A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia

Last revision: June 18, 1998

Recent changes: BAROQUE was deleted from the list of words taken from names of people; QAANAAQ was added as "the northernmost palindrome" (Ronald Kramer); ZOUAOUA was added as a proper noun with 6 consecutive vowels and HORSESHOER was added as a word with each letter occurring twice (both by Pierre Abbat).

AEGILOPS (alternate spelling of egilops, an ulcer in a part of the eye) is apparently the longest word in W2 whose letters are in alphabetical order. This word is not in W3. CHILLLOSS (the opposite of a heatloss) has its letters in alphabetical order, although this word may not be in any dictionary. [Word Ways] The title of the film EFIK MOVY was written abcdEFghIjKlMnOpqrstuVwxYz to show the alphabetical-order property. Mike Turniansky, consulting W3, says BEEFILY and BILLOWY seem to be the only current words of 7 or more letters that have the letters in alphabetic order.

AMBIDEXTROUSLY is the longest word in common use with no letter appearing more than once. SUBDERMATOGLYPHIC is the longest word with no letter appearing more than once; it is not found in any dictionary, but does occur in a published medical article in Annals of Dermatology. Others are: MISCONJUGATEDLY, UNCOPYRIGHTABLE, which is found in printed publications from the Library of Congress Copyright Office, DERMATOGLYPHICS, SCHIZOTRYPANUM, and VESICULOGRAPHY, all three of which are found in Stedman's electronic medical dictionary, and BRICKLEHAMPTON (a village in Britain near Evesham) [Chris McManus, Ted Clarke]. Other 14-letter words are UNDISCOVERABLY, which is in W3, BENZHYDROXAMIC, HYDROMAGNETICS, HYDROPNEUMATIC, PSEUDOMYTHICAL, SCHIZOTRYPANUM, SULPHOGERMANIC.

ANHUNGRY is one answer to the question, "What's the other word besides 'angry' and 'hungry' that ends in 'gry'?" For some reason, this is the most frequently asked question of the editors of Merriam-Webster. Actually, "angry" and "hungry" are the only two words in common use ending in -gry, but quite a few obsolete or obscure words can be found in unabridged dictionaries. Among them are ANHUNGRY, used by Shakespeare, and AGGRY BEAD, both of which are in W3. The only -GRY words in RHUD2 are ANGRY, HUNGRY, HALF-ANGRY, OVERANGRY, and UNANGRY. Chambers has AGGRY (an adjective describing certain ancient West African beads) and AHUNGRY (oppressed with hunger). OSPD has PUGGRY (a variant form of the more usual PUGGAREE, a scarf wrapped around a sun helmet).

ATOLL is the only widely-known word in MWCD10 of Divehi origin. The other two words of Divehi origin are RUFIYAA and LAARI. Divehi is spoken on the Maldive Islands.

Beijing has three dotted letters in a row (in lower case), as do Fiji, Hajji, and hijinks. W2 has: remijia, bogijiab, pirijiri, kharijite. Four dotted letters in a row occur in Ujiji (where Stanley found Livingstone in 1871). jinjili has 5 out of 7 letters dotted. Craig Rowland reports there are four listings in the Toronto telephone directory for the surname IIJIMA, which if written in all lower case would have four dotted letters in a row.

CARES, LARGES, and PRINCES are examples of plural words that become singular words (caress, largess and princess) with another added S. Ted Clarke suggests MULTIMILLIONAIRES(S) might be the longest word that can be changed from a plural to a singular in this way.

The earliest known use of CATENARY in English is by President Thomas Jefferson. The earliest known use of MILEAGE is by Benjamin Franklin.

CATERCORNER has eight spellings in W3: catercorner, cater-cornered, catacorner, cata-cornered, catty-corner, catty-cornered, kitty-corner, and kitty-cornered. Another dictionary has cater-corner. However, Barry Harridge reports that in Chambers "the eight spellings of CATERCORNER are surpassed by the number of variants for GALLABEA which can also be spelled gallabeah,gallabia, gallabiah, gallabieh, gallabiya, gallabiyah, gallabiyeh, galabea, galabeah, galabia, galabiah, galabieh, galabiya, galabiyah, galabiyeh. "And what does it mean? Why it means a DJELLABA which can also be spelt DJELLABAH or JELLABA or JELAB -- a cloak with a hood and wide sleeves."

CHINCHERINCHEE (a south African lily) is the only word with one single letter and two letters occurring twice and three letters occurring three times.

COACH is derived from the village of Kocs, Hungary, where coaches were invented and first used.

CONSERVATIONALISTS and CONVERSATIONALISTS are the longest pair of non-scientific English words which are anagrams of each other, according to Guinness. However CONSERVATIONALIST is not generally found in dictionaries, although CONVERSATIONIST and CONSERVATIONIST are found. Craig Rowland supplied another 16-letter anagram pair: INTERNATIONALISM and INTERLAMINATIONS.

CORPS has the plural spelled the same way as the singular but pronounced differently. Other such words are CHASSIS, BOURGEOIS, SERIES, RENDEZVOUS, PINCE-NEZ, and FAUX PAS. [Keith C. Ivey in alt.usage.english and others]

CWM (a glacial hollow on a hillside) has the rare W as a vowel. Other such words: CRWTH (a type of stringed instrument), TWP (stupid), AWDL (an ode written in the strict alliterative meters), and LLWCHWR (a city-district in Wales). The OED includes numerous archaic spellings in which W or V is a vowel.

DABCHICK (a small bird) is among the very few words that contain ABC. Some others: ABCOULOMB, ABCHALAZAL, ABCAREE, CRABCAKE, DRABCLOTH, and the proper noun BABCOCK.

DORD (density) was entered into early printings of W2 by mistake. Somebody had written "d or D" as the two abbreviations for density, and somebody else thought he saw the word "dord."

DREAMT seems to be the only common word in English ending in -MT. Others are the obscure adreamt, undreamt, or daydreamt.

EARTHLING is first found in print in 1593. Another surprisingly old word is SPACESHIP (1894). MS. (used instead of Miss or Mrs.) has been found in 1949. Merriam-Webster researchers have found POLITICALLY CORRECT used in 1936 in In the Steps of St. Paul by H. V. Morton: "To use such words would have been equivalent to calling his audience 'slaves and robbers.' But 'Galatians,' a term that was politically correct, embraced everyone under Roman rule, from the aristocrat in Antioch to the little slave girl in Iconium." The phrase also occurs in a 1793 U. S. Supreme Court decision.

erroneousnesses and verrucosenesses are the longest words consisting of only short letters; lighttight and lillypilly are the longest consisting of only long letters. Jim Cook believes gyp is the only word consisting only of letters with descenders.

ESCALATOR is one of many words that were originally trademarks but have become ordinary words found in dictionaries. Some other words which were originally trademarks (or still are) are ASPIRIN, CELLOPHANE, CORNFLAKES, CUBE STEAK, DITTO, GUNK, HEROIN, KEROSENE, LANOLIN, MIMEOGRAPH, MOXIE, PABLUM, PHILLIPS SCREW, TABLOID, THERMOS, TRAMPOLINE, WINDBREAKER, YO-YO, ZIPPER.

