Today’s ‘Wordle’ Word Of The Day Answer #289: Monday, April 4th

Monday, Monday. So good to me. Monday mornin’, it was all I hoped it would be. But Monday mornin’ don’t guarantee that Monday evening you’ll still be here with me.

And yes, I just opened this post with the Mamas and the Papas lyrics, you’re welcome. That’s a first for me also.

In any case, we’re here to talk about Wordle, the viral puzzle game created by Josh Wardle that has captured the time and affection of basically everybody this year, a fun distraction from the horrors of the world, a brief respite from all the malaise and tragedy. The game has no ads and no microtransactions. Wardle designed it to be essentially the polar opposite of what most mobile games are like, without even a whiff of monetization.

Fortunately, he was still able to cash-in when The New York Times purchased the game for a sum in the low seven-figure range. The paper of record has, thankfully, kept the game free at its website, though it’s made a few small changes.

Definitely check out my Wordle Tips & Tricks guide for some helpful strategies, and read about my preferred starting words here.

Okay, let’s take a look at today’s Wordle!

Today’s Wordle #289 Answer & Hint

Before we proceed, a warning: Spoilers galore follow.

But first, a hint: When winter casts its chilly pall, wear your mittens, boots and [ ].

And the answer is . . . .

Shawl!

I very nearly didn’t get this word right despite my first guess, although a French word, being pretty darn good. Four vowels in one word meant that I eliminated three in one fell swoop. The ‘A’ was the only success, and only a half success at that, but I still felt good about it.

Soapy got me the ‘S’ and ‘A’ in the right spots and eliminated ‘O’ and ‘Y’, leaving me with only one vowel. My next guess, start, was a non-starter, giving me nothing other than eliminations.

Slash was better. At least now I had four correct letters, and had a pretty good idea where the ‘L’ and ‘H’ would go. Unfortunately, shall was more of a shan’t and I was down to the wire with just one more guess. Fortunately, there weren’t many options remaining and shawl did the trick.

Etymology And History

Shawls are basically larger scarves, something like the cross between a scarf and a cape—and not to be confused with stoles, which are a slightly different, more formal version of a shawl.

The word shawl is derived from Persian شال shāl which was likely derived from Hindi दुशाला duśālā which, in turn, came from the Sanskrit word शाटी śāṭī. It entered the English lexicon by way of Kashmir where the pashmina shawl industry was born thanks to the soft wool of the Ladakhi Kashmiri goats of that region.

The finest shawls in the world are called shahtoosh, which is Persian for ‘king of the wools.’ These are made from the hair of the Tibetan antelope, chiru, and are very rare. The chiru live in the freezing mountains of Tibet, at an elevation of over 16,000 ft above sea level. Their fur is very warm, allowing them so survive in the freezing cold, but it’s also very light, making it the perfect material for shawl-making.

Shahtoosh shawls are woven so tightly that you can even a very large shawl can be passed through a wedding ring, leading some to refer to them as ‘ring shawls.’

These shawls are now banned because the hunting of chiru has led them to the brink of extinction. They fetch anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 in the Western market despite being illegal to buy and sell now. Poaching of chiru remains a serious issue in Tibet.

And that is probably more about shawls than you thought you’d learn today! I haven’t really been doing etymology notes since my dad stopped writing those (What a quitter! He didn’t want to work for free!?) But I’m going to pepper some in from time to time when the word catches my fancy.

Have a great Monday, Wordlers!

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