Kickshaws.

Kickshaws. Readers are encouraged to send their favorite linguistic kickshaws Kick´shaws`n. 1. Something fantastical; any trifling, trumpery thing; a toy.Art thou good at these kickshawses!- Shak.2. A fancy dish; a tidbit; a delicacy.Some pigeons, . . . to the Kickshaws editor at drABC26@aol.com. Answers can be found inAnswers and Solutions at the end of this issue. The novel with no verbs This just in! News about a novel with no verbs, emailed to me byMike Keith. A real page-turner by a French guy, writing in French,writing in France, in fact. Not yet translated into English. Not reallya page-turner, either. Verbless yet verbose Wordy; long winded. The term is often used as a switch to display the status of some operation. For example, a /v might mean "verbose mode." . Strange publicitysurrounding it, including a mock funeral proclaiming "death of theverb." Hardy-har-har. Prose without verbs? Impossible? Or justimplausible. Or maybe fairly simple, but not all that exciting in therealm of action. Lots of description instead, according to the articleon the web. Curious? Fun reading, free of charge, athttp://chronicle.com/free/2004/06/2004060205n.htm. Nothing to worryabout for non-French readers, either, because of usage of English inwriting the article. Well worth checking at your leisure. Much less timenecessary than the time for learning French and then reading the novelitself. Good, short article--damn clever!--using no verbs, not a singleone hidden in all those non-verb words. In imitation of the novel withno verbs. Probably better, too. Somewhat difficult constraint for sure.However, other constraints, well ... Some examples on a scale of one(trivial) to ten (impossible): Novel with no prepositions--eight. Noadjectives--six. No conjunctions--one. No pronouns--seven. Nonouns--nine point nine nine. No adverbs--three. Another possibility, notinvolving the words themselves: a novel with no characters. Lots ofaction instead. A surreal page-turner. But no verbs? Not even one singlesolitary intransitive verb? Perhaps a novel with no readers. Small Time, Big Time Will Nediger writes "I enjoyed Webster's Third Book ofRecords in the August issue. Going beyond Web 3, the smallest unit oftime seems to be a yoctosecond yoc��to��sec��ond?n. Abbr. ys or ysecOne septillionth (10-24) of a second. . The prefix yocto- means 10 exp -24, andyoctosecond (unlike anything below a millibarn) has a good chance ofbeing used. The Guinness Book of World Records (1998) gives a para (aterm in Hindu mythology) as 311,040,000,000,000 years. Not accountingfor leap years, there are 9.80895744 x 10 exp 45 yoctoseconds in apara." Google Math Eric Iverson has found another use for Google. "You can typemathematical phrases into Google, and get calculated results. I tried tosee which alphabetic phrase without any repeating letters generated thelargest and smallest number. Here's what I have so far: smallest isnm to parsec (1 nanometer = 3.24077649 x 10^-26 parsec), largest is sixe pc to nm (six * e parsecs = 5.03264913 x 10^26 nanometers). It is anopen question to the reader whether larger or smaller numbers exist. Icould do even better if Google allowed am as an abbreviation forattometer or fm as an abbreviation for femtometer. As well as thelargest and smallest numeric values in Darryl Francis's article,there could be a category for longest phrase with no repeatingletters." Clarinda on the Nodaway On the western side of Iowa, the small town of Clarinda restsgently on the pillowy banks of the Nodaway River. I spent a week therelong ago, teaching poetry in the schools. It is a friendly, dreamy townwith a special bit of wordplay magic in its name. Clarinda, agirl's name, has at least thirty female names embedded within it,spelled by picking letters going from left to right without rearrangingthem: Clarina, Clara, Clia, Carna, Carina Carina(kərē`nə)[Lat.,=the keel], southern constellation, representing the keel of the ancient constellation Argo Navis, or Ship of the Argonauts. Carina contains Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky. , Carl, Cara, Cinda, Larinda,Lari, Lara, Lana, Linda, Lina, Lida, Lia, Arina, Aria, Arna, Arda, Ara,Aida, Anda, Aria, Ada, Rina, Rida, Ria, Ina, Ida. (Special thanks to theeditor for checking sources for less familiar names.) Rise and Fall of the Fast Food Empire Recently Hardee's took burger-building to a new level andadded a three-quarter-pounder to its menu. That's a lotta meat! Atthe same time, they announced their immediate end as a fast food joint.Why? Because of bad nutritional value, emphasized recently in thedocumentary about McDonald's called Supersize supersizeor supersizedAdjectivelarger than standard sizeVerb[-sizes, -sizing, -sized]to increase the size of (something, such as a standard portion of food) Me, fast food hasbecome a dirty word. What do clever PR people do? They don'tsupersize, they don't downsize, they euphemize eu��phe��mize?v. eu��phe��mized, eu��phe��miz��ing, eu��phe��miz��esv.tr.To speak of or refer to by means of a euphemism.v.intr.To use euphemisms. . Hardee's is nolonger a "fast food" restaurant. It's a "quickservice" restaurant. Question: when "quick service"becomes a dirty word because of low pay, poor working conditions, and nobenefits, what euphemism will they come up with next? Musical Substitution Various Word Ways articles have discussed word transmutations inwhich a symbol (usually one or two letters long) in a word is replacedby the word it represents to generate a different word (for