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TOPIC: Enigmata
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Re: Enigmata 1 Month, 1 Week ago
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Karma: 7
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(My answer still is valid - life is also a verb. So "unlifed" as in being deprived of your ability "to life." Should tell that one to your puzzle guys, so next time someone thinks (s)he's smart enough to create an IQ test, the creative sod who comes up with something unexpected isn't dismissed, or "wronged." lol)
Rationale for my answer:
What is life? by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan devote a whole section entitled "Life As Verb."
Life Is a Verb, by Patti Digh is a bestseller, sparking merchandise and sporting events.
"Get up and do life." Is an acceptable phrase, used colloquially only, where I live. Nobody questions it.
Language can, does and must evolve... even if its roots are still recognizable. It requires more than one person to use it, and if one shuts down for being either too restrictive or too grumpy because it's not fun, then there's no language at all.
Even if you reject "to life" as a linguistic purist, there's the precedent of the etymology of "live" as the Anglian "lif" (predates ME "libban"). Chaucer used the contraction "lifd," meaning "lived." It was pronounced "leeft," and so, the modern spelling rule that would mandate a double ff is moot. Translated to modern rules, it probably should be spelled "leifed," which would disqualify the use of the word in this puzzle. Good thing for my answer that "life" is currently pronounced with a long i.
The argument could go either way, and I'll settle for an honourable mention. Whether one is a linguistic purist, afraid of being mocked for ignorance, or a radical user that abhors pedantry, or varying between them depending on the circumstance, one is going to be labelled according to the judgementalist's regard. Labels of any kind applied to me for anything I do are like wet bandaids: they never stick.  I'd rather be brave enough to throw out an off-the-wall answer and be seen perhaps as an ignoramous than have no answer at all and remain a pedant, because for me it was a group challenge and not a competition. Besides, I spent far too much of my life as a dogmatic editor. It's time to get a lif. |
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Last Edit: 2010/07/30 08:19 By Trillian.Reason: Rationale added for interest's sake - and placed here so as not to hijack the thread.
A point in every direction is the same as no point at all. [Trillian suddenly spins around and winks out of existence.]
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Re: Enigmata 1 Month, 1 Week ago
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Karma: 13
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Sorry to deright (aka wrong) you, but that ain't a word.
English has gaps in productivity when it comes to derivational affixation. While anyone can recognize what's meant by unlifed, it's not a word and may never achieve status as such, seeing as how killed, murdered, aborted, and the like already exist. You can't just start adding prefixes and suffixes and declare these things to be words.
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Re: Enigmata 1 Month, 1 Week ago
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Karma: 1
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Trill I'll take you at your word that your entry is an acceptable yet obscure answer to the puzzle. I'd hate to see a light-hearted thread unlifed by a debate over the validity of a word. Kudos to you for coming up with something I hadn't thought of!  |
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Re: Enigmata 1 Month, 1 Week ago
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Karma: 13
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Booger. I got a 6-letter one: Rosa-Ry (for info on Ry: www.quickbabynames.com/meaning-of-Ry.html)
Back to the baby name sites and unabridged dictionary.
Unless we can count IPA spellings, in which case I win: /ˈroʊzəri/ |
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Last Edit: 2010/07/30 08:43 By barefootwriter.
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Re: Enigmata 1 Month, 1 Week ago
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Karma: 13
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Bud,
I know what it is (a little birdie hinted me), but I'll give someone else a chance to answer.
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Re: Enigmata 1 Month, 1 Week ago
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Karma: 13
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Ooooh, rebalance is a nice 9-letter one.
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