Advanced pictionary?

January 29, 2009 2:51 PM

What compound word does this flashcard represent?

We can't figure it out. It's a flashcard designed for 2nd graders or otherwise young children, and you're supposed to be able to form a compound word based on the illustration.

I was never good at Pictionary. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

posted by CancerMan to grab bag (73 comments total)

Railtree
posted by box at 2:53 PM on January 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

Is that first thing supposed to be a railroad track segment? Rail, track, steel? (Still not making any sense with tree or pine...)
posted by phunniemee at 2:55 PM on January 29

Is this flashcard modern and aimed at a North American audience?
posted by box at 2:56 PM on January 29

Ironwood?
posted by bjrn at 2:56 PM on January 29

What's a railtree?

I'm not smarter than a 2nd grader, but yeah it looks like rail / beam / track / steel and tree / pine.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 2:57 PM on January 29

It could be a "beam" as in "I-beam". That still doesn't make sense with "tree" though.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:57 PM on January 29

My second grader suggests "poultry" -- as in "pole-tree".
posted by Rock Steady at 2:59 PM on January 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

Loaf + fir = loafer?
posted by googly at 3:01 PM on January 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

I like loafer.
posted by cabingirl at 3:10 PM on January 29

For the left pic: iron, steel, i-beam, beam, rail, metal, loaf, track
For the right pic: tree, fir, pine, wood, plant

what are we missing?
posted by JuiceBoxHero at 3:11 PM on January 29

A beam is also a type of tree. So 'beam tree' is possible (if obscure).
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 3:12 PM on January 29

I'm not sure what location this flashcard is from, nor if it's US-specific.

As I was told it's supposed to be a compound word, I think that means it needs to be something like "newspaper" or "thumbtack."

I admit, I like "loafer" as it is pretty genius, but I'm not sure that would qualify as a compound word.
posted by CancerMan at 3:14 PM on January 29

I was just informed that the flash-card is an English word, US-specific, and perhaps including Canada.
posted by CancerMan at 3:15 PM on January 29

"For the left pic: iron, steel, i-beam, beam, rail, metal, loaf, track
For the right pic: tree, fir, pine, wood, plant

what are we missing?"

Girder?
posted by DrDreidel at 3:19 PM on January 29

highbeam
posted by found missing at 3:27 PM on January 29

or
posted by found missing at 3:31 PM on January 29

Is the card actually right-side-up in that photo? The object on the left could be a high-rise building if flipped upside-down (though I have no idea what the tree would be)
posted by 0xFCAF at 3:33 PM on January 29

tie-tree? Like, for hanging up neck-ties? I imagine it would look like one of these.
posted by abirae at 3:33 PM on January 29

I second ironwood, from bjrn up there.
posted by Max Power at 3:50 PM on January 29

This might be stretching it, but how about "butterscotch"? The first picture could be a poorly drawn stick of butter, and the second could be a Scotch Pine?
posted by platinum at 3:53 PM on January 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

I was going for "pipe bomb" until I read the other comments and you guys told me that was a tree rather than a mushroom cloud. Hmm.
posted by rokusan at 3:56 PM on January 29

It's a bar-tree.
posted by woodblock100 at 3:59 PM on January 29

Ironwood, yeah.
posted by rtha at 4:01 PM on January 29

It's a ridiculous and hopefully wrong answer, but you know beam trees are pretty damn cool.
posted by rokusan at 4:01 PM on January 29

irontree
posted by sapphirebbw at 4:23 PM on January 29

If it was meant to be irontree wouldn't a picture of an iron (as in the type that you use on a wrinkled shirt) make a bit more sense?

On the other hand it looks kinda like a chalkboard eraser...but that doesn't yield any feasible answers.

This will bug me all day.
posted by robotot at 4:43 PM on January 29

I also think it's "poultry".
posted by katrielalex at 4:48 PM on January 29

hardwood
posted by whiskeyspider at 4:50 PM on January 29

Do you have any other cards or just the one?
posted by iconomy at 4:51 PM on January 29

I think that it's fir, pine, or some type of some type of pine (like scotch, jack, etc). I think that if it was "tree" they'd use a more iconic tree, like the bare-trunk-fluffy-leaves type tree.