ETAOIN SHRDLU is defined in W3 as "a combination of letters set by running a finger down the first and then the second left-hand vertical banks of six keys of a Linotype machine to produce a temporary marking slug not intended to appear in the final printing." The word comes from the layout of the keys on a Linotype machine. The letters also correspond exactly to the sequence of most frequently used letters found in English writing. That is, "e" is the most frequently occurring letter, followed by "t," etc., according to one study.

FABACEAE (a family of beans in some classifications) is the longest word which can also be a hexadecimal numeral (consisting only of A, B, C, D, E, and F) [Ted Clarke]. Some seven-letter examples are ACCEDED, DEFACED, FACADED and EFFACED.

FICKLEHEADED and FIDDLEDEEDEE may be the longest words consisting only of letters in the first half of the alphabet. Some shorter words are BACKFILLED, BLACKMAILED, BACKFIELD, FEEDBACK, MACADAMIA, and HIJACKED. Ted Clarke, who provided these examples, also suggests ILLEFFACEABLE, although he admits this word is not in dictionaries.

FORTY is apparently the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order.

GODDESSSHIP is the only word in RHUD2 with a triple letter. This does not include some abbreviations, and words with letters separated by punctuation, such as WALL-LIKE, BELL-LESS, and GAUSS'S LAW. The UKACD has HEADMISTRESSSHIP. The Compact OED has WEEEST in a quote for the superlative of WEE. It also shows WEE-EST and WEE'ST. The OED has a triple E in SEEER (with a diaeresis over the third "e") as a rare spelling for "one who sees or beholds," the spelling designed to avoid the negative connotations that attach to a seer. (The OED also shows SEE-ER.) KAAAWA is a city in Hawaii. While watching TV news, Ted Clarke recently saw the name TELEEEL on a road sign in the vicinity of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also mentions that as the result of a spelling error POSTEEEN appears in Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary 1976 reprint of its 1972 Edition.

GOOGOL is a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Mathematician Edward Kasner supposedly asked his nephew Milton Sirotta to suggest a name for the number, and he came up with this word, which is now found in many dictionaries. The million, billion, trillion, quadrillion system skips over this number. A googolplex is 1 followed by a googol of zeros.

HYDROXYZINE (a prescription drug) is the only word in RHUD2 containing XYZ.

I is the most commonly spoken word in English, followed by YOU, THE, and A. The most commonly used words in written English, according to the 1971 American Heritage Word Frequency Book are: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, for, was, on, are, as, with, his, they at, be, this, from, I, have, or, by, one, had, not, but, what, all, were, when, we there, can, an, your, which, their, said, if, do.

ICEBOX is a word with horizontal symmetry (it reflects itself across a horizontal line); some others are DECIDED, EXCEEDED, CHECKBOOK, OKEECHOBEE, HIDE, CHOICE, CEBID (a type of monkey), and OBOE. MOM, WOW, OTTO, MAAM, MA'AM, TOOT, and AHA are some words with vertical symmetry. In addition, all of the letters of these words have vertical symmetry: TIMOTHY, YOUTH, TOMATO, WITHOUT, MOTIVITY, HOMOTAXIA, HOITY-TOITY, YAWATAHAMA (a city in Japan), and MOUTH-TO-MOUTH [Ted Clarke, Jim Cook].

IFF is a word invented to mean "if and only if." According to MWCD10, it can be pronounced three ways: "if and only if," like "if," and like "if" but with a prolonged "F." There are 118 conjunctions in MWCD10; IFF is the only "new" conjunction, first seen in print in 1955.

IMPETICOS is an example of a nonce word (a word which has been found to have been used only once). The word is spoken by the clown in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. W2 says perhaps it means "impocket."

INDIVISIBILITY is the shortest word in RHUD2 with 6 I's. (The plural, INDIVISIBILITIES, would have 7 I's.)

INTESTINES has each of its letters occurring twice. Some other such words: APPEASES, CAUCASUS, HOTSHOTS, ARRAIGNING, TEAMMATE, SHANGHAIINGS, REAPPEAR, HAPPENCHANCE, HORSESHOER, and ESOPHAGOGRAPHERS.

IO (an interjection in Chambers and one of the moons of Jupiter), AI (the three-toed sloth), EO, and AA (rough volcanic rock) seem to be the shortest two-syllable words.

IRAQ is one of the very few words ending in Q. Obscure words ending in Q are: SHOQ, PONTACQ, INUPIAQ (an Eskimo people), SUQ, ZAQAZIQ (or ZAGAZIG, a city in Egypt), ZIA-UL-HAQ (a proper name), and NOASTALIQ. Chambers has TALAQ and TZADDIQ (which can also be spelled TSADDIQ). OSPD has TRANQ and UMIAQ, although these words are not in W2 or W3. (I presume UMIAQ is another spelling for UMIAK, an Eskimo boat, which is in W2 and W3.)

JAAAARNE is an Estonian word meaning "the edge of the ice." It has four A's in a row. (There is an umlaut above each A.) [Guinness]

JAI ALAI is one of only two words of Basque origin in MWCD10; the other is CHAPARRAL. (Some other dictionaries have BIZARRE and ANCHOVY of Basque origin.)

KÄRNTEN (one of the states of Austria) is suggested by Pierre Abbat as perhaps the longest word consisting of alternating dits and dahs in Morse code (_._ ._._ ._. _. _ . _.)

KINE (an archaic plural of COW) qualifies as a plural that shares no letters in common with its singular.

KYRKY is the Chukchi word for "walrus." The word is pronounced "KYRKY" by men but "TSYTSTSY" by women because of a curious feature of the Chukchi language: K is pronounced "K" by men but "TS" by women; "RK" is pronounced "RK" by men but "TSTS" by women. [Languages of the World, by Kenneth Katzner.]

LATCHSTRING, CATCHPHRASE, BORSCHTS, KNIGHTSBRIDGE (a district in London), and ESCHSCHOLTZIA CALIFORNICA (the scientific name for a poppy) have six consonants in a row. John F. Underwood suggests that BORSCHTS may be the only instance in English of six successive consonants in one syllable. THUMBSCREW may have the longest string of consecutive consonants without using a letter twice (Craig Kasper). The Dutch word ANGSTSCHREEUW (a scream of anguish), the German word ANGSTSCHWEISS and the Swedish word VARLDSSCHLAGER (=a kind of world music; an umlaut over the first A) all have 8 consecutive consonants.

LIKE has uses involving eight parts of speech.

MASSACRING has more pronounced syllables than vowels [Wei-Hwa Huang]. Some other such words are EDINBURGH [Nick Wedd], RHYTHM, CHASM, and VRBAITE (a mineral named for Karel Vrba).

MHO is the unit of electrical conductance. Since conductance is the reciprocal of resistance, which is measured in ohms, MHO is OHM spelled backwards. The only other word in MWCD10 the origin of which is a backwards spelling is YOB, now more commonly spelled yobbo, which is the backwards spelling of boy. However, Chambers has two other electrical units formed by backwards spellings: DARAF and YRNEH. Barry Harridge, consulting Chambers, says, "A close relative is EGALLIC (pertaining to gall-nuts, applied to a particular acid). The coiners of the word started with the French word for gall (galle) and spelt it backwards. The laxative SERUTAN was named by spelling natures backwards.

