Friday, September 30, 2011

SLATCH

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 30 September 2011

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SLATCH  (n. pl. -ES)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a calm between breaking waves
  2. (n.) an interval of fair weather, as a lull in a windstorm
  3. (n.) any brief respite or interval; a short period
  4. (n.) the loose or slack part of a rope

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ES
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The words SLACK, SLAKE, and SLATCH all derive from the Old English slæc, but SLATCH developed meanings mostly associated with the sea — a period between waves, a calm during a storm, the loose end of a rope — and is now used chiefly in New Engand area.

Our ship has reached the end of another week, and it’s time for another slatch from word sleuthing, but the Word of the Day will return with renewed vigor next week.


Summarizing this week’s words: SWIVET, SELCOUTH, SAROS, SMARAGD, and SLATCH

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Thursday, September 29, 2011

SMARAGD

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 29 September 2011

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SMARAGD  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) an emerald
  2. (n.) any precious stone of a bright green color

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -E, -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ES, -ITE, -ITES
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: SMARAGDE (n.)
  • Related Forms: SMARAGDINE (adj.), SMARAGDITE (n.)

Epilogue:
Strange though it may seem, SMARAGD and EMERALD are essentially the same word, both deriving from the ancient Greek smaragdos and ultimately from even more ancient Hebrew and Akkadian forms.  SMARAGD came down through the ages relatively unpolished, while EMERALD passed through Latin and French forms (esmaragde became esmeraude became esmeralde and so on) before entering English as a different-looking word.  Today SMARAGD has the distinction of being the only current English word ending in -GD, and the adjectival form SMARAGDINE (“pertaining to an emerald, or of an emerald-like green color”) is both poetic and useful, especially since the equally logical emeraldine somehow never caught on as a legitimate word.

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter S

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

SAROS

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 28 September 2011

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SAROS  (n. pl. -ES)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) the eclipse cycle of the sun and moon, i.e. a cycle of approximately 18 years and 11 days in which solar and lunar eclipses occur in approximately the same sequence and intervals as in the previous such cycle

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: SOARS, SORAS
  • Longer extensions: -ES
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
There is a lot more to this word than meets the eye (or the telescope), and the tale spans more than 4000 years of history.

Ancient Sumerian and Babylonian astronomers adopted a SEXAGESIMAL, or a base 60, numerical system that proved useful for dealing with a variety of natural phenomena and with large numbers.  Vestiges of this system survive today, in the way that we measure time (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, etc.) and angles (6 x 60, or 360, degrees in circle).  In the Babylonian system, a ner was ten sixties (or 600), a sar was sixty sixties (or 3600), and so on.  Thus a sar, which passed through the Akkadian and Greek languages to become the English word SAROS, is believed to have originally referred to a period of 3600 years and may have been used in reference to a great cycle of years measured in multiples of 3600.

Fast forward a little more than a sar after its use in ancient Mesopotamia, to the late 1600s, and we find the astronomer Edmond Halley (of Halley’s comet fame) adopting the word SAROS as the term for the recurring eclipse cycle of the sun and moon — which has nothing to do with the number 3600, as the cycle is a period of just over 18 years (or a little more than 6585 days).  How did this ancient and elegant mathematical term get so mangled?  It turns out that Halley had relied on information in an 11th century encyclopedia, which had misrepresented the meaning of the original word.  The error was eventually discovered, but the term SAROS had already taken hold and is indeed still used by modern day astronomers. 

I find all of this bumbling to be rather touching: the facts may have gotten a little mixed up along the way, but through it all the little word SAROS has endured and connected the ages, neatly symbolizing how humankind’s search for meaning in the stars, as well as in the language, is as alive in the modern physicist’s satellites and computer files as it was in Halley’s telescopes and logs and, indeed, as it once was in the ancient Babylonian’s water clocks and cuneiform tablets.

This week’s theme: Suprisingly interesting words starting with the letter S

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

SELCOUTH

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 27 September 2011

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SELCOUTH  (adj.)

Definition(s):
  1. (adj.) unusual; strange
  2. (adj.) marvelous; wonderful

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Someone who is COUTH is “sophisticated or well-mannered,” while someone UNCOUTH is “lacking in good manners, or awkward in appearance.”  These words passed into modern English from the Old English cuth (“known”), and they did originally mean “known” and “unknown” before centuries of slight variation slowly altered their meanings.  A chiefly Scottish variant COUTHIE evolved much later to mean “friendly, pleasant” — treating someone as familiar.

