I hope you'll be anserine me with a daffynition of this word!

You new folks: This is an on-line version of the old Dictionary game, or "Fictionary," if you will.
Send me a private message (Click on my name, then select, "send private message") with a phony definition. Do NOT look it up! If you know the real definition, don't reveal it until all the "daffynitions" plus the real one are posted.

I'll get one to you tomorrow. I hope, unlike me, you spelled it right.

Daffy sent.

Thanks, you two. Don't be put off if you know the definition; I have a little trick up my sleeve with this one! Send a daffynition, y'all!

Mine's in...

I have four so far. May I have a few more?

Still waiting for a couple more!

Sent one (Although the whole PMing thing is totally unusual to me, so where it's actually gone is anybody's guess.)

It went to the right place, A.S! I'll declare a quorum now that we've heard from you and Metic, so here's the tricky part of this round: There will be TWO correct answers! Since this word was posted on another English forum just hours before I decided to use it, some of you may have seen it. Several of you will likely know it from other sources. However, anserine isn't just one thing.
Choose two of the following, and, if you like, explain your reasons:

1. Aqueous methyl cellulose used as a bacterial motility inhibitor.

2.Goose-like.

3. A trade name for polydimethylsiloxane (The stuff used to hold the heat ablating tiles on the Space Shuttle)

4. Excessively enthusiastic or eager. Overzealous.

5. A single molecule of the amino acid serine.

6. Relating to the honey badger.

7. Contemptuously derisive.

8. Shaped like a hook.

9. Pertaining to the clavicular bursae.

10. Without a tail.

11. A dipeptide found in mammilian skeletal muscle and brain tissue.

12. An informal name for sodium amytal, the so-called "truth drug".

There you have them. Let's see who gets them both!

I'll take two and seven.

Two and four for me.

I think two is the correct definition because I happen to know that Pes Anserinus means 'goose's foot'. Pes anserinus is a term used to describe the pattern of the facial nerve's branching within the parotid gland.

As for four, it just seems right, seems to fit. Probably because it reminds of me of saccharine for someone who is excessively sweet in an inauthentic way.

4 & 8 for me, please.

Two and eleven please.

I'll have two, because it's a popular choice and Metic's reason seems quite persuasive.

And eight, because...erm...geese are hook-shaped(?)

2 because it's a standard crossword definition: "Genus of geese = ANSER" (that's the right anser, isn't it?)

And 8 because...because...because of the ansa cervicalis, a hooklike loop of nerve on either side of the neck, that I learned about 45 years ago in anatomy class and promptly forgot right after the final exam. Yeah, that's what it is. Right. 8.

quote:

Originally posted by Alphabet Soup:
I'll have two, because it's a popular choice and Metic's reason seems quite persuasive.

And eight, because...erm...geese are hook-shaped(?)

...except you're assuming that what metic said is true. In this game, don't forget, the idea is to deceive. Don't assume that what I just said is all true, either... ;-)

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:

quote:

Originally posted by Alphabet Soup:
I'll have two, because it's a popular choice and Metic's reason seems quite persuasive.

And eight, because...erm...geese are hook-shaped(?)

...except you're assuming that what metic said is true. In this game, don't forget, the idea is to deceive. Don't assume that what I just said is all true, either... ;-)

I did consider that Metic might have purposely mislead us but then I realised that that would be self defeating as it would necessitate his giving an incorrect answer and thereby losing, so I rejected that as a hypothesis.

Whereas your explanation of answer eight reads more like a moral lesson encased in a satirical wrapper.

So now I suppose I just have to hope that my squashy little brain has read the situation correctly


PS Are you a milliner? I'm intrigued by the word "haberdasher" because I don't think it means "hat-maker" in the UK, and I was quite surprised to discover that that was what it meant in the US.

Actually, geese aren't hook-shaped, swans are hook-shaped. Do we know the genus of swans?

Harry Truman was a haberdasher, and I took his name for no particular reason except that it had a lot of syllables in it. He went a long way from very modest beginnings, didn't he?

"Moral lesson"?

(Edit/add-it: Little ones are "cygnets.")

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

Aren't geese and swans more or less the same shape?

quote:

"Moral lesson"?

Well yeah, sorry. That's how it came across to me. Like you were providing an example of the point you made subsequently.

Isn't that what you were doing?

Ah, now I am more confused than ever. I had wished I'd selected 2, but maybe this discussion is all a ruse.

2 and 5

quote:

I did consider that Metic might have purposely mislead us but then I realised that that would be self defeating as it would necessitate his giving an incorrect answer and thereby losing, so I rejected that as a hypothesis.

Ah.... but that supposes that Metic knows that 2. is right. If he's just guessed it, and has made up a tale to support his story, then all bets are off.

