Today’s Wordle #861 Hints, Clues And Answer For Saturday, October 28th

It’s the weekend! Huzzah! The very last weekend of October. I finally got my Halloween decorations up, just in the nick of time. I’ll have to leave them up a while after the holiday because it’s silly to go to all the trouble just to box it all up again. Then it’s Thanksgiving and down come the Christmas decorations. I do love all these holidays, though, so it’s no trouble.

I don’t think I’ll dress up for Halloween this year, though I could change my mind about that. We shall see. My go-to Halloween costume lately has been lumberjack, which is both the mascot of the local university and super easy since I have flannel shirts and all the other trappings of your typical burly, bearded lumberjack. It also has the added benefit of being quite warm as far as costumes go, and I usually have an axe handy to chop wood for the fire I light in my driveway each year to wait for the trick-or-treaters.

What are you doing for Halloween, dearest Wordlers? Other than Wordling of course! Speaking of which . . . let’s do this Wordle!

How To Solve Today’s Word

The Hint: In the second book on this list, the character Tom Builder had this profession. It is also a secret society.

The Clue: This word begins with a consonant.

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See yesterday’s Wordle #860 right here.

Wordle Bot Analysis

After each Wordle I solve I head over to the Wordle Bot homepage to see how my guessing game was.

I thought of irony today because I was reading the second book in the third selection on this same list of books I linked to above and read the word and thought “That would make a good opening guess for Wordle!” Sure enough, it left me with two yellow boxes and only 66 remaining solutions.

I went for all new letters after that, guessing the Wordle Bot’s favorite opener, slate, which gave me four yellow boxes and, I soon deduced, just one possible solution: mason for the win!

Today’s Score

I get 1 point for guessing in three and 0 for tying the Bot. I’ll take it! Huzzah!

Today’s Wordle Etymology

The word “mason” has its roots in the Old French and Medieval Latin languages:

1. Old French: The term “mason” derives from the Old French word “maçon” which means “builder of walls” or “stone worker.”
2. Medieval Latin: The Old French term “maçon” itself has its origins in the Medieval Latin word “macio” or “macionem,” which also pertains to the building trade.
3. Further back: It’s believed that the Medieval Latin term might have been influenced by “maceria,” which means “wall” in Latin.

The term “mason” came to be used in English in the context of a worker skilled in building with stone or brick. Over time, it also came to be associated with the fraternal organization of Freemasonry, but that’s a separate evolution of the term in terms of its cultural and symbolic meanings.

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.

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 me
• 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 me

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