Euouaes

[Lorcan]

Whaat does euouaes mean? It's an acceptable Scrabble word yet I've been unable to find a definition at dictionary.com or via google.

[Quizmonster]

It's a variation of 'evovae', which are names for Gregorian cadences.

[Quizmonster]

I should have added above that you really can't add just an 's' to the end, as it is already a plural word. (Cadence, by the way, just means the rise and fall of sound or intonation.)

[kempie]

QM - should that be uariation?

[Octavius]

Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd Ed.

defines EUOUAE as "A word formed from the vowels of seculorum amen, ending the Gloria Patri."

If this is true, then as QM says, you would not add an 's'

[Quizmonster]

No reason why not, K. To finish the story, the word actually comes from the Latin words 'seculorum amen'. There was no letter 'u' in Latin and the sound was indicated by 'v'. (You still see this in pretentious restaurants which have a 'MENV' instead of a 'MENU'.)

My first thought was that it was a feminine Latin plural, but a little further investigation revealed the truth as outlined above. Perhaps, therefore Lorcan...you can add 's' to the end after all! My apologies for that error.

[Quizmonster]

Oops! Another bit of synchrography there, Octavius...or Octavivs!

[kempie]

Puts me in mind of my favourite Roman potboiler

    I CLAVDIVS

[Quizmonster]

Well, well, K! My partner and I invariably - and jokingly - called it 'I Clavdivs' the last time we saw it on TV. Magnificent series...why can't they make 'em like that any more?

[kempie]

'... why can't they make 'em like that anymore?'

perhaps because Mr Blair has increased the literacy rate in the UK.

I would laugh at my own 'joke' but for some reason it makes me sad.