A.Word.A.Day --gyve

A.Word.A.Day

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Dec 10, 2018

This week’s theme
Words for Hangman

This week’s words
gyve
jinx
klutz
ilka
yclept

Photo: Jim Cortez

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

What’s the hardest word to guess in a game of Hangman? It’s JAZZ, as determined by Jon McLoone, who forced his computer to play 15 million rounds of the game.

One could guess the vowel A in the word JAZZ easily but after that it’s all downhill. The English language has more than a thousand four-letter words that have the letter A in second place, including such everyday words as HARD and HANG.

That said, now that JAZZ has earned notoriety as the hardest word in a game of Hangman, it may have to relinquish its title as the hardest word. It’s like determining the most obscure person on the planet. Once you’ve found such a person and talked about them, they are not deserving of that title any more.

So JAZZ is out (though you could also try derivatives such as JAZZY), but there are plenty of other words in the English language. This week we present five that you may want to inflict on your opponent in a game of Hangman. Give them a try and let us know how it turned out. BTW, these words may also come in handy in another popular word game.

gyve

PRONUNCIATION:

(jyv)

MEANING:

noun: A fetter or shackle.
verb tr.: To restrain.

ETYMOLOGY:

Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1275.

USAGE:

“Some gyve holds us back, but we cannot see it.”
Matthew Eley; Things to Be Done; The Kenyon Collegian (Gambier, Ohio); Jan 18, 2014.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-- / ... The Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind. -Emily Dickinson, poet (10 Dec 1830-1886)

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