Unique Words I've Learned

[Naboka]

In biology class in HS we took our temperatures and pulse rates. My pulse rate was 38 and my temperature was 97. Granted, I practically lived in the arctic, but that was extreme. I don't know where all the calories went. I used to eat a family-sized box of Wheaties or Corn Flakes for breakfast, with about a half gallon of milk, in a mixing bowl. For school lunch there was no charge for seconds or afterward, as long as everyone else had eaten. I often had sevenths. We'd go to pancake breakfasts and my father would make me stop going back because I was embarrassing him -- twenty pancakes, 40 strips of bacon, probably at least a pint of maple syrup, and ten glasses of orange juice. It was ridiculous. And I was small until I wasn't. That was also ridiculous. I was 5' 2" tall and 93 pounds and then I started growing, the August before school started. I grew six inches in one month, and two in a week, and all the school clothes my parents had purchased no longer fit. Not even the shoes. By the end of September, I was a whole foot taller and about sixty pounds heavier. One of my relatives just kept growing from there and topped out at 6' 10", but I stopped before 6' 3". I maintained that kind of metabolism until I was about 25 or so. Then everything I ate turned to fat and I had to watch myself. My body keeps changing gears and becoming more efficient. Now, if I eat much more than 2,000 calories a day I gain weight. My resting pulse rate is still low 60s and my normal temperature is still about a half-degree lower than population average, but neither are nearly as odd as they were.

During the summers, I often made dinners with my own catches. I hunted small game with rocks, and caught fish when I wanted to relax. Where I lived, game was nearly as plentiful as when America was first settled, so hunting was actually pretty easy. So, the family might have dinner with the fish I caught, or with rabbit or grouse. In berry season, I'd bring back gallons of blueberries, serviceberries, thimbleberries, raspberries, strawberries, or various others. Some made jam, some made jelly, most were just eaten. Money was tight, so whatever I could bring back was welcome. To say it was a different time was perhaps an understatement. I was a really good hunter. I surprised a wolf, once.

So, when you have a "normal" temperature reading of 98.6 are you running a fever?

I've got the same situation. Resting pulse in the 50's, normal temperature of 97.2. When the gym was checking everyone's temperature, I always thought that a person like me could have a raging fever and it would read as slightly above normal by their standards.

[Naboka]

Yente: (also yenta) Yiddish for a vulgar shrew, a shallow coarse termagant. A woman who's regarded as quarrelsome and scolding.

Not that I'd ever have use for such a word.

[Naboka]

How do you know what is the best or longest word that someone else's already gotten before you play the game?

Normally a game will list the High Score, Most Words, Best Word & Longest Word & by whom reached those records, but it doesn't say what were those words until AFTER you play the game.

Before starting any game, all the things you listed are available.

In the case of the game pictured, the longest word was 16 letters and the best word was credited for 30 points. Sometimes those two are the same word, sometimes not. That information alerts you to the availability of a long word and one with high points. Someone actually had found a 16 letter word probably worth 30 points. And if the 16 letter word wasn't worth 30 points another word existed worth that much.

Usually, I'm just racing through boards and don't have the time or attention to parse out elements to form longer words. My attention span's too short. When I know there's a particularly long or high scoring word, I put on the brakes and simply search for that single word.

Here's another example I got yesterday.

As for having to wait until the results are posted, it really isn't necessary. When you hit a word that's the amount you want (in this case "descendabilities") you can see it listed with its points. Then you can end the game. But, because I like to send these to my wife, I take a screen shot and text her the image.

Showing her the long words I've gotten is like a peacock spreading its feathers.

Sometimes, she's so impressed she makes me pancakes.

[bwt1213]

Wow 5-6,000 calories per day! You really have a fast metabolism.

I can see your point of view though about being 'gourmand'. If you have limited funds and lots of mouths to feed, those were good choices for your family.

