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Articles 3631 - 3660 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
A New Charade Crossword, Ernst Theimer
A New Charade Crossword, Ernst Theimer
Word Ways
In the August 1970 and August 1971 Word Ways, Ernst Theimer introduced the charade crossword to readers. The first two paragraphs below, explaining the nature of this puzzle, are repeated from the 1971 article.
Three Little Sacks, Word Wurcher
Three Little Sacks, Word Wurcher
Word Ways
In former times people depended much more than nowadays on a well-stocked memory, or at least one differently stocked with little reference to printed materials. Few could read, fewer still had many books, and pens and paper were expensive. So it was, for instance, that names of rulers were associated with tags and epithets which immediately summoned up qualities or events which located them in the history of their countries. In the United States we have a few ekenames like The Father of His Country, Honest Abe and The Great Communicator, but of these only the first and second seem …
Kickshaws, Eugene J. Ulrich
A Lexicographer's Search, Richard M. Lederer Jr.
A Lexicographer's Search, Richard M. Lederer Jr.
Word Ways
When I was researching my about-to-be-published A Glossary of Colonial American Words (Lederer's Lexicon) I encountered only a handful for which I could not find definitions in the many sources available. Perhaps some of Word Ways readers can come up with definitions. Here are the stumpers.
A Little Bow Peep, Leonard R. N. Ashley
A Little Bow Peep, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
Even non-toxophilites (look it up!) out there must realize that archery, now a sport for a few, was a business and a necessary skill for many in days gone by when the yeomen who were bowmen were the military strength of a nation. You can see how many of our ancestors were connected with archery in peace and war when you reflect on the surnames that have come down to us such as Arrowsmith, Fletcher, Bowman, Archer, Stringer and even Abbott (“at the butts”). Here is a peep or little look at the once-big business of archery, once so entrenched …
Baseballese, Edward R. Wolpow
Baseballese, Edward R. Wolpow
Word Ways
MOUND n.5. Baseball. The slightly elevated ground on which the pitcher stands when pitching. Cant.
Even More One-Sided Scrabble, Kyle Corbin
Even More One-Sided Scrabble, Kyle Corbin
Word Ways
The February 1982 Word Ways presented a SCRABBLE® Brand Crossword Game (hereafter referred to simply as a Scrabble game) by Prince Joli Kansil in which the winner scored more than 1900 points to this spread by a slight modification of the setup in "The Highest-Scoring Scrabble Game" in the May 1982 issue.
Instructions To Authors
Word Ways
Instructions to authors who wish to contribute to Word Ways.
Silvery Discovery? Glittery Trumpery, A. Ross Eckler
Silvery Discovery? Glittery Trumpery, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
In the March 1983 issue of Omni magazine, the International Paper Company presented a two-page advertisement containing various spelling tips by novelist John Irving. To help the bad speller gain confidence, he suggested the following rule:
What about -ary or -ery? Just remember that there are only six common words in English that end in -ery. Memorize them, and feel fairly secure that all the rest end in -ary: cemetery, millinery, distillery, monastery, confectionery, stationery (as in paper).
An Impractical Cipher, David Shulman
An Impractical Cipher, David Shulman
Word Ways
One short story that will never win an O. Henry prize as the best short story of the year appeared in Word Ways as "Ivan's Letter" in the February and May 1982 issues. It first appeared in The Enigma of June 1930, at which time a paltry prize of ten dollars was offered to anyone who could solve the cipher in the story. The prize was never claimed, and in my opinion it was not worth one's time or trouble to solve such a cipher. In fact, the story should have never been reprinted. But, since Word Ways has resurrected …
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 16 Number 2
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 16 Number 2
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information, including a table of contents, for this issue.
N-Tile Scrabble Records, Kyle Corbin
N-Tile Scrabble Records, Kyle Corbin
Word Ways
What is the highest score achievable by playing a given number of tiles in a single turn of Scrabble Crossword Game? As far as I know, no one has investigated the records for playing fewer than the maximum of seven tiles. But the majority of turns ordinarily encountered in Scrabble Crossword Game use only three to five tiles, not all seven. So after working on the seven-tile record for a few years, I decided to investigate the records for playing one through six tiles. I soon realized that these records were just as intriguing and strategical as the seven-tile record. …
Palindromic Introductions, Chaim Fleischman
Palindromic Introductions, Chaim Fleischman
Word Ways
NERO, LOREN! ERROL - MEET, SEE, ESTEEM LORRE!
Palindramayana, Don Emmerson
Palindramayana, Don Emmerson
Word Ways
The Ramayana is one of the world's longest, oldest, and most admired epic poems. First composed in India over 2,000 years ago and now some 24,000 couplets long, the Ramayana describes Prince Rama's marriage to Sita, their banishment, her kidnaping, he rrescue, and their reunion. Apart from its popularity in India, the epic is well known in other parts of Asia, including Indonesia (especially Java) and Thailand.
