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Bark Room
And the jury’s actually out
Oct 2, 2015 21:08
8 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

biviter

English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature
“He was quirky in the best possible way. He drank chocolate milk and called the remote control a biviter. He greeted people enthusiastically with three hellos—“hello, hello, hello”—instead of just one.”

I would like to know, what was your first thought after reading this word:

a) It has no meaning whatsoever.
b) This is probably a foreign word (French?, Latin?)
c) This is a name of a device.
d) It’s something like verlan in French (inversion of syllables): bi-vi-ter - ti-vi-ber/reb,
so has a meaning related to TV.
e) Something else.

Thank you
Responses
2 +2 Anagram of Viterbi
3 e) Something else
3 self created word, made up word
1 something that got him going

Discussion

TroyPrinkey Oct 5, 2015:
Biviter - a Lewis Carroll-style made up word Just as in the poem, "Jabberwocky," and its strange words like "Jubjub bird" or "slithy toves," bitiver seems to be a nonsensical neologism, and I'd leave it AS IS.
LM (asker) Oct 4, 2015:
I am sure that this is an invented word with no meaning in any language but I just wanted to know your impression. Translating this book I have three options to chose: leave “biviter”, invent a totally meaningless word of my own or invent such a word (an anagram in my language) that would make the reader think of TV and a remote control.
BrigitteHilgner Oct 3, 2015:
Very far fetched ... but my spontaneous idea after pronouncing this word in German:
beefeater
Since I can't see a connection between a remote control and "beefeater" (neither the gin nor the yeomen) I think the child (how old??) mispronounced a word or made it up.
Ages ago, when my younger brother was learning to speak, he asked for "Paputtel" whenever he wanted his "Pantoffel" (slippers).
Danik 2014 Oct 3, 2015:
biviter= be+with+her?
Just adding to the game :D
Charles Davis Oct 2, 2015:
I do speak French, but it doesn't mean anything to me either. Since you ask for first thoughts of native speakers (right or wrong), mine are that it is an arbitrary invented word, and I still think so after racking my brains for a couple of minutes. It doesn't mean anything in any language I know, and I don't buy the ingenious "verlan" idea either. Of course it might mean something in a language this character knows but I don't.

Making up words is quite fun. I have known people who do it.
Cilian O'Tuama Oct 2, 2015:
a) It has no meaning whatsoever to me, and I can't imagine what witty idea might be behind it. But then again, I don't speak French.

Responses

+2
16 hrs
Selected

Anagram of Viterbi

Andrew Viterbi is a distinguished electrical engineer and founder of Qualcomm. He specialises in wireless communications. The School of Engineering at the University of Southern California is named after him,

One of Viterbi's inventions is an algorithm -- the Viterbi algorithm -- for extracting a weak signal from the surrounding noise. He and his company, Qualcomm, also invented a technology called CDMA (based on the Viterbi algorithm) that is widely used in mobile telephony.

Although I haven't found any evidence that the Viterbi algorithm is used in the humble TV remote, it is possible that it is. After all, a remote control device sends a weak and inevitably noisy signal to the TV that the TV must interpret correctly.

The CDMA algorithm is definitely used in more demanding remote control applications, e.g. control of central heating from a remote location.

Be that as it may, if my guess is correct, and especially if the protagonist is an engineer, he calls the remote control 'bitiver' because of Andrew Viterbi's fame and some tenuous connection between the communication technology used in remote controls and Viterbi's work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Viterbi

http://ethw.org/Oral-History:Andrew_Viterbi#Linkabit_and_M.2...

http://www.waferstar.com/en/CDMA-remote-control.html



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Note added at 17 hrs (2015-10-03 14:14:29 GMT)
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My first thought was that it was an anagram. There were one or two other possibilities but I rejected them fairly quickly.
Peer comment(s):
agree juvera : Why not indeed?
6 hrs
agree Danik 2014 : Certainly a sophisticated solution. Biviterly I should say!
1 day 5 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you. It's very interesting but I don't think he's an engineer. He is mentioned only once as a boyfriend of the author's babysitter, in a small town in Michigan."
2 hrs

e) Something else

Many people - especially those blessed with being 'quirky' - have pet names for everyday objects. This fellow calls his remote control a "biviter".

Well, let's face it - it's no more silly than "widget":

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/widget
Noun
widget ‎(plural widgets)
A placeholder name for an unnamed, unspecified, or hypothetical manufactured good or product.
Suppose we have a widget factory that produces 100 units per year...

I confess to being as "quirky" as everyone else here on proz.com. When I was a kid (many decades ago....), I called lots of things "oujits". The word isn't in the dictionary, but I know very well what it means in context. The fact that you, dear readers, don't know what 'oujit' means in any particular context in which I might use the word is your problem, not mine... :)

Peer comment(s):
neutral Cilian O'Tuama : fair enough
25 mins
Something went wrong...
4 hrs

self created word, made up word

Children love to make up words for different things or people, and some adults do it as well. He just named his remote control - biviter.
Something went wrong...
1 hr

something that got him going

no way to decipher this but might work ....

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Note added at 1 hr (2015-10-02 22:30:48 GMT)
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as in vita but .........

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Note added at 4 hrs (2015-10-03 01:56:35 GMT)
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might also be a personal invention playing around with "viter" as in "inviter" so "biviter" would be what the operator (and his "friend" the remote control) would "invite" to watch ... bit far fetched I admit but in this context I don't think there are any limits :)

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Note added at 4 hrs (2015-10-03 01:57:28 GMT)
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so maybe just leave it as is ...
Something went wrong...
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