Schoolmarm?

[Gaye Christine]

Schoolmarm?? 
I got all the words but this one!!
Should I be terribly embarrassed?

[pat]

No. I think it's another dubious 'common' word.

[Morbius]

Well, 114 players got it.  By contrast, 118 players got MORALISTIC in the previous game, which wasn't questioned by anyone.  That would indicate a similar level of 'commonness'.  Although it's not a word you'd use very much in everyday conversation, it seems to be known reasonably widely, so would meet the criteria for being classified as common, I'd reckon.     

[mkenuk]

According to the COD, it's 'chiefly N. American', so recognized perhaps,  but seldom used in Britain and elsewhere. As with many other 'American' words it may have become familiar through films and TV.

 Lady schoolteachers in UK are always addressed as 'Miss', irrespective of age or marital status, and never as 'Ma'am' (or 'Marm'), which I believe is common in US.

GC, I have to sympathize with you; I, too, was short of only the nine-letter word on a recent game, but I saw and was able to play 'nostalgic' with about two minutes remaining. Close.

MK

[nineoaks]

From the (online) World English Dictionary:

Schoolmarm:
1.    a woman schoolteacher, esp when considered to be prim, prudish, or old-fashioned
2.    ( Brit ) any woman considered to be prim, prudish, or old-fashioned
 
[C19: from school 1  + marm,  variant of ma'am . See madam ]

The only everyday usage I know of this word is the adjective schoolmarmish, meaning 'prim, prudish, or old-fashioned.' If the noun is commonly recognized, it's probably from old western movies where there often was a 'schoolmarm' in town. This word and 'marmy,' from Little Women are the only times I've encountered marm (as opposed to ma'am). ?Origin in a regional accent?

In the US teachers are addressed as Miss or Mrs./Mr. followed by the surname.

9oaks

[Alan W]

Looking at this xkcd cartoon, I have to wonder whether I should be bothering to delve occasionally in the backlog of requests, which are up to 4 years old.



But, at any rate, it's probably worth looking into queries about whether words are really common. Or, as in the case of schoolmarm, whether a word should be used as the 10-letter key word of a puzzle.

The word doesn't seem to be used these days to refer to actual schoolteachers, except in a historical context. Mainly it's used to describe a woman's manner or looks. As such, it's not restricted to the US, where the word originated. For example, Alex Salmond, the former Chief Minister of Scotland, was quoted in the Sunday Herald in October as saying:

Theresa May's schoolmarm tone of telling people off who disagree with her is no way to run a government and is certainly no way to speak to members of the Scottish Government.

In fact there doesn't seem to be a female politician who hasn't been likened to a schoolmarm. It's been used of Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel. In the US Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren have been hit with this word, and so has Australia's Julia Gillard.

But use of schoolmarm isn't confined to politics. For example, British writer Rowan Pelling wrote in the Telegraph in November about streaming television services:

Something at the core of me objects to the subscription model, where TV programmes are streamed to the customer on demand. A schoolmarm side of me dislikes the idea of the impatient, voracious, sensation-bloated viewer being gratified whenever they like.

I think this is a word that is known to just about all Chi players, in the sense that they would know exactly what is meant when they see or hear the word. The only thing that makes me question whether it should be retained as a ten-letter word is that players might have varying expectations about how it's written. Some might expect it to be two words, as it sometimes is, or hyphenated, as it also sometimes is. Or even as schoolma'am, or school-ma'am. So I will remove schoolmarm as a puzzle seed word.

OK, school's out - you can all go home now.