Easily amused Seattle Plastic surgeon shares a cool surgery word.
I just finished taking my annual OSHA test online (I scored 100% !) and came across this example of doffing gloves. Surgeons use some pretty weird words and the words for putting gloves on and taking them off are don and doff respectively. Why do I share this information?
The reason I share don and doff is that few people have heard the word doff and it could potentially be useful in a savage, down to the single digits game of Scrabble. Imagine this. You’re down to your last two letters: d and f. If you can play them both and go out first, you’ll win by a few points. If you can play only one letter, your opponent will go out first and you will lose and will have to put up with his gloating for the next week since you are married to said opponent. You survey the board and yes, yes, there is: an “of” sitting right there with room on either side. You play “doff” and win.
Or better yet; your over-confident, English PhD (but doff-naive) opponent challenges you thinking that you are bluffing with a non-word. The dictionary is consulted and yes, yes, yes, it is there and you not only win but the over-confident opponent is humiliated by his linguistic ignorance. And you are the one who gets to gloat for a week. As you may have guessed, this is one of my many Scrabble fantasies.
Thanks for reading and remember; tonight when you take off your clothes to go to bed, you are doffing your clothes and donning (or not) your jammies and may you have sweet dreams of winning your next game of Scrabble. Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder
@lisalynnsowder
