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Jan 9, 2004 This week's theme Earls who became words (or places that became words) This week's words orrery cadogan Oxfordian derby yarborough The gift of words Send a gift subscription In less than a minute! Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg yarborough Yarborough (YAHR-bur-o) noun In a card game, a hand in which no card is above a nine. [After Charles Anderson Worsley, 2nd Earl of Yarborough (1809-1897), who is said to have bet 1,000 to 1 against the occurrence of such a hand.] "Many players know the odds against holding a Yarborough -- a hand with no card above a nine -- are 1827 to 1. But though today's deal arose in Reno at the ACBL's Spring Championships, I doubt anyone could have quoted the odds against it: South and East both had Yarboroughs!" Frank Stewart; On Bridge; Buffalo News (New York); Sep 30, 1998. "You pass in sleep still wondering what the real odds for a Yarborough are and West raises to four spades." Peter Gibbs; Chess; Birmingham Post (UK); Aug 25, 2001. X-Bonus Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing; / Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; / So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, / Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)

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