Wordcraft Home Page    Wordcraft Community Home Page    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  The Vocabulary Forum    Akeelah and the Bee
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Akeelah and the Bee Login/Join
 
Member
Picture of wordcrafter
posted
Have you seen the current movie Akeelah and the Bee, which I highly recommend? It follows the contestants in an extremely stressful, demanding competition, but not the sort of sport you would think of: the U.S. national spelling bee.

This week we'll look at words from this year's bee. Each day I'll give you the phonetic pronunciation, so that you can try your hand at spelling the word; the link given will reveal the actual spelling to you.

'plεksjŏŏę(r) – a plaiting or interweaving
[ε–dress; ŏŏ–foot; ę–another (schwa)]
    An intruding rose has stolen a nest among the ~s of the vine.
    – J. P. Kennedy (credit OED for quote)
 
Posts: 2701Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by wordcrafter:
Have you seen the current movie Akeelah and the Bee, which I highly recommend? It follows the contestants in an extremely stressful, demanding competition, but not the sort of sport you would think of: the U.S. national spelling bee.

This week we'll look at words from this year's bee. Each day I'll give you the phonetic pronunciation, so that you can try your hand at spelling the word; the link given will reveal the actual spelling to you.

'plεksjŏŏę(r) – a plaiting or interweaving
[ε–dress; ŏŏ–foot; ę–another (schwa)]
    An intruding rose has stolen a nest among the ~s of the vine.
    – J. P. Kennedy (credit OED for quote)


I've never even heard of the word, but I'll have a go. How about "pleks-jouer"?
 
Posts: 480 | Location: UKReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of wordcrafter
posted Hide Post
If you have serendipity, what does one call the thing you find?

truvαy – a lucky find; a windfall; something interesting, amusing, or beneficial discovered by chance
[u–goose; α–palm; start]
    My dear, you are a perfect ~.
    – Thackery, Vanity Fair

Spelling of yesterday's word: plexure – a plaiting or interweaving
 
Posts: 2701Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by wordcrafter:
If you have serendipity, what does one call the thing you find?

truvαy – a lucky find; a windfall; something interesting, amusing, or beneficial discovered by chance
[u–goose; α–palm; start]
    My dear, you are a perfect ~.
    – Thackery, Vanity Fair

Spelling of yesterday's word: plexure – a plaiting or interweaving


Frown I should have realised it had an X in the middle Frown. Ah well.

I'll try and do better with the next one. How about Trouvais?
 
Posts: 480 | Location: UKReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of wordcrafter
posted Hide Post
missib'l – (of liquids) capable of being mixed together, in any proportion (In other words, like alcohol and water; not like oil and water.) The opposite is im~.
    Germany today is an uneasy vessel containing two im~ substances. When East met West four years ago, the two were at totally different stages of development. As a result, unification has proved to be a "collision under one roof."
    – Thomas Kielinger, National Review, Oct. 24, 1994
(Yesterday's word: trouvaille – a lucky find; a windfall)
 
Posts: 2701Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by wordcrafter:
missib'l – (of liquids) capable of being mixed together, in any proportion (In other words, like alcohol and water; not like oil and water.) The opposite is im~.
    Germany today is an uneasy vessel containing two im~ substances. When East met West four years ago, the two were at totally different stages of development. As a result, unification has proved to be a "collision under one roof."
    – Thomas Kielinger, National Review, Oct. 24, 1994
(Yesterday's word: trouvaille – a lucky find; a windfall)


Frown I'm not doing too well with these am I Frown. Ah well. I'll try this one - Miscible.
 
Posts: 480 | Location: UKReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of wordcrafter
posted Hide Post
răsh' ē ŏs' * nāt' (rash ee OS uh nayt) – to reason methodically and logically
[*=schwa] [More often used in its –tion form.]
    Yet though I could never have been a scientist, I had scientific as well as imaginative impulses, and I loved ~ation.
    – C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

    For such a superhuman being, ~ation was too tawdry and ordinary a matter. A Duce did not reason; he inspired
    – R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945
(Yesterday's word: miscible – (of liquids) capable of being mixed together. Yesterday's word and today's are from the movie, not from the actual bee.)
 
