The Big Challenge, David L. Silverman

Word Ways

In the November 1974 Kickshaws, we challenged Word Ways readers to select ten different letters from the alphabet so as to maximize the number of five-five letter-splits that could be anagrammed into words. We were careful not to specify rigid rules -- we dislike the Procrustean nature of most puzzle contests with cash awards, and we think that anyone willing to tackle this arduous research ought to have the privilege of determining xes own acceptable and unacceptable words. In the February Kickshaws, we suggested a simple weighting scheme designed to force readers to use common words whenever possible, and lightheartedly …

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.

Front Cover, Publication Information

Word Ways

Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents

Surrealistic Art Objects, Paul Remley

Word Ways

Palindromic poems, by nature, are suggestive. I am not referring to debase dung, nudes abed, or the other exotic bits of imagery that conveniently lend themselves to palindromization. Palindromic poems are self-suggestive. Every word added onto or inserted into a palindromic poem suggests other words in reverse, and these words, when assimilated into the palindrome, suggest additional words. As long as some of these suggested words are acceptable to the construct-long as some of these suggested words are acceptable to the constructor, the cycle can repeat indefinitely, producing a palindrome of considerable length.

Syzygy, Dmitri A. Borgmann

Word Ways

Word buffs have long known that a remarkable several-syllable word written without any of the five basic vowels (A, E, I, O, U) is the word SYZYGY. No one knows why this particular word should have been singled out for attention. It certainly is not the longest such word: longer examples include, but are not limited to, GYPSYFY, GYPSYRY, and SYMPHYSY. Yet, the fact remains that no one ever heard of these longer words, but everyone knows about SYZYGY.

A Plurality Of Singular Verse, Willard R. Espy

Word Ways

In the November 1973 Word Ways, Will Shortz quoted George Canning's famous eighteenth-century conundrum involving the words cares and caress. There are many other words exhibiting this property, as the following verse suggests.

Chesswords, Dmitri A. Borgmann

Word Ways

One of various sidelights to the game of chess is the problem known as a Knight's Tour (or Knight's Spring), the problem of having the knight make a complete circuit of the standard 8 x 8 chessboard, alighting once and only once on each of the 64 squares.

Pocket Webster Comparison, William Sunners

Word Ways

In the February 1974 Word Ways, Murray R. Pearce presented a most helpful corrective dissertation on errors abounding in the specialized word books published by various contest firms. He rendered a distinctive service to the puzzle-solving readers of this magazine, and to all logologists. His list of omitted words and detected errors are a welcome blessing to prize seekers.

Word Weights, Charles W. Bostick

Word Ways

In his article "Lightweights and Heavyweights" in the November 1972 issue of Word Ways, Darryl Francis introduced the concept of weight for words. He then went on to form two lists, one of words that were heavy for their size and another of words that were light for their size. I'd like to play around with that concept a bit more in this article.

Of Sex And Fear, Merlin X. Houdini Iv

Word Ways

Some logologists are word collectors at heart. Over the years, the attention of these collectors has been drawn to three very special groups of words: those ending with the suffixes -MANCY (designating a form of divination), -MANIA (describing some kind of madness, passion, or craze), and -PHOBIA, (referring to types of fear or aversion).

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of the issue.

A New Logology Cash Contest, Ralph G. Beaman

Word Ways

Editors and readers of Word Ways evidently are unaware that real world problems do not arrive complete with rules for their solution.

Four-Letter Words, Jezebel Q. Xixx

Word Ways

We are addicted to using four-letter words.

Anagrams: Ars Magna?, Judith Tarr Isquit

Word Ways

In her November 1973 Word Ways review of Howard Bergerson's new book, Palindromes and Anagrams (Dover, 1973), Jezebel Q. Xixx declared that "nowhere near 1,169 really good, modern anagrams have been devised". In a letter, she further asserted that she could create a dozen superb anagrams a day indefinitely, all having the quality so conspicuously absent in previously-published examples.

X-Terminated Words, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In his definitive volume on logology, Language On Vacation (Scribner's, 1965), Dmitri Borgmann points to the existence of three words both beginning and ending with the letter X.

