My J Rules

It is possible to be a good scrabble player without swotting any ‘weird’ words. However you do pick up some unusual words either by studying or just by someone else playing them against you in a game sometime. I have always thought that the 5 points you give someone by challenging a word you don’t know is a fine investment. If you have challenged a word it is much more likely that you will remember it and play it yourself sometime.

It is particularly fun when a word in your scrabble vocabulary that you didn’t know the meaning of suddenly gets used in real life. An episode of “My Kitchen Rules” was on the TV but I was not really concentrating on it when I suddenly wondered what the sauce was that they kept talking about. It was mentioned about 20 times and it was pronounced “indooya”

It turned out to be a word that I had seen, but didn’t know the meaning of.

NDUJA – A paste of cured pork peppers and spices

Apparently it is very common in Calabria – South West Italy

To celebrate that here are a few more unusual J words where the J is not the first letter:

BASIJ / BASEEJ

I chose this one because it refers to volunteer vigilantes in Iran who enforce Islamic codes and behaviour. Given the current situation in Iran could one of these words been in the news? I didn’t hear it

HEJAB / HIJAB

The covering for an Arab woman’s head and face. Also a very topical word that I am sure has been in the news

BENJ / GANJA

One word is better known than the other, but they both have the same meaning. Interesting that slang names for marijuana also include the letter J but not at the start

SVARAJ / SWARAJ

Self-government or home rule

AFLAJ / FALAJ / ZANJA

Irrigation channel or canals. Although they both have a J near the end and have the same meaning they come from two different languages. The first two are Arabic and usually in the country of Oman whereas the third one is found in Central America and is Spanish in origin

BAJRA / BAJRI / BAJREE

Grains such as pearl millet which are commonly used for nutrition in Africa and India. Gluten free and apparently a good choice for people with diabetes.

YOJAN / YOJANA

An ancient Indian unit of distance which is equal to about 8 miles

AJWAN / AJOWAN

The fruit of an Egyptian plant

BHAJI / BHAJIA / BHAJEE

An appetiser of vegetables cooked in batter

ROJAK

A Malay salad that is served with chili sauce

You may have noticed that this is the only one where I have not presented at least 2 words with the same meaning. That was a secondary theme of this blog, but as the J aspect was initially inspired by a cooking show I felt that I should include any cuisine related words that met the brief

Happy Scrabbling

Patrick