# You're on Jeopardy! -- what's you're answer for this clue? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 26, 2009, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046 "2009-01-26T12:28:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/1 "2009-01-26T12:28:36Z")
You’re a contestant on _Jeopardy!_ and you get the following clue (in the category “Tool Time”): [THIS TERM FOR A LONG-HANDLED GARDENING TOOL CAN ALSO MEAN AN IMMORAL PLEASURE SEEKER](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKcRa13Fwpk&feature=related). What would your answer be? Or would you not bother buzzing in? I ask because, not knowing the alternate meaning of “rake,” I would have sincerely (and confidently) answered “What is a hoe?” I can’t be the only one (though I’m pretty sure that in the clip Jennings was just goofing off). ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/2 "2009-01-26T12:31:56Z")
I’d have answered “hoe” and not even thought about it. And if they didn’t give it to me, I think I’d have to file a protest. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/3 "2009-01-26T12:41:18Z")
I thought of ‘what is a rake?’ first. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/4 "2009-01-26T12:54:54Z")
Hoe - IMO, the other meaning of “rake” is much less well-known nowadays than “ho”. Questions like that, where there is more than one plausible answer, should be struck out of a quiz by any decent question-master. Though I suppose they could argue that “hoe” and “ho” are homophones, not the same word like “rake” and “rake” are. There was a similar type of question at a recent quiz I attended: What word connects the game of golf to a part of a train? Could be any one of bunker, bogey, links, and probably others. They got around any problems by just marking as correct any reasonable answer. “Driver”, however, was disallowed as it is not actually part of a train. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/5 "2009-01-26T13:01:37Z")
But in regard to the **ho’** the “immoral pleasure seeker” is the **John**. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/6 "2009-01-26T13:14:18Z")
Whether or not the John is immoral is a judgment call that some might not make. And linguists would definitely say that _hoe_ and _ho_ are not the same words. How well I remember: cow1 is not cow2. Ha! ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/7 "2009-01-26T13:28:10Z")
I’d have said Rake, and I wouldn’t accept Ho/Hoe. ---
**Author:** ![Karyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/fbc32d/32.png) [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/8 "2009-01-26T13:39:39Z")
I thought of rake right away and didn’t think about a hoe at all. I hate that word. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/9 "2009-01-26T13:49:31Z")
Having watched BBC costume dramas set over a century ago, I am familiar with ‘rake’. I assume ‘ho’ is slang for whore and agree with previous posters that: - ho and hoe are different words - whore does not mean a pleasure seeker ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/10 "2009-01-26T13:50:18Z")
It’s a rake. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/11 "2009-01-26T13:54:27Z")
> [@bluecanary](#): > > It’s a rake. [Alex Trebek] Phrase that in the form of a question please. [/AT] ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/12 "2009-01-26T13:54:32Z")
It’s more than a small stretch to equate “hoe” with “pleasure-seeker”. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/13 "2009-01-26T14:14:25Z")
I never would have come up with rake. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word used that way. I would have gone with hoe. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/14 "2009-01-26T14:44:21Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > It’s more than a small stretch to equate “hoe” with “pleasure-seeker”. Ho may have started out as meaning whore but it seems to me to be more like slut now. I would go with ho for the answer. Rake would not even occur to me. ---
**Author:** ![1stFusilier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/58956e/32.png) [@1stFusilier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1stFusilier)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/15 "2009-01-26T14:48:11Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Having watched BBC costume dramas set over a century ago, I am familiar with ‘rake’. > > I assume ‘ho’ is slang for whore and agree with previous posters that: > > - ho and hoe are different words > - whore does not mean a pleasure seeker My first thought was rake but then I’ve read a few restoration plays in my time. Your point about the word whore/ho is absolutely bang on. ---
**Author:** ![Karyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/fbc32d/32.png) [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/16 "2009-01-26T14:49:14Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > I never would have come up with rake. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word used that way. I don’t think that [rake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rake_(character)) is used that way anymore, at least not commonly. It’s mostly a victorian novel word from what I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/17 "2009-01-26T14:52:15Z")
I thought of “ho/hoe” but I dismissed it immediately because they are not spelled the same and “immoral pleasure seeker” is not a good definition of “whore” anyway. I am aware of that meaning of “rake”, but it didn’t occur to me when I read the OP. So I wouldn’t have buzzed in. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/18 "2009-01-26T14:55:13Z")
> [@Karyn](#): > > I don’t think that [rake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rake_(character)) is used that way anymore, at least not commonly. It’s mostly a victorian novel word from what I can tell. Riffing on uncommon or out-of-fashion word usage is, IIRC, common trade on _Jeopardy!_ I mean, who uses _potable_ in daily conversation? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/19 "2009-01-26T15:06:13Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Riffing on uncommon or out-of-fashion word usage is, IIRC, common trade on _Jeopardy!_ > > I mean, who uses _potable_ in daily conversation? Well, we do, but that’s just ever since I had the Jeopardy tryout and my whole family started making fun of me with it. “Perhaps Z would like a potent potable?” ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/20 "2009-01-26T15:07:30Z")
I’d have said “rake” (and I didn’t even really have to think about it. It occurred to me almost immediately). “Hoe” would not fit for two reasons" one because it’s not spelled the same as “ho,” and two because a “ho’s” are seeking money, not pleasure. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046.md?page=2)