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In Defense Of The Anachuttle, Walter Shedlofsky May 1972

In Defense Of The Anachuttle, Walter Shedlofsky

Word Ways

To those Word Ways readers who first noticed its appearance in the May 1969 and November 1970 issues, the Anachuttle is a display of unusual rhymes. The initial letters of each line form an acrostic, which in turn is an anagram of an internal acrostic. Were readers able to discover the internal acrostic without referring to the solution given at the end of the issue?


Alphabetical Triliterals, Palmer C. Peterson May 1972

Alphabetical Triliterals, Palmer C. Peterson

Word Ways

Many Word Ways articles have dealt with words differing from each other in only a single letter (such as SHARE and SHORE, in which A is replaced by O and the other letters are left untouched). Word ladders form HEAD HEAL TEAL TELL ... have been constructed for nearly a century (does any reader know of a reference prior to Lewis Carroll's Doublets which was published in 1879?). More recently, Ross Eckler (February, 1969) demonstrated that replacements can be found not only for the A-O pair but also for the other 324 possibilities. Dave Silverman (May 1970, February 1972) has …


All Writers Not Men Of Letters, Mohan Lal Sharma May 1972

All Writers Not Men Of Letters, Mohan Lal Sharma

Word Ways

The word 'letter' has a wide range of use in the English language. There are a variety of letters. Any written (also printed) communication from one person to another to convey information, ideas, advice or opinion is a letter. This forms the bulk of the material handled by the Postal Department. The writers of these letters are from all parts of the world.


Instructions To Authors May 1972

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to the publication.


Internally Capitalized Words, Darryl Francis May 1972

Internally Capitalized Words, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Some while ago we lighted on the strange term Tir na nOg in the Second Edition of Webster's New International Dictionary. This is one of the names that the new Irish have given to the dwelling place where happy souls exist after death (!). The term itself fascinated us because of the presence of the capital O in the middle of one of the constituent words of the term. We wondered if it might be possible to find similar words with an internal capital letter -- by 'internal' we mean any position in a word other than the first. We …


Logomachy May 1972

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.


The Seven Sixes Problem, J. A. Lindon May 1972

The Seven Sixes Problem, J. A. Lindon

Word Ways

Problem: From a doubled set of 21 different letters, to form 7 six-letter words such that any two taken at random shall have exactly one letter in common.


More Cryptographic Puzzles, Walter Penney May 1972

More Cryptographic Puzzles, Walter Penney

Word Ways

Solutions to these puzzles can be found in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.


The Enigmatic Rebus, Philip M. Cohen May 1972

The Enigmatic Rebus, Philip M. Cohen

Word Ways

Those who enjoyed Mary Youngquist's "Loony Logos" and "Loony Logos Revisited" in the May 1971 and February 1972 Word Ways may be interested in the National Puzzlers' League's favorite puzzle, the rebus. Mary is the present editor of their monthly publication, The Engima, from which the rebi in this article were taken. The rebus is the same as the Loony Logo in principle, but differs in economy (a good rebus contains many fewer letters) and hence in content (any word or group of words is rebus material, but most common phrases cannot be readily rebized). There is overlap, of …


The Thirteen Words, Robert Cass Keller May 1972

The Thirteen Words, Robert Cass Keller

Word Ways

Puzzle: Using 13 different letters of the alphabet, each repeated 4 times, construct 13 4-letter words with the property that each possible pair of letters appears in only one word, and each possible pair of words has only one letter in common.


They're Using Our Lingo, Leonard R. N. Ashley Feb 1972

They're Using Our Lingo, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

In 1964 I wrote in Pageant that "English (more than half of which is composed of foreign words) has reached the point where other languages are beginning to borrow rather extensively from us". Since then, I have watched with interest as our mongrel tongue has not only continued to borrow from others as usual -- we have recently acquired discotheque from the French, just as we long ago got woodchuck from the Indians -- but has increasingly received from foreign-language speakers around the globe the compliment of imitation, sometimes without acknowledgement.


Front Cover, Publication Information Feb 1972

Front Cover, Publication Information

Word Ways

Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents


Levine's Isomorph Dictionary, A. Ross Eckler Feb 1972

Levine's Isomorph Dictionary, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Among word buffs, 1971 will undoubtedly be remembered as the year that the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published, making this monumental work available at one-third the price and one-sixth the bulk of the original. An exceedingly useful lexicographic tool has been placed in the hands of many who formerly had to make a trip to the library to consult it. By contrast, one of the least-heralded publishing events of 1971 was the appearance of Jack Levine's A List of Pattern Words of Lengths Two Through Nine. Nevertheless, I predict that the Levine dictionary may have …


Loony Logos Revisited, Mary J. Youngquist Feb 1972

Loony Logos Revisited, Mary J. Youngquist

Word Ways

The Land of Loony Logos, first explored in the May 1971 Word Ways, was revisited and the following items were unearthed. My thanks to Dave Silverman and R. Robinson Rowe for several of the looniest logos of this group. The final six should be printed in color (as specified by the instructions in parentheses).


Colloquy Feb 1972

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.


