Digital Commons Network^™

More Long Words From The Oed, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Did you see that article in a previous Word Ways about the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary?

Isograms: The Sequel, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

In the May 1985 Word Ways, Dmitri Borgmann defined as isogram (actually, he recommended "asogram") as a verbal entity in which each each of the alphabetic letters used appears an equal number of times. He further defined a solo isogram as an isogram in which said equal number was one (CAT), a pair isogram when the number was two (DODO),and a trio isogram when the number was three (CHA-CHA-CHA).

Add A Million Words To Your Vocabulary, Nyr Indictor

Word Ways

Actually, I could have written "add a billion words to your vocabulary". Or more, even. If I had written the actual number of words this article can teach you, you would have turned the page. You would have had to, because the actual number doesn't fit on this page.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

'About Talk': The Category Of Talk-Reflexive Words, Corey Anton

Peer Reviewed Articles

The present exploration examines the everyday capability to talk about talk by considering mainly the use of a particular word-type, what I shall be calling 'about talk' words. As an important note, the reader of this text should observe that almost all the sentences within this paper (except for quotations) embody 'about talk'. But, rather than continue to distract the reader by underlining every instance, I shall highlight (i.e., underline) only within the first two paragraphs of this essay all of these definite references to the verbal order. As for the other sentences, paragraphs, and pages, the reader is strongly …

Adjective Acquisition: Developmental Changes In The Use Of The Shape Bias, Syntax, Shape Consistency, And Semantic Attributes., Lenore Carol Frigo

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

When learning vocabulary, children must determine the meaning of each word that they hear. In hypothesizing about word meanings, children follow certain principles that simplify vocabulary acquisition. Among these principles are several that lead children to follow a shape bias. Under the shape bias, children assume that words extend to objects that share a common shape. This shape bias is useful for learning count nouns, which often include whole-object shape as an important aspect of meaning. However, the shape bias is not useful for the development of other word classes, such as adjectives. In this study, several variables were examined …

Abbin' Ain't Raw: Ebonics In The Classroom, Rebecca S. Murphy '99

Undergraduate Review

No abstract provided.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 30 Issue 4

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Poegematry, Michael Helsem

Word Ways

Poetry & Gematria remain at an uneasy distance, not quite speaking not quite ignoring each other. One flourishes in exile, slipshod & ever prouding [a coinage from Ken's Saro-Wiwa's novel Sozaboy, published in 1988 by Longmann]; the other dwells among qabbalistic catacombs & cranks.

Long Words In The Oed, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

"What's the longest word in the dictionary?"

"You mean -- the longest English word."

"Yeah."

"Well, that depends which dictionary you go for. Bigger dictionaries have more words in them, and smaller dictionaries have fewer words in them. There's more chance of bigger dictionaries having longer words. You takes your choice."

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Glossery, Nyr Indictor

Word Ways

What do the following two alphabets have in common?

Ana Gram, The Juggler, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Come one! Come all! The unparalleled, incomparable, sensational Word Circus is in town! Hurry! Hurry! Scurry! to the Greatest Show on Earth, where words come out of the wordwork. Laugh at our lexcellent tour de farces! Thrill as letters fly through the air with the greatest of E's. Gasp as you become the Wizard of Ahs and A Lass in Wonderland.

Varieties Of Balanced Words, Part 2, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

2. Numerical Tautonyms

This is the second of three parts of an article dealing with varieties of "balanced" words. Numerical tautonyms are words which may be divided into groups of letters, each group having the same number of letters, and where the sums of the numerical values (A=1, B=2, etc.) of the letters in each group are the same.

Alpha(Betic) To Omega, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

Angry Archfiend, arched, aggressive as an ax attack,

Blather-brazen Beast Belial bashes, batters back

Compassion's courage ... Careless, coreless, cold! calumniates

Divity's Dread dreadless!

Geometrical Words: Part 2, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

Part 1 of Geormetrical Words looked at words whose letters can be arranged to make a triangle or a set of triangles. Part 2 looks at words whose letters can be arranged to make other geometrical shapes. As with triangles, the letters along the edge of these shapes may form edge words (MET, HER and SON below).

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Four Universal-Recipient Words, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

In "The Suet Alphabet", Nyr Indictor noted that one can add each letter of the alphabet (except for Z) to SUET and rearrange to form new words. Finding such universal-recipient words is a time-consuming challenge but not a mission impossible. In the four examples below, all words are OED except ROEX's.

F. P. Ramsey, Meet Scrubwoman Edith, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

F. P. Ramsey (1903-1930) was a philosopher, logician, and mathematician who died young after an ill-fated operation. He was a product of England's Cambridge University when both Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein were there.

Yet More Murderous Wordplay, Peter Newby

Word Ways

William Marwood was the principal hangman of the United Kingdom during the years 1874-83. Such was his fame that a contemporarty children's riddle went as follows.

Wysi Not Wyg, Mary Christine Craig

Word Ways

There must be a logological name for word definitions composed according to the way the words sound (and perhas getting close to the actual meaning of them), but I can't come up with it. What you see is not what you get!

Presidential Letter Shifts, Monte J. Zerger

Word Ways

The next presidential shift will occur in the year of Arthur C. Clarke's classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The letters in the name of the rogue computer, HAL, can be shifted forward one letter in the alphabet to produce IBM: HAL(1)IBM. This is probably the most widely celebrated case of alleged letter shifting, although Clarke denies any intentionality. Rivaling this is notoriety is the shifting of FBI by six letters to obtain LHO, the initials of Lee Harvey Oswald, something numerologists love to link with the sixth floor from which the shooting took place: F BI(6)LHO.

Kickshaws, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Holy Mackerel, Mr. Rice!, Robert C. Layton

Word Ways

I'm not SHERBET the following story is reported to be true. You don't have to swallow it but it comes form one who knows her ONIONS, and is not prone to FUDGing. Some say she's full of BOLOGNA but the proof is in the PUDDING. At least LETTUCE keep an open mind as we explore her tale!

Anguish Languish, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Willard Espy writes in his 1980 book Another Almanac of Words at Play (Feb 12): "Anguish Languish, popularized by the late Howard L. Chance, is a form of punning in which words overlap to give an impression of other words, as clouds assume forms according to the fancy of the observer."

The Oed Misinterpreted, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Back in 1965, Dmitri Borgmann pronounced that PREDETERMINIST was not the kind of word that you could find in a dictionary (see p 87 of Language on Vocation).

Statistics Of Word Neighbours, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

The word reported here was undertaken during preparation of an article on Word Ladders: I felt in need of some facts to direct my efforts, and to clarify some remarks others had made. This article presents the frequency of occurrence of some types of words, and compares this to a "theoretical" frequency. The theoretical frequencies are based upon very simple assumptions. Nevertheless in some cases the predictions are quite good: in other cases I seek to find why the predictions are poor.

Editorial

Word Ways

As it completes its thirtieth year of publication -- long than most cottage - industry magazines -- Word Ways faces a crisis. Post office regulations require at least 200 paid subscriptions in order to qualify for a second-class mailing permit.

Palimericks, James Puder

Word Ways

Limericks and palindromes both being popular forms of linguistic recreation, it occurred to me to wonder whether the two could be salutarily combined. Is it possible to compose a decent limerick which is also an end-to-end palindrome? And if so, is it worth the trouble?