AADILNPR

Word of the Week: 

A feature wherein TileHead highlights a word that is is especially interesting or unusual (and, incidentally, useful in Scrabble play):

AADILNPR

(unscramble the letters to form this week's word...)

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This week's word is...

PRANDIAL adj.

• Definition: of or pertaining to a meal

• Front hooks: (none)
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• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: PRE-, POST-
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TileHead says:

• The Latin prandium was a light meal, usually eaten around noon, but the modern English word PRANDIAL can refer to any meal and is probably used most often to refer to dinner. 
• The pre- and post- forms of the word are more common and more flexible: one might refer to "a preprandial drink," "preprandial preparations," and so on; or to "a postprandial speech," "a postprandial stupor," or perhaps (especially among readers of this blog) to some postprandial wordplay!

"A certain succulence"

In Other Words...

Every word fresh from the dictionary brings with it a certain succulence.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894), Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

ACEGMRRY

Word of the Week:

A feature wherein TileHead highlights a word that is is especially interesting or unusual (and, incidentally, useful in Scrabble play):

ACEGMRRY

(unscramble the letters to form this week's word...)

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This week's word is...

GRAMERCY n. pl. -CIES

• Definition: an expression of gratitude; many thanks; also used as an interjection expressing surprise or gratitude

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TileHead says:

• Thank your French teacher if you guessed that GRAMERCY comes from the combination of two Old French words: grand, meaning great, and merci, meaning thanks.  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) adds: "The primary sense of merci was ‘reward, favour gained by merit’; hence grant merci originally meant ‘may God reward you greatly’... grant merci and merci without the adj. came to be used interjectionally = ‘thanks’, in which use the shorter form survives" in modern French.

• When it comes to words to be THANKFUL for, our list has rarities such as BETHANK, THANKER, THANKWORTHY, and THANKLESSNESS.  But one of the most interesting "THANK" words has to be PICKTHANK (n. -S), which Webster's Third New International defines as "one who tries to curry favor by flattery, sycophancy, or talebearing" (deriving from an old phrase "to pick a thank," meaning to seek someone's favor).  To cite one notable example, William Shakespeare used it deftly in Henry IV, Part 1, referring to "smiling pickthanks and base newsmongers."

"At the mercy of words"

In Other Words...

I fell in love – that is the only expression I can think of – at once, and am still at the mercy of words, though sometimes now, knowing a little of their behaviour very well, I think I can influence them slightly and have even learned to beat them now and then, which they appear to enjoy.
– Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

FINORSS

Word of the Week: 

A feature wherein TileHead highlights a word that is is especially interesting or unusual (and, incidentally, useful in Scrabble play).  The word's "alphagram" (letters arranged in alphabetical order) will always be given first, for those readers who may wish to try to anagram the word before learning more about it.

FINORSS

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This week's word is...

FRISSON n. pl. -S

• Definition: a brief shudder of excitement or terror; a thrill; "a pleasurable sensation of fright or gloom" (MW)

• Front hooks: (none) 
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
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TileHead says:

• Deriving from the French for "shiver" (probably ultimately from the Latin frigere, "to be cold"), frisson can be a delightful word in the hands of a good storyteller.  Louise Erdrich used it well in Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001): "They were eager to get to the exciting part of the fight where they lost their tempers and approached each other with a frisson of rage that turned sexual, so that they could be slightly cruel and then surrender themselves to tenderness."  And T.C. Boyle crafted an unforgettable sentence with it in Budding Prospects (1984): "There were risks, sure, but that was what made the project so enticing -- the frisson, the audacity, the monumental pissing in the face of society."

"What a wealth of words"

In Other Words...
A feature wherein TileHead presents a quote that is interesting, informative, inspiring, or humorous:

What a wealth of words in almost every language lies inert and unused; and certainly not fewest in our own. How much of what might be as current coin among us, is shut up in the treasure-house of a few classical authors, or is never to be met at all but in the columns of the dictionary.
– Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886), in On the Study of Words

The Quiddity of TileHead

TileHead is a blog about words and word games.  At least two regular features are planned at the outset:  

1. "In Other Words..." a feature wherein TileHead digs up quotes pertaining to the blog's subject matter that are interesting, informative, inspiring, or humorous; and  
2. "Word of the Week," a feature wherein TileHead highlights a word that is is especially interesting or unusual (and, incidentally, useful in Scrabble play)

Posts of other kinds (ruminations, strategies, etc.) pertaining to the blog's subject matter will also appear from time to time.

Quiddity, for those who may not know, is the "whatness" or "true nature or essence of a thing."  It seemed like a good place to start.

* A few things have changed since this original post, but the quiddity of TileHead remains much the same.  The "In Other Words..." feature is now just called "Quote of the Week," and the longer "Word of the Week" feature has been converted to a shorter "Word of the Day" feature, but the focus remains, as always, on words, wonderful words.  Thanks for your continued (or newfound) readership.
— TileHead, 28 August, 2011