Unique Words I've Learned

[2cute]

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

No, you misunderstand, the hamster reference comes from "Originally posted by Naboka View Post
"Yeah, sometimes looking up definitions is a hamster's wheel of nonsense going nowhere. " which is actually shared in this thread above.

Meaning you had said "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." So I wanted to listen to music played by this instrument so I would have a picture & sound of the music so I could remember it in the future, as like I said above the word alone won't register, it needs a meaning behind it for me to remember.

Soooo, when I looked up "Gaita" I found a different meaning that what you had stated. You had said it was a flute from Columbia & I found a bagpipe from Spain. Yes, they are both instruments. Yes, both are blown into for the sound. Yet, a flute and a bagpipe are 2 very different instruments. Meaning I was going round and around on the hamster wheel not really understanding the type of instrument of which you were referring.

So to make a long comment shorter, Thank you for including the link. Now I've heard & saw the Gaita played.

[Guest]

When all the good 5x5 games dried up in mid-July I went over to 4x4 and collected a few hundred best/longest words there. There were lots of new and interesting words there. I too found SEPULCHRING on that board but dumped the game when it was only worth 10 pts.

lalatan, I had never noticed you had infiltrated the 4x4 boards. Okay, that is more sarcasm on my part. Of the kindest sort.

Thank you for leaving SEPULCHRING for me! That word delighted me. Weirded me out, too, but overall, fun!

I do not go after the highest-point words, or the most words or highest scores. I decided awhile ago I was going to focus my modest skills on trying to find long words in the 4x4 boards. I do hope for one ~24-point word, and one ~14-letter word, per month, just so I land on the month-end tallies, if toward the bottom. I'm trying to narrow my focus, because quite honestly, I've spent waaay too much time playing this game, especially during these last 18 months or so. I've started dumping more boards after I looked at this month's scores and I'd played liek 462 games and had an average game score of 95.3 or something. No one needs to know all that.

I've also stopped trying to find all the words. I find that typing out words does usually help me find the longer ones, but once in a great while, I look at a board when it comes up and I can just see the word before I type a thing. That is so interesting to me, that I can see the word, but not all the time. I've watched a few of your videos, and it seems like you play like that, without even typing any other words at all.

And before you even mentioned HYPER-, I got one! HYPEREXTENDED. Not so remarkable as your finds, but not bad for this old girl. I am beginning to learn that if there is an 8-letter word on the board, and there is a clump of consonant-y mess somewhere, that's usually the place to start. That is how I found the HYPER-.

Congrats on the English MA! That's an achievement.

Thank you. I'm glad I did it when I was young and naive, you'd never get me back into school now. Of course, now that I'm older, more of it might make sense. Not all of it, but some.

[2cute]

Found another one and can I say ewww ... first off. Good thing I never participate in this activity.

Puer: n. The dung of dogs, used as an alkaline steep in tanning.

[Guest]

There I was, in a 4x4 board, playing away...took a guess, and yes, SMEATH is a word (as is the plural, SMEATHS).

I was awarded highest letter count (7) and highest score (12?) for the game, so I scrolled down and clicked on my winning word to find out what the heck it was. It sounded vaguely familiar, but not in my current active vocabulary.

SMEATH definition: n. the smew. Umm, okay.
SMEW, from my Macdictionary: noun. a small migratory merganser of northern Eurasia, the male of which has white plumage with a crest and fine black markings. Umm, okay.
MERGANSER, also from Macdictionary: noun. a fish-eating diving duck with a long, thin serrated and hooked bill. Also called sawbill.

There it is, three words for the price of one.

smew.jpg

I also got MEATH, which is, more normally, mead, a sweet liquor. It's also a county in Ireland.

meath.jpg

[Guest]

Puer: n. The dung of dogs, used as an alkaline steep in tanning.

I looked this up further, because that is super-gross -- it's used in tanning leather, not in tanning people. I was thinking it was for like tanning salons.

[2cute]

I looked this up further, because that is super-gross -- it's used in tanning leather, not in tanning people. I was thinking it was for like tanning salons.

Exactly, disgusting for either. Natural choices aren't always better. Synthetic tanning created in some lab would certainly be more antiseptic.

There I was, in a 4x4 board, playing away...took a guess, and yes, SMEATH is a word (as is the plural, SMEATHS).

I was awarded highest letter count (7) and highest score (12?) for the game, so I scrolled down and clicked on my winning word to find out what the heck it was. It sounded vaguely familiar, but not in my current active vocabulary.

