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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 10

3/12/2014

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(127–140)

👀 Observations
    There were a lot of mild cusswords this week (including cussword itself): crickey/crikey, crimine, cripe/cripes, dadgum, dammit, dang, and darned. For you damners out there (those who damn), there you go.
    There were also various words related to having tea (cups, crumpets, crullers, cukes, etc.) and medieval armor, so I felt like I was reliving a bit of old England (including Danegeld/danegelt: a medieval England annual tax). There were also a bunch of units from the root dec-, as might be expected. All good fun. Particularly if you keep reading to the dulcet sounds of the crwth, a Welsh instrument (not English).
⚛ Units of the Week
    Crore: a monetary unit of India
    Crusado: an old Portuguese coin
    Cruzeiro: a monetary unit of Brazil
    Cubit: an ancient measure of length (The Roman cubit was 17.4 inches; the Egyptian 20.64 inches, based largely on forearm lengths, and as reliable as the English foot.)
    Curie: a unit of radioactivity (Question: how many curies will kill you? Give your answer in the comments.)
    Cusec: a volumetric unit of flow of liquids
    Dalasi: a unit of Gambian currency
    Dalton: a unit of atomic mass
    Daric: an ancient Persian coin
    Debye: a unit of measure for electric dipole moments (equal to 10^-18 electrostatic units of charge (approximately 3.336 × 10^-30 coulomb metre)). (Don't ask me what that actually means, but if you know, please explain!)
    Decade: a period of ten years
    Decemvir: one of a body of ten Roman magistrates
    Decenary: a tithing (used in—you guessed it—England)
    Deciare: a metric unit of area
    Decibel: a unit of sound intensity ("The pain threshold for humans is 120–130 decibels. Any sound above 85 dB can cause hearing loss, and the loss is related both to the power of the sound as well as the length of exposure." Here are the 10 loudest noises.)
    Decigram: one tenth of a gram

!!! Unexpected Words of the Week
    Cruising: the act of driving around in search of fun
    Cubicula: burial chambers (for those who work in cubicles . . . )
    Culex/culicid/culicine: a mosquito
    Cummer: a godmother
    Curare/curara/curari: an arrow poison (Curarine is a poisonous alkaloid. It causes death by asphyxiation, paralyzing the diaphragm. If you come across someone who has been poisoned by curarine, use artificial respiration until the drug wears off . . . anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours, depending on the dosage. Hey, you never know if you may need this.)
    Cyesis: pregnancy (another word preferable to "preggers!" Used in a sentence: "Yes, I am at full-term abdominal cyesis, and don't touch me.")
    Dacoit: a bandit in India (thank you Mary for pointing out this amazing story of Bishnu Shrestha fighting off a bunch of these bandits).
    Dagwood: a large sandwich (Which came first, the comic or the sandwich? Hint: this is easily googleable.)
    Darbies: handcuffs (Darby was southern (not the local) pronunciation of Derby, the name of a—you guessed it—English town and shire. Not sure how the connection between the town and the handcuffs happened, but I'm sure I could make something up.)
    Daubery: a bad or inexpert painting
    Deacon: to read a hymn aloud (I think deaconry has changed through time!)
    Deadhead: to travel without freight
    Dealate: an insect divested of its wings
    Deasil: clockwise
    Debag: to remove the pants from someone
    Debeard: to remove filaments from a mussel
    Decidua: a mucous membrane of the uterus (you wanted to know this, I knew)

♡ Favorite Words of the Week
    Crumbum: a despicable person (who would have thought that my personally favorite childish insult was a real word!?)
    Cubicity: the state of being cubical
    Cudgeler: one that cudgels
    Dampish: somewhat damp
    Dapple: to mark with spots
    Darb: something considered extraordinary
    Darkle: to become dark
    Deafish: somewhat deaf

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