Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 20

Besides a great number of words pertaining to abnormal mental activity and various watery discharges from various orifices, my reading this week was surprisingly useful: having never really gotten into mathematical or logic proofs, I had never heard of the word iff, meaning "if and only if." Upon reading that it was a legitimate conjunction, I realized that I had incorrectly edited three instances of it in the last programming textbook I finished editing last week, and I contacted the editor about it and got it sorted out. Scrabble Read-a-thon FTW.

My favorite word this week was impark: to confine in a park. It reminded me of a story we read for a capstone English class I had as an undergraduate—a class on utopias and dystopias. This particular story was Larry Niven's Cloak of Anarchy. People are actually trapped in a park—imparked—and the story describes what happens when anarchy ensues. You can read it online for free here.

► Photos of the Week

⚛ Units of the Week
    Hryvnia: a monetary unit of Ukraine
    Hwan: a monetary unit of South Korea
    Hyperon: an atomic particle

!!! Unexpected Words of the Week
    Hoser: an uncouth man (but not a woman?)
    Hosey: to choose sides for a children's game
    Howdie: a midwife
    Howf: a place frequently visited
    Huckle: the hip
    Humidex: an index of discomfort
    Hurdies: the buttocks
    Hydatid: a cyst caused by a tapeworm
    Hydragog: a purgative causing watery discharges
    Hyponoia: dulled mental activity
    Hypopyon: an accumulation of pus in the eye
    Hyte: insane
    Icekhana: an automotive event held on a frozen lake
    Ich: a disease of certain fishes
    Ichor: a watery discharge from a wound
    Igg: to ignore
    Ikebana: the Japanese art of flower arranging
    Ileus: intestinal obstruction
    Imp: to graft feathers onto a bird's wing
    Impala: an African antelope (ANTELOPE ALERT)
    Impavid: brave
    Impi: a body of warriors
    Inane: empty space
    Incenter: the point where the three lines bisecting the angles of a triangle meet
    Incony: pretty
    Incubus: a demon
    Ingle: a fire
    Inguinal: pertaining to the groin

♡ Favorite Words of the Week
    Hottish: somewhat hot
    Hugeous: huge
    Humanoid: something having human form
    Hyetal: pertaining to rain
    Ickiness: the state of being icky
    Ideate: to form an idea
    Idoneity: the state of being idoneous (suitable)
    Iffiness: the state of being iffy
    Impolicy: an unwise course of action
    Inbeing: the state of being inherent
    Inchmeal: little by little

(Pages 267–280)