Author Topic: Word suggestion from Tuesday 4th Sept Standard  (Read 1793 times)

Dr. M. Hfuhruhurr

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Word suggestion from Tuesday 4th Sept Standard
« on: September 05, 2012, 04:56:22 AM »
Hello everybody  :D

I came across this interesting word 'unica', which wasn't recognised in this standard puzzle.  It's the plural form of unicum, meaning a unique example or specimen (from Latin 'unicus' as in 'unique').

Cheers,
Gav.
The man with two hemispheres.

Alan W

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Re: Word suggestion from Tuesday 4th Sept Standard
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2012, 12:25:33 PM »
Unicum, with its plural unica, is listed in a few dictionaries, including the Oxford Dictionary of English and Wiktionary.

It's quite a rare word: it seems to be mainly used by musicologists. For example, in The Organ Music of J S Bach, by Peter Williams: "It is difficult to see how any of this could have been applied again to another composition: the toccata must remain an unicum." And an example of the plural is in a publication called Anuario Musical, Volumes 19-20: "Certainly the facts that they are unica and the only known hymns by Gafforio set according to the Roman rather than the Ambrosian rite point strongly to this date." (Both examples found in Google Book Search.)

So, Gav, I'll add unicum and unica as allowable (rare) words the next time the word list is updated.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

Dr. M. Hfuhruhurr

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Re: Word suggestion from Tuesday 4th Sept Standard
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2012, 03:07:14 AM »
Interesting info.  Thanks mate  :)

The man with two hemispheres.