Author Topic: Doric? Uber?  (Read 4433 times)

a non-amos

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Doric? Uber?
« on: May 29, 2007, 12:35:03 PM »
Hi, Alan.

A couple of suggestions . . .

Doric has meaning for people who have studied architecture, but I am not sure of its capitalization.

Uber is borrowed from German, meaning "over", or "extreme".  Common usage: "uber enginneer" or "uber geek".

Cheers, mate!
Carpe digitus.
(Roughly translated, this is possibly the world's oldest "pull my finger" joke)

Binkie

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Re: Doric? Uber?
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2007, 01:57:53 PM »
Hi a non-amos !
                         I'm guessing that you tried "doric" in today's puzzle and had it rejected.....so did I. Without giving anything away,(I hope) I entered another word which I always thought was in the same category and it was accepted, so I was sure that "doric" would be on the list.  Hmmm.     ???    Shall have to ask Alan about that when today's puzzle is closed.

Alan W

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Re: Doric? Uber?
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2007, 02:38:37 PM »
Binkie, you certainly haven't given anything away to me!

As far as Doric is concerned, it does seem to be written always with a capital D. It's another one of those cases (as we've talked about in previous topics, a non-amos) where a word that is derived from a person or place name retains an initial capital, even though the word itself is not a proper name. In this case, the word originally meant pertaining to the Doris region of ancient Greece, so it still has a capital letter, even when it is used for a style of architecture or, more specifically, column design. So that's why it's not allowed in Chi.

On the other hand, uber is a more border-line proposition. Anonsi suggested it a while ago, and my response then was that it seemed to be used in English as a prefix rather than a word in its own right. But I'm ready to be persuaded if anyone can present evidence to the contrary.

Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

a non-amos

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Re: Doric? Uber?
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2007, 03:00:47 PM »
I believe B is referring to a word that is also used in chemistry.  I was entirely uncertain of the capitalization of Doric.

I have heard uber used by itself in common usage (e.g. "that's just uber"), but cannot cite a reference.



Carpe digitus.
(Roughly translated, this is possibly the world's oldest "pull my finger" joke)

Binkie

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Re: Doric? Uber?
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2007, 05:52:15 PM »
You're absolutely right, a non-amos ! I'd completely overlooked the fact that the word I used was a chemical term as well as an architectural one.  All is clear now ! :D

biggerbirdbrain

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Re: Doric? Uber?
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2007, 08:47:26 PM »
doric, ...., and gothic - all rejected! Bah!   >:( Oh well, at least it's consistent.
3-B