Round 3055: MAMAMOUCHI results
Daniel B Widdis
I knew I was in trouble this round when the first four voters pegged the longest def, appropriately the pompous title. I’d been oscillating between the definition I used, from the Century Dictionary, and a much shorter variant from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: “A mock honour.” Perhaps I chose poorly, or perhaps the shorter def would have drawn even more votes. In any case, I’m left with a D7.
We have a four way tie among players with four points: Ryan McGill and Tony Abell, who both received 4 votes, and Tim Lodge and Chris Carson who guessed da woid. Tony is ahead in the rolling scores, and Ryan can take home real winner honors – although I propose we begin using this word to identify the “Real Winnah”, beginning with Ryan who can choose which of his two Kanji interpretations should be on his medal.
Results are presented below. I couldn’t get Coryphaeus to import my mail, so hopefully my Excel spreadsheet macros did the trick! Let me know if you spy any errors.
All yours, Tony!
*** MAMAMOUCHI ***
1. Formerly, a treasurer to a Japanese nobleman; now sometimes used informally for a senior financial officer of a company.
Submitted by: Tim Lodge, who voted for 9 & 14 and scored 2 + 2 = 4
Votes from: Shani Naylor, Efrem Mallach
2. [Obs.] a ridiculous fop who gives himself airs [1760 fr. Armenian for a highly decorated senior Militiaman]
Submitted by: John Barrs, who voted for 7 & 14 and scored 1 + 2 = 3
Votes from: Chris Carson
3. [Jap.] The well-being and pleasure that one experiences during cherry blossom season.
Submitted by: Shani Naylor, who voted for 1 & 6 and scored 0
Votes from: Nobody
4. A serif outlined typeface named for its creator, Signe Mamamouchi, 1914-1964.
Submitted by: Nancy Shepherdson, who voted for 8 & 12 and scored 0
Votes from: Nobody
5. a baby-carrying sling [Mi'kmaq].
Submitted by: Tim Bourne, who voted for 8 & 14 and scored 1 + 2 = 3
Votes from: Alan Mallach
6. [Jap.] a rice-based porridge.
Submitted by: Efrem Mallach, who voted for 1 & 14 and scored 1 + 2 = 3
Votes from: Shani Naylor
7. the Corsican hare
Submitted by: Ryan McGill, who offered Kanji characters but didn’t vote, and scored 4
Votes from: John Barrs, Tony Abell, Debbie Embler, Mike Shefler
8. A hazelnut-flavored cake.
Submitted by: Tony Abell, who voted for 7 & 10 and scored 4
Votes from: Nancy Shepherdson, Tim Bourne, Judy Madnick, Debbie Embler
9. the Japanese financial community
Submitted by: Debbie Embler, who voted for 7 & 8 and scored 1
Votes from: Tim Lodge
10. A clear soup stock with a vegetable base.
Submitted by: Chris Carson, who voted for 2 & 14 and scored 2 + 2 = 4
Votes from: Tony Abell, Judy Madnick
11. [Tag.] a fruit similar to the persimmon that is usually served pickled or jellied.
Submitted by: Mike Shefler, who voted for 7 & 14 and scored 0 + 2 = 2
Votes from: Nobody
12. (vulgar) a pejorative term for a Japanese woman, used by American servicemen in the 1940s.
Submitted by: Alan Mallach, who voted for 5 & 14 and scored 1 + 2 = 3
Votes from: Nancy Shepherdson
13. A logical refutation, especially one that disproves a proposition by proving the direct contrary of its conclusion.
Submitted by: Judy Madnick, who voted for 8 & 10 and scored 0
Votes from: Nobody
14. A pompous title, from that supposed to have been conferred by the Sultan on M. Jourdain in Molière's play, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme; hence, one who takes such a title; an ostentatious, self-important, and ridiculous pretender.
Submitted by: The Century Dictionary
Votes from: Tim Lodge, John Barrs, Tim Bourne, Efrem Mallach, Chris Carson, Mike Shefler, Alan Mallach
Submitter | Total |
Tony Abell | 4 (Dealah) |
Ryan McGill | 4 (Mamamouchi) |
Tim Lodge | 4 |
Chris Carson | 4 |
John Barrs | 3 |
Tim Bourne | 3 |
Efrem Mallach | 3 |
Alan Mallach | 3 |
Mike Shefler | 2 |
Debbie Embler | 1 |
Shani Naylor | 0 |
Nancy Shepherdson | 0 |
Judy Madnick | 0 |
Stephen Dixon
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email: steved...@gmail.com
Ryan McGill
I hate to be pedantic, but the notes I provided on Japanese were not in kanji. Kanji is the pictographic writing that Japanese shares with Chinese (and doesn’t always offer clues to pronunciation). The characters I provided were from the syllabary writing, kana, which is always linked to pronunciation.
