So lately I’ve been playing Scrabble on Facebook. This is bad because it’s a great waster of time. Well, not that great. Usually I have the self control not to play it constantly, especially as my opponents don’t play it constantly, and it’s kind of a nice break when I’m working to open Facebook and earn a few points.
It is also a good because until I started playing Scrabble on Facebook, I never won a game in my life.
Actually, that is a lie. Once I won a game against my family by playing the word galax - which is a type of leaf I read about once in Christy and for some reason remembered it, much to everyone’s annoyance.
But I don’t think I ever won a game after that.
Anyway, so obviously winning is good, and I’m becoming a better Scrabble player in general, with all the practice I’m getting.
I’m also learning new words.
For instance, za.
Who knows what the word za means, apart from the fact that it is an acceptable two-letter word in Scrabble which can earn you a lot of points, particularly if it is played stratetically on a double word score touching two A’s? (Making 42 points off of two zas was the highlight of my day. Or it was until I got my second-ever Bingo and made 75 points.)
After that play, it occurred to me I didn’t know what za meant. So I looked.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, za is slang for pizza.
When young people today speak casually of ordering a za, “pizza,” they are unwittingly producing an expression that is quite interesting to language historians. Za derives from the full form pizza by a process known as clipping. Two types of clipping are common in English: dropping the unstressed syllables or syllables not receiving the primary word stress, as in fridge from refrigerator; and dropping all syllables after the first syllable, as in ab, dis, porn, and vibe, whether or not the first syllable was originally stressed. In the case of za, the syllable that was dropped was originally stressed and was the first syllable, which is unusual. Rents for “parents,” is another recent example of the same kind of clipping. Interestingly, we don’t need to stay in the realm of contemporary youth slang to see the results of this unusual process. The words phone, bus, and wig (from telephone, omnibus, periwig) belong to Standard English but had their start as slangy or catchy neologisms formed by clipping stressed syllables, just like za. Who knows whether in fifty years za and rents will be as widely accepted as phone and wig are now?
Very informative! But it does not answer the most pertinent question:
Where in the heck are these young people today who speak casually of ordering a za?
Also, if you ever find yourself wondering why Zaire is a legal Scrabble play while June is not, know that zaire is a unit of money in Zaire, and not always a proper noun.
20/11/2007 at 9:40 am Permalink
Hey Angela & Regina, do you remember our Scrabble games last summer at the cabin in Townsend? We were playing at the kitchen table while listening to that weird and funny backporch music Angela bought at the Visitor Center. It must have been after we conquered Mt. LeConte, because Debbie wasn’t there. Maybe it was the day we got caught in the rain while hiking to & from Laurel Falls?
Happy memories.
Scrabble face-to-face is fun, because you get to see your opponents writhe & fume when you play a Q, Z or X on a triple-word spot! Do you get the same thrill of victory when it’s online?
20/11/2007 at 9:43 am Permalink
I do get that thrill, because there’s a little chat box in the online Scrabble screen. Also, because I am always thrilled to win because I seldom do.
20/11/2007 at 3:13 pm Permalink
Yes, Annie, I do remember those Scrabble games this summer. (See, LR, what you are missing by not joining us in the mountains? A chance to play live and in person with some of your wordsmith friends). I remember specifically that I picked the letter tiles from the Cherokee alphabet, which is only part of the reason that I did not come close to winning either game. I will have to remember ‘za’ in the future.
26/11/2007 at 8:32 am Permalink
Here’s a coincidence. The Food Channel has a show called Ace of Cakes about a bakery that does specialty cakes. In last week’s program they were making a cake in the shape of a Scrabble board. It looked fantastic: complete with extra letter pieces, the little wood holders, dice, and the birthday message spelled out in Scrabble format. All made of cake, candy & icing.
The birthday person who got the cake played Scrabble in some sort of league, and was pretty much addicted to the game. She loved the cake, of course.
26/11/2007 at 8:49 am Permalink
Oh, how cute! Isn’t it amazing the cakes they make on that show? Somehow I don’t think they look like they’d taste very good, though, but then I don’t like icing.