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Well, did anyone else look it up? I did--on Onelook.com. And there was only one reference cited: The All Powerful Tsuwm's! (I had to capitalize tsuwm here because he deserved capitalization given the fact that out of over 700 dictionaries, his was the only one--and so I quote:
"tetrapyloctomy
"The art of splitting a hair four ways" according to Umberto Eco in Foucault's Pendulum "
Bravo, bravo, bravo!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I most certainly did, Dubdub--via Atomica, and got the same (and only) result you did! He's really something, isn't he?
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Carpal Tunnel
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I kinda guessed you had, Jackie, given your response a few posts back above. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Mercy yes, I wouldn't have known that word on my own! I wonder if there are tri- and di-pyloctomies? Ooh--pentapyloctomy! Now there is a fun word to say!
Yow--what was that, a sonic boom? Oh--no, it was tsuwm, smacking his hand to his forehead.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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it's a subject, like Mechanical Avunculogratulation or
Pylocatabasis. They all fall under the heading of Tetrapyloctomy.'
'What's tetra...?'
'The art of splitting a hair four ways. Mechanical
Avunculogratulation, for example, is how to build machines for
greeting uncles.' (74)
introduction
The above quotation seems an apt microcosm of Foucault's Pendulum: at
once amusing, bewildering, ironic, exceedingly intellectual, and eminently
unlikable. Umberto Eco's novel, only released in an English hardcover late last
year, is a second expedition into the novel form by the Italian scholar and
acclaimed author of The Name of the Rose
I tried teading it, and two pages was enough for me. Seems quite a few years ago, when I was
living in Oakton, VA. That would be about ten years ago.
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Carpal Tunnel
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It was also a hogwash word at one point, but that round was cancelled because too many people used the right answer as their definition. That certainly caused it to stick in my mind.
Bingley
Bingley
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Hey, you know what we all ought to do? Go to our haircut people and say we want a tetrapyloctomy. Then we could report reactions back here!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Ooh--pentapyloctomy! Now there is a fun word to say!
As in my post, above: complete with an implicit definition 
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old hand
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old hand
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Sorry, MG!
No worries mate! The search engine on here just ain't the powerfullest. I had called mine "Mrs Malaprop" (I think!) so I don't know why it didn't show....
Anyway, 'tis a good subject, and great minds think alike (as so many of the previous posts prove, too!)....
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 I didn't realize it was so obvious that Rhuby's post had slipped my mind completely!
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