The 4-Set Problem, Philip M. Cohen
The 4-Set Problem, Philip M. Cohen
Word Ways
23751 different sets of four letters can be formed from the 26 letter of the alphabet, if order is ignored and repetition allowed. (This is the same as the number of ways of selecting four different objects from a group of 26+4-1.) Is it possible, for each set, to find a word containing its letters?
The Oed Supplement, Darryl Francis
The Oed Supplement, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
1972 saw the publication of the first volume of the revised Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, covering the letters A-G. The second volume, for the letters H-N, appeared in 1976. A review of the first two volumes of the OED (now usually abbreviated to OEDS) appeared in the volumes were discussed, and an extensive list of "new" words was presented.
Those Cryptic British Crosswords, William Sunners
Those Cryptic British Crosswords, William Sunners
Word Ways
When Will Shortz was gathering material for his recently-published book, World Class Championship Crosswords (Simon & Schuster, 1982), he visited me to consult some of my historical crossword competition material. We soon got into a spirited discussion about inadvertent ambiguity in British-style crossword puzzles: I maintained that the plethora of "outs" (black squares) in British diagrams allowed crossword fans sometimes to write different correct answers into the same word-path, whereas Will Shortz insisted that the typical British clue would not allow such a possibility.
The Poet's Corner
Word Ways
From time to time, Word Ways receives a variety of short poems related to recreational linguistics, some original, others previously published. As poetic output cannot be easily predicted, these will be presented on an irregular basis.
A Balancing Act, Harry B. Partridge
A Balancing Act, Harry B. Partridge
Word Ways
As the heavy oaken door to Wombat Manor swung open to reveal the svelte outline of its laird's chatelaine mine eyne dazzled and became fixed upon the vertical line of quivering chatoyance issuing from the depths of the baroque chrysoberyl ferronniere which, like a third eye, made up with her own two a trefoil whose threefold reflection of the waning January sun distilled the essence of light. Her civilized purr broke through my optical enchantment, and as she pressed into my hands an elegant little hamper of ample weight I found myself being given subtle instructions supplementing the telephonic message …
Three Word Square Contests (Part 3), Helen Motamen
Three Word Square Contests (Part 3), Helen Motamen
Word Ways
In the last contest, we had to make up a five-by-five grid of letters and find the most 3-, 4-, and 5-letter words reading across and down. The total number of letters in all the words was the score. So the best grid we could make would have all possible sequences of 3, 4, and 5 letters being words. This grid would be a five-by-five word square encompassing four four-by-four word and nine three-by-three word squares! It would ahve ten 5-letter words (10x5=50 points), twenty 4-letter words (20x4=80), and thirty 3-letter words (30x3=90), so it would score a grand total …
A Dialogue Of Nations, Peter Gambaccini
A Dialogue Of Nations, Peter Gambaccini
Word Ways
Ed This was a good idea, coming here. I can use the recreation. Let's play pool.
Ned Iraq?
Ed No, I'll rack 'em. I think I'll have some coffee, too.
Instructions To Authors
Word Ways
Instructions to authors who wish to contribute to Word Ways.
A New Number Nomenclature, John Candelaria
A New Number Nomenclature, John Candelaria
Word Ways
In two earlier Word Waysarticles published in August 1975 and February 1976, I proposed a nomenclature for very large numbers, going far beyond the vigintillion (ten to the sixty-third power) commonly regarded as the outer limit. In this article, I introduced some changes to make my proposed nomenclature more consistent with the modern system of Latin cardinal number names, as given on page 128-9 of Ernest Hettich and A.G.C. Maitland's Latin Fundamentals (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1950). In particular, the number name millillion, formerly used to represent the number one followed by 3(1000) + 3 zeros, has now been …
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.
The American Heritage Dictionary, Alan Frank
The American Heritage Dictionary, Alan Frank
Word Ways
Though heralded as "NEW!", the organization of the second edition of The American Heritage Dictionary (AH) is actually a throwback to the earlier days of dictionary making. The design adopted by the dictionary makes it more useful to the general public but less interesting to logologists.
Triple Tautonyms In Biology, Edward R. Wolpow
Triple Tautonyms In Biology, Edward R. Wolpow
Word Ways
Triple tautonyms are hard to find. I know if only two in Webster's Third Edition, cha-cha-cha and tat-tat-tat. On page 175 in his book Language on Vacation (Scribner's, 1965), Dmitri Borgmann also suggests the college sororities Delta Delta Delta and Sigma Sigma Sigma, the honor society Beta Beta Beta, and the scientific names for the African weaverbird and the common rat, Quela quela quela and Rattus rattus rattus (misspelled with a single T). There are a few legitimate additions to his list, such as the movie title Tora! Tora! Tora!; much less acceptable are juxtapositions of …
Daft Fad, Chaim Fleischman
Daft Fad, Chaim Fleischman
Word Ways
In this quiz the answer to each clue is a palindrome. To aid in the solution, word-divisions and all vowels are given. The first letters of all twenty-seven palindromes will spell out another palindrome when read from top to bottom. Answers are given in Answers and Solutions.