I'd Like to Have a Word with You

While sitting behind a limo in traffic today, I saw that the license plate said "LIVERY," which always makes me think "Ewww, it must smell liver-y in there." Then later I was playing Words With Friends with GabbyGail, and I got to play the word LIVERY. (Is the word LIVERY related to the word DELIVERY? I'm too lazy to look it up.)

I absolutely love Words With Friends. I currently have games going on with 9 different people! Some games take a few hours; others a few days. I don't care! As soon as one ends, I start up another one. 

Because it's not the real Scrabble game, the board is a little different—that's right, the triple-word-score spaces aren't in the corners! I suspect some of the letter values are different too (although I haven't bothered to check them all), and I have no idea if the letter distribution is the same. But man, it's fun. And the interface is so easy to use. I like the chat feature too. The main thing I wish it could do is tell me how many tiles my opponent has left.

Which leads me to Scrabble, which EditorMark persuaded me to download. It's the real Scrabble game, right down to the wood-grain tiles. I love the familiarity of the board, and the extra features are all there. What I hate is that you have to connect to Facebook every time you open it! It's maddeningly slow. So if I'm sitting at my computer, I'll just open it up on Facebook, but it's really a pain on the iPhone.

Anyhow, if you're a crossword fan with an iPhone, please challenge me ("wisekaren") to a game on Words With Friends. Otherwise I will play Scrabble with you, but I will grouse about it frequently.

Comments

[Nancy]

Yep, "livery" and "delivery" are related if you go back far enough (to Latin "liberare," to liberate). But "livery" had its own evolution. Here's www.etymonline.com on "livery":

c.1300, "household allowance of any kind (food, provisions, clothing) to retainers or servants," from Anglo-Fr. livere (late 13c.), O.Fr. livrée, originally "(clothes) delivered by a master to his servants," from fem. pp. of livrer "to dispense, deliver, hand over," from L. liberare (see liberate). The sense later was reduced to "servants' rations" and "provender for horses" (mid-15c.). The former led to the meaning "distinctive clothing given to servants" (early 14c.); the latter now is obsolete except in livery stable (1705).

("Liver," the organ, comes from an unrelated Old English word.)

(And I can't play Words with Friends with you because I don't have an iPhone, nor is there an iPhone in my future. Sorry!)

[jwg]

Is Words with Friends available on line for those of us who think phones are simple communication devices?

[Elena]

Am I the only person on earth who doesn't yet have an iPhone? You iPhone people always have to rub it in! :)

[Sheila]

I'm guessing you would understand why I can never bring myself to buy Garelick Farms milk.

[Alissa]

You're so kind in not gloating about your win!

[Mo]

I was surprised that a wordsmith like you didn't know the word livery. I always assume that if I know something, then everyone does!!!!!!

But then I had ponies and horses as a child and was always into historical fiction in my younger years so maybe that accounts for it. Not so much into history these days, it's enough dealing with the here and now.....

I have an Iphone but have to say I hate Scrabble and always refused to play with my mother. Now that she's no longer with us, I do have occasional pangs of guilt over that.

Mo

[Karen]

I do know the word livery, just wasn't sure if it was etymologically related to delivery.