Marmoreal

My guess is that marmoreal refers to a person who is particularly bendy. Your invented suggestions for a meaning for marmoreal are very welcome. I look forward to being amused.

Teleology

I love teleology - and I never knew it until now. That's the wonders of dictionary reading for you. Teleology is the belief that everything has a predetermined purpose. I agree wholeheartedly. My anonymous commenters were vying for the top honours on this one, with the winner being... wait for it... Anonymous with this invented meaning for teleology: "A study into gaining supernatural powers like teleport, telepathy and telekinetic." Thanks for your contribution(s) Anonymous.

Viburnum

A viburnum is actually a subtropical flowering shrub which produces berry like fruits. My dictionary doesn't clarify whether these fruits are edible or deadly. Thanks to those who ventured into their creative genius to suggest invented meanings for viburnum. Guardian Etland is the winner with this concoction: The scientific term for the type of catastrophic resonance that brought down the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. When crossing a footbridge soldiers are ordered to break step to avoid such resonance developing.

equipoise

Equipoise is perfect balance, which is pretty much what it sounds like. Some of the word imps came up with meanings that were eerily close to the truth, but more poetic than the dictionary meaning. Today's winner is Toeknee Chestnut who suggested the following:

"Equipoise is the art of maintaining a very still position for long periods of time. The best place to see equipoise in action is the street performers who paint their skin, usually gold or silver, wear clothes to match their skin paint, assume a position and don't move. People passing by stop and try to figure out if it a person or a statue."

Nonage

Nonage is a time of immaturity or being under the legal age. As predicted, the invented meanings for nonage were far more spectacular. I couldn't pick between two winners today - so congratulations to Hey Jude and Dog Mum. I hope you don't mind sharing the accolade! Here are their excellent entries which made me giggle out loud...

Hey Jude said...Nonage is the age, or state you enter when you become a grandmother. Grandfathers enter the state of popage.

Dog Mum said...Nonage is what you have when you don't have a cleavage.

Sybarite

Ooh, I just found out that I'm a sybarite without even knowing it! A sybarite, I have discovered, is a lover of luxury. I am certainly one of those. My luxurious moments are few and far between, but always enjoyed. Thanks for entering with your invented meanings for sybarite. I enjoyed them all.

Jeremy with lot of numbers after his name is today's winner: "A sybarite is a generic term for an evil android, usually from the future. This term is useful when the Earth is being invaded by evil androids, and it is unclear whether they are Terminators, Replicants, Cylons, etc."

Isinglass

An isinglass is a gelatine which is found in some freshwater fish. Rather a boring meaning and nowhere near as interesting as my own invented meaning. However, I didn't think I could choose my own meaning as the winner. Instead, I have chosen the well thought out suggestion of Anonymous who said:

"Isinglass (Ising-Lass). This is the term used to refer to a young lady that comes from the town of Ising. People from the town of Ising have a habit of running alltheirworsdtogetherwhentheyspeakwhichmakesitveryhardforanyo..."

Burnous

A burnous is a long circular cloak with a hood. Sounds gorgeous, doesn't it? The burnous I pictured in my mind is red with white velvet on the collar and cuffs... However, I digress. And my dictionary would disagree with my vision because it says that a burnous is a garment particularly worn by Arabs. I'm sure they're hot enough without adding velvet cuffs to their ensembles.

The invented meanings for burnous were well thought out and enjoyable. I have decided that today's winner will be Hey Jude, for the following little offering:

A burnous is a traditional Himalayan walking stick, used to assist the native people when climbing in the Himalayas. The most famous burnous is the one Sherpa Tensing used when he accompanied Hillary on the successful expedition of Mt Everest, when they "knocked the bastard off".

Furze

Furze is very simple and not at all French or cuddly, I'm sad to say. It is apparently another name for that scourge of New Zealand farmland - gorse! So there's something new for me. I enjoyed the meanings created by those word imps who are still active and debated long and hard about a winner.

The chosen one was Laura, for her very elaborate and well planned meaning. Read on:

Furze: A rare dog breed with its origins in Sweden. The Furze breed is characteristic for a dog which is born with tufted clumps of fur but gradually loses these clumps by the time they are 18 months, leaving the dog virtually hairless.

The shed clumps of Furze fur are usually collected and woven into a type of yarn that is mainly used for rugs, due to it's water resistant properties. This is why many people familiar with the word Furze, mistake Furze as type of rug, when in reality it is what the rug is made from.

Blandishments

Thanks for your excellent invented meanings for blandishments. I loved them all, as I always do. But it's true.

Blandishments - in reality - are compliments which are intended to coax or persuade. Now that's a great word to add to our everyday communication.

As I said, it was tricky choosing from the entries, but I settled on realityjunkie as today's winner. Welcome back, realityjunkie! Here's the winner:

Blandishments are punishments that don't actually fit the crime.
"Emily should've been sent to bed without supper for hitting her little brother. Her mother took pity on her and gave her the blandishment of having a time out instead."

Gazunder

Gazunder is a business term. It occurs when a buyer reduces their offer on a property just before the contract is exchanged, even though they agreed to a higher price earlier. Or something like that anyway. Whatever it is, it sounds a bit suspect. I actually loved every one of the entrants in today's competition, so I had to close my eyes and point...

Raelha is the random winner - because her meaning is great and because she won the random lucky point which occurs when I can't choose between the entrants. Here it is:
Gazunder (n.) is the rumbly noise your tummy makes after eating too many beans before the expelling of any gas takes place.

