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Articles 3061 - 3090 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Palindromic History Of Civilization, Howard Richler
Palindromic History Of Civilization, Howard Richler
Word Ways
It is common knowledge that man's ability to communicate sets him apart from other creatures. Only recently, however, has it been discovered that man has been using palindromes throughout the aeons. A paleontologist has interpreted one of the oldest cave murals ever found to be saying OG, GO.
5-By-5 Latin Word Squares, Leonard Gordon
5-By-5 Latin Word Squares, Leonard Gordon
Word Ways
To construct a Latin word square, make a word square out of words with non-repeated letters and rank the letters to each word by their alphabetic position (for example, ALICE-15423). If the ranking for horizontal words remains valid for the vertical words, then the square is Latin. The concept of Latin word squares was proposed by Dave Silverman in the August 1972 Kickshaws; in February 1973, Mary Younquist and Murray Pearce exhibited sever 4-by-4 Latin word squares, and Mary exhibited a 5-by-5 example with three invented but plausible "words."
Letter-Deletion Acrostics, Fraser Simpson
Letter-Deletion Acrostics, Fraser Simpson
Word Ways
As a cryptic crossword constructor and solver, I see a lot of letter deletions: words that become other words when a single letter is deleted. Examples are SALUTED to SALTED, or MUFFING to MUFFIN.
More London Wordplay, John J. Bulten
More London Wordplay, John J. Bulten
Word Ways
With the aid of "The Wordbook," I have been able to increase somewhat Darryle Francis's collection of transposals, transadditions, and transdeletions on placenames in and near London. All words appear in either "The Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary" or Darryle Francis's article in the May 1990 Word Ways. Although there are not many new transposals, the number of transadditions and transdeletions has been significantly increased. Further contributions are welcome.
Ana-Gram-Mar Chains, Christopher Mcmanus
Ana-Gram-Mar Chains, Christopher Mcmanus
Word Ways
Words that break into two or more component words are the gist of many puzzles. Often the components conjure up an image unrelated to the compound: compare FAT ALLY to FATALLY, SAGA CITY to SAGACITY, CONDO NATION to CONDONATION, IMP LORE to IMPLORE, or BADGE RING to BADGERING. Such compound words are called charades.
Kickshaws, David Morice
Cards, Dice, And Horses, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Cards, Dice, And Horses, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
"The poetry of earth," one poet assured us, "is never dead": the poetry of gaming and gambling is not dead, either. Recently, writing about the mindset of gamblers in the Journal of Gambling Behavior, I had occasion to look closely at the slang. Here are some of its more "poetic" aspects. How many words and expression do you know?
Best Anagrams And Antigrams, O. V. Michaelsen
Best Anagrams And Antigrams, O. V. Michaelsen
Word Ways
There are several criteria available for judging the quality of an anagram. To begin with, an anagram should be self-explanatory.
Logological Resistentialism, A. Ross Eckler
Logological Resistentialism, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
In his book "The New Official Rules" (Addison-Wesley, 1989), Paul Dickson has collected from correspondents a large number of aphorisms, principally of the following varieties:
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 23 Number 3
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 23 Number 3
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
"A Pale Gold Raven" And Other Poems, John J. Bulten
"A Pale Gold Raven" And Other Poems, John J. Bulten
Word Ways
Poe's "The Raven' and Other Poems" was a collection of some of the best verse of his career. This collection of my own verse is definitely not of the same quality, but the logological constraints followed should be of interest to readers.
Insertion-Deletion Networks, Leonard J. Gordon
Insertion-Deletion Networks, Leonard J. Gordon
Word Ways
Word Ways has recently published articles based on my computer analysis of Carrollian word ladders and networks. The editor subsequently suggested that I might use the computer to extend his study of insertion-deletion (ID) networks in the August 1987 Word Ways, to dictionaries larger than the Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary. In this pair of articles, I present the results of a few explorations. The ID network is very complicated. Although its analysis based on a larger dictionary is beyond my capability, many interesting things can be found.
Wanted: Word-Game Testers, Peter Newby
Wanted: Word-Game Testers, Peter Newby
Word Ways
A high percentage of the competitive amusements described in "Pears Word Games" (reviewed elsewhere in this issue) are completely original and needed test-playing prior to publication. The result of this activity was the formation of The Pears Word Game Society, an association of independent groupings (called Chapters) of sporting logologists in various countries.
Words With Jqxz In Varying Positions, Darryl Francis
Words With Jqxz In Varying Positions, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Here is a problem which is fairly simple to state, but which involves considerable effort to answer fully, or even nearly fully.
Pseudopornography, Jeff Grant
Pseudopornography, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
What a horny pair they were, balling down in the hell-dyke. Him a queer cock-headed old gaubshite who wouldn't know a cunny-hole from an ass-hole, and her a bloody shit-faced bastard whore with clitty hair.
