Wiktionary:Christmas Competition 2013

Intro
This is to announce the start of the 2013 Christmas Competition.

For each round, I shall choose a topic or category. You need to supply up to 26 exemplars of that category, each one starting with a different letter of the alphabet ("a" to "z").

Each exemplar must have a corresponding entry in this Wiktionary (at least by the time I come to do the scoring).

Scoring is as follows:- Each exemplar will be awarded the reciprocal of the number of people who submit the same one. Thus if you submit one that nobody else does you will be awarded one point, if two people submit the same one they will each be awarded a half of a point, and so on.

Now, because you must not see other people's submissions, I shall use an email system for submitting entries. After each day's game has been announced you may submit your entry via Wiktionary email to Special:EmailUser/SemperBlottoComp. At the end of each day's game, I shall review the emails, check that the entries meet the rules, calculate the scores and announce the day's results here.

Please leave any comments or questions on this page's talk page; I shall then amend the rules if needed. Please also use the talk page to suggest any suitable topics / categories.

Rules
Submissions must be in the form of a string of wikified words/terms separated by commas (so that I can drop them into a spreadsheet). Please leave an extra comma for any missing entry.

Example: ark,boat,catamaran,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yacht,

See the original Beer parlour announcement for further good and bad examples (and for how the results will be shown).

As part of the scoring process I shall test your entries in the sandbox to make sure there are no red links.

Send your entries to Special:EmailUser/SemperBlottoComp.

Now I know that you like to be inventive in your interpretation of the rules, but please try to stay within their spirit.

For each round I shall specify any restrictions (or bonuses) and give at least one example of both good and bad entries.

p.s. I shall be taking part myself, generating the required string before I look at any of your emails.

Round 1

 * Rivers. Each entry must be a single, capitalised English proper noun naming a river anywhere in the world.
 * So but not  (two words) or  (simple noun).
 * Cut-off date/time is 08:00 GMT Tuesday 3rd December.

Round 2

 * Three-letter palindromes. Each entry must be a single, three-letter palindromic word, in any language that uses the Roman alphabet. No spaces, hyphens, punctuation or diacritical marks of any kind.
 * Words that differ only by capitalization will be deemed to be the same word for this competition's scoring.
 * So or, but not  (4 letters)
 * Cut-off date/time is 12:00 GMT Friday 6th December.

Round 3

 * Organic compounds. Each entry must be a single, uncapitalised English noun that is a specific organic compound or a class of organic compound.
 * The word must contain no numbers, punctuation, Greek letters or other clutter,
 * RESTRICTION. Maximum length of each word is 12 letters.
 * So or, but not  (two words),  or  (clutter),  (too long).
 * Cut-off date/time 12:00 GMT Monday 9th December.
 * AND may I remind you to include an extra comma for each missing entry. Cheers. SemperBlotto (talk) 12:39, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Round 4

 * French adverbs. Each entry must be a single-word, French adverb.
 * BONUS! Any entry that does not end in -ment will score double.
 * So (single score) or  (double score) but not  (three words).
 * Cut-off date/time is 12:00 GMT Thursday 12th December.

Round 5

 * Any word in any language. Each entry must be a single, uncapitalised word in any language that uses the Roman alphabet. No spaces, hyphens, punctuation, ligatures or diacritical marks of any kind.
 * RESTRICTION. Each word in your string (other than the first) must be shorter (have fewer letters) than the one before.
 * So "amphibologiquement,beekeeping,crossing,,,,,,ink,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,ze" would be an acceptable entry.
 * NOTE: the letter "z", by itself, is not considered a word in this competition.
 * BONUS! An extra 5 points will be awarded for the string with the most words (divided by n if n of you share the distinction).
 * Cut-off date/time is 12:00 GMT Sunday 15th December.


 * NOTE: If I have made any mistakes in the scoring of this, or any other, entry - please just correct it. SemperBlotto (talk) 12:03, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

Round 6

 * European towns. Each entry must be a single, capitalised English proper noun that names a city, town or village anywhere in Europe (having a population, according to any appropriate Wikipedia, of at least 10,000). The word may also be a province, county etc but not only such a region. No spaces, hyphens, punctuation, ligatures or diacritical marks of any kind.
 * So but not  (two words),  (region only) or  (not in Europe).
 * Cut-off date/time is 12:00 GMT Wednesday 18th December.
 * p.s. The UK and Ireland are considered part of Europe, at least for this competition.
 * Please correct any errors in scoring.

Round 7

 * English adjectives containing "j". Each entry must be a single-word English adjective containing one or more letter "j"s. No spaces, hyphens, punctuation or diacritical marks of any kind.
 * SCORE. One point (divided by n) for each letter "j". So, if "jujujuicy" was a word and two people gave it, they would score 3/2 = 1.5 points each.
 * Cut-off date/time is 12:00 GMT Saturday 21st December.
 * Please check my scoring and correct if needed.
 * Re-added my missing K entry; Pingku nondisjointed 2 -> 1; SemperBlotto biliojejunal 1 -> 2, intrajejunal 1 -> 2; ElisaVan Hajjam 1 -> 2, Jugoslavijan 1 -> 2
 * Total scores still need to be corrected. I definitely scored more than 15. User:SemperBlotto, do you think you could check this using your spreadsheet? Thanks, This, that and the other (talk) 12:33, 21 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Probably OK now. SemperBlotto (talk)

Round 8 (final round)

 * Christmas. Any English word or two-word term that has anything to do with Christmas - traditional or modern, religious or secular. Words must have a relevence to the shared experience of Christmastide in the Western world - so I won't accept z = Zelda (because we always go to Aunt Zelda's for Christmas dinner), but I might accept a = anticlimax.
 * RESTRICTION. In the case of two-word terms (separated by a space or hyphen) the first word must not, by itself, have a connection to Christmas - so but not.
 * Cut-off date/time is 12:00 GMT Friday 27th December.
 * By the way, I had forgotten to tell you about the prize. The overall winner gets to host next year's competition. Good luck!


 * Now, would someone like to check the scores and maybe even work out who will be hosting next year's competition.
 * Bah humbug! SemperBlotto (talk) 12:08, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

Result

 * Congratulations to ElisaVan
 * And thank you Semper
 * with hopes that there are no arithmetical errors! &mdash; Saltmarsh (talk) 16:30, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Round 8 totals were incorrect, so I've fixed that. Thanks Semper for another great competition! This, that and the other (talk) 00:03, 28 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Great! Another win under my belt. I think that puts me top of the WT:FUN league table. --ElisaVan (talk) 21:09, 29 December 2013 (UTC)
 * And we´re going to be playing a multilingual variation of a classic game for the next competition. Easter, perhaps. --ElisaVan (talk) 21:17, 29 December 2013 (UTC)
 * You'll be running it - so you decide. SemperBlotto (talk) 22:17, 29 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Doubtlessly it will be with a different username. --ElisaVan (talk) 09:54, 30 December 2013 (UTC)