In biology class in HS we took our temperatures and pulse rates. My pulse rate was 38 and my temperature was 97. Granted, I practically lived in the arctic, but that was extreme. I don't know where all the calories went. I used to eat a family-sized box of Wheaties or Corn Flakes for breakfast, with about a half gallon of milk, in a mixing bowl. For school lunch there was no charge for seconds or afterward, as long as everyone else had eaten. I often had sevenths. We'd go to pancake breakfasts and my father would make me stop going back because I was embarrassing him -- twenty pancakes, 40 strips of bacon, probably at least a pint of maple syrup, and ten glasses of orange juice. It was ridiculous. And I was small until I wasn't. That was also ridiculous. I was 5' 2" tall and 93 pounds and then I started growing, the August before school started. I grew six inches in one month, and two in a week, and all the school clothes my parents had purchased no longer fit. Not even the shoes. By the end of September, I was a whole foot taller and about sixty pounds heavier. One of my relatives just kept growing from there and topped out at 6' 10", but I stopped before 6' 3". I maintained that kind of metabolism until I was about 25 or so. Then everything I ate turned to fat and I had to watch myself. My body keeps changing gears and becoming more efficient. Now, if I eat much more than 2,000 calories a day I gain weight. My resting pulse rate is still low 60s and my normal temperature is still about a half-degree lower than population average, but neither are nearly as odd as they were.

During the summers, I often made dinners with my own catches. I hunted small game with rocks, and caught fish when I wanted to relax. Where I lived, game was nearly as plentiful as when America was first settled, so hunting was actually pretty easy. So, the family might have dinner with the fish I caught, or with rabbit or grouse. In berry season, I'd bring back gallons of blueberries, serviceberries, thimbleberries, raspberries, strawberries, or various others. Some made jam, some made jelly, most were just eaten. Money was tight, so whatever I could bring back was welcome. To say it was a different time was perhaps an understatement. I was a really good hunter. I surprised a wolf, once.

[2cute]

Sometimes I play games just to see if I can find the best/longest word that someone else has already gotten.

Then, usually, I just dump the game because the low scores mess up averages.

So, I'm working through the board, looking for a 16 letter word worth 30 points. Find -ally, then -ically, notice a morph- so try morphically half a dozen times, carefully typing in each letter. Nothing.

Time's running out.

Notice hyper-

hmmmm.

you need a drive to get hyperdrive, so could it be possible to have hypermorphically without morphically?

Apparently so.

Guess next time I'll look for hypermorph.

How do you know what is the best or longest word that someone else's already gotten before you play the game?

Normally a game will list the High Score, Most Words, Best Word & Longest Word & by whom reached those records, but it doesn't say what were those words until AFTER you play the game.

[2cute]

I remember a meal from when I was a kid of 12 to 15 years old (mom and dad were both working, so I cooked dinner and washed the dishes -- family of five -- so it was not at all fancy). Start with some hamburger meat, about a pound. Cook it in a frying pan, stir it up until it was all done. Then pour in cans of baked beans until the pan was really full. Keep heating until it was all hot. Use a suitable utensil (cup measure, ladle, whatever was handy) to put the result on plates. Dinner! I could eat a whole lot of that and similar dishes featuring pasta, rice, and potatoes in place of the beans. The meals were hot, had plenty of protein and lots of carbs, and were easy to make in large quantities. I loved them. We had steak maybe twice a year -- expensive. I loved feeling full, and before and during the time I was growing rapidly, I would eat between 5,000 and 6,000 calories a day. I was barely over 5 feet tall at the start and weighed less than 100 pounds and was NOT at all fat -- and even when I became well over six feet tall I weighed less than 160. We could not afford fancy food and I needed lots of calories, so that's where the "gourmand" part started. For you metric people, I was about 157 cm tall and 42 kg at the start and 189 cm/71 Kg at the end and still hungry for years afterward.

Wow 5-6,000 calories per day! You really have a fast metabolism. Your experience is the opposite of mine. I've been on a 'diet' since I was 8 years old. In the beginning it was due to my many allergies, so I was limited on the types of foods I could consume. When I was older it was about weighing less. So when I was 14 through my twenties I was trying to consume less than 200 calories per day. Most days I ate nothing and drank tons of water to fill up my stomach so it would 'feel full'. So every time I ate something it was a treat. Every morsel was absolutely delicious. Sometimes I would only consume 5 bites of food per day. Yes, I kept track of how many bites I took per meal. Even though I ate no where near the amount of food you consumed, I was still considered 'fat' and I never ate carbs, mostly I had undressed salads when I did eat. And when I had snacks, I ate so much celery, I can't stand the stuff now.

