Word Wandering

Why, why do I know words like:
Vatu which is the national currency of Vanuatu. And where the hell is that? In the South Pacific. It’s summer there now. sigh.

Vanuatu from Lonely Planet travel guide:

it's not just a decadent escape with balmy breezes and gourmet food. It's also home to several best-in-the-world experiences that very few people know about: a luxury liner, like the Titanic, shipwrecked in clear diveable water; the world's most accessible active volcano on the island of Tanna; a giant banyan tree the size of a soccer field; pounding, cascading waterfalls; extraordinary cultural ceremonies and dances on the island of Malekula; primitive villages where you can witness an ancient living culture; and picture-perfect beaches where there's nobody but you and your snorkel gear. It's also a snorkellers' and divers' Mecca.

Oh yeah, I wanna be there NOW.

Did you know that the word za isn't just what all the cool kids are calling 'pizza' now? It's also:

An old solfeggio name for B flat; the seventh harmonic, as heard in the or æolian string; -- so called by Tartini. It was long considered a false, but is the true note of the chord of the flat seventh..

Huh. When I thought za was just short for that ambrosial bread of the gods I was stunned that it was an OK to use, accepted Scrabble word. Now I know what my game was really accepting.

Today’s word is Lares.

In ancient Rome, pre-fourth century, these were guardian deities. ‘Originally gods of cultivated fields, Lares were later worshiped in association with the Penates’, formally Di Penates --  household gods of the Romans and other Latin peoples. In the narrow sense, they were gods of the penus (“household provision”),

 They said penus -- snicker, snicker.

Azo -- not just a big pharmaceutical concern.

‘Azo compounds are compounds bearing the functional group R-N=N-R', in which R and R' can be either aryl or alkyl’

OK. Not as interesting as I'd hoped. To be fair, I was confusing it with Tazo chocolate. Mmmmm.

Taxa is the plural of taxon.
any unit used in the science of biological classification, or taxonomy. Taxa are arranged in a hierarchy from kingdom to subspecies.

You know, all this time I thought it had something to do with tachyons. I had visions of Romulan war ships dancing in my head.

Of course.

And then there's Zarf. 

A Zarf is a holder, usually of ornamental metal, for a coffee cup without a handle. Although coffee was probably discovered in Ethiopia, it was in Turkey at around the thirteenth century that it became popular as a beverage. As with the serving of tea in China and Japan, the serving of coffee in Turkey was a complex, ritualized process.

Pretty, yes. I just like the way the word sounds (in my head) as I pronounce it.  Sounds like a comic book planet. Oh wait it is!

It’s that Scrabble/Words With Friends thing again.

Either I’ve seen a friend, one of my lexicon sparring partner, using it OR I’ve plugged the sucker into the board myself. Through sheer dumb luck I discover collections of morphemes previously unknown to me.

My wild and crazy scheme, when I’m stuck for a word that’ll fit and score me groß points, is to just make shit up. Fer instance, I’ve got nothin’ so I go with something that looks like a language unit and, when piled up on top of a couple of other words, actually makes a whole bunch of those cutie pie points.

Awesome!

This is how I found the fantasy inspiring island of Vanuatu, posh Turkish coffee cup holders, Hindu prayer rituals and some household gods.

Learning Can Be Fun!