November 30, 2003, 05:30
BobHaleScrabble Words
I hope wordcrafter doesn't mind my crashing the Vocabulary Forum but it seems to be the best place for this.
I sometimes play scrabble against my computer. Usually I have the computer skill level set to 15. I decided to play at 2o, the maximum level and in consecutive games it game up with all of the following.
MOZOSMAZE
US - a smokey haze, less damp than a fog
KEX
any of several large hollow stemmed umbelliferous plants
TEWEDFAZES
disconcert, worry, disturb
FETUS
Alternate spelling for foetus
RAYAH
a non-Muslim subject of the Ottoman Empire
AR
the letter "R"
ONAGER
a Persian variety of wild ass
OCHONE
Scottish or Irish: an expression of grief
UMIAQ
alt. spelling for umiak or oomiak - an Eskimo boat
DISTAL
Anatomy (of muscle, bone, limb etc) situated furthest from the centre
YAUTIA
any of several Wast Indian plants of genus Xanthosoma
TITRE
the concentration of a solution as determined by titration
FEME
Law: a woman or wife
INTITULE
Parliamentary procedure: to entitle
AVOThe two in boldface I haven't found in the dictionary.
Strange to say I lost both games and reset the computer skill level to 15 where I sometimes win.
Why should I let the toad
workSquat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.November 30, 2003, 17:25
haberdasherNever did like high-level Scrabble, Stefan Fatsis'
Word Freak notwithstanding, for precisely that reason. The players aren't dealing with words, just with entries in a well-defined list. No, make that one of two lists, one for US Scrabble, and the other for international Scrabble. Might as well be made up of "@#$%^&*()..." as "abcdefghi..". A few reasonably competent players even speak no English at all, but they're good at list memorization and manipulation.
There is some overlap with the language used by most of us most of the time, but there really doesn't need to be.