example,going from chemical symbol to chemical name in AGed to SILVERed).Musical letters and symbols work in a similar fashion. Because they areshort, it is easy to transmute them in three different ways:syllable-to-letter (SL), letter-to-syllable (LS) and both ways in thesame word (SLLS SLLS Southeast Louisiana Legal ServicesSLLS Stop, Look, Listen, Smell (listening halt)SLLS Southern Lakes Limousine Services (South Island, New Zealand)). Below are the musical syllables and the corresponding musicalnotes, followed by examples. When necessary, the abbreviation of thespecific type of transmutation transmutation/trans��mu��ta��tion/ (trans?mu-ta��shun)1. evolutionary change of one species into another.2. the change of one chemical element into another. is given (no abbreviation means thetransmutation is SL). Some transmutations from word A to word B can bereversed, so that word B becomes word A; an asterisk denotes that thisis not possible. DO RE MI FA SO (or SOL) LA TI C D E F G A B DOur to Cur, Milk to Elk bLARE to bAD *, fLARE to fAD*, glaRE to glaD * FA to FALA (LS), a musical term (usually fa-la-la-la-la) Tied to Bed, TIMId to BEd, two different words transmute to thesame word REad to Dad, daRE to daD, two different words transmute to the samepalindr ome MID to ERE (SLLS) no letters in common in the two words pLAy to pAy, FAir to Fir, sLAsh to sash single-letter deletions SOLATIon to GABon, SOLAr to GAr, these words use SO SOLaTIon to GaBon, SOLar to Gar, the same words use SOL LAB to ATI (ATI Technologies Inc., Markham Ontario, http://ati.amd.com) A leading manufacturer of graphics chips and display adapters. Founded in 1985 by K. Y. Ho, Benny Lau and Lee Lau, ATI chips and boards are widely used by OEMs. * (SLLS), no letters remain in the same position DOLAr to CAr, DOLAREs to CADs, Spanish to English The words ADS, ARES, LADS and LARES have very unusualrelationships. Each of the three longest words generate the short word:aREs to aDs, LAds to Ads, and LAREs to ADs.; only the third pair isreversible. Using SLLS, AREs to LADs is also reversible. These two pairscan be joined by syllable-to-letter transmutations to form athree-legged ladder that is reversible on each side of the center butone-directional (thus irreversible) from one side to the other. LAds andaREs on the left can connect syllable-to-letter only with Ads and aDs onthe right. The legs can be extended outward indefinitely by repetitionof the words in them. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Vowels and Consonants in Number Names Most number names are spelled with more consonants than vowels. Thehighest percentage of consonants is 70, found only in TWO HUNDRED andSIX HUNDRED. The highest percentage of vowels is 66 2/3, found in ONEand only ONE. The shortest number name having two more vowels thanconsonants is ONE DUODECILLION du��o��de��cil��lion?n.1. The cardinal number equal to 1039.2. Chiefly British The cardinal number equal to 1072. ONE, and the highest is NINETY-ONEDUODECILLION NINETY-ONE UNDECILLION un��de��cil��lion?n.1. The cardinal number equal to 1036.2. Chiefly British The cardinal number equal to 1066. NINETY-ONE DECILLION de��cil��lion?n.1. The cardinal number equal to 1033.2. Chiefly British The cardinal number equal to 1060. NINETY-ONENONILLION no��nil��lion?n.1. The cardinal number equal to 1030.2. Chiefly British The cardinal number equal to 1054. NINETY-ONE OCTILLION oc��til��lion?n.1. The cardinal number equal to 1027.2. Chiefly British The cardinal number equal to 1048.[oct(o)- + (m)illion. NINETY-ONE QUINTILLION One thousand times one quadrillion, which is 1, followed by 18 zeros, or 10 to the 18th power. See space/time. quintillion - 10^30 in Europe (this is called a nonillion in the United States and Canada). NINETY-ONEQUADRILLION One thousand times one trillion, which is 1, followed by 15 zeros, or 10 to the 15th power. See space/time. NINETY-ONE BILLION NINETY-ONE MILLION NINETY-ONE. Theredon't seem to be any number names spelled with three more vowelsthan consonants. However, many number names have at least 100 moreconsonants than vowels! Can you find an example with the greatestdifference? Beheadment Homophones and Curtailment Homophones Susan Thorpe writes "In the November 2004 Kickshaws, DaveMorice offered Beheadment Homophones for words beginning with thebigrams AA, EE, GN, KN, LL, PS, SC, WH and WR. Here are examples forother bigrams: AI aisle-isle, DJ djinn-jinn, HO hour-our. Similarly,Dave offered Curtailment Homophones for words ending with the bigramsCK, DD, EE, IE, LE, LL, NE, NN, OO, RR and TT. Here are examples endingwith other bigrams: AR far-fa, AH pah-pa, BB Cobb-cob, MB plumb-plum, MNdamn-dam, OE floe-Flo, OH soh-so, PP Lapp-lap, RE corecor, SEtease-teas, TE caste-cast, UE flue-flu, YE Skye-sky." Two-Letter Overlap Sentences In the November 1995 Word Ways, the editor reported a NationalPublic Radio competition in which people were asked to compose sentencesin which each word began with the last two letters of the preceding one.Jeff Grant found a similar wordplay challenge in the New ZealandScrabble magazine Forwards in which many entries had a Scrabble theme: Scrabble legalizes essential allowable lexicons Scrabble lesson one: negate terrible letters Scrabble leisure refines essential alphabet etiquette Scrabble: lexical alliteration one never eradicates Scrabble leaves Esther erudite, Teresa satisfied, Ed edified, Ediththinking, Ngaire rearranged, Edwina naggiest, Stan anagrammatical Adj. 1. anagrammatical - related to