MOMMY TRACK is one of the newest words in MWCD10, dated to 1989. The other newest words are: codependence, letterboxed, and virtual reality (all 1989), fullerene and tropical oil (both 1988), channeler, codependency, lovastatin, polymerase chain reaction, and zidovudine (all 1987).

MUZZ would, according to Paul Dickson, be the last word in the Random House Dictionary if all the words in the dictionary were spelled backwards.

OF is apparently the only word in which an F is pronounced like a V.

ONE THOUSAND contains the letter A, but none of the words from one to nine hundred ninety-nine has an A.

The shortest -ology (study of) word must be OOLOGY (the study of eggs) [Ng Boon Leong].

It is said that there is no regular English word which rhymes with ORANGE. This seems to be well known; there is a musical recording called Rhymes With Orange by Mario Grigorov, and Witchiepoo sang There Ain't No Rhyme for Oranges on H. R. Pufnstuf. However, Bruce Todd points out that the final syllable of CITRANGE is pronounced identically with the final syllable of ORANGE, and W3 shows an alternate pronunciation of SYRINGE which is also identical in the last syllable. SPORANGE looks as if it rhymes, but neither pronunciation for this word in W3 would qualify as a rhyme. Ng Boon Leong says that as English is pronounced in Singapore, RANGE, STONEHENGE, and DERANGE all rhyme with ORANGE.

It is also claimed that no words rhyme with MONTH, SILVER, and PURPLE. The rec.puzzles archive has (n + 1)th to rhyme with MONTH. And Ted Clarke provides CHILVER.

ORANGERY has been suggested as the longest word which remains a word with each successive letter taken off the right side. However, Ted Clarke reports that COMPOSERS yields COMPOSER, COMPOSE, COMPOS, COMPO, COMP, COM, and CO. He has also found at least two instances of the word COMPOSTE in the OED, so that COMPOSTERS yields COMPOSTER, COMPOSTE, COMPOST, COMPOS, COMPO, COMP, COM, and CO.

It is claimed that -OUGH can be pronounced 9 different ways in the following sentence:

A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.

A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed, houghed, and hiccoughed.

OVERSTUFF, OVERSTUDY, and UNDERSTUDY contain the alphabetical sequence -rstu-. The only other four-letter alphabetical sequence found in English is -mnop-, which is found in LIMNOPHILOUS, GYMNOPAEDES, GYMNOPAEDIC, GYMNOPHIONA, GYMNOPHIONA, GYMNOPHTHALMATA, GYMNOPLAST, PRUMNOPITYS, SEMNOPITHECUS, SOMNOPATHY, THAMNOPHILE, THAMNOPHILUS, and THAMNOPHIS. If we allow spaces and hyphens there are also FILM NOIR and STAR-STUDDED. Jim Cook says WEAPONMAKING and (WEAPONMAKER), which contain -mnop- backwards, are probably the only words containing a four-letter sequence that is exactly in reversed alphabetical order. HIJIKI (a type of seaweed) is a 6-letter word consisting only of the sequence H, I, J, K.

OXYOPIA (unusual acuteness of vision) and OCEANIA cram five syllables into only seven letters. Barry Harridge points out that IFF (described elsewhere on this page) yields five syllables with only three letters, in one of its pronunciations.

PIKES PEAK is spelled without an apostrophe by law. The Colorado legislature established the correct spelling in 1978. There are other cases in which spelling established by law. The voters of Mullens, West Virginia, voted to retain the spelling, rather than switch to "Mullins," which is how the person for whom the town is named spelled his name. According to Willis Johnson, the Louisiana legislature enacted a law specifying that "crawfish" should not be spelled with a "y".

PINK has a separate entry for each of eight completely different etymologies in Chambers. (Briefly they are a ship, to serrate, light red, yellow pigment, to wink, small, a minnow, to knock in a car's engine.)

POLISH is pronounced two ways, depending on whether or not the first letter is capitalized. Some other such words: JOB, LIMA, and READING.

PSI and SAI make up a pair of homophones, both of which refer to pitchfork-shaped objects. The first is Greek and refers to a letter; the second is Japanese and refers to a ninja weapon. (In Greek, PSI is pronounced "psee," but in English-language dictionaries it is pronounced "sai.")

RAISE/RAZE are homophones with approximately opposite meanings. Others are RECKLESS/WRECKLESS, AURAL/ORAL, PETALLESS/PETALOUS.

SAUNA is the only common word in the English language borrowed directly from Finnish. Obscure words from Finnish include KANTELE, a type of zither, PULKA, a sled, ESSIVE and INESSIVE, linguistic terms, and EDUSKUNTA, the Finnish parliament.

SCRAUNCHED may be the longest monosyllabic word in W3. Slightly shorter monosyllabic words are SCRATCHED, SCREECHED, SQUELCHED, STRAIGHTS, and STRENGTHS. Craig Rowland suggests SQUIRRELLED. He writes, "All dictionaries designate this word to be of two syllables, but frankly I don't know any Canadian who says it as any way but one."

SEPARATE is my current candidate for word most-frequently misspelled, with honorable mention going to MEMENTO, HARASS, CALENDAR, BARBECUE, UKULELE, FRUSTUM, BICEPS, RESTAURATEUR, and MINUSCULE, although some dictionaries also give "ukelele" and "miniscule." Chambers has "barbeque." In Samuel Johnson's abridged 1843 Edition of his dictionary, frustum is misspelled as "frustrum." ITS and IT'S are mixed up very frequently of course, as are YOUR and YOU'RE, but these may not be actually spelling errors. CALENDAR is misspelled when used as the title of a chart in Noah Webster's first dictionary, and spelled correctly elsewhere on the same page. There is a word "calender," so English teachers need to define the word in a spelling test if they want to mark the -er spelling incorrect! One study of Usenet traffic revealed the most common misspellings found were misspellings of RECEIVE, A LOT, AMATEUR, and SEPARATE. The study showed that the words most likely to be misspelled (percentage of times appearing) were DUMBBELL, OCCURRENCE, MEMENTO, and COLLECTIBLE.

SET has the longest definition (or definitions) in W3, taking up more than one whole column.

SPENDTHRIFT may be the longest word spelled exactly as it is pronounced.

SUBBOOKKEEPER is the only word with four pairs of double letters in a row. This word is in W2, but not W3. Bob Erndt suggests there ought to be someone who has a raccoon that has a nook that needs cleaning, namely a RACCOONNOOKKEEPER (although this is not found in any dictionary).

SYZYGY and ZYZZYVA, when written in cursive, have five letters in a row which descend below the line. SYZYGY is also the shortest word with three Y's.

TARAMASALATA (a type of Greek salad) has an A for every other letter. OCONOMOWOC (a town in Wisconsin) has an O for every other letter.

