a. adj. - macabre, eerie. (derived by contraction from samhain)
b. sanitation, general health environment: "The low level of sain in most third-world countries creates a burden for their hospitals."
c. to bless, especially by making the sign of the cross over someone.
d. Acronym. SAIN was used between novices in celibate communities and was written across the sealed flap of an envelope, usually together with a cross, and stood for Signum Anti Impius Necessitas. The novices, with their poor command of Latin, used this as a translation of ‘sealed against wicked desires’ and it represented their fight against carnality.
e. A form of precipitation which is mostly rain but has some snow or sleet content. An expression from northern England.
f. the line of debris left on a beach at the high tide mark.
g. [baseball] term used to describe a once successful major league pitcher who later succeeds as a pitching coach--after Johnny Sain, "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain."
h. From the Scots Gaelic sabbhain; "to your health".
i. Name of a plant found in W. England and Wales whose leaves were often used in poultices; (dialect) a poultice.
j. A substance derived from shellfish used in making incense.
k. A device for seeding clouds for the purpose of producing rain.
l. The diameter of a globular body; the diameter of a solid spheroid, especially of a cannonball
Definitions were submitted by: Bingley, Capfka, Coffeebean, dxb, Faldage, jackie, sjm, tsuwm, Whitman O’Neill, wofahulicodoc, and Wordwind.
Bingley
i reached a strange conclusion - it's not so funny when you KNOW the right answer and not guess it
so i won't answer
Too late with my definition so I guess I'll be first to make my guess...J
gotta love D, but my vote is
F.
I'd'a picked D too but I don't like the Latin. Now if it had been Sigillum...
Then I have to eliminate A, B, C, H, I, and J, all dealing in one way or another with health or spiritual well-being, as translucent attempts to look like valid remote derivations, and therefore all attempts to seduce the unwary. Ditto E, G, and K, only there it's the weather.
That leaves F and L. With nothing in particular to make one any better than the other.
Oh, the L with it!
s/ a novice with a poor command of Latin
The
L with it twice!
I can't let this go by without giving a hearty "thumbs up!" to "D", though.
I find the idea of "novice celibates" (which must imply that everyone is sexually active at inception, and at some point these "novice celibates" decide to stop) especially intriguing,
and "celebate communities" (which, I'm guessin', must've been one-generation affairs!) I see as places where I definitely would
not want to work or shop on a Monday morning!
E please. Someone gotta love it.
D, I gotta say, is outstanding in its faux-folk etymology. As for the *real definition, I'm gonna go with I.
>translucent attempts to look like valid remote derivations, and therefore all attempts to seduce the unwary.
some old Scot might not have felt that way about c. <g>
Hmmmm.......last Hogwash game I voted for a scientific answer -- this time I'll go with religion. C and D both look good.....I'll pick C.
Just to make sure I don't hold the game up, F
I've got my eye on "i"--even though the western England part doesn't make sense. Why not eastern, too? What's so different about the two coasts?
[quietly awaiting the deluge to unleash upon WW]
Well, let it unleash. I've never been to England. It's an island a bit larger than, what, Virginia, right? And it's got the ocean on one side and a sea on the other. It couldn't be more than two hundred miles across, right? So how would the vegetation be that different on one coast from the other? It's not like you're moving from NY to California or anything. Does having the ocean on one side and the sea on the other make that much difference?
Come on. Make my day. Deluge me.
I believe it has more to do with the language than with the res ipsa, pardon my declension. <eg>
Now, you’re just jerking our chain, I’m sure, but that’s cool. Britain is a small place, you wouldn’t expect much variation, but local factors bring it about. I’m not very knowledgeable on physical geography, but here’s how I think it is. Deluge is probably a nice segue into it actually.
- The prevailing wind across the British Isles is southwesterly; it picks up loads of water from the wide Atlantic and dumps it on us. Consequently Ireland and the western side of Britain, which happens also to be the side with the hilliest terrain, are much wetter than the eastern side.
- The North Sea is very narrow, not allowing much water to be taken up, so when we do get east winds they are dry. Europe is very flat to the east of the British Isles and easterlies come unimpeded all the way from the Urals so they are also cold except in summer.
- Then there's the Gulf Stream, that keeps the west coast a bit warmer, and without which we would all be frantic to move somewhere much further south; the latitude of London is about that of northern Newfoundland.
- Much of the flat eastern side of the country is very fertile, whereas the western side is more rocky with thinner topsoil.
- So the difference in rainfall, the damp south westerly winds on the west side, the dryer, colder easterly winds on the east side, and the difference in geology and top-soils between the two coasts allows for marked variation in flora and fauna, not to say traditional lifestyles.
To be honest, I am often amazed at the contrast in the countryside, the crops, the animals, even the building materials, that can be seen in just a few miles – when travelling between London and the south coast for example.
Anyway, there is a lot of variety – its probably the best thing about the place, or has led to the best things.
After considerable dithering, I cast my lot with, J.
Great definitions, all! I loved every single one(special mention: d, f, and i).
Thanks, Bingley!
Well, I guess I like the idea of the sain line, so I'll pick 'F' for flotsam.