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Articles 1261 - 1290 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
A Curious Crossword, Wei-Hwa Huang
Kickshaws, David Morice
The Vulgar Tongue, Jeff Grant
The Vulgar Tongue, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
Slang forms a significant part of the English language. The first slang dictionary appeared over 300 years ago, recording terms that are now mostly obsolete. Some of the old favourites survived though, and a few were thought too vulgar to include in standard dictionaries until quite recently.
Odes From The Odd Topics Society, Howard G. Baetzhold
Odes From The Odd Topics Society, Howard G. Baetzhold
Word Ways
Butler's Odd Topics Society meets every now and then to discuss Odd Topics of any nature. Professor Baetzhold is the Poet Laureate Odd Topics Society.
Russian Alphamagic Squares, Lee B. Croft
Russian Alphamagic Squares, Lee B. Croft
Word Ways
It has been twenty-two years since Dutch Mathematician Lee C. F. Sallows defined certain "magic" squares of numbers to be "alphamagic" squares. He then wrote: "Alphamagic is the word I use to describe any magic array ... that remains magic when all of its entries are replaced by numbers representing the word length, in letters, of their conventional written names (thus one (1) becomes 3)." Such an alphamagic array represents an extraordinary confluence of "magic" in the world of numbers with "magic" in the world of words.
Some Cryptographic Challenges, David L. Silverman
Some Cryptographic Challenges, David L. Silverman
Word Ways
The Word Buff offers a pangrammatic cryptogram which is deceptively difficult to solve (both Darryl Francis and Ross Eckler failed to do so). Can Word Ways readers do it?
Kickshaws Revisited, David L. Silverman
Kickshaws Revisited, David L. Silverman
Word Ways
A kickshaw is defined either in a neutral manner as "a bauble, rifle, or knicknack" or more flatteringly as "a fancy tidbit; a delicacy." The purpose of this feature is to satisfy both definitions by presenting linguistic items of light weight and vast diversity, designed to appeal to the tastes of all recreational linguisticians.
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Over the years Word Ways has displayed a varied logological corpus. In this column I revisit forgotten ideas, connect seemingly-disparate concepts, and suggest further investigation.
The Magic Spell, Bob Friedhoffer
The Magic Spell, Bob Friedhoffer
Word Ways
(Based on Jim Steinmeyer's 9 card Problem)
Using your amazing mystical powers, or is it your knowledge of an exotic mathematical principle unknown to your friends, you tell them the name of a book that they have freely selected.
Aerst Transposals, Jeff Grant
Aerst Transposals, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
My article "Transposing Rates" in the November 1987 Word Ways has examples for 63 of the 120 possible transposals of the letters AERST. Further research has expanded the collection to 85, with many of the original entries being improved as well. Abbreviations like ESRTA (Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association) are excluded; however, a couple of derivatives (RTase, TSAer) are listed. Names with initials, such as T.S. RAE, are omitted, as are contrived terms and purely foreign words. Due to the nature of the source (Net), some examples may be suspect.
Definitive Tail Homophones, Anil
Definitive Tail Homophones, Anil
Word Ways
Susan Thorpe introduced Homophonic Relationships (HR) in the February Kickshaws (07-41) in which a phonic part of a word is a related word, eg, "forestry: tree". When she asked for further examples, I doubt she had in mind this many, but she had stumbled, literally through the back door, into an area I've been going at for awhile I call Definitive Homophones (DH), where a homophone of the whole target word or phrase is a synonym or strong affinitive.
What's In? A Name!, Steve Kahan
What's In? A Name!, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
Each of the fifty examples below represents what remains when a four-letter name is removed from the beginning, middle, or end of a word and the resulting letters are run together. For example, o s o p h y is what we'd be left with if P H I L were taken away from P H I L o s o p h y. Column A consists of the residues when men's names have been excised, while Column B lists the same for women's names. How many missing monikers can you restore to their rightful locations?
Unique Generic Locks, Susan Thorpe
Unique Generic Locks, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
This is a sequel to Sequential Words (Word Ways 2005003), words made from two or more generic letter sequences, one following the other. In UKU .LELE the palindromic sequence UKU is followed by the tautonymic sequence LELE. In Unique Generic Locks the opposite applies, the generic sequences being interlocked. In OPINION the palindromic sequence OPO is interlocked with the tautonymic sequence ININ. Many words unlock in more than one way; fewer, like OPINION, have a unique generic lock and these are the ones with which we are concerned.
Words From Dice, A. Ross Eckler
Words From Dice, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Word games such as Boggle consist of letters on the faces of dice. Usually one rolls the dice and tries to form a word out of the upward-facing letters. However, another game leads to interesting logological challenges: draw the dice one at a time out of a bag, the first die then turned over to yield the first letter of a word, the second die to yield the second letter, and so on.
Consecutive Palindromic Triads, Steve Kahan
Consecutive Palindromic Triads, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
Each of the twenty five examples below is a familiar word, phrase, or name from which a pair of consecutive palindromic triads have been removed. The remaining letters are then run together.
