Wasted?

LOL Ren, good one!

The verb "to husband" (as in animal/farm husbandry) is to manage resources/belongings in an efficient manner. So yes, wasting those resources through mismanagement would be the antonym, archaic as it may sound to some.

Where does that leave the wives? As "non-persons", historically/etymologically-wise. Until very recently in "the big picture", wives were considered as "belongings" (chattel, really), which is probably why there is no "wifery" word that correlates with the word "husbandry".

These days, women are of course allowed to get degrees in Animal Husbandry (in some locations it is also offered as part of veterinary courses). I'm sure that eventually a group of "PC" advocates will get this changed to Non-Humanoid Personry instead LOL

Today's Mind Melt (Set 11):

______________________________________________________
short is related to tract

short means "the location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed"
tract means "an extended area of land"
______________________________________________________

Mmmm! A bit tenuous (put mildly).



(Apologies if someone reading this hasn't done Mind Melt yet and comes across this set.)

I had this - and got it wrong!

I got a classic one today:

The opposite of front is rear

You said: back

front means "the side that is seen or that goes first"
rear means "the side that goes last or is not normally seen"

The opposite of frontward is back

You said: rear

frontward means "at or to or toward the front"
back means "at or to or toward the back or rear"

This trio should not be in the same set.

***
real is related to complex quantity

You said: divisor

real means "any rational or irrational number"
complex quantity means "a number of the form a+bi where a and b are real numbers and i is the square root of -1"

equivalent-binary-digit factor is related to divisor

You said: reckoning

equivalent-binary-digit factor means "the average number of binary digits needed to express one radix digit in a non-binary numeration system"
divisor means "one of two or more integers that can be exactly divided into another integer"

integral is related to reckoning

You said: complex quantity

integral means "the result of a mathematical integration"
reckoning means "problem solving that involves numbers or quantities"

***

Mathematicians can perhaps distinguish finely between these three options, but most of our players are no professional mathematicians.

I don't usually complain about Mind Melt. In fact, I love those ambiguities that make me really stop and think if I can find a way to make one pairing fit better than another. But this one is very frustrating! Neurohormone and adrenaline had to be matched to endocrine and internal secretion. Having decided that adrenaline, which is produced by the adrenal gland, a part of the endocrine system, would match best with endocrine , leaving heurohormone to be matched with internal secretion. Not much difference, but I thought I had picked it. Wrong. Okay. let's look at the definitions to see if there's a clue there that might have helped me look at it the right way. Here's what we get:

neurohormone means "a hormone that is released by nerve impulses (e.g., norepinephrine or vasopressin)"

endocrine means "the secretion of an endocrine gland that is transmitted by the blood to the tissue on which it has a specific effect"

adrenaline means "a catecholamine secreted by the adrenal medulla in response to stress (trade name Adrenalin)"

internal secretion means "the secretion of an endocrine gland that is transmitted by the blood to the tissue on which it has a specific effect"

Since the two right-hand terms have identical definitions in the dictionary being used, I never really had a chance! Now I feel better.

Sometimes you just have to shrug your shoulders and accept the system has defeated you. I have learned some interesting uses of words by playing the game - American English is certainly a different language at times from English as I know it!

How the hell did these two words get into the same mind melt game, remove and removal. Not surprisingly I chose the wrong answers. This is the second time this week that I've had a quiz with synonyms in.

I had that set, Starlord. I realized that the matches made sense, because "remove" is a verb, and went with a verb: "wipe away", I think it was. "Removal" being a noun went with another noun. Sometimes finding the correct answer is as subtle as that. However, it'd be nice if they weren't in the same set!

[quote=reSometimes finding the correct answer is as subtle as that. However, it'd be nice if they weren't in the same set! [/quote]

I don't think basic parts of speech is all that subtle! But seeing my post at the top of the page reminds me that THAT one is too subtle for me to work out. And I'd almost recovered from the trauma

I personally don't think it's that subtle either, but can get you when you're rushing in a timed set! I would say if the parts of speech match up o.k., then it's o.k. for the pairs to stay in.

