16th June 10-letter RECOMPENSE puzzle

[ridethetalk]

How come EMCEE is common yet COMPERE is rare? Asking for a friend… 😉

[mkenuk]

.....especially when compere gets well over twice as many hits as emcee? (162 / 64 from 354)

compere it seems is not well-known in N.America, while emcee (at least, going by these figures) might be said to be not particularly well-known anywhere.

 

[les303]

Perhaps emcee is just one of those words that some players find hard to spot.

[Alan W]

This came up last year. See this topic, and in there you will see links to two previous discussions of compere. It is indeed a word little used in America, hence classed as rare.

The upshot then was to leave emcee as a common word, but I obviously wasn't totally convinced, as I said, "I'm leaving emcee as a common word for the time being." I'm happy to reconsider it in due course, but I think Les's point is well taken - despite my in-depth consideration of this question on previous occasions, I didn't spot emcee yesterday.

[les303]

I am currently playing the challenge game & just came across a bloke on the score board with the player name of emcee.

[mkenuk]

How do you know it's a bloke, Les?

Might be a sheila!!

 

[les303]

He provides his name & location -- Mathew from Melbourne.