Folks,
Here are a baker's dozen definitions of TUSHKER for you to mull over, in order of increasing character count. Please vote for two of them, by public Reply to this message, by 1:30 pm in Adelaide, South Australia, on Thursday, May 22. That's 12:30 am the same day in North American EDT, and other times in other places, or about 37 1/2 hours from now. Votes cast after that may count, depending on when I arrive at my hotel and what happens after that, but I don't expect to be able to shorten the voting period even if everyone has voted.
1. A stonecutter.
2. [also tuschker] A child.
3. A designer hand bag maker.
4. A small, upholstered footstool.
5. A canine tooth, esp. of a horse.
6. A kind of contoured automobile seat.
7. [Scot., Shetland] A type of spade used for cutting peat.
8. [Scot.] A fixed net set in a river estuary to catch salmon returning to spawn.
9. A side tunnel in an auto or train tunnel, for use by maintenance or emergency workers.
10. An animal, such as a wild boar, that uses its tusks for digging or rooting in the ground.
11. A spiral-grooved tool used in coppersmithing to create raised rope-like patterns in sheet metal.
12. The Germanic alphabet of runes used in pagan northern Europe between the fifth and eighth centuries CE.
13. A specialized carving tool used by Arctic explorers to sculpt ice formations in frozen tundra. Traditionally crafted from reindeer antlers and reinforced with walrus ivory, the tushker allows artists and adventurers alike to shape intricate designs in subzero conditions.
If you realize now that you know what TUSHKER means, please notify me privately. A public message at this stage, even if it's only "I know this word," can provide useful information to players who know the spheres of knowledge a person is familiar with.
New players are welcome to join the game by voting, as long as they don't know what TUSHKER actually means.
Vote on,
Efrem