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How copious is the bric-a-brac in your lexicographical pantechnicon?

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pointless and uncalled for

18:52 / 14.02.03

Pantechnicon, seriously?

I'm going to have to deduct points there.

Pantograph might have been allowable at a strech but pantechnicaon is simply an unacceptable form of linguistic abuse.

Shapen up or face defenestration from the throbbing front lobes club.

Laughing

03:41 / 15.02.03

Well, I got 187 (with 10 wild guesses), but I also locked myself out of the house today TWICE, so I guess my actual intelligence is a bit of a toss-up.

And what the hell is "trefa"?

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:30 / 15.02.03

The opposite of kosher. It's kind of cheating, since treyf is a yiddish word rather than an English one...

grant

14:48 / 17.02.03

Yeah, that one stood out as a bit of an odd one. It's vital knowledge if you want to get a couple of the lamer jokes in some of the lamer Mel Brooks movies.

8===>Q: alyn

15:19 / 19.02.03

I got 179, I think mainly by guessing consistently. And shrewdness & gumption? This test is fucked up. And it always bugs me when people use halcyon to mean 'peaceful'. Doesn't it mean 'many-colored'?

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:30 / 19.02.03

Nope. The Ancient Greek halkyon means "kingfisher", and "halcyon" has subsequently been used to describe a genus of brightly-coloured birds, but means "brightly-coloured" only by metonymy.

8===>Q: alyn

15:45 / 19.02.03

Gotcha. Likewise, "peaceful," yeah?

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:00 / 19.02.03

Not exactly. That meaning is primary in English - it comes from the mythological belief that the halkyon's nest floated in the sea, and when it bred the sea and the wind around it became calm. I think that by the time you get to Middle English, "alcioun" was being used as an embodiment of peacefulness - any English students able to verify? So if somebody described something as "halcyon", one would logically expect it to mean calm, then carefree, and only move onto the characteristics of the genus halcyon if these interpretations made no sense.

Mourne Kransky

16:14 / 19.02.03

The phrase "kingfisher days" is used in English prose, perhaps not in American, which makes that connection easier for UK English speakers, Colonel Q. Apparently it's connected with the breeding cycle of the kingfisher. You would see them about more when they were feeding a nest of hatchlings, during a period of calm weather in the winter.

Only ever saw kingfishers abroad in the heat of summer myself though, so I think of that flash of blue occurring as I lazed by an expanse of tranquil water, enjoying the sun.

Ganesh

16:32 / 19.02.03

And, as ever, the drug companies got there first...

8===>Q: alyn

16:32 / 19.02.03

Crazy. Yes, I've only ever been conscious of seeing the word used as a cliche substitute, except in some bit of poetry or something. Thanks.

Mourne Kransky

21:28 / 19.02.03

I thought a pantechnicon was a big big lorry anyway. Obviously was something else first. Trust the Greeks to have a word for it, whatever it was.

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