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OP
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a) a long marsh grass with razor sharp edges
b) Chiefly British an elision of "Wow, hilly, eh what?"
c) Algonquin word for a level of disagreement or dispute which could only be settled by a lacrosse game in which at least one player died; hence any life-and-death issue.
d) a Malaysian riding crop; derived from riding crops brought over by polo-playing English and Scottish rulers in the nineteenth century.
e) Colloq., music a cup-shaped device manipulated at the flared end of a horn to alter the sound
f) Irish slang Support clothing for the male genitalia (aka 'jockstrap')
g) Aussie term for a young platypus
h) Sc. a wheedling or insinuating person; a flattering deceiver.
i) the beauty of life as measured by the self. e.g. one's ability to sing, dance, strut, etc. (Navajo)
j) Sc. a temper tantrum, esp in a small child
k) a children's toy popular during the heyday of Coney Island. It was shaped like an elaborate paper airplane and could be purchased for nickel.
l) a separate room set to the back of some stately homes for ablutions after particularly harrowing dinner parties.
m) a rare, endangered Hawaiian bird of the family Drepanididae, closely related to the ' I 'iwi or Scarlet Hawaiian Honeycreeper, more common but also shrinking in number. The Whillywha, as well as the ' I 'iwi, feeds on nectar .
n) an underground lake; source of water
o) Sc. to and fro
p) a night spirit of the Iroquoian peoples.
q) an Australian Desert Mound Spring. These springs have characteristic mounds which have been formed by the combined action of water, sand, silt and clay and the deposition of limestone from the upwelling groundwater. It can take 1.5 to 2 million years for water to travel from the recharge area to the discharge area of the springs. The water from these springs is regarded as fossil water.
r) a Malaysian drain cleaner, or snake
s) the exclamation made by a youngster, calling out to Willy Wonka, just as he slips into a raging river of chocolate.
the following are the submitters: consuelo, Jackie, Owlbow, ECreith, belMarduk, ASp, Faldage, musick, TEd, BranShea, nightotter, olly, shanks, wofa, Aramis, ParkinT, tsuwm, OED, and (schlepping in under the dead-line) themilum.
thanx and good luck to all..
the hogmaster™
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Oct 2003
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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'many good possibilities but I'll choose a).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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O.k. Lets work this out.
D and R both cite Malaysian origins, G and Q Australian. Too coincidental. Strike those.
M is too long and piles in too much info to be real definition. Q also fits this category so a double-strike for that one.
C, I and P have Amerindian origins. Again too coincidental.
I have no idea what B is on about, so out that goes; and there are too many “Ws” in the word for Irish slang so F is out too.
Nobody says “heyday” anymore so K is definitely invented and L can’t be right because those who lived in stately homes wouldn’t come up with a weird name for a separate room for ablutions if they were too embarrassed to have folks use the regular room. They have some sort of euphemistic, non-humorous, non-descriptive word.
S is silly – boot!
J is out because nobody’d come up with a cutesy name for a temper tantrum.
So, this leaves me with A, E, H, N and O and I still don’t have an idea. Lets see. I think H is out because, like the tantrum definition, the word is too cutesy for that definition. O is too short, and doesn't explain what is going to and fro.
O.k., I’m choosing E just because I can’t decide which of the last three (A, E or N) is correct, so I threw a dart and it landed in the middle.
(o.k., o.k., so this post is long...I'm having a very stressful day at work so I'm taking a break!)
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old hand
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old hand
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journeyman
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I'm fairly versed in marsh grasses(don't ask why, don't ask how), and an aspiring musician, and I've never heard willywha used in that way, and we have a fair few dons in our music class. Hence, n.
Actually, after some research in ol' Oxford, C.
For reasons outlined below, changed to O.
After much deliberation and asking Scottish people, changed to H. Final answer. Promise.
Last edited by Curuinor; 02/28/07 01:30 PM.
I exist! I am a pedant! I have a foreboding signature!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Another shot in the dark:
I choose N over R.
To add to the previous discussion - three definitions are Sc and are therefore too-coincidental-ly eliminated. Why do we always invoke Scottish origins whenever we really haven't a clue?!
What E sounds as if it's trying to evoke is a "wa-wa" mute, not a whillywha-tchamacallit...
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journeyman
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journeyman
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If it's just to alter the sound, then it's just called a mute. That's not particularly colloquial, though.
Granted, it could be that the correct meanings are hidden in redundant other stuff of same etymology. Note, also, that there are no verb meanings. Only adverb is o. In fact, only non-noun entry is o.
I exist! I am a pedant! I have a foreboding signature!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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-------------------h--------------------
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veteran
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Shoot! Too late. If you two new people had only half the patience of an empty chair I could have guided you to the OED definition of this Hogwash. Think for a minute...all seventeen definitions have equal likelihood; such is the nature of language. So to improve your chances you must go with what you know, and one thing that we all know is the reality of verbal dimorphism - namely - women think and speak differently than men. Now, since seven out of the eighteen Hogwash definitions were written by women, and since 99 44/00 percent of the contributions to the Oxford English Language dictionaries (OED) were written by men, it follows that if we eliminate the definitions written by the Hogwash ladies we will improve our chances of guessing correctly by almost 42 percent. Granted, some rough-cut broads of Awad slap their men about as a matter of daily routine, and two or more of the tough-talking guys here enjoy dressing up their GI Joe dolls in cute little ballet outfits when not online, but overall, sex delimitation works, and here are the definitions submitted by the cutting sex... (a) Oh my! Razor sharp edges! (c) An "issue" is the feminine form of "problem". (g) All platypusies are female and lay eggs. (h) If a man wrote this one he should be denut...uh, scolded. (j) Isn't that cute? Little Elmo's having a whillywha. (l) "Harrowing dinner party"? Women retire to the whillywha; men get drunk. (o) "To and fro" , try saying that without skipping. Done. 
Last edited by themilum; 02/28/07 11:25 AM.
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