# Word Assassin : A Deadly Game **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 9, 2001, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876 "2001-05-09T14:32:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/1 "2001-05-09T14:32:34Z")
I am thinking of a word. It is a commonplace word. One that you might use on any given day. If you use it here, you’re dead. I’ll look at your post. If you’re safe, you’re safe. If you’re dead, I’ll let you know. What could the deadly word be? It is up to you to find out. Be careful, I am merciless. And a hint: You see the word on this page. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/2 "2001-05-09T14:46:14Z")
No clues? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/3 "2001-05-09T14:56:54Z")
An easy way to play this game would be just not to post, then you know you’d be safe. [sub]Am I dead yet?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/4 "2001-05-09T15:01:06Z")
😕 ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/5 "2001-05-09T15:01:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ethilrist \* > \*\*No clues? \*\* He gave a clue. Well, a hint, but that amounts to about the same thing 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/6 "2001-05-09T15:04:21Z")
How about “word”, dude? Is that it? Huh, huh? You only said it four times in your post, so that’s what I’m thinking it is. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/7 "2001-05-09T15:04:30Z")
You all survive. For now. ---
**Author:** ![Joyfulgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f04885/32.png) [@Joyfulgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joyfulgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/8 "2001-05-09T15:13:02Z")
Of course, I could just quote your entire OP, and then I’d be dead for sure… but I want to live! Please, God, let me LIVE! I will clean your toilets for an entire week! With my tongue! In the name of all that’s GOOD and HOLY… \ ---
**Author:** ![Ikujinashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ikujinashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ikujinashi)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/9 "2001-05-09T15:16:01Z")
C’mon show us what you got. It is quite clear that your word is one of the following: nonexclusive irrevocable printable or… Jelsoft! Now send me home in a casket. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/10 "2001-05-09T15:27:38Z")
let’s see if this gets me offed… Forum Rules: Who Can Read The Forum? Any registered user or guest. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered user. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered user. Changes: Messages CANNOT be edited by their author. Messages CANNOT be deleted by their author. Posts: HTML code is Off. Smilies are On. vB code is On. [IMG] code is Off. Admin Options: Open / Close Thread Move Thread Delete Thread Edit Thread \< Contact Us - Straight Dope Homepage \> Powered by: vBulletin Version 1.1.3 Copyright © Jelsoft Enterprises Limited 2000. The Straight Dope / Questions or comments for Cecil Adams to: [cecil@chicagoreader.com](mailto:cecil@chicagoreader.com) Comments regarding this website to: [webmaster@straightdope.com](mailto:webmaster@straightdope.com) For advertising information, see the Chicago Reader Online Rate Sheet “The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams” is a registered trademark of Chicago Reader, Inc. Contents of the Straight Dope Message Board and the Straight Dope Web site are copyright 1984-2000 by the Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights reserved. By posting on this board you grant the Chicago Reader, Inc., and its successors and assigns a nonexclusive irrevocable right to re-use your posting in any manner it or they see fit without notice or compensation to you. No material contained in this site may be republished or reposted without express written consent of the Chicago Reader, Inc., except that message board users retain the right to republish or repost their own work. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/11 "2001-05-09T15:36:23Z")
Tars, I hope you had accidental death insurance. You’re a goner. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/12 "2001-05-09T15:43:50Z")
**MrVisible** slides nimbly out of the shadows, armed with a lexicon of verbal weaponry deadly enough to make most literary critics blanch. Steely-eyed, glass-jawed, and hell-bent on the sort of swift, deadly violence that made his reputation, he locates his target: the ever-elusive **Manservant Hecubus**. With a stealth only panthers know, he sneaks sneakily forward… ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/13 "2001-05-09T15:50:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MrVisible \* > \*\*. > > With a stealth only panthers know, he sneaks sneakily forward… \*\* All that fantastic prose, and you end with “Sneaks sneakily?!?!” Yipes, I didn’t just kill myself by posting here, did I? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/14 "2001-05-09T16:05:57Z")
Tars remains the lone victim…for now… ---
**Author:** ![ColdPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@ColdPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/15 "2001-05-09T16:22:01Z")
Jonny sits high watching Manservant thread his way through the forum looking for a guest of his to kill. Suddenly he spots one and he’s off. He goes straight towards his target without mercy. Tars used every word. It seemed like an open and shut case. Who will be next? Is the stench of death drawing close again? Will it be me! ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/16 "2001-05-09T16:23:58Z")
Doggedly, cat-like, **MrVisible** approaches the lair of the notorious **Manservant Hecubus**. Not even the air around him is disturbed as he moves through the shadows, not a single cricket ceases chirping in the night. The warmly-lit suburban home before him seems innocuous enough. Front porch, bay window, veranda, buttresses, communications emplacements, light artillery, heavy artillery, medium artillery, and a two-tank garage. Nothing he hadn’t seen before. Eluding **M.H.'s** rigorously-trained Secret Super Ninja Guards with ease, **MrVisible** sneaks sneakily (a particularly sneaky kind of sneaking, for which **MrVisible** has a patent pending) to within hearing distance of the dim figures behind the chintz curtains in the bay window. The plan for world domination he overhears is insane, and needs to be stopped, of course. The carnage planned within the otherwise unimposing living room, as **MrVisible** crouched listening outside, was unspeakable. But most disturbing of all, they’d anticipated his attack. One word, one finely-honed verbal weapon from his arsenal, was booby-trapped. And they’d used real boobies. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/17 "2001-05-09T18:07:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > let’s see if this gets me offed… **Tars** takes one for the team!!! Let’s see if I can narrow it down… Forum Rules: Who Can Read The Forum? Any registered user or guest. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered user. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered user. Changes: Messages CANNOT be edited by their author. Messages CANNOT be deleted by their author. Posts: HTML code is Off. Smilies are On. vB code is On. [IMG] code is Off. Admin Options: Open / Close Thread Move Thread Delete Thread Edit Thread \< Contact Us - Straight Dope Homepage \> Powered by: vBulletin Version 1.1.3 Copyright © Jelsoft Enterprises Limited 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/18 "2001-05-09T18:09:36Z")
The obvious move: Powered by: vBulletin Version 1.1.3 Copyright © Jelsoft Enterprises Limited 2000. The Straight Dope / Questions or comments for Cecil Adams to: [cecil@chicagoreader.com](mailto:cecil@chicagoreader.com) Comments regarding this website to: [webmaster@straightdope.com](mailto:webmaster@straightdope.com) For advertising information, see the Chicago Reader Online Rate Sheet “The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams” is a registered trademark of Chicago Reader, Inc. Contents of the Straight Dope Message Board and the Straight Dope Web site are copyright 1984-2000 by the Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights reserved. By posting on this board you grant the Chicago Reader, Inc., and its successors and assigns a nonexclusive irrevocable right to re-use your posting in any manner it or they see fit without notice or compensation to you. No material contained in this site may be republished or reposted without express written consent of the Chicago Reader, Inc., except that message board users retain the right to republish or repost their own work. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/19 "2001-05-09T18:13:23Z")
So if Cecil Adams himself pops up to post a message on his own message board in this forum are you going to off him, too? Or is that fate only reserved for non-employees of the Chicago Reader? ---
**Author:** ![frobozz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ed8c4c/32.png) [@frobozz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frobozz)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876/20 "2001-05-09T20:04:13Z")
It can’t be “Cecil Adams”, can it? You wouldn’t dare bump off someone for uttering the Perfect Master’s name, _would you_??? I mean, I can see if we were taking it in vain, but… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-assassin-a-deadly-game/64876.md?page=2)