Scrabble: Where the Wild Words Are

Maurice Sendac never became a Scrabble enthusiast as far as I can tell through google. The sad news of his death made me think of today's post though, which is about Scrabble. It's a rehash of a document I've had kicking around on my computer for months. While the title is indebtted to Maurice Sendac's book the content is largely thanks to Mark Nyman. Mark has never written a children's picture book that I'm aware of.

Scrabble dictionaries are without doubt some of the most peculiar linguistic hoards on the planet. There are words in them that have been brought back from the ends of the earth, from outer-space, from times long gone and from misspellings by medieval English writers. They harbour the weird and wonderful words that the rest of the world has, to its peril, forgotten.

Here are some of the best of them. Learn them and treasure them for you never know when you will be transported into a parallel universe and might find yourself actually needing to use them.

wahconda- a supreme being in Sioux belief.
aitu - half-divine, half-human being. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about these when he was in Polynesia, where the word originates. If you ever see an aitu the best thing you can do is bury it head first in the ground.
auroch - a now extinct form of ox. "An ex-ox", Mark's joke. This word is far less rare than it was a decade ago thanks to George R.R.Martin who uses it throughout his Game of Thrones. He has also reintroduced the word crannog. He uses the word to signify a huge sea beast. It's original meaning is a bog dwelling. Still though, another reason to read those excellent books.
basenji - It's a type of prairie dog. Boring meaning, amazing spelling.
machi - This is Indian English term used in 'machi chips' to mean fish and chips. Ask for that in the chipper and if anyone argues get out a Scrabble dictionary and see if they can argue with that.
huma - a mythical bird from Persian legend. Wikipedia has it that it flies invisibly high the earth and never comes to rest. What I like about huma is that it sits right above human in the Scrabble dictionary and gets just as much room given to it.