Today’s Wordle #694 Hints, Clues And Answer For Sunday, May 14th

It’s interesting to me just how many things that we do or take for granted were designed in the distant past. The calendar, for one. The names of the months were all conceived thousands of years ago. During the reign of Julius Caesar, his astronomers told him that the year needed to be 12, rather than 10, months.

So January and February were added to the calendar, and the fifth and sixth months of the year were renamed July and August, after Julius and Augustus Caesar. Both months were given 31 days to stress their importance. All of this took place over 2000 years ago. We’ve been using the same calendar—with some tweaks—ever since.

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There are no new months anymore, no new names for months. There is no world leader powerful enough to name a month after themself and get the entire world to adopt it. The seven-day week remains unchanged since 321 CE when Emperor Constantine changed it from an eight-day week, but the Romans were borrowing from earlier civilizations. The Babylonians had a a seven day week and named five of the days after the planets they knew about: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, as well as a day for the Sun and one for the Moon.

Now, thousands of years later, we still have Sunday. We still have Saturn’s Day. Some of our day-names have been mixed with the gods of Teutonic mythology. Thor’s Day, for instance. But they’re all named for gods (or planets that are named for gods). It’s all so incredibly old, but it persists somehow, even though in so many ways the calendar is simply a way of ordering what it fundamentally abstract. Time is a concept that brings structure to our lives.

In any case, let’s do this Wordle.

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How To Solve Today’s Wordle

The Hint: Ooh baby it’s cold outside.

The Clue: This word has way more consonants than vowels.

The Answer:

.

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Wordle Bot Analysis

After I complete a Wordle I always head over to check in with Wordle Bot to see how I scored, both in terms of each individual guess and whether or not I outsmarted the Bot.

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Well I don’t always know where my opening guess comes from, but today is pretty obvious: The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, which I’ve been playing since it came out this Friday. It’s a magnificent, wonderful game so far and since zelda isn’t a word that Wordle accepts, tears was the next best thing.

Turns out it was a really, really great guess. I had just 11 words remaining, though many of those words were frighteningly similar. I kept coming up with guesses, but I knew if I just guessed one after another it could take me four or five easily. Words I thought of included:

• scary
• shark
• snarl
• swarm
• scarf
• shard
• spark

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There were others but I jotted these ones down and then tried to come up with a word that had as many letters as possible in it, finally settling on nymph (see bold letters in the words above). The irony of this guess is obvious when you look at my list of words. The only one that didn’t have a letter in nymph was the Wordle itself, scarf. Fortunately, nymph knocked every other word out of the running and I was able to land this in just three. This actually took a lot of patience and problem solving, something I don’t always have when I do a Wordle. I could have just guessed any one of those words and gotten it in one or two more guesses. Fun to get it in three, though!

My score today: Just like yesterday, I’m in the green again! I get one point for guessing in 3 and one point for beating Wordle Bot, who got it in four. That’s a total of 2 points! I’m on a roll this weekend . . . . Huzzah! (See rules below).

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Today’s Wordle Etymology (Via ChatGPT)

The word “scarf” comes from the Old Norse word “skarfr,” which referred to a piece of cloth or a band worn around the neck or head. This word later evolved into the Middle English word “scharf” or “scarf,” which continued to be used to refer to a piece of cloth worn around the neck. Over time, the meaning of the word expanded to include various types of long, narrow pieces of cloth or fabric, such as those used to cover or wrap items, and the word “scarf” took on its modern meaning.

Play Competitive Wordle Against Me!

I’ve been playing a cutthroat game of PvP Wordle against my nemesis Wordle But. Now you should play against me! I can be your nemesis! (And your helpful Wordle guide, of course). You can also play against the Bot if you have a New York Times subscription.

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• Here are the rules:1 point for getting the Wordle in 3 guesses.
• 2 points for getting it in 2 guesses.
• 3 points for getting it in 1 guess.
• 1 point for beating Erik
• 0 points for getting it in 4 guesses.
• -1 point for getting it in 5 guesses.
• -2 points for getting it in 6 guesses.
• -3 points for losing.
• -1 point for losing to Erik

You can either keep a running tally of your score if that’s your jam or just play day-to-day if you prefer.

I’d love it if you gave me a follow on Twitter or Facebook dearest Wordlers. Have a lovely day!

As always, I’d love it if you’d follow me here on this blog and subscribe to my YouTube channel and my Substack so you can stay up-to-date on all my TV, movie and video game reviews and coverage. Thanks!

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