Don’t be a D WEE B — be a Scrabble champion

I LOVE Scrabble! I come from a family of word-lovers and board-game enthusiasts. Much of my life-long love of words I owe to this extraordinary game. Champion Scrabble players have vast vocabularies. Here is an alphabet of my favourites: aa Volcanic lava azulejo A Spanish porcelain tile bambi Born again middle-aged biker boobird Someone who boos caz Short for ‘casual’ cineaste Film enthusiast dweeb Quite stupid divi Very stupid ee Eye elint Electronic intelligence fetology Study of the foetus fjeld A high, rocky Scandinavian plateau gosht An Indian meat dish gymp To limp hili A scar on a seed huhu A hairy New Zealand beetle io A moth icekhana A race on a frozen lake jerepigo A sweet fortified wine jube A gallery in a church kaal An Afrikaans word for ‘naked’ koha A Maori gift luz An indestructible human bone lunkhead A stupid person maxed Reached full extent mips Million instructions per second nox Nitrogen oxide nonwords Yes, ‘nonwords’ meaning ‘nonwords’ is allowed! oi A shout for attention oreades Mountain nymphs pht A sound to express irritation patootie A backside qin A Chinese musical instrument qwerty A keyboard ritornel An orchestral passage rodney A small Canadian fishing boat slyboots A sly one sweetman A Caribbean man kept by a woman tiglic A syrup liquid tiz A state of confusion ubique Everywhere ulva Seaweed veep Vice-president waugh To bark whump To make a dull thud xerafin An Indian coin xerotic Abnormal dryness of bodily tissues (some words just don’t live up to their promise) yahooism |Crude behaviour yuzu A citrus fruit zzzs Sleeps (they allow ‘zzz’ for a sleep in Scrabble, so they have to allow ‘zzzs’. I know, I know, but it’s only a game)