Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 46

Best word of the week was verbify: to use as a verb. Since verbify itself is used as a verb, it is one of a special subclass of words known as autological words. Autological means that it possesses a property that it describes (noun is a noun, short is short). Heterological means it possesses a property that it does not describe (long is not long). A major paradox arises when we ask if autological and heterological are themselves autological or heterological.

Fortunately, someone has already written about it.

Also, I've always wanted to know what the front, hinged part of the medieval helmet was called, and now I know: ventail. Life: complete.

I also finally found (I think) a list of how OSPD4 (the dictionary edition I have been using this year) and OSPD5 differ—the 5,000 new words. Thank goodness for all those Scrabble aficionados who saved me the trouble of going back and comparing the two side by side. Thank you, thank you.

⚛ Units of the Week
    Var: a unit of reactive power
    Vara: a Spanish unit of length
    Vat: a monetary unit of Vanuatu
    Verst: a Russian measure of distance
    Vicenary: pertaining to the number twenty
    Volt: a unit of electromotive force

!!! Unexpected Words of the Week
    Uropygia: the humps from which birds' tail feathers grow
    Usufruct: the legal right to use another's property so long as it is not damaged or altered
    Utilidor: an insulated system of pipes for use in arctic regions
    Valonia: a substance obtained from dried acorn cups and used in tanning and dyeing
    Vandyke: a short, pointed beard
    Varletry: a group of common people
    Verderer: an officer in charge of the royal forests of England
    Verjuice: the juice of sour or unripe fruit
    Vermoulu: eaten by worms
    Veronica: a handkerchief bearing the image of Christ's face
    Verruca: a wart
    Vesica: a bladder
    Vesicant: a chemical warfare agent that induces blistering
    Vibrio: any of a genus of bacteria shaped like a comma
    Vibrissa: one of the stiff hairs growing about the mouth of certain animals
    Victoria: a light carriage
    Viduity: the quality or state of being a widow
    Volvulus: a twisting of the intestine that causes obstruction
    Vomica: a cavity in the body containing pus
    Vum: interjection, used to express surprise

♡ Favorite Words of the Week
    Ursiform: having the form of a bear
    Venosity: the quality or state of being venous
    Verbify: to use as a verb (meta-word!)
    Vernal: pertaining to spring
    Verticil: a circular arrangement, as of flowers or leaves, about a point on an axis
    Verve: vivacity
    Virga: wisps of precipitation evaporating before reaching ground
    Voidness: the quality or state of being void

(Pages 631–644)