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Articles 4081 - 4110 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
A Positional Word List, John M. Meyer
A Positional Word List, John M. Meyer
Word Ways
It is quite easy to construct a list of 26 seven-letter words in which the middle letter takes on each alphabetic value. To make this word game more difficult, I have added the requirement that the first three letters and the last three letters must both be words. No doubt the hardest middle letter to deal with is Q, for there are few three-letter words beginning with U and a vowel.
Forced Onomatopoeia, Charles Suhor
Forced Onomatopoeia, Charles Suhor
Word Ways
Onomatopoeia is a familiar phenomenon in language. It refers to words that sound somewhat like their meanings -- e.g., bang, splash, hiss, boom, plop, etc. It is widely recognized that onomatopoetic words are based on fairly subjective, culturally determined ideas about the verbal equivalents of noises found in nature. In the February 1975 issue of Word Ways, Maxey Brooke pointed out that French dogs are understood to be sounding out a "ouat-ouat" sound, German dogs "haf-haf," Chines dogs "wah-wah," and so on.
Kickshaws, Ralph G. Beaman
Kickshaws, Ralph G. Beaman
Word Ways
Kickshaws is currently being assembled by a series of guest editors. All contributions should be sent to the editor in Morristown, New Jersey.
Bokanmalan, Philip M. Cohen
Bokanmalan, Philip M. Cohen
Word Ways
Every hard-core logologist probably knows of the marvelous words to be found in the Oxford English Dictionary and Hodge's Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Recently I came across a book of Finnish place names worthy of being grouped with these: Nylands ortnamn, deras former och forekomst till ar 1600 by Greta Hausen, publications CLII, CLX and CLXXVII of Svenska Litteraturesallskapet i Finland.
Another Polyphonic Cipher, A. Ross Eckler
Another Polyphonic Cipher, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
A polyphonic substitution cipher is one in which several different plaintext letters are enciphered into a single cipher letter or symbol. Perhaps the most simple and well-known example of a polyphonic cipher is the telephone dial, in which the letters ABC are encoded by the number 2, DEF by 3, GHI by 4, JKL by 5, MNO by 6, PRS by 7, TUV by 8, and WXY by 9. Polyphonic ciphers have tended to be shunned by cryptologists because of the inevitable ambiguity encountered in recovering a message. However, if one turns the problem around and asks how one should …
Tribute To A Logophile
Word Ways
Dave Silverman, Kickshaws editor for 26 Word Ways issues between 1969 and 1975, died in Los Angeles in March, 1978.
A Logological Commonplace Book, Hearst Sill Rogers
A Logological Commonplace Book, Hearst Sill Rogers
Word Ways
Commonplace Book: -A book in which "commonplaces" or passages important for reference are collected, usually under general heads; hence, a book in which one records passages or matters to be especially remembered or referred to, with or without arrangement (Oxford English Dictionary) -A book of literary passages, cogent quotations, occasional thoughts, or other memorabilia (Webster's Third); a book containing memoranda of passages or events for reference (Webster's Second) -A book in which noteworthy quotations, poems, comments, etc. are written (Random House Unabridged) -A book in which memoranda or memorable passages or facts are recorded methodically (Funk & Wagnalls Unabridged) -A …
Elementary Improvements, Jeremy Morse, Edward R. Wolpow
Elementary Improvements, Jeremy Morse, Edward R. Wolpow
Word Ways
We respond to Darryl Francis' invitation to discover transadditions of the chemical element names using fewer letters than the ones in his article "Elementary, My Dear Reader" in the November 1977 Word Ways.
A Ten-Year Topical Index
Word Ways
The following index has been designed to help the reader locate specific types of wordplay appearing in the first ten years of Word Ways. Related articles and notes are grouped together, according to a taxonomy which has evolved over the last several years.
Caught In The Web Of Words, A. Ross Eckler
Caught In The Web Of Words, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Caught in the Web of Words is the biography of James A. H. Murray, the Victorian lexicographer who was the chief editor of the incomparable Oxford English Dictionary. Drawing upon unpublished Murray family records as well as Oxford University Press files, his granddaughter Elisabeth Murray has given us a far more detailed account of the man than was previously possible: not merely his 35-year struggle to turn an undigested mass of several million citations sent in by volunteer readers into a dictionary designed to show the historical development of each word from twelfth-century Englan onward, but also his effort to …
On Figures Of Speech, John Mcclellan
On Figures Of Speech, John Mcclellan
Word Ways
It is a toss-up with many persons as to whether History or Mathematics is their most unfavorite subject, and we shall keep this introduction to a minimum for that reason. Luckily, Mathematics does not concern us here, but we feel that a small amount of historical background should be supplied in the interest of clarification.
