Style Invitational Week 1216: As the word turns — ‘discover’ new words
in a grid


Plus the winning neologisms from ScrabbleGrams ‘racks’




"Piglav" and "reggy" are among the words waiting to be coined within
this grid for Week 1216. (Grid constructed at puzzle-maker.com)
By Pat Myers By Pat Myers

Entertainment
February 23



(Click here to skip down <#report> to the winning ScrabbleGrams neologisms)

*L-9: Piglav: A bar’s men’s room by last call.*

*P-6: Reggy: How you won’t be describing most federal agencies this year. *

We’re on our third go-round — or go-up, go-down, go-sideways,
go-diagonally — with our contest in which you “discover” brand-new words
by tracing a line through letters on a word search grid. The Empress
created the grid by feeding 20 randomly generated words — including
oddities ranging from “darr” to “quindecemvirate” — into an online
puzzle generator, but lots of other real words showed up as well. *This
week: Create a word or multi-word term that consists of adjacent letters
— in any direction or several directions — in the grid above, and
provide a humorous definition, * as in the examples above. You may also
give an especially clever definition for an existing term you find. And
you may use the word in a sentence, if that makes your entry funnier.
Even with this many possible words, there’s a good chance that many
people will send in the same word, and it’ll come down to the
description. (If you’re having trouble printing out the grid above,
print it from here
.)

Create Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 by tapping on the Toilet Tunes mat, this
week's second prize. (Pat Myers/The Washington Post )

*IMPORTANT:* You /absolutely/ must begin each entry with the
letter-number coordinates that mark the first letter of your term, as in
the examples; no way is your reasonably obliging but got-her-limits
Empress going to search the grid for it. Also, please don’t begin the
line with numbering, bullets, etc.; they mess up the entry-sorting.

*Submit entries at this website: * *bit.ly/enter-invite-1216
* (all lowercase).

*Winner gets the Inkin’ Memorial
,*
the Lincoln statue bobblehead that is the official Style Invitational
trophy. Second place gets a nifty toy called Toilet Tunes: It’s an
electronic floor pad with some piano keys drawn on it. Tap your feet and
make some melodies while you’re, you know, occupied with other matters.
It is a little-known fact that Beethoven worked out his Symphony No. 2
on a primitive version of this instrument. Donated by Loser Nan Reiner,
who tried it out and reports that it actually works pretty well.

*Other runners-up *win the yearned-for “This Is Your Brain on Mugs”
Loser mug

or our Grossery Bag, “I Got a B in Punmanship.”
Honorable mentions get one of our new
lusted-after Loser magnets, “No Childishness Left Behind”
or
“Magnum Dopus.”

First Offenders receive only a smelly tree-shaped air “freshener”
(FirStink

for their first ink). Deadline is Monday night, March 6; results
published March 26 (online March 23). See general contest rules and
guidelines at wapo.st/InvRules . The headline
for this week’s results is by Jesse Frankovich; the honorable-mentions
subhead is by Jeff Contompasis. “As the word turns” was an entry by Dave
Prevar in a previous contest. Join the lively Style Invitational
Devotees group on Facebook at /on.fb.me/invdev
./ “Like” Style Invitational Ink of the Day on
Facebook at /bit.ly/inkofday; / follow @StyleInvite
on Twitter.

*The Style Conversational *The Empress’s weekly online column, published
late Thursday afternoon, discusses each new contest and set of results;
this week she’ll show the grid with the 20 words used to make it.
Especially if you plan to enter, check it out at wapo.st/styleconv
.

And from The Style Invitational four weeks ago . . .

*RACK-TILE DYSFUNCTION: WINNING SCRABBLEGRAMS NEOLOGISMS*
It’s Neologism Central in Loserland this week. Besides the new word-find
puzzle, in *Week 1212* we presented 40
seven-letter “racks” from ScrabbleGrams puzzles and asked you to come up
with new terms of at least five letters.

Submitted too frequently:
*BONKLIT* or *KNOBLIT *as porn, and *WHISPAR* for that hushed tone golf
commentators make.

4th place:

AILOPTV —> *TV PAIL:* Bucket kept close at hand for reality shows — and,
increasingly, for reality. (Mark Richardson, Takoma Park, Md.)

3rd place:

AOOPPRS —> *ARSPOOP:* Don’t tell me there’s another kind! (Jim Lubell,
Hillsboro, Ore.; Frank Mann, Washington)

2nd place and the Vietnamese civet coffee:

AMRRSTY —> *SMARTYR:* One who vows to /live/ for the cause. (Beverley
Sharp, Montgomery, Ala.)

And the winner of the Inkin’ Memorial:

*CHILSTU:* Two names for the president’s inner circle: *HIS CULT* and
*LIC TUSH. * (William Kennard, Arlington, Va.)

Clearance racks: honorable mentions

AILOPTV —> *POLIVAT:* A pork barrel. (Brad Alexander, Wanneroo, Australia)

ALLOPRY —> *YAPROLL:* A dachshund (Bruce Niedt, Cherry Hill, N.J.)

BGIORTY —> *GORYBIT:* A particularly graphic scene in a horror movie;
*ORGYBIT:* the same in a porn flick. (Bruce Niedt)

BIKLNOT —> *BILKTON:* Las Vegas (Jeff Hazle, San Antonio)

CDELMSU —> *CLUMSED:* Moved less than gracefully. “Fred just clumsed in
here and knocked over the TV again.” (Sarah Jay, Churchville, Md.)

CDELMSU —> *DE-SLUM:* To gentrify, from the point of view of the gentry.
(Josh Fedblyum, Philadelphia)

CIILNUV —> *LUVNIC:* A cute term for a vasectomy. (Drew Bennett, West
Plains, Mo.)