May I also say that I realise I have been invisible for far too long. I will try to make up for it. Somehow.

Tumbril

A tumbril is actually a bit gory! It's a cart used to transport prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution. I'm always harping on about how I love all the invented meanings and how hard it is to choose between them. Well, this time it was super hard - they were all soooo good. Of course, that's not the reason that it took me so long to judge the entries. That was due to being overworked and deadline focused. I had to choose a winner, so here it is:

Meira came up with a great one: Tumbril, noun: a rare and lethal disease which affects users on Tumblr.com, in which the user becomes so addicted to the site that site and user are physically inseparable. Brain atrophy is a common side effect.

Collocation

Apparently, a collocation is a group of words that usually occurs together. I have quite a bit to do with words, but that's news to me. So if I've misinterpreted my dictionary explanation, I'm happy to be corrected by my fellow word imps. Thanks for your invented meanings - they were excellent. I chose Jem's as today's winner, as I found it highly amusing.

Here it is: A collocation is the proper term for the mishap of fastening a button into the wrong buttonhole.

Sedulous

A sedulous person is very diligent and persevering. In fact, I can be considered as sedulous - even though I haven't realised it until now. It's the first day of the Rugby World Cup here in NZ today - so let's hope our All Blacks are sedulous throughout the tournament!

As always, the alternative meanings for sedulous were highly amusing and sooo difficult to choose between. I eventually settled on the following meaning as the winner, because it made me giggle. But there were some very close seconds. Well done, everyone.

LivelyClamor gave us this great invented meaning: "Sedulous is sitting on a warm white sandy beach with no inclination to get up, and the phenomenon of rubbing yourself into the sand as if planning to send down roots. Unfortunately, this is eventually followed by "perspickety" when you have to get up and brush all that sand off all those places it's now sticking to."

Paraprosdokian

A paraprosdokian is a sentence which starts with a well known figure of speech but ends with an unexpected and humorous twist. For example, "where there's a will...I want to be in it" is a paraprosdokian.

You can have lots of fun with paraprosdokians and you'll find plenty more if you google the word. It goes without saying that I absolutely adored your invented meanings for paraprosdokian this week and I am in awe of your ingenuity. Fabulous work, word imps! Choosing a winner was tricky but I settled on the suggestion from Hey Jude because it made me laugh out loud - which is always a good thing to do in the morning. Thanks Jude.

Here's her invented meaning: "Paraprosdokian is the parallel import fairy-tale for Rumpelstiltskin."

Greave

A greave is a piece of shin armour. I guess it's the olden day form of a soccer or hockey shin pad. So next time my son is remembering all his soccer bits and pieces before the game I'll be sure and remind him about his greaves!

Thanks to the word imps who joined in with this one - all good invented meanings. Sprite gave us the first and, in my opinion, best meaning for greave. Here it is:
"Because the rich man was not well liked, his association hired some older widows to greave at his grave so it would not be obvious that no one felt any great grief at his loss."

I love it!

Peroration

Peroration is a thing you do during public speaking, weirdly enough. You do the peroration at the end of the speech when you conclude and summarise your main points. I always called that the conclusion and summary, but there you go! It has an official name: peroration.

Yours Truly B was the winner today out of a great selection of fine invented meanings. Well done YTB! Here's her excellent effort, which sounds surprisingly true...

Peroration is what a chef does to prepare the meat before slow roasting it over an open flame. It is the time to relax the meat, season it and make sure it is ready for tender perfection.

Cyclotron

A cyclotron is used in science experiments to accelerate charged particles by a strong vertical magnetic field. That's my version of what the dictionary said, so if you're a scientist who disagrees, many apologies for the layman's terminology.

Thanks to the word imps for their imaginative meanings. I enjoyed them all because they are much easier to understand than the one in my dictionary!

PianoMan takes today's cake with his visually stimulating meaning for cyclotron. Here 'tis: A cyclotron is the technical name for an automaton cyclops gone haywire. For some reason, many of them gained personalities and terrorized entire continents. Such examples may be Godzilla, Sasquatch, or Big Bird. However some are nice - like the B.F.G. (Big Friendly Giant) or Elmo.

Halberd

According to my well thumbed dictionary, a halberd is a spear with an axe blade. I found the invented meanings far more enlightening and was incredibly impressed with the depth of meaning that each word imp managed to uncover. Fabulous! All were worthy of honour, but I have to give the accolades today to the lovely Sara! Welcome back, Sara and thanks for your "fetching" contribution. Here it is:

A Halberd is a rather fetching ginger beard, as sported by Henry VIII. It became all the rage during his reign, with young men visiting the barbers and asking for a halberd and a short back and sides. Turmeric was used to get just the right shade of red. The reason they called it a halberd rather than making direct reference to Henry VIII is because there was a danger that the jealous king may have their heads chopped off if they were seen to be overtly imitating him. On one occasion he became so suspicious about the sudden influx of red bearded young men that he sent his soldiers out to wash the beard of every red haired man in the country. Soon after this halberds became less popular.

Auriferous

If something is auriferous, it contains gold. Simple as that. This blog for instance, could be described by some as auriferous. I loved the various meanings suggested by the word imps. They were so different and so inventive. However, I had to choose one, which I've done. Well done to Sprite for this auriferous meaning...

I think an auriferous person would be one who is in possession of a tin ear:
"It was truly unfortunate that the children's first introduction to music education was from an auriferous old nun. They carried those tone deaf interpretations of beloved hymns with them through the years."