Distillation, Mary W. Matthews
Distillation, Mary W. Matthews
Word Ways
If not for you, I'd not be in this fix--
You came to me, you smiled deep in my eyes.
I knew not then I'd feel grief's hot, sharp pricks;
No, I was coaxed by false love's lures and sighs.
Front Cover, Publication Information
Front Cover, Publication Information
Word Ways
Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents
Kickshaws, Willard R. Espy
Kickshaws, Willard R. Espy
Word Ways
Kickshaws is currently being assembled by a series of guest editors. All contributions should be sent to the editor in Morristown, New Jersey.
Eleven Positions, Frederick Dawson
Eleven Positions, Frederick Dawson
Word Ways
A phrase migrates to different positions in different blocks of text.
Vowel-Consonant Patterns, Philip M. Cohen
Vowel-Consonant Patterns, Philip M. Cohen
Word Ways
In his article "Seven-Letter Words" in the August 1968 Word Ways, Dmitri Borgmann tackled the problem of finding seven-letter words containing an excess of vowels or consonants.
Palindromic Charade Sentences, James I. Rambo
Palindromic Charade Sentences, James I. Rambo
Word Ways
The construction of palindromes is an extremely old entertainment among word lovers and requires no introduction. Much newer are charade sentences which were introduced by Howard Bergerson in Word Ways and most recently discussed there by Hearst Sill Rogers in the May 1977 issue. In the February 1977 Word Ways there appeared a series of "double" palindromes by the writer of this article. Some readers have doubtless recognized the double palindrome as being merely a pair of charade sentences composed with the additional constraint of being palindromic or, more simply, of being palindromic charade sentences. I believe this to be …
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 that issue.
Roman Holiday, Boris Randolph
Roman Holiday, Boris Randolph
Word Ways
If you are at SIXES and SEVENS with regard to Roman numbers, note that the SIX contains a 9 and the SEVEN, a 5. Some of our other numbers have Roman figures in them, too.
Traffic: Complaints Iv, Tom Smith
"X" As In Xerxes, Dmitri A. Borgmann
"X" As In Xerxes, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
It is the awesome responsibility of parents to choose names for their offspring. In picking suitable names, they must try to find ones meeting certain standards regarded as desirable in our society. Specifically, names should be (1) short, (2) modern, (3) euphonious, (4) free of unpleasant connotations, (5) easy to pronounce, (6) matching the sex of the child being named, and (7) distinctive.
A Word Path Puzzle, Charles Bostick
A Word Path Puzzle, Charles Bostick
Word Ways
In each of the 25 five-by-five letter arrays below, a word having no repeated letters can be traced out by horizontal or vertical steps.
As you discover the word in each array, place its initial letter in a blank five-by-five square whose cells are defined by the positions of the 25 individual arrays in the square pattern below.
Natrix, Ralph G. Beaman
Natrix, Ralph G. Beaman
Word Ways
Here's a one-dimensional crossword for all you jaded fans. Simply fill in the letters as called for by the definitions to find a (11, 5, 5) dictionary phrase. As there are as many words as letters you should have no trouble in completing it. If you don't have a dictionary handy and end up stumped, see Answers and Solutions.
Notes On Palindromes, Robert Funt
Notes On Palindromes, Robert Funt
Word Ways
Outside of Sotades, the inventor of the form, the greatest palindromist in history may well be the late-Victorian poet Edwin Fitzpatrick, now principally remembered for his translation of Omar Khayyam which he entitled "The Rubaiyat of Charades and Palindromes". Although his rendering has been termed eccentrick and even obscure by some, there is little doubt that he remained faithful both to the Tentmaker's rigid use of quatrains and his highly phantasmagorial sense of imagery.
Words With Two Doubled Letters, Philip M. Cohen
Words With Two Doubled Letters, Philip M. Cohen
Word Ways
In the February 1973 Word Ways, Darryl Francis searched for examples of words having two doubled letters (as abbess and buccaneer). Specifically, he attempted to find examples for all doubled pairs excluding J, Q, V and X -- that is, words containing aa-aa, aa-bb, aa-cc, ... , yy-zz, zz-zz.
Got That Rhythm, Maxey Brooke
Got That Rhythm, Maxey Brooke
Word Ways
Some talented performers, like Sid Caesar, can speak a series of nonsense syllables and, by varying the rhythm, make their audience think they are speaking French, Spanish, German, Italian, or Russian.
The Patterns Of Statenames, A. Ross Eckler
The Patterns Of Statenames, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Word play involving the names of the fifty states, or their US Post Office abbreviations, has frequently appeared in Word Ways. This subject is appealing, I think, because it deals with a word list of manageable size; one can easily discuss the logological properties of the whole set of words, as Dmitri Borgmann did in the November 1970 issue when he sought state name transpositions. Furthermore, readers tend to identify with the states in which they live, offering improvements on the original.