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. Symmetrian: A Handwritten hand��write?tr.v. hand��wrote , hand��writ��ten , hand��writ��ing, hand��writesTo write by hand.[Back-formation from handwritten.]Adj. 1. Alphabet for Wordplay Joli Kansil in the last Word Ways invented a wonderfully cleveralphabet to eliminate the ambiguity and multiplicity of pronunciationsin our current alphabet. I've always been interested in alternativeapproaches to the alphabet. Long ago, before I knew of Word Ways, Idesigned different typefaces that had special motifs. For instance, theClothes Hanger Typeface consisted of 26 letters designed to look likethey were made of clothes hangers. At one point I decided to design apurely visual alphabet whose letters had no pronunciations and nomeanings--a content-free alphabet with no intentional relation to anylanguage. After all, many of the world's alphabets such as Arabic,Sanskrit or Incan, spell words to the native speakers but just makepretty pictures to me. My alphabet would work in a similar way: it wouldbe a system of handwritten shapes that had no meaning to anyone, noteven myself. The symbols that represented the letters would besymmetrical--thus the name Symmetrian. In Symmetrian, letters are formed by symmetric symbols on avertical axis. Each symbol appears in one of four manifestations of thesame shape--small, tall, overline (above the writing line), orunderline--which represents four different letters. Thus, seven symbolsmake 28 letters. The designs of the symbols begin with the simplestshapes and become more complex as more letters are created. The lettersare written on a writing line to simplify reading them. Each letterbegins by touching the writing line and ends by touching it again--noSymmetrian letter touches the writing line three or more times. After I'd discovered Word Ways, I realized that Symmetriancould be used in wordplay by coding Symmetrian letters to representEnglish letters. But there was a problem: to maintain the four-letterrelationships, Symmetrian works best with alphabets having a number ofletters divisible DIVISIBLE. The susceptibility of being divided. 2. A contract cannot, in general, be divided in such a manner that an action may be brought, or a right accrue, on a part of it. 2 Penna. R. 454. by four. English, with 26, doesn't quite fit thismold. The only satisfactory solution was to drop two Symmetrian lettersfrom the set. Before deciding on which two to drop, I arrangedSymmetrian letters in various ways in order to use their visual elementsto signify logological properties. The dialect below uses M and N assmall letters only. When interpreted the right way, the shapes displayat least six basic properties of the English alphabet The modern English alphabet consists of the 26 letters[1] of the Latin alphabet:Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZMinuscule Forms (also called : * First-half letter (A-M A-M Alternating Maximization (algorithm)) = overline letter * Second-half letter (N-Z) = underline letter * Odd-numbered letter (A,C,E ...) = small overline letter or tallunderline letter * Even-numbered letter (B,D,F ...) = tall underline letter or smalloverline letter * Pairs of letters equidistant e��qui��dis��tant?adj.Equally distant.equi��distance n. from the center of the alphabet(AZ,BY,CX ...) = overline letter and underline letter having the sameshape * Pairs of letters formed by dividing the alphabet into two-letterunits (AB,CD,EF ...) = small letter and tall letter that have the sameshape and that appear on the same side of the line (except MN) In the illustration, the top (unnumbered) panel shows theSymmetrian letters coded to English letters. It is followed by Panels1-5, which show how logological properties of English words becomeeasier to spot in Symmetrian. Panel 6 is a poem made of Symmetrianletters that have curves only (no straight lines, no circles); its titleresembles the sound and shape of a snake. How quickly can you read thisdialect? I signed my name in Symmetrian at the bottom right corner. Symmetrian words can be viewed in a mirror to reverse the order oftheir letters while maintaining their shapes, and thus palindromes andreversals can be read as easily in the mirror. Symmetrian can also beturned upside down to form letter strings, but very few form words. Canyou devise other letters or letter orders that form more words upsidedown or that display other logological properties? In Symmetrian, eachseparate letter should be symmetrical, but it isn't necessary for asymbol to form small, tall, above, and below letters, for similarletters. Ten Alphabets There are many ways to represent the alphabet. The commonest way isto write or print the letters in traditional forms. In printing,typographers have designed many different typefaces. In writing,children learn penmanship in several standardized ways, such as thefamous Palmer Method The Palmer Method of penmanship instruction was developed and promoted by Austin Palmer in the early 1900's and soon became the most popular handwriting system in the United States. Under it, students were taught to copy a uniform style of cursive writing with rhythmic motions. . However, non-standard ways of representing thealphabet have been crated to fit special needs and situations--Braille,Sign Language, Morse Code Morse Code International Morse Code Letters A ·– B –··· C –·–· D –·· E · , Semaphore semaphore(sĕm`əfôr'), device for the visible transmission of messages. The marine semaphore, used by day between ships or between a ship and the shore, consists essentially of a post at the top of which are two pivoted arms. , Shorthand, etc. The potential tocreate alphabets using other media and strategies are limitless. Tenexamples appear below. The first includes printed letters and the secondincludes spoken letters. After that, the next eight use other mediainstead of normal letters. * Width Alphabet The letters have the same height (1 inch) butdifferent widths. A is 1 inch long, B is 2 inches, C is 4 inches, etc.,each letter doubling the width of the previous. Z is a letter 529.6miles wide. (In this alphabet, DAVID is 33.14 miles wide, MORICE 2.39miles wide.) * Sound Alphabet A is whispered almost inaudibly in��au��di��ble?adj.Impossible to hear: an inaudible conversation.in��au , B is slightlylouder, etc., to Z, which is screamed as loudly as possible. Whenpassing a hospital quiet zone, it is common courtesy to avoid spellingthe words QUIET ZONE! * Temperature Alphabet Each letter is represented by a differenttemperature ten degrees away from the letter on either side: A =-125[degrees] F, B = -115[degrees] F, ... to Z = +125[degrees] F. Thespace in the middle of the alphabet, between M and N, is 0[degrees]F--the first half of the alphabet is cold and the last half is hot.Lovers can choose words from the last half when falling in love and thefirst half when breaking up. By coincidence, there is an incrediblyperfect love-hate relationship love-hate relationshipAmbivalence Psychiatry A clinical complex characterized by Freudian impulses; love-hate is normal for children passing through the 