Author Topic: Osier, orate  (Read 3049 times)

ensiform

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Osier, orate
« on: May 23, 2018, 02:10:02 PM »
Does anyone else think it's odd that osier is classified as common while orate is classified as rare?

anona

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2018, 04:21:05 PM »
It hadn't seemed odd to me, but you may be right. Trying to work out why it doesn't seem odd, the best I can come up with is too subjective to be valid: if I read "osier" in a text my mind would run smoothly over it and I would have no sense of oddness, but if I read "orate", there would be a little mental jolt.

What I find even odder is that "inaner" from yesterday is common. I put all three lower case words through the Ngram viewer and found that yes, osier is more common than orate, but "inaner" had only one occurrence: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=osier%2Corate%2Cinaner&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cosier%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Corate%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cinaner%3B%2Cc0

Jacki

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2018, 07:49:56 PM »
Yes I think it's really weird. I have never heard of osier till Chi, and orate is a very familiar word to me. But let's not get started. There's so many of these instances. I can't believe rort isn't a common word. Just about every time the home phone rings there's a rort trying to happen on the other side!
Late blooming azaleas tricked by the warmer weather into flowering

Alan W

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2018, 08:48:31 PM »
Jacki, rort has been discussed a few times in the forum. You're not the only one who considers it a common word, but it seems to be pretty largely unknown outside Australia and New Zealand. (The word, that is - the phenomenon is universal.) My guiding principle in deciding which words are common is that they should be known to players all over the world.

Orate has been discussed before too - here. I concluded the word is not very common, but a number of players seem to disagree, so perhaps I need to reconsider it. I don't think we've ever discussed osier before, but I'll look at it shortly.
Alan Walker
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ensiform

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2018, 10:20:17 PM »
I've never heard of the word rort.

pat

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2018, 10:58:22 PM »
Nor me.

mkenuk

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2018, 11:28:41 PM »
it's an Aussie / Kiwi word meaning 'to trick' or 'to cheat'.
Easy to remember, Pat.
It's (almost) an anagram of 'tory'!

 ;D

TRex

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2018, 05:27:15 AM »
I've never heard of the word rort.

I had to look it up.

pat

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #8 on: May 24, 2018, 06:57:11 AM »

It's (almost) an anagram of 'tory'!


Ha. Very true.  :D

Jacki

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #9 on: May 24, 2018, 07:54:07 AM »
It's an honour to hear from you T-Rex. I must admit you are my favourite player. I'd call you stealthy!
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TRex

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #10 on: May 24, 2018, 10:17:19 AM »
It's an honour to hear from you T-Rex. I must admit you are my favourite player. I'd call you stealthy!

Thank you, but nothing special about me. The guy who typically jumps out to a big lead in the Standard game (I can type fast) and then gets passed by a bunch of other players — like tonight.  ;D

And not usually stealthy as you can see by the number of posts under my name. A combination of working too many hours and not having much to say.

Linda

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2018, 06:56:28 PM »
Quote
I must admit you are my favourite player.

Mine, too!

Welcome Jacki!  >:D

Jacki

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2018, 07:26:54 PM »
Thanks Linda. You're a sweetie!
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Linda

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2018, 07:55:16 PM »
Quote
You're a sweetie!

Please, Jacki, I do have my Hag reputation to uphold!!  >:D

Alan W

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Re: Osier, orate
« Reply #14 on: May 31, 2018, 03:46:02 PM »
I don't think there's any doubt that osier is not really a common word ... except in Chi ... up until now.

When I first started noticing the word in Chi, I thought it might be some kind of obsolete occupation, like a hosier perhaps. But it seems it's a type of willow sometimes used for basket-making.

Its most recent appearance in the puzzle was in yesterday's Challenge (REPULSION), when it got a respectable 123 hits. But, as I've indicated before, I don't want a word to be common purely because a lot of players know it because it's always been common. The word will be rare from now on.
Alan Walker
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