I have no idea, though.
posted by christinetheslp at 5:01 PM on January 29

I only have that picture of the card, and the little information about its usage and context.

I first thought chalkboard eraser, the big kind with felt that makes the board cleaner. Then I found I couldn't pair that with anything that made any kind of sense (eraser-tree? eraser-pine?).

Then I thought, "Maybe it's a stamp," but I can't come up with any sort of compound word.

If this is for a 2nd-grade aptitude test, I seriously fail.
posted by CancerMan at 5:02 PM on January 29

The first drawing looks like a long bar with a grip, sort of a handle.

The shape at the top of the second drawing is clearly a nose, with three layers of moustache beneath it, and some sort of pole propping up the moustaches.

HANDLEBARMOUSTACHES
posted by oulipian at 5:11 PM on January 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

The answer is hardwood: hard (as steel) + wood (tree).
posted by whiskeyspider at 5:15 PM on January 29

I think we need to consider more options for the one on the right. If the answer is meant to be a compound word in the English language that a 2nd grader would know, we're best listing as many interpretations

With great credit to JuiceBox and DrDreidel:
For the left pic: iron, steel, i-beam, beam, rail, metal, loaf, track, girder, bread, candybar, stick, train, lumber as well?,

For the right pic: tree, fir, pine, wood, plant, alpine, lumber, evergreen,

Keep those brains storming!
posted by christhelongtimelurker at 5:25 PM on January 29

Where did you get it? No way to trace it back to the manufacturer?
posted by IndigoJones at 5:28 PM on January 29

for the left, also consider 'track', or 'one-track'
posted by edgeways at 5:36 PM on January 29

I think if it was to represent a girder that they would draw more hard edges. As it is, it appears to be a rather elongated loaf of bread. My vote is for "loafer."
posted by amanda at 6:01 PM on January 29

Another vote for loafer, came to mind immediately upon looking at flashcard, and I suck at these solving these problems.
posted by vincele at 6:11 PM on January 29

Maybe it's a bar of aluminum, and it's supposed to be "alpine." Although I don't think I knew about the periodic table in grade two.
posted by Dr. Send at 6:12 PM on January 29

I like "hardwood." None of the other options is nearly as plausible.
posted by ottereroticist at 6:43 PM on January 29

The thing on the left really jumps out at me as being a railroad rail. It's longer than an iconic loaf of bread, and the cross-section and the little marks along the base seem really indicative of a railroad rail to me.

That doesn't help me figure out what the flashcard is though. I vote that it's some sort of crazy Rorschach card they slip in, and if any kids say, “Oh, that's obviously a picture of my mom having sex with the Devil” they know something's wrong.
posted by hattifattener at 7:09 PM on January 29

The problem with "hardwood" is that it seems to be a pine tree. Pine trees are usually thought of as softwood. You could get hardwood with just one picture of, say, an oak. Or of Milla Jovovich.
posted by Toecutter at 7:58 PM on January 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

"Breadwinner" - a loaf of bread + a tree covered in snow (so it must be winner).
posted by oulipian at 8:16 PM on January 29 [2 favorites has favorites]

This is driving me crazy. If I was running this game, the answer would be Bladerunner.

I've watched tree beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
posted by rokusan at 9:40 PM on January 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

I kind of like "breadwinner" except I can think of clearer ways to represent "winter." Would second graders know a "fir" tree? Would they know the word "breadwinner"?

Can I vote again? I call misprint. Either it's not actually a compound word ("loafer") or someone is so terrible an illustrator that they couldn't get the compound word across....
posted by amanda at 11:02 PM on January 29

There's no way the pic on the left is a loaf of bread. Whatever it is, it seems competently drawn (esp with the "implied" curve line on the top right), so I'd guess the artist would've known better than to make a loaf of bread that narrow. And the length is clearly being emphasized here. If it were bread, the face would be a lot bigger. Do you have other cards from the same series, and are any of the other ones this ambiguous looking?

If it it were tracks, like rail, I think it'd make more sense to have two parallel lines, with crossbeams. I guess something along the lines of a steel beam makes sense, but I'd probably draw one as as an angular I-beam.

