DO U Know DOU?

The quiz for this week is to write down the 4 letter words you can think of that start with the letters DOU.

DOU is not a word, so these are not hook words to add to a word already on the board. It is a vocabulary test, so just work your way through the alphabet deciding what letters added after those 3 will make a word.

We don’t tend to start words with that combination. That is one reason why interesting bingos such as DOULEIA (inferior veneration accorded to saints and angels) and DOUANIER (customs officer) are hard combinations to see.

Before giving you the answers to the quiz here are a few 5 letter words that start with DOU that are useful for dumping vowels, because they all have 3 different vowels in a 5 letter word.

DOUAR A kind of Arab tent village

DOUCE Sweet or pleasant. Can only be extended to DOUCER and DOUCET

DOULA A Greek woman trained to give support after childbirth

DOUMA The Russian parliament. Also spelled DUMA

DOURA Indian millet

That millet must be an integral part of the Indian diet. That is the only way to explain just how many different names it has acquired. It is also called DARI, DHOORA, DHOURRA, DHURRA, DOURAH, DURA, DURR and DURRA.

OK, we can move on to the answers to the quiz on 4 letter words:

DOUC A colourful monkey native to Cochin, China

DOUK to duck or bathe. Also spelled DOOK

DOUM A kind of African palm tree

DOUN Scots for down. Also spelled DOON. Neither version takes an S

DOUP Scots for the bottom of anything. Also spelled DOWP

DOUR Determined or sullen

DOUT To put out or extinguish

DOUX French for very sweet. Usually used of champagne

Did you manage to get all 8 words without any extra wrong ones?

If so that is very impressive. If not then you learned something.

You can’t ask for more than that!

Happy Scrabbling

Patrick