Boys and Girls Playing Scrabble
Last week’s list about words with MEN and WOMEN got me thinking about the possibilities with BOY and GIRL. There is one classic in this category – egilnrsw. Most people will automatically try to make an –ing word with swerling, which is, of course incorrect. The real answer is much harder to spot - NEWSGIRL. This is the only bonus word that I can remember ever playing with BOY or GIRL. I should consider this possibility more. Look at all the possible bonus words:
For those of you that like a quiz the last part of the lists below is 8 letter words ending in GIRL. Imagine that GIRL was the first word played and the L was in the middle of the board. You could score 39 points by starting on the triple word score and making NEWSGIRL. There are 8 other words that you could use in the same spot and 5 of those would score more than 50 points. How many of those 8 words can you think of.... particularly the 5 high scoring ones?
BATBOYS Minds baseball equipment
BUMBOYS Homosexuals
BUSBOYS Assistant waiters
CARBOYS Large green bottles cased in wicker
COWBOYS Ranch workers
DAYBOYS Attends boarding school, but doesn’t live there
FANBOYS Obsessive enthusiasts
FLYBOYS Pilots
LAMBOYS Kilted flexible steel plates worn like a skirt
LOWBOYS Low chests of drawers
POTBOYS Collects empty glasses n a tavern
TARBOYS Applies tar to the skin of sheep in Australian shearing
TOMBOYS Girls who behave like boys
ATTABOY Interjection, a shout of encouragement
BALLBOY Ball retriever
BELLBOY Pageboy in a hotel or club
BOSSBOY Black African foreman of a gang of workers
CALLBOY Calls actors on stage. (callgirl is no good. Two separate words)
COPYBOY Office boy
DEADBOY Steel plate used as a belaying point by mountaineers
FOOTBOY An attendant
GOWNBOY A scholarship pupil supported by school funds who wears a gown
HAUTBOY An old fashioned name for an oboe
HERDBOY A boy who acts as a shepherd
HIGHBOY A tall chest of drawers
HOMEBOY A male member of a youth gang
LADYBOY Transvestite
LIFTBOY Someone employed to operate a lift
LINKBOY Employed to light the way along dark streets
NEWSBOY Delivers newspapers
PAGEBOY An attendant
PLAYBOY A man devoted to pleasurable activities
PLOWBOY A boy who guides the horses for plowing
POSTBOY Carries mail
SANDBOY Someone who is proverbially happy
SHOPBOY Employed in a shop
TALLBOY A tall chest of drawers
BEACHBOY Beach attendant
BILLYBOY Flat bottomed river barge
BLACKBOY Australian tree, also known as YACCA
BULLYBOY Ruffian hired to beat someone
CHOIRBOY Sings in a church choir
CHOREBOY Hired to do odd jobs
DOUGHBOY A boiled dumpling, or an American infantryman
HOUSEBOY Male servant
MACCABOY A type of snuff
MACCOBOY A type of snuff
PAPERBOY Delivers newspapers
PENNYBOY An employee with menial duties such as running errands
SMALLBOY Deputy steward in a European household in West Africa
BATGIRL Girl who minds baseball equipment
BUSGIRL Assistant waitress
COWGIRL Female ranch worker
DAYGIRL Attends boarding school, but does not live there
FANGIRL Enthusiastic devotee of something
ATTAGIRL Interjection, a shout of encouragement
BALLGIRL Retrieves balls
COPYGIRL runs errands in a newspaper office
HOMEGIRL Female member of a youth game
NEWSGIRL Sells or delivers newspapers
PLAYGIRL A woman devoted to pleasurable activities
SHOPGIRL Employed in a shop
SHOWGIRL Chorus girl
WORKGIRL Employed in manual labour
There are plenty of anomalies here that wouldn’t have occurred to me without having looked at these two lists together. For example it seems sexist that there is a WORKGIRL, but not a workboy and I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that call girl has to be two words, particularly as CALLBOY is correct. Maybe the compilers of our dictionaries will address some of those issues in the future.
Only one word can't be pluralised with an S, but there are 3 points of interest:
ATTABOYS is allowed. Strange, as interjections don’t normally take an S
ATTAGIRL means the same thing, but does not take an S. Why not?
LAMBOYS is not a word without the S.
Getting to play any of these words will be quite difficult, but there is bound to be a chance sometime. I must think twice before playing FLARING. It would be much cooler to play FANGIRL and might even be worth an extra 5 points for a challenge.
Happy Scrabbling Patrick