word suggestion - renally

[mkenuk]

re the vulnerably 10-letter game.

I was a bit surprised to find that renally got a 'sorry, not known' response.

The game also had venal / venally (both common), neural / neutrally (both common) and even vernal / vernally (adjective 'common', adverb 'rare') .

Maybe renally doesn't exist, but it certainly feels as though it should!

MK

[Les303]

Hey Mike , are you serious or are you just kidneying around ?

I know that kidneying doesn't exist as I just made it up but I would have thought that renally would exist perhaps to describe a poorly performing kidney as in " renally impaired ".

[mkenuk]

Reminds me of the old joke from my schooldays:

Lady in butcher's shop - 'Two pounds of kiddleys, please?'
Butcher: - 'Don't you mean kidneys?'
Lady - 'I said 'kiddleys' diddle I?'

Yes, 'renally impaired' was exactly the phrase I had in mind.

MK

[Les303]

 

You might remember this one as well ;

A woman walks into a butcher's shop just before closing time and asks, "Do you have any chicken?"
The butcher opens his fridge, takes out his only chicken and puts it on the weighing scales. It weighs 1.5 kg.
The woman looks at the chicken and at the scales and asks, "Do you have one that's a bit bigger than this one, please?"
The butcher puts the chicken back into the fridge and then takes it out again, but this time when he puts it on the scales he craftily keeps his thumb on the scale pan. The scales now show 2 kg.
"That's wonderful," says the woman. "I'll take both of them, please!"

[Alan W]

A word like renally can be formed by construction, and be a genuine English word regardless of whether it is listed in any dictionaries. Nevertheless, when an adverb is used occasionally, dictionaries - at least a few of them - are liable to include it, even if only as a run-on entry to the adjective it is derived from, with no specific definition. The other words you mention, MK, can all be found in a few dictionaries, but renally cannot, as far as I can see.

The word has been used at times, often in "renally impaired", but also in "renally excreted". But the few examples I found were all in academic journals or other technical publications like the Oxford Textbook of Clinical Nephrology (see page 1405).

I feel this word falls below my threshold of obscurity for acceptance in the puzzle.

[pat]

This word would have been playable in yesterday's 10 letter puzzle. It's a word I've tried to play on more than one occasion, forgetting that it's not accepted. With your revised view on the threshold of obscurity,  Alan, could it be reconsidered?

[Jacki]

Respectfully, I strongly feel that AFIELD should be considered before RENALLY.

[ridethetalk]

10th June 10-letter INTERNALLY puzzle

RENALLY - surely this must be common...  

[pat]

I suspect that Alan doesn't prioritize word suggestions according to which is more likely to be approved, or changed from rare to common, which I presume is the basis for your suggestion, Jacki. It could equally be argued that since renally was first suggested 4 years ago, it should take priority over a more recent suggestion.

[mkenuk]

Digressing slightly -
If you were playing Scrabble and your opponent were to add ly to renal which was already on the board, would you challenge it? Would anyone challenge it?
Be honest now!
 

[Alan W]

Would anyone challenge it?

A tournament level Scrabble player would probably challenge it, because it's not in the Scrabble word list, and I think the really serious competitors aim to know precisely which words are allowed in their game. But probably none of us would challenge it.

One thing has changed since this question was previously considered - in addition to me adopting a more accepting attitude to obscure words. Previously renally was not listed in any dictionary. Now it is in Wiktionary, for what that's worth.

I guess the eventual diagnosis has to be that it is a word that satisfies all our criteria. It will be allowed from now on, as a rare word.

[mkenuk]

Thanks, Alan.

[les303]

 Great decision Alan, although i did not really expect that outcome.
 Almost peed myself when i saw it.