athame
Not valid in Scrabble
It's a recognised English word, but it isn't in the official NASPA Scrabble word list.
- Scrabble points
- 11
- Words With Friends
- 11
- Letters
- 6
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Definition of athame
1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included
noun
-
A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and typically having a black handle with magical symbols on it.
“She is moving with a regal gait, grasping the arthame, or magic knife.”
“Agia was quicker, making a cut at my neck with an athame before his weapon was free of the scabbard.”
“The athame is a black-handled ritual knife—one of the most common distinguishing marks of the Neopagan Witch.”
“Tradition says an athame should never have drawn blood.”
Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.
Etymology
From French athamé in a 1929 passage from É.-J. Grillot de Givry (see 1931 citation below), apparently from Medieval Latin artavus (“quill-sharpening knife”). Artavus was also mistranslated into artauo in…
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From French athamé in a 1929 passage from É.-J. Grillot de Givry (see 1931 citation below), apparently from Medieval Latin artavus (“quill-sharpening knife”). Artavus was also mistranslated into artauo in an Italian manuscript. The arthame was conflated with the cortel nero (“black knife”) by Grillot de Givry, and that conflation was passed on to Gerald Gardner (whose 1954 book Witchcraft Today introduced Wicca to the public).
Words you can make from athame
54 playable · top: HAMATE (11 pts)
Best play hamate 11 points4-letter words
18 words3-letter words
20 words2-letter words
15 wordsFind your best play with athame
See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes athame, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.