Drink From Every Cup

spillikins (SPIL-i-kinz) - n., the game of jackstraws or pick-up-sticks.



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In which a several long, thin sticks are placed in a loose pile on a flat surface and players take turns trying to remove a stick/jackstraw/spillikin without disturbing any others. Often the spillikins are straight and round, but some sets have ones with bends or flat pieces (I think we still have one with slightly wiggly snakes in the game closet). Exact origin of the name is unclear, but we have a reference from 1734 to a game called spilakees, which is suggestive -- suggestions include coined in English from spill, meaning a slender piece of something + diminutive ending -kin, and alteration of either Dutch or Flemish spelleken, small peg, both ultimately from Latin spīna, thorn.

---L.

coadjutor (koh-uh-JOO-ter, koh-AJ-uh-ter) - n., an assistant; esp. an assistant to an bishop or other ecclesiastic; esp. an assistant bishop with the right of succession.


Most often used in the Anglican Church, but also elsewhere. In the Chalet School books, it's used by Joey Maynard nee Bettany to describe the live-in nurse/nanny (a Tyrolean) who helps raise her ridiculously large family. (I suspect the implication of right of succession was not intended here.) Note that there is a (now even rarer) feminine form, coadjutress, that she could have also used. This is an old one: to Middle English form coadjutour, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin coadjutor, from Latin co(n)-, with + adjūtor, helper, from adjūvāre, to help.

---L.