SMEATH definition: n. the smew. Umm, okay.
SMEW, from my Macdictionary: noun. a small migratory merganser of northern Eurasia, the male of which has white plumage with a crest and fine black markings. Umm, okay.
MERGANSER, also from Macdictionary: noun. a fish-eating diving duck with a long, thin serrated and hooked bill. Also called sawbill.

There it is, three words for the price of one.

smew.jpg

I also got MEATH, which is, more normally, mead, a sweet liquor. It's also a county in Ireland.

meath.jpg

Excellent! Right by looking up one you learned 3. @ least your finds went in the same direction.

Can I say awww, the smeath/duck is sooo cute! I just love the photo!

You know I've heard of Mead before, sounds yummy!

[lalatan]

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....

No logging knowledge required, Naboka. I knew the word in 1979 thanks to this iconic short (in Canada) released by Canada's National Film Board. It's also spelled burl, as you'll see in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srp7k-9oCkw

You mentioned in another thread that your writings are sometimes misunderstood. I happen to enjoy your writing style. Also, I join in wishing you a speedy recovery/resolution for whatever problem caused you to go the hospital.

P.S. Although "stand" indubitably has many meanings, I read many years ago in the Guinness Book of Records that the word "set" is king in that regard with 110 different meanings. It more than likely has more now.

[Naboka]

No logging knowledge required, Naboka. I knew the word in 1979 thanks to this iconic short (in Canada) released by Canada's National Film Board. It's also spelled burl, as you'll see in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srp7k-9oCkw

You mentioned in another thread that your writings are sometimes misunderstood. I happen to enjoy your writing style. Also, I join in wishing you a speedy recovery/resolution for whatever problem caused you to go the hospital.

P.S. Although "stand" indubitably has many meanings, I read many years ago in the Guinness Book of Records that the word "set" is king in that regard with 110 different meanings. It more than likely has more now.

Thank you.

Doing what brings others some pleasure always makes life better--to that degree.

Hopefully, my previous statement didn't come across as "poor misunderstood me."

In truth, I often don't understand what I'm writing when I begin. It's like doing a Wordtwist board. All these possibilities. All these potential connections. All these opportunities for discovery.

Life is filled with opportunities for discovery. But what is discovery? What elements must exist for discovery to occur?

Discovery is when the unknown becomes known. To know requires consciousness. Awareness.

And, to some degree, surprise. That Eureka moment. That moment when you've found it and are aware of having found it. Found what was not part of your consciousness just moments before.

The sudden contrast between dark and light. The contrast brings drama. And emphasis. The crescendo of a Symphony Of Searching. The chiaroscuro in a Raphael that sets our minds vibrating, makes our awareness more vibrant.

But that moment of discovery is part of something larger than can possibly be stated in a few words, and not really grasped except by those who have experienced it. Like "skydiving." A simple word to describe an experience that can't be experienced without experiencing it. At best we can only imagine or extrapolate, but never really understand.

What is consciousness? Awareness? From whence cometh? How does awareness interact with physical structure? How does a bird form cell by cell, all perfectly fabricated and synchronized from plans none of us can see? How does the elan vital of any creature "know" the construction methodology to build that house that becomes "self?"

This is becoming far to philosophical and threatens to become too long. But a point of emphasis follows.

We do not know what we do not know until we know it.

Writing, for me, is a process of knowing what I do NOT know. My consciousness simply allows ideas to flow through me, making connections that aren't obvious--until they are. Until they're discovered. Writing is a OUIJA board through which a greater consciousness than mine flows.

And, because I enjoy the ideas presented to me, ideas that I did not have moments before, I gladly accept the gifts. And, when possible, share them.

So, please, understand that I do not understand--until I do. Nor do I expect others to understand--until they do. Realizing reality provides a pragmatic foundation for one's expectations. And expectations can be either constructive or destructive to our well being.

Understanding or not understanding neither makes us better or worse. Put that in perspective. On the other side of our consciousness lives (and it is living) such a vast storehouse of ideas that none of us will ever discover them all. It's like standing on our porch, looking up at the sky and realizing that some of those light specks we see are galaxies larger than our own. Some of that light comes from sources that disappeared long ago.

So...to touch an awareness...that builds a cell...that contains blueprints...that builds progressively larger and more complex organism...

from knowledge...

unseen...

misunderstood...

but there...

to be discovered...

if we only would.

[Naboka]

(ps:

as for the hospital:

tests, tests, tests.

Should we slice him up or not?

Apparently not.

