One other recent usage of orate is as the opening word in Wordle, favoured by some of those who like to check out most of the vowels ASAP. E.g. The best Wordle opener is ORATE. (I prefer arise myself.)

ORATE
SULCI
NYMPH

fifteen different letters, covering (last time I calculated) over 83% of the letters used in the words Wordle had used since its beginning.

I'm of two minds regarding orate.

One thought is that I dislike adding common words because it makes attaining a rosette more difficult.

OTOH, reclassifying orate from common to rare has always struck me as a 'dumbing down' of Chihuahua because it seems — at least to me — that it is a word which any 'well read' person should know without having to resort to a dictionary.

Merriam-Webster and the best dictionary in the world,the Macquarie  , allow both spellings.  A small selection of British dictionaries that I consulted did not acknowledge Shoosh.

The best dictionary of the English language is the Oxford English Dictionary!

When I submitted 'shoosh' to the OED, it asked if I meant hoosh, skoosh, sloosh, swoosh, or whoosh. It did not recognise 'shoosh'.

Can’t claim to understand that, but it is impressive.
Lear, Milligan, Carroll or closer to home?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

However, such examples are few and far between, so I think the word should remain rare, unless someone can come up with an offer that might change my mind.

 

Better to be a hasbeen, than a neverwas.

🤣🤣🤣

I grew up in the US Central states (Kansas, Nebraska).  I often heard the phrase "Given my druthers, I'd ..." and I've probably used it on occasion.  I didn't play it because I didn't think it would be common.

My father (grew up in New Jersey) used it. My mother (grew up in Québec and Maryland) did not. Neither my wife nor I use it.

All my missed words I may have got in a lower scoring game, but brain overload set in. And courtesy of the #1 ladies detective agency I kept seeing Gaborone. And I would never consider baronage common! Probably unknown in the US.

I think baronage is well-known in the USA. We may not have them, but we read enough / see enough stories with them! And we have plenty of [robber] barons!