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#162928 10/31/06 12:34 AM
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ballots were muchly splintered, as nothing received more than two votes (notwithstanding etaoin’s wasted own-vote) and only Alex irping correctly. The word seems to have been used only by Ben Jonson, twice: once as an adjective and once as a substantive.

here is the actual entry from the OED:

irpe, n.
Obs. rare.
[Origin unknown; found with the following in Ben Jonson.]
Some kind of gesture: ? a toss or jerk of the head, the act of perking.
Gifford suggested ‘a fantastic grimace, or contortion of the body’.
1599 B. JONSON Cynthia's Rev. V. iii. Palinode, “From Spanish shrugs,
French faces, smirks, irpes, and all affected humours, Good Mercury defend us.”

So irpe ? a., ? perk, smart. Obs.
1599 B. JONSON Cynthia's Rev. III. v,
"Maintaine your station, brisk, and irpe, shew the supple motion of your pliant body."


Here are the def’ns with [submitter] votes
a) dial. eructation [Bingley]
b) [< Gaelic iar, air + pìob, pipe] the mouthpiece/filler tube on a set of bagpipes [Aramis] TEd
c) (alt. irpee) derisive: a speaker of a nonstandard dialect of English spoken on the docks of Immingham, England . "RP" is a Received Pronunciation of English based on the speech of the English upper class. Until recently it was the standard form of English used in British broadcasting. [themilum]
d) Irpe: Amture [Marianna]
e) From the Hebrew for "God heals", a miracle in which a person is cured of a disease or injury. [Father Steve]
f) obs. a fantastic grimace, or contortion of the body [OED] Alex W.
g) a footpath [consuelo] Bingley, Aramis
h) A small scalloped or dagged flap on the shoulder of a tunic or jacket [Elizabeth Creith] ASp. belM
i) To squint one's eyes. [musick] themilem
j) the indentation on the face of the keys on a modern computer keyboard. [etaoin] Marianna, etaoin(!), EC
k) An identifying watermark on most extant medieval Spanish manuscripts [AnnaStropic]
l) Brazilian for headwaters, from the local name for period of time in the year when prevailing winds allow sailing up the Amazon River towards the source. [TEd]
m) An exclamation used in comic strips to signify stunned surprise, or speechlessness. [belMarduk]
n) A comb used to clean freshly sheared wool. [Faldage] musick, wofa
o) An herbaceous perennial plant of the Agavaceae family, having broad leaves and white flowers, commonly employed as groundcover by gardeners in Northern Europe and Canada, owing to its hardiness in cold climates. [Alex] Faldage
p) a small pendant, hung from an earring or bracelet [wofahulicodoc] Fr Steve
q) Scot. : A drink before battle [tsuwm] consuelo

#162929 10/31/06 02:27 AM
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it was stragety....


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#162930 10/31/06 10:13 AM
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What does "amture" mean?! I googled it ( ), but.

#162931 10/31/06 04:57 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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I suppose a purposeful misspelling of 'mature' (as in ripe) would provide for some arw hits, esp. of those who can't be bothered with correctly spelling 'amateur' . (I'm just sayin'..)

#162932 10/31/06 11:13 PM
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I thought it was armature mis-spelled.

#162933 11/01/06 11:40 AM
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No, no... what tsuwm said. Irpe, ripe - amture, mature.
Mind you, it’s so bad I thought it’d be shown up by y’all way before voting was over.

Sorry, folks. I’ll try harder next time.

#162934 11/01/06 04:09 PM
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Marianna, it was so clever I *still didn't get it even after tsuwm's post...

#162935 11/01/06 05:20 PM
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yes, wonderfully clever! and reminds me that there is wordplay on so many levels that I miss so much...


formerly known as etaoin...
#162936 11/01/06 05:44 PM
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ASp, ma choupette...

irpe is ripe mis-spelled.

amture is mature mis-spelled.

ripe is to mature as irpe is to amture


Don't you love those "slap yourself on the forehead, it was so obvious" moments

#162937 11/01/06 06:53 PM
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ah, dear little cabbage, I *did finally get it from Marianna's explanation. But thank you. As Faldage is wont to say, redundancy is our friend -- and I'm glad you had the kindness to want to make sure I was put out of my misery.

#162938 11/01/06 07:03 PM
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No worries. I had something similar happen just yesterday.

Our receptionist was telling me who sings a song I like, and I was just not understanding the name - three times. When she wrote it down, it was so evident - exactly what she was saying.

Seriously, you'd have thought I had a hearing problem (or drank a little at lunch. HA!)

#162939 11/01/06 10:46 PM
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Quote:

Seriously, you'd have thought I had a hearing problem (or drank a little at lunch. HA!)




Or one hockey puck too many to the face mask?

#162940 11/02/06 01:25 PM
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Ooooo, you hold the women of the Québec Women's Pharmeceutical Hockey League in very high regard. I don't think any of them ever managed to get a puck higher than my waistline.


#162941 11/02/06 01:41 PM
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Quote:

...the Québec Women's Pharmeceutical Hockey League...





Y'all use steroids?

#162942 11/02/06 02:09 PM
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HA! You know, I never made that association - it does sound a bit un-kosher. I'll tell the ladies - I'm sure they'll get a kick out of it too.

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