Scrabble Bingo Weekly Roundup: Guisard, Reaphook and Veronica

There's only a few week left until costumes and candy take over the streets, which means they'll be more and more seven-letter words in the Scrabble Bingo of the Days that relate to the Fall season, horror movies, and of course… Halloween. Below you'll find bingo words relevant such films as Halloween, Children of the Corn and The Wicker Man.

But wait… don't know what a bingo is? It's when a player empties his or her rack in one turn, placing all seven of their letters on the board to create a word that's at least seven letters long. The term "bingo" is used primarily in the U.S., but elsewhere it's simply known as a "bonus" since you get a bonus of 50 points added to your turn's score.

To add a new long bingo play to your Scrabble arsenal, check back daily in the Scrabble World, or get your fix on Facebook or Twitter. Here's a roundup of the words featured this past week. And don't forget to check out last week's roundup.

• GUISARD  n pl. -S  a masker

Since the definition states guisard being a masker, then it's easy to tell where this word comes from—guise, which means to disguise, or more specifically to alter the appearance of. But with guisard, we're talking more about someone who's hiding their facial features by wearing a mask. You could also call a guisard a disguiser, masker or mummer, but not a guiser (at least, not in Scrabble). The -ard ending of guisard implies a depreciatory sense, as in drunkard and dullard. Also—GUISE(S), GUISED, GUISING.

 Michael Myers from Halloween fame. - Image by TMDb

• VERONICA  n pl. -S  a handkerchief bearing the image of Christ's face

Veronica was the name given to the cloth veil that was supposedly impressed with an image of Jesus's face. The veil was given to Christ by Saint Veronica as he carried a cross for his crucifixion. Jesus wiped the sweat from his forehead and gratefully handed it back to Saint Veronica, his face miraculously stamped in the cloth. Since then, "veronica" refers to any reproduction of the cloth which resembles the legendary one. Also—VERNACLE(S), VERNICLE(S).

 Hans Memling's oil painting, Saint Veronica, c. 1470. - Image by The Yorck Project

• REAPHOOK  n pl. -S  an implement used in reaping

A reaphook is basically a hand sickle with a large hooked-shaped blade and a short, sometimes offset handle for cutting and harvesting crops and grass. In some parts of the world, a reaphook is called a badging hook, bagging hook, fagging hook or rip hook, and is most commonly separated as "reap hook." Reaphooks can be seen in the Children of the Corn film series, along with scythes and other curved sickles.

 A scene from Children of the Corn with somebody holding a reaphook. - Photo by calitreview

• EUCAINE  n pl. -S  an anesthetic

The first effective local anesthetic ever was cocaine, obtained from the leaves of the coca plant, and it's still legal for medical use. But cocaine tends to cause intense vasoconstrictor activity and sometimes toxicity in the cardiovascular system. To reap the benefits of cocaine as an anesthetic, less destructive synthesized versions were created, such as eucaine—a crystalline substance with the formula C15H21NO2.

 Eucaine bottles and local anesthetic being applied. - Photos by Pharm+Drugs, Drugstore Museum

• BEJABERS  interj  bejesus (used as a mild oath)

A "mild oath" is an interjection, which is an abrupt remark or exclamation that sometimes is without a definite meaning and is capable of standing alone. Popular interjections (which are sometimes euphemisms) are crap, dangit, darn, fudge, holy moly, rats, shoot and wow, but the more obscure ones are the funnest, like bejabers (from bejesus), which is usually regarded as a characteristic utterance of Irish people to express surprise or just for emphasis, and sometimes starts with an intensifier like "holy." Also—BEJABBERS, BEJEEBERS, BEJEEZUS, BEJESUS.

 "Holy bejabers, Batman!" - Photo by bradlee

• COLOSSUS  n pl. COLOSSUSES or COLOSSI  a gigantic statue

A colossus is a statue with great size and proportions and is best associated with the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, a gigantic brass statue of the Greek titan Helios (aka Apollo). It was built between 292 and 280 BC and collapsed during an earthquake in 226 BC, and is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The hollowed out Statue of Liberty was based on it. But a colossus doesn't have to be made of brass or iron. It could be any effigy that's life-sized or larger, made from any material, like the colossus in The Wicker Man film, a gigantic wicker statue of a human with an actual human being to be sacrificed in effigy by pagans.

 Image of The Wicker Colossus of the Druids, by an unknown artist, c. 1801–1850.

• ZUGZWANG  n pl. -S  a situation in chess that forces a disadvantageous move

A zugzwang, which means "compulsion to move" in German, is when a player is required to make an undesirable or disadvantageous move in chess, when they would rather not make a move at all. Being forced into a zugzwang by your opponent usually results in pieces being taken and positional disadvantage that usually takes the player from a draw to a loss or from a win to a draw.

 The most famous of all zugzwangs: Samisch vs. Nimzovich, 1923. White to move and lose.

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