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Articles 4501 - 4530 of 4911
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Lesser Breeds Without The Law, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Lesser Breeds Without The Law, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
From such expressions as French leave and the French disease, Dutch courage and Dutch treat, his fine Italian hand in treachery or deceit, and so on, we learn something of the prejudices of our ancestors enshrined in the common vocabulary of the English language. Here are a score of words referring to nations or nationalities. You are asked to guess them from their definitions. How many more can you add to the list? There is something of xenophobia, even contempt, for foreigners -- for not only England, but every Englishman is an island -- here. Prejudices are obvious …
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Word Ways
Readers are encouraged to send their own favorite linguistic kickshaws to the Associate Editor. All answers appear in the Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.
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.
Instructions To Authors
Word Ways
Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to the publication.
Japlish - English Made In Japan, Aaron Martin Cohen
Japlish - English Made In Japan, Aaron Martin Cohen
Word Ways
Foreign residence of Japan frequently chuckle over their discoveries of new forms of Japlish or Janglish, i.e., awkward or ludicrous use of English by Japanese. Other than the ludicrous, there is much of interest to readers of Word Ways; I offer a selection below. A more extensive discussion of the subject can be found in Don C. Bailey's glossary of Japanese neologisms (see References). Although it is a decade out of date and probably out of print, it should be available at universities offering instruction in the Japanese language.
Unsolved Problems, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Unsolved Problems, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
As I survey the logological scene from my ivory tower, I am dismayed by what I observe. It appears that the devotees of the word have divided themselves into two groups, hereinafter designated as the Dilettantes and the Intlligentsia.
A Double Word Square Contest, William Sunners
A Double Word Square Contest, William Sunners
Word Ways
Most readers of Word Ways know that a double word square is one in which the vertical words differ from the horizontal ones. The following 5-by-5 double word squares all consist of common words which can be found in the New Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary.
Logomachy
Word Ways
This column is devoted to various word games in which readers can match their wits against each other. Rules of play, if not given below, can be found in earlier Logomachy columns.
A Wry Look At Palindromic Verse, J. A. Lindon
A Wry Look At Palindromic Verse, J. A. Lindon
Word Ways
What value has the idea of formal reversal in poetry? My immediate inclination is to say 'precious little', with the accent on the 'little' rather than the 'precious'; and I suspect, too, that this may well prove my final estimate. Consider the parallel between music and poetry. Short-term reversals occur in both, e.g. the assertive "I will" and the questioning "Will I?", the full-close and the half-close; but, apart from certain minor applications in fugal writing and a good deal of (dare I say it?) misuse by our contemporary absence from music as it is from poetry.
Front Cover, Publication Information
Front Cover, Publication Information
Word Ways
Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contest
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.
Definitely, Ralph G. Beaman
Definitely, Ralph G. Beaman
Word Ways
When I studied algebra, I studied ALGEBRA. When I studied geometry, I studied GEOMETRY. But when I studied calculus, I was informed - in no uncertain terms -- the subject was THE CALCULUS. I may not know how to integrate any more, but I'm a whiz at differentiating THE use of THE definite article.
The Great Scrabble Competition
The Great Scrabble Competition
Word Ways
Ever since the fascinating game of Scrabble first appeared, players have wondered how many points can be scored by one player in a single move. The history of this search was reviewed in Darryl Francis's article, "High Scoring Scrabble", in the May 1972 Word Ways. Josefa Byrne's 1175 points, reported in Dmitri Borgmann's Beyond Language (Scribner's, 1967) was briefly outdone by Joel Gaines's 1184-point solution, and decisively bettered by Darryl Francis's 1261-point solution, both given in the abovementioned article. Darryl was the first to concentrate exclusively upon a high-scoring single move; the other two Scrabblers tried to simultaneously maximize the …
Logological Geography, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Logological Geography, Dmitri A. Borgmann
Word Ways
The local newspaper has just featured the 39,417,268th crossword puzzle to be published in the United States since the beginning of that pastime shortly before the start of World War I. If you are as tired of crossword puzzles as we are, then you are ready to move on to more refined puzzles of the genuine, logological variety. We commend the one that follows to your attention.
Anything I Can Do, U Can Do Too, Mary J. Youngquist
Anything I Can Do, U Can Do Too, Mary J. Youngquist
Word Ways
Take a word like POT, add the letter U, and you have POUT. Described below are other word-pairs in which one becomes the other merely by the addition of U. Answers are found in the Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Word Ways
Readers are encouraged to send their own favorite linguistic kickshaws to the Associate Editor. All answers appear in the Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.
A Five-Year Topical Index
Word Ways
The following index has been designed to help the reader easily locate specific examples of wordplay appearing in the first five volumes of Word Ways.
A Color Ado, Darryl Francis
A Color Ado, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Color surnames are a lot more varied than most people would at first expect. Everyone is aware of the color names BLACK, BROWN, GRAY (and GREY), GREEN and WHITE. Elsdon C. Smith, in his book Treasury of Name Lore (Harper & Row, 1967), suggests derivations of these very common color names. He also mentions some other color names: BLUE, LAVENDER, ORANGE, PINK, and PURPLE.
We wondered if there were other such color names, and we decided to start a search for them. We cross-checked color names from Webster's Third New International Dictionary with surname entries from the 1967 and 1968 …
One-Letter Words, Darryl Francis
One-Letter Words, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
How many one-letter words are there in the English language? If you answered 26, well done! If you answered anything else, take four weeks vacation in Siberia. Examination of any English dictionary will uncover the fact that all 26 letters of the alphabet are words in their own right. The usual dictionary definitions of most single-letter words are, however, somewhat mundane.
More Enigmatic Rebi, Philip M. Cohen
More Enigmatic Rebi, Philip M. Cohen
Word Ways
The May 1972 issue of this magazine introduced Word Ways readers to the Enigmatic Rebus -- a collection of the finest rebuses from back issues of the National Puzzlers League's monthly publication, The Enigma. In this issue, an additional collection of 45 rebuses from this source is presented to baffle the reader.
The Case Of The Acro-Double, Walter Shedlofsky
The Case Of The Acro-Double, Walter Shedlofsky
Word Ways
It was 11:00 A.M. when Farley West returned to his apartment. A leisurely breakfast followed by a short walk through the park had eased the feeling of melancholy caused by the recent death of Guy Orient.
Lightweights And Heavyweights, Darryl Francis
Lightweights And Heavyweights, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
With our penchant for words and their letter arrangements, distributions, patterns and so on, we are ever on the lookout for novel ideas. One which occurred to us some while ago was to search for what we eventually called lightweight words and heavyweight words, or lightweights and heavyweights.
A Fifteen-Letter Pyramid, Pamela H. Brang
A Fifteen-Letter Pyramid, Pamela H. Brang
Word Ways
In Word Ways, way back when in May 1970, Kickshaws introduced the problem of a 1-2-3-4-5 Pyramid Word. This is a word having a letter pattern such that there is one of one letter, two of a second letter, etc., up to five of a fifth letter.
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.
Instructions To Authors
Word Ways
Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to the publication.
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Kickshaws, David L. Silverman
Word Ways
Readers are encouraged to send their own favorite linguistic kickshaws to the Associate Editor. All answers appear in the Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.
Front Cover, Publication Information
Front Cover, Publication Information
Word Ways
Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents
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 published. As poetic output cannot be easily predicted, these will be presented on an irregular basis.