'anal-sadistic' phase of development, in which there is often simultaneous love and 'murderous' hatred toward : the temperature of LOVERS is +100[degrees] F, and the temperature of HATERS is -100[degrees] F (F doesnot mean Fahrenheit). * Color Alphabet Color alphabet is a one to one mapping of a subset of discrete colors to a standardized set of signs (alphabet or graphemes) that allows one to construct meaning out of color directly and unambiguously using an existing system of writing. The visible spectrum is divided into 26equidistant points. Each point is a color that signifies a letter from A(violet) to Z (red). If you're color-blind col��or��blindor col��or-blind ?adj.1. Partially or totally unable to distinguish certain colors.2. a. Not subject to racial prejudices.b. , you have to takeremedial reading classes. * Tactile Alphabet The letters go from soft and gentle to hard andsharp, from A (a cotton swab "Q-Tip" redirects here. For the rapper, see Q-Tip (rapper). For the band, see Q-Tips (band).Cotton swabs (British English: cotton buds) are used in first aid, cosmetics application, and a variety of other uses. ) to Z (a razor blade ra��zor��bladealso ra��zor blade ?n.A thin sharp-edged piece of steel that can be fitted into a razor.razor bladen → hoja de afeitarrazor blade). To read a word,touch the objects for each of the letters, but be careful: some wordscan cut to the quick. * Weight Alphabet A is one pound, B is two pounds, etc., to Z is 26pounds. Reading a word requires picking up all its letter weights at thesame time. If you can't lift the weights, you can't spell theword. With this alphabet, Charles Atlas's body-builders areexcellent spellers, but 98-pound weaklings are nearly illiterate. * Temporal Alphabet Each letter has to be pronounced for a specificlength of time: A is spoken for one second, B for two seconds, all theway to Z for 26 seconds. In a spelling bee spelling been.A contest in which competitors are eliminated as they fail to spell a given word correctly. Also called spelldown.Noun 1. , if the right letters areused with the wrong length of time, the word is misspelled. * Emotional Alphabet The letters are expressed by a broad range ofemotions: A is hysterical crying, B is less-hysterical weeping, M isbarely-audible sobbing, N is barely-audible giggling. The alphabetcontinues to Z, which is hysterical laughter. Try spelling PIZZA in thisalphabet! * Speed Alphabet For use in motor vehicles, A is 5 mph, B is 10mph, etc., to Z is 130 mph. In most cities, words spelled with lettershigher than F (30 mph) are moving violations. On the highway, where thespeed limit is 70, words with letters from A to M are legal. Words withletters near the end of the alphabet are rarely spelled except duringhigh-speed chases. ZOOM is a very fast word. * Electrifying e��lec��tri��fy?tr.v. e��lec��tri��fied, e��lec��tri��fy��ing, e��lec��tri��fies1. To produce electric charge on or in (a conductor).2. a. Alphabet Each letter has a different electricalcharge. A is hardly noticeable static electricity, B is noticeableenough to make you flinch, and so on, to Z, which is similar to beingstruck by lightning. This form of spelling is, well, shocking. Record-Length Lettershift First Name Pair ANA and BOB are lettershifts of each other. Each letter of ANAshifts one alphabetic step to spell BOB. Lettershift names or words offour letters or fewer are common. At five letters they become scarce,and at six they become rare. The last name of John LENNON Noun 1. John Lennon - English rock star and guitarist and songwriter who with Paul McCartney wrote most of the music for the Beatles (1940-1980)Lennon of the Beatlesshifts to BUDDED, but one is a name and the other is a word. In fact, Ididn't know of any first names longer than three letters that aremutual lettershifts--until recently. Daniel McGrath has discovered twofirst names of six letters each, twice as long as the ANA-BOB pair.LEANNA (female) shifts four steps to form PIERRE (male). The chances ofanother six-letter two-name pair occurring is extremely small. If twopeople named LEANNA and PIERRE have any sense of logological destiny,let them step forward and get married. Self-Generating Bigram Series In mathematics the Fibonacci series begins 0 1 1 2 3 5 ... Eachnumber is determined by adding the previous two numbers. After 3 and 5comes 8. The series continues indefinitely. A similar series can beformed by adding the alphabetic values (A=1 to Z=26) of bigrams.Starting with the alphabetically-first bigram, AA, convert the lettersto their alphabetic values (A+A = 1+1), add the values (1+1 = 2), andconvert the sum to the letter with that alphabetic value (B). Thus, theseries begins AAB AAB ABN Amro BankAAB Association of Applied Biologists (UK)AAB American Association of BioanalystsAAB Army Air BaseAaB Aalborg Boldspilklub (Danish Soccer Club)AAB All-to-All Broadcast . The next letter is formed by adding the alphabeticvalues of AB (A+B = 1+2 = 3 = C). By repeating this process one letterafter the other, the series continues. If the sum of two adjacent lettervalues is greater than 26, then 26 is subtracted from the sum and theresult is the next letter value. For instance, EY = 5+25 = 30; 30-26 = 4= D. Unlike the Fibonacci numbers Fibonacci numbersIn mathematics, a sequence of numbers with surprisingly useful applications in botany and other natural sciences. Beginning with two 1's, each new term is generated as the sum of the previous two: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, . . . . , the letters in the bigram series arelimited to 676, each representing the first letter of a differentbigram. All bigrams can be generated in this fashion, but not in asingle series. In fact, there are 14 series, all composed of differentbigrams. Each series recycles when it reaches the point at which thestarting bigram reappears. There are six long series of 84 letters, sixshort series of 28 letters, and two tiny series, one with two lettersand one with only one letter. The six long series contain a few commonthree-letter words but only three four-letter words (WAXY waxy(wak��se)1. composed of or covered by wax.2. resembling wax, especially denoting some combination of pliability, paleness, and smoothness and luster. , POET, HOWL).The other eight series, lacking vowels, contain no common words. Hereare the 14 bigram series, with common words capitalized:AabcehmuhcknymlykjuezeeJOYnMANocRUMhucxayzyyxwurmerwoLAMnaOPEuzuupkALMylkxHEMrewbyaza[a]acdgkrcuxsqjaklwifoujeoTICloapqgxechksdWAXYwvsohWEBgipYONcqtkepukfqwnkyjisbuwrogvcyba[c]adeinwkhSATuojyihqyPOETysrkcnqevawxusngubwyvuqlcorgyfekpaqriajkuFAGHOWLiudycBEGlSEXCA[D]aefkqbSUNiwfcilugbikueydcgjqarskdoshaijscvyutoixGELqctwqnesxqofuavwspiyhgovkgryqpgwda[e]afgmtgahiqzqqhygfmsfyeDIMVIEnsgzggnuidmqduytsmfsyrqiziirastmgtauvqmdqulgszssleqvmivea[f]bkmxKITcwzwwtqkbMOBqsjcmpcsvokzkkvgcjmwjgqxomboqfwczccfioxmkxigpwmjwgdkoZOOdswpmcpSIB[k]bbdfjpzppfvbxzxxvtpjzjjtdxbzb[b]bfhnvjfpvlhtbvxtrldptjdnrfxdb[f]bhjrbtvplbnpdtxrphxfdjnxljvfb[h]bjlvhdlpbrtlfrxpndrvnjxhfnthb[j]blnznnbprhzhhpxnlzllxjhrzrrjb[l]ddhltfzfflrdvzvvrnftzttnhvdzd[d]mmzm[m]zz[z] Artist's Books One of