Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 4

An excellent source of protein . . .

The most fascinating word this week was berserk: a fierce warrior. From the OED: "A wild Norse warrior of great strength and ferocious courage, who fought on the battle-field with a frenzied fury known as the ‘berserker rage’; often a lawless bravo or freebooter." Awesome. Brings a whole new understanding to go berserk.

♡ Favorite Words of the Week
    Barrow: a type of cart
    Bathyal: pertaining to deep water
    Benthos: the bottom of the sea
    Beshiver: to break into small pieces
    Bewray: to divulge
    Bhut: a small whirlwind

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This was the major be- section, which Ammon Shea does a much better job explaining in his book, so I leave it to him. It befuddles me why we have so many of these bewildering be- words. Here were some of the strangest, many of which seem to lack a practical application, others which were just plain awesome:
        Beblood: to cover with blood (!!!)
        Becarpet: to cover with carpet
        Beclog: to clog thoroughly (the traffic beclogged the road?)
        Becrime: to make guilty of a crime
        Becudgel: to cudgel thoroughly
        Bedamn: to swear at
        Bediaper: to ornament with a kind of design (that's not how I bediaper someone!)
        Bedizen: to dress gaudily
        Bedrivel: to cover with saliva
        Bedumb: to render speechless
        Befool: to deceive
        Befret: to gnaw
        Begloom: to make gloomy
        Bekiss: to cover with kisses
        Belady: to apply the title of lady to
        Belike: perhaps (OED: "in all likelihood . . .")
        Bemadam: to call by the title of madam (note that there is no "Besir" or "Begentleman," but see "beuncled," below)
        Bepimple: to cover with pimples
        Berake: to rake all over
        Berascal: to accuse of being a rascal
        Beshrew: to curse
        Besmile: to smile on
        Beuncled: having many uncles
        Bevomit: to vomit all over
        Beworm: to infest with worms (don't beworm me, deworm me?)

Each week I'll also try to have some images of some of the headwords. (See below.) Learning like this can be fragmentary—after all, this chaos is mainly ordered in only one way, alphabetically—but think of it like Trivial Pursuit, only slightly less trivial.

!!! Words of the Week
    Baggie: the stomach
    Bagnio: a brothel
    Bakshish: to give a tip
    Balisaur: a long-tailed badger
    Bane: to kill with poison
    Bankit: a raised sidewalk (I thought a sidewalk was raised?)
    Barbal: pertaining to the beard
    Bard: to armor a horse
    Baresark: an ancient and wild Norse warrior, fighting without a shirt (cp. berserk)
    Barghest: a goblin
    Barney: a noisy argument (we had many noisy arguments as siblings because a certain children's show was desperately annoying to me)
    Basenji: a barkless dog (yes!)
    Basilect: the least prestigious language of an area
    Bathos: triteness
    Baudrons: a cat
    Bawtie: a dog
    Bayamo: a strong wind
    Bazoo: the mouth
    Beanery: a cheap restaurant
    Beebread: a pollen mixture
    Beezer: the nose
    Begorah/begorra!: interjection, used as a mild oath (OED: "An Anglo-Irish alteration of the expletive by God"—not sure how that alteration occurred . . .)
    Benedict: a newly married man (from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, turns out)
    Benjamin: a gum resin (benzoin)
    Bernicle: a wild goose
    Bertha: a wide collar
    Bezazz: pizazz
    Bicaudal: having two tails
    Bheestie/bheesty/bhistie: a water carrier

Hover over the picture to see the definition.

⚛ Units of the Week
    Baht: a monetary unit of Thailand
    Baiza: a monetary unit of Oman
    Balboa: a monetary unit of Panama
    Ban: a monetary unit of Romania
    Barye: a unit of pressure
    Battalia: a military unit
    Baud: a unit of data transmission speed
    Bawbee: a Scottish coin
    Bel: a unit of power
    Belga: a former Belgian monetary unit
    Bezant: a coin of ancient Rome
    Bezoar: a gastric mass

(Pages 42–56)