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.

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.

All-Vowel Hawaiian Words, Prince Djoli Kansil

Word Ways

Vowels are the backbone of any language for without them there can be no speech as we know it. A vowel, as opposed to a consonant, is a speech sound produced without stopping or obstructing the flow of air from the lungs. A second, familiar definition is any letter of the alphabet representing (or usually representing) the sound of a vowel. In English, as we learned in grade school, these letters are A, E, I, O, U and sometimes W and Y.

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.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Still More Websterian Errors, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

The August 1972 issue of Word Ways carried an article of ours entitled "Further Websterian Errors". In that article, we attempted to bring to the reader's notice a number of previously uncatalogued errors that appear in the Second and Third Editions of Webster's New International Dictionary, the so-called Unabridged Webster's.

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to the publication.

Language Levels: Another Look, Ramona J. Quincunx

Word Ways

Amid the frozen fastnesses of the winter wonderland known as Little America, Antarctica, I have been contemplating a further exploration of the subject of language levels, first broached in a previous article devoted to the names of mammals and birds.

The Words Of Songs Without Words, R. Robinson Rowe

Word Ways

Fortunately for me, with a great love for good music and no talent, my late wife was a concert cellist. Her musical education had included fifteen years of private study in this country and a formal course at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles, from which she was a prize graduate in 1914. Ignorant and curious, I asked her the reason for foreign study -- what could she learn in Belgium that wasn't taught in the United States? She listed a number of topics in reply, with emphasis on counterpoint, ensemble and solfege.

A 1961-Point One-Move Scrabble Score, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In the February 1974 issue of Word Ways, the editor summarized the results of the year-long Games & Puzzles competition to devise a single Scrabble move scoring as many points as possible. The article detailed the winning solution, a 1949-point construction based on the key word BENZOXYCAMPHORS. The article suggested that it would be "extraordinarily difficult, perhaps impossible" to improve this solution by as much as ten points. This task has now been accomplished, in a collaboration between myself and Ron Jerome of Bracknell, Berkshire, England.

Parma Eldalamberon Vol. 1 No. 4, Paula Marmor

Parma Eldalamberon

The Journal of The Mythopoeic Linguistic Fellowship

Parma Eldalamberon/The Book of the Elven Tongues is the journal of the Mythopoeic Linguistic Fellowship, a Special Interest Group of the Mythopoeic Society, interested in imaginary fantasy languages and all matters linguistic and philosophical, especially the diverse tongues of Middle-earth and the Low Worlds.

The Highest One-Move Scrabble Score, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

The November 1972 issue of Word Ways reported that the British monthly magazine Games & Puzzles had just launched a year-long search among its readers for the highest possible single-move score in the game of Scrabble. As an incnetive, the editors of the magazine offered two prizes: 5 pounds sterling to be awarded at the middle of every month to the highest Scrabble score received since the beginning of the contest, and 100 pounds sterling to be awarded to the first Scrabble score to exceed a single-move score devised by Darryl Francis (the value of the score, however, was not …

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.

Palindromic Letter-Sequences, Leslie E. Card, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

There are about 7800 different trigrams which occur in words listed in boldface in Webster's Second Edition, making it feasible to compile a dictionary of types. Approximately 80 per cent of these trigrams (those appearing in Webster's Collegiate) were published in the August 1969, November 1969 and November 1970 Word Ways; since that time, Philip Cohen of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania has discovered examples for most of the remaining Websterian trigrams, as well as others in Webster's Third. However, a type of dictionary for tetragrams or longer letter-sequences is a far more laborious undertaking, requiring the assistance of a high-speed digital computer; …

Rebus Poetry, Willard R. Espy

Word Ways

Rebuses have been around for a long time. Most of them exploit letters only; some contain both letters and numbers; but relatively few use letters, numbers, and other typewriter symbols. If the reader will keep in mind that two identical letters, such as EE, can be pronounced either "ease" or "e-e", the following poem should not be too difficult to decode.