Adventures in the Dictionary

Over the course of playing Scrabble on my phone, against the computer or others, I’ve been amazed at some of the words that show up. Especially against the computer with the parameters set to ‘difficult’.

So, I like to look them up when I have a moment, and am a huge fan of both dictionary.com and merriam-webster.com

God gave us intellects, and learning new words is a great habit to get into. Here is a sample of some of these words:

1. louie

   I always thought proper names were verboten for Scrabble. (And, they are.) But many proper names have come to have non-proper meanings, and hence are fair play in Scrabble. The definition for louie is initially given as:

   noun-looie.

   So… it’s off to look up loo·ie

   noun Slang .
   a lieutenant of the armed forces.

   “He was a louie and darned proud of it.”

2. screaks – Sure we’ve all heard it, but what does it actually mean?

   screak? ?[skreek]
   verb (used without object)
   1.to screech.
   2.to creak.

   In other words, it means exactly what we thought it meant. Moving along…

3. rhyta

   rhy·ton? ?[rahy-ton]
   noun, plural -ta ?[-tuh]
   an ancient Greek drinking horn, made of pottery or metal, having a base in the form of the head of a woman or animal.

   “Agamemnon and Priscilla drank from the various rhyta which were always kept at table.”

4. awee

   chiefly Scot
   : a little while

   “We’ll be back in awee!”

5. borating

   no definition. :-[

   However, there’s a definition of borate, which is a compound, and borated: mixed or impregnated with borax or boric acid . So, borating would obviously mean to be mixing or impregnating with borax or boric acid.

   “The science lab was abuzz with students borating their samples.”

6. bize

   obs. form of bice.

   bice means –
   1. Also called: bice blue a medium blue colour; azurite
   2. Also called: bice green a yellowish-green colour; malachite

   “Her eyes were a beautiful bize, and he was in love.”

7. toluyl

   — n
   ( modifier ) of, consisting of, or containing any of three isomeric groups CH 3 C 6 H 4 CO-, derived from a toluic acid by removal of the hydroxyl group: toluyl group or radical

   [C19: from tolu ( ene ) + -yl ]

   “They were thoroughly confused by the toluyls, yet were amazed they had successfully removed the hydroxyl groups from the equation. The world was now safe.”

8. And my personal favorite: prunuses

   [plural of] :any of a genus (Prunus) of drupaceous trees or shrubs of the rose family that have showy clusters of usually white or pink flowers first appearing in the spring often before the leaves and including many grown for ornament or for their fruit (as the plum, cherry, or apricot)

   “Hey honey, can you pick up those prunuses from the nursery?”

9. Then there are words like seigneur, which are just great if they work out with your letters. Foreign words are often acceptable now as they’ve moved into common usage in English, and as dictionaries have moved online. Not that I’ve ever heard seigneur used as an English word as is, say, mucho.

There you have it. And looking up new words can be done while you’re watching World Youth Day highlights.

But now, it’s off to look up words for my Homily this weekend. That’s always an interesting affair.