the most interesting genres of art to emerge in the late20th century is the Artist's Book, which takes two main forms. Inone form, the artist assembles a book out of various materials. In theother form, the artist takes a pre-existing book and alters it in someway. In some ways, the artist's book can be considered a form ofwordplay. I'm an "occasional" artist's book artist,and I've done both kinds. My preference, though, is to alterpre-existing books. I especially like it when my original intentionopens the door to a surprise I hadn't anticipated. Here are the twothat surprised me the most. (1) DOG-EARED TWAIN is made from an oldhardbound hard��bound?adj. & n.Hardcover.Adj. 1. hardbound - having a hard back or cover; "hardback books"hardback, hardbacked, hardcoverbacked - having a back or backing, usually of a specified type collection of Mark Twain's short stories. I dog-eared allthe pages at the top right corner to suggest that every page ofTwain's book had something on it worth remembering. What Ididn't realize is that dog-earing all the pages doubled the size ofthe top corner, which appears to have twice as many pages as the bottomcorner. The book tilts! (2) LOOKING-GLASS LABYRINTH is made from a newhardbound novel titled Mirror Maze. It's a mystery story thatincludes an amusement park maze as an important part of the plot. I cuteach of the pages of the story horizontally in half to make the bookinto a literary maze to be read with the tops halves in numeric ordercombined with any of the bottom halves, which are unnumbered. Afterdoing that, I calculated how many different ways the book could be readby combining halves, guessing there must be at least a trillion. What anunderestimation! There are over 200 googol An extremely large number. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, a young nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner (1878-1955), who said a googol was 1 followed by 100 zeros (10100). ways (a googol is l followedby 100 zeros). LOOKING-GLASS LABYRINTH can be read in more ways than anyother book in history, and it's only about an inch thick. (RaymondQueneau performed a similar exercise in French with his Cent MilleMillard de poemes, allowing the reader to construct a sonnet with tenchoices for each line.) The Incredible Shrinking Word Mike Morton writes "Our TV has such crummy crum��myalso crumb��y ?adj. crum��mi��er also crumb��i��er, crum��mi��est also crumb��i��est Slang1. Miserable or wretched: a crummy situation in the family.2. sound that we oftenwatch with subtitles turned on. The other day, a character said `Wherewere we?' and I noticed that each word in that sequence is a subsetof the previous word's letters, in the same order. It's sortof like the puzzles where you add one letter at a time to a word, exceptthe transition from `were' to `we' drops more than one letter.I wonder what other sentences one could produce which only add or removeletters (or one letter at a time, to be strict)? I'd had no luckthinking of any with brain-power, and am too lazy to try a computersolution." Tune in to the next Kickshaws to find out if any readerscome up with other examples. Cheater's Univocalics A cheater's wordplay form bends the rules to accomplish itsgoal. DROWASI IS A WORD is a cheater's palindrome palindrome:see anagram. , since DROWASIwas made up for the sole purpose of using IS A WORD in the second half.A cheater's 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. , as Peter Newby described it, rearranges theletters of a real word to form a plausible but imaginary word. Forinstance, in BELFAST = FABLETS, the latter word could be "littlefables," but the word doesn't exist. A few other wordplayforms have cheated, too, but not many. One example of a form thathasn't had its 15 letters of fame yet is the cheater'sunivocalic, a fake word that uses the same vowel throughout bymisspilling a real word. The results are often funny: ALPHABAT, TEECHER,SINISTIR, COOKOO CLOCK, HUNDRUD, FLY-BY-NYGHT. The word SENSELESSNESSESis a real univocalic of 15 letters. The challenge is to find acheater's univocalic of 16 letters or more that closely resemblesthe correct word that inspired it. Name Sayers In two recent movies, the main characters tell people that theirlast names are pronounced differently than everyone thinks. Both moviesstart comedians who cut their funny-bones on Saturday Night Live This article is about the American television series. For the show related to Big Brother (UK), see Saturday Night Live (UK). Saturday Night Live (SNL , andboth change the pronunciation to make it sound French. In the firstmovie, Joe Dirt, Joe says his last name is pronounced"DEER-tay." In the second movie, Corky cork��y?adj. cork��i��er, cork��i��est1. Of or resembling cork.2. Informal Lively; buoyant.cork Romano, Corky uses anundercover name, PISSANT piss��antalso piss-ant ? Slangn.1. One that is insignificant.2. Obsolete An ant.adj. , which everyone pronounces as PISS ANT. Corkycorrects them by saying it is a French name, pronounced"pee-SANH." (The editor adds an example from television:Hyacinth Bucket in the Britcom Keeping Up Appearances insists that hersurname be pronounced "Boo-KAY.") I find this amusing becausemy last name is French, but most people mispronounce mis��pro��nounce?v. mis��pro��nounced, mis��pro��nounc��ing, mis��pro��nounc��esv.tr.To pronounce badly or incorrectly.v.intr.To make a poor pronunciation. it like the nameMORRIS and a few like the phrase MORE ICE, and I wind up saying"No, it's French--maw-REESE." That, of course, is theAmericanized French pronunciation. Are there any other movies in which acharacter changes the pronunciation of his/her name to sound likeit's from a different language? Mnemonically Oedipal oed��i��palor Oed��i��paladj.Of or characteristic of the Oedipus complex. Pterodactyl pterodactyl(tĕrədăk`tĭl), popular term for a pterosaur. pterodactylAny member of the pterosaur suborder Pterodactyloidea, known from Late Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils (159–65 million years ago) in When I was in grade school, the teacher gave us a sentence to helpus remember how to spell the word ARITHMETIC. It was a funny, memorablemnemonic Pronounced "ni-mon-ic." A memory aid. In programming, it is a name assigned to a machine function. For example, COM1 is the mnemonic assigned to serial port #1 on a PC. Programming languages are almost entirely mnemonics. , but her spelling method was flawed. If we learned how to spellall words by memorizing sentences whose words began with those letters,it would mean we'd have to know the initial letters of all thosewords. To know the initial letters would require knowing how to spellthe words that began with those letters. Such a method could be called aMnemonically Oedipal Pterodactyl, which clearly shows the problem: inthat phrase, the silent first letters spell MOP, but the enunciatedsecond letters spell NET. Are there two kinds of mnemonics mnemonics/mne��mon��ics/ (ne-mon��iks) improvement of memory by special methods or techniques.mnemon��ic mne��mon��icsn.A system to develop or improve the memory. , one based onspelling