Apparently being healthy has advantages.

I expected the same operation that a friend had just had last week for the exact same condition. He went in and they sent him straight to surgery after test-test-test. And he was a much younger, much larger, hulking brute of muscular overdevelopment. Knowing that I would never see my wife again, I was in the hospital bed, hooked up to an IV, BP band inflating and deflating, electrodes covering my chest and texting mysterious messages to a demanding monitor which banged her gavel when grammar erred. But, in the end, the doctor came back, patted me on the head, said I was too healthy, and advised me my nurse would soon return with magic pills.

One to make me larger. One to make me small.

But, the surgery we expected,

won't do anything at all.

That's two surgeries this month escaped. My GP sent me to an orthopedic surgeon for knee replacement. Who said I was way too healthy and that the bone structure was still good, so we'll settle for injections. Knees are smiling and playing crazy eight in the backroom.

Why?

Go ask Alice.

[floppers]

I think we should have a "LOVE" button...thank you Naboka, for your beautiful prose!

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?", she asked. "Where do you want to go?", was his response. "I don't know", Alice responded. "Then", said the cat, "it doesn't matter".

[dannyb]

Apparently Naboka remembers what the door mouse said.

[Naboka]

Apparently Naboka remembers what the door mouse said.

Laughs.

Apparently, appearances can deceive.

Naboka knows not what the door mouse said.

Unless that knowledge is buried amongst the rubble of such rememberings as "you know, that actress, what's her name, who was in, you know, that film, what was it, with that actor who, you know, was on a TV series, what was it?"

When I was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, around 8 years ago, my wife called and asked, "what does the Fox say?" I was completely confused. So, rather than answering, she urged to me to go ask people. Ah, a mystery. I assumed it was some local thing that I'd discover.

We're both gregarious and think nothing of approaching total strangers. So, for the rest of the day, while exploring the town, I asked random strangers that exact question, expecting to be enlightened. Waiters, socialites, shop owners, ski bums. It did not matter.

On that day, not a soul knew.

And then I heard the song.

And others heard the song.

And the knowledge spread.

Knowledge can be infectious.

Though, sadly, some seem completely immune.

[dannyb]

https://youtu.be/NzV51yXLTY0

[Naboka]

https://youtu.be/NzV51yXLTY0

More laughter.

Thanks for jogging my poor memory. Fond, fond memories surround that song. Just had forgotten about the Dormouse line.

Some lyrics stick with you. Some are pure fabrications from misunderstanding what the singer is actually saying. Most of my "remembered lyrics " fall into that category.

The line (which I can now read online) "tell 'em a hooka smoking caterpillar" translated in my drug fuddled mind as "tell 'em my hooka's smoking senators." Made sense to me as I figured "senators" referred to some type of high powered weed that could rewrite the laws of your mind. So many weird names for drugs in the 60's and 70's. And we were lacing it with whatever seemed like a good idea at the time. And my hooka was smoking all sorts of stuff.

Also, I thought the line that came next was "he's given you a call," rather than "has given you a call" meaning the "senator has given you a call." That translated into a special invitation beyond our normal experience.

Laughable how we misunderstand, then invent meanings that make our misunderstandings comprehensible.

[lalatan]

lalatan, I had never noticed you had infiltrated the 4x4 boards. Okay, that is more sarcasm on my part. Of the kindest sort.

If you look on last month's 4x4 "best words played" list at the top of the list you will see that I left evidence of my covert activities on 4x4. (There's not much hidden on this website regarding anyone's performance if you know where to look. Over the decades quite a few people have told me I should've been a detective.)

I do not go after the highest-point words, or the most words or highest scores. I decided awhile ago I was going to focus my modest skills on trying to find long words in the 4x4 boards. I do hope for one ~24-point word, and one ~14-letter word, per month, just so I land on the month-end tallies, if toward the bottom. I'm trying to narrow my focus, because quite honestly, I've spent waaay too much time playing this game, especially during these last 18 months or so. I've started dumping more boards after I looked at this month's scores and I'd played liek 462 games and had an average game score of 95.3 or something. No one needs to know all that.

You may currently have modest skills but you can always improve. Like you, I started out finding long words in 4x4. I recall thinking at 1 point, "I wish I could find more 12 pts words." (My apologies if you heard any of this before. I don't know what you've read on the forum or what you remember.) I was very competitive back then so I pressed on and started to win some gold trophies in APPW (avg pts/word). I found my long word skills transferred to 5x5 and I started to win gold hardware in both. Back then that was important to me. Now I've lost track of how many gold trophies I have for sure, 55 or 56 amongst the 4 usernames I played under since 2014. This month I thought I might try to see how high I could push my APPW before the new scoring is implemented next year but I just couldn't do it. There's way too much clicking through games to find the right one to play and finding the high scoring word doesn't challenge me anymore. I would much rather collect best/long word records and in so doing find new words.

