Unique Words I've Learned

[lalatan]

I guess you could say that not finding DISTURBINGNESSES was disturbing in many ways.

Don't get upset about missing it. (I used to heap reproach on myself if I missed the word then saw it after time was up.) If nobody else gets it you'll see it again today, 3 days from now, 2-3 weeks from now or 6 months from now. I know the distribution is supposedly random but I have seen this time and time again over the years. It holds true after the new games/new dict addition as well, although it took a while to go back to that pattern. Also, you may well see a different board with the same word in a slightly different orientation after you've seen this one. Stay

When I played 4x4 last month I did see a lot of -izations words. But that's old hat in 5x5. I've been playing those words for years. Nice to see they're promoted to 4x4 now.

Edit: (if it's not flagged as spam) I just found ABSORPTIOMETERS for 28 pts & 2 records. I first tried BASOMETERS, then ABSORPTOMETERS. I love this crazy game!!

[2cute]

Just found another new one:

Lym = n. A dog held in a leam; a bloodhound; a limehound.

Now what is a leam? Apparently its a Scottish or British term.

So Scottish version is a gleam of light, radiance, or shine forth - so a dog held in a gleam of light or shining forth.

and British (completely different) version is to take husks from nuts. Not sure how that would work w/the dog?

Or a drain in a fen (again British) ... Fen? Golly, now I have to research fen ...

Fen = Fens are a type of wetland. Wetlands are ecosystems where the water table is at or near the ground surface for most of the growing season on most years, and as a consequence, the substrate is poorly aerated, and inundation or saturation last long enough that the dominant plants are those that can exist in wet and reducing conditions. The long duration anaerobic conditions limit the decomposition of plant roots, leaves, and stems and over time this organic matter accumulates to form peat soil. Wetlands include the margins of streams and rivers, and the shores of lakes. There are several types of wetlands: swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens.

Again, I don't know how this would work with the dog?

I found a really complicated short word.

[2cute]

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.

I think I've heard of this word before.

Didn't Barbra Streisand have a film 'Yentel', I wonder if its related?

[Naboka]

I think I've heard of this word before.

Didn't Barbra Streisand have a film 'Yentel', I wonder if its related?

Had to look it up. Her character was named Yentl Mentel. A girl acting like a boy to receive the rights of boymanship.

Saw the word kuta on a board. Kuta: a male dog; a man or a boy regarded as unpleasant or contempible.

Might as well even the male/female playing field with derogatory terms for both.

Also had kula: a tower, turret or a steeple on the Balkans erected during the period of Ottoman domination on the area.

Being cooped up in a kula might turn even the most pleasant fellow into a kuta.

[Naboka]

Yeah, sometimes looking up definitions is a hamster's wheel of nonsense going nowhere. That's why I often just remember them as letter patterns rather than vocabulary.

Saves on the migraines.

[DrPlacebo]

GAITA (and GAITAS) is one that I learned outside of WordTwist recently, tried in-game, and scored points for.

It's both an indigenous flute from Colombia's Caribbean coast, and a genre of music that uses that instrument extensively.

[Naboka]

For you loggers:

birl: to cause a floating log to rotate.

Also spelled as birle. With birler, bilers, birles, birls.

So if anyone wants to go birling this weekend....

[2cute]

Yeah, sometimes looking up definitions is a hamster's wheel of nonsense going nowhere. That's why I often just remember them as letter patterns rather than vocabulary.

Saves on the migraines.

Without the definition, the word has no meaning for me & I won't remember it.

Lalatan would be so proud, the other day an acquaintance asked me (since I play word games) what new words have I learned & the first thing I remembered OVIVIPOUROUS (gosh, now I can't remember how it was spelled), a creature that lays an egg inside their body before its hatched, like reptiles.

[DrPlacebo]

Without the definition, the word has no meaning for me & I won't remember it.

Lalatan would be so proud, the other day an acquaintance asked me (since I play word games) what new words have I learned & the first thing I remembered OVIVIPOUROUS (gosh, now I can't remember how it was spelled), a creature that lays an egg inside their body before its hatched, like reptiles.

Ovoviviparous.

[2cute]

Ovoviviparous.

Thank You. As you can see, spelling isn't really my forte either.

[2cute]

For you loggers:

birl: to cause a floating log to rotate.

Also spelled as birle. With birler, bilers, birles, birls.