anagrams or containing or making an anagramanagrammatic , Alex exultant. Using linguistic license, one contestant devised the acronymStretch Chattery Rylean Anywhichzebu Buncombe bun��combe?n.Variant of bunkum.Noun 1. buncombe - unacceptable behavior (especially ludicrously false statements)bunkum, guff, hogwash, rot, bunk , Befuddle be��fud��dle?tr.v. be��fud��dled, be��fud��dling, be��fud��dles1. To confuse; perplex. See Synonyms at confuse.2. To stupefy with or as if with alcoholic drink.Verb 1. LetteredEducators. A few of the best general ones: While leeches escape, petty tyrannies escalate After erstwhilelenience le��ni��ence?n.Leniency.Noun 1. lenience - mercifulness as a consequence of being lenient or tolerantleniency, lenity, mildness , celibate tension ongoing The head administrator organizededucational almanacs French children endure regular arithmetic Somemedical allergies escape penicillin Large geisha hairdos oscillate To swing back and forth between the minimum and maximum values. An oscillation is one cycle, typically one complete wave in an alternating frequency. terribly Only lytic lytic/lyt��ic/ (lit��ik)1. pertaining to lysis or to a lysin.2. producing lysis.lyt��icadj.1. Of, relating to, or causing lysis.2. icicles escape peripheral alteration once cellulararrest starts One about Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton is a bit Joycean:Beneath the hellish shipcrush, Shackleton once celebrated Edwardianantiquation an��ti��quate?tr.v. an��ti��quat��ed, an��ti��quat��ing, an��ti��quates1. To make obsolete or old-fashioned.2. To antique. on one nevergreen endworldian Antarctic icefield. I tried writing a line about Scrabble with three lettersoverlapping: Scrabble blended dedication's onset, settled ledger,germless essentially. I also wrote a Scrabble acronym and found out howdifficult that is. It is about a British cook working at a Chineserestaurant whose supervisor gives him the secret recipe for a popularsoup: "Spiced, Cedric! Riceball Allowable. Bleachable BlendablesLess Essential." Azerty Versus Qwerty If, like me, you thought QWERTY was King of the Keyboards,here's a surprising piece of information from Darryl Francis:"Most keyboards have qwertyuiop as the top row of letters. Butthere are some keyboards that have the A and Z replacing the Q and W onthe top row as azertyuiop. Collins English Dictionary includes both theentries 'qwerty keyboard' and 'azerty keyboard'.There is a famous racehorse called Azertyuiop. So, the next time someoneasks you whether there is a word or name using all the letters of thetop row of the keyboard, tell them yes, as long as it's an azertykeyboard!" Artistic License Ove Michelsen tells a story of art, greed, and poor spelling whichhe heard on "This Is True" by Randy Cassingham: "Floridaartist Maria Alquilar initially refused to return to Livermore,California to fix spelling errors on a mural she created at thecity's new library. She admits the the mural includes 11 spelling'oversights' including the names of historical figures such asEistein, Shakespere, Van Gough, and Michaelangelo. Alquilar says thelibrary should have caught them before she fixed them in with cement,and was upset by the criticism of her spelling prowess, but changed hermind and agreed to fix the errors after the city agreed to pay her $6000plus travel expenses. She was paid $40,000 to create the piece. Alquilarsays the work is meant to be 'a testament to TheEnlightenment' and said the controversy over her spelling errorswas 'idiocy' ... But can she spell that?" A Fairy Tale A Fairy Tale (AKA A Magic Tale) - Fantastic ballet in 1 Act, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music by (?) Richter.First presented by students of the Imperial Ballet School on April 4/16 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1891 in the in Names Bill Brandt has connected another group of names created to tell astory. This one is a fairy tale in the grand tradition of Mother Goose: Juan Zappta Tyme, Anna Linda Faraway, Dee Wasa Natalie Dressed Mary L. King Anne DeQueen. Alice Knotwell; Stella Single--Noah Suiters--Sasha Shame! Bud Holdon! Luke Dare! Ginger Lee Ryden Anna Horse Ike N. Sea Daisy Prints, Justin Time. Willy Propose? Betty Does! Sheila Accept Olive Bendaras Abby Ending. Roman Numeral Words Dan Tilque has found numerous other Roman numeral words, that is,words that contain Roman numeral letters that correctly form Romannumerals. A string of RNLs can be used to form only one RN, the longestRN possible. For instance, BUMCLOCK has MCL MCL - Macintosh Common LISP for 1150; the stringcan't be shortened to MC, CL, M, C or L to represent other RNLs.The word may contain additional RNLs, though. BUMCLOCK has a second C.In the list below, the Roman numeral words are preceded by their Arabicvalues. As Dan explains, "Words and names are from the same file Iused for Purple Turtles--a combination of Web 2, enablel.txt and USplace names. Those with internal hyphens and spaces are where Icouldn't find anything better. On your November Kickshaws list, youhave 1005 duumvir du��um��vir?n.A member of a duumvirate.[Latin : duum, genitive pl. of duo, two; see dwo- in Indo-European roots + vir, man; see , which actually is 1006 (substitute 1005 circumvent). 3 Tsintaa Yiti Ii AZ 16 poxvirus poxvirusAny of a group of viruses responsible for a wide range of pox diseases in humans and other animals. Poxvirus was the cause of smallpox. (Human chickenpox is caused by varicella-zoster virus. 