Quote from: Greynomad on March 25, 2024, 07:29:46 PM

I suggest 96 people getting SUCCOTASH in the 7 by many is a fair display of how common, or uncommon that word is in the English speaking world.

Not necessarily. Only 69 people found toccata in this same puzzle, and yet no one is complaining about it, neither at present nor in the past seventeen years.

This is not to defend succotash. I know it well, having eaten it quite a bit as a child and having heard Yosemite Sam exclaim it for far too many years; however, it was the last or next to last word I found. The combination of letters was difficult for me to assemble from the mix.

The better reason to adjust its status as a common word would be that its use is almost exclusively North American, so far as I am aware.

You misconstrue my desire. I wasn’t seeking a readjustment of status. Simply making comment that outside of the US, it would be an uncommon word. I do accept that this does happen, and when I saw it, I accept that I know it. I certainly wasn’t complaining.

I agree re sophomore, which while infrequently used in Australia, was certainly a surprise to me as uncommon.

That said, as the complete antithesis of a mesomorph, when I chanced upon it, I did at least recognise it.

Calabooses are rarer than peccaries anywhere in the world, (except perhaps for the US).

I had a shock when I looked at Wiki, and it suggested calaboose as used in US and Australia. I’ve never heard a prison called a calaboose in Australia in 60 years I have been here.

Perhaps they are a gaol (or jail) for peccaries!

Quote from: Wibbly Bits on October 06, 2023, 07:37:28 PM

I’ve only ever used or read the word urethane as a noun, never as a verb. I can see where you are coming from though, because we have verbified paint, varnish, whitewash, lacquer, oil etc etc. Have you found any dictionaries showing urethane as verb?

I'm not suggesting making a verb of urethane — my suggestion is akin to painting, varnishing, whitewashing, lacquering, oiling, etc.: the act of applying the substance (a noun).

I may be a bit slow, but in my understanding, the act of doing something makes the word a verb, with the noun being the part of the word before the suffix “ing” being applied.

That said, I see no problem, apart from the sound of the word due to its newness to me, including it like the other verbs quoted.

My wife and I just had a good laugh about this, as our sons and myself give her a hard time when she talks about snitchels for our dinners!

Perhaps we could come up with a list of 3 or 4 comprehensive dictionaries, for non specialised words, that become the references for addition of words. A person suggesting the word would be required to provide a link to the dictionary containing the word, and Alan can then apply a common or rare tag according to his opinion. If a word is not in these agreed references, then it is excluded from our game unfortunately.

For specialised words, such as plant or animal names, words to do with specific occupations and the like, the person suggesting should provide a link to a specific reference book and Alan can then add them as rare.

This may slow the flow of new words, or at least reduce the need for Alan to find and research references to make a decision, and will give the process some understandable structure.

This is not a perfect system, but does reduce uncertainty, reduce speculative requests, gives consistency, and puts some onus of proof back on the person requesting the word.

I know I only play based on finding seed words, so I really consider myself pretty unaffected by this, but agree the process could do with a bit of an update, especially as we all face ever shortening days, months and years as we enter the Twilight Zone.

I put forward this as a possible discussion starter.

1) allow Alan to gracefully step back from this particular aspect of the game after all his years of loving and singular service, if he would like to.

2) all words should be mentioned in two or three major dictionaries agreed by the more involved and better wordsmiths than I who play. If a word is not yet so represented, then bad luck for that suggestion.

3) words are submitted via the forum, and discussed by a small committee of game players happy to form the group, in PM mode, and advise decision in due course.

4) the rare or common argument is a more problematic matter, but perhaps words described as obsolete, archaic, slang, work/recreation/hobby specific, or colloquial/ regional could be rare for starters, or as otherwise decided after discussion between Alan and the word panel. Perhaps also a clear definition of well read person could be presented, as I consider myself reasonable well read in a general knowledge manner, and I shudder at some common (phantasy leaps tp mind)!

As I say, just some thoughts to get things moving. PS I agree with Morbius on reducing the current outstanding list to more manageable levels now.