I can see your point of view though about being 'gourmand'. If you have limited funds and lots of mouths to feed, those were good choices for your family.

[Spike1007]

And now I will ask the assistance of the German-speaking audience. I know that the word for "to eat" is "essen". I am told that the word for "gobble like a wild animal" is "fressen". Is that correct? In English, words meaning a similar action would be "bolt", "gobble", "wolf down", "inhale", and "gorge", but I think none of them have quite the flavor of the German term. Or am I missing some? I'll bet I am, and someone will set me straight. Spike? Lalatan? Anyone?

I'll leave an English equivalent to "fressen" to the German speakers, but lack of an equivalent word (as far as flavor & connotations go) goes both ways. (I've spent a lot of time in Germany over the years, but my German pretty much sucks.) Anyway, I used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That made its way to German TV. I forget the title there, possibly just "Buffy". Anyway, I was told (by a German friend) that the closest equivalent to "slayer" had a meaning closer to "slaughterer." That doesn't really have the same ring to it.

[dannyb]

A gourmand may be a trencherman. I dislike the word gourmet, maybe because the word gourmet often shows up on frozen dinners. Good food doesn't have to be fancy. Good food is made with care/love.

[Naboka]

Sometimes I play games just to see if I can find the best/longest word that someone else has already gotten.

Then, usually, I just dump the game because the low scores mess up averages.

So, I'm working through the board, looking for a 16 letter word worth 30 points. Find -ally, then -ically, notice a morph- so try morphically half a dozen times, carefully typing in each letter. Nothing.

Time's running out.

Notice hyper-

hmmmm.

you need a drive to get hyperdrive, so could it be possible to have hypermorphically without morphically?

Apparently so.

Guess next time I'll look for hypermorph.

[bwt1213]

This is really interesting. I'm a gourmet, I prefer quality over quantity.

I remember a meal from when I was a kid of 12 to 15 years old (mom and dad were both working, so I cooked dinner and washed the dishes -- family of five -- so it was not at all fancy). Start with some hamburger meat, about a pound. Cook it in a frying pan, stir it up until it was all done. Then pour in cans of baked beans until the pan was really full. Keep heating until it was all hot. Use a suitable utensil (cup measure, ladle, whatever was handy) to put the result on plates. Dinner! I could eat a whole lot of that and similar dishes featuring pasta, rice, and potatoes in place of the beans. The meals were hot, had plenty of protein and lots of carbs, and were easy to make in large quantities. I loved them. We had steak maybe twice a year -- expensive. I loved feeling full, and before and during the time I was growing rapidly, I would eat between 5,000 and 6,000 calories a day. I was barely over 5 feet tall at the start and weighed less than 100 pounds and was NOT at all fat -- and even when I became well over six feet tall I weighed less than 160. We could not afford fancy food and I needed lots of calories, so that's where the "gourmand" part started. For you metric people, I was about 157 cm tall and 42 kg at the start and 189 cm/71 Kg at the end and still hungry for years afterward.

And now I will ask the assistance of the German-speaking audience. I know that the word for "to eat" is "essen". I am told that the word for "gobble like a wild animal" is "fressen". Is that correct? In English, words meaning a similar action would be "bolt", "gobble", "wolf down", "inhale", and "gorge", but I think none of them have quite the flavor of the German term. Or am I missing some? I'll bet I am, and someone will set me straight. Spike? Lalatan? Anyone?

[2cute]

And, speaking of food, did you know that the term for someone who values quantity over quality is "gourmand"? Someone who values quality over quantity is, of course, a gourmet. I count myself in the gourmand camp.

This is really interesting. I'm a gourmet, I prefer quality over quantity.