and the other on pronunciation? I still remember the ARITHMETICmnemonic, and I just realized that there should be a MATHEMATICmnemonic, too, so I composed one that continues therodent-eats-ice-cream motif. Notice that both words are spelled with tenletters--a tip of the hat to the decimal system. ARITHMETIC = A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream MATHEMATIC = Mice At The House Eat Maybe All The Ice Cream Alighieri, Your Art Has Words Entering Hell Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote one of the greatest works inItalian literature, The Divine Comedy, an epic poem of 100 cantos interza rima form. The entire work is subdivided into three 33-cantosections titled Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, which are oftenpublished as books by themselves. A separate introductory section bringsthe Comedy canto count up to 100. As might be expected, the Inferno isthe most hideous and fascinating section to read. I blazed through it,but I couldn't even strike a match in the other two. At thebeginning of the Inferno, a sign warns the visitor "Lasciate ognisperanza, voi ch'entrate." The traditional translation,according to Bartlett, is "All hope abandon, ye who enterhere." The reason to abandon all hope is because God has condemnedSatan and his devils to eternal damnation with no way to ever leave, noteven for a fire drill. The traditional English translation is only oneof several possible translations. In my opinion, the Italian-Englishinterlinear in��ter��lin��e��ar?adj.1. Inserted between the lines of a text.2. Written or printed with different languages or versions in alternating lines.Adj. 1. translation is even better. It is just as clear, and it hasa miraculous bit of wordplay in it, reminiscent of the TITANIA acronymin Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. The interlineartranslation is: ABANDON YE ALL HOPE WHO ENTER HERE. The hidden messageis formed by the first word and the initial letters of the remaining sixto spell a second word, and reveals what the damned have to give upforever: ABANDON Y.A.H.W.E.H. That is a hell of a coincidence! Ofcourse, Dante never knew that such an appropriate acronym would appearin an English translation of his line. Before you leave the Inferno, canyou figure out the significance of the title of this Kickshaw? Alphabetic Bigram Words The alphabet can be considered as a set of 25 bigrams, from AB toYZ. An alphabetic bigram word is spelled entirely with two-letter unitswhose letters are next to each other in the alphabet and also occur nextto each other in the word. The bigrams can be used with their lettersgoing in either direction--AB or BA, CB or BC, etc. There are threekinds of these words based on the order of the letters in the bigrams(all examples listed in Webster's Tenth Collegiate): * Forward Bigram Words (15) Ab, CD, ef, hi, hiders, high, hist, no,node, no-no, op, Ophirs, stab, stop, tutu tutucoriariaarborea. * Reverse Bigram Words (11) baba ba��ba?n.A leavened rum cake, usually made with raisins.[French, from Polish, old woman.]Noun 1. , balked balk?v. balked, balk��ing, balksv.intr.1. To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump.2. , bats, CB, ed, feed, on,onyx, pots, pout, ut * Mixed Bigram Words (23) abed, abut To reach; to touch. To touch at the end; be contiguous; join at a border or boundary; terminate on; end at; border on; reach or touch with an end. The term abutting implies a closer proximity than the term adjacent. , bade, balm balm,name for any balsam resin and for several plants, e.g., the bee balm. balmAny of several fragrant herbs of the mint family, particularly Melissa officinalis (balm gentle, or lemon balm), cultivated in temperate climates for its fragrant , bars, bast,basted, debars, deeded, defers, hied, high noon, hits, noon, NOTs, oped,op-ed, opts, poop PoopA slang term often used to describe people with insider information.Notes:Not the most illustrious name.See also: Insider Information , posted, stoned, Styx, Tshi Which American President's last name is a bigram word? Spring, The Season of Sounds As you read this, winter is in its early stage. Not too much snow,sleet sleet,precipitation of small, partially melted grains of ice. As raindrops fall from clouds, they pass through layers of air at different temperatures. If they pass through a layer with a temperature below the freezing point, they turn into sleet. , slush slush?n.1. Partially melted snow or ice.2. Soft mud; slop; mire.3. Nautical Grease or fat discarded from a ship's galley.4. A greasy compound used as a lubricant for machinery. or substances beginning with a frozen S, but it gets worsein the coming months. Then, after the cold silence of winter, springarrives and wakes the world with the chirps of birds, the barks of dogs,the meows of cats, and the sounds of ice cream trucks going back tobusiness. SPRING is the perfect name to reflect the sonic stirring ofthe quadricycle of the seasons as it shifts gears and recycles icicles.In SPRING, each of the three opening consonants combine with the closingtrigram to spell three shorter words (SING, PING, RING) related to themusic of sound, which is the sound of music! Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus “Is There a Santa Claus?” was the headline that appeared over an editorial in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun. The editorial, which included the response of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” Bibliography Imagine writing a Christmas poem to share with your family and thenimagine watching it turn into the best-known Christmas poem of all. Thenyou must be Clement Clark Moore, because no other poem surpasses"The Night Before Christmas n. 1. The popular name for a poem byClement Clarke Moore erson> titled A Visit from St. Nicholas ltname>, a popular poem with the theme ofSt. Nicholas erson> (Santa Claus) coming to bring gifts to children on Christmans eve. ". That poem laid the foundationfor the modern Christmas myth. It has been published year after year,ever since it first appeared in 1823 in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinalnewspaper. It was actually published the night before the night beforeChristmas--December 23, 1823. How many times has it appeared inpublished form since then? 300? 