Following Francis Further

52 pick-up, times three.

In Word Ways #4.2 (1971), Darryl Francis rolled out four lists of words and phrases tied to letters—two where the word’s length was linked to its final letter, two where the letter was isolated in a hyphenate or phrase. I thought I’d do my usual update, adding another pair where the word’s length is linked to its initial letter.

As usual, I don’t claim any special genius here, just access to different tools and dictionaries than Francis had in 1971, and the continual evolution of language and its studies. When finding a word was easy, I tended to favor the common ones, but in some cases I counted myself lucky to find one example, and in a few cases I danced on the edge of acceptability. So let’s dive in…

Length and Initial Letter

a, by, cap, data, error, filter, gateway, hydrogen, important, journalism, kleptomania, longitudinal, manufacturing, neutralization, ophthalmologist, pharmacokinetics, quadrilateralness, representativeness, straightforwardness, tetrahydrocannabinol, undistinguishableness, ventriculosubarachnoid, Wettererkundungsstaffel, xanthonoxypropanolamines, yesterday-today-and-tomorrow, zinc-dialkyldithiophosphate.

acetoxyacetylaminofluorene, bromochlorosalicylanilide, cholangiopancreatography, dichlorodifluoromethane, electroencephalography, Frankensteinification, glucocorticosteroids, hyperparathyroidism, interrelationships, jurisprudentially, knowledgeability, lightheadedness, multiplication, nationalistic, organization, performance, quarantine, reference, standard, through, united, value, with, Xer, yo, z.

Frankensteinifcation is the loosest of these words: the dictionary it comes from is no longer online. I considered a few alternatives, including Feldmarschallleutnant (a German lieutenant field marshal) and some other chemical terms. But sue me: I find it very easy to understand what it means to “Frankensteinify” something, to turn it into a patchwork parody of its natural state, and that and the long form of “EEG” are the two big finds in those first eight letters.

Length and Final Letter

a, ab, arc, said, there, itself, nothing, research, spaghetti, Narayanganj, electroshock, international, hypothyroidism, differentiation, Chichicastenango, interrelationship, Anctoville-sur-Boscq, auriculoventricular, radiopharmaceuticals, otorhinolaryngologist, Yamagawaokachiyogamizu, NAVEDTRAPRODEVCENCORDIV, neoconservative-worldview, Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.

hemangioendothelioblastoma, seven-hundred-watt-light-bulb,* antihypercholesterolemic, metabolically-challenged, dehydroepiandrosterone, reichsberufswettkampf, contradistinguishing, hundred-and-eightieth, intertransversarii, Chachaura-Binaganj, Dneprodzerzhinsk, anthropological, utilitarianism, participation, Michelangelo, partnership, Qaraqalpaq, character, analysis, without, bureau, Negev, know, six, by, z.

A few stretchy ones here, even beyond the obscure place names. I opted for “Michelangelo” as not only a famous name but as a synonym for “great artist”: He’s a real Michelangelo. Ocatarinetabellatchitchix is a character in Asterix, a comics series that features many such comically tortured names. “Neoconservative-worldview” isn’t usually hyphenated, but it can be when modifying something else.

Seven-hundred-watt-light-bulb is the only entry on these lists that’s purely my own invention: I think of it in the sentence “That’s a seven-hundred-watt-light-bulb idea!” I know, I know. I just couldn’t leave a single blank space! In my defense, such wattages do exist in contemporary light bulbs now.

Letter-Hyphen-Word

a-bomb, b-girl, C-section, D-day, e-tailer, f-stop, G-string, h-hour, I-beam, J-horror, k-capture, L-dopa, m-commerce, n-tuple, O-ring, p-value, Q-tip, R-rated, s-curve, t-shirt, U-boat, v-chip, W-2, x-ray, y-axis, z-score.

If you’re wondering why I left out more obvious e-hyphenates like e-mail and e-commerce, it’s because many of them are increasingly non-hyphenated: email, ecommerce. Besides, I wanted to make each word unique if I could, and m-commerce is a more recent concept. W-2, rarely spelled out as W-TWO, is a widely discussed tax form: using a number was a little stretchy but still seemed like the best option. I stayed away from words that could pair with almost any letter like shaped (A-shaped, W-shaped…).

type A, hepatitis B, middle C, 3-D, ukiyo-e, Asian F, zero-g, big H, Am I?, Dr. J, Special K, the L, immunoglobulin M, virus N, Jell-O, substance P, coenzyme Q, linking r, long s, Model T, non-U, flying V, Bill W, Malcolm X, Generation Y, Jay-Z.

This one was pretty hard: you can see the exact point that I gave up and started letting proper names in.

Francis did one more notable thing in that issue: he proposed that WUZZY was the shortest word whose letters, scrambled or otherwise, cannot be found in any unrelated words. (Wuzzy has a couple of meanings, the inoffensive one is a variant for woozy.) FUZZY-WUZZY would be considered a related word and thus does not qualify.

Is he right? I’ve tested a few promising four-letter words like ZIZZ and haven’t found anything better so far. This is one record I’m prepared to let stand—but maybe you know better!

Tomorrow: Remembering Harvey Beeferman.