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Articles 1351 - 1380 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
All The Perfumes Of Arabia, Leonard R. N. Ashley
All The Perfumes Of Arabia, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
Politics and economics have recently brought into sharp focus the Arabic languages, but there was a time when contact between different civilizations was more civilized and when Arabic had an immense effect on the humanities and sciences in the western world. That is why academics and judges and ministers, etc., still wear robes derived from Arab dress. Here we suggest Arabic's influence on western languages.
Seven And Thirteen, Dave Morice
Seven And Thirteen, Dave Morice
Word Ways
As the superstitious know for a fact and the substitous deny as mere superstition, the numbers 7 and 13 influence our lives far more than any other number lower than a googol. They are the Yin-Yang of Fortune, the Comedy and Tragedy of Kismet, the Abbott and Costello of Fate, the Sweet and Sour Sauce of Destiny.
Simon Says, Simon Nightingale
Simon Says, Simon Nightingale
Word Ways
This begins a yearly column from Simon Nightingale and his wife Bridget. Dr. Nightingale is a second generation metagrobologist (His father Bill had started their collection of over 1000 puzzles many years ago.). The answer to this rebus appears in Answers and Solutions.
Colloquy
Word Ways
On the day of the 2008 Summer Solstice, we spent several delightful hours meeting with Martin Gardner at his home in Norman, Oklahoma. The picture shows the editor discussing with Martin the manuscript of his soon to be published book on Word Play. The tentative title is The Collosal Book of Word Play and Sterling Publishing will be handling it.
Beheading, Andy Liu
Beheading, Andy Liu
Word Ways
I was not the only one enchanted by Ray Love's report on the Washington Post Word Contest in Word Ways 41(1) 28-29). Jeff Grant and Jennifer Smith made their contributions in Word Ways 41(2) 109. Here are a few of my own compositions. In the game of Beheading, the answers are words with their first letters to be removed.
Front Cover, Publication Information
Front Cover, Publication Information
Word Ways
Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents
English: Best For(E) Play With Words, A. Ross Eckler
English: Best For(E) Play With Words, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The following talk was presented at the international conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the American Society for Geolinguistics at New York University on April 20 1985.
Obamanastics, A. Ross Eckler
Obamanastics, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
What is onomastically remarkable about Barack Obama's name? If one sets A=1, B=2, ...Z=26, adds the numerical version (2+1+18+1+3+11+15+2+1+13+1 = 68), and divides by the number of letters (11), one obtains a "density" of 6.2.
Kickshaws, D. Morice
Kickshaws, D. Morice
Word Ways
In the opening Kickshaw, Rich Lederer continues displaying a selection of his wordplay poems accompanied by comments on language. It begins with a drawing I made of Rich for a wonderful but sadly short lived magazine for younger people called "Time Machine." Rich wrote a column for it titled "The Wizard of Words," and I illustrated it. Allow me to introduce the Venerable Wizard Himself.
Insiders, Jim Puder
Insiders, Jim Puder
Word Ways
I first became aware of this particular wordplay recreation when I noticed its use in the Nov. 8, 1998 New York Times Crossword puzzle, which was composed by Robert Malinow and entitled "Insiders." Although the concept of insiders may well have been an original one with Malinow, I have since learned that similar devices have, in fact, long been employed in clues used by so-called "cryptic" crosswords.
Three Jog Knight, Harold Jacobs
Three Jog Knight, Harold Jacobs
Word Ways
The rock band Three Dog Night started to become popular in the late 60s. At that time, I created a puzzle to lead into a lesson in one of my math classes which I called the Three Jog Knight. Its purpose was to introduce some ideas about vectors; the puzzle was to show all of the ways in which a knight could be moved from the lower to the upper square in this chessboard in exactly three moves.
A Poem, Martin Gardner
A Poem, Martin Gardner
Word Ways
This is an exceprt from Gardner's 1969 book Never Make Fun Of A Turtle, My Son (Simon and Schuster, illustrated by John Alcorn).
More Baileyisms, Arthur I. Schulman
More Baileyisms, Arthur I. Schulman
Word Ways
Al Shapiro's article in the May issue "Bailey's Hexameters" cited some of Nat. Bailey's definitions in the 1730 folio edition Dictionarium Britannicum. Here are some other Baileyisms that might be of interest to WW readers.
Punk Whiz 4, A. Anil
Punk Whiz 4, A. Anil
Word Ways
Pun quiz, continued from May-Nov. '06. Clues are false but credible definitions of the answers, which mean something else. Many contain a direct clue as well as the misleading one, as in cryptic crosswords. Some are charades or homophonic puns, most just double meanings.
A Poem, Martin Gardner
A Poem, Martin Gardner
Word Ways
This is an excerpt from Gardner's 1969 book Never Make Fun Of A Turtle, My Son (Simon and Schuster, illustrated by John Alcorn).
