Scrabble players know that the game’s official word list includes a handful of non-English words and suffixes, but it doesn’t feel like it. English being what it is, all those non-standard roots are often underrepresented in Scrabble games. You might think that a scrabble word like til or sauerkraut would never be allowed in Scrabble. After all, they aren’t English. Not so fast! These words are derived from German words with an ‘eccentric’ spelling. Other non-English Scrabble words sneak through much more frequently than you might expect. This is because many seemingly foreign words are etymological relatives of English words we already know and love.
What is an Etymological Scrabble Word?
An etymological Scrabble word is a word with a non-English root that is also related to an English word. An etymological Scrabble can be a single word (like sauerkraut) or a word with a suffix or prefix that denotes a root that’s non-English (like kraut or bratwurst). Etymological words are often Germanic, but they can also be Latin, Slavic, or French. The words themselves may have changed a lot since they entered the English language, and they usually have a different meaning now than they did in their original language. Etymological words are not to be confused with a word that has a similar spelling to a non-English word, like smörgåsbord, which is not an etymological word because it came into the English language through Swedish.
Sauerkraut and Other Words from the Latin Root?
Sauerkraut, bratwurst, and bratwurst are all German words with a Latin root, so they are etymological Scrabble words. But you don’t have to know Latin to recognize their Scrabble-worthy spelling. The root of sauerkraut is ‘cabbage’. This is also the root of ‘salad’ and ‘coleslaw,’ so it’s not a stretch to see how the German word for ‘sauerkraut’ ended up in the English language. The root of bratwurst is ‘sausage’, and the root of krautwurst is ‘cabbage’. With just a little knowledge, you can now easily see how all three of these words found a home in the English language.
How to Recognize etymological words in Scrabble?
If you don’t know what to look for, etymological Scrabble words can easily miss. The first thing to look for is a word with a suffix or prefix that doesn’t seem to make sense. If you see the word bratwurst (which is made up of the root ‘sausage’ and the suffix ‘-wurst’), you should know that sausages are not from Germany. In addition to suffixes, keep an eye out for unusual roots. Sauerkraut, for example, is from the Latin root ‘cabbage.’
Is Til a Scrabble Word?
Til, without an ‘s’ on end, is only an etymological Scrabble word if it is used as a noun, not a verb. If you look at the tile ‘til’ in Scrabble and it’s being used as a noun, it is short for tilth, a word used in agriculture to mean ‘arable land.’ But if you are looking at ‘til’ and it’s being used as a verb, it means ‘to till,’ which is cultivating arable land. So, while ‘til’ is a legitimate Scrabble word in both cases, the verb ‘til’ is not an etymological Scrabble word.
Summing up
The thing to remember about etymological Scrabble words is that they are often identical in spelling to non-English words, but the two words have different origins. In other words, etymological Scrabble words are English words with roots that are non-English. And the best way to find etymological Scrabble words is to look for roots that seem out of place. If you see a German word with a Latin root, you may be looking at an etymological Scrabble word. Keep your eyes peeled for seemingly non-English roots and suffixes, and you’ll be able to identify Scrabble’s etymological words easily.