Knowing all this, it comes as no surprise that the Old English seldcuth was merely a combination of seldan (“seldom”) and our now-familiar friend cuth (“known”).  It has been in the language for more than a thousand years, though it now seems like a SELCOUTH visitor from another time and only occasionally makes an appearance in modern writing.

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter S

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Monday, September 26, 2011

SWIVET

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 26 September 2011

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SWIVET  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a state of nervous excitement, distress, or panic
  2. (n.) a hurry

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The origin of this word is completely unknown.  It began popping up in American publications in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with various spellings and usually in the phrase “in a swivet,” as in “Hilda... was in quite a swivit over the prospect of being interviewed again” (1933).  Over time the spelling has settled down on SWIVET, and it still receives occasional use.

The sheer superfluity of S words is enough to send one into a swivet — so many wondrous and unusual words!  Fear not: this week we shall simply set our sights on a small number of superb words starting with the letter S.

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Saturday, September 24, 2011

Dream Wraparounds - Part 2 of an Occasional Series

This time we uncover a few more interesting bingo wraparounds — longer words formed by adding to both the front and back of an existing word — including several from racks that already contain a shorter bingo:
  1. Holding CHINOPY, you would have an obscure bingo CIPHONY ("electronic scrambling of voice transmissions").  But with POMP on the board, you could surely rouse your opponent with... 
    • HYPNOPOMPIC (adj.) relating to the semiconscious state that precedes completely awakening from sleep (from the Greek hypno- "sleep" and pompe "sending away"); a related term is HYPNOGOGIC or HYPNAGOGIC (which, incidentally, could be also be formed as wraparounds: HYPNAGOGIC or HYPNOGOGIC), referring to the semiconscious transitional state between wakefulness and sleep
  2. With WOO on the board, and holding ABCDKSY, you could make a refined play of... 
    • BACKWOODSY (adj.) pertaining to the backwoods, or to a thinly populated or backward area; unsophisticated, uncouth
  3. Holding ADILNSU, you would have the nice bingo SUNDIAL.  But with MAG on the board, you could really mix it up with... 
    • SALMAGUNDI (n.) a mixture of things, a potpourri; a salad of chopped meats, anchovies, eggs, and vegetables (probably from a medieval French term referring to a hodgepodge of meats)
  4. Holding HIILPST, you would have a terrific play of SHILPIT ("sickly, weak").  But with LUMEN on the board, you could collect even more points with... 
    • PHILLUMENIST (n.) a collector of matchbooks or matchboxes (from the Greek phil- "loving" and the Latin lumen "light")
By the way, kudos if you noticed that WRAPAROUND itself could be formed as a wraparound play!

More to come in future installments!  If you have any dream wraparounds to share, pass them on to me at <tilehead@gmail.com>.

"more treasure in books..."

Quote of the Week:
There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.
~ Walt Disney

Friday, September 23, 2011

GROG

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 23 September 2011

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GROG  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a drink consisting of a mixture of liquor (often rum) and water
  2. (n.) any alcoholic drink
  3. (n.) materials used in the manufacture of certain heat-resistant products

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -GY, -GIER, -GIEST, -GILY, -RAM/S, -GERY, -GERIES, -SHOP/S, -GINESS/ES
  • Wraparounds: HYgrogRAPH/S
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Legend has it that GROG, that stereotypical alcoholic beverage of pirates, is a shortened form of “Old Grog,” the nickname of British admiral Edward Vernon, who often served diluted rum to his sailors.  Vernon (after whom Mount Vernon is named, incidentally) was supposedly so called after his habit of wearing a GROGRAM cloak; GROGRAM (also called GROSGRAIN) is a kind of course fabric of silk, mohair, or wool (the word deriving from the French gros grain, “large or course grain”).  The story seems too fanciful to be true, but no better theory has been advanced and even the OED lends credence to the tale.  In any case, English speakers later extended the word with coinages such as GROGGERY and GROGSHOP, both words meaning “a barroom or drinking establishment.”

