I'm not a wordsmith sort of guy, never have been (crossword puzzles are not my thing). But I have noticed that wordsmithing attracts lots of attention in the bloggosphere. When blogger 'Sweet Bluesette'; put up a post titled
Syzygy (a straight line between two celestial bodies), the excitement among certain bloggers in the discovery of this word was almost palpable; the post garnered 17 comments.
So here is Earwigoagin's wordsmith competition: In conversation with Stuart Walker, he mentioned that, in the early 1950's, International 14 sailors considered the following format as lucky when naming International 14's (he thinks this may originally be a Portuguese tradition):
Seven Letters with Four Vowels
Here are some of the International 14 boat names from that period (1950's) that follow this convention;
- Joyeuse - Charlamagne's sword
- Bacalao - Codfish
- Rio Nina - (which probably isn't a proper Spanish usage - but who cares)
- Barilea- (I think this may have Scottish origins - not sure)
So have at it, boat names real, or imagined using the format,
Seven Letters with Four Vowels. No real prize, just a tip of the hat to the authors wit, wordly knowledge, and intellectual prowess in wordsmithing.
69 comments:
Hideous
Boobies
Wearier
Bootees
What impresses me the most is that Tillerman was able to correctly read six of those new Captcha words in seven minutes.
Actually, Captcha just came up with a good one:
Elopygu
I think that's Greek for getting married without your parents' permission.
And if you read one of Tillerman's entries backwards, you get:
Seaboob
O Docker, I think elopygu is Turkish.
We had an E-scow named Emotion
Beastie
We Baaad
Ooh La La (my glass Euro)
For that annoying dude who always wins:
I Blu By U
For that annoying dude who always loses.
O Wo Is Me
Bazooka
So Nauti
Iceboat
O'Banana
Ukulele
from one of the WV:
Ualimes
(I thought I already posted this... sorry if it double-posts.)
******* ... Sorry Rod , mine is probably too rude for your blog !
Yoko Ono
Ravioli
my2fish: What the hell is an "Ualimes"? I'm inherently lazy and apparently so is google. Neither of us has a clue...
George - I have no clue.
It was right there in the Captcha word verification, and met the criteria for # of letters and vowels, so I took it as a sign.
Feel free to make up whatever you would like for it.
Under Armour Limes? Tighter than your average lime.
Ciriole
Unusual
Nauseas
Say, this Captcha word verification business could lead to an entirely new language. I wonder if "Ualimes" is a noun or a verb??? I'll bet Eskimos have 30 or 40 different words for "Ualimes". (I have confess I'm getting a rather bit tired of proving I'm not as clever as your average robot.)
Tillerman: maybe you'd name a laser "Nauseas" but if Tweezerman ever does that to a Moth Boat I'll drive over to his house and give him a dope slap!
My Inuit
Queasier
Yes. I know it has 5 vowels but I like it.
Aerious.
Yes, I know it has 5 vowels, but it has all of them - and in the right order - so I like it.
Let us not forget the Japanese word for disharmony:
Karaoke
Or the Roman God of Texting:
Vacuous
This is all very...
Fatuous
Well, no one said if we had to be genuine or serious, amorous or furious.
That's just where it leads when you begin the beguine.
Some of these various words are curious; some of them are devious or just plain noxious. This whole competition is becoming tedious and is making me anxious to know who won.
Avocado
I thought there were to be no winners or losers in this game.
It's more like cruising than racing - what matters more than the destination is the journey.
I woke up at 3 in the morning last night and thought...
Bilious.
Then I went back to sleep.
Rod,
The use of 7 letters in a yacht's name is (was) an accepted custom for a long time ("America" for example). I'm such a Nerd about older yachts that I went through the Lloyds register of the mid 1930s to see how true that was. My own IOD "Flicker" had 7 letters (which was what got me started on this meaningless investigation). Sure enough, a great preponderance of yachts in the Register had 7 letter names.
A funny story about "Flicker" (which was a well known boat around the Bay in the middle of the last century) was when a Gibson Island lady who was accepting registrations for a race and flew into a rage. "These sailors will just name their boats ANYTHING!", she cried. Wondering what the fuss was about, upon closer examination it turned out that FLICKER was written with the L a little too close to the I.....
Alabama
Arizona
Indiana
Baggywrinkle
I know, it has 12 letters and 8 consonants, but I like it.
Earwigo
Romaine
Arugula
Que Pasa
O O SEVEN
We eventually named our 1969 Int-14, Wet & Wild. But for some time it was Tres Veces, which I thought was a place in Mexico meaning three reasons for being there: wind, water and sand.
Cabarete
I know it's 4 vowels and 4 consonants but I like it.
LEONARA
Aileron
Alerion
Meatier
SCOOBIE
Foresee
Minutia
Minutia
Manatee
Sunapee
Referee
Beefily
Automat
Goalies
Teatime
Thoreau
Oceanic
Can we stop this competition now and just declare O Docker the winner?
O Docker can't be the winner.
It has four consonants.
My mistake.
Of course, GEORGE A is the winner.
Ooh! (modest blush)--Does this involve a prize or is this one of those lofty " competing is it's own reward" kinda things?
Tweezerman's blogspot is teaching me latin by asking me to practice typing these words: " vedurti inguidi". Sounds impressive. Maybe I'll incorporate them into my family motto if I can figure out what they mean. Hmmm, a new contest?
I crewed on a Kirby V I14 named Stanley Kowalsky in the early 1970s.
Equalite
Fatuous
Somalia
Seriema
Oh I guess someone else said fatuous. My mistake.
I think Avocado should have won, because Alerion is already a boat name, and therefore plagiarized.
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