ABEHILNR

Word of the Week:

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

ABEHILNR

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

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(answer below, after a little more spoiler space....)

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This week's word is...

HIBERNAL adj.

• Definition: of or pertaining to winter; appearing in winter; wintry

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

TileHead says:

• When it comes to winter, English has got you covered.  Hibernal comes from the Latin hibernus, meaning wintry, the same root that gives English words such as HIBERNATE, HIBERNATION, HIBERNATOR, and HIBERNACULUM (a shelter for a hibernating animal or insect).  The word HIEMAL is another adjective meaning "wintry; of or belonging to winter"; it derives from a similar Latin root, hiems, meaning winter.  There's also BRUMAL, yet another adjective meaning "wintry; of or belonging to winter"; it derives from the Latin bruma, meaning the shortest day of the year, or the winter solstice.  (BRUMAL should not, however, be confused in meaning with BRUME or BRUMOUS; while the latter two also derive from bruma, they've come to mean "fog" and "foggy," respectively.)

• All of these WINTERTIME words can be been used in both scientific and literary contexts:
  
  "...the hibernal variety of the plant..."
  "...to sleep away the hibernal months..."
  
  "...the hiemal threshold..."
  "...his hiemal habits..."
  
  "...the brumal retreat of the swallow..."
  "...the brumal wind..."

• The more familiar WINTER (and its many forms: WINTERY, WINTRY, WINTRILY, etc.) is an Old English word (recorded as early as the 800's) that derives from Old High German (wintar) and Old Norse (vetr) words for the season.