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tsuwm Offline OP
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or maybe you were a Jack Slade fan..


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well, there you go!


formerly known as etaoin...
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7/10 (good) - I did better on the definitions than the origins.

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My virgin post here....

"the toughest word game on the web" ??
I don't think so!
I got 8 of 10. Was fun - I'll go back for more randomness.

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Welcome DixieRose. It is fairly easy. You get questions ramdomly so you can take it again. I've taken it about three or four times and have found one of their answers is flat out wrong and one is questionable at best.

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Yes, welcome, DixieRose, I am widely known as DixieDoodleDandy and I fear that the Faldage is misleading you if you can be mislead.

In fact none of the test answers can safely be said to be "flat out wrong" and all of the "correct" answers are questionable at best.

Such is the nature of etymology where prime word origins are found most often only in the minds of word researchers.

But don't tell Faldage...he likes things neat.

Last edited by themilum; 09/03/07 12:31 AM.
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Originally Posted By: tsuwm
etymologic - the toughest word game on the web

-joe (that's their claim) friday

edit - My Score: You Gotta Go Study


Me too.


The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Okay, I'm stoopid, too! Etymology isn't my strongest suit, anyway. But I do know that the letter "h" isn't really "native" to Spanish. It's almost always silent, unless it's part of a proper name or something along those lines.
Their definition of "naranja" as "dripping jewels" sounded weird to me. I checked it and found:

• Naranja, like most words for “orange” in European languages, originated from the Sanskrit nagaruka or naranga which was subsequently transmitted via Arabic naranjah and Persian narenj. Agria and amarga both derive from amara, the Latin word for “bitter”.

Then I found this one, which I really like:

• Orange (Eng.); Orange (Fr.); Naranja (Sp.); Arancia (It.)
Interestingly, none of these terms come from the Latin word for orange, citrus aurentium; instead, they all come from the ancient Sanskrit naga ranga, which literally means "fatal indigestion for elephants." In certain traditions the orange, not the apple, is the fruit responsible for original sin. There was an ancient Malay fable--which made its way into the Sanskrit tongue around the Seventh or Eighth Centuries B.C.--that links the orange to the sin of gluttony and has an elephant as the culprit. Apparently, one day an elephant was passing through the forest, when he found a tree unknown to him in a clearing, bowed downward by its weight of beautiful, tempting oranges; as a result, the elephant ate so many that he burst. Many years later a man stumbled upon the scene and noticed the fossilized remains of the elephant with many orange trees growing from what had been its stomach. The man then exclaimed, "Amazing! What a naga ranga (fatal indigestion for elephants)!"

I hope I don't get in trouble for the long post... :0)

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Originally Posted By: themilum
I fear that the Faldage is misleading you if you can be mislead.


...or perhaps misled?

Interesting word 'misled' - when I saw it written I used to think it was pronounced 'Migh-zuld' (as in miserly).

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a naranja

an aranja

an orange


formerly known as etaoin...
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