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Dutch Palindromes, George J. Levenbach
Dutch Palindromes, George J. Levenbach
Word Ways
This is a translation of an article by G. van Buren entitled "Nepapen" (fake monkeys) published in the June 30, 1979 NRC Handelsblad. H. B. Corstius of Amsterdam sent it to Martin Gardner, who passed it on to Word Ways. In the translation, palindromes (and reversals as well) are given in Dutch and emphasized with capital letters; the parenthetical remarks following have been added to aid the understanding of the non-Dutch reader. Many of the palindromes are made-up words, much in the spirit of Dmitri Borgmann's "The Evolution of a Palindrome" in the February 1970 Word Ways.
A College-Level Course In Logology, Paul Zaslow
A College-Level Course In Logology, Paul Zaslow
Word Ways
The February 1978 issue of Word Ways asked readers for information on recreational linguistics courses taught in college, secondary school, night school or the like. In the spring term of 1978, when I was a junior at the University of Massachusetts, I taught a one-credit colloquium entitled "Recreational Logology". In the fall term of 1978, I taught a three-credit course entitled "An Introduction to Recreational Logology" to 15 freshmen and sophomores, 13 of whom completed it. This met for three hours on Thursday evenings for 13 weeks from September to December, and covered the following topics.
Wordy Word Pickers, Helen Gunn
Wordy Word Pickers, Helen Gunn
Word Ways
Rebuses come in several varieties, the two most popular being positional ones (as in SYMPH = unfinished symphony) or pictorial ones (in which an eye represents 'I', or a bee and 4 the word 'before'). The following rebus quiz, employing both kinds, is based on a word game my children and I play via mail. The editor has added a number of rebuses sent in by other readers: George Grieshaber (from the Chronicle of Higher Education) and Maxey Brooke (from the Houston Post).
Palindromes: The Rotas Square, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Palindromes: The Rotas Square, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
In 1868 a painted fragment of wall plaster was taken from the dirt of a Roman villa under excavation near Victoria Road, county Gloucester, of south-central England. Its removal was attended by a Captain Abbott, then curator of the Cirencester Museum nearby. Scratched into the ochre surface of the unearthed plaster was the following palindrome, arranged in the form of a magic square.
Drink To Me Only With These Words..., James I. Rambo
Drink To Me Only With These Words..., James I. Rambo
Word Ways
The following verse continues the tradition of my "Anagramantics" in the February 1976 Word Ways and "Two Cautionary Tales" in the August 1978 issue; each line rearranges the letters of the title in a different way.
Everlasting Rearranements, Harry B. Partridge
Everlasting Rearranements, Harry B. Partridge
Word Ways
Except for occasional pieces in "The Poet's Corner", Walter Shedlofsky has been absent from the pages of Word Ways for nearly six years; I welcome his return with "Rearrangement: The Hidden Meaning" in the August 1979 Word Ways. This article is a response to his closing challenge there: "What rearrangements can you derive from EVERLASTING or IN VINO VERITAS, and what vehicles can you create to illustrate the correlations you find?"
Put In Some More Good Words, Charles W. Bostick
Put In Some More Good Words, Charles W. Bostick
Word Ways
This is the second of a pair of articles which invites the reader to use his deductive abilities on lists of words; the first article appeared in the August 1979 Word Ways. His task is first to find a common property that the 24 words in a list share, and second to insert the word at the head of this list (given in capital letters) into its proper place within the list.
Shakespearean Crosswords, Brian Head
Shakespearean Crosswords, Brian Head
Word Ways
It is fairly well known that, according to the generally accepted history of the puzzles, crosswords were first created in the USA in 1913 and crossed the Atlantic to Great Britain some eleven years later. In fact, a study of much of literature shows this to be false, and reveals innumerable earlier references to crosswords. The works of William Shakespeare provide a particularly rich source of such allusions.
Quotable Quotes, Darryl Francis
Quotable Quotes, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
In my library I have several volumes of collected quotations, both familiar and unfamiliar. I recently decided to dig up some quotations that might be of interest to readers of Word Ways -- quotations about words, language, speech, dictionaries and so on. Forty of the quotations are given in this article. Savor them, think about them; do you agree with each quotation? or disagree? Some of the quotations seem to be contradicted by others -- for example, look at the first two in the list below. However, such contradictions should only serve to make the quotations more enjoyable.
Back Cover
Word Ways
Back cover of the issue, including instructions to authors wishing to contribute.
Front Cover And Publication Information
Front Cover And Publication Information
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
Higher-Scoring Scrabble, Jeff Grant
Higher-Scoring Scrabble, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
The highest single-move Scrabble scores have utilized the word BENZOXYCAMPHORS, and it seems unlikely much improvement will be made without a new base-word. In the February 1974 Word Ways there appears a 2037-point solution devised by Josefa Heifetz, which uses the term SESQUIOXIDIZING. Unfortunately this word does not appear in any dictionary, and no one has been able to find a substantive citation in another reference. However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists 'sesquioxidized' as a past participle, which surely implies the existence of a verb 'sesquioxidize'.
Colloquy
Word Ways
Webster's Dictionary defines colloquy as mutual discourse. Readers are encouraged to submit additions, corrections and comments about earlier articles appearing in Word Ways. Comments received up to a month prior to publication of an issue will appear in that issue.
Reed Bell / Rebelled, Tom Pulliam
Reed Bell / Rebelled, Tom Pulliam
Word Ways
The zealous logophiles who follow the Word Ways banner are known to be very susceptible to following a different drummer. While pursuing an elusive word through the dictionary, our interest is often detoured into areas completely foreign to the original search. Let's face it -- none of us is completely immune to this!