106 Zincville OK, lilac-violet 109cixiid 202 Merlucciidae 400 anecdote 401 mosaic disease 554 midlives 601Midcity TX, closed-circuit 604 world-civilizing 909 chemic chem��ic?adj.1. Chemical.2. Archaic Alchemic.n. ObsoleteAn alchemist.Adj. 1. mixer 1101circumsise 1104 McIvor MI MS 1105 McVan WA 1106 McVitty OH 1150 bumclock1151 Drumcliff MD 1200 McCabe MT 1250 McClung VA 1251 McClintocksburg OH1400 McDuff VA 1504 interim dividend 1550 fremdly 1900 McMorran OH 1901McMinnville OR 2002 Lummi Island WA 2006 Hammville DE 2100 LammCrossroads NC 2101 d City MO Consecutive Roman Numerals in Names Says Dan: "Referring to your original query about names withfive or more different consecutive Roman numerals, McDivitt is areasonably common name (35000 googlits); McLiverty has about 300 andseems to be a valid name; McDixon has only 56, some of which look likesomeone's actual name (not part of an email address). McDix getsseveral hundred googlits [but] many are for the Roman numeral [and] mostof the others seem to be a slang reference to McDonald's." Pollyanna About the word Pollyanna as a millennium name (in the NovemberKickshaws), Rex Gooch writes "This should be multianni! The Latinfor year is annus (masculine), with anni as a plural. The Latin for manyis multi (poly is Greek, and that would make a hybrid word)." Genealogy With an Unusual Twist My last name, Morice, is French, but it used to be spelled Maurice.My great-grandfather changed it because people always misspelled it(ironically, Maurice Chevalier became popular a generation later). Myson Danny wondered if there was anyone named Maurice Morice. I googledseveral listed in French websites, including one with Maurice-Morice asan alias. I tried googling Morris-Morice, and one of the results blew meaway. I found a genealogical website that states the family name Mauricemade this transition in the mid-nineteenth century:Maurice-Morice-Morris-Murray. My mother's maiden name is Murray; isthat a case of onomastic on��o��mas��tic?adj.1. Of, relating to, or explaining a name or names.2. Of or relating to onomastics.[French onomastique, from Greek onomastikos, from inbreeding inbreeding,mating of closely related organisms. Inbreeding is chiefly used as a means of insuring the preservation of specific desired traits among the offspring of purebred animals (see breeding). or what? Pig-Latin Bible A gentleman on the web claims he is going to be the first person totranslate the Bible into Pig Latin, calling it the Iblebay. I don'tthink he has any competition in his race. To get an idea as to what itwould be like to convert well-known literature to Pig Latin, Itranslated Shakespeare's Sonnet 55 ("Nor marble nor the gildedmonuments"). I plan on translating a few more of my favorites tomake a chapbook chapbook,one of the pamphlets formerly sold in Europe and America by itinerant agents, or "chapmen." Chapbooks were inexpensive—in England often costing only a penny—and, like the broadside, they were usually anonymous and undated. of Pig-Latin Shakespearean sonnets. Some Pig-Latinscholars promote the use of hyphens separating the two parts of apig-Latinized word, but others don't. I'm not kidding--thereare more than 99,000 websites responding to the Google search for"Pig Latin". MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology is doing a survey giving a starting word andits translation in different ways. After the survey-taker picks one ormore correct translations, he or she can type comments about thequestion and the answers in a box after each question. Regarding the useof hyphens, I don't use them unless they're in the originalword. Otherwise, they're like training wheels on a bicycle, andthey distract from the beauty of pure Pig Latin. Otnay arblemay ornay ethay ildedgay onumentsmay Ofay incespray allshay outliveay isthay ow'rfulpay ymerhay; Utbay ouyay allshay ineshay oremay ightbray inay esethay ontentscay Anthay unsweptay onestay esmear'dbay ithway uttishlay imetay. Enwhay astefulway arway allshay atuesstay overturnay, Anday oilsbray ootray outay ethay orkway ofay asonrymay, Ornay Arsmay ishay ordsway ornay ar'sway ickquay irefay allshay urnbay Ethay ivinglay ecordray ofay ouryay emorymay. Ainst'gay eathday anday all-obliviousay enmityay Allshay ouyay acepay orthfay; ouryay aisepray allshay illstay indfay oomray Evenay inay ethay eyesay ofay allay osteritypay Atthay earway isthay orldway outay otay ethay endingay oomday Osay, illtay ethay Udgmentjay atthay ourelfyay ariseay, Ouyay ivelay inay isthay, anday elldway inay overs'lay eyesay. The Business World of Pig Latin How many businesses have names that look like words translated intoPig Latin? In Cedar Rapids there is a company called Arcay (=car), butit doesn't sell cars. On the web there is the ever-presentelectronic auction house named eBay (=be). These are the only two I knowof. Any others gracing the malls of America (or England, Australia, NewZealand, Canada)? Truthful Number, A Anil found the ultimate truthful number in the place whereyou'd least expect it. As he describes it, "Since you werekind enough in the November 2003 Kickshaw to allow NINETEEN AND TWOHALVES as a second number after FOUR to be truthful in number ofletters, dare I offer yet a third? 