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Numbers Functioning As Nouns, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

In "Word Watch," Anne H. Soukhanov of "The American Heritage Dictionary" cited some examples of "a class of English words, usually informal or slang, that are wholly or partly numerals," but ignorance or reticence kept her list short. Here are more for Word Ways readers to come up with. Answers can be found in Answer and Solutions at the end of this issue.

Anagramming Spiro Agnew, Mike Morton

Word Ways

While scholars argue the merits of former presidents, recent or otherwise, there is scant effort to determine their ratings as subjects for anagrams. Although I haven't made a survey of anagrams found in chief executives, I've spent some time trying to find computer-generated anagrams for some recent ones.

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Letter-Deletions: A Type Collection, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

As most readers will be aware, there are many words which become other words when merely a single letter is deleted. For example, if the first letter of AMORAL is deleted, it becomes MORAL; if the L of MELTED is deleted, it becomes METED; and so on.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles in this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of this issue including instructions to authors.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 23 Number 2

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Literary Cryptarithmetic By Computer, Leonard J. Gordon

Word Ways

In the November 1989 Word Ways, Peter Newby presented a set of literate cryptarithms. This name was coined by Newby, but is is a well-known concept: these are cryptarithms in which the code letters form interrelated words. They are discussed in "Mathematics on Vacation" (1966) by Joseph Madachy, editor of the Journal of Recreational Mathematics. He calls them alphametics, a word coined by J.A.H. Hunter in 1955.

Revisiting The Panagrammatic Highway, Faith W. Eckler

Word Ways

In the August 1988 Word Ways, Udo Pernisz introduced the concept of the pangrammatic highway. To refresh your memory, I will briefly describe the game as he plays it with his family. The object is to find all the letters of the alphabet, in sequence, on signs visible from the highway. These may be official highway signs or billboards and other stationary advertising signs; however, signs on cars themselves, such as bumper stickers and license plates, are excluded. In the basic game only one letter form each sign may be counted.

That Is Ie - Or, Is That Ei?, Paul Leopold

Word Ways

Seeing wherein neither weirdly-veiled sovereign deigned agreeing, their feisty heirs, leisurely eyeing eight heinous deity-freighted reindeer sleighs, counterfeited spontaneity, freeing rein (reveile, neighing!); forfeited obeisance, fleeing neighborhood. Kaleidoscopically-veined foreign heights being seized, either reigned, sleight surfeited, therein; reinvented skein-dyeing; reinteratedly inveighed, feigning weighty seismological reinforcement.

London Wordplay, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Over the years, Word Ways has presented a variety of material concerned with placenames. United States statenames and placenames have figured extensively; there have been several articles about 'strange' British placenames; and there have been numerous mentions of foreign placenames satisfying this or that logological phenomenon. However, I believe that the material resented here is new, and is not a rehash of material previously published.

Word Records From Webster's Third, Chris Cole

Word Ways

This article contains a list of words with interesting logological properties from Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961) and 12000 Words: A Supplement to Webster's Third (1986). Only uncapitalized, unpunctuated, bold-face entries or their inflected forms of covered. Borderline cases are bracketed. The word records are drawn from the following three sources:

Full-Name Palindromes, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

For many years, wordsmiths have been devising anagrams based on the first name and surname of all sorts of people, usually famous ones. Some examples:

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Answering The Sallows Challenge

Word Ways

In his February 1990 Word Ways article, "The New Merology," Lee Sallows challenges the reader to find more than 46 self-descriptive number names between 0 and 99 by assigning suitable integral values to the different letters in each name. It's easy! The key idea is to "square" the array as described in the article "38 Self-Descriptive Number Names" in the February 1990 Word Ways.

The Alphabet Cube, David Morice

Word Ways

You've just bought an Alphabet Cube for $26 from K-Mart. It measures one foot long and each side, and it comes with a remote control panel displaying a course of buttons. A sign on the box says: "Operates on triple A batteries (included)." It's ready to work.

Set Squares, Peter Newby

Word Ways

It would appear that the contributors to Word Ways have abandoned interest in the lower orders of word squares in favour of computerized 8-by-8s and 9-by-9s. May I suggest, therefore, an original challenge to rekindle the spirit of the pure pencil and paper practitioners: Set Squares.

Concrete Considerations, Edward R. Wolpow

Word Ways

On reading that a number of priests had gathered for a CONCELEBRATION of the Mass, it seemed that a formula had presented itself for the generation of collective verbs which might be used in the manner of the spate of collective nouns with which we have become familiar. James Lipton's "An Exaltation of Larks" (Grossman Publishers, 1968; paperback edition Penguin Books, 1977) sets forth large numbers of legitimate collective nouns and adds many new coinages, from a colony of bacteriologists to a cc of Mexicans.

Minimum-Length Pangrammatic Ladders, Leonard J. Gordon

Word Ways

A pangrammatic word ladder is one which contains at least one of every letter of the alphabet. Since letters in a ladder can be changed only one at a time, a minimum-length ladder of n-letter words contains 26 - n + 1 words.

Oxymoronology, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Not long ago, a couple I know tooled down to a local car emporium to look over the latest products. Attracted to the low sticker price on the basic model, they told the salesman that they were considering buying an unadorned automobile and had no inclination to purchase any of the long list of options affixed to the side windown of the vehicle they were inspecting.

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

People Of The Nineties, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

As we enter the last decade of this century, we are using the terminology of the Seventies and Eighties. Who are these different group of people? You know about wimps and yuppies, and recall hippies and such; who are these in Mod Squad?

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles in this issue.

We Regroup To Lie Off The Spanish Main, Pete Stickland

Word Ways

Following "To Free Up a Wealth of Shining Promise" in the November 1989 Word Ways, I constructed another 300 anagrams of WHAT IS THE MEANING OR PURPOSE OF LIE: 75 quatrains extending what originator John Henrick envisions as "a significant collection in its own right." Having passed the 500 mark, I propose to limit annual output to 1000 anagrams so that Henrick may more easily keep track. Perhaps he might comment on the number of considers "significant"? After glimpsing the vast potential, I now see a million anagrams as insignificant, requiring a mere man-millenium of title shuffling.

The New Merology, Lee Sallows

Word Ways

Old merology, or that branch of anatomy which deals with the elementary tissues and fluids of the body, we know about. What of the new?

Scrabble In Nursery Rhyme, John Holgate

Word Ways

There was an old woman who hid in her shoe

Some esses for gaining a point (sometimes, two).

SHe sneaked them in one at a time

And no one detected the crime --

But when she played SASSAFRAS, SISSY and SMILES,

Her opponent demanded a recount of titles.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 23 Issue 1

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Who's Flaithbhertach Macloingry?, Murray R. Pearce

Word Ways

In the November 1989 Word Ways George H. Scheetz presented a list of 51 words ending in -gry. His fascinating article piqued my interest and I immediately set out to find some additions to his list.

38 Self-Descriptive Number Names, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

If one sets A = 1, B = 2, .... Z = 26, the number-name ONE scores 15 + 14 + 5 = 34, the number-name TWO scores 20 + 23 + 15 = 58, and so on. In the August 1981 Word Ways, Edward Wolpow observed that no number-name is self-descriptive; that is, no number-name is equal to its score. (However TWO HUNDRED NINETEEN has a score of 218, and TWO HUNDRED FIFTY-THREE, 254.) In the November 1989 Kickshaws, David Morice suggested that this melancholy state of affairs could be rectified by rearranging the alphabet; for example, if …

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.