500? According to Nancy H.Marshall's The Night Before Christmas: A Descriptive Bibliography,it has appeared at least 1,001 times from 1823 to 2000. This fantastic book is the first comprehensive bibliography devotedto the Christmas poem we all know and love, and it will never besurpassed. It is chock full of information, beginning with an excellent,detailed historical background of 30 pages, which includes a discussionof the question, Who really wrote the poem? It also includes a List ofTables, Introduction to the Bibliography, a Bibliography of Moore'sOther Works, and enough Indexes to accurately pinpoint anyone who hadanything to do with each publication. The largest part of the book istaken up by the Bibliographic Entries (about 230 pages). Thepublications are listed by year, beginning with the Troy debut. Most ofthe listings are books that present the poem with differentillustrators. And the book includes 144 color and 80 black-and-whiteillustrations showing the variety that St. Nick has taken over theyears. The bibliography also includes a few entries in non-bookformat--lantern slides, trading cards, even a whirly-twirly toy. Itlists a few books printed in other languages, and a few parodies. Infact, entry 819 is Martin Gardner's The Annotated Night BeforeChristmas: A Collection of Sequels, Parodies, and Imitations of ClementMoore's Immortal Ballad about Santa Claus, which is the book of St.Nick parodies. I was pleased to find that entry 700 lists my own parody,A Visit from St. Alphabet, which has appeared in Word Ways as well as inbook form. Each entry includes the bibliographic information followed by anexcellent annotation that describes the size of the book, the number ofpages, etc., and gives extra comments that Ms. Marshall has learned orobserved in amassing the collection of St. Nick books over nearly 50years that led to the idea of assembling this bibliography. She is aretired Dean of the University Libraries of the College of William andMary Noun 1. William and Mary - joint monarchs of England; William III and Mary II . Her wonderful collection, upon which much of this bibliography isbased, will become part of the Special Collections Division at thecollege. The book, hardbound with a beautiful multicolor dust jacket,includes a portrait from life of Clement Moore who looks a little likeWoody Allen. It is published by Oak Knoll Press, New Castle, Delaware New Castle is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, six miles (10 km) south of Wilmington, situated on the Delaware River, at the head of Delaware Bay. In 1900, 3,380 people lived here; in 1910, 3,351. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,836. ,2002. Pom-Pom Pomp What is a POM-POM? If someone asked you to use one, would you knowhow? Webster's 10th has two entries for POM-POM, each apparentlyhaving separate etymologies, and their definitions are at least ascontrasting as any other two words with the same spelling. Like mostpeople, you probably think of a POM-POM as "a handheld usu.brightly colored fluffy ball flourished by cheerleaders Notable cheerleadersPaula Abdul, Los Angeles Lakers, Van Nuys High School Christina Aguilera, North Allegheny Intermediate High School[] Kirstie Alley Ann-Margret Toni Basil Kim Basinger Halle Berry Sandra Bullock[0] ." Thatsuggests stadium, football players, and girls chanting lines like"Let's win! Let's win! If we can't do it, no onekin!" You would feel surprised, perhaps even terrified ter��ri��fy?tr.v. ter��ri��fied, ter��ri��fy��ing, ter��ri��fies1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten.2. To menace or threaten; intimidate. , if thecheerleaders were carrying the other kind of POM-POM, defined as "amultibarreled automatic antiaircraft gun of 20 to 40 millimeters mountedesp. on ships." You might even think of a new version of the NRA NRA(National Rifle Association of America) organization that encourages sharpshooting and use of firearms for hunting. [Am. Pop. Culture: NCE, 1895]See : Hunting slogan about guns: Pom-poms don't kill people; cheerleaders do. Good Grief! LAMENT, in Webster's 10th Collegiate, lists MOURN as asynonym. Both refer to the sorrow caused by death. Prayer is one waysurvivors achieve closure in their grief, and prayer is perhaps at theroot of the meaning of MOURN and LAMENT. In fact, the meaning can berevealed by removing the first and last letters of the two words. Theremaining letters spell the first word and the last word of theLord's Prayer: "OUR Father, Who art in heaven ... AMEN." Idiotism Time The Collegiate lists two words with different etymological et��y��mo��log��i��cal? also et��y��mo��log��icadj.Of or relating to etymology or based on the principles of etymology.et rootsfor IDIOTISM. The first is obsolete and means "idiom;" thesecond is archaic and means "idiocy IDIOCY, med. jur. That condition of mind, in which the reflective, or all or a part of the affective powers, are either entirely wanting, or are manifested to the least possible extent. 2. Idiocy generally depends upon organic defects. ." Since neither IDIOTISMis in current usage but is in the dictionary, there should be a thirdlisting defined as "a defunct word spelled IDIOTISM." Not onlywould that give a reason for listing the other two, but it wouldencourage fans of the word to look for more to submit for considerationin the 11th Collegiate. Who knows? There may be dozens or hundreds ofIDIOTISMs that have come and gone over the years. Now they can be takenout of the lexical attic, dusted off, and displayed on the paper shelvesof the dictionary. On the other hand, if the two IDIOTISMs that arestill there were removed instead, then the new IDIOTISM would remain topreserve the originals by listing them as its etymological sources.It's a win-win situation officially backed by the Society ofIdiotism, which has no members and doesn't want any. This highlyelite organization chooses to have a membership of zero in order toavoid fees, meetings, reports, elections, and other idiotisms thatplague organizations that do have members. The non-existent members canbe reached at their non-existent office located next to their rivalorganization, the Society to Remove Idiotism from the Dictionary, whichalso has no members. I've tried to join both, but their fee isnothing, and I don't have that much money to spare. Presto PRESTO is a magical term. In Webster's 10th, its first meaningis "suddenly, as if by magic." Its etymology etymology(ĕtĭmŏl`əjē), branch of linguistics that investigates the history, development, and origin of words. It was this study that chiefly revealed the regular relations of sounds in the Indo-European languages (as described is traced to theItalian word meaning "quick." Magically speaking, dropping thefirst and last letters results in REST, a not-so-quick rabbit in thehat. The & is quicker than the I. Phonetically Interchangeable Vowel Sets In the February 1994 Word Ways, John Foster discussedinterchangeable vowels sets, in which placing each vowel in the sameposition in a set of letters results in a different word each time: BAGBEG BIG BOG BUG. Since this is an example of wordplay based on lettersand not sounds, only one spelling represents each vowel. However, in asimilar form based on sounds, a phonetically interchangeable vowel setrequires that each word have the same consonant sound(s) and differentvowel sound(s) of the same type (e.g., "long" or"short" vowel sound). It seems that sets using the same longvowel sounds are the most common. One of John's letter-based sets,MATE METE MITE MOTE MUTE, almost qualifies as a sound-based set, exceptthat MUTE is pronounced "myute." Instead, substituting MOOTfor MUTE would make the set qualify. A phonetically interchangeablevowel set allows for more than one word to represent each vowel. Eventhe consonants can change from word to word as long as each wordmaintains the required sound. It seems that there are more possibilitiesfor "long" vowels (as in the MATE set) than short vowels (asin MAT and MET). One phonetic set having 13 words appears below, usingWebster's 10th Collegiate to verify spelling and pronunciation: NAY (NEIGH, NE, NEE, NEE), KNEE, NIGH nigh?adv. nigh��er, nigh��est1. Near in time, place, or relationship: Evening draws nigh.2. Nearly; almost: talked for nigh onto two hours. , KNOW (NO), GNU gnu(n)or wildebeest(wĭl`dəbēst'), large African antelope, genus Connochaetes. (KNEW, NEW,NU) Can you find bigger sets? The best phonetically interchangeablevowel sets would have two or more words for each of the vowel sounds.Different spellings having the same pronunciation (NE, NEE, NE) anddifferent pronunciations having the same spelling (EITHER, with itsfirst syllable pronounced as long E as long I) count. Overlapping Charades In The Palindromist Pa`lin´dro`mistn. 