verbarium

English

Etymology

From Latin verbum (“word”) +‎ -arium.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌvɜːˈbɛəɹi.əm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌvɝˈbɛɹi.əm/
• Rhymes: -ɛəɹiəm

Noun

verbarium (uncountable)

1. (dated) A word game in which the players are given a set of letters and must form as many words as possible from subsets of those letters.
   • 1889, 'anonymous subscriber', “Indoor Games”, in The Christian Union, volume 40, page 311:

     We have played Verbarium with great pleasure, dividing the company into two sections or sides.

   • c. 1908, Mark Twain, Dorothy Quick - Her April Fool's Anecdote:

     […] next she would play euchre twenty minutes; next it would be a game of verbarium, and so on all the day long—twenty minutes to each fleeting interest, with twenty minutes of billiards sandwiched between every two of them.