# Have you heard of this word? (Second time) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2025, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436 "2025-04-24T10:30:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/21 "2025-04-24T19:06:44Z")
I know that word, too. But it’s less familiar to me than codon. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/22 "2025-04-24T19:14:05Z")
Crossword puzzles, here. I knew the word. I briefly worked in a flower shop. And we cut those off. The proprietor thought they made the flowers look raggedy. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/23 "2025-04-24T19:16:08Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I briefly worked in a flower shop. And we cut those off. The proprietor thought they made the flowers look raggedy. Since flowers are plant sex organs, would that be like a circumcision? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/24 "2025-04-24T19:20:31Z")
This Florist was a right bitch about it. She did hate men. They’d come in wanting help ordering flowers and she’d be sweet as candy. As soon as they paid exorbitant amounts for roses and left she would talk so bad about these guys. And scream at us pions to remove all the sepals and thorns. She was a bad woman. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/25 "2025-04-24T19:34:06Z")
Ha. I thought it was just in case someone was still working on that particular Wordle and checked your post before realizing what it was about and saw the word. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/26 "2025-04-24T20:29:40Z")
Yep, from biology lessons. Sepals and petals. j ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/27 "2025-04-24T20:37:59Z")
Learned it in grade school, somewhere around 4th or 5th grade. Also pistils and stamens and probably other stuff I’ve forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/28 "2025-04-24T21:22:38Z")
Never heard of it before. I don’t garden but I’m a voracious reader and do a lot of word games. I’m in the US, but I’ve never encountered a Wordle answer I didn’t know before. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/29 "2025-04-24T21:26:25Z")
This is the UK Wordle. I don’t think the US version would use this, and, as I mentioned above, it’s not in the original list of acceptable answer words (though it is acceptable as a guess.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/30 "2025-04-24T21:27:48Z")
See, pistils and stamens I remember vividly. Not sepals. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/31 "2025-04-24T23:32:42Z")
Word puzzler here, it comes up commonly, but it’s not a word I’ve ever uttered in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/32 "2025-04-24T23:43:44Z")
I remembered it was a flower part, but misremembered which part. I got it mixed up with the stamens. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > And scream at us pions to remove all the sepals and thorns. Were you positive or negative about that? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/33 "2025-04-24T23:44:22Z")
Nope, and I do the NYT crossword everyday. I’ve never seen it, but I’m sure it’s been used before. I would consider it very esoteric, especially for US. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/34 "2025-04-24T23:57:04Z")
Heh. I was mostly negative about it.(I realize I mispelled pion/peon) ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/35 "2025-04-25T05:10:49Z")
I think the OP should’ve included a poll so we don’t just see the self-selected sample of people who know the word. As for me, if I ever encountered it, I’ve forgotten—it was completely new to me. (I did know ‘codon’, though!) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/36 "2025-04-25T11:53:47Z")
Yeah, upthread I mentioned the NYTimes xword stats on the word. It appears on average just over once a year in the puzzle since 1994, last appearing in 2023 But its appearance is sporadic. It appeared twice in 2023, then not before that until 2020, then twice in 2016. The 80s seems to have been its heyday, with 35 appearances during the Eugene Maleska (crossword editor) era, equal to how many times its showed up in the totality of the Shortz era (1993-now). ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/37 "2025-04-25T16:37:05Z")
I do not know the word sepal. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/38 "2025-04-26T01:13:15Z")
Yes, as said, part of a plant. I want to say it’s the green leaves of a young plant, but I’m not sure about that. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/39 "2025-04-26T01:24:10Z")
I remember it from high school. Saw it used in an article about hydrangeas recently. Also saw it in a crossword once as ’ Anagram for **lapse** ’. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436/40 "2025-04-26T12:01:25Z")
Yes, I knew it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-this-word-second-time/1017436.md?page=3)