Word game

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The other day, a friend sent me a word game in an e-mail. The idea was to change just one letter of the last word on the list and send it on to a friend. I sent it on to my sister over at “Just My Opinion.” I think my word was “rude,” hers was “dude.”
I love word games. I love knowing definitions, and using interesting words. I like crossword puzzles, and I prefer an author who writes well rather than using trite phrases or clich

3 thoughts on “Word game”

  1. Can’t help you with that particular pun; but, of course, I did take Latin so will take a swing at it.
    Miss Adams, little Bantam of a woman that she was, had great enthusiasm for Latin and wanted to pass that enthusiasm on to us youngsters. She carefully pointed out the English words that had morphed from the Latin root words that we studied, having us bring in newpaper articles with derivatives that we recognized underlined. Undoubtedly, it made us more aware of English words. However, I think it fell into the category of “interesting” for most of us. I credit our English teachers (Miss Doubty, in 7th Grade, and Miss Shouse, in 3rd Year English in High School, in particular) for encouraging our love of words. Or, perhaps it was our love of words that made us enjoy English and Latin. Cause and effect are difficult to determine.
    I took scientific German, in college; but I don’t recall that there was any emphasis on derivative English words. (What does one expect when the emphasis is on being able to translate scientific journals?!! This came in handy, BTW, in my thesis research!) Do I recall correctly that about 30% of our current English words are routed in the Germanic languages? Or, perhaps that was only true 50+ years ago when I was in college.

  2. Well, you English mavens, of course I meant “…rooted in the Germanic languages?” Undoubtedly, I would not have made the typo had “root” a Latin root. (That was for you Dear Husband. Pretty weak, but perhaps he’s feeling kindly toward such foibles, today.)

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