Posts: 2701Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by wordcrafter:
răsh' ē ŏs' * nāt' (rash ee OS uh nayt) – to reason methodically and logically
[*=schwa] [More often used in its –tion form.]
    Yet though I could never have been a scientist, I had scientific as well as imaginative impulses, and I loved ~ation.

    – C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

    For such a superhuman being, ~ation was too tawdry and ordinary a matter. A Duce did not reason; he inspired
    – R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945
(Yesterday's word: miscible – (of liquids) capable of being mixed together. Yesterday's word and today's are from the movie, not from the actual bee.)


YAYYYY!!! I got yesterday's Smile!

OK - boosted by the confidence gained in that one, I'll try Ratiocinate.
 
Posts: 480 | Location: UKReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of wordcrafter
posted Hide Post
tĕ-REET – cylindrical (but typically with slight taper at the ends) and smooth
[from Latin for 'rounded'. Used of fleshy leaves, as in orchids, or other plant parts; a picture is worth a thousand words.]
    Some leaves are ~, that is, pencil-like and round in cross-section …
    – Alec Pridgeon, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids
(Yesterday's word: ratiocinate – to reason methodically and logically)
 
Posts: 2701Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
YAYYYYY!!! Another one correct Smile! Actually, I'll come clean - I knew that one Smile!

I'll have a complete blind guess at today's. How about Tayrete?
 
Posts: 480 | Location: UKReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of wordcrafter
posted Hide Post
gr* VEE *l*nt – having a rank smell
[*=schwa]
    Butter, as in all hot climates, is utterly vile: I should prefer the gr*-VEE-*l*nt palm-oil.
    – Richard Francis Burton, Wanderings in West Africa
(Yesterday's word: terete – cylindrical (with tapering ends) and smooth)
 
Posts: 2701Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by wordcrafter:
gr* VEE *l*nt – having a rank smell


Frown Back to square one again as they say Frown.

Ok, how about "gravelant"?
 
Posts: 480 | Location: UKReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of wordcrafter
posted Hide Post
Today's hard-to-spell word pertains to words, specifically to verbs. Click link for spelling.

seemεl-fæk-tiv – of a verb: expressing the sudden and single occurrence of an action, e.g. cough; sneeze; glimpse; flash; tap
[ε=dress; æ=trap, bath (U.S.)]
    seemεl-fæk-tivs are punctual events which have no result state.
    – Robert D. Van Valin, Jr., Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Yesterday's word: graveolent – having a rank smell)
 
Posts: 2701Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by wordcrafter:
Today's hard-to-spell word pertains to words, specifically to verbs. Click link for spelling.

seemεl-fæk-tiv – of a verb: expressing the sudden and single occurrence of an action, e.g. cough; sneeze; glimpse; flash; tap
[ε=dress; æ=trap, bath (U.S.)]
    seemεl-fæk-tivs are punctual events which have no result state.
    – Robert D. Van Valin, Jr., Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Yesterday's word: graveolent – having a rank smell)


Ah, so that's what graveolens means in botanical terms!!!

Ah well. I've got TWO right so far, so let's try this latest one. Since it pertains to events happening at the same time, I'll try Simulfactive.
 
Posts: 480 | Location: UKReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of zmježd
posted Hide Post
Graveolent from Latin gravis 'heavy' and olens 'smelling'. Cf. saying: pecunia non olet. (Money doesn't stink.) From Suetonius Twelve Caesars. Supposed to have been said by Vespasian to his son Titus. The emperor had levied a urine tax on public latrines in Rome, and was criticized for this by his son. He held up a coin and pointed out that it didn't smell.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
Posts: 5148 | Location: R'lyehReply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

Wordcraft Home Page    Wordcraft Community Home Page    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  The Vocabulary Forum    Akeelah and the Bee

Copyright © 2002-12