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The Biggest Hoax, Chris Cole
The Biggest Hoax, Chris Cole
Word Ways
The biggest (i.e., longest) word that appears in the Merriam-Webster dictionaries and the Oxford English Dictionary is the 45-letter PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSPICSILICOVOCANOCONIOSIS. It now appears that this word occurs to to a hoax perpetrated by members of the National Puzzlers League. If true, this is surely one of the greatest ironies on the history of logology.
Famous Scrabble Quotes, John Holgate
Famous Scrabble Quotes, John Holgate
Word Ways
Some famous people have dabbled in Scrabble: Richard Burton, King Farouk, Omar Sharif, President Nixon and Martina Navratilova; to name a few. But there are many other celebrities who, in the course of a game, have uttered immortal comments which have since become part and parcel of the Scrabble player's vernacular.
Beyond Automynorcagrams, Richard Rankin
Beyond Automynorcagrams, Richard Rankin
Word Ways
While doing research for an unrelated article, I stumbled upon Howard W. Bergerson's 1975 article in Word Ways, "Automynorcagrams". This is a logological form in which the nth word of the text must begin with the nth character in the text. According to Bergerson, the idea behind the automynorcagram is to create a "self-propelling and partially self-replicating logological entity".
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 22 Number 3
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 22 Number 3
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
The Aceinorst Transposal Problem, Dmitri A. Borgmann
The Aceinorst Transposal Problem, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
In "Language on Vacation" (1965), I presented 17 transposals of the 9 letters ACEINORST. For the time in the history of logology, the feat was a record-setting one.
The Structure Of A Word Network, A. Ross Eckler
The Structure Of A Word Network, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
A word network consists of a collection of words of the same length, in which any two words that differ by only a single letter in one position (such as EAT and FAT, or STORE and SWORE) are joined by a link. A word ladder, originally invented by Lewis Carroll, joins two words in a network to each other by means of a path traced through successive links (such as EAT-BAT-BAND-BIN-PIN). Ordinarily, there are many such possible paths involving many different intermediate words.
"English For Today" Anagrammed, Barry Tunick
"English For Today" Anagrammed, Barry Tunick
Word Ways
O, Lady of the Rings, angry is the flood of the godly rains.
Palindrome And Palindromes, Darryl Francis
Palindrome And Palindromes, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Long-time Word Ways readers will remember previous articles of mine where I take a particular word (or group of letters) and then transpose it, transdelete it, transadd it, and so on. For example,e i have subjected CAROLINE, NEUSTRIA and the letters ACEINORST to such manipulation. Two further words which i Have been examining carefully are PALINDROME and PALINDROMES. In this article, I look at various surgeries which can be performed on these two words.
The Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Jeff Grant
The Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
I first met Great Uncle Derwent and Great Aunt Dolly when I was a young boy. Already mad about words, it didn't take me long to discover the treasure in their bookcase. On the bottom shelf, looking slightly worse for wear, was "The Encyclopaedic Dictionary," published between 1886 and 1890, by Cassell and Company of London, Paris and New York. I spent an hour poring over the first of its seven volumes, eagerly examining the unfamiliar terms and admiring the many detailed illustrations. The old man couldn't help but notice my fascination, even though he was engaged in a lively …
Double, Triple, And Quadruple Bigrams, Kyle Corbin
Double, Triple, And Quadruple Bigrams, Kyle Corbin
Word Ways
A bigram is any sequence of two consecutive letters found in a word, such as OG in dOG. A double bigram is a bigram that occurs twice in succession, such as OGOG in mOGOGraphia. Bigrams can be extended to triple, such as OGOGOG in lOGOGOGue, and quaduple, such as KUKUKUKU, which is itself a word.
The Bwbachod, Don Laycock
The Bwbachod, Don Laycock
Word Ways
Bwbachod, pronounced boo-ba-khod. Welsh brownies whose outstanding characteristic is a dislike of teetotallers and dissenting ministers (Dictionary of Fairies).
Spreadsheet Logology: Letter-Shifts, Anthony Sebastian
Spreadsheet Logology: Letter-Shifts, Anthony Sebastian
Word Ways
This article describes a personal computer spreadsheet model (template) that aids in searching for alphabetical letter-shift word-pairs (e.g., cheer-jolly, shift-value 7). It complements my November 1988 Word Ways article demonstrating how non-computer-experts can tap the computer's power for logological studies by using commercially-available, inexpensive spreadsheet applications programs like Lotus 1-2-3. A motivated novice with little experience using personal computers can learn to use a spreadsheet application program in a few hours.
America Is A British Village, Peter Newby
America Is A British Village, Peter Newby
Word Ways
One of the charms of Word Ways is to discover the more offbeat communities of the United States which feature in the various articles of its contributors. THis factors has even extended to my first reply from a reader of the magazine to my recent request for words of an unusual lexical property ("A Trivial Challenge", February 1989); Martin Gardner drew my attention to the alternate Os of the Wisconsin town Oconomowoc. However, Great Britain has its share of the curiously-named towns and Villages, and a small selection of these may be of interest.
