Digital Commons Network^™

Minuet (You And I Have Dined), Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

Twenty years ago, Frank B. Gilbreth of the Charleston Evening Post and the News and Courier sent me a copy of Lord Ashley Cooper's Dictionary of Charlestonese as compiled for the latter newspaper for the fust toyme, as they say in that South Carolina city where (I am an Ashley proud to note) the Ashley River meets the Cooper River "to form the Atlantic Ocean". Thereafter I was able to decipher such expressions as "sex in foe is tin" (6+4=10). Maybe you would like to try to use the following words in sentences of your own devising to show you …

Telephomnemonics, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Telephomnemonics, a portmaneau or blend word coined by Dave Silverman in his August 1970 Kickshaws column, can be defined as the choice of letters on the telephone dial to form a word or phrase, as an aid for remembering seven-digit telephone numbers.

Updating Palmer Peterson?, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Palmer Peterson, known to members of the National Puzzlers' League as 'Sherlock Holmes', was the greatest formist of all time. Peterson died in June 1979, and a memorial article to him appeared in the February 1980 Word Ways.

Missing The Point, Richard E. Douglass

Word Ways

As this is being written, Ms. as a non-specific for Miss or Mrs. has not yet penetrated the sacred territory of the most cherished Miss of all -- the Contest Miss. MISS AMERICA, MISS WORLD, MISS UNIVERSE and all other Misses of sport, state, commerce, education, etc. still reign supreme.

Alphabet Stories, Robert Cass Keller

Word Ways

The letters of the alphabet, recited in order, conceal various short stories. The first of these was devised by the novelist and Oulipian Harry Mathews, who cited it in a letter dated April 17, 1976:

Hay, be seedy! He-effigy, hate-shy jaky yellow man, oh peek, you are rusty, you've edible, you ex-wise he!

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.

Czechoslovakian Stutters, Stanislav Tvrdik

Word Ways

In the May 1980 Colloquy, Sam Edelson noted the Haverford College chemistry professor VicTOR TORTORelli, and the editor speculated whether he was inclined toward brINGING IN GINGer snaps for snacks between lectures. No doubt there are other examples in English, but the following article demonstrates that the Czech language is especially rich in such stutters.

Piaster Resistance, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

In "Is a Picture Worth 1000 Words?" in the November 1980 Word Ways, the editor presented a statistical argument that it might be possible to form 1000 words out of the letters of PIASTER. In what follows, I allow words from dictionaries or English-language gazetteers, including not only capitalized and hyphenated words, but also words found as part of multi-word terms. However, I do not allow abbreviations or aconymic nouns (usually all capitalized) like SP or STP in Webster's Third. I first carried out a fairly thorough search of the OED and located the following 717 words.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover, including instructions for authors and subscribers.

Word-Crossed Characters, Harry B. Partridge

Word Ways

It was with great anticipation that I entered Dr. H. K. Wombat's study through the door held open for me by his attractive housekeeper. I found the learned marsupial seated behind his desk, a scalret beret on his head and a recent newspaper in his hand. Glancing at me, he signaled me to sit in the comfortable Louis Quinze fauteuil where he is accustomed to seat his guests. Finishing his reading, he tossed the open paper down, and as it fell open across his desk I could not help noting that the article he had been reading dealt with the …

Triumphal Transposals, Ravenscroft J. Cloudesley

Word Ways

Recent developments in logology compel me to come out of retirement, setting the record straight. Articles and/or Colloquy items in the February 1976, May 1976, and February 1981 issues of Word Ways have presented numerous transposals of 15 or more letters. Most of these transposals have been of the trivial variety, involving interchanges of individual letters or of blocks of letters. Such transposals have the same standing in the realm of transposals that tautonymic 10x10 word squares have in the domain of geometric forms.

Grammarwacky, Judy Tucker

Word Ways

"I feel badly," said Alice as she sat down at the tea table. She explained to the sleepy Dormouse that after falling down the rabbit hole she had landed on her hands -- now all of her fingers were quite numb.

Kickshaws, Philip M. Cohen

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws assembled by a guest editor.

"With Logic Absolute", Merlin X. Houdini Iv

Word Ways

In recent years, many newspapers and other publications have presented irregularly patterned crossword puzzles with a set of somewhat ambiguously worded clues. Provided for each clue are two (or more) possible answer words, usually differing from each other in only one or two letters. The solver's problem is to select the right answer word for each clue, inserting it into the accompanying diagram. Large cash prizes are offered and paid to those who duplicate the puzzle constructor's sometimes erratic line of thinking about the clues, submitting completely correct solutions to the publication featuring the prize puzzles.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Front Cover And Publication Information

Word Ways

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

Abstaining Adolescents, Herbert Swartz

Word Ways

In the Park Avenue office of Dr. M. Tobias Parsimonious, New York's pre-eminent psychiatric practitioner on obsessive verbal compulsions, Mrs. Chauncey Van Snoot sits alone. It is midafternoon. From the examination room, connected to the office by a door next to the windows, where Dr. Parsimonious is examining her twelve-year-old son, Hillary, Mrs. Van Snoot hears muffled voices.

