Author Topic: the word 'rend'  (Read 9093 times)

TRex

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the word 'rend'
« on: March 30, 2009, 11:06:44 AM »
I was shocked to see the word 'rend' was not considered a 'common' word!

(A 'perfect' performance from my POV is to get all the common words without having any uncommon words, so this was a definite problem!)

TRex

Alan W

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2009, 12:04:44 PM »
Welcome to the forum, TRex. It's good to hear from you after seeing your name on the scoreboard so often.

And it's always interesting to learn about a new puzzle goal. I imagine yours must be particularly challenging, given the sometimes dubious (I admit it!) classification of words. I'm surprised it's taken you this long to write in.

However, on rend, I'm not sure. As a word for "tear apart" it seems to have a distinctly dated or poetic flavour, although I admit the dictionaries don't seem to label it as such. But I can't quite imagine someone saying, "You better hammer that nail in or someone will rend their trousers on it."

What do other people think?
Alan Walker
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TRex

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The word 'pend (was: Re: the word 'rend')
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2009, 01:16:51 PM »
I have so many words running around in my head that I couldn't even get the subject line, let alone the content, correct! The word 'rend' /was/ a common word. So ignore the question about 'rend'!!  :-[

BTW, I don't think of 'rend' as applying to small tears or rips. ISTM 'rend' conveys a sense of force, even violence and a complete sundering of the subject: two or more separate pieces, not just a wee bit of damage which is easily mended.

The word that I fully expected to be common was 'pend'.

Also, I should admit that, as a hard-core crossword puzzle fanatic ('cruciverbalist' is too pretentious), I likely have a skewed concept of what is 'common'. For instance, in today's puzzle, I assumed a four-letter word for a small ornamental handbag (a favourite in crosswords) would be common. It wasn't.

TRex

Linda

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2009, 08:32:28 PM »
Hi and welcome TRex .... please tell me that you chose that name due to your love of Marc Bolan and not due to your love of dinosaurs!!  Anyway, great name!

I agree with you about rend -
Quote
BTW, I don't think of 'rend' as applying to small tears or rips. ISTM 'rend' conveys a sense of force, even violence and a complete sundering of the subject: two or more separate pieces, not just a wee bit of damage which is easily mended.

and I know exactly which word you are meaning
Quote
a four-letter word for a small ornamental handbag

as it is one of my crossword faves, too, but perhaps not very common?!  >:D

TRex

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2009, 12:02:53 AM »
Quote
please tell me that you chose that name due to your love of Marc Bolan and not due to your love of dinosaurs

I guess I'll need to Google 'Marc Bolan' -- not a clue. TRex is a nickname from co-workers because my first two initials are 'TR'. I find it a convenient online handle.

Linda

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2009, 01:17:41 AM »
I am disappointed, TRex, but then perhaps you're too young to remember the glory days of Marc Bolan and T Rex!  >:D

pat

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2009, 01:57:21 AM »
Goodness me, TRex, you must be very young if you've never heard of Marc Bolan and T-Rex! Although never a 'mega' band like the Beatles they were popular enough that their music is still played today. Marc Bolan died tragically young in a car accident, bringing a premature end to the band.

Linda

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2009, 02:05:28 AM »
Yes, and my sister went to his funeral and saw David Bowie and Rod Stewart!

technomc

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2009, 06:50:59 AM »
Hello Trex...
Welcome aboard...
You must be a youngun' then...

Marc Bolan..fab singer and he had such lovely teeth...according to my Mum...

Trex is a cooking ingredient too.....something along the lines of lard or suet...

Anyway...hope you have fun on board the Chi' train of chat and laughter..[that is really lame,  i am sorry!!  :-\ ]

birdy

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2009, 11:47:14 AM »
I agree with the violence of the word 'rend' - an apt word for a TRex to be familiar with - but I don't know that I've ever come across 'pend' - only in the adjective 'pending' which I assume is the gerund form of the verb (Alan will probably correct me on that, but I'm too rushed to check it myself this evening  :D ).  I've seen it more often in the words derived from it, like depend and append.

