Jumping Jehosaphat

It is about time we did some work on the letter J. The quiz for this week is to find as many words as you can that use the letters in JEHOSAPHAT. They can be words of whatever length you like, but they must include the letter J.

Just in case you were wondering JEHOSAPHAT is not a valid word for scrabble.

Jehosaphat (or Jehoshaphat, Jehosephat, and several other ways) was a prominent King of Judah, the son of Asa. There are a number of stories concerning this mostly righteous and God-fearing king that can be found in scripture. What you won’t find there, or anywhere else in scripture is a reference to Jehosaphat doing any jumping. So no clues there as to why 'jumping' became part of this expression.

There are 31 shorter J words to be found in JEHOSAPHAT. I expect it to be good practice for an intermediate scrabbler rather than a serious test for an expert who might even get the whole 31, or at least go close to that.

While you are working on that we’ll have a look at some other words using the letter J. Since the quiz was for the intermediate scrabblers, the list is aimed at the more experienced. As you know J usually comes at the start of a word, so this list will be words where the J does not start. Hopefully even expert scrabblers might learn a few new words from this obscure collection of 6 letter words:

BASEEJ Iranian volunteer vigilantes who enforce dress code (also BASIJ)

BAJADA A broad sloping alluvial deposit (also BAHADA)

BANJAX To ruin or destroy

BOOJUM A spiny desert tree

CROJIK A triangular sail

FIGJAM Australian slang for a conceited person

FINJAN The coffee cup without a handle that fits into a zarf

GYTTJA Organically rich sediment on a lake bottom

HANJAR A Persian dagger

HOBJOB To do odd jobs

NUTJOB A crazy person

POTJIE A three legged iron pot for cooking over a wood fire

PRAJNA Wisdom or understanding that is the ultimate goal of Buddhism

PUJARI A Hindu priest

RAKIJA A Balkan fruit brandy

RHANJA An Indian term for a male lover

ROMAJI A system of translating Japanese characters into our alphabet

SHINJU A Japanese term for a ritual double suicide of lovers

SVARAJ A Sanskrit term for home rule

SWARAJ A Sanskrit term for home rule

UJAMAA A Tanzanian village community resembling an Israeli kibbutz

If you think these are too unlikely to learn, I would like to point out that Julie managed to play one of the more unusual ones in a tournament --- GYTTJA

OK, here are the answers to this week’s quiz

HAJ HAJES JA JAAP JAAPS JAP

JAPE JAPES JAPS JASP JASPE JATO

JATOS JEATS JEAT JEST JET JETS

JO JOE JOES JOSEPH JOSH JOT

JOTA JOTAS JOTS SJOE SOJA TAJ

TAJES

A few meanings to help you remember some of the more interesting ones:

JOSEPH --- an 18th century caped overcoat worn by women for riding

JAAP --- South African slang for an ignorant fool. (didn’t you know that you jaap!)

JASP --- an archaic term for JASPER, a precious stone

JASPE --- a cotton cloth with a shaded effect

SJOE --- an exclamation of surprise, suggesting admiration or respect

SOJA --- a dark, salty sauce made from fermented soy beans and wheat flour

Happy Scrabbling Patrick