TATTARATTAT is the longest palindrome appearing in the OED2; KINNIKINNIK is the longest in W3. DETARTRATED is listed by Guinness, although it is described therein as "a contrived chemical term." REDIVIDER may be the longest palindrome in common use. The Finnish word SAIPPUAKIVIKAUPPIAS (a soapstone seller) is the longest known palindrome in any language according to the Guinness Book of World Records. However, the Swedish word PORTUGALRALLARLAGUTROP (22 letters) is listed in Guinness, Swedish 1989 edition; the word, however, is not found in dictionaries. The northernmost palindrome is QAANAAQ (the administrative capital of Northern Greenland).

TAXI is spelled the same way in nine languages: English, French, German, Swedish, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, and Portuguese, according to Dickson. However, Emerson Werneck says that in Portuguese, taxi is actually spelled táxi. He points out that SAUNA is spelled the same way in nine languages: Finnish, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Dutch, and Danish.

THERBLIG, a unit of workplace efficiency, is a word created by rearranging the letters of a person's name, F. B. Gilbreth, an American engineer. THERBLIG is not in MWCD10; the three words in MWCD10 that were created as anagrams are SPANDEX (for "expands"), SIDEBURNS (for "burnsides"), and ITACONIC ACID (for "aconitic acid," from "aconite.")

THEREIN is a seven-letter word that contains eleven words spelled with consecutive letters: the, he, her, here, there, ere, rein, re, in, therein, and herein. SHADES contains hades, shade; ades, hade, shad; des, ade, had, sha; es, de, ad, ha, sh; S, E, D, A, H, all of which are in W3. ["Word Torture," by Ralph Beaman, Word Ways.]

TOUGH, THOUGH, THROUGH, THOROUGH are formed adding a letter every time between T and OUGH, but none of them rhymes with any other.

TROLLIED seems to be the longest word in W3 with the letters in reverse alphabetical order. There are also SPOON-FEED and SPOON-FED, although these words are usually spelled with hyphens.

UH-UH, meaning "no," is most commonly spelled UH-UH. The following was posted in the Merriam-Webster message board on AOL on 4/3/97:

We got a letter a couple of years ago in the Merriam-Webster office from a court reporter looking for guidance on how to transcribe the sound of negation sometimes indicated by "uh-uh." She said she knew many court reporters who indicated it differently, leading to transcriptions of courtroom proceedings that were potentially difficult to interpret.

What we've found in our research is that "uh-uh" is by far the most commonly used spelling for this sound used for "no" in edited text. It is about four times as common as the next runner-up, "unh-unh." We also have one example of the use of "un-huh." So it looks like "uh-uh" is as close as we're going to get for now to a "standard" on this.

UNPROSPEROUSNESS is the longest word in which no letter occurs only once.

USHER contains four personal pronouns (us, she, he, her) [Dickson].

UVULAPALATOPHARANGOPLASTY is the longest word that does not contain an E. E is the most frequently occurring letter in English (and French, Spanish, and German). Mark Smith reports the word refers to a surgical procedure for (most commonly) men with advanced sleep apnea, wherein the breathing passage is opened by removing the uvula, shortening the palate and removing the tonsils. Other long words lacking an E are HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUAAS, PHONOCARDIOGRAPHICALLY, PRORHIPIDOGLOSSOMORPHA, SUPRADIAPHRAGMATICALLY, and MACRACANTHORHYNCHIASIS.

VOODOO is the only word in MWCD10 of Ewe origin. (Ewe is spoken in Ghana and Togo.)

WACO and WARE are the only U. S. radio station call letters that exactly spelled the cities in which they were located (Waco, Texas, and Ware, Massachusetts). WHT in Deerfield, Illinois, and WGHF in New York were apparently the only radio call letters that exactly matched the owners' initials (Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson and William G. H. Finch). Television station WRGB in Schenectady was named for GE executive Walter R. G. Baker.

There is only one word beginning with X in Noah Webster's first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806). The word is XEBEC.

VOWELS

The shortest word with the vowels in alphabetical order is CAESIOUS (light blue), with eight letters. Slightly longer such words are ACHEILOUS, ACHEIROUS, AEROBIOUS, ARSENIOUS, ARTERIOUS, AUTECIOUS, and FACETIOUS. Pierre Abbat says ACEITOU (Portuguese for past tense of to accept) and ALEIJOU (Portuguese for past tense of paralyze) are the shortest words he knows in any language written in the Roman alphabet which have all five vowels in order. PANCREATICODUODENOSTOMY is the longest word with all six vowels in order.

Words consisting entirely of vowels include AA (a type of lava) IAO, OII, EUOUAE, OO, I, O, A, and IO, which is an interjection in Chambers in addition to being one of the moons of Jupiter. AIEA is a city in Hawaii. OO means "wool" (Scottish). The OED has the interjection AIEEE. Chambers has AI (thee three-toed sloth). The scientific name of the roseate spoonbill is AJAIA AJAIA (or AJAIA AJAJA); however, the J's would have been I's in the original Latin spelling, so that the words would consist entirely of vowels also. EA is a town in the Basque section of Spain. If Y is allowed, there are: AYE, AYU, EYE, IYO, EYEY, and YAYA (although I am not sure which of these Y's are vowels!).

Words containing no vowels include Q.T. (as in "on the q.t.") and DJ, both of which appear in the main part of MWCD10 and not in the abbreviations section. Other such words include BRRRRR, ZZZ, NTH, SSSHHHHH, HMMMM, PHT, TSKTSK, YHWH, JHVH, MR., MRS., MS, GRR, PSST, and pH (measure of acidity/alkalinity). John Chew reports that OSPD has a seven-letter word with neither vowels nor semivowels: TSKTSKS, a verb, meaning "to say 'Tsk, tsk.'" Strch prst skrz krk (Czech for "Put your finger through your throat") appears to have no vowels, but R serves as a vowel in Czech.

The longest common word without an A, E, I, O, or U is RHYTHMS, but these longer words appear in W2: SYMPHYSY, NYMPHLY, GYPSYRY, GYPSYFY. The OED2 has TWYNDYLLYNG(S). Collins has POLYRHYTHM(S). And WPPWRMWSTE (in the OED) goes nine letters without an A, E, I, O, or U; GLYCYRRHIZIN (a constituent of licorice) goes eight letters without A, E, I, O, or U. (In all these words, "Y" is a vowel.)

The longest word with one vowel is STRENGTHS. STRENGTHLESSNESS and DEFENSELESSNESS are the longest words with one vowel if allowed to repeat. Some shorter words with one vowel, allowed to repeat, are BEEKEEPER, RETELEMETERED, TARAMASALATA (a type of Greek salad), OCONOMOWOC (a town in Wisconsin), ASARABACCA, and perhaps EYELETEERS (which is in OSW although I am unsure whether the Y is a vowel). EFFERVESCENCE has only one distinct vowel, and all the E's are evenly spaced.