Now be the time for takin’ stock o’ this week’s booty: PICAROON, FREEBOOT, KEELHAUL, CUTLASS, and GROG

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Thursday, September 22, 2011

CUTLASS

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 22 September 2011

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CUTLASS  (n. pl. -ES)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a short sword with a slightly curved blade
  2. (n.) a large knife; a machete

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ES
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: CUTLAS (n. pl. -ES), CURTALAX (n. pl. -ES)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Stereotypically, pirates are nearly always adorned with a sword, often one with a curved blade and a hilt, properly known as a CUTLASS.  Such swords were used both on land and at sea for many hundreds of years, being both easy to use and well-suited to close combat as well as to many everyday tasks requiring a blade.  The word came into English in the late 1500s, from the French coutelas and ultimately the Latin cultellus (“knife”) — the same root behind the word CUTLERY.  And while CURTALAX may sound like an entirely different kind of weapon, it is merely a corrupted spelling (of the earlier French form) that has survived into modern times.

This week’s theme: Words related to (the popular conception) of pirates and piracy

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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

KEELHAUL

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 21 September 2011

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KEELHAUL  (v. -ED, -ING, -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (v.) to drag a person under the bottom of a ship as a form of punishment
  2. (v.) to rebuke severely

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ED, -ING
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: KEELHALE (v.)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Yes, KEELHAULING apparently was a real form of punishment occasionally used by seafarers of earlier eras.  The practice was mentioned as kielhalen in Dutch ordinances of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, entered English as KEELHALE or KEELHAUL in the seventeenth century, and was not formerly abolished by the Dutch navy until the mid-nineteenth century.  Because the keel of a ship was often covered with barnacles and other debris, the punishment would have resulted in severe injury or death in most instances, assuming the victim did not simply drown in the process.  The word gained the milder and more metaphorical sense of “to rebuke severely” much later.

This week’s theme: Words related to (the popular conception) of pirates and piracy

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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

FREEBOOT

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 20 September 2011

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FREEBOOT  (v. -ED, -ING, -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (v.) to plunder; to buccaneer

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ED, -ER, -ERS, -ING
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: FREEBOOTER (n.)

Epilogue:
Yesterday’s entry celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day, complete with fanciful “pirate” jargon and affected speech patterns.  In the interest of accuracy, we should hasten to add that there is no evidence that pirates ever talked like that — and that real piracy is no laughing matter, boys and girls!  The speech patterns used by pirates (and other seafarers) of most eras probably was characterized by ample amounts of slang, regional dialects, and coarse language, and some of the terms associated with piracy (Jolly Roger, Davy Jones’ locker, etc.) do have real historical roots, as do all the words we are profiling this week.  But the popular rendering of pirate speech — replete with frequent exclamations of arr! avast! ahoy! yo ho! and so forth — seems to have been invented by modern books, films, and other works of fiction.

All that said, today’s word comes from the Dutch vrijbuiter (“pirate, robber”).  The OED adds that this verb was originally used in Dutch phrases such as op vrijbuit varen “to go capturing ships or plundering.”  English words such as BOOTY (“plunder, spoil”) appear even earlier and were influenced by similar Germanic forms.

This week’s theme: Words related to (the popular conception) of pirates and piracy

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Monday, September 19, 2011

PICAROON

TileHead’s Word o’ the Day for 19 September 2011

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PICAROON  (v. -ED, -ING, -S)

What this word be a-meanin’:
  1. (v.) to act as a pirate or rogue
  2. (n.) a pirate, rogue, or vagabond
  3. (n.) a small ship of a kind used by pirates
  4. (n.) a long pole with a spike or hook, used in logging and fishing
  5. (adj.) in the manner of a picaroon: piratical; roguish

Useful to be knowin’ if ye be a game player:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ED, -ING
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: PICARO (n.), PICARA (n.)

Last words:
Avast, all ye landlubbers!  Every September 19th be declared International Talk Like a Pirate Day, the day set aside for talkin’ like a pirate and lootin’ and pillagin’ and, well, mostly talkin’ like a pirate!  If ye don’t play along, best watch out for the sign of the Jolly Roger, for ye could be walkin’ the plank and endin’ up in ol’ Davy Jones’ locker!

Those with book learnin’ say this one be from a Spanish word, picaron (“rogue, scoundrel”), which also be the source of the related words PICARO and PICARA, masculine and feminine terms for “a rogue or scoundrel.”  Aye, ye be crossin’ paths with plenty o’ that sort on the high seas, matey!

This week’s theme: arrr!

