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Articles 4321 - 4350 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
The Political Scene, Dmitri A. Borgmann
The Political Scene, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
For some years, an investigation has been under way, looking into the logological characteristics of the names of the two major American political parties, the DEMOCRATIC and the REPUBLICAN parties. What follows is an interim report on the findings.
O.K., Ralph G. Beaman
O.K., Ralph G. Beaman
Word Ways
Railwayman OBEDIAH KELLY, it was said, put his initials on bills of lading to show that he had checked them as correct in his official position as railway freight agent.
Erotemes, Merlin X. Houdini Iv
Erotemes, Merlin X. Houdini Iv
Word Ways
If you have turned to this article expecting a discussion of erotic themes, you had best look elsewhere. Erotemes, you see, are question marks, and you are going to see a lot of question marks here.
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.
Early American Word Puzzles (Part 4), William F. Shortz
Early American Word Puzzles (Part 4), William F. Shortz
Word Ways
By 1830, two major changes were evident in American puzzledom. First, miscellaneous word puzzles involving deletion and juggling of letters were becoming popular as never before. Many of them were unversed, but others were in poetic form. One puzzle from the Saturday Evening Post of September 22, 1827 is perhaps a good example of this new style.
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Word Ways
Readers are encouraged to send their own favorite linguistic kickshaws to the Associate Editor.
Crazy California, A. Ross Eckler
Crazy California, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
"Hey, Dad," said my daughter, Peggy, home from college for the day, "I've written a poem for you to unscramble." (She's into creative writing this semester.) Setting my drink to one side -- a clear head is essential when reconsructing poetry -- I stared at the list of thirty words she thrust before me: anyway, but, California's, cares, crazy, dry, everyone's, fell, go, hanging, if, into, it, it, living, matter, ocean, off, on, on, or, so, somehow, the, there, they'd, underwater, whet, who, wouldn't. This, I thought, ought to be a cinch -- after all, there must be only one …
Instructions To Authors
Word Ways
Instructions to authors interested in contributing to the publication.
Front Cover, Publication Information
Front Cover, Publication Information
Word Ways
Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents
Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba, David L. Stephens
Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba, David L. Stephens
Word Ways
The title of this article, one of the most famous palindromes of all time, was uttered by Napoleon after he had been exiled to the island of Elba. The following palindromic letter, written by the deposed emperor, makes it clear that his debility caused by a local tart named Ada.
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Word Ways
Readers are encouraged to send their own favorite linguistic kickshaws to the Associate Editor.
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.
Language Of Science Fiction Fandom, Philip M. Cohen
Language Of Science Fiction Fandom, Philip M. Cohen
Word Ways
Science fiction fandom, in the broad sense, is made up of those people who are interested in science fiction (SF) or fantasy. In a narrower sense, it is the amorphous group of those who do something because of that interest: attend SF conventions, correspond with other fans, publish or collect fanzines. Fandom in the narrow sense -- the Microcosm -- has developed its own vocabulary, like any in-group, and this particularly rich jargon is the subject of this article.
Scrabble A La Russe, Robert Cass Keller
Scrabble A La Russe, Robert Cass Keller
Word Ways
Vladimir Nabokov, like the late James Thurber, is a word-fan's delight; his novels abound with interlingual puns, anagrams, homonyms and other forms of wordplay, so intimately woven into the fabric of his stories that it is difficult to examine them independently. Recently, Albert Wilansky of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania called my attention to a bit of Nabokov logology that forms the subject of an entire chapter in Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (McGraw-Hill, 1969): a Russian Scrabble game in which the heroine scores 383 points on a single move. Although this feat cannot hold a candle to the English-language single-move records …
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.
Transposals Of Given Names, Darryl Francis
Transposals Of Given Names, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
The logologist often notices that given names (also termed first names, Christian names, or personal names) can be transposed to give everyday English words. For example, ALFRED gives FLARED; ANDREW gives WANDER, WARDEN and WARNED; GLENDA gives ANGLED and DANGLE; and INGRID gives RIDING. The number of such transposals is very large, probably almost as large as the number of given names. Consequently, a full list of transposable names could only be treated adequately in the confines of an extensive transposal dictionary.
A Forbidden Word, Dmitri A. Borgmann
A Forbidden Word, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
Some words are considered so offensive to public morals that almost no dictionary ever published has had the courage to include them.
