#87720
11/24/2002 6:11 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Baltimore spelling bee word. An Asian prehensile-tailed catlike carnivorous animal.
Post edit: Dear tsuwm, how right you are. Just something to destroy some hopeful kid.
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#87721
11/24/2002 6:30 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
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..another splendid example of a *totally worthless word that makes *no sense to learn how to spell. (and, I might add, one which I would never use as a wwftd!)
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#87722
11/24/2002 10:01 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
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Did the kids have to define the words in the MD bee in order to be able to spell the word?
Binturong is an easy word to spell.
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#87723
11/24/2002 10:19 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
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the kids can ask for the definition; they don't need to define it themselves. binturongs are cool! in this day of global awareness and ecological disaster, why would this be a worthless word to know? 
formerly known as etaoin...
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#87724
11/24/2002 10:22 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
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formerly known as etaoin...
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#87725
11/24/2002 10:27 PM
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Oh, et'...
Thanks for the link! That binturong looks like a weasel. I read on your link that it's in the civet family.
Now I have to admit a gray area of learning for me. Aren't skunks in the civet family?
Are ferrets, too? The only reason I ask is I once adopted a ferret named "Muffin" that smelled like anything but.
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#87726
11/24/2002 10:36 PM
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Posts: 7,210
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formerly known as etaoin...
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#87727
11/24/2002 10:47 PM
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Posts: 6,296
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Well, now I'm flat confused. I just checked Britannica and read this:
"The family Mustelidae contains a variety of animals unmatched by any other family in the Carnivora except the civets (Viverridae). The family includes the weasels, ferrets, mink (see photograph ), marten, fisher, skunks (see photograph ), wolverine (see photograph ), otters (see photograph ), badgers (see photograph ), and a number of less well-known animals, a total of about 70 species in 25 genera. " (emphasis mine)
Yet the Britannaic article indicated that the skunk is part of the Mustelidae. And it's also part of the civet group? That's where I'm lost. Is a skunk not part of the civet group?
I'm confused.
One thing, fersure: That binturong looks like a weasel!
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#87728
11/24/2002 10:54 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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Binturong is an easy word to spell.
It's easy to spell if you know how it's spelled. I know I've been too wrong before but, depending on how it's pronounced, I could imagine its being spelled with any variation on bin/ben to/te/ta rong/rang
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#87729
11/24/2002 10:54 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
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I think if you re-read the first sentence again, you'll get past your confusion.  it says that the Mustilidae(skunk) family has a lot of variety in its members. the only other family that has as much variety is the Viverridae(civey) family. so skunks aren't civets.
formerly known as etaoin...
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#87730
11/24/2002 10:58 PM
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Well, skunks might not be civets, but I had thought them to be.
Live and learn!
And, Faldage, so true. It's very important to know how to correctly pronounce words. Take the difference between "pen" and "pin." So many people don't make the distinction between them in their everyday speech. I would say "binturong" pronounced phonetically, would be a piece of cake with a person who had very good enunciation skills.
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#87731
11/24/2002 11:11 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
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I think the concept of parallel evolution is fascinating. there is something deep and mysterious about like creatures evolving separately, distanced by thousands of miles...
formerly known as etaoin...
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#87732
11/25/2002 12:21 AM
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This quote makes me feel a bit better about fairness:
The judges have put on their serious faces. To their left sits
Alex Cameron, aka the Pronouncer. He gives spellers their
words. He may also provide the word's part of speech,
language of origin, and definition, and use it in a sentence if
the speller asks. An English professor at the University of
Dayton, Cameron has warmed the Pronouncer's chair since
1981. He is a jowly, ruddy-faced man with an authoritative
presence, like a stern but kindly uncle.
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#87733
11/25/2002 12:07 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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"binturong" pronounced phonetically
I've thought of some more spellings:
Beentoorawng
Binturon
Of course if you're allowed to ask what language it comes from, then all you've got to know is the spelling conventions of a couple thousand languages.
How would you spell [guuretskee]?
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#87734
11/25/2002 1:40 PM
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formerly known as etaoin...
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#87735
11/25/2002 2:00 PM
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Posts: 13,803
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gorecki
No fair! That question was for WerdWind.
And it's actual® Górecki, if you want to get technical
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#87736
11/25/2002 2:28 PM
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Posts: 6,296
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'Least you didn't call me WeirdWind, Faldaged:
OK. I didn't make myself clear. I wrote that binturong is an easy word to spell. That's the only point I was making about binturong. If you look up its pronunciation, it's very straightforward:
BIN-too-Rong.
If someone asked me to spell "BIN-too-Rong," I imagine I would spell it:
binturong
because that seems the most direct route into an animal spelling. For instance, the "ong" I would associate with earth syllables, such as prong, long (horns), and billabong. And the "bin" would make me think of something existing perhaps in the east or southeast Asia. After getting a definition, I would be pretty sure the spelling was binturong unless there were some unusual rule of which I wasn't aware.
That's why, Faldage, I wrote that I think binturong is an easy word to spell.
I certainly didn't mean that every dadburned word on earth you could come up with would be easy to spell correctly based on phonics.
Like this one, fer instance:
KEY-ruh-boss.
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#87737
11/25/2002 8:53 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
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No fair! That question was for WerdWind.sorry.  I'll stay out of this one... I figured all that typin' stuff would be a thorn in somebodys side...
formerly known as etaoin...
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#87738
11/25/2002 9:52 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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My dictionary says that "civet" is valuable secretion for making perfumes, derived from the
"civet cat". At the bottom was a reference to "cacomistle" which I thought might mean
something about chemical warfare. Folk etymology again.
>cacomistle
n.
5AmSp cacomixtle < Nahuatl %atkomis%i < %atko, half + mis3%i, cougar6
1 a slender, long-tailed, raccoonlike carnivore (Bassariscus astutus) of the SW U.S. and Mexico
2 its fur Also cac$o[mix#le 73mis#!l, 3mik#s!l8
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