'A' isn't usuallythought of as a number, but it is! It always and only means just ONE,and it has just one letter. (And may we not also count the deliberatelytruthful Romans I, II and III?)" Since Anil brought up truthfulRomans, how about truthful jail-cell numbers I, II, III? Follow-up on the Big G Anti writes "Glad to see Max Maven (in the May Kickshaws)taking up my 'Big G' challenge with a vengeance. I must noweat crow and confess to two sins. First, the misspelling mis��spell��ing?n.1. The act or an instance of spelling incorrectly.2. A word spelled incorrectly.Noun 1. . No excuse. (Hein turn turned my pet gerundives into gerunds! Aren't gerundivesadjectives and gerunds nouns? Or are they both types of rodent?) Mysecond sin is of boasting, or rather of losing sight of my originalpoint and being lured by the devil into padding my list with jokes andless basic words (thus just begging Max to do the same).'Basic' means words like the all-cap words in my list (BIG,GIANT, GRAND, GREAT, GROSS, HUGE, LARGE). "If I may now move the goalpost back to my starting point, Ican use the criterion of etymology (in Chambers Dictionary of Etymology,1988) to show that my 'basic' list is much larger thanMax's. Six or seven of mine have 'large' or 'verylarge' as their root meanings, while only one of his do. Mineinclude all the above except, ironically, LARGE itself! And BIG perhaps,but its origin is obscure. LARGE is from L. largus, abundant, copious,generous. The four others above are joined by MAGNA- and MEGA- as my six'golden oldies'. Max's only possible hit is VAST (<L.vastus, immense--but also desolate, empty related to waste[land]). A fewothers of his (IMMENSE, ENORMOUS and COLOSSAL) derive from specialcontexts or models of largeness analogous to LARGE and HIGH, which Idon't count. "So all, or all but one, of the root words for LARGE docontain a G. The G effect then is very old but it's not necessarilyan ongoing strange attractor that G-izes other words that come to meanlarge, except maybe coinages like GARGANTUAN and BROBDIGNAGIAN." Ahaha! (A Funny Discovery) Anti tells of a hellishly humorous word. "'Aha' and'ha-ha' have the same etymology, meaning discovery is funny!In a good joke the hearer discovers another way of looking at asituation, saying or word. Then I discovered that Jeff Grant'sPalindromicon defines 'ahaha' as a Buddhist hell! Thatdoesn't sound very funny. (Or likely--I thought Buddhismdidn't believe in hell. Hell on earth?)" Letter Abuse Inspired by Fraser Simpson's "Letter-DeletionAcrostics" in the Nov 1990 Word Ways, Anil has devised a newvariety of wordplay. Take a letter from a word, and discover that theremaining letters spell out a word or phrase that negates or otherwiseabuses the letter being omitted. For example, remove A from'annual" to create 'annul' A. Here is an alphabeticcollection: annual A annul an��nul?tr.v. an��nulled, an��nul��ling, an��nuls1. To make or declare void or invalid, as a marriage or a law; nullify.2. , abashing A bashing blurb B blur, outbrave Out`brave´v. t. 1. To excel in bravery or in insolence; to defy with superior courage or audacity.2. To excel in magnificence or comeliness.The basest weed outbraveshis dignity.- Shak. B 'out' rave exciting C exiting, changed C hanged noddies D no D--dies, disillusion D is illusion quiets E quits finagle G finale thrashing H trashing, abashing H abasing ruins I runs debark de��bark?v. de��barked, de��bark��ing, de��barksv.tr.To unload, as from a ship or an airplane.v.intr.To disembark. K debar de��bar?tr.v. de��barred, de��bar��ring, de��bars1. To exclude or shut out; bar.2. To forbid, hinder, or prevent. salvaging L savaging, blotching L botching unkempt M unkept, comma M coma, armrest M arrest line N lie, snap N sap quoits quoits:see horseshoe pitching. quoitsGame in which flattened rings of iron or circles of rope (both called quoits) are thrown at an upright pin (hob) in an attempt to ring it or come as near to it as possible. O quits spent P sent, expended ex-P ended Norway R no way!, varnishing R vanishing ruin S runs, exist S exit, quiets S quiet closets T closes vending V ending swift W sift, shred W shed maxim X maim maimv. to inflict a serious bodily injury, including mutilation or any harm which limits the victim's ability to function physically. Originally, in English Common Law it meant to cut off or permanently cripple a bodily member like an arm, leg, hand, or foot. honey Y hone bozos Z boos F, J, Q and U are missing, but the first three can be taken care ofby expiatory ex��pi��a��tion?n.1. The act of expiating; atonement.2. A means of expiating.ex A-to-R expiry! Flipograms Anti adds another style of lipogram lipogramNouna piece of writing in which all words containing a particular letter have been deliberately omittedNoun 1. lipogram - a text that excludes a particular letter or particular letters of the alphabet to the list. As he describesit, "It combines lateral and vertical symmetry, allowing anycut-out letters or the which can be flipped over and retain its shape,perhaps after a 180-degree rotation within the new plane. It allows16-18 letters: ABCDEHIKMO TUVWXY and arguably LQ. We fare more poorlywith lower case, which in Times New Roman allows only six letters:clovwx. With certain other fonts gklmntuy can be added for 14. Thesix-lower-case case poses a real challenge. I can see several two andthree letter words, at least 6 four letter words (coco, cool, cowl,loco, loll loll?v. lolled, loll��ing, lollsv.intr.1. To move, stand, or recline in an indolent or relaxed manner.2. , wool) and one five letter word (ovolo ovolo(ō`vəlō'): see molding. ). Can readers findlonger ones? On the other hand, the upper-case case includes all sixvowels and should be rich enough to allow sentences or longer proseproduction. With no L, N, R or S, the going for long words should stillbe rather