Bluff, double bluff, who knows?

This is the best bunch of bluffing I've yet seen on this game! Any more "authoritative" responses before I reveal the true dual natures of this word?

Actually I just looked up a biochemistry text book. It turns our that there is an amino acid called serine and its isomer (a molecule which is the mirror-image of the original molecule) is called anserine. Its like having glucose and dextrose, or like having a cathode and an anode.

quote:

Ah.... but that supposes that Metic knows that 2. is right.

It supposes that he believes number 2. is right. But even if he'd just had the merest suspicion of an inkling, he'd still have more idea of what it meant than I had.

Just to add to the confusion:

quote:

Originally posted by Metic:
Actually I just looked up a biochemistry text book. It turns our that there is an amino acid called serine and its isomer (a molecule which is the mirror-image of the original molecule) is called anserine. Its like having glucose and dextrose, or like having a cathode and an anode.

Not exactly. Glucose can be d-glucose or l-glucose; d-glucose is dextrose. One rotates polarized light to the right, and the other to the left, "dexter-" meaning right. (I think the other is also called "levulose" but maybe I'm mixing up two sugars.)

So with serine and a stereo-isomer, it should by that model be d-serine and l-serine, not serine and anserine.

P.S. "Anserine" may yet be the stereoisomer of serine, but not by the "standard" nomenclature. (Then again, maybe that was the standard nomenclature of 45 years ago, and it's changed since then...)

P.P.S. Most naturally-occurring amino acids are the l-isomer, if there is a d- and an l-.

P.P.P.S. We probably shouldn't be looking things up about the target word until after the Truth is revealed, to keep the playing field level for everybody [/admonition].

Perhaps, anserine is a legacy term (leftover from a previous system of nomenclature in biochemistry).



All this, of course, is presuming I'm telling the truth when I claimed to have looked up a biochemistry book.......

Of course. ;-)

Possibly related to the organophosphate serin, a chemical weapon?

Uh, oh, there I go causing trouble in my own thread! I'll post the two correct answers tomorrow, so get your selections in if you haven't already!

Good try Geoff! But the chemical weapon is sarin -- it was used in the subway attacks in Japan by Aum Shinrikyo

Oops! Just looked it up, and a serin is a European bird. So I guess an anserine is an agonist that makes the serin chirp or something.

quote:

Originally posted by Metic:
Perhaps, anserine is a legacy term (leftover from a previous system of nomenclature in biochemistry).

All this, of course, is presuming I'm telling the truth when I claimed to have looked up a biochemistry book.......

All it's leading me to presume is that you wrote answer 5

OK, the suspense is killing me. When are we going to get the true ansers?

Here they are:

1. Aqueous methyl cellulose used as a bacterial motility inhibitor.
One of my own.

2.Goose-like.

The first correct one, as most knew. From Latin for Goose.

3. A trade name for polydimethylsiloxane (The stuff used to hold the heat ablating tiles on the Space Shuttle)

Another one of mine.

4. Excessively enthusiastic or eager. Overzealous.

From Alphabet Soup.

5. A single molecule of the amino acid serine.

Metic's submission. Yeah, he DID write it!

6. Relating to the honey badger.

Proofreader's daffynition.

7. Contemptuously derisive.

Kalleh contemptuously derided this word, hence her daffynition! She might well argue that it's a correct definition, based on the slang use of "goose."

8. Shaped like a hook.

Haberdasher's submission.

9. Pertaining to the clavicular bursae.

Another of mine. Because there are TWO anatomical structures named pes anserinus,
Metic's reasoning was right on target. The other one is in the knee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pes_anserinus_%28leg%29 How often do we find two very different, but similarly named structures?


10. Without a tail.

This one is arnie's tale.

11. A dipeptide found in mammilian skeletal muscle and brain tissue.

The second real thing! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anserine arnie got them both, so he's the big winner this time!

12. An informal name for sodium amytal, the so-called "truth drug".

Richard wanted to tell anything BUT the truth!

I'll leave it to y'all to sort out who voted for what. Good fun, in my opinion!

Thanks Geoff. That was a fun game!

You two new players made it a delight! If arnie doesn't choose to post the next word, feel free to post one yourself! Keep in mind, however, that we normally have just one word.

So...Hab voted for his own daffynition? Not a bad strategy! He "hooked" me.

Can you believe, even in this complicated game, that arnie has won again??? I think he gets the Academy Award!

Metic, would you like to take the next game? Let's call it, "Fool arnie!" You're new here, but arnie always wins this game.

Would anyone else like to do another Bluffing Game word? Let's strike while the iron is hot!

OK. How about scrivello?

Mine's in!