a) A fine-tuning key below the bridge and fingerboard of a stringed instrument.
b) A knot commonly used for rigging sails in the 17th century.
c) A hybrid tree.
d) The colloquial generalism used by morticians for all of the body waste that has to be removed from a body before it can be embalmed.
e) A striated body tissue arranged in segmental bands consisting of long cells that contract when stimulated and produce motion in arthropoda
f) The fire-spitting trick of a carnival performer.
g) The residue that remains caught between your teeth after eating a dried fig
h) [chiefly Brit.] 18th-century vernacular term for human head, brain (cf. noggin)
j) A jot or tittle; something very small.
k) A "fold" in the shell structure of an atom, causing a disruption in the functioning of the subatomic particles.
l) An arbitrary or fictitious entry or figure used to juggle accounts so as to produce a desired total or result.
m) A gelatinous substance, made from agricultural byproducts, used by Mennonites to lubricate farm machinery.
n) A thickened turpentine mostly used in oil paints, so named because of its color which resembles a ripe fig.
o) 1) A product of the imagination 2) something totally illusory.
p) [Printing] something omitted. After 70 years and 414,825 words defined, it was dicovered that the word figgum was left out of the Oxford English Dictionary. James Murray simply misplaced it. The original definition, now obsolete, is - a pear tree.
r) 19th Century American colloquialism referring to suspicously erroneous bookkeeping (i.e. That's a bunch of figgum!).
s) A mischievous spirit in Scottish folklore
t) [Hatmaking term] The starched swath of material that surrounds the crown of the hat, near the rim, on which is attached the decorative accessories (e.g. feather or flowers)
well done, gang - this I reckon is the most outrageously plausible collection of coinings so far, with several making me laugh and then look hard again.
I happen by fluke to know the real answer, so I'm going to watch the exhibition with a smug grin 8]
I'd just like to take this opportunity to suggest, without meaning to affect the outcome in any manner whatsoever, that I think you guys are just voting for the shape of the letters on this one. 8 )
Remember the movie "Patton"? Remember the part where George C Scott lowers the field glasses through which he has been watching the American tanks rout the German tanks in the desert plains below, and then he stands up and shouts ...
"Rommel, You magnificent Bastard, I read your damn book!"
Well I don't cuss, but... I too, read the book.
I'm so excited this is the first time I've gotten a Hogwash answer right.
Darnitall, some niggling little figgum tells me to vote for F, even though it's nowhere near as cool as some of the others.
Additionally, I must voice some concern over the fate of options I and Q. Were the actual definitions submitted excised, or does tsuwm simply not care a figgum for those letters? I can't figgum it out.
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