Author Topic: word suggestion - 'secretary' game  (Read 2483 times)

mkenuk

  • Eulexic
  • ***
  • Posts: 2671
  • Life? Don't talk to me about life.
    • View Profile
word suggestion - 'secretary' game
« on: December 19, 2016, 04:12:53 AM »
'catseye';

Shown in the COD as a single word with a small 'c', although it is technically a trademark in UK.

For those who have never driven on UK roads at night, catseyes are reflective  beads like very small marbles set into rubber pads along the lane-markings of otherwise unlit roads.
Very useful things - so useful that I'm surprised more countries haven't adopted them.

The word is very common in UK; less well known elsewhere, perhaps.

MK


cmh

  • Paronomaniac
  • ******
  • Posts: 351
    • View Profile
Re: word suggestion - 'secretary' game
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2016, 06:21:57 AM »
Invented by Percy Shaw - Yorkshireman and unsung hero ( his invention has saved so many lives)

Morbius

  • Cryptoverbalist
  • *
  • Posts: 561
    • View Profile
Re: word suggestion - 'secretary' game
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2016, 09:10:11 AM »
I tried it too and was surprised it didn't count.  Subsequent checking of online dictionaries revealed that it tends to be hyphenated or spelt with a capital C.  Nonetheless, I've definitely seen it spelt as a single word with a lower case c. 

yelnats

  • Cryptoverbalist
  • *
  • Posts: 750
    • View Profile
    • Burke Rd billabong reserve & Friends of Herring Island
Re: word suggestion - 'secretary' game
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2016, 09:43:56 AM »
I tried it too, I remember it from long ago (in Oz) although reflective painted lines and reflectors on white posts seem to have overtaken them.

auntiemo

  • Cryptoverbalist
  • *
  • Posts: 698
    • View Profile
Re: word suggestion - 'secretary' game
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2016, 12:23:08 PM »
Not sure about other states in Australia, but in Qld we have blue cat's eyes that indicate the postion of fire hydrants for emergency services. Left of  road centre indicates hydrant on left side of road etc.
Redlands , Queensland, Australia

Les303

  • Guest
Re: word suggestion - 'secretary' game
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2016, 07:02:27 PM »
The game of marbles ( i wonder if todays kids have even heard of it? ) was very popular in our schoolyard & of course we "played for keeps ".
At lunchtime or after school , a group would gather & each player contributed a set number of marbles into the ring then take turns to shoot out as many as they could & every marble that you did manage to shoot out of the ring was yours to keep.
As a result of these endeavours i amassed a prized collection of the much sought after cat's eye marbles.
I always just assumed that it was two words.

Hello & welcome to the forum auntiemo.
I just thought that it might amuse you to know that during that same era , we had a lovely old widow who lived a couple of blocks from our school & every afternoon as we walked or rode our ' pushies " home she would be sitting out on the front veranda keen to have a chat to anyone within ear shot about their day at school & offer them a cold glass of water or if we were lucky , homemade lemonade.
None of us actually knew her proper name but she always insisted that we call her auntiemo , i can even remember when hearing adults talk about the widow that lives near the school they also always referred to her as auntiemo.


Alan W

  • Administrator
  • Eulexic
  • *****
  • Posts: 4961
  • Melbourne, Australia
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: word suggestion - 'secretary' game
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2016, 04:04:43 PM »
Apart from the COD that MK mentioned, catseye is also in the Oxford Dictionary of English as an alternate form to cat's eye, with the definition:

Quote
Brit. trademark a reflective stud set into a road as one of a series to mark traffic lanes or the edge of the carriageway by reflecting light from headlights.

The version with the apostrophe can also refer to a semi-precious stone. The marble usage is given in Dictionary.com with a hyphen: cat's-eye, "a playing marble marked with eyelike concentric circles". This definition is derived from the US-published Random House dictionary, so the usage evidently extends beyond Australia.

Anyhow, the single-word version that we can accept applies only to the reflective device. One example from August this year was in the New Zealand Herald:

Quote
Emergency services are attending ice-related crashes in Dunedin, Southland and Clutha, and sections of road in those areas have blue catseye devices which indicate dangerous conditions.

I'll add it as a rare word.

Another use of the word, which I didn't see in any dictionary, was in the Huffington Post UK in 2011:

Quote
Drenched in black with her ever-present lace mantilla and catseye sunglasses, Diane Pernet is one of the most recognisable figures on the fashion landscape.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites