View Full Version : Nerdy forum game: the next generation
Okay, here's another one. The game is antonyms, one person posts a word and the other has to post the opposite. For example:
Poster 1: North
Poster 2: South; fecund
Poster 3: Barren
Et cetera. Yes I know we can get into an endless argument about what exactly an "opposite" is, but let's not. Just use common sense. Of course the trick is to pick either a pair of things that are obscure or better yet a pair of things where one term is well known but the other isn't.
I'll start off with an easy one: Oriental.
SquareRootOfBob
03-07-2006, 08:00
Occidental; caliginous
WildBerry
03-07-2006, 08:55
Occidental; caliginous
Luminous; ferial.
EDT: Just realised my post may be false, depending on what SquarerootOfBob meant - waiting for a judge here.
Luminous; ferial.
Lent: Pugnacious
I must really suck at english or then youre just messing around. Those are some weird words...
In-pugnacious :laugh:: dog (now i understand)
WildBerry
03-07-2006, 09:50
Lent: Pugnacious
Peaceable; pukka.
Peaceable; pukka.
Depending which you mean, there's quite a lot of "opposites". Ersatz maybe? Or simply "gross"?
Anyway, nocturnal.
P.S. try to keep it to words that really have an obvious opposite.
Anyway, nocturnal.
Nocturnal? That actually has an opposite? There are animals that we classify as existant only during the day? I can think only of plants, so...
Photosynthetic; Galumph.
Xenon[XoA]
03-07-2006, 11:19
Nocturnal? That actually has an opposite? There are animals that we classify as existant only during the day? I can think only of plants, so...
Photosynthetic; Galumph.
Agile; Arle
Arle? What is that, some french word? Are you cheating? :angry:
Edit: I found the damn word... I had to look in the biggest dictionary in my house, so I nearly broke my back lifting that mammoth off the bookshelf. I disqualify myself because I had to look it up, but I don't envy the man that knows that word. If it's the same word, it's actually merchant jargon from Scotland and North England. Technically still English, but goddamn it, NOBODY USES THAT WORD!
Nocturnal? That actually has an opposite? There are animals that we classify as existant only during the day? I can think only of plants, so...
Photosynthetic; Galumph.
No, nocturnal has an exact opposite. A word meaning being awake during the day and asleep at night.
']Agile; Arle
Hmmm, I think I'll have to disqualify dialect words; they're not really English (we could get into all kinds of strife with things like Scots dialect). Anyway does it have a precise opposite or is it just an obscure word?
P.S. Galumph is a verb where agile is an adjective, you really should find an equivalent verb. If there isn't one blame HoboGod... :grin:
Hmmm, I think I'll have to disqualify dialect words; they're not really English (we could get into all kinds of strife with things like Scots dialect). Anyway does it have a precise opposite or is it just an obscure word?
The Random House Dictionary (which was stolen from a library; don't ask me how they snuck it out, i bought it at a rummage sale) defines "arle" as an instalation payment made in advance. Anything along the lines of "credit" should be pretty much the opposite.
P.S. Galumph is a verb where agile is an adjective, you really should find an equivalent verb. If there isn't one blame HoboGod... :grin:
Pfff, I can name like twenty different ways to not galumph. =P
Xenon[XoA]
03-07-2006, 13:09
No, nocturnal has an exact opposite. A word meaning being awake during the day and asleep at night.
Hmmm, I think I'll have to disqualify dialect words; they're not really English (we could get into all kinds of strife with things like Scots dialect). Anyway does it have a precise opposite or is it just an obscure word?
P.S. Galumph is a verb where agile is an adjective, you really should find an equivalent verb. If there isn't one blame HoboGod... :grin:
It's sooo less obscure than *scrolls up* calignious, pukka, and occidental...
it sounds cooler too.
exact opposite?...hm Maybe, enslave.
I thought it meant to employ someone, or pay them for services rendered kinda.
']It's sooo less obscure than *scrolls up* calignious, pukka, and occidental...
Caliginous has latin roots, it isn't too hard to guess. Pukka and occidental are tough ones, but at least I was able to find those ones on dictionary.com. I've tried five online dictionaries with your word and they all thought I was talking about some ancient castle.
I thought it meant to employ someone, or pay them for services rendered kinda.
I dunno, it could be. The definition was really vauge. It mentioned paying money in advance and then tried to give an example.
That would be "diurnal"
That's right. I can't see anything else we're stuck on so I'll post the next one:
"Widdershins"
(shouldn't be too hard)
']It's sooo less obscure than *scrolls up* calignious, pukka, and occidental...
it sounds cooler too.
exact opposite?...hm Maybe, enslave.
I thought it meant to employ someone, or pay them for services rendered kinda.
Not saying it's a bad word, it's just a bit too tough for this game. Dialectic words can be really difficult - you won't even find them in a lot of dictionaries.
Widdershins? Sounds german, I'm not good with german roots. Too close to english most of the time so I never bothered to study them. :(
It's Old English I believe, which is a Germanic language so you're close!
buttershug
03-07-2006, 15:30
Widdershins:Clockwise
Larboard:
Hey if you are going to use an archaic term that has been replaced by a better alternative so will I.
Widdershins:Clockwise
Larboard:
Seaboard; Perambulate
Widdershins:Clockwise
Larboard:
No, Widdershins only means clockwise in the northern hemisphere, in the southern it's anticlockwise. There's a word for the exact opposite.
buttershug
04-07-2006, 00:12
No, Widdershins only means clockwise in the northern hemisphere, in the southern it's anticlockwise. There's a word for the exact opposite.
I meant that clockwise is the opposite of widdershins. AFAIK up here widdershins means counterclockwise.
BTW are sundials backwards down there?
And Seaboard is not the opposite of larboard.
Eh? Larboard isn't the port side of the ship where they load and unload goods? I've never seen that word used for anything but shipping.
buttershug
04-07-2006, 00:29
Eh? Larboard isn't the port side of the ship where they load and unload goods? I've never seen that word used for anything but shipping.
And I"ve only heard the other side called starboard.
I meant that clockwise is the opposite of widdershins. AFAIK up here widdershins means counterclockwise.
BTW are sundials backwards down there?
Yep. If you make one of your fingers the shadow of the needle on the sundial (forget its name... wait is it the gnomon?) and your other the sun, make it rise in the east and go across the sky below your sundial and you'll see the shadow go clockwise. But if you make it go above the sundial the shadow goes anticlockwise.
No-one knows the opposite of widdershins? I'll give it a little while longer and then I'll give the answer.
P.S. I've never heard seaboard, neither my dictionary nor wikipedia has it.
And I"ve only heard the other side called starboard.
Oh, damnit, that's what I meant. I'm using a thesaurus from now on. >_<
Well, that's probably long enough. The opposite of widdershins is deosil.
Cameo (the kind of jewelry, not the film term).
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