So if anyone wants to go birling this weekend....

I don't know why but birling reminds me of that film 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'.

I think though that's a popular 'sport' in certain regions. Certainly would take some balance and coordination.

[2cute]

GAITA (and GAITAS) is one that I learned outside of WordTwist recently, tried in-game, and scored points for.

It's both an indigenous flute from Colombia's Caribbean coast, and a genre of music that uses that instrument extensively.

Remember the hamster wheel ...

Okay so Gaiteros means players in Spanish, these are the flutes you meant I'm guessing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CTZRTl6Aio

Yet when I researched the Gaita or Gaitas I found ...

Apparently originating from Galicia Spain(& Northern Portugal) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOVKHbfwjxI It has a higher pitched sound than the traditional bagpipe from Ireland.

[mdyak]

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

Not so fast on this one! I don't know which dictionary you were using, but it's definitely not written by Jews! As a member of the tribe, a yente is an older woman who is into everyone's business, knows everything about everyone, and is responsible for the lightning speed at which personal news travels in the community. She is not necessarily vulgar or coarse or a shrew. As for the termagant... "a harsh tempered or overbearing woman"... maybe, but not really part of the definition.

[Naboka]

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

Not so fast on this one! I don't know which dictionary you were using, but it's definitely not written by Jews! As a member of the tribe, a yente is an older woman who is into everyone's business, knows everything about everyone, and is responsible for the lightning speed at which personal news travels in the community. She is not necessarily vulgar or coarse or a shrew. As for the termagant... "a harsh tempered or overbearing woman"... maybe, but not really part of the definition.

Sigh.

To trust. The eternal internet question: what sources to trust.

With lazy fingers, I used the reference dictionary linked to the words used in Wordtwist. When you tap on a word, you're redirected to lexic.us. From hence the definition, copied and pasted.

Not sure that one definition has ever excluded another in language. Most words have multiple meanings.

When I had the OED, I was shocked at how many pages of definitions there were for a word like stand.

Definitions change with usage. People make connections, misuse a word; others pick up on the misuse, and before long a new meaning is attached.

I'm not overly picky about the exclusivity of meaning. Historically, it's a losing horse. Scholars used to demand that "enormity" only be used for something exceedingly bad. More and more, people misuse and now acceptably use the word for extremely large.

Every language is littered with the flotsam of obsolete definitions bobbing in the wake of culture's advance.

After researching "yente", I agree that you are far more accurate in your definition of the word--it being appropriated from your culture.

The problem with language is that people use words to communicate meaning. If the originator has a different meaning than the recipient, misunderstanding occurs. Happens between me and my wife weekly. If a word has fifty definitions and a person only knows two, he's likely to misunderstand when the word is used to mean any of the other 48 possibilities. Knowing all fifty probably gives one a better chance of getting what the speaker meant. But, even then, it's often a losing battle. We all have different experiences and have different meanings attached to our language. If I said, "my house" you would probably only get a tiny fraction of the meaning attached. You wouldn't know the size, the location, the neighborhood, the smells, the furniture, the wall art, the layout, the personnel, etc. You'd have some very vague notion of what I really meant.

We all tend to have supporters and detractors. The sweet old lady who's a matchmaker may seem like the most wonderful woman in the world to some. To others, she's a meddlesome, irritating, troublemaker. Each person will have a different experience with this matchmaker, this gossip, this busybody. I've never met a busybody who wasn't irritating, so believing that the meaning attached to such a person would be entirely positive and lack connotations about being irritating would be suspect. In my experience, such persons are a bit insensitive to the feelings of others, thus considered a bit unrefined, or vulgar.

Then again, I'm not Jewish, so my only reference is personal experience as reflected in my surrounding culture. What is praised in one culture might be anathema in another.

[DrPlacebo]

Remember the hamster wheel ...

Okay so Gaiteros means players in Spanish, these are the flutes you meant I'm guessing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CTZRTl6Aio

Yet when I researched the Gaita or Gaitas I found ...

Apparently originating from Galicia Spain(& Northern Portugal) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOVKHbfwjxI It has a higher pitched sound than the traditional bagpipe from Ireland.

In my case, it's not a hamster wheel thing, I rarely try anything in WordTwist that I don't already know from elsewhere. I looked up Colombian gaita music because my community orchestra is playing this piece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mErTr_W3YuA