The strange, the bizarre and the unexpected

[RussDNails]

The Scrabble link is a great find lalatan. Plan to print this out and memorize as many as I can with the hope they are accepted on Wordtwist. CRWTH and PSST are accepted. I was really surprised there are so many! Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

Russ

[lalatan]

I once had a discussion with a native Serbian speaker. She told me that in school she was told that S and R are also vowels, and pointed out that they could be used that way in English as well -- you could pronounce them to connect consonants with no trouble at all. Her example, if I remember it correctly, was "Srpska". Anyone can say it despite the lack of any "vowels" in the first five letters.

That's interesting, bwt. My paternal grandfather was from the Czech Republic (born in Mnichivo Hradiste). I checked out some of the language and there are some crazy consonant blends (as seen in name of the city) and all kinds of diacritics. (One of their Olympic athletes was a Roman Srble some marks above the surname. It was pronounced Sheberlay) I just left it at that; no pt in learning all that as most Czechs probably know English. Sounds like the Serbs have some of the same stuff in their lingo.

Russ, you're welcome.

[dannyb]

I've seen it a few times, but ANUSES always amuses me. I can't imaging any circumstances, other than this game, where I would need to use that word!

I have seen it used: I read that word in a sentence something like this: "The sausage casing was filled with ground snouts and anuses."

[DonGuy47]

"The sausage casing was filled with ground snouts and anuses."

Sure wish I could unsee that.

[floppers]

just....ewwww.

[rsneha]

I became curious about words with no vowels some time ago and found this:

https://scrabble.merriam.com/words-without-vowels

I was amazed there are so many, although many longer words have a y in them. According to this y is a vowel sometimes and sometimes not (I recall from elementary school the vowel list: a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. But I was never taught why it's sometimes y.)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...%20or%20beyond

Also check this Word Finder site

[DrPlacebo]

I just got points for ZINGARO. The only reason I thought of trying it was the Anvil Chorus (Coro di Zingari) from Il Trovatore.

[Chop Chop]

Very cool and sounds fun

[lalatan]

That's a beaut. It reminds me of 1 of my favorite finds: PERNICKETINESSES (the British equivalent of persnickety). There must be a board where we can find PERNICKETIEST or even PERSNICKETIEST. BOLO

Yesterday while playing 5x5 I found PERSNICKETIEST for 27 pts/2 records (I actually found it after playing it a month after I posted about finding PERNICKETIEST in 4x4 but didn't bother writing about it). Now I have the complete collection. I think that's the highest scoring -iest word that's been played. Anyone get a higher score for a word ending in that suffix?

currerbell, I'm currently retooling my brain to collect 4x4 records next month (I'll see how long that will last.). At the end of the month I thought I'd try to play 51 games all in one day and see what APPW I can come up with. I got the gold before using my "speed trophy hunting" technique (not many competitors back then though) but it took me 2 days to get 51 games of a high enough pt value which I also knew. I played 3 games today where you were the best word record holder: 12, 14, 18 pts. I couldn't even find the lower scoring words but had no trouble w the 18 pt one. (Apparently there are too many 12-14 pt words for my brain to keep track of.) Congrats on locking down those boards.

[2cute]

I became curious about words with no vowels some time ago and found this:
https://scrabble.merriam.com/words-without-vowels

This is a great find & really helpful, thanks!

[Spike1007]

I just saw TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA (and -PHOBIC) for the first time in a long time. (Fear of the number 13.) For the hell of it, I tried FRIGGATRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA (just because it was there) and to my surprise it worked. Turns out that's a fear of Friday the 13th.

[lalatan]

Amazing, great find Spike!

I always marveled that 3 of our days of the week are named after Norse deities. I attributed it to possibly the impact of the Viking invasions on England. However, I just found out that M-W says we have the Anglo-Saxons to thank for that.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...l-word-history

According to Wikipedia, Anglo-Saxons worshipped the same gods as all the Germanic peoples but called them by different names.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_mythology#Beliefs

[Guest]

Yesterday while playing 5x5 I found PERSNICKETIEST for 27 pts/2 records (I actually found it after playing it a month after I posted about finding PERNICKETIEST in 4x4 but didn't bother writing about it). Now I have the complete collection. I think that's the highest scoring -iest word that's been played. Anyone get a higher score for a word ending in that suffix?

currerbell, I'm currently retooling my brain to collect 4x4 records next month (I'll see how long that will last.). At the end of the month I thought I'd try to play 51 games all in one day and see what APPW I can come up with. I got the gold before using my "speed trophy hunting" technique (not many competitors back then though) but it took me 2 days to get 51 games of a high enough pt value which I also knew. I played 3 games today where you were the best word record holder: 12, 14, 18 pts. I couldn't even find the lower scoring words but had no trouble w the 18 pt one. (Apparently there are too many 12-14 pt words for my brain to keep track of.) Congrats on locking down those boards.

lalatan, I was just thinking of you.