The word with the most consecutive vowels (six) is EUOUAE, which is in W2 but not W3. W2 defines EUOUAE as "A word formed from the vowels of seculorum amen, ending the Gloria Patri." Words with five consecutive vowels include QUEUEING (used in the mathematics term "queueing theory"), the interjection AIEEE, which is in the OED, and COOEEING. (COOEE or COOEY, a peculiar cry of the Australian aborigine, is in W1, W2, and W3. The word is also a verb and both W1 and W2 show the forms COOEEING and COOEEYING.) MIAOUED (past tense of what a cat does) has five consecutive vowels but this spelling is not generally found in dictionaries.

Craig Rowland reports that in Quebec, there is a region known as the Outaouais, which, if in adjectival form, becomes lowercase, hence outaouais. The feminine form of this adjective is OUTAOUAISE, making it an eight-vowelled ten-letter word. He also says that in Quebecois French, the word for bullfrog is OUAOUARON, with six vowels in a row.

Allowing proper nouns, there is OUAOUIATON (six vowels in a row) which appears on a French map of the central part of North America printed in 1693. The word was later shortened to OUAOUIA, and was applied to the Indian tribe subsequently called Iowa. [The Book of Names, J. N. Hook.] IJOUAOUOUENE, a mountain in Morocco, has eight consecutive vowels as rendered by the French [Guinness]. The ZOUAOUA are a Kabyli tribe living in Algeria and Morocco.

The Dutch word KOEIEUIER (the udder of a cow) has seven vowels in a row. Gert Florijn says this word is "a well-known example in Dutch recreational linguistics. However, we had a spelling-reform last, and I'm not sure this one survived. It should have, anyway." The newer spelling of the word is KOEIENUIER. The Dutch word PAPEGAAIEEIEREN (an umlaut on the second e between the i's) (parrot eggs) also has seven vowels, although this word should now be spelled PAPEGAAIENEIEREN with the new rules. [Joost Gestel] Tom Vernooij states the following about the new spelling rules: "At least the words are valid for two years since the new spelling is introduced. Because the intermedium period is valid for a period of two years . After this period only the words according the new spelling are valid. So, for the time being there are two official versions."

HAAYOAIE, a Finnish word for "a plan for the wedding night," has 7 consecutive vowels, and 6 of the 8 vowel sounds that exist in Finnish (there is an umlaut above the first two A's and the O). [Tapio Tallgren].

UNCOMMON DOUBLE LETTERS

JJ is found in AVIJJA, ZU'L-HIJJAH or DHU'L-HIJJAH (the twelfth month of the Muslim calendar), HAJJ (the Muslim pilgrimage), HAJJI, and UJJAIN (one of the holy cities of India).

QQ appears in ZAQQUM, SAQQARA (a village in Egypt), and ZIQQURAT (an alternate spelling of zikkurat or ziggurat used in past editions of Guinness).

UU occurs in vacuum, continuum, duumvir, menstruum, muumuu, residuum, triduum, intermenstruum, semicontinuum, smectymnuus, praecipuum, individuum, duumvirate, zuurveldt, sadalsuud, duumviral, lituus, obliquus, equuleus, squush(y), carduus, mutuum, weltanschauung.

VV. The complete list from the UKACD: civvy, divvy, navvy, savvy, bovver, chivvy, luvvie, revved, skivvy, spivvy, chivved, civvies, divvied, divvies, flivver, luvvies, navvied, navvies, revving, savvied, savvies, shivved, chivvied, chivvies, chivving, divvying, flivvers, navvying, savvying, shivving, skivvies, bovver boy, chivvying, bovver boys, steam-navvy, bovver boots, civvy street, improvvisatore. Other words with a double V not in that dictionary are bivvy (slang for bivouac) and bivver (a variant of bever). Chambers has devvel, bevvy, bivvy, and crivvens.

WW occurs in arrowweed, bowwoman, bowwood, bowwow, cowweed, cowwheat, dewworm, glowworm, lowwood, mallowwort, meadowwort, pillowwork, plowwise, plowwoman, plowwright, powwow, powwower, powwowism, rainbowweed, sawway, sawworker, sawwort, screwwise, screwworm, shawwal, showworm, showworthy, skewwhiff, skewwise, slowworm, sparrowwort, squawweed, strawwalker, strawworm, swallowwort, tallowweed, throwwort, viewworthy, whitlowwort, willowware, willowweed, willowworm, willowwort, windowward, windowwards, windowwise, yawweed, yellowware, yellowweed, yellowwood, yellowwort.

XX occurs in no English words (excluding proper nouns). EXXON, FOXX, MAXXAM, and LEXXEL (a new prescription drug) are all proper names. XX is the only double letter combination not found in English. According to an article in Time, the name Exxon was chosen partly because it meant nothing in any language and the article reported researchers concluded that XX occurs in no language. However, Bruce D. Wilner informs me that the sign on the Maltese embassy in Washington, D. C., reads Ambaxxata da Malta, so apparently Maltese has a double X. According to Languages of the World by Kenneth Katzner, X in Maltese is pronounced like "sh." Even two X's separated by one letter is rare; only one such word appears in the RHUD2: MAXIXE (a Brazilian dance), although Jim Cook has found XAXIM (a town in Brazil or a fern trunk fiber used as a potting soil).

YY occurs in SNARLEYYOW (slang for "dog"; found in W2), GAYYOU, AYYUBID, CUBBYYEW, SAYYID (a descendant of Muhammad through Hussein), OMAYYAD or UMAYYAD, AL-UBAYYID, IYYAR (an alternate spelling of Iyar, a month in the Jewish calendar), KHAYYAM, NABEREZHNYYE CHELNY (an alternate spelling for the name of a Russian port), PIYYUT (a liturgical poem in Judaism), YABLONOVYY (a Russian mountain range), and ZAKIYYA (an alternate spelling for a female given name.) In addition, in the American Heritage Dictionary on CD-rom BODYBUILDER is misspelled as BODYYBUILDER.

TYPEWRITER WORDS

JOHNNY-JUMP-UP (a fast-growing flower or a brand name for a type of toy) is the longest word found in abridged dictionaries that can be typed using only the fingers of the right hand. Other such words are LOLLIPOP, POLYPHONY, PHYLLOPHYLLIN, MIMINYPIMINY, and HYPOPHYLLIUM, which are in W2, and HYPOLIMNION and IKINNIKINNIK.

TYPEWRITER can be typed using only the top row of keys on the keyboard. The following ten-letter words with this feature all appear in W2: PEPPERROOT, PEPPERWORT, PEWTERWORT, PIROUETTER, PREREQUIRE, PRETORTURE, PROPRIETOR, REPERTOIRE, REPETITORY, TETTERWORT. These words have also been suggested: PROPRIETORY, PROTEROTYPE, RUPTUREWORT, PITUITOTROPE, UROPYOURETER, PERPETUITY.

The only word which can be typed using the bottom row of letters is ZZZ (to indicate sleeping), which is found in at least one dictionary. There are no vowels in the bottom row.

SHAKALSHAS (plural of Shakalsha, a people emigrating from Phrygia and colonizing Sicily in early times) is the longest word which can be typed using only the middle row of letters on the keyboard. Other such words: FLAGFALLS and ALFALFAS.

