Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Linguistics (4053)
- Linguistic (845)
- Puzzles (38)
- Palindromes (34)
- Puzzle (29)
-
- Quiz (29)
- Transposals (15)
- Games (13)
- Puns (13)
- Anagrams (10)
- Poem (9)
- Poems (9)
- Word puzzle (9)
- Mathematics (8)
- Poetry (8)
- Homophones (6)
- Transpositions (6)
- Alice in Wonderland (5)
- Crossword (5)
- Obituary (5)
- Project (5)
- Word-play (5)
- Alphametics (4)
- Butler University (4)
- Lewis Carroll (4)
- Magic Squares (4)
- Martin Gardner (4)
- G4G (3)
- Gathering for Gardner (3)
- Humor (3)
- Publication Year
- File Type
Articles 1591 - 1620 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Kickshaws, Dave Morice
Etymology Of Sexual Terms, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Etymology Of Sexual Terms, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
Sex is often discussed in the allegedly more respectable terminology derived from classical languages, but sometimes Anglo-Saxon "four-letter words" are boldly employed. Seldom do we think of where these words came from. Can you state the terms derived as follows? Some are of debatable origin, but i do not include those (such as pimp) "of unknown origin". Extra points for virtue if any or all are unfamiliar to you!
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.
Bookstore Names For Fun And Profit, Bennie Hollingsworth
Bookstore Names For Fun And Profit, Bennie Hollingsworth
Word Ways
If the Internet has done anything, it has caused a proliferation of "bookish" activity - dusting off, re-reading, swapping, borrowing, buying and selling. I, for one, has gotten caught up in this melee. My general modus operandi is to do garage sales and pass the wonderful bargains I find on to other anxious Internet book freaks.
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 39 Issue 1
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 39 Issue 1
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
"Did You Just Make That Up?" Puns In Everyday Conversation, Don Hauptman
"Did You Just Make That Up?" Puns In Everyday Conversation, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
The hallmark of the compleat punster is the ability to work puns into real-life situations - and to do so in an appropriate, natural and spontaneous way. Unless one is skilled at ad-libbing, it's best to have a repertoire of material to draw upon. Your objective is to be regarded as clever and witty rather than irritating. But opinions may differ.
Palindromic Word Squares, Rex Gooch
Palindromic Word Squares, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
A word square (n-square) consists of a n rows, each containing a different n-letter word, so that the first column has the same word as the first raw, and so on. A palindromic square is a word square in which the words are palindromes, with as many as possible being different. The investigation reported below was inspired by Zoran Radisavlijevic's article (W05-178).
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 38 Issue 4
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 38 Issue 4
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
Editorial
Word Ways
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Dmitri Borgmann's death. To commemorate it we present three pieces: a final article by Dmitri from the editorial files, the description of a final chapter of Language on Vacation which Scribner's decided to eliminate from the book, and an imaginary visit by Dmitri to the UN in 1967 penned by the talented Australian logologist John Holgate.
The Borgmann Apocrypha, A. Ross Eckler
The Borgmann Apocrypha, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Dmitri Borgmann's Language on Vacation, published by Scribner's in 1965, is widely recognized as the Bible of logology; it is the first nonpuzzle book entirely devoted to letter-play. Long out of print, it has been eagerly sought by logologists in second-hand bookstores where, fortunately, it can often be purchased at prices of five to ten dollars.
Logological Epistolography, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Logological Epistolography, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
One of the uses to which almost all of us frequently put the English language is the writing of letters-personal, business, or poison-pen. All sorts of books have, therefore, been published, advising us how to write letters courteously and effectively. Such books invariably include model our condolences. Each potential uses of these exemplars must, of course, modify them to suit his or her particular circumstances, needs and preferences.
Word Sudoku
Word Ways
Sudoku, a fairly new type of puzzle from Japan, has very recently become popular wordwide. It involves placing the digits 1-9 into a 9x9 grid which is divided into nine 3x3 squares such as those below. Enough numbers are placed in the grid as clues to enable the puzzler to solve it. The object is to make all nine rows, all nine columns and all nine 3x3 squares each contain all nine digits. This means that no row, column or 3x3 square can have more than one of each digit.
A Day At The You Knighted Nay Shuns, John Holgate
A Day At The You Knighted Nay Shuns, John Holgate
Word Ways
It was a chilly afternoon on December the seventh, 1967, the 26th anniversary of Pearl Harbour. Dmitri Borgmann was sitting in the reading room of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. He had come down from Oak Park, Illinois for a few days to do research on synonyms for baldness after noticing that his hairline was receding.
Opening A Can Of Words, Don Hauptman
Opening A Can Of Words, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
Although my Word Ways article are usually light, involving puns and other forms of wordplay, in this issue I'm focusing on a weightier topic: the state of the language. So let's get serious.
Battus In Wonderland, Hugo Brandt Corstius
Battus In Wonderland, Hugo Brandt Corstius
Word Ways
Editor's Note: No knowledge of Dutch is required to discover the letterplay hidden in this fable.
A True Pyramid
Word Ways
The term "pyramid" is used in two ways in logology: 1) a "word pyramid" is a word ladder in which each step adds a letter -eg, I IN FIN FIND FIEND FRIEND; 2) a "pyramid word" has an abstract 'pyramid' of letter frequencies -eg, REMEMBERER with 1B, 2Ms, 3Rs, 4Es. Both of these misuse the word pyramid to mean triangle. A pyramid is three dimensional -- a polygonal base with triangular sides that meet at a point. The base can have three or any higher number of sides but it's usually thought of as a square because the Egyptian pyramids.
