3605 🗳️ SUBETH

[Paul Keating]

I have thirteen definitions of SUBETH for you to choose from: please vote for two, by the deadline, which is Sunday 14 December at 18h15 CET (countdown timer here: ⏱️), or just under 44 hours from time of posting. Early closing will apply as usual.

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.
2	In certain polygynous societies, a term for the daughter of one’s father’s co-wife; a half-sister through a different mother.
3	Sl. Tending towards the unethical; particularly in a professional situation where no formal code of ethics applies.
4	A steward who buys provisions, esp. in a college, Inn of Court, or monastery.
5	An ornamental sari clip, often made of gold.
6	Abnormal, esp. excessively deep, sleep.
7	An act of sabotage.
8	A dead body; corpse.
9	Immediately. [fm Dutch subiet~sebiet]
10	A lesser demon mentioned in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
11	A classification term in comparative linguistics for embedded phonetic thresholds within dialect studies.
12	The corky layer above the cambium that gives rise to the markings on young cherry tree branches. [Latin suber ‘cork’]
13	Informal late 19c/early 20c medical term for being under anaesthesia. [from sub ‘under’, and ether, an early anaesthetic now seldom used]

--

Paul Keating

Soustons, Nouvelle Aquitaine, France

[Shani Naylor]

I'll kick off by voting 3 & 4.

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[Chowie]

11 and 13. 

Sorry I missed the deadline. Too much Christmas,  too little time.

~Bending under the weight of His mercies~

​"For we cannot do anything against the truth, 

but only for the truth​." 

II Corinthians 13:8

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[John Barrs]

#6 and #13 seem a bit alike so I'll go for them

JohnnyB

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[Tim Bourne]

6 and 13, please.

Best wishes,
Tim Bourne.

[Efrem Mallach]

I'll try 4 and 12, please.

Efrem

=======================

On Dec 12, 2025, at 4:20 PM, Paul Keating <defin...@boargules.com> wrote:

I have thirteen definitions of SUBETH for you to choose from: please vote for two, by the deadline, which is Sunday 14 December at 18h15 CET (countdown timer here: ⏱️), or just under 44 hours from time of posting. Early closing will apply as usual.

4	A steward who buys provisions, esp. in a college, Inn of Court, or monastery.

[Tim Lodge]

3 and 13 please.

3

Sl. Tending towards the unethical; particularly in a professional situation where no formal code of ethics applies.

13

Informal late 19c/early 20c medical term for being under anaesthesia. [from sub ‘under’, and ether, an early anaesthetic now seldom used]

-- Tim L

[Judy Madnick]

6 and 13 today.

Judy Madnick 

On Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 4:20 PM Paul Keating <defin...@boargules.com> wrote:

--

[Daniel B Widdis]

4 and 12 

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 12, 2025, at 1:20 PM, Paul Keating <defin...@boargules.com> wrote:



--

[Glenn Thomas Davis]

3 and 13.

—Glenn

. . .

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

—Plutarch

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dixonary/275F21A3-409B-4E65-A411-DF25BF64D2BE%40dixonary.net.

[Hugo Kornelis]

Hi Paul,

I believe 1 and 2 and 10. That is one more than the rules allow, so let's hope that I don't drop the right one.

My votes are for 2 and 10.
(and I feel that there has to be a joke somewhere in the caombination)

Cheers,
Hugo

Op 12-12-2025 om 22:20 schreef Paul Keating:

[Hugo Kornelis]

Funny enough, automated dealer tools such as Dixonary and Coryphaeus would be completely thrown off by messages such as the below.

But only the old farts among us remember dealing with those tools.

Op 13-12-2025 om 12:06 schreef Hugo Kornelis:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dixonary/d1e93131-2bdc-4490-b2ff-e9f59e04059a%40perFact.info.

[Paul Keating]

Speaking for Coryphæus, that isn’t quite accurate. It was programmed to parse a message for an adjacent pair of integers that could be definition numbers (so, ignoring datestamps and geographical coordinates), select the last such pair in the message, and offer that pair as proposed votes. That would have dealt accurately with this message. For messier cases, there was a Look again button that let the user cycle through all of the pairs, but in general it was just quicker to overtype the wrong guesses.

It was impossible to guess with 100% accuracy, of course, so the dealer always had to confirm the choice, and that made accepting the wrong guess a PIBKAC, not a bug. It’s true I never got around to handling votes of the form ten and two. Only one player did that, and it happens occasionally even now, but not enough to justify the effort.

As for Autodealer, it didn’t handle vote messages at all, only definitions.

[Hugo Kornelis]

Damn. My memory is not what it used to ... wait, what was I saying?

Thanks for the refresher, Paul!

Op 13-12-2025 om 12:57 schreef Paul Keating:

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[Paul Keating]

Not to worry, Hugo. I particularly remember that bit of parsing because despite numerous rewrites it was never as accurate as I wanted. And, as you say, it was very long ago. Coryphæus began in 1996, and version 4.7.7 came out in 2012–that’s 16 technically tumultuous years. The burden of maintaining a program with so much baggage had become too much. Even so, I carried on using it until 2016. Then, finally, I got yelled at one time too many for breaking nonexistent rules, and I left the game with no plans to return. So I didn’t need Coryphæus anymore, and ceased to care. 

I have toyed more than once with the idea of a complete rewrite, most recently in 2022, when I wrote an 8-page roadmap. But it’s a big project, and a spreadsheet will do about two-thirds of what I want.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dixonary/fb1e7149-0338-453f-9b90-c0d9402f7dc4%40perFact.info.

[Hugo Kornelis]

I must say, I did really enjoy using it. Once the mail integration was set up and running, it really worked very smooth.

So, a much belated thanks for the hard work you did to make and maintain Coryphaeus.

Op 13-12-2025 om 15:38 schreef Paul Keating:

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[Eric Boxer]

I'll vote for 11 and 12.

-- Eric

[Judy Madnick]

Yes, "Cory" was definitely an app I enjoyed using, although I must admit that Chris Carson (may his memory be a blessing) did "hold my hand" via telephone a few times when I ran into some issues. I eventually went to manual scoring, and the rest is history!

 

Judy

---

Original Message

From: "Hugo Kornelis" <hu...@perFact.info>

To: dixo...@googlegroups.com;

Date: 12/13/2025 10:31:21 AM

Subject: Re: [Dixonary] 3605 🗳️ SUBETH

[Judy Madnick]

I'll accept the title of "old fart," as I do remember using "Cory."

 

Judy

---

Original Message

From: "Hugo Kornelis" <hu...@perFact.info>

To: dixo...@googlegroups.com;

Date: 12/13/2025 6:22:06 AM

Subject: Re: [Dixonary] 3605 🗳️ SUBETH

Funny enough, automated dealer tools such as Dixonary and Coryphaeus would be completely thrown off by messages such as the below.

But only the old farts among us remember dealing with those tools.

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[France International/Mike Shefler]

I'll fall for 2 and 11.

--Mike

[Tony Abell]

I'll try 4 and 11:

> 4 A steward who buys provisions, esp. in a college, Inn of Court, or monastery.

[nancygoat]

I'll take 4 and 7.

Nancy