OK, so the reason why I haven't been doing any TASes? Part of it is that I'm teaching a creative writing class this summer. So as a carry over from that, just for fun, see if you can guess the vocabulary word definition that I'm quizzing my students on over the course of the summer.
Go ahead and spurt out answers and it'll be a collaborative fill-in, but I'm asking to go by the honor system here and not cheat by running out and going to look the words up. So, maybe just one or two per post then?
I'll fill in the definitions as people get them right.
---
1.) Felicity -
2.) Lexicon - vocabulary (moozooh)
3.) Jostle - To shake up, shake around (Ferret Warlord)
4.) Pious - Religious (Blublu)
5.) Vivacious - lively (alden)
6.) Beguile -
7.) Ubiquitous - Omnipresent (moozooh)
8.) Superfluous - unnecessary (alden)
9.) Obstinate -
10.) Cacophony -
11.) Deprecate -
12.) Facetious -
13.) Veritable -
14.) Cavort -
15.) Inundate - To flood (Ferret Warlord)
16.) Inane -
17.) Nimiety -
18.) Convivial -
19.) Staid -
20.) Copse -
21.) Incipient -
22.) Glower -
23.) Badinage -
24.) Perfunctory -
25.) Obfuscate -
26.) Hermitage -
27.) Abscond -
28.) Bombinate -
29.) Vagary -
30.) Aberrant -
31.) Temerarious -
32.) Mephitic -
33.) Egress -
34.) Frission -
35.) Fervid -
36.) Bedlam - extreme disorder (moozooh)
37.) Expectorate - (to) spit (alden)
38.) Carom -
39.) Somniferous -
40.) Venial -
(Edit: More definitions to come as I poke at it over the weekend)
2.) Lexicon ~= vocabulary;
4.) Pious — uh, something between acting religious and being god-fearing;
5.) Vivacious ~= energetic;
7.) Ubiquitous ~= omnipresent;
8.) Superfluous ~= redundant, needless;
10.) Cacophony — loud sound coming from several sources, noise;
11.) Deprecate ~= something beetween "disapprove of" and "make obsolete";
12.) Facetious ~= not serious;
16.) Inane ~= nonsensical;
25.) Obfuscate ~= make unclear;
26.) Hermitage — uh, a living place for a hermit? Or an act of becoming one;
36.) Bedlam ~= extreme disorder (we use this word in Russian, too).
Joined: 3/11/2004
Posts: 1058
Location: Reykjavík, Ísland
Okay, I'll try
4.) Pious - Religious
7.) Ubiquitous - available everywhere, common
8.) Superfluous - redundant
10.) Cacophony - the opposite of "symphony"
11.) Deprecate - if something is deprecated, it should not be used anymore because something better is available, but it still works it's so not exactly the same as obsolete
25.) Obfuscate - Clutter up to make impossible to comprehend
33.) Egress - Leave?
Those are some obscure words. Many of them I have seen before but I just now realize I don't fully understand what they actually mean.
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
Definitions as I understand them/paraphrase them.
1.) Felicity - Happiness
2.) Lexicon - Vocabulary
3.) Jostle - To shake up, shake around
4.) Pious - Religiously devoted, paying reverence
5.) Vivacious - Lively
6.) Beguile - To deceive, convince?
7.) Ubiquitous - It's everywhere.
8.) Superfluous - Needless, filler
9.) Obstinate - Refusing to budge
10.) Cacophony - Chaotic noise
11.) Deprecate - To put down
12.) Facetious - Angrily sarcastic
13.) Veritable - Can be backed up with evidence
15.) Inundate - To flood
16.) Inane - Pointless
22.) Glower - Angry glance?
25.) Obfuscate - To confuse, make unclear
27.) Abscond - Run off with
29.) Vagary - Vague statement
It got more obscure as it went on.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 688
Location: WA State, USA
What? No recalcitrance? I'm disappointed.
Anyways, here's the words that I think I know.
2.) Lexicon - something like "vocabulary" or "dictionary"
3.) Jostle - shake around
4.) Pious - having a religious/spiritual inclination
5.) Vivacious - lively?
6.) Beguile - to trick someone
7.) Ubiquitous - very commonplace
8.) Superfluous - unneeded extra junk
9.) Obstinate - stubborn?
10.) Cacophony - an annoying noise
11.) Deprecate - to decrease in value
12.) Facetious - like a smart alec
13.) Veritable - true
16.) Inane - vapid?
25.) Obfuscate - make confusing
Here's the words I've heard before, but can't really define:
Inundate, Staid, Perfunctory, Abscond, Vagary, Aberrant, Egress, Bedlam, Venial
Would I be correct in assuming that the list was in ascending order of difficulty?
I defenestrated your mom last night. The result was rather... uh... messy.