Charade Swifties, J. A. Lindon Feb 1972

Charade Swifties, J. A. Lindon

Word Ways

In the August 1969 Kickshwas, Dave Silverman pointed out that the Tom Swiftie, a parlour game of several years ago, is not yet extinct. Most readers of Word Ways are familiar with the standard Swiftie.


Linguistic Illusions, Darryl Francis Feb 1972

Linguistic Illusions, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

The reader is probably familiar with optical illusions, where one doesn't think one sees what in fact one is seeing. For example, the reader may be asked to judge which of two lines is longer. From the way that the two lines are presented, one line does indeed look longer than the other. However, on measuring the lines with a ruler, they are found to be identical in length. This is an optical illusion -- your eyes and brain have tricked you into seeing something that isn't really so.


Brush Up Your Webster's, Alden Myles, John Standish Feb 1972

Brush Up Your Webster's, Alden Myles, John Standish

Word Ways

From time to time in Word Ways we have seen logological wordplay illustrated from a bewildering variety of sources. In this article we propose to show that one need not always look in arcane and esoteric references to prove one's point. Why not turn first to the major U.S. dictionary, Webster's Third New International? In particular, we see little if any need for referring to obsolete dictionaries, such as Webster's Second (which only invites Webster's First, which invites who-knows-what), nor to specialized once-only publications. We don't object to these less authoritative works -- we simply wish to point out that …


Logomachy Feb 1972

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.


Don't Repeat A Word Of This!, Pearl L. Feldman Feb 1972

Don't Repeat A Word Of This!, Pearl L. Feldman

Word Ways

Can you write a composition of 100 words or more without repeating a single word? Without using even an a or an an or a the more than once?


Mrs. Malaprop, The Ad(Wo)Man, M. H. Greenblatt Feb 1972

Mrs. Malaprop, The Ad(Wo)Man, M. H. Greenblatt

Word Ways

Webster's unabridged dictionary (Third Edition) defines a malapropism as "a usually humorous misapplication of a word or phrase; specifically, a blundering use of a word that sounds somewhat like the one intended but is ludicrously wrong in the context." The term is derived from Mrs. Malaprop, a lady in Richard Sheridan's 1775 comedy, "The Rivals," noted for her misuse of words.


On Composing Palindromic Poetry, Howard W. Bergerson Feb 1972

On Composing Palindromic Poetry, Howard W. Bergerson

Word Ways

Many years ago, Leigh Mercer constructed several dictionaries to aid the aspiring palindromist. In these dictionaries, he listed various words which contain interior reversals; for example, PRETTIFY contains the word FITTER. The value of such dictionaries lies in the arrangements of the words for quick and easy access; one very useful method is to arrange all the words in reverse alphabetical order, sorted out by the number of hanging letters they contain. Thus, Y FITTER P, with a single hanging letter in front, appears toward the end of one dictionary. A second dictionary lists reversed words with double hanging letters, …


Numero(Logo)Logy, Darryl Francis Feb 1972

Numero(Logo)Logy, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Most people think that dictionaries contain words and that words contain letters. To a certain extent this is true. However, dictionaries contain more than just words -- they contain abbreviations, symbols, prefixes, suffixes and phrases as well. For example, NATIONAL SCHOOL-BUS CHROME is in Webster's Third. So, too, is the prefix CONTRA-. To avoid continually distinguishing between words, phrases, prefixes and so on, all of which are in the dictionary, we lump them all together and refer to them as entries. We could even go so far as to call these entries lexemes -- that is, meaningful forms that belong …


Dictionary Didoes, Yale Chapman Feb 1972

Dictionary Didoes, Yale Chapman

Word Ways

All beer mugs are Jewish, according to one of my dictionaries. With names like SEIDEL and STEIN, Egyptian they couldn't be. But then, dictionaries do tend to contain so many strange and wonderful and confusing bits of trivia.


Answers And Solutions Feb 1972

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.


Instructions To Authors Feb 1972

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to those wishing to contribute to the publication.


More Beginnings And Endings, Leslie E. Card Feb 1972

More Beginnings And Endings, Leslie E. Card

Word Ways

In the November 1971 Word Ways, Darryl Francis presented a list of words and names, each as long as possible, beginning and ending with all possible letter-pairs. At the end of the article, he challenged Word Ways readers to draw up the corresponding list of the shortest possible words. Answering his challenge, I have constructed the list below.


A British Pronunciation Guide, Darryl Francis Feb 1972

A British Pronunciation Guide, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

This article was prompted by an encounter that we had some while ago with an American tourist in London. He asked us if we would direct him to "Lee-Cester" Square. Drawing on our encyclopedic knowledge of the geography of London, we were able to inform the gentleman concerned that there was no such place. We then went on to suggest that what he really wanted was Leicester Square, where the first word is pronounced lester and not, as the gentleman had supposed, lee-cester. Accordingly, we directed one rather bemused tourist to Leicester Square after we had explained to him …


Kickshaws, David L. Silverman Feb 1972

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 Generative - Transformational Grammar Of The Kikuyu Language Based On The Nyeri Dialect., Harold J. Overton Jan 1972

A Generative - Transformational Grammar Of The Kikuyu Language Based On The Nyeri Dialect., Harold J. Overton

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.