tough. I spotted BACKCHATTED (11 letters) and MOTIVATED andACTIVATED (both 9). I challenge readers with search engines to find thelongest flipogram. Letter Words Anti writs "the February 2004 Kickshaws introduced'Letter Names', first names or nicknames that sound likesingle letters (Bea = B), with additional examples in May and August.It's probably already been done but I'd like to add that allsingle letters except S, V and Z sound like words other than propernames and in addition to their spelled-out versions or shapes: eh,be/bee, sea/see, dee (die, Br. Dial), ee (eye, Scot)/'e (he), ef(Dial if), gee, age, eye, jay, kay (left), el/ell, em, en/in/inn,owe/oh, pea/pee, cue/queue, are, tea/tee, you/ewe, double you/ewe,ex-/eggs, why. "What about their plurals? Here all 26 are pronounceable aswords. Eleven (in quotes) use dialect, nicknames or slightly alteredpronunciations, and two (V,W) are otherwise inferior: Ais (Fla. Indiangroup), "Beeze" (dimin. of Beasley), seize, dix (pinochle pinochle(pē`nŭ'kəl), card game, probably derived from bezique, that was developed in the United States in the 19th cent. Pinochle is played by two, three, or four players, with a deck of 48 cards containing two each of the aces, face term), ease, efts, jeez, "aegis", "Ise" (I am),"chaise", "case"/Kay's, "else", eros,ens, "'ose" (those), pease, "cuse" (accuse),"arse", esses (plural of esse)/"assess", tease, use,vis(-a-vis), double use, "excess", wise, "zease"(disease)." Wedded Letters "Similarly," Anil says, "'Wedded Words' byTom Bernard in the Aug 1994 Word Ways inspired this variation based onwedded letters: A&P, B&B (bed and breakfast), C&D/F/I,D&C/H/M/P, E&R (Evangelical and Reformed Church Evangelical and Reformed Church,Protestant denomination formed by the merger (1934) of the Reformed Church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America. Both of these bodies had originated in the Reformation in Europe. ), F&D/F D/F Disposition FormD/F Dust FreeD/F Depth of FieldD/F Direction FinderD/F Dioxins and Furans ,G&S (Gilbert and Sullivan 1.William Schwenk Gilbert erson> andSir Arthur Sullivan erson>, who collaborated on a number of light operas. See Gilbert.Noun 1. Gilbert and Sullivan - the music of Gilbert and Sullivan; "he could sing all of Gilbert and Sullivan" ) or G&T (gin and tonic Noun 1. gin and tonic - gin and quinine watergin - strong liquor flavored with juniper berrieshighball - a mixed drink made of alcoholic liquor mixed with water or a carbonated beverage and served in a tall glass ), H&C/D,I&E/P/R/S, J&W/O, L&M (Liggett and Myers) or L&N(railway), M&M (Candy)/B/D/S, N&Q (Notes and Queries Notes and Queries (originally subtitled "a medium of inter-communication for literary men, artists, antiquaries, genealogists, etc") is a London-based, quarterly publication, part academic journal, part correspondence magazine, in which scholars and interested ), O&R,P&C/D/I/L, Q&A (Question and Answer), R&C/L/O/R/W, S&M(sadism and masochism This article is written like a personal reflection or and may require .Please [ improve this article] by rewriting this article in an . )/C/H/T, T&A/G/O, U&O, V&M/T,W&F/I/R/S, X&Y (Cartesian axes), Y&D (Yards and Docks, USN)or Y&R (Young and Rubicam). All are defined in Web 3 or asindicated; many of the non-Web 3 ones are in Cassell Dictionary ofAbbreviations, D. Pickering, 1996)." Regarding the missing K and Z, I searched Google for K&B andfound it is a manufacturing company, the first of 149,000 K&Blistings. Z&A (Zhang & Associates) are attorneys. It'spossible that all (and certain that most) combinations of two weddedletters can be Googleized. Oui! A quick trick from Anti: The plural of u is us. Words With Repeated Bigrams and Trigrams Jeremy Morse sent two lists involving repetition of letters. Thefirst is a list of words containing repeated bigrams, each beginningwith different letters of the alphabet. Only Z and X are missing. Thesecond is a similar list for trigrams. Curiously, only X is missing. Cananyone provide the missing links? Repeated Bigrams: ACACIA, IMBIBING, CUCUMBER, DODO, CEDED, FIFING,MEGAGAUSS, BROUHAHA, ICICLE, JUJUBE jujube(j`jb): see buckthorn. jujubecauses loss of memory and desire to return home. [Classical Myth. , KAKAPO ka��ka��po?n. pl. ka��ka��posA ground-dwelling New Zealand parrot (Strigops habroptilus) with greenish plumage.[Maori k , SLYLY, MIMIC, ONENESS,SORORITY, PIPIT pipit,common name for a group of chiefly Eurasian and African birds that together with the wagtails constitute a subfamily of songbirds related to the Old World warblers and thrushes. Pipits are trim, slender birds with thin, pointed bills. , PROROGUE pro��rogue?tr.v. pro��rogued, pro��rogu��ing, pro��rogues1. To discontinue a session of (a parliament, for example).2. To postpone; defer. , EMPHASISING, STATAL, QUEUE, VIVID, STOWAWAY,POLYCYCLIC polycyclichaving two or more usually fused chemical ring structures in their molecule.polycyclic hydrocarbonsthyroid initiators, i.e. they increase the incidence of thyroid tumors. , ZOOZOO Repeated Trigrams: ASSASSIN, BARBARIC, CINCINNATE, DUMDUM Dumdum(dŭm`dəm), four towns in Suburban Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal state, E central India.South Dumdum (1991 pop. , ENTENTE,FURFUR fur��fur?n. pl. fur��fu��resAn epidermal scale, as that associated with dandruff.