Need a Scrabble word with q or z? Grant shares some of his favorite legal Scrabble words: qi (the circulating life force in Chinese philosophy), qat (a leaf chewed in some cultures for stimulating effects), and za (a shortening of the word “pizza”). He’s inviting listeners to challenge him on the game Words with Friends or WordFeud on the iPhone or Android: search the username grantbarrett. What good is a smartphone without smart friends? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Favorite Scrabble Words”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett. These days I’m spending a lot of time playing games on my mobile phone.
Martha, I noticed that. A couple of episodes ago I invited our listeners to play me on the game Word Feud. This is a Scrabble-like game for Android. And boy, howdy, I play a lot of games. But it occurs to me that there’s a kind of language that’s becoming reinforced in my vocabulary.
I’m playing words that I wouldn’t really use in my normal writing.
Such as?
Well, QI, which is qi, right? This is an idea for a Chinese life force, right?
Right, right.
I play that all the time because I’ve got to get rid of the Q.
Why don’t you just play IQ?
Can you do that?
Because you can’t.
No, because it’s an initialism.
It’s not actually accepted in the dictionaries.
Oh, darn.
Because it’s this closed vocabulary.
Okay.
And so there’s other words like Q-A-T, which is a kind of narcotic leaf chewed in the Middle East.
Cut, right?
And these words let me get rid of that Q because I don’t want to be stuck with that Q.
It’s hard to get rid of a Q, right?
No, who wants a Q?
Occasionally you can play aqua.
Z’s got the same problem.
Z-A is probably the word most often played with Z.
Z-A.
Yeah, short for pizza, za.
You want a slice of za, right?
That’s legitimate for Scrabble, huh?
It is, yeah.
So occasionally they’ll allow these odd words in that you really don’t use or you don’t use anymore.
Like, have people said za since the 80s?
Probably not.
In any case, the thing that I wanted to tell you, Martha, is that I now have a second Scrabble-like game on my phone.
Oh, no.
This is a bigger one.
It’s Words with Friends, which is also found on the iPhone as well as now on Android.
And I’m not pimping for them.
I’m just saying that I’m on there under the username Grant Barrett, two R’s, two T’s, and you can play me if you like.
I promise to play at least once every three days.
Okay, I’ll take my turn.
Oh, my gosh.
Grant, do you realize what you’re asking for?
You’re telling hundreds of thousands of word nerds.
Yes, but I will be the champion.
I will win.
No, actually, I lose enough to keep me humble, really.
I mean, sometimes I get—
Really?
Yeah.
My wife is currently beating me about 250 points in a game.
But she’s a linguist and lexicographer, too.
Well, Grant, I don’t know what you’re asking for, because I know we have a lot of really smart listeners out there, and a lot of really wired ones, so we’ll have to check back with you pretty soon.
Sure.
But, you know, this is a great excuse to mention that we now have apps for A Way with Words on BlackBerry, iPhone, and Androids.
That’s right.
Yeah, just look for A Way with Words in the App Store and any one of these platforms, and you will find us.
You can download our shows and our minicast and whatever else we include there.
Listen on your phone.
And if you have a question about language, you can always call us, 877-929-9673, or email us.
The address is words@waywordradio.org.
And how do they find you on Word Feud?
Look for me on Words with Friends under the username Grant Barrett, two R’s, two T’s, or the email address grantbarrett at gmail.com.
Oh, boy.