1. A writer of palindromes. editor Mark Saltveit showed what a versatile,even convivial con��viv��i��al?adj.1. Fond of feasting, drinking, and good company; sociable. See Synonyms at social.2. Merry; festive: a convivial atmosphere at the reunion. , form the palindrome could be. He also promoted relatedwordplay forms--the reversal, the anagram, and the charade, a word whoseletters can be respaced to form other words (LEG END, A NAG 1. NAG - Numerical Algorithms Group.2. NAG - The Linux Network Administrators' Guide. RAM). Hewanted to replace the term CHARADE with the palindromic pal��in��dro��micadj.Relapsing; recurring. term REDIVIDER,but like other attempts at renaming, he had limited success. I wouldlike to generalize REDIVIDER to mean either a charade or an overlappingcharade, a word that separates into two or more words in which the lastletter(s) of one word are also the first letter(s) of the next (INTEREST= INTER REST, RESTING = REST STING). (Note that a word can often bedivided in more than one way, as A NAG RAM or AN NAG GRAM.) An overlapping charade that redivides into three or more words canhave a constant overlap (same number of letters shared by adjacentwords) or a variable overlap. Two rules must be followed: the sameletter cannot be overlapped a second time (SLOWER = SLOW LOW OWER OWER OS Timer Watchdog Match Enable Register ), anda word has to have unused letters at the end to begin the next word (inSLOWER, LOW is completely contained in SLOW). Here are five categoriesof redividers: * Constant Redivider generates words having the same overlap valuethroughout: ANT TIP POET TIC (overlap 1) * Variable Redivider generates words with all different overlapvalues: DOWN OWNS SLID IDES (overlap 3,1,2) * Increasing Redivider generates three or more words whose overlapvalues increase: PAR AT TAX AXIS (overlap 0,1,2) * Decreasing Redivider generates three or more words whose overlapvalues decrease: PAL ALMS SUN DAY (overlap 2,1,0) * Multiple Redivider Set in which a single word forms redividers oftwo or more different overlap values: DISC OVER (overlap 0), DISCO OVER(overlap l), DISCO COVER (overlap 2); STRANGE ANGER (overlap 4), STRANGERANGER (overlap 5) There are many redividers whose words overlap in many differentways and suggest many different questions. Two basic questions for eachof the five categories of redividers above are (1) what is the longestword for each category? (2) what word generates the most shorter words?Finally, here are a few examples I especially like because of theirmeanings: MILDEWED = MILD DEW WED, PALOVERDE = PAL LOVE VERDE or PALLOVER VERDE, DISCOVERING = DISC COVER RING. Catdog Show A cartoon that has become popular in recent years features acharacter named Catdog, who is half-cat on the front and half-dog on theback, or vice versa VICE VERSA. On the contrary; on opposite sides. , depending on your point of view. Dogs and cats aretraditional enemies in popular folklore, which may explain why the wordsDOG and CAT appear very infrequently in a single litter of letters. Acatdog word is a word that has the letters spelling CAT and DOG, and itusually includes other letters. Quality is determined primarily byletter order. The entries that follow come from Webster's 10th. Thewinning entries for singular and for plural are DOGCATCHER dog��catch��er?n.A dog officer. and CATS ANDDOGS Cats and DogsA slang term referring to speculative stocks that have short or suspicious histories for sales, earnings, dividends, etc.Notes:In a bull market analysts will often mention that everything is going up, even the cats and dogs. . The winning entry for letter deletion is DOGCART (how did that Rget in there?). The winning entry for anagrams an��a��gram?n.1. A word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as satin to stain.2. anagrams (used with a sing. is DOGMATIC, whichrearranges to form either DOG, I'M CAT or CAT, I'M DOG. Threehonorable mentions include DOGWATCH dog��watch?n.1. Nautical Either of two short periods of watch duty, from 4 to 6 p.m.or 6 to 8 p.m.2. A late night shift. (for having the letters spelling CATnext to each other and for sounding like the television seriesBaywatch), CATALOGED (for adding ALE to CAT and DOG in one anagram), andCATEGORIZED (for spelling DOG backwards). And two booby prizes for wronganimal hybrids, the single-word entry CATBIRD and the multiple-wordentry CAT AND MOUSE. Any other outstanding entries for the Catdog Show?You be the judge. Not the Poem Negativity is the name of the game. Each line in this poem beginswith words that slide together in charade fashion to form the longerword at the end of the line. They come from the 10th Collegiate, andthey appear in the order of their listings. If you do not like the poem,I recommend Not: The TV Miniseries followed by Not: The Movie. Not ability brings much notability; Not Able ever feeds the notable. Not ate, I never eat as I notate. Not a ti on music! It's just bad notation; Not E on my piano, not that note. "Not Ed," I said aloud. "No, Ted," I noted. Not ice is in the drink. It's warm. I notice Not ice, Able! It's very noticeable! Not ice! Boa Rd. on the notice board? Not if I, Able, am so notifiable; Not if I, cat, I, on short notification: Not ill because I really have no-till; Not ill age since I also have no-tillage. Not I, on ally, speak too notionally Not, O Rio, us! Notorious? Not rump roast when I call aloud: "No trump!" Not with Stan Ding standing, notwithstanding. Music is in the Ear of the Beholder The word HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER hem��i��dem��i��sem��i��qua��ver?n. Chiefly BritishA sixty-fourth note.Noun 1. hemidemisemiquaver - a musical note having the time value of a sixty-fourth of a whole notesixty-fourth note is the musical term for a 64th note. Itbegins with a trio of prefixes, each of which means "half."This was first noted by Borgmann on pp. 204-5 of Language on Vacation.Each prefix differs from the others in its first letter only. WhatBorgmann didn't notice is that the shared letters EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference) An electrical disturbance in a system due to natural phenomena, low-frequency waves from electromechanical devices or high-frequency waves (RFI) from chips and other electronic devices. Allowable limits