Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - drs

Pages: [1]
1
Words / "stayer"?
« on: October 16, 2013, 03:03:47 PM »
I was somewhat surprised to find the word "stayer" classified as rare in the challenge game of "yesterday" ;)

With Australia (I live in Melbourne) moving at full gallop into its Spring Racing Carnival and heading inexorably towards the Melbourne Cup, the "race that stops a nation", we see and hear the word "stayer" - used to denote those horses bred for the longer distances - every day in the media, and it would be hard not to be familiar with the word. Since the "sport of kings" seems to be truly international, I rather imagined that the word would be considered "common" rather than "rare" in most English-speaking countries. What do others think? ... just curious.

David

2
Words / "shill" - Challege 4 Nov.
« on: November 05, 2012, 01:24:08 PM »
I was surprised to find "shill" listed as a common word in the "shrillest" puzzle. I've never heard of it, and for me I think that's a first for words listed as common. Chambers online doesn't list it, and OED lists it, but classifies it as "slang (chiefly N. Amer.)" - which is probably why I, an Aussie, don't know it! Question is: if it's only common in one part of the world, is it appropriate to list it as common?

3
Words / "someplace" - Challenge, 29 September 2012
« on: September 30, 2012, 01:22:12 PM »
Is "someplace" really one word? The OED online lists it as "dial and U.S.". Of the 14 quotations given 8 are as two words, one is hyphernated and five are one word. Of the five single word usages four appear to be US and one is British (a Liverpudlian poet - dialect?).  Chambers does not know it as a single word. Websters does, and I suspect that it may be common in everyday usage in the States, but here in Australia it is litle known and little used. Others will perhaps comment about the frequency of usage elsewhere.

I didn't get it  :-[, but I'm not beefing about that (it's not such a "rare" occurrence!). My point in posting is just to raise for discussion the appropriateness of using as the "common" nine letter word a word/phrase of such dubious provenance. US players probably have no problem with it, but in many other parts of the world where Chi is played, "someplace" would be considered "rare" at best. What do others think?

David

4
Words / "agist" is rare?
« on: January 09, 2011, 06:26:11 PM »
I was surprised to find that "agist" was classified as rare; I expected it to be common. Of course in the last ten years of drought in Australia it was common for people on the land in less dry areas to agist stock for those in parched country, so we may have seen and heard it in the press more often than those from other climes. What do others think? Rare or common? :-\

5
Say Hello / Happy New Year!
« on: January 01, 2011, 01:23:50 PM »
Greetings, forumites, and Happy New Year to all.

I have been enjoying playing Chi for some six months now, and have been following the forum for several months, so I thought that New Year's Day would be as good a time as any to join in and make my first "post". I'm semi-retired - these days I work just two days a week - and I'm learning Spanish and doing word-games of all sorts to try to stave off premature decay of the grey cells. When my children were growing up, they used to mock me with affectionate good humour as "the walking dictionary" - does that ring a bell with anyone? You all seem like my kind of people, so I have a feeling that this forum at least provides a safe haven for people like me!

I live in Melbourne, Australia - Alan's home town, I gather - where it was 40 degrees C outside yesterday - very hot, and a far cry from the snow that is besetting many of you northern hemisphere forum denizens. Much milder today.

Can anyone help with the following issue? I note that words from a highly specialised vocabulary - eg technical terms in chemistry, mineralogy, etc. - are more often than not "not known" in Chi. Is there a policy on this to which I could refer for guidance? My hit rate often takes a beating because I get knocked back on arcane specialised vocab.

Anyway, hello to all and best wishes for 2011.

Pages: [1]