Degaraged, Depiped, And Derotored, Jeff Grant
Degaraged, Depiped, And Derotored, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
There are lots of palindromic words that start with de- and end -ed. Here are some short ones listed in The Palindromicon II (Jeff Grant and Dan Tilque, Word Ways Monograph Series 6, 2002).
Spoonertoons 4: Fortune Of Reversal, Don Hauptman
Spoonertoons 4: Fortune Of Reversal, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
Cartoons incorporating spoonerisms.
Modern Sator Squares, Jeff Grant
Modern Sator Squares, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
Many word-lovers are familiar with the famous Latin square shown above. It probably dates from Roman times and has been the subject of much discussion over the years. The main problem with interpretation is the word AREPO, which is supposedly unknown to Latin scholars. As a result, it is usually treated as a coined personal name. According to master logologist Dmitri Borgmann in Language On Vacation (1965), the palindromic message, 'Sator Arepo tenet opera rotas', can be rendered as: 'Arepo, the sower, holds the wheels at work', or more elaborately: 'The reaper shall cease from his toil as the mower …
Generic Edges, Susan Thorpe
Generic Edges, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
The letters of a word can be displayed as one of a number of different geometrical forms - a triangle, pentagon or rhombus etc. - in the order in which they occur in the word. In Edge Words (WW98274), I arranged the letters of words thus, in order to create 'edge words', words made by the letters along the left (L) and right (R) hand edges of the particular geometrical form, reading from the top downwards. More recently, in Upwards Edge Words (WW2006235) I repeated the exercise to find edge words which read upwards.
Now I am searching for L …
My Visit To Grant's Tome, Lacey Echols
My Visit To Grant's Tome, Lacey Echols
Word Ways
It started as a simple mathematical problem discovered in the book 365 Exercises for the Mind, by Pierre Berloquin.
Find seven words which appear consecutively in the given word industrialization. The solution to the problem identifies the seven words as in, dust, trial, at, on, rial, and ion.
Limerickshaws, Dave Morice
Limerickshaws, Dave Morice
Word Ways
This Kickshaws Special celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 1907 British Limerick Craze, and what better way to celebrate it than to present 100 limericks, one for each year? The limerick count includes each 5-line limerick, whether it stands alone or serves as a stanza in a longer poem. It does not include the older limericks quoted in the essays or the partial limericks in which one or more lines are left out on purpose for special effects.
The Alert Boss And Fair Clerk, Anil
The Alert Boss And Fair Clerk, Anil
Word Ways
My tribute to the Ecklers in February (07-9) was a real rush job with about one day's notice. I'd now like to extend that tribute with an unusually fitting logological twist. The title above is an anagram of the names ALBERT ROSS AND FAITH ECKLER.
Spoonergrams, Jim Puder
Spoonergrams, Jim Puder
Word Ways
Spoonerisms are usually thought of as involving the switch of initial sounds in a pair of words, as in prairie schooner/scary pruner. But as Susan Thorpe points out in her article "Spooneristic Variations" in the May 2007 Word Ways, there is no reason why a spoonerism cannot involve three or more words.
Cartoon, Jed Martinez
Phone Messages, Steve Kahan
Phone Messages, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
The rotary telephone dial provides a one-to-three correspondence between the integers 2 through 9 inclusive and twenty-four of the letters of the English alphabet.
Compass Point Sudokus, Christopher Mcmanus
Compass Point Sudokus, Christopher Mcmanus
Word Ways
A recent Word Ways article, "Sudoku Patterns" (May 2007), explored aspects of sudoku squares which employ letters instead of numbers. One highlighted aspect of the article was theme sudokus. Two examples of theme sudokus were puzzles in which various number names were hidden.
Word Tiling, Chris Cook
Word Tiling, Chris Cook
Word Ways
RAM is a triangular tile of size n=1. It has three "lines" RA, MR, and AM.
A Crossword Puzzle Square, Joseph Teeters
A Crossword Puzzle Square, Joseph Teeters
Word Ways
This 11x11 "word" square sometimes uses phrases, crossword style, rather than full words only. Perhaps readers can generate other examples. The definitions also work for the down entries of course, and we would welcome large squares, with no blacks, that had different words going down than across.
Near-Heterogrammatic Double 5-Squares, Rex Gooch
Near-Heterogrammatic Double 5-Squares, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
In 2006-176, Ross Eckler stated that a heterogrammatic 5-square is impossible to achieve, referring I believe to double squares, but without giving a reason. In the May 1979 Colloquy (following an earlier effort February 1978), Jeff Grant had presented a double 5-square with 22 different letters, all ten words being in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Symmetries Of The Alphabet, A. Ross Eckler
Symmetries Of The Alphabet, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The letters of the alphabet exhibit five varieties of symmetry (or non-symmetry):
A M T U V W Y have left-right (vertical) symmetry (.272) v
B C D E K have up-down (horizontal) symmetry (.218) h
N S Z have 180 degree (rotational) symmetry (.137) r
H I O X have all three symmetries (.205) a
F G J L P Q R have no symmetry (.168) n