DEEDED can be typed using one finger. Some other such words: HUMHUM, HUMMUM, MUHUHU, ZZZ, ECCE, CEDED, MUMMY, UNNUN, YUMMY, YUMYUM, and MUUMUU.

DISMANTLEMENT is typed by alternating the use of both hands. Other such words are LEPTOTHRICOSIS, SKEPTICISMS, and LEUCOCYTOZOANS.

POSTMUSCULAR is the longest word typed using alternating hands, two letters at a time.

BEAUTIFUL (AND NOT-SO-BEAUTIFUL) WORDS

According to James Joyce, CUSPIDOR is the most beautiful word in English [Dickson].

Annie Dillard, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, nominated SYCAMORE as the most beautiful word in English.

The ten worst-sounding words in English, according to a poll by the National Association of Teachers of Speech in August, 1946: CACOPHONY, CRUNCH, FLATULENT, GRIPE, JAZZ, PHLEGMATIC, PLUMP, PLUTOCRAT, SAP, and TREACHERY.

VICTUALS (pronounced "viddles") is the ugliest word in the language according to Harry Golden [Dickson].

LONG WORDS

FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION (an estimation of something as worthless) is the longest word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. (The second edition has a longer word.) The word has been used by Sir Walter Scott, Senators Robert Byrd and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. It also appeared on March 14, 1996, in "Zippy," a comic strip distributed by King Features Syndicate: "Do you think I may be too quick to find fault with things and people, Zippy?" // "Yeh." // "Th' 'floccinaucinihilipilification' process." // "Th' what?" // "Floccinaucinihilipilification!! It means 'the estimation of something as valueless'!" // "You've been randomly reading th' dictionary, haven't you?" // "Yes. That and my natural tendency toward antifloccinaucinihilipilification!!" Floccinaucinihilipilification was also used by Press Secretary Mike McCurry in his December 6, 1995, White House Press Briefing in discussing Congressional Budget Office estimates and assumptions: "But if you -- as a practical matter of estimating the economy, the difference is not great. There's a little bit of floccinaucinihilipilification going on here."

CYSTOURETEROPYELONEPHRITIS (26 letters; a combined inflammation of the urinary bladder, ureters, and kidneys) is a long medical term mentioned by Paul Hellweg in The Insomniac's Dictionary.

ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHICALLY and ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATE (28 letters) are the longest words without spaces or hyphens in MWCD10.

HEPATICOCHOLANGIOCHOLECYSTENTEROSTOMIES is the longest word in Gould's Medical Dictionary.

HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS (honorableness) is the longest word used by Shakespeare. It appears in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene 1. W2 says it is a "pedantic nonsense word." It is the ablative plural of the Latin honorificabilitudintas, which is an extension of honorificabilis meaning "honorableness." It first occurs in English in 1599, used by Thomas Nashe. The word does not appear in W3. [Note: for those who have previously saved this page, this word was misspelled prior to 8/19/97.] The letter can be rearranged to give "Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbi," meaning, "These plays, F. Bacon's offspring, are preserved for the world." This fact has been cited by proponents of the theory that Francis Bacon actually wrote Shakespeare's plays.

SUPEREXTRAORDINARISIMO is the longest word in Spanish, according to Guinness 1995. However, the legitimacy of this word is open to dispute. Nidia Cobiella points out that there are numerous similarly-formed questionable words, such as superextraordinariamente, superespectacularisimo, otorrinolaringologistico, endocrinologicamente, apesadumbradisimamente, descontaminadamente, requeterequeteacostumbrado, sobreabundantisimamente, superimaginariamente, superexcelentisimamente, superpsicoanalisticamente, and desconsideradisimamente. SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICOESPIALIDOSO (from Mary Poppins) has also been suggested. The legitimate words OTORRINOLARINGOLOGIA and OTORRINOLARINGOLOGO could also lead to superotorrinolaringologo and superotorrinolaringologisimo.

SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS from the movie Mary Poppins is not the longest word in English, although many people believe it is. The word is in the OED, which has the following as the first four citations:

1949 Parker & Young (unpublished song-title) Supercalafajalistickespialadojus.
1951 Parker & Young (song-title) Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus; or, The super song.
1964 R. M. & R. B; Sherman (song-title) Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
1967 Decisions U.S. Courts involving Copyright 1965-66 488 The complaint alleges copyright infringement of plaintiff's song `Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus' by defendants' song 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.' (All variants of this tongue twister will hereinafter be referred to collectively as 'the word'.)

SMILES is supposed to be the longest word in the dictionary because "there's a mile between the two S's." Randal J. May points out that adding one letter to SMILE adds two syllables (in forming SIMILE).

According to Red Skelton, the longest word is the word that follows the announcement, "And now a word from our sponsor"!

LONG WORDS - PLACE NAMES

Dale Williams of New Zealand says that the Welsh placename is a nineteenth-century fabrication, adopted to look good on their railway place boards, whereas a Maori name for a hill in New Zealand is genuine and was in general use. It has 85 letters: TAUMATAWHAKATANGIHANGAKOAUAUTAMATEATURIPUKAKAPIKI- MAUNGAHORONUKUPOKAIWHENUAKITANATAHU. Williams says, "If we want to go there now we call it Taumata." New Zealand broadcaster Henare Te Ua says the word celebrates the prowess of a great Maori chief who possessed enormous personal power. Chief Tamatea was so mighty and powerful that, metaphorically, he could even eat mountains. There was a gentle side to his personality too. He could play his nose flute beautifully and quite charmingly to his loved ones. The word, Henare said, means "The summit of the hill, where Tamatea, who is known as the land eater, slid down, climbed up and swallowed mountains, played on his nose flute to his loved one." The hill, about 1000 feet in height, is in Southern Hawke's Bay, a district on the eastern side of the north island. [Neil Carleton]

There is a 66-letter place name in Wales, according to Dr. David Crystal's Encyclopedia of Language: GORSAFAWDDACHAIDRAIGODANHEDDOGLEDDOLONPENRHYNAREURDRAETHCEREDIGION, meaning "the Mawddach station and its dragon teeth at the Northern Penrhyn Road on the golden beach of Cardigan bay."

According to The Book of Names by J. N. Hook, the longest place name in the U. S. may be NUNATHLOOGAGAMIUTBINGOI, the name of some dunes in Alaska, taken from Eskimo.

However, in Massachusetts, there is Lake CHARGOGAGOGMANCHARGOGAGOGCHARBUNAGUNGAMOG, usually listed on maps as "Lake Webster." It supposedly means "You fish on your side, I'll fish on my side, nobody fish in the middle."

The shortest placenames in the U. S. may be L (a lake in Nebraska) and T (a gulch in Colorado), each named for its shape, and D (a river in Oregon flowing from Devil's Lake to the Ocean near Lincoln City). According to Howard Lewis, the D River is the shortest river in the world. There is a village called A (with a ring over the A) in Norway.

The only one-letter placename in the index of the Rand McNally International Atlas is A, a peak in Hong Kong (although the Atlas shows political units named with Roman numerals).

LONG WORDS - CHEMICAL NAMES

DICHLORODIPHENYLTRICHLOROETHANE (usually abbreviated DDT) is the longest word in the Macquarie Dictionary.

