What does "quass" mean?

[fajrdrako]

First, I wrote a story for maaseru's new Donald/Timmy zine. I know she really wants long stories. Mine was short. Well, maybe next time. It would be fun to write a real case story.

I went to a NaNoWriMo write-in at the public library today. I think a good time was had by all. It was... fun... to see fellow-writers. I think it helped calm my panic. I spoke to Kevin, who said it was normal to be behind schedule on the fourth day. Then I spoke to limminel who said she'd done something like 13,000 words already. Faugh.

Then I went to Tasia's for dinner, and played two games of Scrabble. I beat Donna the Unbeatable, yay! Had a couple of bingos, too. Almost had three. I picked up my copy pf Apalexy. Beulah drove me home, so I had a chance to chat.

Altogether a nice day.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Closest I can find is "quassia". It's some type of South American shrub or small tree.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Cool. I picture one of those nice round shrubettes. Maybe a Google image search - yes!

See this: http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/963/25011357.JPG

Or this: http://www.lisanatura.com/images/fotos/CultivoQuassia2.jpg (Looks kind of different, doesn't it?)

And this particular quassia bush () even has a name, Quentin. I don't know what his human companion's name is.

"Quass" just gets me pictures of boring looking people and this amusing picture: http://www.altnet.com/partners/epitaph/333185_nof_punk_06_01.jpg

But - ahah! - we also get http://www.herbdatanz.com/QuassiaA.jpg, listed as both Quassia Wood, Quass, and Bitter Wood.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

According to the OED:

Quass, v.
Obs.
intr. To drink copiously or in excess; to quaff. Hence quassing vbl. n.

Man, if Scrabble requires that you know obsolete words that only have 3 citations in the OED, the first around 1572 and the last in 1607, I'm glad I'm not a regular player.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The point in Scrabble is to make all the points you can with all the letters you can and the Official Scrabble Dictionaries play fast and loose with what I consider to be the English language. Some archaisms are fine, others not. Names of Greek or English or Hebrew letters are fine (great when you have a spare 'aleph' on your tray) but not the names of letters in other languages. "Quo" (as in "status quo") is fine but "qua" (as in "sine qua non" is not). I'd venture to say that a good half of the words in the Official Scrabble Tournament Book (which I was looking at yesterday) look like gobbledygook to me.

Which is okay. I don't make the rules, I just play by 'em. I don't really think 'za' should be considered a word, but when I've a 'z' in my rack and nowhere else to put it, it really doesn't matter. I just have to know that the Scrabble Association thinks it's a word.

Anyway - being insatiably curious, especially about language, I don't justwant to know it's a word, I want to know what the word means. Hence 'quass'.

[maaseru.livejournal.com]

I know she really wants long stories. Mine was short. Well, maybe next time.

It may have been very short, but it was very lovely.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Aaaaw thank you. Huge hug. You are the perfect editor because (a) you're honest and you want the text to be right and (b) you're reassuring.