Articulate
I am currently embroiled in a dispute. There is, apparently, a game called “Articulate” (something about describing words), which Wifey (with whom I am arguing) maintains is an adjective (because you have to be to play it) and I (with whom she is arguing) maintain is a verb (in the imperative, because that is what the game asks you to do).
I decided to do a little research to see if there were any other board games with names which fall ambiguously into lexical categories. And to prove Wifey wrong, and demonstrate that there were no adjectives in this neck of the woods.
The obvious example in my favour is “Go“, the most widely-played game in the World, and an unequivocal verb. It rapidly becomes harder: “Monopoly“, “Diplomacy“, “Chess“, “Cluedo” - an eclectic mix of real nouns and fabricated ones. A little research found another verb, though a heavily-disguised one; “Ludo” is apparently Latin, meaning “to play”…which (according to an h2g2 article) when combined with “clue”, which is English for…err…”clue”…resulted in the genesis of the word “Cluedo”! Another half-point to me?!
The first example of an ambiguous name was “Trivial Pursuit“. It is a question-answering game and so, I inferred, one might expect to be in pursuit of trivia: this makes the title a verb! However, Wifey contested that, in fact, it was a pointless (on might say trivial) activity (aka. pursuit), hence the title. Either a point to me or another smelly noun!
My final example was “Jenga“. I had a secret hope it would turn out to be a subordinating conjunction in Hebrew, but was mildly delighted to find that, in fact, it comes from the Swahili word for “build”! Another verb…and almost as ridiculous an etymology as I’d originally proposed.
Thus, I rest my case. “Articulate” is clearly intended as a verb.
Any examples, counter-examples or other good board game titles, anyone?
I’d also like a good name for this activity, preferably a word whose class is as ambiguous as possible. Or just an adjective: it’d be nice for Wifey if there was one…
December 18th, 2006 at 22:19
After over a year and a half, I have been vindicated by a pre-Christmas advertisement for the board game in question—the pronounciation is clear, and Articulate is intended as a verb after all. Fascinating.