There is a 1,185-letter chemical term beginning with ACETYL... which appeared in the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts and which some have described as the longest real word.

There is also a 3,600-letter chemical name describing bovine NADP-specific glutamate dehydrogenase, which contains 500 amino acids.

The following is a 1,913-letter chemical name for the tryptophan synthetase A protein:

methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenylalanylalanylglutaminyll eucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamylglycylalanylphenylalanylvalylprolylphenylal anylvalylthreonylleucylglycylaspartylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylseryl leucyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleucylglutamylalanylglycylalanylaspa rtylalanylleucylglutamylleucylglycylisoleucylprolylphenylalanylserylaspartylproly lleucylalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreonylisoleucylglutaminylasparaginylalanylthre onylleucylarginylalanylphenylalanylalanylalanylglycylvalylthreonylprolylalanylglu taminylcysteinylphenylalanylglutamylmethionylleucylalanylleucylisoleucylarginylgl utaminyllysylhistidylprolylthreonylisoleucylprolylisoleucylglycylleucylleucylmeth ionyltyrosylalanylasparaginylleucylvalylphenylalanylasparaginyllysylglycylisoleuc ylaspartylglutamylphenylalanyltyrosylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamyllysylvalylg lycylvalylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylalanylaspartylvalylprolylvalylglutaminylgl utamylserylalanylprolylphenylalanylarginylglutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginylhist idylasparaginylvalylalanylprolylisoleucylphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolylprol ylaspartylalanylaspartylaspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginylglutaminylisoleucylala nylseryltyrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucylserylarginyla lanylglycylvalylthreonylglycylalanylglutamylasparaginylarginylalanylalanylleucylp rolylleucylasparaginylhistidylleucylvalylalanyllysylleucyllysylglutamyltyrosylasp araginylalanylalanylprolylprolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenylalanylglycylisoleucyl serylalanylprolylaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisoleucylaspartylalanylg lycylalanylalanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylserylalanylisoleucylvalyllysylis oleucylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylhistidylasparaginylisoleucylglutamylprolylgluta myllysylmethionylleucylalanylalanylleucyllysylvalylphenylalanylvalylglutaminylpro
lylmethionyllysylalanylalanylthreonylarginylserine

SCRABBLE WORDS

John Chew says that OXYPHENBUTAZONE is the highest-scoring word known under American tournament Scrabble rules (OSPD+MWCD). It can score 1778 under suitably contrived circumstances listed and credited in the Scrabble FAQ. The highest-scoring opening plays are MUZJIKS (128) in OSPD and QUARTZY (126) or SQUEEZY (126) in OSW.

Bruce D. Wilner says if we include eight-letter "bingos" that use all seven letters on one's rack plus a letter already on the board, then WHIZBANG, QUETZALS, and HIGHJACK score an incredible 374 points for a single play if the highest-point tile is on a light blue square and both the first and last letters are on red squares. QUIXOTIC and MUSQUASH are right behind, scoring 356 and 338, respectively.

According to James Bartlett, the highest scoring word is QUARTZY, which will score 164 points if played across a red triple-word square with the Z on a light blue double-letter square. It will score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares with the Q and the Y on those squares. BEZIQUE and CAZIQUE are next with a possible 161 points. All three words score an extra 50 points for having seven letters and therefore emptying the letter rack in one go.

Other words yielding high scores are ZYXOMMA (which is not in OSPD) and POPQUIZ.

QI (a life force in Chinese medicine) appears in Chambers. Barry Harridge says, "Its introduction threw the Scrabble world into a tailspin, with some players arguing that the Q should no longer be worth 10 points." Bruce D. Wilner says, "Not only do they allow QI in the U.K., they also allow ZO (a type of hornless cattle). This makes playing U. K. Scrabble much less of a strategic challenge than U. S. Scrabble, which features a host of "blocking tiles," i.e., tiles that cannot form 2-letter words and effectively block off opportunities for your opponent.

John Chew reports the plural ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATES is the longest word in his electronic Scrabble lexicon.

THE BIBLE

ARTAXERXES and EZRA are both mentioned in Ezra 7:21, ensuring that that verse contains all the letters of the alphabet except J. Galatians 1:14 is missing the letter K and is the shortest verse with 25 of the 26 letters: "And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers." The complete list of such verses:

Missing Q: Daniel 4:37, I Kings 1:19, Joshua 7:24, Haggai 1:1, Ezekiel 28:13, II Chronicles 36:10, I Chronicles 12:40
Missing X: II Kings 16:15, I Chronicles 4:10
Missing J: Ezra 7:21
Missing K: Galatians 1:14

Excluding the Apocrypha, there is only one proper name in the King James Bible beginning with Q: QUARTUS. QUINTUS MEMMIUS is in the Apocrypha. More modern translations have QUIRINIUS, which is rendered CYRENIUS in the KJV (Luke 2:2).

There are no proper names in the King James Bible beginning with W.

Excluding the Apocrypha, there are no proper names in the King James Bible beginning with X. XANTHICUS (an alternate name for the month Nisan) is in the Apocrypha.

There are no proper names in the King James Bible beginning with Y.

Today's English Version (commonly called the Good News Bible) has WAHEB (Num. 21:14), XERXES (Esther 1:1), and YIRON (Joshua 19:38). YAHWEH appears in several contemporary translations. QOHELETH (the Hebrew name translated as Ecclesiastes or "the preacher" in the KJV) appears in the Jerusalem Bible and is the only name in scripture with a Q not followed by a U. The WATER GATE (Neh. 3:26) appears in lower case in the KJV but is a proper name in contemporary translations. John F. Underwood, who contributed this paragraph, says the Good News Bible has proper names for every letter of the alphabet.

The most common word in the King James Bible is THE.