If the one on the right is supposed to just be "tree," that's kind of an unusual way to depict one also... but I guess if it were green I wouldn't think so. It does look like it's covered in snow, but why would that be? I don't think it's "wood" either; a simpler way to depict that would be a flat piece of wood with grain marks.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 11:28 PM on January 29

Is this hand-drawn or from a printed set? It looks kind of smudged here and there. It could just be a screw-up ... the guy started to make a card for 'railroad' or something like that, and ended up getting side-tracked and finishing up with the right half of shoe-tree ...

You said this was for little kids, so there is no way that it can be this complicated! Spending a bit of time with this word-finder doesn't turn up anything, either.
posted by woodblock100 at 11:46 PM on January 29

I came up with butterscotch as well. Though scotch pines don't branch quite like that. Spruce? Redwood? Cedar?
posted by salvia at 11:48 PM on January 29

Hm, if you read it right-to-left it could be fire-iron (fir + iron). Doesn't make sense for an English-language flashcard to be read right-to-left, though.
posted by hattifattener at 12:16 AM on January 30

Toecutter: "The problem with "hardwood" is that it seems to be a pine tree. Pine trees are usually thought of as softwood."

Under the "hardwood" interpretation, the tree is just a generic tree, meant to represent the "wood" part of the compound word. And I doubt a second-grader would grasp the difference between hardwood and softwood trees in a five-second marker sketch, anyway.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:41 AM on January 30

Erm, I get that Rhaomi :) It's just not very satisfying. Usually the way these things work is that you have, say, a picture of a fire and a picture of a dog and you get "hot dog". You don't have a picture of a fire and a hot dog. And I'm not sure that "hardwood" is in the regular lexicon of many second graders anyway as long as we're talking about the second grader perspective.
posted by Toecutter at 5:09 AM on January 30

Its 6:40 here. I woke up early-ish for me in the hopes that someone would have figured it out by now. Breadwinner isn't too bad but I think we need to get some native foreign language speakers involved.
posted by christhelongtimelurker at 6:46 AM on January 30

Why would 2nd graders need to know the difference between hardwood and softwood?

I did think long loaf of bread when I saw that, but bread doesn't puff at the bottom too, it puffs at the top as it rises out of the pan.

one track pine?

My favorite so far is pole-tree (poultry), and a second grader came up with it. I think we have a winner.
posted by Muffy at 7:35 AM on January 30

Poultry is not a compound word.
posted by oulipian at 8:37 AM on January 30

I now call shenanigans. This is bogus. Not accusing the OP (or am I?) but there's just no way this can be for real.

It's like one of those joke logic puzzles: three men are in a room, 2 are wearing hats, 1 is named Bob, 2 are bald, and 1 is wearing no pants. What time is it?
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:47 AM on January 30

OK, this is infuriating... Assuming there is an answer, might it be that the second part is not "Fir" or "Tree" but "Fir tree"... Then you could make something like la-fir-tree (lavatory). Except that rail (and I think it's clearly a rail) isn't a "La" is it?
posted by iivix at 9:24 AM on January 30

Or if you could plausibly call that rail a "Car" (in some bizarro world), you might have something like car-pine-tree (carpentry)...?
posted by iivix at 9:26 AM on January 30

Not that they're compound words...
posted by iivix at 9:28 AM on January 30

I'm leaning towards "hardwood," with poor artistic representation. Maybe the person meant to draw a steel girder and got lazy.

I really don't know what the answer is, nor do I know if it's a hoax. I think this card was being discussed on some other forum, and one of its members reached out to me for help. I'm not a member of that forum, so I'm working solely on the information given.

Considering the amount of mental computation I and everybody else has spent on this, I'd hope this isn't a fake.
posted by CancerMan at 9:39 AM on January 30

That is a fair question Muffy and I know I'm being a stickler lol :) But the problem with "hardwood" is this:

It's like having a picture of the sky for "blue" and a picture of a bird for "bird" and saying a-ha! "bluebird" except the picture shows an ostrich. If you want a pictogram for "bluebird", just show a bluebird; if you want a pictogram for "hardwood" just show a hardwood tree. See? It goes against the basic idea of what these things are.

Another analogy: These things are supposed to be like molecules. That is you take two atoms and combine them to form a molecule that has different chemical properties than either of its constituent atoms. In the case of "hardwood" or any other where an actual tree or wood is answer, it violates that basic unspoken rule of these things. (See the "hot dog" example above -- neither fire nor an actual dog figures in the answer).

