fictionary
A parlor game in which participants invent definitions for an unfamiliar word found in a dictionary, and as one person reads them out, the others try to guess which one is the correct definition.
Adjective
- Fictional.
- I used to spend my mornings in the large, deserted drawing-room, whose charm was not yet broken, inditing ardent letters, into which my whole soul undisguised, was breathed to an imaginary friend; or writing some...
- Lastly, there were not a few scholars who, discarding the idea that myths were purely fictionary, and admitting a basis of reality, yet found that basis not in historical occurrence but in natural phenomena. - 1869, The...
- Omitting, for the occasion, all thought of Anglo-Saxon literary remains, histories, chronicles, theological, fictionary, and scientific works, the entire number of documentary evidences, such as charters, wills, etc.,...
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *dʰi-né-ǵʰ-ti Proto-Italic *θingō Proto-Italic *fingōder. Latin fingō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin fictiōder. Old French ficcionbor. Middle English ficcioun English fiction Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzijos Latin -āriusder. Middle English -arie English -ary English fictionary From fiction + -ary.
Noun
- A parlor game in which participants invent definitions for an unfamiliar word found in a dictionary, and as one person reads them out, the others try to guess which one is the correct definition.
- I generally hate playing games, but recently I was introduced to one that I think is actually fun: fictionary. - 2001, Susannah Seton, 365 Simple Pleasures, page 14:
- One of our favorites is Fictionary, which we play on holidays or during storms. - 2007, David Elkind, The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally, page 190:
- Turns out, it's reminiscent of the game of Fictionary that was the hit of a recent Thanksgiving at my home (see below). - 2010, Wanda Urbanska, The Heart of Simple Living: 7 Paths to a Better Life, page 223:
- A dictionary with contrived entries.
- Daffynitions appear in fictionaries, not dictionaries, and they add hidden dimensions to the words they describe. - 1980, Gyles Daubeney Brandreth, The Joy of Lex: How to Have Fun with 860,341,500 Words, New York:...
- From anemoia to zagreb: how ‘fictionaries’ are liberating the word [title] - 2019 May 27, Eley Williams, “From anemoia to zagreb: how ‘fictionaries’ are liberating the word”, in The Guardian:
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *dʰi-né-ǵʰ-ti Proto-Italic *θingō Proto-Italic *fingōder. Latin fingō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin fictiōder. Old French ficcionbor. Middle English ficcioun English fiction Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- Proto-Indo-European *déyḱeti Proto-Italic *deikō Latin dīcō ▲ Latin -tiō Latin dictiō Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzijos Latin -ārius Latin -ārium ▲ Latin dictiō ▲ Latin -āriusnom. Latin -ārius Medieval Latin dictiōnārius? Medieval Latin dictiōnāriumlbor. Middle English dixionare English dictionary blend English fictionary Blend of fiction + dictionary.