[Latin, bran, scales.] , GARGARISE, CHIHUAHUA, RINGING, JIG JIG, KINKING, LOGLOG, MURMUR,NONSENSE, ONIONING, PURPURIN pur��pu��rinn.A reddish crystalline compound used as a biological stain. , QUAQUAVERSAL, VERATRATE, ASSESSED,TINTING, HUBBUBBED, VALVAL, WOWWOW, PYOMYOMA, ZOOZOO Angara ... What does This Mean? To the geographer, ANGAR is the name of a Siberian river which runsfor 1,300 miles as a tributary of the mighty Yeniseu, a great Russianriver of 3,300 miles. To the cruciverbalist cru��ci��ver��bal��ist?n.1. A constructor of crosswords.2. An enthusiast of word games, especially of crosswords.[From Latin crux, cruc-, cross + Latin , ANA is a collection oftable talk or literary anecdotes about the GAR, a species of pike. Tothe Mercian wordsmith word��smith?n.1. A fluent and prolific writer, especially one who writes professionally.2. An expert on words.Noun 1. Peter Newby, it is simply--a fish out of water! A Letter From Over There Darby Belshire, a friend of Peter Newby, has penne the verse below.He suggests that thoughts of Burns will assist your understanding ofthis unique geographical name. Can you figure it out? Fra Ben Monadhliah to Loch Mhor Tha canna canna[Lat.,=cane], any plant of the genus Canna, tropical and subtropical perennials, grown in temperate regions in parks and gardens for the large foliage and spikelike, usually red or yellow blossoms. gae by horse, Yet, one can send a letter Along this very course! A Superlative Word Square Peter sends the following word square with clues beneath it. Hesays "A clue to its superlative quality lies in the fact thatI've placed my construction immediately after Belshire'sdoggerel dog��ger��el? also dog��greln.Crudely or irregularly fashioned verse, often of a humorous or burlesque nature.[From Middle English, poor, worthless, from dogge, dog; see !" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ACROSS: 1 pita bread 5 girl's name 6 former Indian coin 7 sameas 1 Across DOWN: 1 same as 1 Across 2 historic king of the East Angles(635-654) 3 anagram anagram[Gr.,=something read backward], rearrangement of the letters of a word or words to make another word or other words. A famous Latin anagram was an answer made out of a question asked by Pilate. of 1 Across 4 same as 1 Across Ned Rag's Garden "Ned Rag's Garden is New Bybwen's main horticulturaloutlet," Peter reports, "stocking both native plants and suchexotics as epacris, an Australian heath-like plant. One of Ned'smost regular customers is the celebrated Selima Miles, the IowanNightingale, now resident in Mercia following her marriage to localschoolteacher Marc Cram. Highly temperamental, the soprano usually hasher floral purchases protectively wrapped in her discarded clothing. Acactus, for example, often ends up in her knickers--the teacher havingtold her that it was once named a dildo dil��door dil��doen. pl. dil��dos or dil��doesAn object that is shaped like and is used as a substitute for an erect penis. ! Not knowing in what to parcelSelima's new Australian plant, Cram's choice of outerwearevoked an onlooker's comment: SIR CAPES AVID DIVA'SEPACRIS." The Great American/English Language Quiz Book Louis Phillips has published a fun and funny book of quizzes, mostof which begin with an anecdote that leads to the question. Thequestions range from simple to difficult. The introductory quoteprovides a quick example of the spirit of the writing: "What'sanother word for 'Thesaurus'?" But you should read thisvery enjoyable book with your own eyes. Very available from ProloguePress, 375 Riverside Drive, Apt 14-C, New York NY 10025. To start offyour reading, read on ... Radio Signature In the 1940s, the radio signature of this notedworld-class performer (comedian, singer, movie and radio star) was ascat phrase that went something like "Git gat Gat:see Ghat, Libya. GAT - Generalized Algebraic Translator. Improved version of IT. On IBM 650 RAMAC.[Sammet 1969, p. 142]. gittle, giddle-diap,giddle-de-tommy, riddle de biddle de roop, da-reep, fa-san, skeedle dewooda, fiddle de wada, reep!". Can you identify the performer? What's in a Name? Mxyztplk is certainly not a common name, butMr. Myxztplk was an imp who plagued what noted comic book hero? New Onomatopoetic on��o��mat��o��poe��ia?n.The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. Heights The January 8 2000 New York Timesobituary for this popular cartoonist for Mad Magazine stated that he"elevated comic book sound effect to new onomatopoeic on��o��mat��o��poe��ia?n.The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. heights. Inhis wacky world, a squirting flower went 'shklitza' andrecalcitrant meals of spaghetti or pizza made inimitably meaty sounds.Each form of physical torture had its own exquisite sound; gettingslapped in the face with a wet mackerel went 'spladap' whilegetting conked with a frying pan went 'pwang'. His vanitylicense plate read SHTOINK. Identify the artist. A Quiz Not Quite Off-Color The English language has eleven (count'em, 11) basic color terms. They are: Black, White, Red, Pink,Purple, Blue, Orange, Yellow, Brown, Green and ...? On the Dangers ofHyphens During the 1950s and early 1960s, a future Hall-of-Fame baseballplayer advertised and invested in Yoo-Hoo soft drink. At a Yoo-Hooconvention, the player was asked "Is Yoo-Hoo hyphenated hy��phen��at��ed?adj.1. Having a hyphen: a hyphenated adjective.2. Often Offensive Of or relating to naturalized citizens or their descendants or culture. ?" Theplayer responded "No, ma'am, it isn't evencarbonated." This noted speaker also added the phrase "Itain't over 'til it's over" to the English language.Who is this person, one of the most-loved baseball players of all time?Language Play in American Novels