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Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 31 Issue 1

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Lipograms And Other Contraints, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Many kinds of literary constraint are available to the logologist. On the one hand, E-less text is so easy to create that the reader may be unaware that it is happening. (Some reviewers of Perec's La Disparation never caught on.) On the other hand, palindromic text--probably that most popular form of literary constraint--is so difficult to create that, essentially impossible. Can one characterize in an objective way the relative difficulty of different sorts of constraint? Which ones should be cultivated more widely?

A Sadistic Tic Tickler, Roger E. Rondeau

Word Ways

According to Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and The Third Wave, human history can be viewed in terms of waves. First there was the Agrarian Age, then came the Industrial Revolution, and now we are riding the crest of the third wave--the Information Age.

Varieties Of Balanced Words, Part 3, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

This is the third and final part of a three-part article discussing varieties of balanced words; the first two appeared in the August and November 1997 Word Ways. For the sources of words, used, see Part 1.

A New Wordsworth Word Square, Ted Clarke

Word Ways

My word-square computer program is a general-purpose one designed to search for words to create squares of order 4 to 14. The word typed in for the top row triggers the size to be processed; the program then fills in words for successive rows as far as possible. From thousands of such runs. I have noted that most full searches for ten-squares fail to progress further than the fifth row. Sometimes (see square on left) the leading five letters of the last five rows seems to offer possibilities of completion.

More Long Words From The Oed, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Did you see that article in a previous Word Ways about the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary?

Isograms: The Sequel, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

In the May 1985 Word Ways, Dmitri Borgmann defined as isogram (actually, he recommended "asogram") as a verbal entity in which each each of the alphabetic letters used appears an equal number of times. He further defined a solo isogram as an isogram in which said equal number was one (CAT), a pair isogram when the number was two (DODO),and a trio isogram when the number was three (CHA-CHA-CHA).

Add A Million Words To Your Vocabulary, Nyr Indictor

Word Ways

Actually, I could have written "add a billion words to your vocabulary". Or more, even. If I had written the actual number of words this article can teach you, you would have turned the page. You would have had to, because the actual number doesn't fit on this page.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 30 Issue 4

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Poegematry, Michael Helsem

Word Ways

Poetry & Gematria remain at an uneasy distance, not quite speaking not quite ignoring each other. One flourishes in exile, slipshod & ever prouding [a coinage from Ken's Saro-Wiwa's novel Sozaboy, published in 1988 by Longmann]; the other dwells among qabbalistic catacombs & cranks.

Long Words In The Oed, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

"What's the longest word in the dictionary?"

"You mean -- the longest English word."

"Yeah."

"Well, that depends which dictionary you go for. Bigger dictionaries have more words in them, and smaller dictionaries have fewer words in them. There's more chance of bigger dictionaries having longer words. You takes your choice."

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Glossery, Nyr Indictor

Word Ways

What do the following two alphabets have in common?

Ana Gram, The Juggler, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Come one! Come all! The unparalleled, incomparable, sensational Word Circus is in town! Hurry! Hurry! Scurry! to the Greatest Show on Earth, where words come out of the wordwork. Laugh at our lexcellent tour de farces! Thrill as letters fly through the air with the greatest of E's. Gasp as you become the Wizard of Ahs and A Lass in Wonderland.

Varieties Of Balanced Words, Part 2, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

2. Numerical Tautonyms

This is the second of three parts of an article dealing with varieties of "balanced" words. Numerical tautonyms are words which may be divided into groups of letters, each group having the same number of letters, and where the sums of the numerical values (A=1, B=2, etc.) of the letters in each group are the same.

Alpha(Betic) To Omega, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

Angry Archfiend, arched, aggressive as an ax attack,

Blather-brazen Beast Belial bashes, batters back

Compassion's courage ... Careless, coreless, cold! calumniates

Divity's Dread dreadless!

Geometrical Words: Part 2, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

Part 1 of Geormetrical Words looked at words whose letters can be arranged to make a triangle or a set of triangles. Part 2 looks at words whose letters can be arranged to make other geometrical shapes. As with triangles, the letters along the edge of these shapes may form edge words (MET, HER and SON below).

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Four Universal-Recipient Words, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

In "The Suet Alphabet", Nyr Indictor noted that one can add each letter of the alphabet (except for Z) to SUET and rearrange to form new words. Finding such universal-recipient words is a time-consuming challenge but not a mission impossible. In the four examples below, all words are OED except ROEX's.

F. P. Ramsey, Meet Scrubwoman Edith, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

F. P. Ramsey (1903-1930) was a philosopher, logician, and mathematician who died young after an ill-fated operation. He was a product of England's Cambridge University when both Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein were there.

Yet More Murderous Wordplay, Peter Newby

Word Ways

William Marwood was the principal hangman of the United Kingdom during the years 1874-83. Such was his fame that a contemporarty children's riddle went as follows.

Wysi Not Wyg, Mary Christine Craig

Word Ways

There must be a logological name for word definitions composed according to the way the words sound (and perhas getting close to the actual meaning of them), but I can't come up with it. What you see is not what you get!

Presidential Letter Shifts, Monte J. Zerger

Word Ways

The next presidential shift will occur in the year of Arthur C. Clarke's classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The letters in the name of the rogue computer, HAL, can be shifted forward one letter in the alphabet to produce IBM: HAL(1)IBM. This is probably the most widely celebrated case of alleged letter shifting, although Clarke denies any intentionality. Rivaling this is notoriety is the shifting of FBI by six letters to obtain LHO, the initials of Lee Harvey Oswald, something numerologists love to link with the sixth floor from which the shooting took place: F BI(6)LHO.

Kickshaws, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Holy Mackerel, Mr. Rice!, Robert C. Layton

Word Ways

I'm not SHERBET the following story is reported to be true. You don't have to swallow it but it comes form one who knows her ONIONS, and is not prone to FUDGing. Some say she's full of BOLOGNA but the proof is in the PUDDING. At least LETTUCE keep an open mind as we explore her tale!

Anguish Languish, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Willard Espy writes in his 1980 book Another Almanac of Words at Play (Feb 12): "Anguish Languish, popularized by the late Howard L. Chance, is a form of punning in which words overlap to give an impression of other words, as clouds assume forms according to the fancy of the observer."