3575 🏆 DISCESS

[Paul Keating]

In this round, Shani’s deprive definition won, with an emphatic 7 points. Mike was runner-up with 5 points.

Discess really means, or rather once meant, ‘departure,’ and is a very rare word that appears only in old versions of a single verse of the Bible, Acts 20:29, translating the Latin word discessio ‘departure, absence’.

It is a puzzle why the Wyclifite translator chose it. The KJV has after my departing: I speculate the translator avoided that word because, at the time (1425 or thereabouts), a more common sense was ‘dividing’. The word departure was not available: English borrowed it from French only a century later. To us, the obvious alternative would be when I am gone. You will see that in many modern translations. But Wyclif and his early followers would probably have considered it too far removed from the Latin original.

Discess has a modern form: it is decease, which comes to us from the same Latin word, but via French; and (like many words for death) was originally a euphemism.

1	To methodically dismantle a plan or idea before it’s fully formed, often out of caution or perfectionism; frequently referred to as “analysis paralysis.”
	Vote from Debbie Embler
	Submitted by: Judy Madnick, who voted for 2, 9. Score: 1.
2	The moment of psychological detachment that occurs just before a person decides to abandon a task or relationship.
	Vote from Judy Madnick
	Submitted by: Rey, who voted for 4, 11. Score: 1.
3	Impressionable; particularly when faced with criticism or insults.
	No votes
	Submitted by: Eric Boxer, who voted for 5, 7. Score: 0+2=2*.
4	Obsolete, rare. To deprive (a person) of a thing.
	Votes from Johnny Barrs, Glenn Davis, Tim Lodge, Efrem Mallach, Rey, Mike Shefler, Dan Widdis
	Submitted by: Shani Naylor, who voted for 9, 12. Score: 7.
5	A natural subdivision of a taxonomic group.
	Vote from Eric Boxer
	Submitted by: Debbie Embler, who voted for 1, 14. Score: 1.
6	To lay off; to make redundant.
	Vote from Tim Bourne
	Submitted by: Nancy Shepherdson, who voted for 7, 14. Score: 1+2=3*.
7	Departure.
	Votes from Johnny Barrs, Eric Boxer, Nancy Shepherdson
	Real Definition. Score: D3.
8	Archaic. Failure.
	Votes from Tim Bourne, Mike Shefler
	Submitted by: Efrem Mallach, who voted for 4, 10. Score: 2.
9	To lose one’s train of thought.
	Votes from Glenn Davis, Tim Lodge, Judy Madnick, Shani Naylor, Dan Widdis
	Submitted by: Mike Shefler, who voted for 4, 8. Score: 5.
10	To recover something or someone from a hiding place.
	Vote from Efrem Mallach
	Submitted by: Tim Lodge, who voted for 4, 9. Score: 1.
11	A fastening used to provide flexibility in chain mail.
	Vote from Rey
	Submitted by: Tim Bourne, who voted for 6, 8. Score: 1.
12	Nonce word. To be defenestrated; that is, to be thrown out of a window.
	Vote from Shani Naylor
	Submitted by: Johnny Barrs, who voted for 4, 7. Score: 1+2=3*.
13	To redirect a cyberattack to a monitored decoy system rather than blocking it, allowing security teams to study the attacker's methods.
	No votes
	Submitted by: Dan Widdis, who voted for 4, 9.
14	A formal canonical process by which a priest or religious is released from their vows and returned to lay status, distinct from laicization in that it requires the consent of three separate ecclesiastical authorities.
	Votes from Debbie Embler, Nancy Shepherdson
	Submitted by: Glenn Davis, who voted for 4, 9. Score: 2.

Def no	Player	Voted for	Votes from	Score from votes	Correct guess	Total
4	Naylor	9, 12	Barrs, Davis, Lodge, Mallach, Rey, Shefler, Widdis	7		7
9	Shefler	4, 8	Davis, Lodge, Madnick, Naylor, Widdis	5		5
12	Barrs	4, 7	Naylor	1	2	3*
6	Shepherdson	7, 14	Bourne	1	2	3*
8	Mallach	4, 10	Bourne, Shefler	2		2
14	Davis	4, 9	Embler, Shepherdson	2		2
3	Boxer	5, 7			2	2*
1	Madnick	2, 9	Embler	1		1
5	Embler	1, 14	Boxer	1		1
2	Rey	4, 11	Madnick	1		1
10	Lodge	4, 9	Mallach	1		1
11	Bourne	6, 8	Rey	1		1
13	Widdis	4, 9				0

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Paul Keating

Soustons, Nouvelle Aquitaine, France