As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

What is your favorite word?

123578

Posts

  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    Tenebresence, it means "glowy rocks"

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

    https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    Madican wrote: »
    It's not my favorite but I enjoy the visual and feel of gobbled and its variations

    How do you feel about gobbledegook?

  • ShortyShorty touching the meat Intergalactic Cool CourtRegistered User regular
    edited September 2019
    Other
    tynic wrote: »
    Cryptics always have two clues in the same phrase, one straightforward, one using wordplay
    ’I am shocked’ is the direct clue. ‘Young and old extremists’ gives you YGOD (ie the extremes of both words), while a resistance unit is an OHM

    I remember one that was like uh

    "diner classic with plant tissue"
    xylem pie

    when we finally figured that out (I only do crosswords with the lady) I went "oh fuck off"

    Shorty on
  • MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    Madican wrote: »
    It's not my favorite but I enjoy the visual and feel of gobbled and its variations

    How do you feel about gobbledegook?

    Love it

    Same with balderdash and hokum

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Dong
    Haberdashery is a good word

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Shorty wrote: »
    tynic wrote: »
    Cryptics always have two clues in the same phrase, one straightforward, one using wordplay
    ’I am shocked’ is the direct clue. ‘Young and old extremists’ gives you YGOD (ie the extremes of both words), while a resistance unit is an OHM

    I remember one that was like uh

    "diner classic with plant tissue"
    xylem pie

    when we finally figured that out (I only do crosswords with the lady) I went "oh fuck off]"

    Yeah anything relying on puns I would generally class as 'sketchy', from a well-constructed-clue PoV. That one is verging on extremely sketchy - I begrudgingly see the link but I don't like it.
    Another reason I like the Guardian, tbh - the editor doesn't seem to let that shit through very often.

  • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
    Speaking of the Guardian and cryptics...

    Spoilered because it does contain some answers to their most recent.

  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    Moist
    Two words I learned recently were rennet and welkin

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    That crossword is just full of dead ends

    What is this, seventh grade foreign language homework?

  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    Moist
    It's a cryptic crossword, I don't know if they have those in the US but it's a somewhat common style in Europe

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Is that standard to cryptics? They're not common around here, so I've only encountered a few. Standard for US crosswords is for every square to be checked, it feels weird and antithetical to me to not have that be the case.

  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    Moist
    Wikipedia has these examples how they work
    Apostle's friend outside of university (4)
    gives PAUL ("apostle"), by placing "pal" ("friend") outside of "U" ("university"); the "'s" could be treated as the genitive case suffix or as short for "is".

    Beheaded celebrity is sailor (3)
    The answer would be TAR, another word for "sailor", which is a "celebrity", or star, without the first letter.

    Found ermine, deer hides damaged (10)
    gives UNDERMINED, which means (cryptically at least) "damaged" and can be found as part of "Found ermine deer". The word "hides" is used to mean "contains," but in the surface sense suggests "pelts". A complication is that "damaged" often (but not in this clue) means "rearrange the letters".

  • MorivethMoriveth BREAKDOWN BREAKDOWN BREAKDOWN BREAKDOWNRegistered User regular
    Ah yes, a crossword designed to make me feel stupider than a normal crossword

  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    Moist
    They tend to look like this yes

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    Other
    Ah yes of course "tar," the word we all know also means "sailor."

    Right.

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    Other
    Seems like those could very, very easily just turn into a game of "guess what the puzzle writer was thinking." Hard balance to strike.

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Like, those sort of clues aren't entirely unheard of in US crosswords

    Generally just a few in any given crossword, as the long answer or as jokes

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I can't imagine doing an unchecked crossword though. There's always like one question about a baseball pitcher from the 1960s (or some other proper noun, but it's most regularly sports people) that I will never ever get, so I need those crosses to solve it.

  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    Moist
    3clipse wrote: »
    Ah yes of course "tar," the word we all know also means "sailor."

    Right.

    It probably comes easier to mind if you're British!

  • MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    American crosswords fuck me up when they have names as answers instead of proper words

  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    Moist
    Also I didn't scroll up and see we were already discussing cryptic crosswords

    The first time when I got hold of one in a national newspaper I was really confused

  • DouglasDangerDouglasDanger PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
    Other
    My favorite word might still be "fuck."

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Dong
    3 stout, resolute souls voted for dong. We should be commended.

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Moist
    The only reason I pick up the Metro (free UK paper found around public transport) is because the cryptic crossword is easy enough for me to be able to get some of the answers

    Although my commute at the moment means that I am so exhausted that I just stare at it for ten minutes, shove it into my bag, then give it to Mrs Rhesus when I get home

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • MrGrimoireMrGrimoire Pixflare Registered User regular
    Defenestrate
    Straightzi wrote: »
    Yeah that's the one, although the fact that they landed in a pile of garbage may have just been propaganda - their supporters were claiming that they survived the fall because of a divine hand, and their detractors responded that no, it was just them landing where they belonged.

    That was the third defenestration of Prague, for the record. It was the most famous one, and the one for which the word defenestration was coined. The first two were more fatal, although I believe that's because they killed the people in question first in at least one incident.

    I didn't remember that there were multiple defenestrations, but I guess it's important for folks to have a hobby.

  • The Escape GoatThe Escape Goat incorrigible ruminant they/themRegistered User regular
    Moist
    3 stout, resolute souls voted for dong. We should be commended.

    look we know Pete Alonso is good you don't need to keep rubbing it in our face

    9uiytxaqj2j0.jpg
  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    MrGrimoire wrote: »
    Straightzi wrote: »
    Yeah that's the one, although the fact that they landed in a pile of garbage may have just been propaganda - their supporters were claiming that they survived the fall because of a divine hand, and their detractors responded that no, it was just them landing where they belonged.

    That was the third defenestration of Prague, for the record. It was the most famous one, and the one for which the word defenestration was coined. The first two were more fatal, although I believe that's because they killed the people in question first in at least one incident.

    I didn't remember that there were multiple defenestrations, but I guess it's important for folks to have a hobby.

    The second and possibly the third are in fact alluding to the first one.

    The Defenestration of 1419 occurred when the town council refused to release/exchange some Hussite prisoners. A demonstration led by a Hussite priest turned into a mob that stormed the town hall and threw several members of the town council out the window. While an isolated incident of violence, this was the result of a long period of hostility between the common people and the Church, and marked the turning point that began the Hussite Wars.

    Essentially the next sixty years were marked by wars and civil conflicts largely related to the rights of the Hussites. I could go into more detail, but it's not super necessary to know the full back and forth to understand the defenestrations.

    The Defenestration of 1483 took place when a group of people, worried about the authority of the current king and the reversal of the tolerant policies that had been enacted at the end of the Hussite Wars, staged a violent coup and threw some bodies out of the town hall. In this instance, we're not looking at people being thrown out of windows as a direct action, but rather people being killed and then later thrown out of windows - it's a reference to the previous defenestration, and a promise of what will continue to happen in the future. This directly led to treaties of unity between the faiths and a declaration that the two were to be considered as equal.

    Finally, the Defenestration of 1618, which sparked one of the bloodiest conflicts in European history. For this one we're no longer dealing with tensions between Hussites and Catholics, but instead Catholics and Protestants. While a part of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia at this time was pretty cool with Protestants, which was good, as they composed the majority of the population. But the Kingdom of Bohemia was still governed by the Catholic Habsburgs, and when a new more hardline emperor took charge, he started rolling back some of those Protestant freedoms. Some of the Protestant lords believed this to be a direct attack by their fellow Catholic lords, that they had influenced the new emperor in this. Two of these Catholic lords, along with their secretary, were thrown out of a window.

