · Post by **DaveC** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 3:50 am

Charlie Reams wrote:"Palatised" -> 1180 Google results (about half that for your suggested query)
"Losingest" -> 17800 Google results.

So even by your metric, losingest is 15 times more worthy of inclusion.

I can't help but notice WANKSTAIN generates 18,600 hits. A statistical must for the 3rd edition surely.

DC

Kirk Bevins · Post by **Kirk Bevins** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:26 pm

Joseph Bolas wrote:
dinos_the_chemist wrote:I cant believe I missed FAVOURITE and PERSONATE but I did get PALISADE and SUNSHINE and congratulated myself on not guessing INNHOUSES
I saw FAVOURITE, but I only came up with PERSONA for round 7. I equalled the contestants with ZEALOTS on round 11, which I think is okay.

I haven't seen the show but if you got PERSONA, Joe, then why not PERSONAE. Did you ever watch a young man on Countdown a couple of series ago called Conor. He was quite good at the game and offered PERSONAE when PERSONAS was also there.

Oh, and something which I've noticed Des doing (I've not noticed the okey-dokey thing) is his rubbing of his marking pen crossing out scores after every round - it is sometimes squeaky and makes me cringe as it reminds me of polystyrene.

David O'Donnell · Post by **David O'Donnell** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:16 pm

Didn't the young man think to offer PRESEASON?

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:33 pm

Kirk Bevins wrote:I haven't seen the show but if you got PERSONA, Joe, then why not PERSONAE. Did you ever watch a young man on Countdown a couple of series ago called Conor. He was quite good at the game and offered PERSONAE when PERSONAS was also there.

I just didn't think of adding the 'E' to be honest. It happens

.

Dinos Sfyris · Post by **Dinos Sfyris** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:25 pm

Joseph Bolas wrote:
Kirk Bevins wrote:I haven't seen the show but if you got PERSONA, Joe, then why not PERSONAE. Did you ever watch a young man on Countdown a couple of series ago called Conor. He was quite good at the game and offered PERSONAE when PERSONAS was also there.
I just didn't think of adding the 'E' to be honest. It happens .

But still PRONATES was there!

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:36 am

Kirk Bevins wrote:I haven't seen the show but if you got PERSONA, Joe, then why not PERSONAE. Did you ever watch a young man on Countdown a couple of series ago called Conor. He was quite good at the game and offered PERSONAE when PERSONAS was also there.

Also don't forget Kirk, at COLIN you tut-tutted because in one of my word rounds I missed ANEROID

(although in that round I could've had ORADINER

). However, I think you also said that HOSPICES was a brilliant spot, so sometimes I can see the words and sometimes I can't. It happens

.

Kirk Bevins · Post by **Kirk Bevins** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:55 pm

Yeah, it's easy to miss words but missing an S or other form of plural is criminal. MARCHES + E or I is an example to make MARCHESE or M ARCHESI - but these are special cases as they're obscure words and not plural of MARCHES, so I've no idea why I mentioned them to be honest.