The following bit of wordplay is froman important American novel published in 1950 and made into a motionpicture starring Frank Sinatra. "I think you're a moron mo��ronn.A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. ,"the captain decided at last. "He ain't no moron," theveteran confided to Record Head, "he's a moroff. Youknow--more off than on." Can you identify the novel and its author?A Variety of Puzzlements How many times does the word democracy appearin The Declaration of Independence? Ames Names Jay Ames, undoubtedly the oldest Word Ways contributor (he recentlyturned 94), provides this "non-academic slant on some Can-Amer-Engnames." What better description of Barbie could there possibly be?It should become the company's ad campaign slogan! BARBIE the ever-lovin' never-leavin' living doll CHUCK pro bouncer (dance halls, discos, bars) DENNIS the everlastin' menace DOT Dash's mate ERIN Irish tru' an' tru' FANNY badly overweight MIKE natural born emcee NORM everything but--SAM disenchanting dis��en��chant?tr.v. dis��en��chant��ed, dis��en��chant��ing, dis��en��chantsTo free from illusion or false belief; undeceive.[Obsolete French desenchanter, from Old French, evening date (no repeats) SYD Spanish Don pretender TOM male cat / goat, lobster TOMMY a gunsel gun��sel?n. SlangA hoodlum or other criminal, especially one who carries a gun.[Perhaps alteration (influenced by gun) of Yiddish gendzl, gosling, diminutive of gandz , plain and simple VIC a 'cough drop' VINNIE seldom loses, even more--never at a loss for words, ideas Follow-Ups The first four items are from Jeremy Morse (August Kickshaws) andthe rest from Anil (November). Lipogrammatic Lip`o`gram`mat´ica. 1. Omitting a letter; composed of words not having a certain letter or letters; as, lipogrammaticwritings s>. books go back to the ancient Greeks, e.g.Tryphiodorous' Odyssey with no alpha in the first book, no beta inthe second, and so on to no omega in the twenty-fourth. Chapter 13 ofAugarde's Oxford Guide to Word Games gives a good historicalsurvey. The "Badgers and Otters" list can be completed withZANIER (a jester) that zanies or ZESTER (an enthusiast) that zests. Chambers offers a predecessor of AFTERISM with the same meaning:LATTERWIT, describes as old US, but he cannot find it in Web 2 or theOED. Fowler's English Usage (1965) says "The two words [ethicsand morals], once fully synonymous, and existing together only becauseEnglish scholars knew both Greek and Latin, have now so divided theirfunctions that neither is superfluous. They are not rivals for one job,but holders of complementary jobs; ethics is the science of morals, andmorals are the practice of ethics." However, since 1965, as Anilsays, the two terms have largely changed places, led by theiradjectives: ethical is now more associated with practice, and moral withtheory. The three stages form a fascinating history in changing wordusage. I couldn't find a single word to mix water and oil buthere's a couple of mixes that explain why they don't mix:o' wet lair (water) or wet ail (oil). Your astute observation that the name Mimi is one in a million canbe further substantiated by noting that the first I isn't necessaryto the product of a million (MMI (Man Machine Interface) See HMI. 1. MMI - Man-Machine Interface.2. (company) MMI - The company which developed the first Programmable Array Logic devices. MMI was bought by AMD. ). It's in fact an intruder, an Iin a MMI--a one in a million! Your fourth curtailment homophone hom��o��phone?n.One of two or more words, such as night and knight, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling. (hie, hi) is a virtual beheadmenthomophone as well. You have to listen closely to tell "hie"from "i.e." Ditto "hi"/"I". Can you thinkof others? While not noted as a leaper, a llama llama(lä`mə), South American domesticated ruminant mammal, Lama glama, of the camel family. Genetic studies indicate that it is descended from the guanaco. leaped into my mind. Here are several WHO-HOW pairs, all in Web 3 or inferred: CAB-ABC,SEN-ENS, TAS-AST. A Valentine Kickshaw Webster's Second has the following three consecutive mainentries: (1) kicksey-winsey, (2) kickshaw(s), (3) kicksy-wicksy,kicky-wicky. KICKSHAW has three definitions: (1) something fantastical;a toy, (2) a fancy dish; a tidbit; a delicacy, (3) a fantastic person.KICKSEY-WINSEY is "a fantastical device; whim" (a kickshaw ofthe first definition). KICKSY-WICKSY is "a wife. Contemptuous"(a kickshaw of the third definition, when the negative definitions of'fantastic' are considered). In Word Ways, KICKSHAWS has meant"a fancy dish; a tidbit; a delicacy" (a kickshaw of the seconddefinition). Now for a Valentine message to the married male readers of WordWays: on February 14, when you and your kicksy-wicksy are riding aroundin your kicksey-winsey, don't forget that your kicky-wicky was onceyour kickshaw. A Fairy Tale in Names Once upon a time, in a land far away, therewas a nattily-dressed merry old King and Queen. All is not well--thePrincess still single--no suitors--such a shame! But hold on! Lookthere, round the bend, gingerly riding on a horse, I can seethere's a Prince, just in time. Will he propose? Bet he does!She'll accept. I love when there is a happy ending. A Letter From Over There The River E (Burns is the Scots word for astream). A Superlative Word Square N A A N / A N N A / A N N A / N A A NThe Great American/English Language Quiz Book Danny Kaye Superman DonMartin Gray Yogi Berra James Jones, From Here to Eternity None