Inversion Squares, Frank Rubin
Inversion Squares, Frank Rubin
Word Ways
It is now approaching two years since I began a computer search for a 10x10 word square. Since my last report in the November 1989 Word Ways, there has been a discouraging turn in events. I furnished statistics about the distribution of letter-frequencies in my wordstock to a researcher at the IBM Yorktown Research Center. He calculated, given these letter-frequencies, that a vocabulary of 289,000 words would be required to produce a symmetric 10x10 word square. I had already projected that when I finished transcribing the Levine list, there still would be fewer than 130,000 words -- less than …
Dictionary Symphony, David Morice
Dictionary Symphony, David Morice
Word Ways
Looking up the definition of a word is one thing, but looking up the definition of the words in the definition of a word is another. And looking up the definitions of the words in the definitions of the words in the definition of a word is yet another. The more definitions you look up, the deeper you travel into the labyrinth of language.
Palindromic Fancies, Howard Richler
Palindromic Fancies, Howard Richler
Word Ways
Palindromes are words or phrases endowed with a quirkish trait. They read the same frontward or backward, thus possessing unique linguistic symmetry.
More Word Network Spasns In The Ospd, Leonard J. Gordon
More Word Network Spasns In The Ospd, Leonard J. Gordon
Word Ways
In the February 1989 Word Ways, I examined various word networks based on words from the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD). To refresh the reader's memory, a word network consists of a set of words of a given length that can be joined by word ladders (single-letter changes). Each pair of words in a word network can be connected by a minimum-length ladder (one which cannot be reduced by any alternative ladder).
Can You Translate Esperanto?, Thomas E. Murray
Can You Translate Esperanto?, Thomas E. Murray
Word Ways
Esperanto is a language that was created in 1887 by Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof, a Polish polyglot who sought to facilitate communication among the many nations of the world by creating a new language made up of bits and pieces of several existing (mostly European) languages. Though the use of Esperanto never became as widespread as Zamenhof had hoped, more than ten million people around the world speak and understand it, and thousands of books, newspapers, and magazines have been (and continue to be) published in it.
Shelling Peas With Gramps, Peter Newby
Shelling Peas With Gramps, Peter Newby
Word Ways
My elder son, the Hollywood film and television actor Maxwell Caulfield, responded in delightful fashion to my appeal for material for my new book "Pears Word Games" (reviewed elsewhere in this issue). His happy childhood memories of shelling peas with my father (whom he called Gramps) inspired the invention of two games based upon the concept of transaddition: Shelling Peas and Gramps.
Shelling Peas Analysis, Jeff Grant
Shelling Peas Analysis, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
With a game like Shelling Peas where open sources are allowed, the score can usually be extended by scouring progressively more obscure references. For the purposes of this investigation I have limited myself to the following major works:
Shakespearean Title-Play, Robert F. Fleissner
Shakespearean Title-Play, Robert F. Fleissner
Word Ways
The meaning of Shakespeare's titles are still prime fodder for the scholarly gristmill, and the extent to which they may facetiously involve conscious or unconscious paronomasia is a matter of specialized concern. I know of at least four instances in which wordplay can be inferred, and invite readers to supply others:
The "C-14" Problem, Dmitri A. Borgmann
The "C-14" Problem, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
William Shakespeare--the 16th-century dramatist and poet, not the 19th-century musical composer and pianist--is credited with using the longest English world faithfully alternating consonants and vowels: the 27-letter HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS. The term is, unfortunately, both a nonce word and obviously Latin, not truly English. The Funk & Wagnalls Unabridged, apparently by way of a back formation, has converted the word into HONORIFICABILITUDINITY, a 22-letter term wholly English in appearance, possessed of a simple meaning ("honorableness"), and also alternating consonants and vowels regularly. Since 1913, when that dictionary was first published, these two words have stood unchallenged in point of length.
Musical Wordboxes, Christopher Mcmanus
Musical Wordboxes, Christopher Mcmanus
Word Ways
Cryptic crosswords and other word puzzles make frequent use of incongruous word unions. These are the unexpected words which often result when two shorter words are joined together. A few random examples: ASH-ORE, BRAN-DISH, CUR-BED, GALL-ANT, SINCE-RELY, and WARS-HIPS. A double-barreled example is the familiar fill-in-the-blanks puzzle with the answer "The NOTABLE doctor was NOT ABLE to operate because he had NO TABLE."
Canine Star Shined, Edward R. Wolpow
Canine Star Shined, Edward R. Wolpow
Word Ways
"Canine Star Shined," the latest movie starring Benji: "Five-Star Entertainment!" (The Romany Times)