...apropos of nothing.

I'm perusing(!) a book entitled "Dictionaries : The Art and Craft of Lexicography", and I happen across the word 'polysemous'; so I'm thinking to myself, "it's too bad that this word has only one meaning."
http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/pq.htm#polysemous

-joe (I wonder where *this thread will go) friday

it's too bad that this word has only one meaning

They didn't mention it there, but it also means "consisting of many disparate pieces of cloth sewn together."

What, me? A life?

tsuwm, whaddya mean? It's not clear at all. So vague in meaning that I have trouble distinguishing between the competing possibilities.

I note that above it is Poetaster, which, depending on how you break the syllables, has two completely different but essentially similar meanings.

And, further up yet, there is palooka. I guess this is a less violent type of bazooka.

Ah well, it's a wet Saturday, the lawn's just been reseeded and I am able to relax.

I am also quite certain it pertains to the thread in Wordplay about Rodent and Rat related sayings. As we all know, mice though quite willing, have not managed to grasp the subtleties of English grammar and are generally, as such, wont to spell things phonetically. It doesn’t help that (and they should be pitied for this) they have a teeny tiny pointed mouths with lips that are none too mobile, so they do suffer with a bit of a lisp.

In 1958, after the inauguration of the current Mousal government (after the civil war between the country and city mice) a new polyseforse was established and every member has Polysemous printed up on his badge.

I’m sorry, I though everybody knew this.

Bel retaliates: I’m sorry, I though everybody knew this.

No, not everyone. With the polysemousforce (a word formed using the German rule of never using several words where one extremely long one will do), do you get mice ratting on each other?

>In 1958, after the inauguration of the current Mousal government (after the civil war between the country and city mice) a new polyseforse was established and every member has Polysemous printed up on his badge.

Yes, bel, that's correct, but the P on their badges was in lower case, as the capitalized form was reserved strictly for the mouse who set forth this policy.

Ted thinks: Yes, bel, that's correct, but the P on their badges was in lower case, as the capitalized form was reserved strictly for the mouse who set forth this policy.

I would have thought that that would have been the Policemous ... it follows the established pattern, doesn't it? And that mouse would have had more than one function, in a polysemous kind of way.

This little subthread reminds me of a conversation between Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter.

Then make mine a pint of Becketts, will you?

Hello ................................................................................................................................................................................................................Samuel

[jazzo, would you please have a word with jo regarding long posts?]