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Saturday, September 17, 2011

Dream Wraparounds - Part 1 of an Occasional Series

Being a successful Scrabble player requires an almost unnatural fixation on words two to eight letters in length.  Nine and ten letter words do make occasional appearances, but, even on expert boards, usually these are merely pluralizations, conjugations, or simple extensions of six to eight letter words.  However, once in a while I like to muse about some of the more interesting and lesser known longer words in the English language, especially those that could actually appear in a game of Scrabble, even if the probability is minuscule. 

I especially like longer "wraparounds," where a longer word is formed by  adding to both the front and back of the word.  For example, holding EEEFRRS, one could make the bingo REEFERS.  But if THINK were on the board... a little thought might produce the amazing play FREE-THINK-ERS, or FREETHINKERS.

Here are three other "dream wraparounds":
  • With WARM on the board and holding CEEHIRS, you could make a play that would surely elicit...
    • SCHWARMEREI (n.) excessive enthusiasm or sentiment (from a German word meaning "to swarm")
  •  With EVER on the board and holding EFMOORR, you could make a play that would be remembered...
    • FOREVERMORE (adv.) forever, for always
  • With CHAT on the board and holding EGLOOSY, you could end it all, er, end the game with...
    • ESCHATOLOGY (n.) the branch of theology concerned with death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of mankind
More to come in future installments!

If you have any dream wraparounds to share, pass them on to me at <tilehead@gmail.com>.

"The short and long of it": Shakespearean Phrases

Spreading the Word
An occasional segment wherein TileHead suggests you take a look at an interesting article, book, video, or website.

Thanks to NPR for passing on the following little meme about Shakespearean phrases.  You may find it to be "much ado about nothing," or perhaps you will find it to be "such stuff as dreams are made on," but "what's done is done" and there's no denying the fact that Bard had an enormous influence on the English language. "Parting is such sweet sorrow" and "all's well that ends well," but since "brevity is the soul of wit" I'll dispense with any further "pomp and circumstance" and send you to the link now, "for goodness' sake":

Things We Say Today and Owe to Shakespeare
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/15/140520535/things-we-say-today-and-owe-to-shakespeare

Hurry, before it "melts into thin air"!

"the poetry of words"

Quote of the Week:
When I feel inclined to read poetry I take down my Dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as that of sentences. The author may arrange the gems effectively, but their shape and lustre have been given by the attrition of ages.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894)

Friday, September 16, 2011

ROSHI

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 16 September 2011

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ROSHI  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) the spiritual leader of a group of Zen Buddhists
  2. (n.) an advanced practitioner of Zen Buddhism

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The ROSHI is a “Zen master” in common parlance, coming from a Japanese term meaning “elder master” or “old teacher.”  Its use varies widely among different Buddhist communities. In some traditions it is applied only to older masters, while in others it may be conferred on someone of any age, but it is nearly always a title of respect.  In popular culture, the word has also been used less reverently (and often as part of a character’s name) in MANGA (Japanese graphic novels), cartoons, and video games.  A similar term is SENSEI, roughly meaning “teacher,” though in the U.S. that word is most often associated with martial arts teachers.

Recapping this week’s words: RUBICUND, ROWEN, RETIARY, RASORIAL, and ROSHI

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Thursday, September 15, 2011

RASORIAL

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 15 September 2011

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RASORIAL  (adj.)

Definition(s):
  1. (adj.) relating to birds that habitually search or scratch the ground for food

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
You’ve probably seen the RASORIAL behavior of chickens and some other birds, habitually pecking at the ground for food, and now, by golly, you know the word for it.  Several orders of birds were once classified as Rasores, or the Scratchers, from a Latin word meaning “to scrape” or “to scratch.”  The adjective RASORIAL is usually used in scientific writings, as when a Missouri Botanical Garden report noted that “the Brown Thrush... is terrestrial and rasorial in its habits” (1905).  However, writers have occasionally applied it more creatively, as in this passage from a novel by William Gaddis: “they looked toward the door, saw only the paunchy guest of the evening moving toward it, in an unsteady rasorial attitude as though following a trail of crumbs to the great world outside” (1955).

Nowadays chickens, pheasants, turkeys, and grouse are classified in the order Gallinae (from a Latin word for “hen”), to which you can refer with the adjective GALLINACEOUS.  Usually restricted to scientific uses, Annie Brassey employed it humorously in an 1885 book: “We returned to the hotel, where another meal, as gallinaceous as that of yesterday, awaited us.”

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter R

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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

RETIARY

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 14 September 2011

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RETIARY  (adj.)

