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The Terminal Man, A. Ross Eckler Aug 1974

The Terminal Man, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

They typical unabridged dictionary contains approximately 350,000 words: if inferred forms (for example, adding -S to nouns and -ED or -ING to verbs) are added, the total stockpile of English words and phrases probably exceeds 500,000. Large as this number is, it is easily topped by a less-well-known stockpile of words: the surnames of United States residents. As of June 1, 1964, there were nearly 1,100,000 different surnames for which Social Security cards had been issued since the program began 28 years earlier.

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Unusual, Obscure And Preposterous, Ralph G. Beaman Aug 1974

Unusual, Obscure And Preposterous, Ralph G. Beaman

Word Ways

The recent publication of Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary (reviewed elsewhere in this issue) prompts me to ask if readers of Word Ways really know their unusual, obscure and preposterous words. Below are 21 subjects and three columns of words. For each subject, find a word from each column that goes with it. For example, under BLIND (No. 2) one should select abacinate (17), chionablepsia (5) and exoculate (1). This is abbreviated as 2: 17-5-1. That leaves 20 combinations for you to match. Score yourself 5 for each correct group. A score of 70 or less (see Answers and Solutions) suggests you …

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Instructions To Authors Aug 1974

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors interested in contributing to the publication.

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Answers And Solutions Aug 1974

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

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Vowel Tetragrams, Darryl Francis Aug 1974

Vowel Tetragrams, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

We were recently fortunate enough to come by an extensive listing of tetragrams existing in the Second Edition of Webster's New International Dictionary. The listing is a straight computer printout of the tetragrams involved -- no attempt whatsoever has been made to link words with the tetragrams. So, given that a certain tetragram is included in the listing, one has to either rack one's brains to think of a corresponding word, or search Webster's Second carefully.

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The Big Challenge, David L. Silverman Aug 1974

The Big Challenge, David L. Silverman

Word Ways

In the November 1974 Kickshaws, we challenged Word Ways readers to select ten different letters from the alphabet so as to maximize the number of five-five letter-splits that could be anagrammed into words. We were careful not to specify rigid rules -- we dislike the Procrustean nature of most puzzle contests with cash awards, and we think that anyone willing to tackle this arduous research ought to have the privilege of determining xes own acceptable and unacceptable words. In the February Kickshaws, we suggested a simple weighting scheme designed to force readers to use common words whenever possible, and lightheartedly …

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Colloquy Aug 1974

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.

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Front Cover, Publication Information May 1974

Front Cover, Publication Information

Word Ways

Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents

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Surrealistic Art Objects, Paul Remley May 1974

Surrealistic Art Objects, Paul Remley

Word Ways

Palindromic poems, by nature, are suggestive. I am not referring to debase dung, nudes abed, or the other exotic bits of imagery that conveniently lend themselves to palindromization. Palindromic poems are self-suggestive. Every word added onto or inserted into a palindromic poem suggests other words in reverse, and these words, when assimilated into the palindrome, suggest additional words. As long as some of these suggested words are acceptable to the construct-long as some of these suggested words are acceptable to the constructor, the cycle can repeat indefinitely, producing a palindrome of considerable length.

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Syzygy, Dmitri A. Borgmann May 1974

Syzygy, Dmitri A. Borgmann

Word Ways

Word buffs have long known that a remarkable several-syllable word written without any of the five basic vowels (A, E, I, O, U) is the word SYZYGY. No one knows why this particular word should have been singled out for attention. It certainly is not the longest such word: longer examples include, but are not limited to, GYPSYFY, GYPSYRY, and SYMPHYSY. Yet, the fact remains that no one ever heard of these longer words, but everyone knows about SYZYGY.

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A Plurality Of Singular Verse, Willard R. Espy May 1974

A Plurality Of Singular Verse, Willard R. Espy

Word Ways

In the November 1973 Word Ways, Will Shortz quoted George Canning's famous eighteenth-century conundrum involving the words cares and caress. There are many other words exhibiting this property, as the following verse suggests.

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Chesswords, Dmitri A. Borgmann May 1974

Chesswords, Dmitri A. Borgmann

Word Ways

One of various sidelights to the game of chess is the problem known as a Knight's Tour (or Knight's Spring), the problem of having the knight make a complete circuit of the standard 8 x 8 chessboard, alighting once and only once on each of the 64 squares.

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Pocket Webster Comparison, William Sunners May 1974

Pocket Webster Comparison, William Sunners

Word Ways

In the February 1974 Word Ways, Murray R. Pearce presented a most helpful corrective dissertation on errors abounding in the specialized word books published by various contest firms. He rendered a distinctive service to the puzzle-solving readers of this magazine, and to all logologists. His list of omitted words and detected errors are a welcome blessing to prize seekers.

