3605 🏆 SUBETH

[Paul Keating]

The likely winner of Round 3605 was already apparent 36 hours before the deadline, though there was some jostling for the runner-up position. There are still 9 hours to go, but all the expected votes are in, and I am closing the round. 

Subeth is an ancient medical term for abnormal sleep. The sources call it ‘false rest’ or ‘unkindly sleeps’. The word is Latin, though to me it looks nothing like a Latin word; but this is not the classical Latin of Julius Caesar or Cicero, but the living Latin that served, with regional variations, as the primary written language in Europe for nearly a millennium after the fall of the Roman Empire, in this case, what the Middle English Dictionary calls Anglo-Latin. The Latin word was borrowed from Arabic subāt ‘lethargy, slumber, sleep’ < sabata ‘to rest’, a word that is cognate with Hebrew šāḇaṯ ‘to rest, to cease, desist’.

I thought it was a safe choice until Efrem came up with a similar sense, with what he clearly thought was an unsatisfactory etymology. Predictably, the two-of-a-kind votes left Efrem with a winning score of 6 and me with a D3. Judy Madnick’s obscure dialectology term was runner-up with a score 4 + 2 = 6*. 

To the players who celebrate it, my wishes of peace and light for Hanukkah, which, I am informed, begins this evening.

1	A clause within a power of attorney explicitly authorizing the appointed agent to delegate specific powers to a third party; by extension, the delegated authority itself.
	No votes
	Submitted by: Dan Widdis, who voted for 4, 12.
2	In certain polygynous societies, a term for the daughter of one’s father’s co-wife; a half-sister through a different mother.
	Votes from Hugo Kornelis, Mike Shefler
	Submitted by: Glenn Davis, who voted for 3, 13. Score: 2.
3	Sl. Tending towards the unethical; particularly in a professional situation where no formal code of ethics applies.
	Votes from Glenn Davis, Tim Lodge, Shani Naylor
	Submitted by: Tim Bourne, who voted for 6, 13. Score: 3+2=5*.
4	A steward who buys provisions, esp. in a college, Inn of Court, or monastery.
	Votes from Tony Abell, Efrem Mallach, Shani Naylor, Nancy Shepherdson, Dan Widdis
	Submitted by: Tim Lodge, who voted for 3, 13. Score: 5.
5	An ornamental sari clip, often made of gold.
	No votes
	Submitted by: Nancy Shepherdson, who voted for 4, 7.
6	Abnormal, esp. excessively deep, sleep.
	Votes from Johnny Barrs, Tim Bourne, Judy Madnick
	Real Definition. Score: D3.
7	An act of sabotage.
	Vote from Nancy Shepherdson
	Submitted by: Eric Boxer, who voted for 11, 12. Score: 1.
8	A dead body; corpse.
	No votes
	Submitted by: Shani Naylor, who voted for 3, 4.
9	Immediately. [fm Dutch subiet~sebiet]
	No votes
	Submitted by: Hugo Kornelis, who voted for 2, 10.
10	A lesser demon mentioned in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
	Vote from Hugo Kornelis
	Submitted by: Mike Shefler, who voted for 2, 11. Score: 1.
11	A classification term in comparative linguistics for embedded phonetic thresholds within dialect studies.
	Votes from Tony Abell, Eric Boxer, Debbie Embler, Mike Shefler
	Submitted by: Judy Madnick, who voted for 6, 13. Score: 4+2=6*.
12	The corky layer above the cambium that gives rise to the markings on young cherry tree branches. [Latin suber ‘cork’]
	Votes from Eric Boxer, Efrem Mallach, Dan Widdis
	Submitted by: Johnny Barrs, who voted for 6, 13. Score: 3+2=5*.
13	Informal late 19c/early 20c medical term for being under anaesthesia. [from sub ‘under’, and ether, an early anaesthetic now seldom used]
	Votes from Johnny Barrs, Tim Bourne, Glenn Davis, Debbie Embler, Tim Lodge, Judy Madnick
	Submitted by: Efrem Mallach, who voted for 4, 12. Score: 6.
	No definition from Debbie Embler, who voted for 11, 13.
	No definition from Tony Abell, who voted for 4, 11.

Def no	Player	Voted for	Votes from	Score from votes	Correct guess	Total
13	Mallach	4, 12	Barrs, Bourne, Davis, Embler, Lodge, Madnick	6		6
11	Madnick	6, 13	Abell, Boxer, Embler, Shefler	4	2	6*
4	Lodge	3, 13	Abell, Mallach, Naylor, Shepherdson, Widdis	5		5
12	Barrs	6, 13	Boxer, Mallach, Widdis	3	2	5*
3	Bourne	6, 13	Davis, Lodge, Naylor	3	2	5*
2	Davis	3, 13	Kornelis, Shefler	2		2
10	Shefler	2, 11	Kornelis	1		1
7	Boxer	11, 12	Shepherdson	1		1
8	Naylor	3, 4				0
1	Widdis	4, 12				0
No definition	Embler	11, 13				0
No definition	Abell	4, 11				0
5	Shepherdson	4, 7				0
9	Kornelis	2, 10				0

--

Paul Keating

Soustons, Nouvelle Aquitaine, France

[Judy Madnick]

Thanks for your Hanukkah wishes. Looks like my gift is being the runner up in this round!

Judy

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