3586 🏆 DOG’S LETTER

[Paul Keating]

It’s been a brief and brisk voting phase. All the submitters have voted and so I am ending the round.

The phrase littera canina meaning R was a conceit of the Roman poet Persius (Aulus Persius Flaccus, 34–62 AD), whom I must admit I had never heard of before this round. The resemblance of the R sound to a dog growling is assumed to be because metropolitan Latin of his day had what we would call a ‘rolled R’. It’s a fair assumption: Italian still rolls its Rs to this day. Johnny Barrs tells me he came across the phrase letra canina in the same sense when learning Spanish. Though whether the Spanish R growls depends on the company it finds itself in; much like a dog, I suppose.

Persius was admired in the Middle Ages and was accorded translations in French, German and English. 17th-century English writers (William Vaughan, Ben Jonson) adopted the conceit as dog’s letter in imitation of the Latin, even though southeastern English at the time did not have a rolled R. Ben Jonson himself said as much. And so the resemblance to a dog growling was a bit far-fetched. And it still is: only one player found #9 plausible.

There was a tied score of 4 + 0 = 4 for Mike Shefler and Dan Widdis. Mike wins on the rolling-scores tiebreak.

1	A boarding kennel.
	No votes
	Submitted by: Tim Bourne, who voted for 5, 7.
2	A children’s story written from a dog’s perspective. See also the “Dog Alphabet” series.
	Vote from Judy Madnick
	Submitted by: Johnny Barrs, who did not vote (DQ). Score: 1.
3	A chocolate suet pudding, popular in Scotland.
	Vote from Glenn Davis
	Submitted by: Tim Lodge, who voted for 5, 11. Score: 1.
4	A courier who delivers letters or parcels via dog-drawn sledges.
	No votes
	Submitted by: Eric Boxer, who voted for 6, 7.
5	A decoy character inserted into a cipher to disrupt pattern-recognition algorithms and obscure true message structure.
	Votes from Tim Bourne, Tim Lodge, Dan Widdis
	Submitted by: Judy Madnick, who voted for 2, 6. Score: 3.
6	A document exempting a retired sailor from impressment in the British Navy.
	Votes from Eric Boxer, Judy Madnick, Efrem Mallach, Shani Naylor
	Submitted by: Mike Shefler, who voted for 11, 12. Score: 4.
7	An excuse or explanation that is technically true but deliberately unhelpful or evasive.
	Votes from Tim Bourne, Eric Boxer, Dan Widdis
	Submitted by: Glenn Davis, who voted for 3, 12. Score: 3.
8	The initial letter of names given to purebred dogs in France that has been designated annually since 1926 by the pedigree registry LOF.
	Vote from Debbie Embler
	Submitted by: Rey, who did not vote (DQ). Score: 1.
9	A name for the letter R (from its resemblance in sound to the snarl of a dog).
	Vote from Shani Naylor
	Real Definition. Score: D1.
10	The position of a dog’s ears which communicates their state of mind.
	No votes
	Submitted by: Debbie Embler, who voted for 8, 11.
11	A precursor to the modern comma, used in medieval manuscripts as a breath mark, characterized by a small curved tail (ꝯ).
	Votes from Debbie Embler, Tim Lodge, Efrem Mallach, Mike Shefler
	Submitted by: Dan Widdis, who voted for 5, 7. Score: 4.
12	A wall clock with pendulum and weights exposed.
	Votes from Glenn Davis, Mike Shefler
	Submitted by: Shani Naylor, who voted for 6, 9. Score: 2+2=4*.
	No definition from Efrem Mallach, who voted for 6, 11.

Def no	Player	Voted for	Votes from	Score from votes	Correct guess	Total
6	Shefler	11, 12	Boxer, Madnick, Mallach, Naylor	4		4
11	Widdis	5, 7	Embler, Lodge, Mallach, Shefler	4		4
12	Naylor	6, 9	Davis, Shefler	2	2	4*
7	Davis	3, 12	Bourne, Boxer, Widdis	3		3
5	Madnick	2, 6	Bourne, Lodge, Widdis	3		3
3	Lodge	5, 11	Davis	1		1
2	Barrs	DQ	Madnick	1		1
8	Rey	DQ	Embler	1		1
No definition	Mallach	6, 11				0
4	Boxer	6, 7				0
10	Embler	8, 11				0
1	Bourne	5, 7				0

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Paul Keating

Soustons, Nouvelle Aquitaine, France

[Shani Naylor]

And the voting completed on 6 & a half hours - that must be a record!

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[Daniel B. Widdis]

I liked this version of the results better than the corrected one.

Also I resisted commenting during voting that definition 12 was the real definition of a dog-related word I dealt way back in round 1121.

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[Daniel B. Widdis]

And it still is: only one player found #9 plausible.

Nice D1.  But I must note, a plurality of players found ꝯ plausible.

A medieval precursor to the comma actually did exist, but it looked much more like what we would simply call a forward slash:  /.  

On Tue, Oct 7, 2025 at 2:22 PM Paul Keating <dixo...@boargules.com> wrote:

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[Paul Keating]

And the the character you provided, ꝯ, is a mediaeval scribal contraction that is fittingly named con. 

[Paul Keating]

It probably is. I am generally happy if I can end voting within 24 hours, because I believe a good pace makes for a more enjoyable game for everyone, but I don't get to do even that very often. 

P