Hmm, I object! From the definitions section:

holdup man is an armed thief
You said: a holdup man who stops a vehicle and steals from it

highwayman is a holdup man who stops a vehicle and steals from it
You said: an armed thief

Not sure I can agree on the "unfairness" of that one.

I've always thought that a "Highwayman" is pretty much specific to a thief whose "modus operandi" is to rob passengers on a ROAD of some sort (be they walking travellers, horse-drawn carriages, or steam/gas-powered modes of transportation such as cars, Brinks trucks and trains), whereas a "holdup man" is a "non specialised" robber, but who quite often focuses on locations like banks or convenience stores.

If given the two options in the same set, I'd have picked highwayman to equal any answer with "vehicle" in it (besides if you've ever read "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes, or Dick Turpin and "Black Bess", you'd probably never think of such a rogue in any other way LOL)

Lol, Jakeroo, that's what I had first, but the temptation to match "holdup man" to "holdup man" won out. But by those definitions, if a holdup man is an armed thief, and a highwayman is a holdup man, then a highwayman *should* be an armed thief as well. And that's why I'm still confused. But I do see your point, thanks for the reply.

This is probably the most helpful definition-to-clue I've ever seen in the Mind Melt. (Set 10)

pay out is pay out

Yeah, that's it.

Just a minor suggestion, can we have a different definition?

Darthrevan: but it could be the case that a dashing highwayman doesn't necessarily need a traditional weapon. Such charm would be called "DISarming", no? (giggles - and yes I DO see your point as well) : )

George: okay, I think you might be the first person in this thread to actually complain that something was TOO easy LOL!

This would have been so much easier to get with the correct spelling - pasta rather than paste:

fettuccini is related to alimentary paste

You said: product

fettuccini means "pasta in flat strips wider than linguine"
alimentary paste means "shaped and dried dough made from flour and water and sometimes egg"

alimentary paste, a shaped and dried dough prepared from semolina, farina, wheat flour, or a mixture of these with water or milk and with or without egg or egg yolk. see pasta

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1347585/alimentary-paste

It's not wrong, just different.

You live and learn. Alimentary paste sounds like something that's halfway through being digested!

Another close relationship.

-------------------------------------------------
fluency is related to expressive style



You said: speech act

fluency means "powerful and effective language"
expressive style means "a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period"
--------------------------------------------------
dictation is related to speech act



You said: expressive style

dictation means "an authoritative direction or instruction to do something"
speech act means "the use of language to perform some act"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Only after having submitted the wrong choice, I see why this is the desired pairing.

Hmmm...

overfly is related to travel

You said: locomote

overfly means "fly over"
travel means "change location"
----------------------------------------
sift is related to locomote

You said: travel

sift means "move as if through a sieve"
locomote means "change location"

If you take the time to pore through all the definitions you can find for the four words involved, you will find some link! The two words that have the same definition given in the game are not identical, and the relationship is being found from another part of the fuller definition.

How could anyone not get this right? From the first section:

use up

matches with

use up (resources or materials); "this car consumes a lot of gas"; "We exhausted our savings"; "They run through 20 bottles of wine a week"


Edit: Where do they do that wine thing?

They visit my house, or drop into the Quiz Author Lounge when the chocolate has run out.

The opposite of activity is inertia
You said: non-engagement
activity means "the trait of being active"
inertia means "a disposition to remain inactive or inert"

The opposite of involution is non-engagement
You said: inertia
involution means "the act of sharing in the activities of a group"
non-engagement means "withdrawing from the activities of a group"


The shades of meaning are awfully close here.

The two that match both describe an act of going in or going out; the other two dexcribe a tendency rather than a specific action. I would have no trouble deciding how to match them

jook house is related to spliff


jook house means "a small roadside establishment in the southeastern United States where you can eat and drink and dance to music provided by a jukebox"
spliff means "marijuana leaves rolled into a cigarette for smoking"

I guess I don't see the connection - is it being suggested that a marijuana "joint" (cigarette) is the same as a jook/juke joint (building)?

Makes me laugh...

that one has been "dealt with" several pages up.