Don't be an ASS - Know your MULE

The opening quiz is all about things to do with the word MULE:

What letter or letters can be placed in front of the word MULE?

What letter or letters can be placed after the word MULE?

What letter or letters can be placed after the M to make a word? M _ U L E

What letter or letters can be placed after the L to make a word? M U L _ E

While you think about that here are the 7 and 8 letter bingos that are ASS words:

HARDASS

JACKASS

JIVEASS

WISEASS

SMARTASS

TIGHTASS

There are a lot more words that finish with those three letters as part of a word including GRASS, GLASS, PASS or other combinations. Perhaps the only other one that fits in as an ASS word is the offspring of a zebra and an ass:

ZEBRASS

Anyway, back to the MULE quiz:

E in front makes the word EMULE which is a verb meaning to emulate

As well as S, the letters D and Y can be placed after MULE

MULED is allowed because MULE is also a verb striking a coin from dies belonging to two different issues. This means MULING, EMULED and EMULING are all OK too

MULEY is a hornless cow with the plural MULEYS. These spelling are also good: MOOLY, MOOLIES, MOOLEY, MOOLEYS, MULLEY and MULLEYS

V can be played after M to make MVULE – an African tree (an anagram is VELUM)

I can go before the E to make MULIE – An American deer (an anagram of ILEUM)

S can go before the E to make MULSE – Honey drunk with wine or water

Those are the answers to the quiz, but the usefulness of MULE does not end there because a Spenserian spelling of emulate puts an A in front of the E. Occasionally I play MULING, extend it to EMULING and then extend it further to AEMULING.

Getting the chance to follow through like that is definitely fun!

So to finish where are some words that start with E. They can all be extended by placing an A in front of the E:

EDILE A magistrate in charge of games, markets or buildings

EGIS Protection or patronage

EOLIAN Acted on by the wind

EOLIPILE The first steam engine with a globe that revolved by steam jets

EON An age

EONIAN Lasting for ages

ERUGO A green film that forms on copper

ESTHESIA The ability to receive sensation

ESTHETE A person who loves beautiful things

ESTIVAL Relating to summer

ESTIVATE To spend summer in a torpid state (winter is hibernate)

ETHER A volatile liquid used as an anaesthetic

ETHEREAL Characterised by lightness and insubstantiality

ETHERIC Like a spirit

ETIOLOGY The study of causes of disease

See you at scrabble this week. We aren’t serving carrots, but surely I don’t need to use the stick!

Happy Scrabbling

Patrick