I suggest that you move out of your high-rise apartment.
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
Lexicon: A Japanese portmanteau of the phrase "Lex Luthor complex". The sexual attraction to Lex Luthor.
Beguile: A verb. Van Damme liked to beGuile.
Anyway, Alden's gotta be deprecating me...
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Nice use of Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, Warp.
hoo, boy, let's see what I can do...
1.) Felicity - Joy or happiness
2.) Lexicon - essentially, the vocabulary of a particular area
3.) Jostle - bump into or shake
4.) Pious - faithful, in a religious sense
5.) Vivacious - Lively
6.) Beguile - Charm (ie, tricking someone with it)
7.) Ubiquitous - everywhere; all-pervasive
8.) Superfluous - extra and unneeded
9.) Obstinate - refuses to yield
10.) Cacophony - din (ie, a whole lot of loud noise)
11.) Deprecate - to speak ill of or belittle
12.) Facetious - not serious; joking
13.) Veritable - means something similar to "real" (as in "That was a real big one.")
14.) Cavort - dance around, usually in merriment (or perhaps felicity)
15.) Inundate - flood (the verb, not the noun)
16.) Inane - dull, pointless
17.) Nimiety - wow, got me there. can't even parse this one out
18.) Convivial - friendly, nice to be around
19.) Staid - fixed, unmoving
20.) Copse - a small group of trees
21.) Incipient - beginning
22.) Glower - a very angry look.
23.) Badinage - no idea. moving along
24.) Perfunctory - cursory; without much care
25.) Obfuscate - to obscure. These words do an excellent job of obfuscating language, though I'm surprised how many I actually use in everyday speech.
26.) Hermitage - presumably going off and living alone, ie, becoming a hermit.
27.) Abscond - Escape, often from a crime
28.) Bombinate - I can think of some joke guesses
29.) Vagary - a statement meant to be vague and devoid of information
30.) Aberrant - not normal, in a negative way.
31.) Temerarious - hmm...from the root, I'd guess it has something to do with trembling in fear.
32.) Mephitic - root seems to indicate being like the devil or hell, so I'll go with that
33.) Egress - eh, I'll skip this one
34.) Frission - Definitly never heard of this. you sure it's spelled right?
35.) Fervid - vehement, highly-charged, that sort of thing.
36.) Bedlam - chaos, pandemonium, that sort of thing
37.) Expectorate - to spit
38.) Carom - well, it's a type of plant, for one. Carom seeds are used in Indian cooking.
39.) Somniferous - sleep-inducint
40.) Venial - minor. Nearly always used in reference to sin, to distinguish from mortal sin.
Well, assuming my definitions that weren't guesses are right (and the ones that were are wrong), that's 32/40.
I'm just taking guesses. Actually I have no clue about most of them.
1.) Felicity - Happiness/Luck?
2.) Lexicon - Collection of words?
4.) Pious - Something that has to do with religion. An attribute that persons can have. No clue about the exact meaning, but it's something pro-religious.
5.) Vivacious - Living?
6.) Beguile - "Geil" means cool or sexy in German. Originally it meant something like "fat", as an attribute for food. I'm gonna translate be- as to make something be a certain way. Beloved is the only other English word I can think of that also starts with be-. My kind of random guess is that it means to make something appeal to lower instincts.
8.) Superfluous - Not necessary in terms of quantity or quality? x_x
9.) Obstinate - Hindering something?
10.) Cacophony - Has something to do with bad sounding sounds.
11.) Deprecate - Something related to depression, make somebody depressed? Make something less concentrated? (Less precise?)
12.) Facetious - Something personal? Just guessing
13.) Veritable - Testable for truth?
14.) Cavort - Having some sort of roundish, cavish hole?
15.) Inundate - I'd like to know what undate means first. But I don't. Let's just say it means accountable.
16.) Inane - Missing an s. Discribes the difficulty of this task :/
18.) Convivial - Con means something like together, so it's probably more living beings that live closely together in some way?
19.) Staid - Something that refused to go away? XD
21.) Incipient - Ingredient is built up similarly. I have no idea about -cip-. Something that gets something put into itself?
23.) Badinage - Capability to commit evil acts? x_x
24.) Perfunctory - Something that makes something work better?
26.) Hermitage - Living alone like a hermit?
27.) Abscond - Something that's away in some way? Not belonging to a certain group? Irrelevant to a certain system?
28.) Bombinate - xD
32.) Mephitic - Maybe related to Mephisto in some way? Bad?
33.) Egress - Opposite of regress? Spread out?
34.) Frission - The process of something getting cold? The traces left from getting into a frozen state?
37.) Expectorate - Should have something to do with to expect, maybe it hasn't. Let's say it means a certain expected outcome of something that has several possible outcomes.
