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Front Cover And Publication Information

Word Ways

Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents

Nixon And The Bee, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Ivan held up the short piece of magnetic tape with scepticisim. "You say that this is the missing ten seconds of the notorious Watergate tape?"

Poems In Praise Of English Phonology, Charles F. Hockett

Word Ways

Our language is so very rich
that you can set a part apart
and still have quite enough with which
to sing some sort of song on pitch;
it's too arcane a form of art
for barbs that strike straight to the heart,
but fun -- and certainly not kitsch.
So study carefully this chart,
then turn the page, and I will start.

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.

The Ultimate Adventure (Part 1), Dmitri A. Borgmann

Word Ways

Varied and far-flung are the concerns of logology. The kaleidoscopic diversity of the problems to which recreational linguistics addresses itself are reflected in the pages of each issue of Word Ways.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Way/Words: Etymological Deviance, Dennis M. Welch

Word Ways

The word etymology, taken from the Greek words etumos, meaning "true," and logia, meaning "one who speaks" -- the two words together referring to "the study of the true sense of a word ... according to its origin" (Klein 1966, I, 548) -- has become nearly a doggone lie when applied to English. Because of twistings, turnings, and out-right trickery (Swift was an arch-villain in this regard), it is difficult if not impossible to know "the true sense of a word ... according to its origin," without discovering the actual breeding papers of the particular term and …

From Unillillion To Ultimillillion, Rudolf Ondrejka

Word Ways

In the August 1975 and February 1976 issues of Word Ways, John Candelaria proposed a very large extension of my number nomenclature described in the November 1968 Word Ways. Although I am in general agreement with the principles he has used to extend the number names, I am much bothered by one aspect: the introduction of the repeated milli- prefix each time the log period of the number increases by a factor of 1000.

Primer Time, Ralph G. Beaman

Word Ways

A host of clues makes up this quiz

(Deep myst'ry here for you to ponder);

Each one defines a word, that's sure,

And all together form a wonder.

A pattern clear, arranged in order,

The key, once found, is simon-pure;

Letters three will be a whiz,

But letters two will cut asunder.

More Stately Forms, Palmer C. Peterson

Word Ways

Word Ways readers may recall that I presented in the November 1971 issue a collection of forms (solid crossword puzzles having simple geometrical shapes, such as squares, triangles and rhombuses) in which state names were intertwined with state nicknames. The editor suggested that I might wish to try my hand at a related problem -- the construction of forms having the names of states and their capitals.

Kickshaws, Philip M. Cohen

Word Ways

Kickshaws is being assembled by a series of guest editors during Dave Silverman's sabbatical in 1976. During this year, all contributions and comments should be sent to the editor in Morristown, N.J.

The Word-Surgeon's Compendium, Maxey Brooke, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

For years, logophiles have amused themselves by converting one word to another by various processes. Herein is an effort to bring some degree of order to this brand of wordplay.

Olympic Observations, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

With the staging of the 1976 Olympic Games, we felt that it would be fitting for the word-lover to investigate the Olympic phenomenon.

Another Interlaced Charade, R. Robinson Rowe

Word Ways

I am often intrigued by words within words. Recently, I came across one of 15 letters which can be divided into 5 very common shorter words as indicated: xxxxxx-xx-x-xxx-xxx. Delving deeper, I found it held many more such words -- some forwards nad some backwards. This suggested dissecting it into all of its many parts, hinting at their identifications, and offering it as a bit of recreation for readers to synthesize the parts back to the whole. For that purpose, the 15 letters are numbered in order.

Hard-To-Find Words In Web 3 (N-P), Ralph G. Beaman

Word Ways

A list of hard-to-find words.

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to the publication.

Gird Yourself For Word Girders, Tom Pulliam

Word Ways

Many of the articles in Word Ways were inspired by Dmitri Borgmann's Language on Vacation (Scribner's, 1965); this comprehensive volume of wordplay has stimulated almost every conceivable type of word surgery and dissection by faithful logophiles. One might, in fact, presume that the challenges mothered by this book have been well-nigh exhausted. Not so! On page 159, Dmitri introduced the concept of word girders: two words that are converted to two entirely different words by interchanging every second letter between the words. The following three five-letter examples given in his book should make the transformation perfectly clear.

The Last Word

Word Ways

Recently, Philip Cohen suggested that Word Ways needs a column to clarify editorial policy and to provide background comment on articles published in the issue. I'm not sure that there is enough need for information for this sort to justify a page every month -- but let's give it a try.

President Smith, Where Are You?, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

"Hey, Dad," said my daughter, Louis, "why hasn't there been a President Smith? Isn't Smith the commonest surname in the country?"

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of this issue.

An Olympic Quiz, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Because of the growing worldwide interest in the 1976 Olympic Games, held in Montreal, Canada, we felt it might be an appropriate time to devise an Olympic quiz. Actually, what we have devised is not so much a quiz as a word game. During the past months, we have noticed that the letters of the word olympic can be added to the letters of many other words, and transposed to make a new word. For example, if OLYMPIC is added to GALA, you end up with the scientific term POLYGAMICAL.

Front Cover, Publication Information

Word Ways

Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents

A Man For All Seasons, Betsy Burr

Word Ways

Recently I was showing my daughter Jessica some of the old word-and-number rebuses of my childhood, such as the one given on the right. When I ran out, she begged for more, so I went to the library, where by a lucky chance I happened to find the following passage in an old copy of Caesar's Commentaries, his account of his military exploits in Gaul.

Oulipo, Harry Mathews

Word Ways

The name OuLiPo has already appeared in Word Ways in connection with "L'Egal Franglais," a bilingual vocabulary written for the group which bear that name.

Must You Join The Queue?, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

One of the most enduring pieces of orthographic folklore is the assertion that the letter Q in a word is always followed by the letter U. The staunchest defenders of this rule are unruffled by the counterexample Iraq, for this is a foreign proper name and not a genuine English word; similarly, they quickly dismiss Qantas (an Australian airline) and Qiana (a synthetic fabric) as tradenames designed to attract notice.

Pure Consonant Tetragrams, Maxey Brooke

Word Ways

When asked why he composed his dictionary of trigrams, Ross Eckler replied that it might be useful for crossword puzzle addicts or scrabble fans. Mostly, I think, he did it just for fun. Anyway, that's the only excuse I give for this assemblage of all-consonant tetragrams.

6-By-6 Double Word Squares, M. D. Mcilroy

Word Ways

The November 1975 issue of Word Ways presented a set of 52 7-by-7 word squares that were generated by computer from a list of boldface words from Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Seventh Edition) plus the appendices of boys' and girls' names. This article reports on the results of a similar computer search for 6-by-6 double word squares.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Shakespeare's Lost Palindrome, James Fanning

Word Ways

In the summer of 1973, Miss O. P. Helier, a Yorkshire antiquarian, spent a few happy days rummaging through antiques shops in London. Among the items she unearthed was a small metal box with a label that read: "Ashes from ye gret London fyre, 1666". She bought the box for a few shillings and took it, unopened, home with her. Several months later, Miss Helier opened the box, expecting to nothing more than some bits of charcoal, and was amazed to find a heap of charred paper, evidently pages from a book. The largest of these fragments was no bigger …

An Old Reference, Ramona J. Quincunx

Word Ways

The year 1876 marked the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It was also noted for a logological event of considerable interest, which has languished in obscurity all too long: the publication in London of William R. Cooper's landmark work, An Archaic Dictionary, from the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Etruscan Monuments and Papyri.