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Post by Dante on Jan 23, 2014 15:49:19 GMT -5
The Snicktionary: A compilation of forty-four unique, semi-obscure words, like Snicket's "bombinating." Each submission could be formatted like a dictionary entry, with the occasional accompanying illustration, and each entry would use the word in a sentence in an ATWQ/Birthday themed way. Bonus if the sentences or words are somehow ordered to form a "story" (in the same spirit as the questions last year formed a "story" - that is, they related to one another and showed some form of progression without necessarily being a narrative). The Snicktionary is the project 667 Dark Avenue's members will be collaborating upon to celebrate Mr. Handler's 44th birthday, to be sent to him on or for his 44th birthday on the 28th of February. The premise is that we're putting together our own dictionary of forty-four words he or Mr. Snicket might want to use in their work in the future, but our definitions may leave something to be required... Essentially, pick a word and write a Snicketesque definition for it. The word can be obscure or strange or interesting to you, and the definition should be the same - unexpected, entertaining, wrong but logical. There's plenty of room for creativity; part of the joke of your definition may be that it hinges on something from ATWQ, for example, or equally it might be that it has absolutely nothing to do with it. Here are a few suggestions and examples so far: Xylophone: A word which here means whatever you want it to mean, apparently. Standoffish - demanding and violent; abusive. Defenestration - To throw out of a window My contributions: sottisier, n - a collection of ridiculous comments or stupidities; can be sometimes used as synonym for the internetpalindrome, n - a word, phrase, number or other sequence that reads the same backwards as forwards, e.g. "44" or "Poor Dan is in a droop." Palindromic numbers are also called "Scheherazade numbers," because Scheherazade was the name of the story-telling wife in the 1001 Nights. quartet, n - a group of four people or things, e.g. seasons of the year, divisions of day, movements in a symphony, suits of playing cards, a string quartet, the number of strings on each of the string quartet members' instruments, four colly birds on the fourth day of Christmas, The Beatles, four opposed camps of the morality and nature of evil, All The Wrong Questions, or the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Sugar bowl- (n) a object filled with red fish. Teuthologist (n)- A person who dedicates their life to the noble and worthwhile pursuit of studying octopi. Stain'd-by-the-Sea's resident Teuthologist left due to a combination of poor finances, literary deficiencies and an incident with a Mahjong tileInquisitive (adj)- The notion that adults term 'nosy,' children term 'bothering' and well read people term 'adventurous' He was inquisitive on what S. Theodora Markson looked like; the provided images did not satisfy his curiosity has some useful advice: For inspiration I highly recommend Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary" from 1906 (I'm also recommending it in general for fans of Snicket). Examples from the book.In the end we will want forty-four words, including at least one for every letter of the alphabet. If you notice that any letters in particular aren't represented so far, you might want to try and think of something for them. Because of the requirement for forty-four and each letter represented, not every submission may be accepted simply because there might be too many, but we'll be looking out for the best and we'll also want each person who posted to have something in the final list. This is how we've always done things, so I hope that you'll all be able to find a place in the completed project. And if you're really struggling, you could just submit a good word and ask somebody else to help you with a definition. Think of it as a challenge for them! Also, while this isn't urgent right now, but eventually, we will need art! Illustrate somebody else's definition. Perhaps it boils down to a single motif, or even a dramatic scene, or you could write out a message on the back of a postcard. If you're of an artistic mind, keep an eye on what gets submitted for inspiration. General submissions are now open! Questions as well, if you have any. My thanks to anyone who joins in or helps with this project. |
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Post by Agathological on Jan 23, 2014 16:43:25 GMT -5
chiropterologist (n)- A person, often one of beauty who trains bats to detect fire, recommend books and the undertaking of finding lost tea set pieces.
He was about to inform that chiropterologist was a better suited word than 'baticeer' but was at that moment eaten by a hungry donkey
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Post by B. on Jan 24, 2014 11:44:20 GMT -5
Penultimate (Adjective): The absolute ultimate, often overused incorrectly in describing things such as book releases.
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Post by penne on Jan 24, 2014 12:22:23 GMT -5
Quintessential (adj.): the fifth essential.
Out of that line of essentials, the fifth one is the one we call "quintessential"
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Post by Charles Vane on Jan 24, 2014 13:53:16 GMT -5
oh potato okay pen i just got yours
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Post by The Duchess on Jan 24, 2014 14:13:50 GMT -5
I have a better one for the sugar bowl:
Sugar Bowl- An object filled with red fish and Irish surnames.
example: They had a fight over the sugar bowl, without really knowing what's inside.
and two more:
Jazz- a improvisational genre of music that Ellington Feint likes.
example: Black Cat Cofee's piano plays jazz.
Schism- a fight between two groups, causing many fires.
example: after the scism, she didn't talk with her husband and told her daughter that he was eaten by a manatee.
and I have an idea: maybe we could write those words in different languages.
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Post by Skelly Craig on Jan 24, 2014 15:04:21 GMT -5
oh wow I needed about a minute until I got the Irish surnames bit.
"jazz" is not a rare word, so maybe straight-forward definitions should be reserved for those, and popular words like jazz could be defined with a twist to make them interesting
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Post by Agathological on Jan 24, 2014 15:32:07 GMT -5
xenodocheionology (n)- One who enjoys leaving their own home and living with complete strangers for a few days.
Hotel Denouement was a habitat of xenodocheionology, until it met its untimely death at the hands of an infant
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Post by Charles Vane on Jan 24, 2014 15:45:08 GMT -5
i mostly have no idea, how many of these works are snickety and how many are just random so far?
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Post by penne on Jan 24, 2014 16:13:26 GMT -5
The word itself doesn't have to be Snickety (I'm not sure what a Snickety word is even)- as long as it's somewhat unique, it's up to you. Just make sure your definition is funny/sarcastic/snickety.
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Post by The Duchess on Jan 24, 2014 16:20:07 GMT -5
Triskaidekaphobia- fear of the number 13
Example: she had Triskaidekaphobia, so she ran away when I read A Series Of Unfortunate Events.
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Post by Dante on Jan 24, 2014 16:59:13 GMT -5
I don't think we could agree on what constitutes a "Snickety" word, although we should really avoid words that have actually been defined over the course of the series (while inarguably Snickety, Mr. Handler hardly needs us to define them for him). Some of the above are themed after Mr. Snicket's work, of course, but I think that, like "bombinating" (and indeed "brae"), there's room for some obscure but perhaps surprisingly interesting words - I like the idea of using xenodocheionology, for example, although I might polish the definition a bit. But there's plenty of time for that, and for us to get a good feel for which examples work and which don't. I've been mulling over a few that I'll post when I'm ready.
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Post by Teleram on Jan 24, 2014 18:17:59 GMT -5
I want to put 'pseudonym' in the dictionary but I can't think of a right definition.
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Post by Agathological on Jan 24, 2014 18:21:31 GMT -5
I didn't like the definition I gave for it anyway. I'll work on it
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Post by Dante on Jan 25, 2014 4:40:10 GMT -5
I want to put 'pseudonym' in the dictionary but I can't think of a right definition. If anyone has a word that they want to use but can't think of a definition for, I hope they'd bring it to the thread's attention so we can try and help. Pseudonyms in particular have lots of potential. Most of Mr. Handler's output is pseudonymous. Come to that, so is most of 667's output. So you can ask yourself why that is. "A false name used to hide one's responsibility for tales of children suffering, abusive letters to the editor, theories posted on the Internet, etc. He posted about the pseudonymous author pseudonymously." Something like that. (Incidentally, example sentences aren't a mandated part of the project, but they are fun, so include one if you like.) |
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