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Word Weights, Charles W. Bostick May 1974

Word Weights, Charles W. Bostick

Word Ways

In his article "Lightweights and Heavyweights" in the November 1972 issue of Word Ways, Darryl Francis introduced the concept of weight for words. He then went on to form two lists, one of words that were heavy for their size and another of words that were light for their size. I'd like to play around with that concept a bit more in this article.

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Of Sex And Fear, Merlin X. Houdini Iv May 1974

Of Sex And Fear, Merlin X. Houdini Iv

Word Ways

Some logologists are word collectors at heart. Over the years, the attention of these collectors has been drawn to three very special groups of words: those ending with the suffixes -MANCY (designating a form of divination), -MANIA (describing some kind of madness, passion, or craze), and -PHOBIA, (referring to types of fear or aversion).

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Back Cover May 1974

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of the issue.

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A New Logology Cash Contest, Ralph G. Beaman May 1974

A New Logology Cash Contest, Ralph G. Beaman

Word Ways

Editors and readers of Word Ways evidently are unaware that real world problems do not arrive complete with rules for their solution.

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Four-Letter Words, Jezebel Q. Xixx May 1974

Four-Letter Words, Jezebel Q. Xixx

Word Ways

We are addicted to using four-letter words.

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Anagrams: Ars Magna?, Judith Tarr Isquit May 1974

Anagrams: Ars Magna?, Judith Tarr Isquit

Word Ways

In her November 1973 Word Ways review of Howard Bergerson's new book, Palindromes and Anagrams (Dover, 1973), Jezebel Q. Xixx declared that "nowhere near 1,169 really good, modern anagrams have been devised". In a letter, she further asserted that she could create a dozen superb anagrams a day indefinitely, all having the quality so conspicuously absent in previously-published examples.

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X-Terminated Words, Darryl Francis May 1974

X-Terminated Words, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In his definitive volume on logology, Language On Vacation (Scribner's, 1965), Dmitri Borgmann points to the existence of three words both beginning and ending with the letter X.

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The Poet's Corner May 1974

The Poet's Corner

Word Ways

From time to time, Word Ways receives a variety of short poems related to recreational linguistics, some original, others previously published. As poetic output cannot be easily predicted, these will be presented on an irregular basis.

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Colloquy May 1974

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.

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All-Vowel Hawaiian Words, Prince Djoli Kansil May 1974

All-Vowel Hawaiian Words, Prince Djoli Kansil

Word Ways

Vowels are the backbone of any language for without them there can be no speech as we know it. A vowel, as opposed to a consonant, is a speech sound produced without stopping or obstructing the flow of air from the lungs. A second, familiar definition is any letter of the alphabet representing (or usually representing) the sound of a vowel. In English, as we learned in grade school, these letters are A, E, I, O, U and sometimes W and Y.

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Kickshaws, David L. Silverman May 1974

Kickshaws, David L. Silverman

Word Ways

Readers are encouraged to send their own favorite linguistic kickshaws to the Associate Editor. All answers appear in the Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.

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Answers And Solutions May 1974

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

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Still More Websterian Errors, Darryl Francis May 1974

Still More Websterian Errors, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

The August 1972 issue of Word Ways carried an article of ours entitled "Further Websterian Errors". In that article, we attempted to bring to the reader's notice a number of previously uncatalogued errors that appear in the Second and Third Editions of Webster's New International Dictionary, the so-called Unabridged Webster's.

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Instructions To Authors May 1974

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to the publication.

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Language Levels: Another Look, Ramona J. Quincunx May 1974

Language Levels: Another Look, Ramona J. Quincunx

Word Ways

Amid the frozen fastnesses of the winter wonderland known as Little America, Antarctica, I have been contemplating a further exploration of the subject of language levels, first broached in a previous article devoted to the names of mammals and birds.

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The Words Of Songs Without Words, R. Robinson Rowe May 1974

The Words Of Songs Without Words, R. Robinson Rowe

Word Ways

Fortunately for me, with a great love for good music and no talent, my late wife was a concert cellist. Her musical education had included fifteen years of private study in this country and a formal course at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles, from which she was a prize graduate in 1914. Ignorant and curious, I asked her the reason for foreign study -- what could she learn in Belgium that wasn't taught in the United States? She listed a number of topics in reply, with emphasis on counterpoint, ensemble and solfege.

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A 1961-Point One-Move Scrabble Score, Darryl Francis May 1974

A 1961-Point One-Move Scrabble Score, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In the February 1974 issue of Word Ways, the editor summarized the results of the year-long Games & Puzzles competition to devise a single Scrabble move scoring as many points as possible. The article detailed the winning solution, a 1949-point construction based on the key word BENZOXYCAMPHORS. The article suggested that it would be "extraordinarily difficult, perhaps impossible" to improve this solution by as much as ten points. This task has now been accomplished, in a collaboration between myself and Ron Jerome of Bracknell, Berkshire, England.

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