Ahoy, Maxey Brooke
Ahoy, Maxey Brooke
Word Ways
I was browsing through the dictionary display at the local bookstore. They were featuring the Random House Unabridged. I judge a dictionary by the way it handles etymology. Don't ask me why I decided to check the derivation of HELLO. Perhaps the book was open at that page.
Onomasticon Iii, George H. Scheetz
Onomasticon Iii, George H. Scheetz
Word Ways
In his November 1978 article, "Logopoeia," Philip M. Cohen defines his title word as "a coined word meaning 'word-coinging.'" This definition does not do an established word justice. Logopoeia was defined by Ezar Pound -- who may have coined it -- in ABC of Reading (1934); and while "logopoeia" is literally "making of words," Pound gives the word a much richer definition. The accepted meaning of this and most (all?) other -poeia words (from the Greek poiein, to make) are in the following onomasticon. Perhaps this should have been subtitled Much Ado About 'Making'!
Kickshaws, Philip M. Cohen
Alphabetic Letter-Shifts, A. Ross Eckler
Alphabetic Letter-Shifts, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
It has been known for at least fifteen years that certain words can be translated into other words by shifting each letter the same number of steps along the alphabet -- thus, the letters of CHEER shifted forward seven steps to yield JOLLY, and the letters IRK shifted thirteen steps, VEX. Strangely, a little logological research has been done in this area; this article attempts to show what can be done by hand, and how much more might be accomplished by digital computer.
Giant Synonym Squares, Edward R. Wolpow
Giant Synonym Squares, Edward R. Wolpow
Word Ways
In "Synonym Squares" in the August 1979 Word Ways, Tom Pulliam gave examples using Websterian words of four to eight letters in length. If one goes beyond Webster, it is possible to build squares that are considerably larger. The first synonym square exhibits twelve words or phrases pertaining to NEUROANATOMY; nine are in Webster's, and the other three are in standard medical references. The second synonym square exhibits fourteen generic names for drugs in current use; all are major headings in the Generic and Chemical Name Index of the Physician's Desk Reference. The word Pharmaceutical can be found reading downward …
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.
Front Cover And Publication Information
Front Cover And Publication Information
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information of this issue.
High-Scoring Scrabble, Jeff Grant
High-Scoring Scrabble, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
In the November 1974 issue of Word Ways, Ralph Beaman presented a theoretical Scrabble game in which the players cooperate to amass a remarkable 4142 points. By extensive modifications to this solution, I have been able to achieve a total of 4207 points, using only 99 tiles, as in a legal game. Letters with an asterisk represent blank tiles.
Aisle, Altar, Hymn, Frederick Landers
Aisle, Altar, Hymn, Frederick Landers
Word Ways
I was sick and tired of going to church. The people there spoke nonsense. "God loves olive you," they said. And "Lettuce spray". I was especially annoyed by the priests who interpreted passages from the Bible and tried to make the congregation "buy bull".
Synonym Squares, Tom Pulliam
Synonym Squares, Tom Pulliam
Word Ways
Synonym Squares is a solitaire variation of the well-known word game of Guggenheim or Categories. From the Second or Third Edition of the Merriam-Webster New International Dictionary, select a word fully spelled out in boldface type (nothing inferred) which shall be known as the base-word. Collect from the same dictionary all possible synonyms of the base-word that specify it in the definition, or specific examples of the same class as the base-word. From these accumulated synonyms, extract those having the same letter-length as the base-word. Arrange examples of your selection one above another, vertically, in such a manner that a …
Colloquy
Word Ways
Webster's Dictionary defines colloquy as mutual discourse. Readers are encouraged to submit additions, corrections, and comments about earlier articles appearing in Word Ways. Comments received up to a month prior to publication of an issue will appear in that issue.
Uneasy Companions, John Mcclellan
Uneasy Companions, John Mcclellan
Word Ways
We may as well say straight out that this article deals with an unfortunate juxtaposition of two phrases in many of our dictionaries: Camp Fire Girl and Camp Follower. We have put considerable thought on the wisdom of writing this piece, for the subject of Camp Followers may be somewhat taboo in certain quarters, if not actually X-rated. But the fact remains: Camp Follower does follow Camp Fire Girl in a number of dictionaries, and in the ones in which it does not, another questionable phrase may be inserted which does little to help the matter.
Words Formed By Radio Call Letters, Robert A. Palermo
Words Formed By Radio Call Letters, Robert A. Palermo
Word Ways
Call letters are assigned to AM radio stations by the Federal Communications Commission: four letters beginning with W in the eastern US, four letters beginning with K in the western US. (In the early days of radio, three letters were also assigned, and a few radio stations of this kind can still be found.) it is interesting to ask whether or not AM radio station owners have a preference for call letters which form common English words. According to the 1979 Broadcasting Yearbook, an industry source on broadcasting data put out by Broadcasting Publications, Inc. of Washington, D. C., there …
Red, White And Blue, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Red, White And Blue, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
Have you noticed how often red, white, and blue turn up in slang and common expressions? Communists are red (so we get red scare, etc.). We have red tape, roll out the red carpet, refer to some people as rednecks. We have the white line, and have old expressions like "that's white of you" and new ones like white-out. We get the blues, appoint blue ribbon panels, even even see blue movies. How many of the following can you define? Answers are in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.
Word Ways Challenges (Part 3), Philip M. Cohen, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways Challenges (Part 3), Philip M. Cohen, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
For an introduction to this series of articles classifying and summarizing unsolved logological problems in Word Ways, see the February 1979 Word Ways.
Rearrangement: The Hidden Meaning, Walter Shedlofsky
Rearrangement: The Hidden Meaning, Walter Shedlofsky
Word Ways
During the ten years I have subscribed to Word Ways, I have been amazed at the emphasis placed on the mechanics of wordplay: words have been transposed to form other words, words have been formed around letters placed in strategic positions, and similar achievements.