Racine: Word Roots

Racine is a daily word game. A word is hidden. You know its first letter and its length, and the game has already played one word for you. From there, play any word you like: Racine tells you how close it is in meaning, on a scale of 0 to 100, and whether it descends from the same Latin or Greek root as the hidden word. The two readings disagree, and that's the game. A word can score 93 in meaning without lighting the root gauge. Another, at 20, lights it and tells you which family you're hunting in. From then on you're no longer looking for "something that means roughly this" but for "the member of the MANUS family that means this". When you find the word, or when you give up, Racine tells you where it came from. Mansuetude comes from mansuetus, tamed: the gentleness of an animal that accepts the hand. One word a day, in English or in French Two readings for every guess: closeness in…