Wondrous Words Wednesday: More Words with Friends

I'll admit that I spend too much time playing Words with Friends on my iPhone (though I'll willingly turn off my cell phone on airplanes).  One of the pleasures of playing is making up words that sometimes turn out to be actual words, by trying various combinations of letters to form plausible words.



Yesterday I played zorils and scored 54 points. It wasn't a mega-word (100 or more points), but it was substantial enough to give me a nice lead.  I then looked up zoril. 


1. zoril:  a weaselike African animal, resembling a skunk in coloration and habits, also called an African polecat, zorille, or zorilla

Our night safari tour guide told us to beware of the zoril; The Guinness Book of Animal Records states that a zoril once kept nine lions at bay while it was scavenging their kill, due to its strong, putrid smell.  (I smell a . . . zoril?)

Zoril

I also "made up" the word jato.  It was accepted as a word by Words with Friends. What on earth does jato mean?

2. jato: an acronym for jet-fuel assisted take off; an aircraft takeoff aided by an auxiliary jet or rocket; an auxiliary jet-producing unit providing additional thrust for a takeoff

Some of you probably already know that jato is a term used in engineering and aeronautics. 

America's first "rocket-assisted" take-off,
performed at March Field, California, in 1941.

Apparently, jota is also a word. I could have played jota, but went with jato instead.

3. jota: a genre of music and the associated popular dance known throughout Spain, most likely originating in Aragon; the music to which the dance is set, normally of 3/4 or 6/8 time

The jota dancers wore colorful costumes and were quite energetic.

Aragonese Jota Dancers

Photos courtesy of Wonderful Wikipedia

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy from BermudaOnion's Weblog. What new words have you made up discovered recently?

Wondrous Words Wednesday: Words with Friends

Recently, while playing Words with Friends on my iPhone, I was asked what the word I had just played, awa, meant. I admitted that I did not know. All I knew at that point was that the word was accepted, and that I had scored many points for it. (The best thing about this game is that you can score a lot of points by making words; words may be worth over 100 points--it's a bit thrilling at times!) In this game, you can make all kinds of crazy, short words that you'd mostly likely never use in oral or written communication. I decided to feature some here for BermudaOnion's magnificent meme for logophiles, Wondrous Words Wednesday, although only a few, as I don't want to give away too many secrets (I do want to win the game once in a while). These words would also be good to use in Scrabble, a game I loved as a child (and still do), which may be played on a traditional board or online.

1. awa: away; departed; onward

It's as if the 'y' in away went awa. This word sounds like it belongs in poetry. Awa is an adverb that I will now be able to play with confidence.


2. qat: a tropical evergreen plant whose leaves are used as a stimulant

Qat is a great word to keep in mind and play, when you have a 'q' without a 'u'. The plural form of this word, qats, is also acceptable. In House Rules by Jodi Picoult, Jacob, a young man with Asperger's syndrome, lists some short words such as qat for use in the game Scrabble. (Words with Friends is very similar to Scrabble, and when I first started playing Words online a couple of months ago, I mistakenly called it Scrabble.)


3. ki, chi, qi: three excellent little words to play, which mean the vital energy or force in the body

When my ki is off, I don't feel up to par and fail to make high scoring words in Words with Friends. The plural forms of these words, kis, chis, and qis, are also acceptable.





What wondrous new words have you encountered in your reading recently--or while playing word games?