I suspect this is an error, extremely poor draftsmanship or a pictogram in a foreign language or (duh, heh :) something we haven't thought of yet.
posted by Toecutter at 10:51 AM on January 30

I'm also reminded of an old (old old, like from when I was a kid) issue of Mad magazine. There was a page of rebus puzzles, and the "hard" puzzles were things like "Washington" represented by clothes on a line, plus "ing" plus a weigh that said 2000 pounds; obvious stuff. The "easy" puzzle was just a picture of a pizza, and the answer was Sophia Loren.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 11:00 AM on January 30

Hardwood is bad on both counts.

Then again, I can't find a good word for the right hand half all on its own. 'Fir' and 'pine' are weak (why the snow? why such odd words?) and 'snow' or 'tree' or 'winter' are not much better, since there are far easier ways to represent all of those things. (Then again I spent a big chunk of my early career drawing icons, so maybe I think different.)

I had nightmares about this one last night, damn you CancerMan. My new theory is that it's not English, and they're actually for 2nd-graders learning Italian or something.

I tried Spanish (nada), French (rien) and Russian (nichivo). My Japanese isn't good enough to recognize the compound potentials.

Can everyone give these a 2 min pass in their other languages?
posted by rokusan at 12:22 PM on January 30

(On preview: yes, Toecutter, that is where I was at about 4am too.)
posted by rokusan at 12:23 PM on January 30

I also wondered if it was meant for another language. I should have said something so I could say I said it first HA!

How strict does the "compound word" requirement have to be? I assumed in this case it was a loose usage of the term.

a. Any other cards in the deck we could get a peek at?
b. What kind of deck doesn't have the answers on the back?
posted by Muffy at 1:18 PM on January 30

Rail + pine = alpine? But that's not a compound word...
posted by ArgentCorvid at 1:31 PM on January 30

OK, so yes, I am sad enough to still be thinking about this... I'm really not convinced that it's hardwood, just because the obvious and universally recognised way to render wood is to draw a log. It just seems odd to draw a tree for wood, it'd be like drawing a house made of bricks as short hand for the word "bricks".

Anyway, I know that it's not really a compound word, but it is a compound noun:

Steel plant

Sound plausible to anyone?
posted by iivix at 1:34 AM on February 1

You're not the only one. This is one of those simple threads I keep hoping will finally get resolved.

I can't see the tree being a symbol for "plant." It does make me wonder, if it is, what other kind of "___ plants" might be the solution. But even steel plant seems like a weird vocabulary word/phrase for grade schoolers.

The funny thing is how the left drawing could be so many different things, whereas the one on the right almost has to be a tree, or something relating to it. And yet we still can't find a definitive answer. If they were both completely vague, that'd be a different story. And even the tree just had to be drawn vaguely enough to add more confusion. It's the work of the devil, I tell you!
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 3:10 AM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

I polled some friends last night...after being stumped for a while and reading through the guesses above, they liked poultry, too.
posted by phunniemee at 10:22 AM on February 1

It's not a damn pole.
posted by rokusan at 10:12 PM on February 1

For those who are still monitoring this, eagerly awaiting with wringing hands and baited breath...

"Treetop"

(what?!)

I just heard from someone at the other forum that the original poster emailed the company. S/he/It discovered that the flashcard was supposed to represent "treetop," with a tree and a spinning top, but the artist mistakenly drew something else (a rail tie?). No one knows why. Maybe the artist did draw a tree and a spinning top, but that they (or someone else) cut the card along the wrong line. I don't know.

The source doesn't indicate what company it is. After many sleepless nights, I'm at the point where I'm just relieved that I'm not stupid, and will chalk this up to a lesson in quality control.
posted by CancerMan at 11:20 AM on February 4 [2 favorites has favorites]

Whew, I can stop wondering about this.

(As an aside: are people really seeing a rail tie in that picture, or is there some confusion about the difference between a rail and a tie?)
posted by hattifattener at 5:41 PM on February 4

I call best answer. "Bogus." Maybe not on purpose, but bogus nonetheless.

Thanks for the update!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:59 PM on February 4

Cut along the wrong line would be my guess as the tree is on the right & it should be on the left.

Thanks for the follow up.
posted by Muffy at 2:34 PM on February 16