Nous is the new word for the game. Send your daffynition to me via PM. If you don't know it, don't look it up. If you do, don't post it!

If you guess correctly, you receive a point. Each vote for your daffynition is also worth a point for you.

Mine's sent.

Thanks, Bob.

Hey folks we have three so far, & a fourth on its way. The weekend has arrived: time for wordplay. The more the merrier!

Mine, too.

Should it be in anapest or double dactyl?

Anymore contestants? A selection of daffynitions will be published for voting at the close of the day tomorrow.

Isn't tomorrow already here where you live? Where's the list?

Slow as usual folks, thanks for waiting.

Here they are, please vote for one:

NOUS

1. An archaic term meaning "nothing"(STELLA)

2. (n) Scottish dialect: vomit (ARNIE)

3. cockroach (Lancashire dialect word)(BOBHALE)

4. Depression engendered by a plan’s failure to fulfill expectations. (PROOFREADER)

5. Nous - n. A writing instrument. [Origin: 1710–20; < F, OF, of obscure orig.](KALLEH)

6. The world as we conceive it to be.(ASA)

7. The hazelnut, or filbert. Primarily Scottish. (VALENTINE)

8. The food source for a developing insect while inside the egg.(MYTH JELLIES)

9. Riddle (arch.)(BETHREE threw this in for the heck of it)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bethree5,

I always thought a nous was the rope that goes around a French collaborator's neck, but I'm obviously wrong. So I'll have to choose #2, after a close study of Bethree's limericks.

If I knew how to do it, there would be a giant smiley face after the last statement. Since I don't know how, believe me, it's a joke.

Intrinsically funny, Proofreader-- emoticon unnecessary.

I'll guess 6

I know the meaning of nous. The trouble is, not only isn't the meaning I know there but nothing there looks remotely related to it.
So I'll just guess at one of the others. 9 Please.

Okay, I completely blew it. I default: Bob H, you win!

Just chalk it up to having sh** for nous!!! Should have refreshed my memory on how this silly game is played.

Hanging my head... & my nous, too.... in utter shame.

Here 'tis:

1. Greek Philosophy. mind or intellect.
2. Neoplatonism. the first and purest emanation of the One, regarded as the self-contemplating order of the universe.
[Origin: 1670–80; < Gk noûs, contracted var. of nóos mind]

GAME OVER

Ah shucks. You didn't oughta gone and done that. It would have been great to see what arnie came up with in the absence of the correct answer. After all "nous" could have all sorts of meanings and everyone could have guessed, even without the right answer being there.
I only know because around these here parts the word "nous" is in common use for "common sense".
I just figured that there was another meaning that I didn't know.

Well, what can I say, Bob, except that-- I not only didn't know the word was in common use across the pond... I had neither the nous to figure out how to rescue the game, nor the bolas to bluff!

quote:

a nous was the rope that goes around a French collaborator's neck,

So that might be how they stop philosophisers in France.

I had assumed it to be related to knowledge, so kinda sorta hinted at the right definition with my entry, #6, and I snagged one person. So let's declare mine to be the right answer! By that logic, Myth Jellies is the winner!

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:
Well, what can I say, Bob, except that-- I not only didn't know the word was in common use across the pond... I had neither the nous to figure out how to rescue the game, nor the bolas to bluff!

Don't know if it's common throughout England, just in my bit of it.

I too knew the word, and probably would have guessed #6.

When I played this game in college, the word was first announced to the players. If anyone knew it, he was honor bound to disclose that, and define it. In that case, if the word had a second meaning, it could still be used.

For example, had nous been announced (which it wouldn't have been, since all players not only knew the word, but knew that all players knew the word), and defined, the announcer _could_ have gone on with the game, looking for the second meaning - common sense. Because the two meanings are somewhat closely related, the round then would have involved guessing who came up with the related meaning - the original announcer, or someone else trying to fool the others.

Similarly, because we all had some Greek, and most of us some Latin, words that appeared to have Greek or Latin roots might be chosen - to confound the players as to whether that was a false appearance, or not. Fake definitions might, or might not, play on that theme. This often resulted in several very similar definitions, making the choice among them particularly difficult.

bethree5, if no one objects, could you post who the authors of the fakes were, for future reference?

'For future reference', Valentine. That sounds ominous! (I was fake #1.)

The word 'nous' is commonly used here too. I was interested to see it had another pronunciation because we always rhyme it with mowse.

No noose is good news.

Stella: When I played in college, there was an element of gamesmanship involved, because most of us were pretty good friends, and had played together often. History was important.

I was #7. Not one of my better ones, I think.

When you say common, in what sense?

I was #4 and had not the slightest idea what the word meant. Since this is the same logic applied to the bail-out, I must not only be the winner but you all owe me a lot of money.

So, given the problem with this one, I think Beethree5 should select another word. Is that OK with the rest of you?

yes.

That's fine by me. I ran across a good one today, but it can wait.

Will do, anon-- must off to work.

Clarification, pls: do we Wordcrafters have a rule, as Valentine mentioned, of posting the word in advance, to find out if it is sufficiently obscure? For example, should all who know quickly PM the host & advise?-- or just "keep it dark"?

Stella, how interesting: "nowse"! Is it "noose" to others who use it?

Also, I'm curious: did everyone really know the word (besides me & Proofreader)?

I came across 'nous', by the by, in a novel by Claire Messud (French/Algerian background), used in passing as part of the narrative (someone 'hadn't the nous to...'). Though no major intellect here, I am widely read in Eur. lit. & had never encountered it. As far as I know it's not used in contemporary American-speak (thus sharing the fate of 99% of the rest of the OED... sorry... feeling down on America just now... )

I don't think the advance posting rule is followed here. It was easy, when we were all in the same room, but would significantly slow things down here.

Regarding "nous". I had never heard of its meaning of "common sense", but as I almost immediately PM'ed you, I think almost everyone with any knowledge of either Ancient Greek or Philosophy knows its primary meaning. I haven't studied either in almost 35 years, but the word was completely fresh in my nous mind.

Given that, I would almost certainly have been able to pick out "common sense" as the true definition, unless there were fakes that were also closely related to the well-known meaning.

Until the word "nous" appeared here, the only place I had ever seen or heard it was in French, meaning "we".

Well then Jerry I have to agree with your summary in re: 'nous', the philosophical term of art: no nous is good nous!!

NEW BLUFFING WORD TO APPEAR SHORTLY ON NEW THREAD - AGAIN, SORRY ALL.

Sorry, folks, it's been hectic at work and I haven't been able to visit for a few days. Like Bob, I was congratulating myself on feeling sure I knew the real meaning.