Suq, Souq, Sook, Souk, Suk

Yet another wonderful Arab word that likes its Q’s sans U. And, what’s more, there are five useful variants of this, with even more listed on Wikipedia. So let us delve into the world of suqs!

The suq is an open air market found in Northern Africa and the Arabian peninsula, and it can be used to refer to the physical market (as in, “Let’s go to the suq”) or as an economic market (as in, “The suq for yak butter is really flourishing these days).

I prefer Trader Joe's

If you’re wondering what the difference is between a suq and a bazaar, so am I. As best I can tell, a bazaar is either indoors or at least covered, whereas a suq is held in the open.

Thus we could use it in the following sentence.

“It rained today at the suq, so I went to the bazaar instead and bought baklava.”

Qat, Khat, Gat

A favorite of any serious Scrabble nerd — qat! We all play it regularly, but do you know what this linguistic godsend means?

I'd rather some coffee, thanks.

The qat (khat or gat) is a type of evergreen shrubbery (Catha edulis) which grows up to 10 feet tall. It occurs throughout the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Its true claim to fame is that the leaves contain an alkaloid that acts as a mild narcotic when chewed. This has been practiced culturally in the region for millenia, back at least as far as the Pharoahs. It is estimated that ten million people use qat regularly; in Yemen 70%-80% of men chew its leaves.. In fact in Yemen the practice is so ubiquitous that up to 40% of the water supply is spent irrigating their precious qat plants.

The effect of qat chewing doesn’t sound all that different from a strong cup of coffee, and is regarded as causing relatively little harm and with a fairly minimal risk of dependence. Having said that, it is of course illegal in the United States for some reason. Several other countries have varying restrictions on it as well.

The spelling of the name seems to vary by locality, with qat being Yemeni, gat being Hebrew, gaad, gaat or jaat being Somali… and khat is in there too somewhere. There seem to be other spellings as well, but I’m not that interested in them and neither should you. As you might expect, you can stick an -s on it. Pronounce it as you would “cot” and not like “cat.”

Now lets use it in a sentence…

“I know three things about Yemen: they have terrorists… who chew on qat leaves… and who probably wouldn’t like me visiting their country.”

Oe, Oes

How about another obscure double-vowel word — oe. There seem to be a few definitions for this one, all of which have an Anglo-Saxon flavour to them. The definition most familiar to Scrabble players is that the oe is a violent whirlwind that occurs off the Faroe Islands. For those of you not familiar, the Faroes are a small group of islands to the Northeast of Scotland, roughly equidistant between it and Iceland.

That's where to find an oe.

The other definition I found is an archaic Scottish term for an illegitimate grandchild. And I also found reference to it as an alternate spelling (Scottish again) for oy, an expression of pain, despair or annoyance.

Don’t forget that you can put an -s at the end of this one, for those instances when there are multiple whirlwinds off the Faroe islands. It happens.

Lets use all three definitions in a sentence, shall we?

“Oe! My oe died in the oe, and I am thus too saddened to eat this haggis.”

Ai, Ais

My first post will focus on one of those delightfully useful double-vowel two-letter words — ai. The ai, also known as the Maned Sloth, also known as Bradypus torquatus, is a roughly cat-sized herbivore. Native to the Atlantic coastal rainforests of Brazil, deforestation has reduce its range, and it is now listed as vulnerable to extinction. Ais are reported to spend 60%-80% of their time sleeping (doing so upside-down). They lead solitary lives, only coming together to mate, after which a single sloth baby is born.

The plural of ai is ais. Pronounce it ah-eee.

Now lets use it in a sentence…

“Oh my god… the ai just bit me, and now it has a taste for blood!”

I want one!

First!

Greetings Scrabble nerds.

This blog is my attempt at helping myself learn the definitions to all the obscure Scrabble words that I keep forgetting. Like ‘ai’ and ‘fe’ and ‘suq’. I’m sure there are fascinating stories behind these words, and I aim to find them and share them with my tiny reading public. And I’m hoping that this process will tattoo them all into my mind, so that I may become unbeatable with my linguistic acumen.

Enjoy.