1. Which of these is NOT a hairstyle?
i) skinhead
ii) dreadlocks
iii) bunches
iv) hair weave

[personal note, I think I'm going with (iv), what do you think?]

2. Which of these is NOT a Janus word?
i) sanction
ii) cleave
iii) gaffe
iv) seeded

[personal note : what on earth is Janus?]

>ii) cleave

oh boy.. better keep me away from the quiz-master if this *ain't considered a correct answer.



(Janus word = auto-antonym, antagonym, contronym; cf. enantiodromic word)

It seems obvious that 'skinhead' is not a hair style since there is no hair *involved.

Skinhead has also become, for the less informed, a representation of specific political affiliation, which is just as foolish as equating dreadlocks with Rastafarians.

>(Janus word = auto-antonym, antagonym, contronym; cf. enantiodromic word)

Uh.....*scratches head* Do you have a simpler explanation than all that jargon above? hahaha.....

Uh..... nevermind, I found it.

Janus word - definition :
(noun) A word having opposite or contradictory meanings, as sanction or cleave.

A Janus word is one that has opposite or nearly opposite meanings.Cleave, for example, means to come close (cleave to one's bosom) or split apart, as in meat cleaver.

NOT a hairstyle?

I'd have to go with i) skinhead cause, technically, it doesn't actual involve hair.

NOT a Janus word?

All I know is that ii) cleave is not one word. We've got two completely different words that just happen to be spelled the same in Modern English. They come from different IE roots and were spelled differently as recently as a thousand years ago.

Janus was a two faced Roman god. God of doorways.

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/j/janus.html

Oooooooh! Look who just got a hundred!

A word having opposite or contradictory meanings, as sanction or cleave.

Or seeded, which means either with seeds or having had them removed. So I guess your answer is gaffe.

cleave is not one word.

Maybe it seems that way to the person who wrote the quiz. Or maybe they are trying to fool Jess into picking "gaffe", when they feel the answer is "cleave" (for the pedantic reason that Faldage stated above). What else can gaffe mean besides "socially awkward or tactless act" (courtesy of Webster)?

Yes, I get what you mean, now! Seeded could mean to plant or to take out of (fruits). So I guess it IS gaffe!

Skinhead :
Slang 1. A person with a shaven head.

Even though is states "shaven head", but isn't that a hairstyle in some way? I know bunches and dreadlocks are.

"shaven head"...a hairstyle in some way?

It's a hairstyle only in the negative sense, but a hair weave uses someone else's hair so who's to know which? And besides which, it's more a technique to make it look like you've got more hair than you really do and can be incorporated into any number of hair styles.

Gaffe is only one word but still has only one definition (at least according to M-W on line) so it's parbly the answer. Cleave and cleave notwithstanding.

I agree about gaffe, but like I said: keep me away from the quiz-master.

(hell, I argued via e-mail with Richard Lederer about this! :)

argued via e-mail with Richard Lederer

For all the good it did us. It's like that old one about the word that changes pronunciation when you capitalize it. When I try to bring up the one about the word that changes spelling when you capitalize it everybody ignores me.

[begging to hear it -e] Purty please with sugar on top, faldage?

faldage baits:
the one about the word that changes spelling when you capitalize it

please, share it ~ i'm curious!

~~~

i'm not sure about "hair weave" ~ it might also mean what's been described above (having someone else's hair added to your own), but around here we call that "extensions", and a "weave" is when they wrap pieces of your hair in foil and bleach them, for a 'textured' look.

and speaking of hair, where on earth has rapunzel gone?? i miss her.

faldage baits:

You know the one that changes pronunciation is Polish and polish. Of course they are no more the same word than are cleave and cleave or Russian and rushin'.

Time to polish up our Polish?

[Damn...beat by a minute.]

Say that in Reverse Polish Notation. Just a suggestion ...

Polish

And if you've had 'one too many' it could also mean the cops...or would that be Poleesh?

The Only WO'N!

So basically, gaffe is the answer for the second question but no certainty as to whether it is "skinhead" or "hair weave"? Sigh.....

What kind of style is bunches?

Dreadlocks = a style
Skinhead = a person with a distinctive feature of having a head that looks hairless or skinned, but not the style itself
Hairweave = a broad category that would subsume many styles
Bunches = never heard of

I'd eliminate both hairweave and skinhead right off the bat and say that it had been a trick question!

Braided regards,
WordWarhorse, m. m.

PS: When are we ever gonna find out about jobsworth and all that jazz?

I'm with wordwind, I know what dreadlocks are, hair weave, skinhead, but don't know about bunches. If someone can explain bunches I'd go with skinhead because it's a lack of hair style, otherwise I'm voting for bunches.

Well, according to the "Times-Chambers Combined Dictionary Thesaurus", bunches are "long hair divided into two pieces and tied separately at each side or the back of the head". Which is why I'm confused that some people say hair weave IS a type of hairstyle and so is skinhead, for some reasons! So which is it?

By the way, about the "jobsworth" thingy, I'll get it by Friday, 26th April.

Hairweave is something you do to your hair, so I'd call it a hairstyle. Skinhead is more a description of the person than the hair style, I'd call a person a skinhead, the style is a shaved head. If I were describing the hairstyle I might be going to get I could say I'm going to get a hairweave, then dreadlocks, put them in bunches and when I'm tired of it shave my head and be a skinhead.

So it's skinhead, then? Thanks!

You guys are great!

You guys are great!

Well, I'd like to take credit but I haven't been around to help this time, but you're great for coming up with all these great wordy (wordie? worthy?) challenges for us all! Glad you're here JessCC.