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View Full Version : Round 1795 Vote for Mamihlapinatapai


mshefler
March 27th, 2007, 06:39 PM
Here are 18 fabulous definitions for mamihlapinatapai, one of which is real.
Vote for your two favorites no later than 9 AM EDT, Thursday, March 29.
Thursday is often a busy day for me, so don't be alarmed if I don't get around
to posting the results until late afternoon.

1. _Algon (pidgin)_ a young man dependent on his parents and unable or
unwilling to provide for himself. [lit., "one who still laps his
mother's milk in his father's house"]

2. fish wrapped in wet coconut fronds and baked in the coals of a
coconut shell fire.

3. a pathological belief that one is inhabited by an evil spirit.

4. a Polynesian feast and celebration that traditionally involves
drunkenness and wife-swapping.

5. grass and leaf thatch used as roofing on yurts and similar dwellings.

6. the Aztec calendar.

7. _Tahiti_ the white coconut.

8. _Hawaiian_ a species of trigger fish. [lit., "small fish with a pig's
face"]

9. a feeling on awakening that one should not have mixed ouzo with red
wine the previous evening.

10. _Tonga_ the grandmother of the King or Queen of Tonga.

11. _Maori_ the orange roughy, _Hoplostethus atlanticus_, a
bottom-dwelling fish of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans.

12. a rounded hill or protuberance.

13. a large sarong, apron or skirt [pidgin fr. the Gilbert and Ellis
Isles - lit. "the skirt of the woman with a large lap"]

14. a small single-masted coastal vessel, rigged either with square sails
or as a cutter or sloop.

15. _Yaghan_ a look shared by two people with each wishing that the
other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one
wants to start.

16. in Samoa, a sculpture representing a standing young woman usually
depicted as pregnant.

17. any large accumulation of candies or other sweets.

18. _Maori_ a stranger; a foreigner.

Guerri Stevens
March 27th, 2007, 08:26 PM
I vote for 1 and 3.

Guerri

Tim Bourne
March 28th, 2007, 06:21 AM
I have the feeling a word as long as that can't be used
very often!

So let's have 4 and 8, please.

Best wishes,

Tim B

Dave Cunningham
March 28th, 2007, 06:54 AM
1 and 15 for the obvious reasoning ... (and WTH is "Yaghan"?)

Dave

Daniel B. Widdis
March 28th, 2007, 10:47 AM
Wow. What a collection. Not often that I have more than two defs that
I really want to reward for creativity.

I'll settle for the "one who still laps his mother's milk in his
father's house" and "the skirt of the woman with a large lap".

That's 1 and 13.

--
Dan Widdis

BobStone
March 28th, 2007, 11:27 AM
#16 and #18 for absolutely no reason I can think of.

-Bob Stone

Tony Abell
March 28th, 2007, 09:54 PM
I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony







I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony







I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony







I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony







I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony

Tony Abell
March 28th, 2007, 10:53 PM
I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony







I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony







I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony







I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony







I think I'll have a helping of Maori and then I'll have Samoa: 11 and 16.

-- Tony