fike, choose one:

a) [Irish] a small measure of liquid, approximately equivalent to the Scottish dram

b) a river fish trap

c) a long, thin spear with a barbed tip used for fishing (heavier and thicker versions became the standard for whaling)

d) to produce income, derived from the word ficus (It.), fike was a noun to describe the annual income from a single fig tree

e) [M. Flemish] a ring-shaped harness piece that connects the bit to the reins, usually of oak, sometimes ornamentally carved

f) a unit of volume equal to one-half kilderkin

g) [Scot.] to move restlessly, bustle, fidget: fig. to be fussy or restless

h) a deep-water fish; denizen of the Indian Ocean

i) a tool used in the process of cleaning horses' feet in preparation for reshoeing

j) a staff with a hook at one end, used to steal articles from hedges, open windows, etc. [obs.]

k) to hammer a camming device into a suitable fissure (mountaineering term)

l) /feek/ a gaff for spearing fish from the riverbank [regional dial. fr. Northumberland]

m) an artificial tree, esp. the type found in hotels and waiting rooms [from ficus, the genus of a typical potted natural tree]

n) a Scandinavian word for knife, unique for showing evidence of extreme consonantal drift

---

there you have it, courtesy of stalwart regulars dxb, TEd, themilum, Faldage, Zed, musick, Owlbow, wofa, and Wordwind; plus entries from a couple of old friends, maverick, and Sparteye as well as the usual weak entry from the hogmaster®, and one more from someone who wouldn't ask us to use it.

and per usual, I remain unapologetic for all attempts to standardize entries (or not).

I'll vote for "L" only because it *seems so much different from 'c'.

I,'i.

many very good ones, very difficult to guess.
thanks tsuwm

Well! Three candidates (or is it six?) for the Golden Armil Award.

I don't even see the difference between C and L. A and F are close, but I can tell the difference anyway. D and M both rely on the fig tree. I've got to vote for C and L for GAA. Sorry to the perpetrators of A and F, but y'all just got edged out.

Meanwhilst, my attual® vote for the best fake (or correct answer (as if (I gots to do double duty for Max here, being how his hip boots were in the cobblers for repair))) has got to be I.

I'm going with H. I like semicolons.

Wait! Sorry, it is now too late for AniamL, Faldage, owlbow, and Musick, but for the rest of you I ask....
PLEASE DON'T WASTE YOUR VOTE. I KNOW WHAT A FIKE IS!

It is (b) a river fish trap. and I submitted it.

Four years ago a lady in Leeds, Alabama reported to the Bham News that she had found an old indian fike in a creek on her property. The News published a photo of the fike and asked for help in confirming the carved rock as a indian fike.
I went to the site and saw that the so called "fike" was actually a peculiar series of eroded joints in the jutting Chickamauga Limestone and reported this back to the paper.

Before then I didn't even know what a "fike" was, but now I do and it is (b).

I'll invoke my own armillary principle and say that anything represented more than once has evoked the same loose association in more than one of us, and is therefore made-up and to be discarded. Thus

-- a, f: a small shot-glass by any other name
-- b, c, h, l: something fishy about all those
-- c, j sounds like "pike." Maybe that's where all the fish came from too, come to think of it. [aside: anybody heard from shona lately?]
-- d, m - I never did care all that much for figgy pudding
-- k - that's just "spike." See c,j above.
-- n is just too silly. Besides, everyone knows that "consonantal drift" is just another word for plate tectonics.

Doesn't leave too much to choose from, does it...I'll take E over g and i; it has the right ring to it.

b...Because it's simple and to the point. But I wonder how this fish trap might be different from, say, a seine. I hope this is really a river word and not a, uh, just another Milolateral trap.

Anyone care to share a J with me?

I'll try G