A 4454-Point Scrabble Game, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

In the following solitaire Scrabble game all 100 tiles have been used to amass a score of 4454 points. Letters with an asterisk represent blank tiles.

Ronald Reagan And The Fateful L, Harry B. Partridge

Word Ways

The 1980 presidential race was going to be close, they said -- too close to call. To obtain a logological view of the outcome, I paid a visit in September to my friend Dr. H. K. Wombat, an ologist in everything having to do with words and tongues. The diminutive authority received me in his study, the Marsupium, seated behind a wide desk piled high with Pauly-Wissowa, Du Cange and other arcane volumes. His tiny, sharp eyes belied the bluntness of his face. I knew that he had no mental fur except upon his chin.

Occupational Hazards, Richard E. Douglass

Word Ways

Nobody gets fired anymore. They are now victims of 'involuntary resignations' or 'temporary cutbacks' or 'job classification eliminations' ... or any of a dozen other euphemistic descriptions for summary dismissal.

In the continuing search for newer, softer, more ambiguous terms with which to deliver the final blow to unsatisfactory workers, some industries are digging into their own terminology. Thus a Yellow Pages employee on the way out may be 'declassified', 'unlisted' or 'disconnected'. A deposed nobleman may be 'discounted', 'distributed' or subjected to 'delivery'.

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.

Two Interpreters, John Mcclellan

Word Ways

The old-time interpreters were concerned with the meaning of dreams, as demonstrated by the biblical story of Joseph at Pharaoh's court, or the interpretation of the flights of birds preceding an important battle. Nowadays it is questionable whether 'interpreter' is the proper word for the intermediary between two persons speaking different tongues. Certainly, a VIP experiencing linguistic difficulties wants, primarily, a translator -- he prefers to interpret the verbal exchange himself. If this term is unsatisfactory, 'word-man' is equally so. There would be an immediate outcry from the distaff side, pointing out the great number of female interpreters, and that …

The Transposal Murder Case, Walter Shedlofsky

Word Ways

Police Lieutenant Arthur Jamison glanced at the poem lying before him on the desk. Beside the poem were four photographs. One was that of Ashley Ponce, face resting on the park grass, a bullet hole in his temple. The other three photographs, in the proper context, could be considered incriminating. On the reverse side of each photograph was the name and address of the person being blackmailed.

Gems From Johnson's Dictionary, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

English lexicographers, those "harmless drudges" as Dr. Johnson called them, go all the way back to the English Expositour (1617) and maybe farther, to lists of "hard" words compiled by curious logophiles. But Ursa Major himself is surely the dean of all dictionary-makers. Here are some of Dr. Johnson's own definitions. His famous definition of network as "any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections" at least is intellibible to those who know some Latin ("I do not love Latin originals" he said under ferry, but his sesquipedalian vocabulary often denies this), but see …

Stating My Case, Philip M. Cohen

Word Ways

'Mejnour Zanoni' has done some fine work on interesting state names in "The Assault on Logology" in the November 1980 Word Ways; my favorites among his examples are ID IN IA NY OR SD WA WI. It is, however, regrettable that he felt the need to preface his listing with a page and a half of useless invective; this article contains my reply to a few of his points.

Se Doefel Daner, Maxey Brooke

Word Ways

When the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded England during the fifth century, they wiped out the native Celts both physically and linguistically. Except for place-names, only a half-dozen or so Celtic words entered Old English. By the ninth century, with the Celts all but exterminated, the Anglo-Saxons settled down to enjoy the good English life.

Kickshaws, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws assembled by a guest editor.

A Case Of Mistaken Antonymy, Douglas J. Herrmann, Roger J. S. Chaffin

Word Ways

Antonyms are two words that are opposed on a dimension of denotative meaning. Unlike the concept of synonymity, which dates back to Aristotle, the concept of antonymy is of recent origin -- the Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms dates the first use of the term to 1867. Since the term was coined, people have accepted the concept and have felt quite capable of recognizing or generating antonyms. However, little thought has been given to opposites which resemble antonymy but are clearly not antonyms. These words, called pseudoantonyms, appear to be antonyms at first glance but closer inspection shows that they …

Lying In Wait, Frank Rubin

Word Ways

Many years ago, a friend challenged me to name an adjective, as opposed to an adverb, ending in LY. I do not recall if I succeeded, but the problem remained in my subconscious, and has surfaced at irregular intervals ever since. Occasionally I would sit down and mentally compose a list of ten or fifteen such words, each time trying to surpass my last effort.