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Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 45, Number 4

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue, including a table of contents

Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Anagram dictionaries come in two versions, a reduced one consisting only of words containing anagrams (SLEUTH and HUSTLE), and a full one consisting of the conversion of each word in a list to its alphabetic ordering (ESCORT to CEORST), followed by the alphabetic ordering of the converted words.

The Ladies' Diary, 18th Century English Almanacs, And One Frustrating Enigma, Ronnie B. Kon

Word Ways

In the November 2011 Word Ways, Jim Puder points out that the solution I found in the 1783 Ladies' Diary for Eliza Hurst's riddle ("an oven") could not be correct-not only did it make no sense in the context, but the number of answers given did not correspond to the number of questions asked in the 1782 Ladies' Diary. Jim is absolutely correct.

Happily, the correct answer has now been found, but in the process I learned a fair amount about 18th century British almanacs, some of which strikes me as being worth sharing.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Kickshaws, David L. Silverman

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Wacky Words And Steiner Systems, Simon Norton

Word Ways

I suspect that many readers will have noticed that all the vowels (including Y) occur at odd positions in the alphabet (let's call them odd letters). This led me to think of the set of words using only odd letters.

Numerical Rhymes, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

The end of the word CONTRAVENE rhymes with the end of "ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN" (117). The alphabetical total (a=1, b=2 etc) of CONTRAVENE is 117. That is the Numerical Rhymes game! I start off with numbers ending in "1". The "seventies" ...37, 47, 57, etc. were the least friendly, producing no well-known words. The relevant words are given in upper case.

Mapping Mercator, Walt Quader

Word Ways

I had finished my work for the day and had an idle afternoon ahead. So I said to my computer, "Darwin, let's play with 'Mercator' in a word way. Mercator was born 500 years ago."

Anagram Quiz 8, . Anil

Word Ways

A Quiz.

Further Transposals From The Dictionary Of American Regional English, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In the November 2010 issue of Word Ways, I offered 100 transposals from the Dictionary of American Regional English (volumes I-IV, covering the letters A-Sk). Examples included: ambleshoo / smoothable, clearstone / tolerances, gallinapper / apparelling, presmuterian / serpantarium, and sidegodlin / disloigned.

Eggshells-1, Steve Kahan

Word Ways

An eggshell is what remains when two different pairs of identical consonants are removed from a word. Consequently, E S H E is an eggshell which results from the exclusion of two "G"s and two "E"s from the word EGGSHELL.

Eye Spoonerisms, . Anil

Word Ways

Spoonerisms by definition swap sounds, but when written they are often ANAGRAMS that also swap letters, like Spooner's alleged "a wining shit" for "a shining wit". EYE SPOONERIMS are word pairs that swap letters and look like Anagram Spooners but don't swap sounds.

Palindromes From Perth, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

In July this year my wife Pat and I traveled to Perth in Western Australia (WA) to spend a fortnight with our daughter and her husband. While there, I jotted down a few short palindromes, some more fanciful than others.

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

A Poem, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

A short poem.

When The Name And The Game Are The Same, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

At the 2012 London Olympics, Usain Bolt, the jet-propelled Jamaican dash man, retained his title to as the fastest man ever to sprint upon our planet. The surname BOLT is wonderfully spot on and target perfect for a human flash, the electrifying holder of world records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

Number Names With A Snowball Letter Distribution, Eric Harshbarger, Mike Keith

Word Ways

The spelling out of numbers in English words is a frequently studied topic by logologists. For example, it has long been known that the numbers 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 40, 46, 60, 61, 64, 80, 84, and 5000 are the only ones whose written-out names are heterograms (no letter of the alphabet occurs more than once).

Ain't Ain't The Same No More, Glenn G. Dahlem

Word Ways

In a recent conversation with a British friend, he and I reflected on evolution of various English words. Both history and geography are factors in changing word definitions, we decided. For example, in England, the word "dame" means a distinguished lady, while in America, it's come to more or less mean any woman. Our conversation drifted to changes in respectability or grammatical correctness of given words. That topic leads to the inevitable--"ain't."

The Protean Pastern, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Scientifically, a PASTERN is the part of the horse's foot between the fetlock and the top of the hoof. In his influential Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson famously misdefined the word as "the knee of the horse." When a woman asked Dr. J to explain why he had botched the definition, he replied, "Ignorance, Madam. Pure ignorance."

The Magic Asteroid, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

A game.

Self-Contained Words, Solomon W. Golomb

Word Ways

How empty is the word empty? Since it contains MT, pronounced 'empty" (in the form of eMpTy), it is "self contained", so empty may not be empty after all.

"Get Out Of Your Cave And Smell The Coffee!" Many More Mixed Metaphors And Malaphors, Dan Hauptman

Word Ways

Not long ago, I volunteered to help a worthy cause as a consultant, pro bono. But the experience proved disappointing and frustrating. The panjandrums ignored or rejected my advice. Relating the sad tale to my friend, I griped: "They're turning me away even though I'm offering them gold on a silver platter!"

A Description Of Ternate Malay, Betty Litamahuputty

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Ternate Malay is a local variety of Malay in Ternate, a small island in the Maluku Utara province in eastern Indonesia. The majority of speakers live in Ternate town, where it serves as mother tongue as well as a means of communication between people of various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. In the last few decades there is a growing scholarly interest in local Malay varieties, particularly in the eastern part of Indonesia. This article is a short description of Ternate Malay based on the idea that words in Ternate Malay receive their meaning in the combination with other words and …

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 45, Number 3

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Careless Feet, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

A poem

Non-Standard Conjugations, Andy Liu

Word Ways

No abstract available

Two Palindrome Recreations, Jim Puder

Word Ways

As anyone who has ever sincerely tried, yet failed ignominiously, to read all the way through someone else's long list of sentence palindromes has reason to know, the real fun in palindromes lies mainly in their making, not in their reading. Two of the more structured ways of enjoying palindrome composition involve the application of a systematic subject constraint to this already much constrained form. In one, one selects some limited set of related words, such as the names of the U.S. States or presidents, and attempts to use as many as possible in short palindromic passages. In the other, …

Accidental Ouroboros Word Worms In Running Text, Mike Keith

Word Ways

The word worm was introduced to readers of Word Ways by Ross Eckler in an article of the same name in the August 2003 issue (p.13). Word worms are based on the three-dimensional lattice of integer-valued points.

A Magic Tour Of Europe, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

The map depicts a reasonably good picture of seven European countries and their connection by six numbered air routes. With the magician's back turned the subject starts in any country and begins his tour by calling out in sequence the numbers of his flights. When he completes his tour to his satisfaction he announces his ending country. The magician can immediately name his starting country and the direct route to return to it.