    The word defenestration didn't see use until after the third one, but it was clearly a symbolic act well before that, and by performing it, they were directly invoking the previous times that it had been done.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited September 2019
    Straightzi wrote: »
    Is that standard to cryptics? They're not common around here, so I've only encountered a few. Standard for US crosswords is for every square to be checked, it feels weird and antithetical to me to not have that be the case.

    UK crosswords definitely have more variation in physical layout and don't require checks.
    3clipse wrote: »
    Seems like those could very, very easily just turn into a game of "guess what the puzzle writer was thinking." Hard balance to strike.

    They do a bit but there are rules, or at least guidelines, which good setters follow that make things easier. An anagram should always be accompanied by an indicator word, for example (which is usually any word that means mixed up or disrupted). 'Talk' or 'sounds' in the clue means you're looking for a pun. 'Reversed' or 'up' or something like that means the letter sequence will be backwards. etc, etc . And each setter has their own preferences and quirks, which if you do enough will help you out. There is also a lot of standard vocabulary, abbreviations, and shorthand which have developed over the years, and sometimes there's words which while they might have died in common discourse, will live on in crosswords forever. For example:
    3clipse wrote: »
    Ah yes of course "tar," the word we all know also means "sailor."

    Right.

    'sailor' == 'tar' is so common in crosswords that I actually have trouble shifting gears when setters use sailor to mean anything else. It's not something that you should necessarily know right off the bat, but it doesn't take too long to absorb all that vocab. It helps, when you start, if you have a friend or relative to walk you through the conventions, I used to do them at the breakfast table before school with my mother, who clued me in to a lot of the nonsense.

    Fundamentally, cryptic crosswords are extremely English, which means they are needlessly complex, have no obvious point, and have developed a huge assortment of conventions and associated baggage which far outweighs any actual decided-upon rules.

    tynic on
  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    Moist
    If you ever felt like torturing yourself, you could do one in German, Tynic

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I feel like getting into cryptics would just be learning a whole new language at this point. I've been doing US crosswords on and off for like ten years now, and I have so much shorthand baked into me from that (every instrument is an oboe and every bird an erne) I would not only need to break that but also learn all of the new shorthand for the other style.

    Like, I'm still thinking about doing it, I love crosswords, but it's daunting.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Platy wrote: »
    If you ever felt like torturing yourself, you could do one in German, Tynic

    I thought "oh god that sounds awful" and I still clicked through and now I've started playing help help

  • astrobstrdastrobstrd So full of mercy... Registered User regular
    Lotsa EPEE and IRA in any crosswords I've ever done.

    Selling the Scream Podcast: https://anchor.fm/jeremy-donaldson
  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    Verisimilitude
    The main reason I know that "Eire" is Irish for "Ireland" is because I don't think you're allowed to publish a US crossword without that as one of the clues. Too many delicious common letters all packed together, I suppose.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • #pipe#pipe Cocky Stride, Musky odours Pope of Chili TownRegistered User regular
    Cryptic crosswords are like

    have you ever played pictionery or charades or taboo or one of those games where one player provides clues and their partner guesses the answer, and one of the teams is a couple who've been together for 20 years and their clues are incredibly esoteric and inscrutable but their partner gets the answer immediately

    It's a firmly ingrained set of references and common clues that if you're not familar with them you have no hope of understanding.

  • TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    Other
    Raijin when did you switch back to your old avatar? it is doing me a heckin weird feeling.

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Dong
    Uriel wrote: »
    Raijin when did you switch back to your old avatar? it is doing me a heckin weird feeling.

    Earlier this week. I found the gif online again and decided to wax nostalgic.

  • sarukunsarukun RIESLING OCEANRegistered User regular
    Other
    Prestidigitation

    Carpetbagger

    Zinfandel

    Tourmaline

    Fastidiousness

    Fuckin’... quotidian.

  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    What does it mean for a crossword square to be checked?

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    What does it mean for a crossword square to be checked?

    It means it is used in two different answers (such that you can use one answer to confirm the other)

  • MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    Immolate is another fun word I don't get to use often

Sign In or Register to comment.