First, let me say that PERSNICKETIEST is one of the best words I've ever heard found on this site. (Also, MARSHMALLOWIEST, which makes me happy every time I think of it. [Unfortunately, I cannot remember who found that delightful word and I'm worried if I try to wander off to find out, I might break this post. Will try to find after I do post. I hope I can find it.]). **ETA: it was onetimeonly, for 28 points (ahem), this month.**

Second, yay me! I do see my name come up every once in awhile -- I almost always replay those boards -- sometimes I can't even find my previous record word, and sometimes I surpass myself. I'm never sure if I should feel cocky when I do that -- it seems self-insulting.

Third, I have occasionally been wandering into the 5x5 boards, as you mentioned I might try, and this evening I actually found a word longer than 8 letters! Okay, the board had only been played twice before, and this isn't exactly FRIGGATRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA (not even close!), but I think this fits this particular topic as "unexpected":

disint.png
And no, I do not believe there were any -NESSES for this one, at least I did try -- but it's so many letters I could easily have misspelled.

The 5x5 boards take a lot of getting used to -- I am usually overwhelmed by all the letters and have a difficult time focusing. I guess that is why I will keep practicing/practising. I know many of the suffixes to look for, at least, although now I'm very likely to see at least two different ones in one board.

[lalatan]

First, let me say that PERSNICKETIEST is one of the best words I've ever heard found on this site. (Also, MARSHMALLOWIEST, which makes me happy every time I think of it... **ETA: it was onetimeonly, for 28 points (ahem), this month.**

Thanks. Also thanks for the info; I'll watch for some supreme fluffiness and the 28 pts it comes with.

Second, yay me! I do see my name come up every once in awhile -- I almost always replay those boards -- sometimes I can't even find my previous record word, and sometimes I surpass myself. I'm never sure if I should feel cocky when I do that -- it seems self-insulting.

lol, I was never gored by the horns of that particular dilemma before. You could at least take pleasure in your improvement w/o too much gloating and posturing about it.
Quite some time ago I quit playing any of the games where I'm the record holder. It seldom yielded anything better. Now, even when I know I messed up by not adding un- or de- etc. I just let it go at that. Someone else can get it. It's more productive for me to just go onto the next game. I came to accept that I seemed to have developed a nose for sniffing out the best word on a board. But of course I'm still wrong about that once in a while.

Third, I have occasionally been wandering into the 5x5 boards, as you mentioned I might try, and this evening I actually found a word longer than 8 letters!

The 5x5 boards take a lot of getting used to -- I am usually overwhelmed by all the letters and have a difficult time focusing. I guess that is why I will keep practicing/practising. I know many of the suffixes to look for, at least, although now I'm very likely to see at least two different ones in one board.

Congrats on your good find in 5x5; nice to see you thought of also playing the word w/o dis-. With the current scoring system, the shorter word is sometimes worth more, which is counterintuitive. Yup, keep playing; I'm nearing 80k games played. I've probably looked at least 10x as many game stats to analyze them to see if it's a suitable game for me to play.

I like it when long word players (i.e. those who play primarily only longer words at least part-time) develop gradually, like Spike, crazykate, snsmithaz, folkslinger, John 13:34, dadsbricks and you (to name a few that come to mind). When they play something difficult I trust that they have not read it from a piece of paper or a Boggle solver. Conversely, players who show up suddenly on the best words played list (especially those who recently signed up as members) and get high-scoring words I do not trust. To me many of the long words on this website are not to be found on any other Boggle websites so their skill at spotting them w/o a track record is inherently suspicious. I'm not a cop, there may be very few cheaters (knowing human nature there will always be some) and I could be wrong so I don't let it diminish my enjoyment of the game. I intend to outplay them regardless of what methods they choose.

Enjoy the games, amiga!

[ShirleyMarquez]

My most surprising word wasn't even a long one. It was ZIZZ on a 4x4. Three Zs! I also scored PIZAZZ on that board, but no fourth Z so the more common spelling PIZZAZZ was not available.