ACKEE and HACKEE

An ACKEE (also spelled AKEE) is a:

1. a sapindaceous tree, Blighia sapida, native to tropical Africa and cultivated in the Caribbean for its fruit, edible when cooked
2. the red pear-shaped fruit of this tree

 

 If you add an H to the beginning of it, you get HACKEE. Unlike ACKEe, HACKEE is not to be found at www.dictionary.com

Searching generally on the web, a HACKEE is someone who has been hacked, as opposed to a HACKER, who does the hacking.

 

 

Word building: ACHES and LACHES and TACHES

We all have our aches and pains.

But what are LACHES?

Laches is a noun, which means "failure to do something at the proper time, especially such delay as will bar a party from bringing a legal proceeding."

And TACHES?

We covered TACHE few days ago - it's a buckle or a clasp. TACHES is the plural.

How about DACE and TACE? Remember what they were?

DACE is a small freshwater fish, and TACE is a different spelling of the word TASSET, which is a piece of armor for the thighs.

 

Word-building: ACHED and BACHED

We all know that ACHED is the past-tense of ACHE.

Add a B to the front of ACHED and you get BACHED.

BACHED means "to live as a batchelor.

So we've got "to BACH",  "BACHING it", and "he BACHES".

A BACHELOR is an unmarried man.

Based on the pronunciation of BACHELOR, I've always assumed that BACH,  BACHING and BACHES are pronounced with a flat "a" sound and a "t" (so it sounds like "batch, batching, and batches).

What is MACHE again?

I'm going back through my notes and I remember TACE... it's TASSE or TASSET which is thigh armor.  And DACE is a kind of fish.

But what is MACHE again?  I'll have to look it up...

Wait for it..

Oh, yes, MACHE is a European herb.

Although I think I will find it easier if I try to remember that it is also unit of measurement:

MACHE (symbol ME from German Mache-Einheit, plural MACHES) is an obsolete unit of volumic radioactivity named for the Austrian physicist Heinrich Mache.It was defined as the quantity of radon (ignoring its daughters; in practice, mostly radon-222) per litre of air which ionises a sustained current of 0.001 esu (0.001 StatAmpere).

ACHE and MACHE and TACHE

We all have aches and pains, but when you put an M in front of ACHE you get MACHE.

MACHE is a European herb, and is pluralized MACHES.

Put a T in front of it and you get TACHE, which is a clasp or buckle, from Old French. It is pluralized TACHES.

ACE and DACE and TACE

Everyone knows what an ACE is - a pitching ACE, a low card in a card game (or a high card, depending on the game) and so on.

So what the heck is DACE and TACE?

A DACE, pluralized DACES, is a freshwater fish of the carp family.

A TACE, pluralized TACES, is a TASSE.

What is a TASSE, you ask?

A TASSE, pluralized TASSES, is a TASSET.

So what is a TASSET, you ask?

A TASSET, pluralized TASSETS, is a piece of plate armor for the upper thigh!

ABY and GABY

ABY means "to pay the penalty for" and is from Scotland. ABOUGHT, ABYING, and ABYS are its conjugations.

But guess what! It can also be spelled ABYE. Also ABYES.

Put a G at the beginning of ABY, and you get GABY.

A GABY is a dolt (also from Scotland). GABIES means more than one dolt.