Definition(s):
  1. (adj.) resembling a net; netlike
  2. (adj.) of or relating to the making of nets or netlike structures, such as a spider’s web

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The Latin rete (“net”) has contributed to a vast network of related words.  A few of my favorites in this category include:
  • RETIARIUS (pl. RETIARII): a Roman gladiator who fought with a net and trident; also, figuratively, a person whose tactics are designed to ensnare or trap an opponent
  • RETICULE: a drawstring handbag or small purse, originally made of a netted fabric
  • RETIFORM: having the form of a net; netlike
  • RETINA (pl. -E or -S): the nerve layer that lines the back of the eye, probably so called because of the netlike appearance of blood vessels that run through it

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter R

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

ROWEN

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 13 September 2011

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ROWEN  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a second growth of grass or crop of hay in a season

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: OWNER, REWON
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The word AFTERMATH also originally referred to a second growth of grass, from the Old English word math, “a mowing.”  But while AFTERMATH has gained a more common figurative meaning (“the consequences of an event”), ROWEN has retained its agrarian roots, as when Fredric Klees wrote “Before the first signs of frost the rowen, the tenderest hay of all, is cut and stowed away in the barn” (1950) or when Kate Barnes wrote “I think of how, at night, the deer lie down in the big field, of their beds in the rowen hay” (2004).  ROWEN sprouted from an Anglo-French word roughly meaning “to harvest again.”

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter R

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Monday, September 12, 2011

RUBICUND

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 12 September 2011

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RUBICUND  (adj.)

Definition(s):
  1. (adj.) red; reddish; ruddy
  2. (adj.) having a red or rosy face or complexion

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ITY, -ITIES
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: RUBICUNDITY (n.)

Epilogue:
Teachers often use a RUBRIC (an established set of rules) to grade papers — so called because a rubric was originally a book chapter or other important heading printed in red text.  Similarly, a RUBICUND face is red or flushed, and of course a RUBY is a red gemstone.  All of these English words (and several others) derive from the Latin ruber (“red”).

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter R

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Sunday, September 11, 2011

"will and determination and passion..."

Quote of the Week: 
My favorite pastime is connected to real emotions, and not just those resulting from winning or losing, but will and determination and passion and compassion and schadenfreude and humor, the whole human buffet, in fact, of hungers, disappointments, frailties, and insecurities.
~ Stefan Fatsis, in Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble (originally published in 2001 and now available in a 10th anniversary edition)

Friday, September 9, 2011

CLAQUER

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 9 September 2011

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CLAQUER  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a hired applauder
  2. (n.) a fawning follower or admirer

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: LACQUER
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: CLAQUEUR
  • Related Forms: CLAQUE

Epilogue:
Hired applauders are recorded back into antiquity, including the the Roman Laudicoeni, who received benefits such as free dinners in exchange for their enthusiastic promotion of plays and performances.  The word CLAQUER (or CLAQUEUR), from the French claquer (“to clap”), entered English after they were used extensively in plays and operas of the nineteenth century, first in France and then in England, Italy, the United States, and elsewhere.  Nowadays the word is more often used to refer to any sycophantic follower who is apt to applaud the actions of a favorite politician or leader.

A round of applause for this week’s hardworking words: LINKBOY, SUTLER, FAMULUS, and CLAQUER

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Thursday, September 8, 2011

FAMULUS

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 8 September 2011
 
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FAMULUS  (n. pl. FAMULI)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a close servant, secretary, or attendant, especially one who assists a scholar or magician

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
This word has largely fallen out of use, which is a shame since it is far more interesting and elegant than terms such as graduate assistant, teaching assistant (shortened to “TA” in many colleges and universities), secretary, or similar. And if you happen to need to refer to a sorcerer’s assistant, no other word will do, its usage in this sense being very well established (as, for example, when Thomas Carlyle wrote of “the Magician’s Famulus” who “got hold of the forbidden Book and summoned a Goblin”).  English probably borrowed FAMULUS from German, but it comes intact from the Latin famulus (“servant”), which is also the source for the Latin familia and the English FAMILY.

In the spirit of reviving occupational words in danger of falling into desuetude, there’s also AMANUENSIS, an old term for a secretary or scribe.  It comes from a Latin term roughly meaning “servant from the hand,” that is one who takes dictation or serves close at hand as an assistant or secretary.