are governed by the FCC. have amusical significance in themselves: E is the musical note, and MI is themusical syllable for E. Ping-Pong Logology Ping-Pong[TM], listed in Webster's 10th, is a trademark fortable tennis, a game usually played by two players. Until recently Ithought it was just a word like checkers or chess. In Ping-Pong[TM],each player uses a small paddle to hit a ball back and forth over a neton a table. The shapes of the letters in the word itself illustratevarious elements of the game. The P's are each player about to hitthe ball, and the g's are each player's paddle after it hashit the ball. The hyphen hyphen:see punctuation. represents the net separating the players. Thedot on the "i" represents the ball flying through the airafter the first player's paddle hit it, and the "o"represents the ball returning to the table for the second player'spaddle to return the serve. Dropping the players, paddles and the hyphenfrom the name of the game leaves "in" to emphasize that theball on the left side is IN the air and "on" to emphasize thatthe ball on the right side is ON the table. Last but not least, the TMstands for "tennis match." Holandric holandric/hol��an��dric/ (hol-an��drik) inherited exclusively through the male descent; transmitted through genes located on the Y chromosome. ho��lan��dricadj. : A Way of Life One night I asked my son Danny to give me the ultimate dictionarywordplay test. He would open Webster's 10th Collegiate to any page,point to any entry at random, and tell me the word. Then I would try tofind or do some special wordplay with it. His finger landed onHOLANDRIC, a word I'd never heard of. I read its definition:"transmitted by a gene in the nonhomologous portion of the Ychromosome Y chromosome,n a sex chromosome that in humans and many other species is present only in the male, appearing singly in the normal male. It is carried as a sex determinant by one half of the male gametes. None of the female gametes contain a Y chromosome. ." I noticed two things right away about the word. It isa nine-letter isogram i��so��gram?n.See isoline.isogram?See isoline.Noun 1. isogram - a line drawn on a map connecting points having the same numerical value of some variable (no letters repeated) and the middle third spellsthe word AND which reverses to DNA DNA:see nucleic acid. DNAor deoxyribonucleic acidOne of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. , apparently part of the meaning ofthe word. I tried anagramming it, and in less than a minute wrote downLO! RICH DNA! and handed it to my son. The phrase relates to theword--if the phrase is true, it's an anagram, and if false,it's an antigram. Iota (language, specification) Iota - A specification language.["The Iota Programming System", R. Nakajima er al, Springer 1983]. to Jot According to the 10th Collegiate, an IOTA is "an infinitesimal in��fin��i��tes��i��mal?adj.1. Immeasurably or incalculably minute.2. Mathematics Capable of having values approaching zero as a limit.n.1. amount." The dictionary includes JOT as a synonym of IOTA. The onlydifference between the spelling of these two words is the letter J inone and the letters I and A in the other. The alphabetic values of I (9)and A (1) add up to the alphabetic value of J (10). IOTA and JOT For other uses of "Jot", see Jot.Iota and its successor Jot (from Greek iota, Hebrew yodh, the smallest letters in those two alphabets) are Turing tarpits, esoteric programming languages that are designed to be as small as possible but still Turing-complete. differfrom each other by an infinitesimal amount. On the other hand, if youowe someone a very, very small amount of money, then IOTA is an IOU IOUAn abbreviation of the phrase "I owe you."Notes:An IOU in the business community is actually a legally binding agreement between a borrower and a lender. The terms of the loan are set out in a contract, and, once it's signed, the two parties must abide by the terms ,since the alphabetic values of T and A add up to the alphabetic value ofU (21). From Wordplay to Playword If the two words forming WORDPLAY are switched around, the resultis PLAYWORD, a syllable-unit reversal of WORDPLAY. Unfortunately, itdoesn't seem to be in any dictionary. Webster's 2nd and theOED OEDabbr.Oxford English DictionaryNoun 1. OED - an unabridged dictionary constructed on historical principlesO.E.D., Oxford English Dictionary list two close calls, PLAYWARD ("playful") and PLAYWORK("work that is like play"). Perhaps the magic of wordplay liesin making playward play like a playword. 2002: The End of a Palindromic Era This year marks the end of an era of palindromic years for all ofus born before 1961. During this time four different kinds ofpalindromic years have come and gone, and the next palindromic year ofany kind won't occur until 3000. 1961 upside-down year in Arabic numbers, which reads the same whenrotated 180[degrees] (1881,6009) 1991 palindromic year in Arabic numbers, which reads the same ineither direction (1881,2002) 2000 palindromic year in Roman numerals (MM) (1000=M, 3000=MMM MMMMyeloid metaplasia with myelofibrosis, see there )2002 palindromic year in Arabic numbers (1991, 2112) 2002 2 K-2 in "Y 2-K bug" numbers; palindromic year incomputer slang (1001=1 K-l, 3003=3 K-3) 1000 Years By Any Other Name Would Be As Long We're in a new millennium. Actually, every year we both beginand end a millennium. Dictionaries define the word in Biblical as wellas numerical terms. Setting aside the religious element, a millennium issimply a "period of 1000 years." In the year 2000, the majorquestion in every coffee klatch was whether 200 started this one orended the last one. Newspapers carded editorials about the question;teachers brought it up with their students. Websites popped up to put intheir two thousand cents worth. Chaos appeared immanent im��ma��nent?adj.1. Existing or remaining within; inherent: believed in a God immanent in humans.2. Restricted entirely to the mind; subjective. , but then aneven bigger question appeared on the horizon with three suns arisingafter the number 2, a poetic way of illustrating this heatedword--chiliad. What is a chiliad? It's not an advertisement for aMexican restaurant. Looking both up in the OED suggests that millenniumand chiliad are almost twins in that they both mean "a period of1000 years" and they refer to the Biblical Book of Revelation. The two thousand-year words have remarkable, related logologicalproperties: (1) in MILLENNIUM, 6 out of 10 letters are Roman numerals,and they appear in palindromic order (MILLIM), CHILIAD has 5 out of 7Roman numerals, and three appear in palindromic order (ILI); (2)MILLENNIUM has MEN in it; CHILIAD has CHILD and LAD; (3) MILLENNIUMbegins with two state abbreviations, MI and IL; CHILIAD has three stateabbreviations, HI, IL and IA, and it spells out in full two countrynames, CHILl and CHAD. Are there any other names that mean "a period of 1000years"? To make this millennium a thousand times richer, thereshould be a thousand words meaning "a period of 1000 years."For the third year of this millennium, my contribution is DECADECADECADEwhich signifies 10 sets (deca) of 10 sets (deca) of a period often years(decade). Try coming up with your own term! The Coming of the Megaannuum, The Going of the Esseejja The picosecond One trillionth of a second. Pronounced "pee-co-second." See space/time and ohnosecond. (unit) picosecond - 10^-12 seconds. is one trillionth tril��lionth?n.1. The ordinal number matching the number one trillion in a series.2. One of a trillion equal parts.tril of a second; at the other end ofthe space-time-word continuum, Mark Isaak found the MEGAANNUUM, a wordwith three consecutive doubled letters, that signifies one millionyears. It is listed in a footnote on page 4457 of "Precambriananimal diversity: Putative phosphatized embryos from the DoushantuoFormation in China," Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences. 