Tellies (Challenge April 12)

[ensiform]

I think I speak for all Americans, a group which I belong to legally if not culturally, when I say that Americans do not use the word "telly" at all and thus would hardly regard "tellies" as a common word.

[mkenuk]

Can't argue; 'telly' is British and 'informal' (ie slang) for 'television', according to the COD. But the same dictionary gives 'snit' (which was in the same puzzle) as 'N. American, informal' for 'a fit of pique'. It's not a word that most Brits would know and use. Having said that, 'snit' seems to come in one of the Chi puzzles nearly every other day, so it's very familiar to regular solvers.
Incidentally, I was one word short of a rosette in the 'loneliest' game; I played 'snit' but missed .......'tellies'! And I'm a Brit!
MK
 
 

[city17 dweller]

'common usage... somewhere.' seems to be the rule of thumb. I did a random puzzle the other night and was amused to find 'prithee' listed under common words.  Nice to know a word no one uses any more is still going strong in our collective consciousness *grin*

Telly, marmalade and lorries, ya'll.

[sprite]

But 'tellies' is a plural and therefore should not be valid?
Still learning to get the hang of this game, but I thought plurals ending in -s were not accepted.

[mkenuk]

A bit more complicated than that, Sprite. 's' plurals are not allowed if all you are doing is adding 's' to the singular. So 'ships' is not allowed because it simply adds 's' to 'ship'. 'buses' is allowed because it adds 'es' to the base, and 'tellies' is allowed because it modifies the base form before adding 's' - 'tell-y - telli-es'.
But, there's more! Some plural forms are allowed - 'pants' for example and 'tongs' where there are two different meanings involved. Don't worry -You'll soon get the hang of it. In a year or two, at the very most! (joking)
MK

[TRex]

Although 'American' I use 'telly'. I think it a word most people with any exposure to Brit culture would know, even if they don't use it.

[sprite]

Don't worry -You'll soon get the hang of it. In a year or two, at the very most! (joking)
MK

*very big grin*
Yeah... about that long, for sure. Still, I am having fun, however low my percentage may be

[Alan W]

I'll make telly and tellies rare.