Variation On A Theme Of Francis, Jeremiah Farrell
Variation On A Theme Of Francis, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
In the February, 1970 Word Ways Darryl Francis had an article "A Reconstructable Crossword Puzzle". The 15x15 puzzle had fixed pieces (polyomino style) that could be moved around in the grid to form a second crossword with new definitions. Sometime later he sent to Word Ways a six-solution puzzle of a similar nature. This puzzle has not yet run in print because of space considerations but we hope to use this tour-de-force in the near future.
A Poem, Martin Gardner
A Poem, Martin Gardner
Word Ways
This is an excerpt from Gardner's 1969 book Never Make Fun Of A Turtle, My Son (Simon and Schuster, illustrated by John Alcorn).
Sentence Carried Out, A. Anil
Sentence Carried Out, A. Anil
Word Ways
Many well known proverbs, quotes and expressions have entered out vocabularies in a foreshortened, hence inaccurate, form. I here set the record straight by revealing the original, complete sentences.
Comparative Homophonic Trios, A. Anil
Comparative Homophonic Trios, A. Anil
Word Ways
"Trios" are thoughts expressed by three related words. They may be phrases, sentences, conversations, miniature poems ("triodes"), three pieces of a single word, etc. The three words may be related in any number of ways - homophones, anagrams, word ladders, other logological relations, rhyme, alliteration, repetition. Here's a special type, in the irreverant style of gross grocer grossest. You'll quickly see what I'm up to. It's artificial, sure, but it created the scaffolding for some trios I thought you might enjoy.
Spoonertoons 5: Drawing A Sign In The Land, Don Hauptman, Jim Siergey
Spoonertoons 5: Drawing A Sign In The Land, Don Hauptman, Jim Siergey
Word Ways
Cartoons containing spoonerisms.
Urban Renewal, Steve Kahan
Urban Renewal, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
It has been reputed that the continent of Atlantis was lost beneath the sea and there are historical references to the lost city of the Incas. Mindful of these occurrences, each of the twenty-five examples below represents what has been left behind when a world city has disappeared from the beginning, end or middle of a word en toto.
Fibonacci Words: "Howl, Sex Orgy Poet!", A. Anil
Fibonacci Words: "Howl, Sex Orgy Poet!", A. Anil
Word Ways
No, not a direct quote from Leonardo Fibonacci of Thirteenth Century Florence, just words based on translating his famous number sequence into letters, with A-Z = 1-26, 27-52, etc. There are two types of Fibonacci words, "natural" and "arbitrary".
Etc, David Morice, Susan Thorpe
Etc, David Morice, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
In this article, the reader will witness a years-long journey towards logological discovery. It began with a single word that seemed to be the only member of a specific class of anagrams. Then a second example was found. And now, like the little Dutch boy who put his finger into the hole in the dike, we pulled our fingers out, the dike broke and the wordplay poured all over us. We were in the middle of a language flood, and we'd like to invite you to "come on in, the water's fine".
Town-And-State Name Transposals, Darryl Francis
Town-And-State Name Transposals, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Transposals of the US statenames have received considerable attention in previous editions of Word Ways. Familiar transposals include NOMINATES (MINNESOTA), NOWANIGHTS (WASHINGTON) and TAXES (TEXAS).
Another Unidictionary Nine-Square, A. Ross Eckler
Another Unidictionary Nine-Square, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The November 1991 Word Ways exhibited a nine-square by Eric Albert with all of its words contained in a single dictionary (Webster's Second Unabridged), the first one of its kind to be discovered. Can this feat be duplicated with words only from the Oxford English Dictionary? At least two logologists have tried, with varying degrees of success. In the February 1997 Word Ways Richard Sabey presented the first square given below, claiming that it consisted entirely of OED words.
Digital Diversions, Susan Thorpe
Digital Diversions, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
Letter digitalization converts the letters of a word into their alphanumerical values (A=1, B=2 ... Z=26) and then breaks down the barriers between and within the resulting numbers to reveal a string of digits. Thus the word WORD 23, 15, 18, 4 has the digit string 2315184. Digitalized words are interesting for numerous reasons.
A Mel Stover Recollection, Bob Friedhoffer
A Mel Stover Recollection, Bob Friedhoffer
Word Ways
The late Canadian magician Mel Stover was a close friend of Martin Gardner.
Amoebic Charades, Susan Thorpe
Amoebic Charades, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
Logological charades occur when a word is split into two or more words which make a phrase. Thus BESTRIDE - BEST RIDE and NOTABLE - NOT ABLE are charades. Occasionally, the original word together with the words into which it divides all make a phrase: BITTERN BIT TERN.
Instructions To Authors, Subscribers
Instructions To Authors, Subscribers
Word Ways
Instructions for authors interested in contributing and readers interested in subscribing.