97(9). How many picoseconds in a megaannuum? Mark found ESSEEJJA, a second triple double letter word, which isthe name of a Tacanan language in Bolivia, appearing in a table underSouth American Indian Languages American Indian languages:see Native American languages. American Indian languagesLanguages spoken by the original inhabitants of the Americas and the West Indies and by their modern descendants. in the 15th edition of the EncyclopaediaBritannica. It would be especially interesting if Esseejja has thehighest percentage of double letters of any language. Pretty Polly Jay Ames sent a list of poly-words along with comments on theirpossible meanings in a parallel logologicai universe. I tried my hand,or wing, at this flight of fancy and came up with the last six.It's fine-feathered fun. It reminded me of the old rock song,"The Bird Is the Word." Good Golly gol��ly?interj.Used to express mild surprise or wonder.[Alteration of God.]gollyinterjan exclamation of mild surprise [originally a euphemism for , Miss Molly, here'sPolly!POLYANDROUS no Andrews singing sisPOLYGRAPHIC a birdy tattle-talePOLYSYLLABIC see PolyglottalPOLYGRANTA a fondness for pomegranate seedsPOLYALCOHOL booze for birdsPOLYCENTRIC a parrot turns into a pennyPOLYGON she flew awayPOLYGLOTTAL swears in many tonguesPOLYPHONOUS a birdy phone phreakPOLYUNSATURATED never goes out in the rainPOLYMORPHOUS a sleepy one, or shape shitterPOLYCARBONATE the parrot ate the carbon copyPOLYGENE cowboy singer Autry's parrotPOLYNOMIAL she didn't get any food Shift Work Peter Newby writes "In British folklore the SWAN SHIFT is amagic garment of swan's feathers owned by a fairy. The wearer hasthe power of shape-shitting between a maiden and a swan. But in NewBybwen, a SWAN shift is, essentially, a lettershift progression:SWAN-txbo-uycp-vzdq-WAER WAER is an early modem English spelling of WAREas both noun and adjective. (Think of a tradesman's wares or theneed to be `wary' and you have the meanings.) "Whilst one could contrive con��trive?v. con��trived, con��triv��ing, con��trivesv.tr.1. To plan with cleverness or ingenuity; devise: contrive ways to amuse the children.2. a relationship between the words ofthis picturesque progression, a far more satisfactory result pertainswith SHIFT WORK. Shift the letters of WORK 21 steps along the alphabetand one has RILE, a dialect word for `play, frolic'! Using thesetwo words, one can construct the doublet dou��bletn.A pairing of two lenses to optically correct a chromatic and spherical aberration. WORK-wore-wire-wile-RILE whichtakes one from work to play." In this poem by Anil, the letters in the boldface words anagram tothe words on the right:Alligator Gladiator at Girl Alligator Ado"Rot a gill, alligator!" Alligator ducked, gladiator lucked. Alligator dived, gladiator lived. Alligator dipped, gladiator lipped: "Alligator died!" (Gladiator lied ...) Alligator dined, gladiator-lined. "Rot, aid algae tea, gladiator!" Here's the Gladiator's story from birth to gutsy grave ina transpositional trans��po��si��tion?n.1. a. The act or an instance of transposing.b. The state of being transposed.2. Something transposed.3. word ladder: Birth. Biter-bater. "Gater ga��ter?n. InformalVariant of gator. ."Grave. A biter-bater is a gladiator gladiator(Latin; swordsman)Professional combatant in ancient Rome who engaged in fights to the death as sport. Gladiators originally performed at Etruscan funerals, the intent being to give the dead man armed attendants in the next world. who claims to bate bate?1?tr.v. bat��ed, bat��ing, bates1. To lessen the force or intensity of; moderate: "To his dying day he bated his breath a little when he told the story"("bate"and subdue ferocious animals e.g., lions. International Neighbours Sir Jeremy Morse sent the incredible compilation of words below. Ashe explains, "By neighbours I mean words which must appear next toeach other in an alphabetically-arranged word list. In a normaldictionary these can take one form, exemplified by WHO and WHOA whoa?interj.Used as a command to stop, as to a horse.whoainterja command used to stop horses or to slow down someone who is moving or talking too fast , CHOLER cholern.1. Anger; irritability.2. One of the four humors of ancient and medieval physiology, thought to cause anger and bad temper when present in excess. Also called yellow bile. and CHOLERA, ETHNOGRAPHIC and ETHNOGRAPHICA. In a reverse dictionaryexamples would be BASE and ABASE, SYMMETRICALLY and ASYMMETRICALLY.Where words of the same length are listed together, more variety ispossible. The following go through the alphabet, the neighbours beingnot merely etymologically unrelated but of different internationalorigins, as recorded in Chambers in chambersadj. referring to discussions or hearings held in the judge's office, called his chambers. It is also called "in camera." (See: in camera) Dictionary."COMA Gr COMB Old EngBLOB imit BLOC FrPARSEC Gr/Lat PARSED LatPUTTED Old Eng PUTTEE HindiSERE Old Eng SERF LatCLEF Fr CLEG Old NorseSHAG Old Eng SHAH PersianQUASH Fr QUASI LatRAI Arab RAJ HindiTAJ Arab TAK ScotILK Scot ILL Old NorseREAL Lat REAM ArabZOOM imit ZOON GrINDIGN Lat INDIGO SpanTRIO It TRIP FrSUP Old Eng SUQ ArabSUQ Arab SUR FrPARADOR Sp PARADOS FrHIDEOUS Fr HIDEOUT Old EngBEAT Old Eng BEAU FrPERU name PERV DutchSLAV name SLAW DutchFLEW Old Eng FLEX LatPAX Lat PAY FrWALTY Old Eng WALTZ Ger Kickshaws Bulletin Recently my computer had a major problem, virus, or evil spellplaced on it that resulted in the loss of many files and lack of accessto AOL. Among other things, my cabinet of saved email, includingKickshaws, was deleted. If you emailed me any Kickshaw that doesn'tappear here, please email them to me again. I apologize on behalf of mycomputer for its behavior. I failed to attribute two August Kickshaws: AEIOU AEIOU Any Easy Intimacy (book)AEIOU Alles Erdreich Ist ?sterreich Untertan (Austria Is to Govern the World)AEIOU Austriae Est Imperare Orbi Universo (Y) x 2 Words bySusan Thorpe, Logological Jury Duty by Rich Lederer. My computerapologizes on behalf of me for my behavior. Aligheri The title acrostically a��cros��tic?n.1. A poem or series of lines in which certain letters, usually the first in each line, form a name, motto, or message when read in sequence.2. See word square. reads A YAHWEH. Alphabetic Bigram Words POLK