Looping, Grouping And Aligning The Vowels, Susan Thorpe
Looping, Grouping And Aligning The Vowels, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
Firstly, a reminder that an AEIOU word is one in which the 5 major vowels occur just once, in any order. The AEIOU words of current concern, however, are limited to those in which the vowels occur in alphabetical circular order or reverse alphabetical circular order. Most of the examples below are solid words; a few hyphenated designations are included but phrases are not admitted. The listings in 'Looping the Vowels' and 'Grouping the Vowels' read across the page. Unreferenced words can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, unless specified otherwise. The sources of other words are …
New Transposals Of California Placenames, Darryl Francis
New Transposals Of California Placenames, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
After my virtual trip around Great Britain and my discovery of 600 new placename transposals (see August 2003 Word Ways), I decided to attempt a similar trip around California. Here are transposals for one hundred California placenames, all transposals being in LeXpert, the Scrabble player's software tool.
Dog Doo? Good God!, Win Emmons
Dog Doo? Good God!, Win Emmons
Word Ways
Many additional palindromes can be found on my website http://www.palindromania.com.
From Djeffrey To Jyfree, Jeff Grant
From Djeffrey To Jyfree, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
Over the years I have seen many different variants of my first name, Jeffrey. This is an attempt to catalogue some of them. 400 examples were found on the Internet using the Google search program. The subset below contains 124 apparently genuine variants, all of which are probably pronounced more or less the same as Jeffrey. The ones with a plus are recorded on the Kabalarians online name database (www.kabalarians, "How important is your name?"), and those with an asterisk are old forms.
Kickshaws, Dave Morice
Letter Sums And Differences, Eric Iverson
Letter Sums And Differences, Eric Iverson
Word Ways
In the November 2004 Kickshaws, Dave Morice pointed out that the first two letters of HOW add to the third (8+15=23), and that the first two letters of to the third (23-25=8). This idea can be extended to longer words; any two consecutive letters in a word must add (or subtract) to the next letter, such as CADE, 3+1=4 followed by 1+4=5. To allow for sums greater than 26, use the circular alphabet: A=1, B=2, ... Z=26, A=27, etc. The same stratagem is used to create positive differences, such as SARI, 19-1=18 followed by 27-18=9.
The Squarehead And The Square, Ernest W. Ager
The Squarehead And The Square, Ernest W. Ager
Word Ways
Corporal Long told me that when the Squarehead applied for enlistment at the Baltimore Recruiting Office he was so unsophisticated that they had to lash him to a bunk and blindfold him before they could get leather shoes on him. Major Kelly, "The Colonel" of Salmagundi days, was the recruiting officer that accepted the latest immigrant from Schleswig, and thereby wove for himself a crown of thorns.
A Type Collection Of Cvccvccvc Words, A. Ross Eckler
A Type Collection Of Cvccvccvc Words, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Among nine-letter words of the vowel-consonant pattern CVCCVCCVC, can one find all 125 possible vowel sections? Elsewhere in this issue, Hugo Brandt Corstius in "Battus in Wonderland" has constructed a story in which 125 Dutch words of this nature are featured. In English, it is possible to find 121 words in Webster's Second, as given in the table below (the numbers following some words indicate the number of occurrences in Kucera and Francis's million-word corpus Computational Analysis of Present-Day American English (1967).
Headshots And Footprints Revsisted, Susan Thorpe
Headshots And Footprints Revsisted, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
The reader is referred to the headshot and footprint categories listed in Eric Iverson's Headshots And Footprints (August 2005). As an extension to Eric's article, I have compiled the following A-Z lists of headshot words and footprint words which are all heterograms (no repeated letters). Most of the words can be found in the Oxford English DIctionary, Second Edition. Places, identified by country, are taken from the United States Board on Geographic Names. Other references: Hodge = Handbook of American Indians ed. by F.W.Hodge, 1907; Sted. = Stedman's Medical Dictionary; Web2=Webster's Second Edition.
Old Saws Repaired, Christopher Mcmanus
Old Saws Repaired, Christopher Mcmanus
Word Ways
The roots of mangled proverbs as wordplay are historically distant. In Cervantes' classic Don Quixote, one humorous hallmark of Sancho Panchez was his abuse of proverbs; Sancho piled proverb on proverb, using garbled and inflated language, often citing them where inapplicable. The long-running radio show Easy Aces brought the form to modern mass entertainment as early as 1931. "You've got the cards before the horse," "the laugh's on the other foot," and "familiarity breeds attempt" were a few of comedienne Jane Ace's insights on the show.
Magic Square Logology, A. Ross Eckler
Magic Square Logology, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
A magic square, well-known to recreational mathematicians, consists of a set of numbers (integers) arranged in a square, such that the sum of each row and column and both of the principal diagonals is the same. Although magic squares date back thousands of years and have an extensive literature (see for example Magic Squares and Cubes by W.S. Andrews, published by Dover in 1960), the following logological problem involving magic squares appears to be new: construct a magic square in which the number-names in each row, column and diagonal share a letter (a different one in each case). Since there …