Imaginary People For You To Meet, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Imaginary People For You To Meet, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
Words that have been made out of people's names, such as boycott and forsythia, are known as eponyms. However, there appears to be no name for the inverse process, that of creating fictitious names to describe generic behavior or inanimate objects. What behavior or objects do the following names stand for?
The Aeilnorst Problem, Darryl Francis
The Aeilnorst Problem, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
The August 1989 issue of Word Ways offered Dmitri Borgmann's article "The ACEINORST Transposal Problem". In that article, Dmitri asked if the nine-letter group AEILNORST could produce more transposals than the ACEINORST group. Dmitri began by offering six transposals from various collegiate dictionaries: ORIENTALS, ORLEANIST, RELATIONS, SEROTINAL, TENSORIAL, and TIROLEANS.
Nomen Est Ominous, John Holgate
Nomen Est Ominous, John Holgate
Word Ways
There have been 23 Prime Ministers of Australia since Federation in 1901. Eighteen of their surnames (and twenty of their Christian names) satisfy Dmitri Borgmann's ultimate logological law, the requirement that "all designations...begin with letters in the first half of the English alphabet" ("History Reinterpreted", Word Ways February 1987).
A Type Of Crypt, Faith W. Eckler
A Type Of Crypt, Faith W. Eckler
Word Ways
It had been a bad week at the CIA. Tensions were building in the Middle East, and unrest was spreading throughout the United States, particularly on college campuses. Young student terrorists were threatening to bomb government offices, and the President was considering declaring a national emergency and calling out the National Guard.
Electronic Word Search Programs, Anthony Sebastian
Electronic Word Search Programs, Anthony Sebastian
Word Ways
Spelling anxiety is no affliction for writers who use electronic typewriters or personal computer (PC) word processing programs that provide so-called spell checking (see "The Electronic Spell" by Faith Eckler in the May 1988 Word Ways). Writers can choose to be notified (via beep) immediately after typing a word incorrectly, or they can invoke global spell checking after completing a manuscript. Most built-in spell checkers both identify a misspelled word and try to "guess" the word intended, offering a candidate list of correctly spelled alternatives from a database ranging in size from 40,000 to over 100,000 words.
A Seat In Loge A, Edward W. Wolpow
A Seat In Loge A, Edward W. Wolpow
Word Ways
In his book "Philosophy Through The Looking Glass" (Open Court, La Salle IL, 1985). Jean-Jacques Lecercle concerns himself with a variety of perversion which Michel Pierssens termed logophilia, "...the love of language that knows no bounds, certainly not those of common sense" In his exposition upon delire, the point where grammar and madness meet, he introduces us to several obscure French writers and contrasts their varieties of delire with the more patterned and orderly nonsense of Lewis Carroll.
Lead Quayle In!, David Morice
Lead Quayle In!, David Morice
Word Ways
After reading the in-depth interview of President Bush in the February Word Ways, I decided to contact Vice President Quayle and ask him some tough questions. Quayle's secretary informed me that Bush was so pleased with the Morton interview that he issued an order, called the Mome Memo, which officially mandated all government personnel to speak and write in anagrams based on any variants of their names. Naturally, a few people had to change their names to comply with the new rule. The vice president decided to limit himself to the letters in DANIEL QUAYLE since they are the …
Medical Curiosities, John Holgate
Medical Curiosities, John Holgate
Word Ways
Anybody infected by the humour of Ash and Lake's "Bizzare Books" (particularly Chapter 2, "The Right Person for the job") will be continually on the lookout for similar bibliographic anomalies. Working in a medical library, I have developed the habit of collecting references in which the author's name fits like a surgical glove onto the title of his work.
Tool-Naming By Iron Workers, Alan Buczynski
Tool-Naming By Iron Workers, Alan Buczynski
Word Ways
First unionized in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the trade of iron worker developed at a time when the industrial revolution allowed, for the first time in history, the erection of steel structures on a widespread scale. The technology of steel construction was new; the men hired to do the actual work, the construction gangs, were for the large part uneducated immigrants willing to work a dangerous job for low pay. The combination of a new technology with a class of worker unfamiliar with architectural and engineering terminology precipitated a colorful jargon which exists, in one form or …
The Growth Of A Word Network, A. Ross Eckler
The Growth Of A Word Network, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The May 1973 issue of Word Ways introduced the concept of a word network, a connected diagram of words of a single length, in which any two words differing in only one letter in the same position (as BRA and ERA, or TON and TEN) are joined by a line. Networks with more than 50 or 100 words are generally too complicated to diagram on a single sheet of paper, and it is difficult to assess their properties.
'Or' Son Visits The Escorial, Harry B. Partridge
'Or' Son Visits The Escorial, Harry B. Partridge
Word Ways
I wended my way down the walk to The Wombat's winter wickiup overlooking the Wrapahammock River. It had stormed the night before and the landscape was covered with what Iranians (the whilom Persians) call barf, but when we English-speakers more sensibly refer to as snow. The Wombat's chatelaine, Pocahontas-like in a feather chaplet, purringly raised the weighty woolen blanket serving as a door to admit me. Gazing on her feline svelteness and chrysoberyl eyes I reflected that my friend must be a secret Encratite or Hieracite not have married this direction descendant of the Marquis de Carabas' right bower.