Toni

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2009, 06:59:44 PM »
Oh T!  TRex has such a lovely fierce feeling, suet and lard!!! yuck!   :laugh:

Alan W

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2009, 09:35:41 PM »
I'll be cautious in what I say about rend from now on, having just provided a defence of its rare status, when it is in fact classed as common. I agree with you, TRex, that the word generally conveys a sense of forcible ripping apart, but I do still feel it has a dated or poetic flavour. To me, it is close to the borderline between common and rare, but on the test of whether most people playing the game are likely to know of the word, it probably passes, and so is justified as a common word.

As for pend, it has a few meanings, most of them archaic (an arch or vaulted passage, pressure, to pen in, or confine), but I presume you are thinking of the meaning related to pending - to remain undecided - or perhaps the meaning, to hang. (Actually, birdy, the Oxford says that pending was derived directly from the French pendant, by a process of Anglicization, while the use of pend to mean "treat as pending" is described as a colloquial back-formation.)

In any of its uses, I think pend is quite rare. In the 385 million-word Corpus of Contemporary American English, I found only one example: "That is supposed to eliminate 'submarine' patents, which pend for years while inventors deliberately amend their applications to keep up with advancing technologies." (From a 1995 New York Times article.) The British National Corpus has a couple of examples of the arch or vaulted passage usage, and nothing else. So I think pend probably belongs in the rare category.

And so does that handbag thing.
Alan Walker
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TRex

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2009, 09:07:50 AM »
Quote
As for pend, it has a few meanings, most of them archaic (an arch or vaulted passage, pressure, to pen in, or confine), but I presume you are thinking of the meaning related to pending - to remain undecided - or perhaps the meaning, to hang.

I was thinking of a passageway, usually vaulted, and usually for motorcars, connecting a street to an inner courtyard. I didn't think of it as archaic. What would you call such a passageway if not a 'pend'? I don't think of it as a common word.


Quote
And so does that handbag thing.
:-D
I wasn't even thinking of asking it be reclassified -- too far a stretch, I think. OTOH, I thought the 'common' word beginning with 'u' in the 'Challenge' puzzle wasn't particularly common. The plural form is far more common, ISTM.

The only reason I used the circumlocution was because I was referring to a word in the (then) current puzzle and didn't want anyone's fun spoilt. (I've seen complaints on this board for that very thing.)

Thanks to all for the welcomes. It isn't that I'm too young (heck, I remember watching the live updates on the telly when John Glenn orbited the earth -- the first time, mind you). I just don't care for 'rock' music and completely ignore it.
TRex

rogue_mother

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2009, 01:43:24 PM »
Hi, TRex! Let me add my welcome.

Quote
I was thinking of a passageway, usually vaulted, and usually for motorcars, connecting a street to an inner courtyard.

Here's the rub ... In the U. S., practically no one has heard of a pend. Heck, we don't even have motorcars. Generally speaking, a word has to be common, or at least pretty well known, on multiple continents in order to be accepted as common in Chihuahua. The principal exception to this criterion is common words that have divergent spellings in Britain and America, such as color/colour, meter/metre, and so on. Another exception is the stray British-ism or Aussie-ism or (gasp) Yankee-ism that may have flown in under the radar. We are gradually weeding those out, but there are still some lurking out there.
Inside the Beltway, Washington, DC metropolitan area

TRex

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Re: the word 'rend'
« Reply #14 on: April 02, 2009, 08:08:09 AM »
Generally speaking, a word has to be common, or at least pretty well known, on multiple continents in order to be accepted as common in Chihuahua. The principal exception to this criterion is common words that have divergent spellings in Britain and America, such as color/colour, meter/metre, and so on. Another exception is the stray British-ism or Aussie-ism or (gasp) Yankee-ism that may have flown in under the radar. We are gradually weeding those out, but there are still some lurking out there.
You mean like 'crit' and 'cred'? I'm still trying to get accustomed to those being 'common' words. I don't recall ever hearing anyone use them or seeing them in print (except at lexigame.com).
TRex