39.) Somniferous - Magnetic? x_X Just guessing because it has ferous in it.
40.) Venial - Not arterial? XD Slowly leading back to something? lol, what a lame guess.
Felicity: a shitty show on the WB
Ubiquitous: characteristic of Mozilla's new über-program, Ubiquity
Superfluous: like a superfluid such as helium at a fraction of a kelvin
Cacophony: when your reception breaks up
Hermitage: the state of being a hermit
Bombinate: what John McCain wanted to do to Iran
Egress: a female eagle
Bedlam: a bed for a lamb
Expectorate: expect
Venial: relating to a vein
I'm surprised that "atavistic" wasn't included: concerned with being "at" in some way.
I found Pirate Sephiroth's and arflech's posts better application of this game.
Cacophony - Fake Oreos
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
You knew someone was going to do it... I'm not even sure the spoiler tag is necessary here.
1.) Felicity - exuberance, jubilance
2.) Lexicon - vocabulary
3.) Jostle - jolt
4.) Pious - ecclesiastical
6.) Beguile - allure, gyp
7.) Ubiquitous - pervasive
8.) Superfluous - exorbitant
9.) Obstinate - contumacious
10.) Cacophony - clamor, bedlam :)
11.) Deprecate - disparage
16.) Inane - jejune
25.) Obfuscate - what I'm doing here
26.) Hermitage - an art museum in Saint Petersburg
I only translated the words i knew, but had some help with some (most) of the replacements.
While this is fun, I don't see how it helps with creative writing. Unless you think Ulysses is a creative book because it contains so many different words...
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days
<adelikat> no doubt
<adelikat> klmz, they still do
Joined: 11/30/2008
Posts: 650
Location: a little city in the middle of nowhere
I'll try my hand at some stupid definitions. I warn you, there are some racist comments and some pretty un-funny definitions.
1.) Felicity - that bratty girl that lives down the street that you just shot
2.) Lexicon - Yet another place where comic book nerds hang out
3.) Jostle - what happens when you're in a crowd and there's a fire in the building.
4.) Pious - "peice" in New Zealand
5.) Vivacious - When you start a Spanish themed birthday party for your five year old son
6.) Beguile - "bagel" in France
7.) Ubiquitous - when Bisqwit decides something is going to happen. and does it without consulting anyone else.
8.) Superfluous - when you drop a radioactive sample into water
9.) Obstinate - The opposite of obfuscate (see below). When a really skinny guy easily makes it through the doorway
10.) Cacophony - Fake chocolate biscuits (see above post)
11.) Deprecate - When you shit on your next door neighbors lawn
12.) Facetious - the only word with all five vowels, and in the correct order
13.) Veritable - An object where the table content of the object is above 99.9%
14.) Cavort - when a New Zealander dresses in black and grabs a gun
15.) Inundate - When your "in" tray vastly outweighs your "out" tray
16.) Inane - when you scream for help at the hands of a psychopathic killer who just cut your tongue out
17.) Nimiety - the number after 89 in Ireland
18.) Convivial - a place where a ferris wheel is kept in Ireland
19.) Staid - when you're hillbilly dog is actually in the same spot you left it.
20.) Copse - A corpse, but without the uh...
21.) Incipient - when the recipient is you
22.) Glower - a light bulb
23.) Badinage - hardcore teenagers
24.) Perfunctory - an unpleasant odor originating from the armpits
25.) Obfuscate - a fat person stuck in a doorway
26.) Hermitage - what you get when you lift a very old object that's too heavy for you.
27.) Abscond - having bread products thrown at your face
28.) Bombinate - a term used in counter strike when the terrorists win
29.) Vagary - when you forget how to say words
30.) Aberrant - When a guy called Abe has a tantrum in a public shopping centre
31.) Temerarious - A roman name of some description. Most likely this kid got teased at school
32.) Mephitic - When you try to think up a metaphor while writing a novel, and then suddenly you have a seizure .
33.) Egress - When someone is pissing you off and you flick out your knife
34.) Frission - a nuclear reaction ten times more powerful than fusion.
35.) Fervid - when your memories are all fuzzy and cloudy
36.) Bedlam - a reading light
37.) Expectorate - when someone is completely and utterly predicatable
38.) Carom - the sound a car makes in japan
39.) Somniferous - multiple pieces of iron
40.) Venial - when a japanese person has done something embarrasing and wants to cover it up
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
A WINNER IS YOU!
You can have your prize now: A tutorial! In Russian!
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
All five vowels appear at least once, in the correct order:
$ grep '.*a.*e.*i.*o.*u' /usr/share/dict/words
abstemious
adventitious
facetious
facetiously
facetiousness
facetiousness's
sacrilegious
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day,
Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.