Big Amy On Wee Knights, Ralph G. Beaman
Big Amy On Wee Knights, Ralph G. Beaman
Word Ways
A Charade Word is a word that may be divided into two or more words: CHARADE = CHAR + ADE. As the game is ordinarily played, one should choose words having component parts that when said together sound more or less like the whole word; otherwise, one may run into difficulties: BEAU TIES sounds like BOW TIES rather than the desired BEAUTIES. For an article such as this, however, where sight is more important than sound, we are not so restricted.
Animated Anagrams, John Mcclellan
Animated Anagrams, John Mcclellan
Word Ways
Although transpositions -- the rearrangement of letters in one word to form another -- lie near the core of logology, few word puzzles are based on them. Most often, one is given a list of words and words and asked to find their transposed forms. It doesn't take very long to do this unless the words are lengthy or rare (although the transpositions of CHESTY and SUTURE are surprisingly difficult to find).
Natural Horrors, Merlin X. Houdini Iv
Natural Horrors, Merlin X. Houdini Iv
Word Ways
In a previous article, I addressed myself to the subject of fears related to sex. In this article, I propose to deal with those fears, dreads, and aversions concerned with natural phenomena: the four basic elements of the ancients, the daily and seasonal cycles, atmospheric and meteorological phenomena, and astronomical phenomena.
Instructions To Authors
Word Ways
Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to the publication.
Literary Cardinals, Darryl Francis
Literary Cardinals, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Numbers are not just for counting!
The cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3, 4 and so on) are learnt fairly early on in life and, for the most part, seem to be used in a fairly mundane way by most people. There is nothing startling about such everyday items as "one man", "two dogs", "three cars", "four shops", "five trains", and so forth. This is what the cardinal numbers were originally meant for and this is, indeed, how most people use them.
Vocabulary
Word Ways
I can remember it well. And I shall never forget it.
The Master spoke, "My logologist son, be this forever ingrained on your memory. A large vocabulary will serve you in good times and bad. To get ahead in this world, one must know The Word."
Refractory Rhymes, Ralph G. Beaman
Refractory Rhymes, Ralph G. Beaman
Word Ways
In his syndicated column of November 12, 1974, L. M. Boyd issued the following challenge to his readers:
Our Language Man once reported that "silver", "spirit" and "chimney" are words that do not rhyme with any other words. To that brief list, he now adds "liquid", "window" and "carpet". Any others?
Well, Mr. Language Man, if you insist upon a ready-made word from Webster's Unabridged rhyming with any of these, the task is very likely impossible. But who said that rhymesters had to be restricted to single words?
Hark The Bark, Maxey Brooke
Hark The Bark, Maxey Brooke
Word Ways
Everyone knows that dogs bark "Bow-wow". Except for Orphan Annie's dog Sandy, who barks "Arf".
The Venereal Game, Willard R. Espy
The Venereal Game, Willard R. Espy
Word Ways
The adjective venereal is defined in dictionaries as pertaining to sexual intercourse, but the associated noun, venery, relates either to coital activity or to the hunting of game. Although Venus pursued her prey indiscriminately in bower or bosky dell, in the venereal game only the bosky dell is involved. James Lipton's An Exaltation of Larks lists scores of venereal terms, relics of mediaeval times. Some -- a school of fish, a pride of lions -- are still in general use; others -- a skulk of foxes, a barren of mules -- are still used by specialists; still others have vanished …
Early American Word Puzzles (Part 3), William F. Shortz
Early American Word Puzzles (Part 3), William F. Shortz
Word Ways
During the first third of the nineteenth century in the United States, the overall popularity of word puzzles began to stabilize and then drop somewhat. As enthusiasm for all forms of literature dropped during this period, it was natural that interest in word puzzles should decline also. Nevertheless, word puzzles began to pick up new recruits among classes of people which, generally, had been uneducated before the turn of the century. In particular, puzzles enjoyed considerable popularity among farmers and others living in rural areas.
A Readable Polyphonic Cipher, A. Ross Eckler
A Readable 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 substitution 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. This is quite different from the well-known (monophonic) substitution cipher, in which each plaintext letter is associated with a different cipher letter -- if A is encoded by T, then …
The Demon Championship, Dmitri A. Borgmann
The Demon Championship, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
The most conspicuous attribute of our language, one of which all its students and practitioners are keenly aware, a characteristic that is an endearing frailty from the logological point of view, is the tremendous disparity between sound and sight in English words. Put succinctly, spelling English words correctly is unreasonably difficult, yet provides logolgoys with much of its fodder.