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Messages - TRex

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1906
The Daily Quest / Request for standardised treatment of monetary units
« on: April 22, 2009, 02:43:17 PM »
Alan,

The monetary units peso and lire/lira are now accepted as common words, but the monetary unit used in Iran, Oman, and Yemen (I'm avoiding the word itself since the current puzzle uses it) is not accepted as a common word (though it is accepted).

IMO, currencies of English-speaking countries ought to be non-controversial common words (e.g. dollar and rand, pound {though that has another common meaning} rupee if India is accounted as an English-speaking country), whilst currencies of other countries should either be consistently common or consistently not common.

What do you think? What do others think?
TRex

1907
The Daily Quest / Re: Swapped nine letter words
« on: April 22, 2009, 12:47:36 PM »
Quote from: Alan W on April 22, 2009, 12:26:31 PM
That's all for now - I feel as if I've been beavering away at this for hours now.
Where's the little icon for a very big GROAN?

Seriously, thank you for all your research on the various usages. It is edifying and interesting.
TRex

1908
Words / Re: another 9-letter word for today's challenge
« on: April 22, 2009, 01:45:36 AM »
I also thought of, and tried, hatteries.
TRex

1909
The Daily Quest / Swapped nine letter words
« on: April 19, 2009, 01:14:07 PM »
Is there any possibility of a transposition between the 'common' nine-letter word in today's (Sunday 18 Apr) Challenge puzzle with the other nine-letter 'uncommon' word? Is there anyone besides me who is more familiar with the 'uncommon' nine-letter word than the 'common' nine-letter word?
TRex

1910
Words / Re: what about this word
« on: April 19, 2009, 10:31:38 AM »
Re Sunday's puzzle: isn't there a variety of metal called semisteel?  ;D

Could be only half of what needs to be added to make iron into steel is added, or metal used for building those lorries called semis.
TRex

1911
Word Games / Create your own game
« on: April 17, 2009, 04:55:10 PM »
Is there any way to create a game in 'Your Puzzles' where you can select the nine-letter word yourself?
TRex

1912
Word Games / Re: Chart your progress
« on: April 17, 2009, 04:52:53 PM »
Quote from: Alan W on April 03, 2009, 02:43:00 PM
And although IE6 is now two versions ago, it's still the second most popular browser among Chi players - almost 30% use it.
Just what is the breakdown on the browsers being used by Chi players?
TRex

1913
The Daily Quest / Re: FOUL!!!!
« on: April 17, 2009, 02:54:28 PM »
Quote from: Alan W on April 17, 2009, 01:57:40 PM
So you were wrong, TRex?
Yep.

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When you said, "I think you just did it again with today's puzzle", you seemed to be predicting that the common word you hadn't played would turn out to be absent from the dictionary linked to the puzzle. In fact, it's there, with a definition from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
Yep.

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Kinda, sorta and helluva are all acceptable in Chihuahua, for the same reason, although some of them are not in as many dictionaries as gonna.
I will admit most of my hard cover dictionaries are rather old. My newest (and most-used) is a Concise Oxford (1990) edition. The Concise Oxford doesn't list gonna.

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If you feel this is a disgraceful state of affairs, you may wish to write to the editors of those dictionaries about it.
If I thought it might do any good, I might. I still consider humankind an ugly neologism. But, then, a T. Rex is a dinosaur!
TRex

1914
The Daily Quest / Re: FOUL!!!!
« on: April 17, 2009, 12:39:08 PM »
Quote
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I think that whatever dictionary I link to, people will be dissatisfied whenever that dictionary has no definition for a word in the puzzle - "common" or "rare". And there doesn't appear to be an online dictionary that comes anywhere near covering all the rare words in our list.
I think you just did it again with today's puzzle. I resorted to random letter combinations trying to get the last 'common' (I suspect it will be something I've never encountered) word.
Well, I've seen it, but I've never thought of it as an actual world. If gonna is a 'common' word, does that mean kinda and sorta and helluva, etc. are also acceptable? Why isn't aint acceptable?
TRex

1915
The Daily Quest / Re: FOUL!!!!
« on: April 16, 2009, 02:33:46 PM »
Quote from: Alan W on April 14, 2009, 02:23:30 PM
TRex, dis-tress was intended to refer to you tearing your hair out.
Ah, now I get it. :-[  I will (attempt) to excuse my ignorance by pleading that I think of tress as having a connotation of a significant amount of hair -- which certainly leaves me out.

