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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

294.0. "A Not Inconjurical Note" by BELFST::MULLAN (Installations/Decsite - Belfast) Wed Dec 17 1986 03:39

    			
    
    				CONJURICAL
    			       INCONJURICAL
    
    Ever heard of them, or better still, used them?
    
    Conjurical means that something is correct, although things are
    never conjurical, as in "That wall is conjurical", rather things
    are not conjurical or inconjurical, as in "That wall is not quite
    conjurical" or "That wall is inconjurical" meaning perhjaps that
    the wall doesn't suit it's surroundings, hasn't been properly finished,
    is crooked, or whatever.
    
    I have 'phoned the people at the Oxford English Dictionary and they
    deny all knowledge of the word, so maybe its peculiar to Belfast.
    
    Gerry
    
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
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294.1How obscure is it?APTECH::RSTONEWed Dec 17 1986 10:2510
    Has "conjurical" or "inconjurical" ever appeared in a published
    document? Or is it something you heard somewhere (Belfast)?
    
    Where did you learn of its definition?...by context or from a separate
    reference?
    
    If it is as obscure as it appears, I would certainly not try to
    use the word if there are others which would more adequately
    communicate the intended meaning.
    
294.2maybe a local corruption...PSTJTT::TABERWho hates vice hates manWed Dec 17 1986 13:073
Might it be a corruption of "canonical?"

					>>>==>PStJTT
294.3or a conjectural incongruityREGENT::MERRILLIf you've got it, font it.Tue Dec 23 1986 13:474
    Sounds like an incongruous conjecture altogether!
    
    	RMM
    
294.4Better late...AMUSED::UPPERJ'peux pas assez d'pouvoir-r-r, M'sieu'Fri Jan 09 1987 17:3610
Conjure is fairly common backwoods for "think", "-- up", "-- of".  It looks as
if your "inconjurical" wall is one that the speaker wouldn't think of
putting up.  I've heard the phrase, "I wouldn't conjure such a thing,"
meaning the speaker wouldn't think of (doing) such a thing or of someone
else doing such a thing.


That'll be two cents, please.

BU
294.5Word search reportGOBLIN::MCVAYPete McVay, VRO (Telecomm)Wed Jan 14 1987 12:5310
    I examined the dictionaries in several local libraries, including "Mrs.
    Byrnes' Dictionary of Obscure and Preposterous Words". (Obviously, I
    have a dangerous amount of free time...)  Some of the dictionaires were
    quite massive and recently published, and some of them were 50 years
    old--reflecting the budget of the library.  The dictionaries were
    published in both the U.S. and England (no, I don't have a list of
    them!).

    I couldn't locate the word in any of them, or even anything close
    to it.  I suspect "inconjurate" is an [extremely regional] colloquialism.