I hope I haven't left anybody out. I checked the list three times this time, so I think everything's in. If you didn't hear back from me via PM, then I didn't receive your daffintion.

Vote for one of the definitions below. You can vote by posting on this thread. You can just vote or you can write an 500-word essay on how you arrived at your final answer. Anybody can vote, whether you contributed a definition or not, and, even if you know the definition, you can vote on a definition that you liked better than the real one. But please do not give away which one is the real one.


PROLATE


1. n. 1. Industrial coffee maker 2. n. Human egg donor



2. adj. (of spheroid) Lengthened along polar diameter


3. adj. Physical manifestation of bad genetic coding characteristic of inbreeding: prolate third breast


4. adj. Voluntary; a layman living in a monastery under a modified rule and without vows; opposite of "oblate" Etymology: Medieval Latin prolatus, literally, one offered up, from Latin, past participle of profferre (more at PROFFER)



5. n. An ousted group leader.



6.n./ v. (originally) wish well; (current use) seemingly wish well, whilst actually cursing -- as in the Chinese "May you live in interesting times"



7. adj. L. prov lateus lit. Before death. Usage example: "Because of his deadpan face the prolate Buster Keeton was pronounced "dead" as he lay upon his deathbed two days before he actually died."



8. n. This is an unusual word, with a rather mongrel etymology. It is made up from the Latinate "pro-" meaning "for" and the Scandinavian "latter" or "humour; laughter" The combination is used as a description of the use of laughter as a medicine. Sending someone with endemic depression to the circus, for instance, might be described as "prolate therapy."


9. adj. pertaining to the common man (cf. "proletariat"); a term of disparagement


10. n. 1. a judicial term for a judge appointed to fill an unexpected vacancy on the bench for the remainder of the designated term; 2. someone appointed to fill the vacancy created by the unexpected departure of an any public official