Word Play

Ever heard of www.freerice.com? It's a vocabulary game site in which you select a definition to sometimes challenging words. Get it right and a United Nations food program donates rice to the hungry.

It's a great time filler -- or killer -- and I not only learn something but also help feed the world. So far I've made it to level 46 out of 60 and there I am stuck.

When I play Free Rice I dissect the more difficult words, looking for a prefix or suffix that might unlock the meaning. It's also one of those times that I can actually use my two years of high school Latin. As a freshman, you'd rather be learning anything but the nominative or ablative case. Knowing that Gaul is divided into three parts is at the bottom of any sophomore's "fun facts" list.

But to my surprise, some of what I thought was useless information lingers in a long dormant brain cell or two. When challenged by a level 46 Free Rice word it comes to life -- along with a glimpse of the nun who taught the subject. She was so old we were certain that she was actually with Ceasar on his trek.

My new favorite word -- from Level 45 -- is "cacography". The "caco" is a Greek prefix meaning bad, poor or harsh; the "graphy" is writing or script. Thus "cacography" means bad handwriting or spelling. I don't know when I'll be able to use the first definitiion in a conversation since so few people actually use cursive these days -- but that second definition abounds in e-mail.

Sure you can use typo if you want to. Cacography just has so much more pizzazz!