Scrabble in Real Life

So recently I've started playing online Scrabble with some of my long-distance friends. Okay, I lied. I've begun playing "Words With Friends" -- for Android and Facebook, but let's be honest -- it's Scrabble in a fancier package. In doing so, I've learned a few things:

1. I'm terrible at finding words.  Given seven letters I can usually muster a 4 point word. (Today I had "WHISKER" and no place to put it!). Hardly the stuff that Scrabble legends are made of.

2. Virtually all of my friends are arts & letters graduates who work in publishing, education, law, etc. AKA professions where words matter.  Yes, I'm a lawyer, but apparently not a very well spoken one.

3. My best friend is a scrabble beast. As is my Mom.

4. I had forgotten that I had favorite words. This is the side effect of playing scrabble . . . I sit for hours thinking of words I can use and then I realize that I have a lot of favorite words (most too long to play in 7 tiles).  So I thought I'd start listing a few just to get my word game juices flowing, and also to give a little shout out to some of the best words ever.

• Defenestrate - (v.) to throw through or out a window. Chris Brown tried to defenestrate a chair while making an appearance on Good Morning America. What a tool.
  
• Avuncular - (adj.) of or like an uncle. I learned the word avuncular when I was studying for the SATs. I can't remember anything else about the SAT but I remember this.
• Exsanguinate - (v.) to drain of blood. The victim on Body of Proof exanguinated after receiving a snake bite from a Gaboon viper. On a related note, I watch too many crime shows.
• Abecedarian - (n.) a beginner, someone who is learning the alphabet; (adj.) elementary, arranged alphabetically, of or relating to the alphabet. Abecedarian is derived from A-B-C-D or the initial letters of the alphabet, a word which references the beginning of the letters itself, or alpha-beta.
• Octopodes - (n. pl.) the technical plural of octopus, though octopi or octopuses are the proper word unless you have no friends, or want to have no friends. I learned recently that the plural of octopus is not "octopi" but "octopodes" (pronounced: oc-tup-a-dees) as it is Greek and not Latin in origin. I'm not a big enough ass to refer to many octopuses as octopodes in public, but I love the idea. Note: it is acceptable for hippopotamus and rhinoceros to be pluralized as hippopotamuses or rhinoceroses, particularly if you want them for Christmas.

You DO want a hippo for Christmas? . . . coincidentally so do these high school sign language students. I'm pretty much going to be doing the sign for hippo for the rest of my life.  (Bonus fun fact: Hippopotamus is Greek for "River Horse")

I am certain that I have more favorite words, and as I lose at scrabble . . . *cough, cough* Words with Friends, I will post more.