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Tolkien's Revenge

At club on Monday night I lost a turn by playing BYWATER. I knew it wasn’t a word acquired from looking at lists, but I thought it was general knowledge referring to a stream or lake that was a smaller part of some larger water system. Apparently there is no such thing. I must have picked it up from the name of a village in ‘Lord of the Rings.’ It is a long time since I read Tolkien's classic, so that word must have been buried in my mind for over 20 years, because i don't think the name is used in Peter Jackson's movies. Never mind st least it suggested that WATER words might make a good quiz.

The only 3 words formed by a 2 letter hook in front of water are DEWATER, REWATER and UNWATER. How about 3 letter front hooks? If your opponent starts the game by playing WATER with the W on the double letter score what could you play to extend it back to the triple word score. In other words how many of the 7 words to fit the pattern _ _ _ W A T E R can you think of?

Answers are at the bottom of the page.

Another incident on the same evening involving a 4 letter word with a double A in the middle. There are quite a few interesting 4 letter words with AA in the middle. I will also give you the 5 letter words that have AA in the middle as either the 2nd and 3rd letters or the 3rd and 4th letters:

BAAL A false god

BAAS Cries like a sheep

CAAS Calls (Scottish)

DAAL The pigeon pea. An Indian pealike plant

FAAS Falls (Scottish)

FAAN Fell (Scottish)

HAAF A region for deep sea fishing

HAAR A cold sea-mist

JAAP An ignorant fool (South African)

KAAL Naked (South African)

KAAS A large cupboard. Note that KAA is NOT a word

MAAR A volcanic crater without a cone, usually filled by a lake

MAAS Bleats like a goat

NAAM The act of seizing goods to obtain money owed

NAAN An Indian bread

PAAL A stake driven into the ground (Caribbean)

PAAN A betel leaf

SAAG A type of spinach used in Indian cookery

TAAL The Afrikaans language

WAAC A member of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps

WAAH An interjection used to express wailing

YAAR Used in Hinglish (Hindi/English) as an address to a friend

In the 5 letter words with AA at the 2nd and 3rd letters most of them are logical extensions of the 4 letter words above:

BAAED. BAALS, CAAED, DAALS, HAAFS, HAARS, JAAPS, MAAED, MAARS, NAAMS, NAANS, PAALS, PAANS, SAAGS, TAALS. WAACS, YAARS

While BAA, CAA, FAA and MAA are all verbs you can’t have FAAED because FAAN is used for the past tense. All 4 of them take –ING endings

There are just 4 that you could not have guessed from the 4 letter words:

KAAMA A large South African antelope

LAARI A monetary unit of the Maldives

MAARE Alternate spelling of MAAR (volcanic cone without crater)

TAATA An East African term for a father

Two things to note:

MAARE does not take a plural, although MAAR/MAARS is fine

TAATA takes a hook in front to make ATAATA

5 letter words with the AA in the 3rd / 4th spot are more interesting. A lot of them have been adopted from South Africa

ALAAP An introductory section in Indian music

BRAAI A South African barbeque

CRAAL To pen in an enclosure

DWAAL A South African term for a state of befuddlement

GRAAL Cup used by Christ at the Last Supper (also GRAIL or GRAYLE)

KIAAT A South African village of huts surrounded by a fence

KRAAL To pen in an enclosure

PLAAS A South African farm

PRAAM A flat bottom boat used in Holland and the Baltic

SMAAK To like or love – another South African term

How did you go with those water words?

CUTWATER The forepart of a ship’s prow

EYEWATER A wash or a lotion for the eyes

MIDWATER The middle portion of a body of water

POMWATER A sweet juicy apple

REDWATER A cattle disease

SEAWATER Water from the sea

TOPWATER Floating on the water. This one does NOT take an S

Did anyone try HOTWATER? It seems like a good try, but trying it in a game would only get you in hot water.

Happy Scrabbling

Patrick

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