[2cute]

Here's another new word I just learned. Quoll apparently its this really cute animal the size of a cat in Australia.

quoll by DanielleMine deviantART.jpeg

I also dislike chcolate ice cream; I am pleased and relieved to know that others do, also. I have long thought there was something wrong with me, especially since I love just about every other kind of chocolate, including bars, kisses, nuggets, chips, cake, icing, and probably tea, if they could figure out how to make that work. I guess that is called "hot chocolate," but there really must be a tea that could be made of it, chocolate with no milky stuff.

But back to WordTwist: In this vein, is "chocoholic" accepted as a word? How about "chocophile" or "chocophobe"? And, speaking of food, did you know that the term for someone who values quantity over quality is "gourmand"? Someone who values quality over quantity is, of course, a gourmet. I count myself in the gourmand camp.

Did not know the specifics of gourmand and gourmet; thank you, bwt1213.I wish I was a chocophobe and not a chocophile. I'm not fond of the "-holic" suffix, as I had several of the "alco-" kind in my family. Fortunately, I only have chocolate issues.

Back to WordTwist, I recently discovered a new part of speech for a word I've long known. My new 4x4 board popped up, and I honed in on the "-ing" in the corner, but I was having a dreadful time with it. I thought maybe it was one of those times when an "-ing" is not really an "-ing." I was looking at the other mess of letters, and I thought, "honestly, that looks like SEPULCHRE. But alas, no "e." So I thought, "Well, this is WordTwist," and I typed in SEPULCHRING. Bing! 11 letters, and...10 points. You just never know around here.

[bwt1213]

I have a weird relationship with chocolate. I love chocolate on its own (either in the form of chocolate candies or hot cocoa), but I hate chocolate ice cream and chocolate cake. Same for chocolate cookies (though I like chocolate chip cookies). I think it might be a textural thing. I feel chocolate ruins the texture of either ice cream or baked goods.

My tastes are closer to yours, I think. I actually don't like sweet foods (I rarely eat desserts, and eat only unsweetened cereal for breakfast -- e.g. cornflakes and milk) and wouldn't ordinarily buy chocolate bars or M&Ms. But I really don't like chocolate cake or cupcakes. On the other hand, I like brownies. For me, though, it's the dry and bitter taste chocolate seems to have in some things. Ice cream is really sweet, so you'd think I'd be okay with chocolate ice cream. To me, chocolate destroys it and no amount of sugar would save it. I don't like hot cocoa, either, for the same reason, nor chocolate milk. I'd far rather have a cup of tomato soup than hot cocoa. A Hershey's bar is good, and so is a Snickers. But I haven't eaten either in several years. I also like chocolate chip cookies and dislike chocolate cookies.

But back to WordTwist: In this vein, is "chocoholic" accepted as a word? How about "chocophile" or "chocophobe"? And, speaking of food, did you know that the term for someone who values quantity over quality is "gourmand"? Someone who values quality over quantity is, of course, a gourmet. I count myself in the gourmand camp.

Trying to repost my previously unapproved post.....

Well, my memory isn't what it used to be. I misspelled the word. It's OVOVIVAPOROUS.

Lalatan, I am shocked, truly shocked, that you did not remember how to spell that word.

I bet there once were two scientists who did have exactly that very conversation, including the word "plebeian."

Years ago I was watched a fascinating (I've always been interested in language) series on PBS called the Story of English. The host Robert MacNeil (a Canadian) travelled the world and investigated how English is spoken in various countries. Each nation has made English its own and even in the same country there are many dialects (For instance I, as a western Canadian, sometimes can't understand some Newfoundlanders at all. It's the easternmost province.)

I remember that series, and it had a companion book, also called The Story of English. Amazon still has it (of course). Publication date was 1986 -- I was in college! Eek.

There is another book I enjoyed on English, the language: The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, by Bill Bryson. A little zippier, and funnier (sorry Messrs. McCrum, Cranksets, and MacNeil). That one was originally published in 1990 -- I was in graduate school*! Eeeek.


*Looking back, probably not my wisest move. Jobs with an MA in English weren't easy to find, especially for one who decided she abhorred teaching.