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Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 17 Number 1
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 17 Number 1
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue, including a table of contents.
Front Cover And Publication Information
Front Cover And Publication Information
Word Ways
Publication information including table of contents.
Logology By Computer, Alan Frank
Logology By Computer, Alan Frank
Word Ways
Computers have the potential for playing many roles in the field of recreational linguistics. Six general categories are:
a) making a list of all words with specified orthographic characteristics,
b) managing logological data bases,
c) acting as a practice opponent in world games,
d) solving formal word puzzles such as crosswords, double-crostics, and the types dealt with by the National Puzzlers' League and Games magazine,
e) composing such puzzles,
f) typesetting material for magazines of recreational linguistics.
The Great Oxymoron Contest, Bo Mitchell
The Great Oxymoron Contest, Bo Mitchell
Word Ways
An oxymoron is defined by Willard Espy in the Garden of Eloquence (Harper and Row, 1983) as "a figure in which an epithet of contrary meaning is added to a word". He gives several examples, including "their love was bittersweet, "wise folly, and "a deafening silence".
Dial M For Mind-Tickler, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Dial M For Mind-Tickler, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
In these pages over the years, I have contributed to you entertainment with a series of articles on various aspects of British and American English, most often couching my material in quiz format. The answers to these quizzes have appeared at the back of the issue in which the quizzes were printed.
A Word Square Update, Maxey Brooke
A Word Square Update, Maxey Brooke
Word Ways
In 1974, I sent the editor a home-made Christmas card summarizing most of what was known about word squares to that time. To my surprise, he published it as "A Survey Of Small Squares" in the May 1975 Word Ways, along with several additions for which he gave me credit.
Typewriter Recreations, Eugene Ulrich
Typewriter Recreations, Eugene Ulrich
Word Ways
The standard arrangement of the letters on a typewriter and the way the hands and fingers are used to type offer possibilities for a variety of linguistic investigations. We assume the typist uses the standard finger pattern given below.
Overlapping Word Squares, Edward R. Wolpow
Overlapping Word Squares, Edward R. Wolpow
Word Ways
The single word square uses the same words across as down, and several articles about these have appeared in Word Ways, usually dealing with the construction of the largest possible square made of respectable English words. This article will examine single word squares that can be made to overlap. The smallest possible word square that can be made to partially overlap with another one is of size 2x2. There are, in fact, three distinct ways for two such squares to overlap, and examples for each are shown.
Instructions To Authors
Word Ways
Back cover, including instructions to authors who wish to contribute to Word Ways.
3330 Pangrams, A. Ross Eckler
3330 Pangrams, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
A pangram is a set of words in which each letter of the alphabet appears exactly once. Various people, including such distinguished mathematicians as the English logician Augustus De Morgan and the American information theorist Claude Shannon, have searched for pangrams that can be arranged in a meaningful sentence, but all efforts have required extensive explanations of the message the sentence is attempting to convey. In view of these difficulties, it seems prudent to abandon this additional requirement, regarding a pangram as a list of words and nothing more.
Colloquy
Word Ways
Webster's Dictionary defines colloquy as mutual discourse. Readers are encouraged to submit additions, corrections, and comments about earlier articles appearing in Word Ways. Comments received up to a month prior to publication of an issue will appear in it.
Kickshaws, Martin Gardner
On Writing Readable Graffiti, John Henrick
On Writing Readable Graffiti, John Henrick
Word Ways
You just wrote it. It's your most brilliant achievement yet. But is it readable? All graffitists worthy of the name must have asked themselves this question at some time. Indeed, it is a question that every conscientious author asks repeatedly. Unlike other writers, however, graffitists do not get any of the standard forms of feedback.
Closed Scrabble Boards, Kyle Corbin
Closed Scrabble Boards, Kyle Corbin
Word Ways
Most SCRABBLE crossword games end only after all 100 tiles have been drawn and one player has "played out" (used all the tiles in the rack). However, the rules say that the game may also end when all possible plays have been made -- when the players have created a "closed board." Games rarely end in this manner, and when they do, the players have usually used nearly all the tiles. Just how few tiles are theoretically necessary, then, to close the board?
A Rhapsody Of Words, Darryl Francis
A Rhapsody Of Words, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Word Ways is a journal devoted to language, names, speech, spelling, punctuation, dictionaries, etymology, linguistics -- but above all, words. A rhapsody of words, as Shakespeare said in Hamlet.
First Words, Jeremiah Farrell
First Words, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
If TRICK PLAY are dirty words, ARM HOLD are strong words, FINGER SHADOWS are fore words, and STREET TALK are cross words, then what words are these?
The Mathematics Of Words, A. Ross Eckler
The Mathematics Of Words, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
From the standpoint of an algebraist, words are nothing but ordered sequences of letters, each letter being a member of an allowable alphabet of such letters. Any sequence of letters is permitted, and he is often interested in deriving theorems about the existence or non-existence of certain letter-patterns.