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I think that whatever dictionary I link to, people will be dissatisfied whenever that dictionary has no definition for a word in the puzzle - "common" or "rare". And there doesn't appear to be an online dictionary that comes anywhere near covering all the rare words in our list.
I think you just did it again with today's puzzle. I resorted to random letter combinations trying to get the last 'common' (I suspect it will be something I've never encountered) word.

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There is an online Dictionary of the Scots Language which I have used several times.
I'll add that to my bookmarks. Thanks. Though I have to admit to some disappointment that my favourite Scots word (I think both my mother's parents used it*), clype in the sense I learnt (a telltale).

*An odd couple: he was from Glasgow, she was from Edinburgh. Those familiar will understand.

TRex

1916
Whatever / Re: Conundrums
« on: April 15, 2009, 12:12:19 AM »
The first thing to come to mind is a lighthouse keeper.

1917
Words / Re: "non-word" word rant - it oughtta be a word
« on: April 15, 2009, 12:09:06 AM »
Quote from: Alan W on April 14, 2009, 04:46:16 PM
At least one major author has used spooner. D.H. Lawrence, in the posthumously published Mr Noon, used the word a couple of times. For example: "Emmie, in her wet mackintosh, cuddled into his arms. He was famous as a spooner, and she was famous as a sport."

How do you find these (obscure to me) citations, Alan?

1918
The Daily Quest / Re: FOUL!!!!
« on: April 14, 2009, 12:46:49 PM »
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TRex, don't beat about the bush - let us know how you really feel!
:laugh:


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Oncer probably isn't common, so my apologies for your distress, and your dis-tress.
Pardon my  ???  but, Sir Wordmeister, what is the difference between 'distress' and 'dis-tress'?

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However in my defence, it may not have been used by Shakespeare, but it was used in a poem inspired by him
Great response!

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This quote is courtesy of Wiktionary .... also has an Australian usage ... (Australian National Dictionary)
Seriously: have you considered using either of these instead of the Free Dictionary for linking to words in the puzzle?

I will definitely bookmark the Australian National Dictionary. 'Tis odd, tho', that it has no registered domain!

It seems easy enough to find dictionaries for American and English, but this is the first I have seen for Australian. Are you aware of dictionaries for 'New Zealandan'/'New Zealander'  (or is it too much like Australian), South African, Canadian, and other dialects of English? They would make good references.

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So I will reclassify oncer to rare, TRex.
Many thanks, kind Sir Wordmeister. You'll help leave a wee bit of cilia to cushion my cranium from concussions and clouts.  :P

Quote from: birdy on April 13, 2009, 11:31:41 PM
You're right, Alan, I've never heard it here.  We'd probably used "oner" instead, and I'm not sure even that is that common.
The only place I see 'oner' is in American crossword puzzles. But in that realm, it seems rather common.
TRex

1919
The Daily Quest / FOUL!!!!
« on: April 13, 2009, 11:04:18 AM »
I must protest.

I tried and tried and tried to get the last 'common' word for Sunday's Challenge puzzle. I put way too much time into it, but I really wanted that rosette. I didn't get it. I even resorted to combining random letter combinations (ruined my percentage) and found some odd words, but I still couldn't find that last common word.

With today's new puzzle, I look at the missing 'common' word: ONCER !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?   :o

Surely this is a jest. Even the Bard doth not use foresaid word.

In fact, when I clicked on the word and opened the Free Dictionary page, I received:
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Word not found in the Dictionary and Encyclopedia.

How can you, kind Sir Wordmeister, categorise as 'common' a word which the dictionary of your choice to which you link, doesn't contain?

Forget a yellow card. I think this calls for a red card straightway!  :laugh:

I haven't enough remaining hair on my pate for you to do this to me, Sir Wordmeister.
TRex

1920
Whatever / Re: LESS Time? or LESS WARMTH?
« on: April 10, 2009, 09:26:34 AM »
Quote from: birdy on April 10, 2009, 01:48:58 AM
By the way, Alan, is there any reason the forum doesn't have spell check?  I'm just asking because the format seems very similar to the other forum I post in, and they have spell check.  Just curious.

You mean all these definers, dictionarists, etymologists, glossarians, glossarists, glossographers, glossologists, glottologists, lexicographists, lexicologists, linguists, philologers, philologians, philologists, vocabulists, wordsmiths, etc. need a spell check??????
 ;D
TRex

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