I've also stopped trying to find all the words. I find that typing out words does usually help me find the longer ones, but once in a great while, I look at a board when it comes up and I can just see the word before I type a thing. That is so interesting to me, that I can see the word, but not all the time. I've watched a few of your videos, and it seems like you play like that, without even typing any other words at all.

Last March I posted this honest reply in the Accomplishments and Achievements thread after I was asked how I do it. I got no responses or likes after I did so I surmised I was perceived as being whacko, arrogant, attention-seeking or some other adjective and maybe should have shut up about what was happening in my brain. Maybe I should've gone with the standard: played lots of games, lots of word studies etc.
"I've played 75k games on this website and I've learned which letters often go with others for long words. I look for prefixes, roots and suffixes and then see if I can build out from there. I used to start at the upper left corner of the board and scan across to the right and then down. But in the last year or so (not sure when, happened gradually) I take a visual snapshot of the board and I often seem to know what word, prefix or suffix is there w/o moving my eyes to find it. Then I do physically find it and try to build a longer word. I know the long word in many boards I played in the past because I somehow remember certain aspects of its layout (like in some of the videos I posted). I don't know how it works. Sometimes my eyes are drawn to a certain area on the board. One game the fragment I noticed was trib. I told myself the word is contributor. Then I had an argument that it could be distribute or tribulation. It was contributor. It's not something I set out to achieve. I imagine many people could develop the same abilities with experience.

To be at the top of my game I need to play a lot. It seems my mind becomes more creative in finding and building words the more I play. Last month I played 1,286 games. There were 7 days I set 98+ or more records. I recall one day that when I totaled the numbers from the previous day I thought, "What??! How did that happen?" I set 102 and it seemed relatively easy compared to other days. (That said, I think I was offered a lot of games with higher scoring words in them. On another day I only managed 44 and was frustrated that I found so many long words of low pt value and had to dump the game.) One month for something different I alternated between playing for 4x4 and 5x5 records a week at a time. I noticed my 5x5 word finding skills diminished. So I quit that and it took me about 2 weeks to get back to normal.

Edit: Just to bring some balance: of course I don't find every available best/longest word on every board. I get skunked plenty of times and my records are sometimes bettered by others."
(Here's a link to it if you want to read about it in context. It will take you to page 6 only if your forum sort is "latest activity." If you sort by posts it's on page 8.
https://forum.puzzlebaron.com/forum/...s-thread/page6)

In the last few months I can add another improvement to that list. I became much more proficient in eliminating possible paths the long word I suspect is there will take. (When using my PC the path is not as much an issue but when swiping with my phone I have to know the exact path. I use both regularly so looking for the correct path has become my default.) So I don't know what's next. I think maybe WordTwist should have a disclaimer on its home page something like: Warning! Game play here may be addictive and prolonged game play may alter your brain function in unexpected ways. So, that's a very longwinded answer to how I found those words in the videos; they were a combination of what I wrote here. If you continue playing, you will undoubtedly see more words as soon as the board loads (It happens for others, not just me). Oh, and 1 of the cardinal rules, if not THE one, for long word players who want a higher APPW is never enter any word until you are sure it has a high enough pt value. If you do and it's not you'll have to dump the game. That's why nothing happens at the start of my videos.

At this point feel free to take an intermission. (whew!) Since we're talking about curious happenings in the brain I wanted to share this too. When I started looking for 4x4 records mid-July I had to retool my mind to play a different game: less letters, tighter paths for words, 2 minute timer (my internal 3 minute timer wasn't of much use), different types of words. For 1.5 days I didn't have much success but then something clicked and it became easy. Then I tried switching back and forth between 4x4 and 5x5 in case some good boards emerged on 5x5. I had limited success on both and found it took too much mental energy to retool that much. After a few days I abandoned that and focused on 4x4 and only played 5x5 in my 30 minute night session. I got into a cracking rhythm and set 652 records while only managing 229 5x5 records during the same time frame. (I track my stats daily on a spreadsheet I built.) When I returned to 5x5 sometime in early or mid-Aug after Stephen "tweaked the randomizer" I once again had to retool.