Puzzle Busters, J. B. Griswold
Puzzle Busters, J. B. Griswold
Word Ways
The National Puzzlers' League recently celebrated its centennial with a three-day convention held in New Brunswick, N.J. in July 1983. The following account, reprinted from the March 1937 American Magazine, entertainingly describes an NPL regional meeting a half-century ago. Rufus T. Strohm, editor of the Enigma (the official publication of the League), wrote in April 1937 "The article in the March American Magazine about the league and the Krewe is a swell job, and the author Jerome Beatty (pseudonymically J.B. Griswold) has the thanks of all of us for giving so accurate a picture of us and our activities. It …
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 16 Number 3
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 16 Number 3
Word Ways
Publication information including table of contents.
Greek-Letter Pangrammatic Poems, Howard W. Bergerson
Greek-Letter Pangrammatic Poems, Howard W. Bergerson
Word Ways
Meaningful English pangrams -- the 26 letters of the alphabet rearranged into a sentence -- are almost impossible to construct. Howard Bergerson has come up with an idea which has apparently never been tried before: use the one hundred letters contained in the Greek letter-names alpha, beta, ..., omega instead. The following poems are the result, dealing with a wide variety of topics; note that several introduce a Greek theme. In one poem, Socrates' wife Xanthippe objects to the payment of a pig that Socrates promised to a friend before drinking the hemlock. In another, Howard Bergerson echoes the haunting …
The Downfall Of Maurice Faversham, Walter Shedlofsky
The Downfall Of Maurice Faversham, Walter Shedlofsky
Word Ways
Coroner Michael Hobbs: Court is now in session. This inquest has been convened to inquire into the death of Sir Maurice Faversham, who was found dead last Saturday, May 21, in the hall of his ancestral home in the town of Audley End. We shall now hear from those persons who have an interest in this matter.
Roughhewn Ends, Harry B. Partridge
Roughhewn Ends, Harry B. Partridge
Word Ways
My learned friend, Dr. H. K. Wombat, seldom stirs abroad from his home overlooking the Southern California coast from the Palos Verdes peninsula to Malibu. This is not for fear of being stared at -- for the Los Angeles Basin offers far more bizzare denizens than an elderly marsupial dressed in cap and cape -- but because the savant is constantly occupied in his own projects and thoughts, some of which I have been privileged to communicate to you. Still, at times the doughty diprotodont does indeed sally forth, as, for instance, to a bookstore at Rosewood and Western, which …
Naming More Animals, Rufus T. Strohm
Naming More Animals, Rufus T. Strohm
Word Ways
The following logological fable is one of a series written by Rufus T. Strohm, editor of the National Puzzlers' League. It appeared in the January 1936 Enigma.
Three Acro-Fables, Don Emmerson
Three Acro-Fables, Don Emmerson
Word Ways
Once upon a long time ago, on the tiny Mediterranean island of Mynorca, an old peasant turned to his son and said, "Acronyms Can Relax Our Nerves -- Yes, My Son?" To which the son replied, "By Any Logologist's Or Namester's Esimate, Yes!"
Everybody Comes From Somewhere, Maxey Brooke
Everybody Comes From Somewhere, Maxey Brooke
Word Ways
A citizen of Houston is known as a Houstonian. One who lives in Dallas is a Dallasite. If you are from Los Angeles, you are an Angelino. And if you happen to be an inhabitant of New York, you are a New Yorker.
Why Couldn't They Say "I Love You"?, Cynthia Knight
Why Couldn't They Say "I Love You"?, Cynthia Knight
Word Ways
Cast of Characters: ADELAIDE McCABE, a feeble hag, and TONY RUSSO, worn-out N.Y. tout
Dr. Robinson's Dictionary, Jeremiah Farrell
Dr. Robinson's Dictionary, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
It is said that you can tell a man by the books he reads. More so, then, by the books he writes. In the case of William J. Robinson (1869-1936), Ph.G., M.D., consider these works.
Colloquy
Word Ways
Webster's Dictionary defines colloquy as mutual discourse. Readers are encouraged to submit additions, corrections, and comments about earlier articles appearing in Word Ways. Comments received up to a month prior to publication of an issue will appear in it.
Espyramids And Doublets, Willard R. Espy
Espyramids And Doublets, Willard R. Espy
Word Ways
The following puzzles are excerpted from a book entitled Word Puzzles to be published by Dembner Enterprises in September 1983. In an "ESPYramid Up" one enlarges a one-letter word letter by letter, each addition making a new word, rearranging the letters as need dictates (a-at-tea-mate-steam-master...). The "ESPYramid Down" reverses this process, subtracting letters one at a time and rearranging the remainder. In "Doublets", inspired by the Lewis Carroll word game, a word is gradually changed into another of opposite meaning by replacing one letter at a time, the rest remaining undisturbed and each move resulting in a new word (suite-spite-spine-swine-swing-swung-stung...).