SOME NAMES THAT BECAME WORDS

WORD	NAMED FOR	WORD	NAMED FOR
AUGUST	Augustus Caesar	LEOTARD	Jules Leotard
BEEF STROGANOFF	Count Paul Stroganoff	LOGANBERRY	Judge James H. Logan
BEGONIA	Michel Bégon	LYNCH	William Lynch
BLOOMER	Amanda Bloomer or Amelia J. Bloomer	MACADAMIA NUT	John Macadam (Australian)
BOBBY	Robert Peel	MACADAMIZE and MACADAM	John McAdam (British)
BOWDLERIZE	Thomas Bowdler	MAGNOLIA	Pierre Magnol
BOYCOTT	Charles C. Boycott	MARTINET	Jean Martinet
BOYSENBERRY	Rudolph Boysen	MASOCHISM	Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
BRAILLE	Louis Braille	MAUDLIN	Mary Magdalene
BROUGHAM	Henry Peter Brougham	MAUSOLEUM	Mausolus
BURKE	William Burke	MAVERICK	Samuel A. Maverick
CAESAREAN SECTION	Julius Caesar	MELBA TOAST and PEACH MELBA	Dame Nellie Melba
CARDIGAN	James Thomas Brudenell, 7th earl of Cardigan	MESMERIZE	Franz Anton Mesmer
CHAUVINISM	Nicolas Chauvin	NICOTINE	Jean Nicot
CONDOM	apparently a Dr. Condom	ORRERY	Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery
DERBY	Edward Stanley, 12th earl of Derby	PASTEURIZE	Louis Pasteur
DERRICK	Goodman Derick	POINSETTIA	Joel R. Poinsett
DERRINGER	Henry Deringer	QUISLING	Maj. Vidkun Quisling
DIESEL	Rudolf Diesel	RITZY	César Ritz
DOILY	Mr. Doyley	SADISM	Marquis de Sade
DOLOMITE	Deodat de Dolomieu	SALISBURY STEAK	James J. Salisbury
DUNCE	John Duns Scotus (who was actually very smart)	SANDWICH	John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich
EGGS BENEDICT	E. C. Benedict	SANFORIZED	Sandford Lockwood Cluett
EPICURE	Epicurus	SAXOPHONE	Antoine Joseph Sax
GALVANIZE	Luigi Galvani	SHRAPNEL	Henry Shrapnel
GERRYMANDER	Elbridge Gerry (he pronounced the g as in gray)	SIDEBURNS	Gen. Ambrose Everett Burnside
GRAHAM CRACKER	Sylvester Graham	SILHOUETTE	Etienne de Silhouette
GUILLOTINE	Joseph I. Guillotin	SPOONERISM	William A. Spooner
GUPPY	R. J. L. Guppy	TAWDRY	St. Audrey
GUY	Guy Fawkes	TEDDY BEAR	Theodore Roosevelt
HECTOR	from Homer's Illiad	VULCANIZE	the Roman god of fire and metalworking
HOOLIGAN	probably Patrick Hooligan	ZINNIA	Johann Gottfried Zinn

INTERJECTIONS

NOT-SO-FAMOUS LAST WORDS

WORD	DEFINITION	SOURCE
ZUZIM	a people	the Bible (last proper name)
ZYGOMATIC	pertaining to a cavity in a bone of the temples like a yoke	A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806)
ZYLKS	town in Louisiana	Street Atlas USA (last town name)
ZYMOSAN	an insoluble polysaccharide fraction of yeast cell walls	Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition
ZYMOTIC	fermentative or infectious	Worcester's School Dictionary (1883)
ZYMURGY	the study of fermentation	older MW Collegiate Dictionaries
ZYRIAN	a Uralic language
ZYTHUM	ancient Egyptian malt beer	Winston Dictionary (1942) and An American Dictionary of the English Language (1902)
ZYUGANOV, GENNADY	Russian politician	Grolier Encyclopedia (1997) last entry
ZYWIEC	city in Poland	Rand McNally International Atlas
ZYWNY	Polish violinist	Encyclopaedia Britannica (1977)
ZYXT	obsolete Kentish 2nd sing. ind. pres. of see	Oxford English Dictionary, first edition
ZYYI	town in Cyprus	National Geographic Atlas of the World, rev. 6th ed.
ZYZOMYS	a genus of rodents	Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia (entire text)
ZYZYN	variant of Cieszyn	The New Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia (1951)
ZYZZLE	variant of zizzle, sizzle	Funk & Wagnalls Practical Standard Dictionary (1935)
ZYZZOGETON	a South American leaf hopper	Webster's Third New International Dictionary and Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition
ZYZZYVA	a South American weevil	American Heritage Dictionary
ZZXJOANW*	a Maori drum	Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words
ZZYZX	a road intersecting Interstate 15 near Baker, California	Street Atlas USA
ZZZ	used to represent the sound of snoring	The Random House College Dictionary

*NOTE: Dale Williams says ZZXJOANW, a Maori drum, "is a total flight of fancy and Mrs. Byrne was interviewing her typewriter. Not only is there no Z, no X and no J in Maori (or any other Pacific language), Maoris never had drums. Their instrument was the KOAUAU and was a bone flute played by mouth or nose. They also used a conch shell for calling, but no drums."

And Bruce D. Wilner may have the final word on zzxjoanw in the following message:

From bdwilner@nsli.com Thu Feb 06 13:59:48 1997
Date: Thu, 06 Feb 1997 13:59:59 -0800
From: "Bruce D. Wilner"
Subject: re: ZZXJOANW in Word Oddities

There's some history behind that word, ZZXJOANW:

When I was in junior high, these two idiots named Jeff and Scott ran a weird words column in the school paper. I tried to get on the bandwagon, but they refused me.

Anyway, I saw "ZZXJOANW" in the column the next week and was CERTAIN it was a goof on my mother's name, Joan Wilner -- just taking the "Joan W" part and putting a "ZZX" in front for exotic appearance. Jeff, Scott, and I had a big fight over it and never spoke again.

Bruce D. Wilner, CCP
President
Network Security Laboratories, Inc., Bethesda, MD

SOME UNUSUAL ITALIAN WORDS

AIUOLA (flower bed) has 5 syllables and 6 letters; its plural AIUOLE contains all the 5 vowels in our language; two other such words are SEQUOIA and UMANESIMO. These are the only words having all five vowels without repetitions. INDIVISIBILI (unsplittable) has 6 I's and no other vowels; PRECEDENTEMENTE (precedingly) has 6 E's; and CALAFATATA (caulked) has 5 A's. FABBRICAMICELO (manufacture it there for me) has its stress on the first syllable, which is followed by five unstressed syllables. PRECIPITEVOLISSIMEVOLMENTE (as fast as you can) in some dictionaries is the longest word. However Maccari believes "the word is not built the right way, so it is not correct." ANTICOSTITUZIONALMENTE (anticonstitutionally) is the longest Italian word in common use. DESALINIFICATO (desalinized) has a succession of seven consonant-vowel groups. ZUZZURULLONE (or ZUZZURELLONE) (playful person) is the last word in the dictionary. SOQQUADRO (terrible mess) is the only word with a double Q. ATTACCAPANNI has 3 double consonants; there may be other examples. SCIOCCHEZZA has only 3 syllables and 11 letters. ANILINA (aniline) is the longest palindrome. All the words in Italian that end with U have a stress on the U itself; being on the last syllable, the U is written with an accent mark. CUOIAIO (leather craftsman) has 6 vowels in a row). GHIACCIO (ice) has 8 letters and only two syllables; other examples are CHIOSTRO (cloister) and CHIOCCIA (brooding hen). The surname CHIOCCHIO (spread mostly in the south) has 9 letters and two syllables.

PierGiorgio Cavallini offers the following sentence consisting almost exclusively of vowels in the dialect of La Spezia (spezzino): Aiei i ea eio aoa i e eio e aigoa (Yesterday was oil now it is oil and water).

W3 = Webster's Third New International Dictionary
W2 = Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition
RHUD2 = the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition
OED2 = the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition
Chambers = The Chambers Dictionary
MWCD10 = Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition
OSPD = The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary
OSW = Official Scrabble Words
UKACD = U. K. Advanced Cryptics Dictionary
Guinness = Guinness Book of World Records
Dickson = Words by Paul Dickson or Dickson's Word Treasury, by Paul Dickson (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)