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Varieties Of Balanced Words, Part 2, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

2. Numerical Tautonyms

This is the second of three parts of an article dealing with varieties of "balanced" words. Numerical tautonyms are words which may be divided into groups of letters, each group having the same number of letters, and where the sums of the numerical values (A=1, B=2, etc.) of the letters in each group are the same.

F. P. Ramsey, Meet Scrubwoman Edith, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

F. P. Ramsey (1903-1930) was a philosopher, logician, and mathematician who died young after an ill-fated operation. He was a product of England's Cambridge University when both Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein were there.

Statistics Of Word Neighbours, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

The word reported here was undertaken during preparation of an article on Word Ladders: I felt in need of some facts to direct my efforts, and to clarify some remarks others had made. This article presents the frequency of occurrence of some types of words, and compares this to a "theoretical" frequency. The theoretical frequencies are based upon very simple assumptions. Nevertheless in some cases the predictions are quite good: in other cases I seek to find why the predictions are poor.

Poegematry, Michael Helsem

Word Ways

Poetry & Gematria remain at an uneasy distance, not quite speaking not quite ignoring each other. One flourishes in exile, slipshod & ever prouding [a coinage from Ken's Saro-Wiwa's novel Sozaboy, published in 1988 by Longmann]; the other dwells among qabbalistic catacombs & cranks.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 30 Issue 4

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Editorial

Word Ways

As it completes its thirtieth year of publication -- long than most cottage - industry magazines -- Word Ways faces a crisis. Post office regulations require at least 200 paid subscriptions in order to qualify for a second-class mailing permit.

Alpha(Betic) To Omega, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

Angry Archfiend, arched, aggressive as an ax attack,

Blather-brazen Beast Belial bashes, batters back

Compassion's courage ... Careless, coreless, cold! calumniates

Divity's Dread dreadless!

Palimericks, James Puder

Word Ways

Limericks and palindromes both being popular forms of linguistic recreation, it occurred to me to wonder whether the two could be salutarily combined. Is it possible to compose a decent limerick which is also an end-to-end palindrome? And if so, is it worth the trouble?

Ana Gram, The Juggler, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Come one! Come all! The unparalleled, incomparable, sensational Word Circus is in town! Hurry! Hurry! Scurry! to the Greatest Show on Earth, where words come out of the wordwork. Laugh at our lexcellent tour de farces! Thrill as letters fly through the air with the greatest of E's. Gasp as you become the Wizard of Ahs and A Lass in Wonderland.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Long Words In The Oed, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

"What's the longest word in the dictionary?"

"You mean -- the longest English word."

"Yeah."

"Well, that depends which dictionary you go for. Bigger dictionaries have more words in them, and smaller dictionaries have fewer words in them. There's more chance of bigger dictionaries having longer words. You takes your choice."

Anguish Languish, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Willard Espy writes in his 1980 book Another Almanac of Words at Play (Feb 12): "Anguish Languish, popularized by the late Howard L. Chance, is a form of punning in which words overlap to give an impression of other words, as clouds assume forms according to the fancy of the observer."

Geometrical Words: Part 2, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

Part 1 of Geormetrical Words looked at words whose letters can be arranged to make a triangle or a set of triangles. Part 2 looks at words whose letters can be arranged to make other geometrical shapes. As with triangles, the letters along the edge of these shapes may form edge words (MET, HER and SON below).

Wysi Not Wyg, Mary Christine Craig

Word Ways

There must be a logological name for word definitions composed according to the way the words sound (and perhas getting close to the actual meaning of them), but I can't come up with it. What you see is not what you get!

Kickshaws, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Presidential Letter Shifts, Monte J. Zerger

Word Ways

The next presidential shift will occur in the year of Arthur C. Clarke's classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The letters in the name of the rogue computer, HAL, can be shifted forward one letter in the alphabet to produce IBM: HAL(1)IBM. This is probably the most widely celebrated case of alleged letter shifting, although Clarke denies any intentionality. Rivaling this is notoriety is the shifting of FBI by six letters to obtain LHO, the initials of Lee Harvey Oswald, something numerologists love to link with the sixth floor from which the shooting took place: F BI(6)LHO.

The Oed Misinterpreted, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Back in 1965, Dmitri Borgmann pronounced that PREDETERMINIST was not the kind of word that you could find in a dictionary (see p 87 of Language on Vocation).

Yet More Murderous Wordplay, Peter Newby

Word Ways

William Marwood was the principal hangman of the United Kingdom during the years 1874-83. Such was his fame that a contemporarty children's riddle went as follows.

Glossery, Nyr Indictor

Word Ways

What do the following two alphabets have in common?

Holy Mackerel, Mr. Rice!, Robert C. Layton

Word Ways

I'm not SHERBET the following story is reported to be true. You don't have to swallow it but it comes form one who knows her ONIONS, and is not prone to FUDGing. Some say she's full of BOLOGNA but the proof is in the PUDDING. At least LETTUCE keep an open mind as we explore her tale!

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Four Universal-Recipient Words, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

In "The Suet Alphabet", Nyr Indictor noted that one can add each letter of the alphabet (except for Z) to SUET and rearrange to form new words. Finding such universal-recipient words is a time-consuming challenge but not a mission impossible. In the four examples below, all words are OED except ROEX's.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 30 Issue 3

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Robin's Gazette-Free Lipogram, Howard Richler

Word Ways

Lipograms are defined by Webster's Third New International Dictionary as "a writing not having a certain letter" but this definition is not satisfactory. In short passages it is not uncommon for some of the less common letters of the alphabet, such as X and Z, not to appear. Also, by common convention the letter or letters that do not appear are supposed to be common letters for the passage to be considered a lipogram.

Kickshaws, Dave Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Self-Descriptive Euler Magic Squares, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

In the November 1996 Word Ways, I introduced the Euler square (almost known as a Graeco-Latin square), which is by its method of construction automatically magic. All rows and columns add up to a common sum since they merely consists of rearrangements of the same basic components.

Some New -Gry Words, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Previous issues of Word Ways have made much of words ending in the three letters -GRY. The subject has occurred several times over the years, but the fullest lists of -GRY words appeared in the November 1989 and February 1990 articles by George Scheetz and Murray Pearce, respectively. The exact number of -GRY words therein is unclear, but it's probably at least eighty. Uncertainty arises depending on whether "gry" and "Gry" are counted as one or two words, and so on.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

A Mess Essay, Mama Mia!, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Scarfin; Fatback challenges me to half-alphabetize Frost's Stopping by Woods, first boasting victory and second conceding defeat. This is not difficult to do; I show the possibilities with a single stanza apiece.