There are two kana syllabaries, hiragana, for words that are natively Japanese, and katakana, for transliteration, loan words, words in different languages, and occasionally for portmanteaus and other neologisms. Godzilla, for example, is written in katakana, like this: ゴヂラ, or in romaji (Roman character transliteration), Gojira.
In some instances, katakana functions similar to using italics in English, which is funny because italics tend to be more figured and less blocky than standard roman characters. In Japanese, however, hiragana is more figured, and katakana is more blocky.
All this means that, because it is a sort of eponym that isn’t Japanese, by the rules of Japanese, it would be written in katakana. And it didn’t occur to me to share that, so if someone’s making a graphic, it should probably bear an inscription like this:
ママモウチ
Some of you may notice that the “chi” syllable here is the same as “ji” in Godzilla, sans the diacritical marks that look like double-quotes. Those marks function identically in hiragana and katakana.
One final thought, to address Debbie’s note about kanji. Kanji tend to represent generally 2-3 syllables, and only a few have 5, as in mamamouchi. That and I can’t recall a single case where kanji is used to replace katakana. It’s usually used for translated concepts instead of transliterates ones. But then again, my kanji experience is pretty limited.
Rx.
Stephen Dixon
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Daniel B Widdis
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amal...@comcast.net
Congratulations, Ryan.
One last observation on mamamouchi. I wonder how many others (beside myself) took French in high school and read Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme at the time, and retained (in my case from nearly 60 years ago) subliminal memories of the play….
Alan
.
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Stephen Dixon
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Ryan McGill
On Thursday, March 5, 2020 at 7:25:47 AM UTC-8, Steve Dixon wrote:
Awesome! What an honor.
On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 8:32 AM <amal...@comcast.net> wrote:
Congratulations, Ryan.
One last observation on mamamouchi. I wonder how many others (beside myself) took French in high school and read Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme at the time, and retained (in my case from nearly 60 years ago) subliminal memories of the play….
Alan
From: dixo...@googlegroups.com <dixo...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Daniel B Widdis
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2020 10:13 PM
To: dixo...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Dixonary] Round 3055: MAMAMOUCHI results
On 3/4/20, 2:06 PM, "Ryan McGill" <dixo...@googlegroups.com on behalf of ryanm...@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry I missed the vote. I love the dummy-prize idea.
I hate to be pedantic, but the notes I provided on Japanese were not in kanji. Kanji is the pictographic writing that Japanese shares with Chinese (and doesn’t always offer clues to pronunciation). The characters I provided were from the syllabary writing, kana, which is always linked to pronunciation.
There are two kana syllabaries, hiragana, for words that are natively Japanese, and katakana, for transliteration, loan words, words in different languages, and occasionally for portmanteaus and other neologisms. Godzilla, for example, is written in katakana, like this: ゴヂラ, or in romaji (Roman character transliteration), Gojira.
In some instances, katakana functions similar to using italics in English, which is funny because italics tend to be more figured and less blocky than standard roman characters. In Japanese, however, hiragana is more figured, and katakana is more blocky.
All this means that, because it is a sort of eponym that isn’t Japanese, by the rules of Japanese, it would be written in katakana. And it didn’t occur to me to share that, so if someone’s making a graphic, it should probably bear an inscription like this:
ママモウチ
Some of you may notice that the “chi” syllable here is the same as “ji” in Godzilla, sans the diacritical marks that look like double-quotes. Those marks function identically in hiragana and katakana.
One final thought, to address Debbie’s note about kanji. Kanji tend to represent generally 2-3 syllables, and only a few have 5, as in mamamouchi. That and I can’t recall a single case where kanji is used to replace katakana. It’s usually used for translated concepts instead of transliterates ones. But then again, my kanji experience is pretty limited.
Rx.
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Daniel B Widdis
We haven’t heard from Tony for 24 hours, though, so it’s possible your “Mock Honour” may become a real one… hopefully Tony pops his head in soon!
Awesome! What an honor.
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Stephen Dixon
email: steved...@gmail.com
“Wherever you are is the entry point” - Kabir Das
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Ryan McGill
Awesome! What an honor.
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Stephen Dixon
email: steved...@gmail.com
“Wherever you are is the entry point” - Kabir Das
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