X is for Xyst: A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018

Honestly, I had to check out X-words. I'm on vacation from anything medical this week and I don't play any instruments, so that exhausted my x-ray and xylophone words, leaving the only other X-word I'm familiar with:  xi.

I play xi in Words With Friends anytime I can.  Especially when it lines up with extra word count.  Other than it's a Greek letter I haven't got a clue what it is, so writting a blog post about it is out.

Xyst on the other hand has more word count in WWF.  Besides it has a couple definitions and is a word I can easily pronounce--when I remember the correct pronunciation.

Reading xyst I initially pronounce it zeye-st. Every time. And every time I'm wrong.

It's actually pronounced zist (rhymes with list). Easy-peasy.

According to Collins English Dictionary, a xyst is a long portico.  I already knew a portico was a porch with support columns. But the next part of the definition was news to me--the xyst were used in ancient Greece for athletic events.  No wonder I hadn't a clue--I adamantly avoid anything remotely associated with making me sweat...err...glow.

The good news is, Collins reports a second meaning for xyst (rhymes with list--my reminder to myself).  This definition is much more acceptable to my inner  Southern Belle.  It seems  in ancient Rome, a xyst (rhymes with list) was a covered garden walk--or at least one lined with trees.

Of course, in the south,  tree-lined pathways, gardens, and even streets are in fact covered--especially when the trees are spaced close enough to grow together and form a living canopy. Think of the scene from Forrest Gump, where he's running down that long tree-lined driveway.

So there you have it--xyst, rhymes with list, is a long covered path, which has the capacity for upping your Scrable or Words With Friends word count.  All without making you sweat...errr...glow.