Author Topic: massy — is it really common?  (Read 1109 times)

TRex

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massy — is it really common?
« on: January 08, 2020, 11:40:37 AM »
This kept me from a rosette and it isn't one which resulted in a 'duh'. The three least-played 'common' words: mislay (226), missal (219), and massy (125). And massy gets a red squiggly underline in this browser. Surely a candidate for a downgrade?

Morbius

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2020, 12:09:55 PM »
It cost me a rosette too.  It's certainly not a common word to me.

Katzmeow

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2020, 01:01:18 PM »
Massy is a word?
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Dragonman

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2020, 08:42:54 PM »
In the CORRUGATED game EUROCRAT was unknown....if only..
You are UNIQUE....just like everyone else

Jacki

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2020, 08:55:37 PM »
Sorry Alan, it's not very scientific but I nearly spewed when I saw the last 'common' word I had not found was MASSY!!!
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cmh

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2020, 04:23:45 AM »
I am not that great at this wonderful game and as for getting a rosette!Pink porkers are more likely to fly over my roof.However I did get massy but purely because I don't care about keeping a 100% hit rate and when there is a Y in the grid I resort to sticking it on any word possible! It will be downgraded to rare of course but this time I won't be miffed(unlike when eland, for example, went to rare yet other antelopes still score as common). Meanwhile I will go back to occasionally dreaming that I may get as far as needing only one word to get that rosette!

mkenuk

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2020, 04:47:59 AM »
'.......It (the life of a great man) is a massy wheel
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoined......'

Rosencrantz and his best buddy Guildenstern are sucking up to Claudius in Act III, Scene iii of 'Hamlet'.

Not the greatest metaphor the immortal bard produced, but at least it proves that massy is a real word.
It's just an older form of 'massive'.
Common today? Probably not.
But it will appear in all those students' dictionaries that make a point of including on their pages every word used in the works of Shakespeare.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2020, 12:56:30 PM by mkenuk »

birdy

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2020, 05:23:37 AM »
I was going to say I'd never seen or heard the word massy, but since I have read Hamlet and seen productions, obviously my memory is at fault.  But I still think it's uncommon.

Alan W

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2020, 10:28:44 PM »
I won't dispute that massy is far from common. It will be treated as rare from now on.

But, for your interest it has a multitude of meanings according to the Shorter Oxford, though all but the last one are identified as literary or archaic:

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1. Solid and weighty; heavy as consisting of compact matter; (esp. of precious metals) occurring in mass, solid, not hollow or alloyed. lme.
  ‣†b Compact, dense. e16–e19.
  ‣†c Solid, having three dimensions. m16–m17.

M. Twain Its furniture was all of massy gold.

2. Consisting of a large mass or masses of heavy material; of great size and weight; (of a building) consisting of great blocks of masonry. lme.
  ‣b Of architectural or artistic style: presenting great masses. e19.

Ld Macaulay The massy remains of the old Norman castle.
(‣b) Modern Painters This predilection for massy stability of form is present in Moore's earliest life-drawings.

3. Of large size; voluminous, bulky; spreading in a mass or in masses. lme.

J. Updike Brick pinnacles and massy trees.

4. Of an abstract thing: great, substantial, impressive. l16.

5. Physics. = massive adjective 5. m20.

Recent examples of the word's use in English publications seem to be mainly in regard to sculpture. The Guardian in 2017:

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Outside the museum, in recent days, a new exhibit has been erected. Huge, massy, made of wood, from some angles it looks like a ruined Viking longboat lying on its side; from others, like the stretched-open, tooth-jagged jaws of a longship’s dragon figurehead.

But, to my surprise, the most frequent use of massy is in Indian publications. Here the meaning is obviously something different, being used about movies. I couldn't find it defined anywhere, but it seems as if it might mean something or someone aiming at a mass audience. Usage examples:

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Together, the three are expected to create some firebrand cinema for the massy audience on-screen.

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These films also shifted the understanding of what counts as massy and commercial.

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The locations for songs are colourful, classy and massy. The mass appeal makes it worth your 2 hours 45 minutes.

There were some forumites a while back arguing that, given the enormous number of English speakers in India, all English words well know to Indians (specifically, cricket terms) should be classed as common. If I'm inundated with complaints from Bollywood fans, I'll reconsider the treatment of massy, but until then it will be rare.
Alan Walker
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TRex

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Re: massy — is it really common?
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2020, 08:55:27 AM »
Thanks, Alan. And, as usual, a source of much information! (Don't know I'll find a way to use the word, though.)