Decloak

[Binkie]

Hey, mon, wat is de prablem?  Me, I use de cloak all de time ovah heah!

[technomc]

         
Yu makea mia larva..

[rogue_mother]

I understand about the rules.  But I had to try, especially since you accepted "dalek,"  which has a similar lack of documentation except for an entry in Wikipedia.

[anonsi]

She has a point there, Alan!  Now you've gotten yourself in trouble. 

Binks...I used gotten just for you!

[Alan W]

Of course you had to try, rogue_mother! And I welcome every suggestion, because we usually learn something interesting, whether the proposed word is eventually accepted or not.

Although I had to admit in another topic that I probably know more British words than American ones, I can assure you all that I have no bias as between Star Trek and Dr Who - I know practically nothing about either! (Although I like reading some SF - e.g. Philip K Dick - I'm not drawn to it on the screen.)

And dalek is in the Encarta Dictionary, as well as Wikipedia, so I think I've just gotten myself out of trouble, anonsi.

[rogue_mother]

I have been pondering on my favorite non-word in Chihuahua -- decloak -- ever since the challenge game last Tuesday, when I would have had a chance to use it, but couldn't.

Alan, you may still reject it, since it doesn't seem to be in any real dictionaries. It isn't even in the Corpus of Contemporary American English or the British National Corpus. And yet its meaning is clearly understood and it is used in a variety of contexts outside of its science fiction origin and subsequent spread to gaming. Here are a few examples:

1.    CounterSpy Now Decloaks The Sony Rootkit
http://www.counterspynews.com/?issue=17

2. Decloaking...and living authentically!
http://www.wel-systems.com/programs/WOverview.htm

3. Republicans Decloak Health Care Plan
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/read/3778/republicans-decloak-health-care-plan/

4. Decloak: Information from Answers.com
http://www.answers.com/topic/decloak

5. CAN HOSPITAL DECLOAK ANONYMOUS CRITIC?
http://www.hollandharthealthcare.com/healthcare/2008/01/can-hospital-de.html

6. How to: Cloak and Decloak Folders in a Workspace
msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181378(VS.80).aspx

7. Download the latest version of iPod Decloak for MAC free. Reveals hidden mp3s on iPod.
http://ipod-decloak.mac.findmysoft.com/

8. Digital Decloaking Chamber | Operation Handbook Pressure System:
http://www.biocare.net/webfiles/manual-decloaking-chamber.pdf

9. decloak is a utility that endeavors to find hidden processes via PID exhaustion.
http://themes.freshmeat.net/projects/decloak

10. Decloaking Pathogens With Low-Frequency Sound
http://www.whale.to/a/edwards.html

11. However, each blog is identified only as a UA SLIS student blog, and therefore remains anonymous unless individual students elect to decloak themselves by adding their name to their blog. It is their decision.
http://www.librarystuff.net/2007/09/26/question-for-library-school-professors/

12. holmes {in temp decloak from lurker mode}
http://www.evcforum.net/cgi-bin/dm.cgi?action=msg&f=35&t=120&m=1

13. I have remained silent about the Bear Scat debacle over the course of its development this summer, but I think it’s high time to decloak.
http://www.nicholastam.ca/2007/09/03/no-scat-left-behind/

A girl can only dream!

[ensiform]

Forget DECLOAK --- where does Alan stand on the Bear Scat debate?

[Alan W]

OK, RM. I'm convinced!

The word decloak has indeed come to be used in a variety of contexts. We can't wait forever for dictionaries to catch up! It's interesting that it's not even listed by sites such as WordSpy and the Double-Tongued Dictionary, that specialise in neologisms. Nor, for that matter, is it listed in Science Fiction Citations for the OED, although that site does have entries for cloak and cloaking device.

Given the meaning of decloak, it's ironic that it remains invisible to the lexicographers.

[rogue_mother]

Thanks! Since decloak is a verb, I would imagine decloaked and decloaking would also be accepted, though I have difficulty imagining that these might be possible.

Following your mention of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, I visited that site and explored it a little and discovered that I can make a suggestion for them to include decloak. I think I will follow through on this. My initial Google search for decloak did not include the other verb forms. When I searched for decloaking, I found a usage in a law journal from 1998. It is indeed amazing that this word has not found its way into any dictionaries.

[Alan W]

It's certainly unlikely that decloaking will come up in the puzzle as it currently operates, since the word has ten letters! But I will add decloaked.