AELLST (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):

AELLST (2)

(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...

STELLA n. pl. -S

• Definition:
  1. a four dollar United States gold coin, proposed and minted as a test but never issued into circulation (often capitalized)
  2. the nickname for a prominent Scrabble player, list mistress, and humorist (capitalized)

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -R, -S
• Anagrams: SALLET (n. pl. -S, a rounded metal helmet with a brim flaring in the back, often featuring a slit or movable visor, worn primarily in the 15th century)
• Longer extensions: HAUstella, ROstella, stellaTE, stellaTED
• Wraparounds: CAstellaN/S CIRCUMstellaR CONstellaTE/D/S CONstellaTING CONstellaTION/S CONstellaTORY INTERstellaR ROstellaR
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

TileHead says:

• The stella (often, but not always, capitalized) is a four dollar gold coin, proposed and minted as a pattern coin in 1879-1880.  It was designed to complement a host of coins of the same size and weight in circulation in Europe at the time.  The stella was never put into circulation, but a few hundred of the test coins were made available to congressmen.  Legend has it that a number of these were made into pendants, with many ending up gracing the necks of madams of prominent bordellos.  Stella coins are rare and typically found only in the collections of a few wealthy numismatists.

• The stella coin featured Lady Liberty on one side and a five-pointed star on the other, from which its name derives: from the Latin stella, meaning star.  The stella root is part of many English words pertaining to stars, including CONSTELLATION, STELLAR, and STELLATE.

• The anagram of stella, SALLET, also has an interesting history.  A sallet was a medieval helmet, worn primarily in northern Europe in the 1400s, featuring a visor or slit for the eyes and a brim flaring in the back to protect the neck.  Its design differed from the Italian BARBUT, a visorless helmet popular in the same era.  Both the sallet and the barbut were eventually superseded by the BURGONET, an open-faced helmet with a metal fin on top.  Other medieval helmets to add to your Scrabble arsenal include ARMET, BASINET, HEAUME, and MORION/MORRION.