Culture: Game: Board Game
Etymology Scrabble   (+7, -1)  [vote for, against]

Just like normal scrabble but with a points multiplier for rare etymology - e.g. x1 for AngloSaxon or Latin, x1.5 for Arabic, Indian, Sanskrit, etc., x2 for Norwegian, Finnish, Japanese, etc.
-- hippo, Nov 21 2011

aa http://en.wikipedia....CA.BBA.CA.BB.C4.81
is plenty forrin [calum, Nov 21 2011]

Presumably this is to allow you to get more points for popular linkword/vowelwaste "aa"?
-- calum, Nov 21 2011


Depends what the etymology of "aa" is.

(...later, after [calum]'s linkage...) - ooh, Hawaiian - very good.
-- hippo, Nov 21 2011


Finnish should be x3, given that it's in such an isolated language group.

Also, without wishing to jeer, I've got a hunch that there's a whole mound of words whose etymology is a quandary (like "jeer", "hunch", "mound" and "quandary", for example).
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 21 2011


Given the fact that there are only two or three major primitive language groupings, and a few scattered ones, such as Euskara, if you go far enough you really don't have that many real different etymologies.

(Anglo saxon, latin, hindi, Norwegian, sanskrit are all proto-indo-european)
-- MechE, Nov 21 2011


(yes but there are some rare words we get from Norwegian and nowhere else, such as "quisling")
-- hippo, Nov 21 2011


sp. wordfeud. Quickly hides behind [21Quest].
-- zeno, Nov 21 2011


[Hippo] Except names have etymologies too. Quisling comes from somewhere. Apparently silhouette is derived from a Basque name, which makes the root Euskara even if it did enter the language in France.
-- MechE, Nov 21 2011


Any points for picking a specific year, such as 1912? 1912 was particularly rich for words that have endured in common usage, yielding words such as:
autis/m/tic
sabotage
ambivalent
schizophrenia
vitamin
moron
electronically
& nosedive
-- infidel, Nov 21 2011


How many points for Xhosa's click language?
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 21 2011


So if we do go at it... to go on to do it is ok by me, do we do it on an ox or on an ax?

No?
-- infidel, Nov 22 2011


//No?// "Nu," nu?
-- mouseposture, Nov 22 2011


Are Etruscan words allowed? There's a bunch of those what need sweeping off.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 22 2011


Sort of off topic: I enjoyed [infidel]'s listing of words introduced in 1912; Does anyone know the reason behind the etymology of the word "sabotage"? Dutch sabot shoes and sabot sailboats would seem to have little to do with causing things or processes to fail by intention. Enquiring mind wishes to know.
-- jurist, Nov 22 2011


Ah, clunky workmanship...I suspect that is why so many professional halfbakers wear a variation of clogs in the kitchen with varying results. Thank you for the citation, [21Q].
-- jurist, Nov 22 2011


I believe the French word sabot was used for the fishplates used on the French rail system. Rail workers removed the fishplates to render rail lines unsafe during the French general strike of 1912... hence "saboteurs" and "sabotage".
-- infidel, Nov 22 2011


I think a problem here might be that you have to look up the etymology of every single word... I mean can anyone say off the top of their head where 'lamp' came from?
-- Alizayi, Nov 23 2011


I love it. I'm sitting down right now to design my own set of rules. Maybe I can finally beat T.G.F.J. at Scrabble. (I know, I know, what kind of writer can't beat his own wife at a word game?)
-- Alterother, Nov 23 2011


Scrabble isn't a word game, not really, because it disincentivises the placing of awesome words in favour of chasing points.
-- calum, Nov 23 2011


That's how she beats me.
-- Alterother, Nov 23 2011


This would lead to the sort of arguments that are settled with a dictionary. Therefore [+]. Lends itself to variants, to e.g. Scrabble with only words of Germanic origin, Uncleftish Beholding-wise.

//disincentivises// Not an awesome word. But gets more points than "discourages."
-- mouseposture, Nov 24 2011


It's a horrible clumsy artifical and redundant word but it is, to my ears, awesome - a stumbling collapsing run-on of sibilances.
-- calum, Nov 24 2011



random, halfbakery