AHINRSV —> *VARNISH:* Somewhat like a varn. (Roger Dalrymple,
Gettysburg, Pa.)

AHINRSV—> *RAVISH:* To carjack a Toyota SUV. (Larry Gray, Union Bridge,
Md.)

AHINRSV—> *VINRASH:* Rosé-cea. (Barry Koch, Catlett, Va.)

AHINRSV —> *NRA-SHIV:* “Help protect the incarcerated from prison gang
violence: Arm inmates.” (Matt Monitto, Bristol, Conn.)

AHIPRSW —> *R.I.P.SHAW:* A two-wheeled hearse. (Chris Doyle, Denton,
Tex.; Jon Gearhart, Des Moines)

AHIPRSW —> *RAWSHIP: * How to address an inexperienced, crude
officeholder. “Your executive orders are working out perfectly, Your
Rawship.” (Duncan Stevens, Vienna, Va.)

AIIMNNV —> *MINIVAN:* A Dutch toddler. (Ed Edwards, Worcester Park,
Surrey, England)

AILLNNO —> *LOINAL:* The region on a woman most likely to be regulated
by the moon, or the GOP. (Marni Penning Coleman, Falls Church, Va.)

AILLNNO —> *NONILLA:* World’s blandest flavor. (Dudley Thompson, Cary,
N.C.)

AILLNNO —> *NO-AIL:* The health-care system replacing the ACA. It saves
money by mandating that all Americans just stay healthy. (Jason Russo,
Annandale, Va.)

AILOPTV —> *VAIL POT:* The best thing to happen to Colorado tourism
since snow. (John Hutchins, Silver Spring, Md.)

AIMMOSS —> *MIASMOS:* The stinkiest kind of cigars. (Jeff Contompasis,
Ashburn, Va.)

AIMMOSS —> *IOS-MAS:* Holiday in which presents are put under an Apple
tree. (Mark Raffman, Reston, Va.)

ALOQRSU —> *QUAROLS: *Songs from the War on Christmas, like “Violent
Night” and “I Saw Mommy Choking Santa Claus.” (Jon Gearhart)

**AINNTUY —> *ANNUIT:* A native Alaskan who’s hit the lottery. (Warren
Tanabe, Annapolis, Md.)

AINNTUY —> *NAYNUT:* Republican member of Congress, 2009-17; Democratic
member of Congress, 2017-__. (Mark Raffman)

ALLOPRY —> *LOL; PRAY:* The best advice for surviving the president’s
new empire. (Lawrence McGuire, Waldorf, Md.)

ALLOTYY —> *TALLY OY:* Rallying cry at the end of a lox hunt. (Deb
Stewart, Damascus, Md.)

AMNNOSW —> *MANNOWS:* Sperm. “Triplets on the way, bro — my mannows can
SWIM!” (Bird Waring, Larchmont, N.Y.)

AMNNOSW —> *NO SWAN:* Alas, most ugly ducklings stay ugly. (Mae Scanlan,
Washington)

AOOPPRS —> *SPA-POOR:* Bankrupt, but relaxed. (Jack McBroom, Fort
Valley, Va.)

BBEORRY —> *ROBE-RY:* What Senate Republicans did to Merrick Garland.
(Allen K. Robinson, Charlottesville, a First Offender)

BGIORTY —> *B.G. RIOT:* After the Bowling Green Massacre, there was also
this. Or something like that somewhere. Clearly we need to militarize
the police. — K. Conway (Jesse Frankovich, Lansing, Mich.)

BNNRSUU —> *NUN RUBS:* The most awkward massages ever. (Scott Slaughter,
Monrovia, Md.)

CEENNOV —>*NEONCÉ:* This entertainer is inert most of the time, but she
really lights up onstage. (Harold Mantle, Walnut Creek, Calif.)

CEIORTW —> *EWROTIC:* Arousing disgust. “Sending photos of your junk is
so ewrotic!” (Perry Beider, Silver Spring, Md.)

AHIPRSW —> *WAR HIPS:* Helen of Troy’s real secret wasn’t her face.
(Allen K. Robinson)

AIMMOSS —> *AM-SO-ISM:*Self-esteem movement; counter-philosophy to the
You’re-Notsies. (Ellen Raphaeli)

ALLOPRY —> *PALLORY: *The salon the British visit to get that famous
pasty skin. (Jeff Brechlin, Apple Valley, Minn.)

ALLOTYY —> *LYALOT:* Knight who said, “I didn’t lay a hand on Guinevere,
I swear!” (Mark Raffman)

AMRRSTY —> *MR. ARTSY:* A better hire to teach at your daughter’s school
than “Mr. Satyr.” (Mark Raffman)

AILOPTV —> *PLATO VI:* Thankfully, the last film in the “Western
Philosophy’s Excellent Adventure” series. (Barry Koch)


ALLOPRY —> *Y’ALL-PRO:* A Southern voice coach. “Nicolas Cage needed a
y’all-pro in ‘Con Air.’” (Chris Doyle)

BNNRSUU —>*UNBUNS:* Gives birth. (Mark Raffman)

CEELRTU —> *CRULTEE:* De rigueur fashion for haters, paired with
stone-washed venim jeans. (Jon Gearhart)

AILOPTV —> *ILOVPAT:* The vanity plate I chose in a shameless grab at
Invite ink. (Jesse Frankovich)

** *Still running — deadline Monday night, Feb. 27: our contest for
jokes in the “X was so Y that ...” format. See bit.ly/invite1215
. *