Scandium

In the real world, scandium is a rare silvery white metallic element. Who would have thought? I loved the invented meanings and friendly banter that went along with this meaning. It brought back memories of the old days when I had lots of blog visitors. I hope it's a sign that those days are returning. Choosing a winner was tricky as the meanings were all funny and innovative. However, a choice had to be made, so I went with...

Greedy Biscuit Baron: Scandium is the scientific term for the sleep/eyegrit that gets left in the corner of your eye after having had a kip. There are similar scientific terms for other unwanted bodily by-products, such as scendium which is the scientific term for bogeys and heardinium for earwax....

Good work, GBB. And great to have you back!

Rusticate

Rusticate has two very different meanings in real life. The most expected meaning is "to retire to the country". That's quite delightful and is a word that should be used more often. The other, unexpected meaning, is quite bizarre and intriguing. According to my dictionary, rusticate also means to "banish someone temporarily from university as a punishment". Now who would have ever thought that? That's what I like about being a word imp - the lifelong learning.

Anyway, the game participants will be keen to know which invented meaning has been selected as today's winner. It was a hard decision, but I have gone with the effort of Hey Jude. Well done, Jude. Here it is: To rusticate is to country-fy something. People who live in the city often rusticate their property to make it feel like they live more rurally. An example of this would be to adorn their garden with a wagon wheel, or an old milk can filled with a pansy plant.

Invigilate

Invigilating is actually supervising people who are sitting an exam! I would love to do that. It's one of my life's aims to invigilate! Usually the invented meanings are way cooler than the real meaning and they still are, but I just love the real meaning as well.

I chose Tony Chestnut's meaning as today's word imp winner. Well done TC. Here's his suggestion: Invigilate is the antonym of procrastinate. Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? (As a great procrastinator I can think of plenty of reasons!).

Viviparous

I am viviparous! It means producing live offspring which is what I have done twice. Strangely enough, the day I'm updating this blog (24 March) is the 13th anniversary of my last viviparous experience - which is another way of saying it's my youngest child's 13th birthday today. But I digress...

I have chosen Vicki Malicki as today's winner. Here's her funky meaning for viviparous: Viviparous is what happens to a once vivacious and beautiful woman when she realises that she has grown older, is losing her looks and men don't look at her in quite the same way anymore. Her vivaciousness vapourises, seemingly overnight, and all that is left is an empty shell of a woman. If only she had gone to secratarial school like her mother had wanted her to instead of relying on rich men to keep her in the lifestyle she was accustomed to....

Decretal

Thanks for your great meanings for decretal. It is actually a papal decree. Quite obvious when you think about it. However, ignorance was bliss on this occasion and allowed us to get creative. My favourite today was the creative moment from Hey Jude. Thanks Jude!

Here's her winning entry: Unfortunately I gave to be very honest with this one, and tell you all that decretal is the stuff you see hanging out of fishes' bottoms in fish tanks. And when it finally breaks off, another fish will come along and eat it. Yuck.

Sough

Sough describes a sighing sound - for example, the sighing sound made by the wind. That gives me another idea for a way to use the word 'sough' in future... Anyway, two brave word imps joined the game today and both were in the same ballpark.

Vicki Malicki scraped through with her suggestion that "Sough when pronounced sounds like cough. Sough is the noise that comes out when someone is saying a rude word under their breath, while trying not to let people in their immediate vicinity know that they are saying a rude word. You would think they just wouldn't bother saying it at all if they don't want people to hear, but an unstoppable urge leads them to sough. As for me, I just say it out loud!"

Legerdemain

Legerdemain is actually another word for sleight of hand or cunning deception. I'm not sure whether Dogmum knew that when she invented her cunning meaning. I liked that meaning a lot, Dogmum. However, on this occasion I have chosen the suggestion of LivelyClamor as it made me giggle - too close to the bone perhaps!

Here's LC's meaning for you: Legerdemain is making sure you have enough left on your to do list to put off working on taxes till tomorrow.

Graminivorous

Graminivorous means grass eating. So cows and sheep are graminivorous. I feel glad to know that. Thanks for your interesting meanings today. I chose the suggestion of Dogmum as my favourite - although I enjoyed them all. Well done everyone.

Dogmum said: Graminivorous describes inverse proportional eating in the animal kingdom. There is a common saying that people eat like a sparrow, usually used to describe someone who doeasn't eat very much. In actual fact, sparrows eat 2-3 times their body weight every day. Therefore the feeding patterns of animals such as sparrows is classed as graminivorous.