This week’s theme: occupational words

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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

SUTLER

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 7 September 2011

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SUTLER  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a person who sells provisions to solders, especially one who follows an army or lives in a garrison town for that purpose

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: LUSTER, LUSTRE, RESULT, RUSTLE, and ULSTER
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Selling provisions to soldiers is an ancient occupation, though the term SUTLER (from a Dutch word) did not enter English until around 1600.  An older term for the occupation is VICTUALER (or VICTUALLER), a word of French origin that is recorded in English as early as William Langland’s 1377 allegorical poem Piers Plowman.  

Most SUTLERS throughout history were male, but a kind of female sutler known as a VIVANDIERE (also of French origin) was involved in a number of European wars in the 1700 and 1800s, as well as in the American Civil War.  They accompanied the troops for the purpose of selling them food, supplies, liquor, and other wares.

This week’s theme: occupational words

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

LINKBOY

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 6 September 2011

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LINKBOY  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) an attendant formerly employed to carry a torch to light the way along dark streets

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: (none)
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: LINKMAN, LINKMEN

Epilogue:
In the days before streetlights, LINKBOYS or LINKMEN were employed to light the way along the streets of London and some other large cities, at least throughout the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.  Several famous authors of that era referred to them in their writings, as when Charles Dickens wrote of “the red glare of the link-boy's torch” in Pickwick Papers.  The “link” in the word refers an obsolete sense meaning “a torch made of cotton tow and pitch.”

LINKMAN was also the name given to “an attendant (as at a theater) who summons vehicles and shows passengers to and from them” (W3) or to any “person serving as a link between groups of people” (OED).  These words are not to be confused with LINKSMAN, a term for a golfer — a devotee of the “links” of a golf course.

This week’s theme: in honor of yesterday’s Labor Day holiday, the rest of this week we’ll examine words related to unusual occupations.

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Sunday, September 4, 2011

"Growth comes at the point of resistance"

Quote of the Week:
The fact of the matter is that there will be nothing learned from any challenge in which we don't try our hardest.  Growth comes at the point of resistance.  We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.
~ Josh Waitzkin, Art of Learning

Friday, September 2, 2011

QUINCUNX

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 2 September 2011

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QUINCUNX  (n. pl. -ES)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) an arrangement of five objects, especially one in which four objects occupy the corners of a square and the fifth occupies its center

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: (none)
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ES, -IAL
  • Wraparounds: (none)
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: QUINCUNXIAL (adj.), QUINCUNCIAL (adj.)

Epilogue:
Though you may not realize it, you have probably seen many QUINCUNXES in your lifetime.  Common examples include the pattern of dots on the fifth side of a playing die or the pattern of shapes on the five of any suit of playing cards.  Trees are sometimes planted in a QUINCUNXIAL (or QUINCUNCIAL) pattern as well, because doing so helps ensure that they receive more equal exposure to sunlight.  The word comes from the Latin for “five-twelfths,” because a quincunx was the name of a Roman coin — usually adorned with five dots — equivalent to five-twelfths of the more valuable as coin.

Please note that there will be no Word of the Day post on September 5th, Labor Day in the United States.  Enjoy the holiday!

Recapping this week’s words — a quincunx of Q words:
  QUISLING   QIVIUT
         QUIDNUNC
QUADRAT   QUINCUNX

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Thursday, September 1, 2011

QUADRAT

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 1 September 2011

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QUADRAT  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):
  1. (n.) a small area, usually square or rectangular, marked off for studying local plants and animals; also the frame or grid used to mark off such an area
  2. (n.) in letterpress printing, a small block of metal used for filling spaces

Useful information for game players:
  • Front hooks: (none)
  • Back hooks: -E, -S
  • Anagrams: (none)
  • Longer extensions: -ED, -ES, -IC, -ICS, -ING, -URE, -URES, -ICALLY
  • Wraparounds: BIquadratIC, BIquadratICS
  • Other Spellings: (none)
  • Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Most English words beginning with QUAD- can be traced back to the Latin quadrum, “square.”  Such is the case with QUADRAT, as well as some of my other favorite QUAD- words:
  • QUADRIVIUM the higher four of the seven subjects taught as part of a liberal arts education in the Middle Ages (the TRIVIUM consisted of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, while the QUADRIVIUM consisted of arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music)
  • QUADRENNIAL occurring every four years (as the quadrennial U.S. presidential election)
  • QUADRUMANOUS having all four feet adapted for grasping or functioning as hands (as among monkeys and apes)

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter Q

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