Wednesday 15 March 7-by-many SMOKINESS puzzle

[ridethetalk]

ONSEN – a Japanese hot spring (there is one at Mt Hotham where I went last weekend) – no specific dictionary entry that I could find but it is referenced here and here

KNISMESIS – a light tickling sensation sometimes accompanied by itchiness https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/knismesis

[Alan W]

Onsen is listed in the Shorter Oxford and some of the other Oxford dictionaries, as well as in Wiktionary. I'll add it as a rare word.

[Alan W]

I couldn't find knismesis in any dictionary other than Wiktionary, even though the word was coined over 100 years ago. This might suggest it's too obscure and technical for us. But in fact it describes a very familiar phenomenon, so perhaps it ought to be more widely known.

In 1897 two psychologists proposed the terms gargalesis and knismesis, for two types of tickling. Gargalesis causes laughter, whereas knismesis is a very light tickling, such as you might feel from a bug walking across your skin. Though these words are certainly not in wide use, they have occasionally made it into mass circulation publications, such as the Daily Mail, which in 2016 carried an article on the theme "Why CAN'T you tickle yourself?":

There are actually two types of tickles: knismesis and gargalesis. The former is associated with low levels of stimulation to sensitive parts of the body, and can be triggered by a light touch or by a light electric current.

Knismesis can also be triggered by crawling insects or parasites, prompting scratching or rubbing at the ticklish spot, thereby removing the pest...

Gargalesis refers to harder, laughter-inducing tickling, and involves the repeated application of high pressure to sensitive areas.

The word also appeared in a 2009 novel, The Puppy Bomb: A Jonah LeClaire Detective Mystery, by James Lynch:

Knismesis is the other type of tickling, with no laughter, like a bug crawling up your leg. It's easy to remember words in pairs—gargalesis and knismesis, or flotsam and jetsam—driftwood floating in the creek versus a beer can deliberately thrown into the creek.

I'll add knismesis as a rare word, along with its counterpart, gargalesis.

[ridethetalk]

Thanks Alan (I'll try to avoid laughing...) 

[Alan W]

in answering this suggestion, I forgot that the words gargalesis and knismesis had come up a few years ago on the British comedy panel show Would I Lie to You. The episode has just been repeated on Australian TV.

Susie Dent, the long time dictionary person on the Countdown show was a guest, and claimed that her father had broken her leg during a vigorous bout of gargalesis. She explained the meanings of gargalesis and knismesis, but was accused of making the words up. The host, Rob Bryden tried to look up gargalesis in a dictionary, but it wasn't there. Susie said it was a small dictionary. You can find the segment on YouTube if you want to know whether her story was true.

[ridethetalk]

For those interested, here is the link to the aforementioned Would I Lie To You segment - it's laugh out loud funny!

...and, thanks, Alan, for mirthing up my Wednesday! 

[Maudland]

One of my favourite programmes - Susie Dent’s an added bonus!