Waitangi Day Wanderings

Waitangi Day was this week. So keeping in theme with that I thought I would start by pointing out that MAORI is not an allowable word because it needs to start with a capital. There are in fact two words that you can make out of those letters:

MOIRA Fate or destiny in ancient Greek religion MORIA Folly or foolishness

The two combinations are different in their plurals. As you might expect from something Greek MOIRA pluralises with an i for MOIRAI whereas the alternative spelling just takes a simple s to make MORIAS.

If you have an S and a blank that you can make 8 different words, all of which are quite interesting. So the following is the list of words you can make with MAORIS plus a blank. Oops, how foolish of me, I mean MORIAS plus a blank!

E = AIRSOME This means cold, so you cannot add an S. G = ISOGRAM A line on a map for points of equal value. Also ISOLINE. H = MOHAIRS A fabric made from the hair of Angora goats. J = ROMAJIS Romaji. A system to translate Japanese into the Latin alphabet. L = ORALISM A method of teaching the deaf. M = AMORISM A love affair N = MAINOR The act or fact of theft. Also MAINOUR T = AMORIST A lover.

The answers to the last quiz were: ABSTAIN, AIRBOAT, ABALONE, MADEIRA, CARLOAD, BARGAIN, ALREADY, BADWARE, EARBASH.

The next quiz involves words that all contain the letter W for Waitangi Day:

D – E – E – L – O – T – W

E – E – E – I – S – T – W

D – N – N – O – S – U – W

E – E – M – N – N – S – W

C – E – O – O – R – T – W

D – D – E – O – P – R – W

D – N – N – O – O – R – W

D – E – E – I – K – M – W

C – G – I – L – O – R – W

D – E – F – I – L – O – W

Cheers

Patrick