Word suggestion MATESHIP in yesterday's SYMPATHIZE 10 Letter game

[Jacki]

MATESHIP was classed as rare. Is it just in Australai that it's well-known?

[pat]

A word unknown to me.

[Jacki]

Did you know mazy? It was a common word.

[pat]

Did you know mazy? It was a common word.

Nope.

[nineoaks]

Mateship/Mazy both unknown to me.

[Jacki]

I tried MAIZEY but it was not a word. Mazy did not occur to me! Mateship is comaraderie - it is strange to think others haven't even heard of it.

[Alan W]

Jacki, I'm a bit surprised that you're surprised! Mateship is often spoken of as a distinctive feature of the Australian character. The editor of the Australian National Dictionary, Bruce Moore, has written The story of 'mate', an article about the Australian use of the words mate and mateship, in which he says (footnotes omitted):

In Standard English, mateship can mean 'the state of having a mate; a pairing of one animal with another' (OED), but it is the human sense of mateship that is exclusively Australian. The OED defines it as 'the condition of being a mate; companionship, fellowship, comradeship', and labels it 'chiefly Australian and New Zealand'. AND defines it: 'The bond between equal partners or close friends; comradeship; comradeship as an ideal.' Some of its seminal and early uses, not surprisingly, come from Henry Lawson, since it is a concept that was forged in the bush tradition. In 'Shearers' (1901) Lawson writes:

They tramp in mateship side by side—
The Protestant and Roman
They call no biped lord or sir
And touch their hat to no man!

And in 'Before We Were Married' (1913):

River banks were grassy—grassy in the bends,
Running through the land where mateship never ends.

It is a tradition that is continued in the First World War, and memorialised in the remembering of that war: (1935) 'The one compensating aspect of life as then lived was the element of mateship. Inside the wide family circle of the battalion and the company were the more closely knit platoon groups.'

When in 1999 Prime Minister Howard proposed a draft preamble to the Constitution that included the sentence 'We value excellence as well as fairness, independence as dearly as mateship', there was some public outcry over the inclusion of a term that, because of its role in a male tradition, appeared to exclude half the population. Prime Minister Howard argued that mateship was 'a hallowed Australian word', although his co-author in the draft preamble, the poet Les Murray, confessed that it was 'blokey … a man’s thing'. This debate was a sign that the Australian myth, which mateship embodies, perhaps no longer has the power that it held in the past. The association of mateship with Australian egalitarian traditions was articulated most clearly by Russel Ward in The Australian Legend (1958): 'He believes that Jack is not only as good as his master but, at least in principle, probably a good deal better. … He is very hospitable and, above all, will stick to his mates through thick and thin, even if he thinks they be in the wrong.'

The concept is embraced across the political spectrum, as indicated by the references to Henry Lawson (radical) and John Howard (conservative). In the 19th century, union leader William Lane defined socialism as "the desire to be mates".

The word is definitely a rarity outside Australia and New Zealand.

[Jacki]

Okey dokey. Thanks

[Alan W]

The other word queried in this thread was mazy.

It means mazelike, or more generally, following a winding or zigzag trajectory. The word has been used by lots of writers: Keats, Wordsworth, D H Lawrence, G K Chesterton, Thomas Hardy, etc. Perhaps one of the best known examples would be in Coleridge's "Kubla Khan":

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:

However, it seems nowadays to be used mainly by British sports writers. For example, The Week (UK) in its 26 November obituary for Diego Maradona:

The first was the controversial handball, but minutes later his second, a mazy run and finish, has gone down in World Cup folklore. It was declared "Goal of the Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002.

It seems likely mazy would be unfamiliar to many Chihuahua players - those who are neither poetry lovers nor soccer fans - so it will be classed as rare in future.

[Jacki]

Good one. Thanks Alan.