Theming "Arch" (2 of 3)

Let's walk right through it.

Rhymes: Common rhymes for arch include March, march, starch, larch, and parch. A larch, like an arch, can be a feature in landscaping, so it seems like the most appropriate rhyme—but in poetic practice, arch is usually paired with march or March.

I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
And love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

Lipogram: You can’t get much out of the letters in arch, lipogram-wise. The best I can think of is this sports cheer, which one could imagine appearing in Archie Comics…

Rah rah rah
Cha-cha-cha
Arch, Arch, Arch!

(The nickname “Arch” also appears often in the classic sitcom All in the Family.)

If you pluralize to arches, though, the possibilities open up. One can now imagine researchers’ carcasses under mysterious harsh arches’ access, leading a wealthy garden owner to reassess his recherche decor. Shouldn’t have picked it up from “Cursed Lawn Ornaments Ltd.”

Synonyms and Related Words: In architectural terms, there aren’t many pure synonyms for arch—archway is the only one that leaps to mind—but there are some related concepts. Of these, according to OneLook, viaduct is the most formal, squinch and groined vault the funniest. Its other meanings are much more common, found in concept clusters like important, superior, and skilled.

Charades: Arch is hiding inside many, many, many words—far too many to list here, though some of them appeared in the rhymes and meanings sections. There is some dictionary support for the word archarchitect, which refers to the greatest of all architects—generally God Himself—and is the only word in my records to hold a double arch.

Many common phrases hide arch more effectively by dividing it among two words. The most common of these are bar chart, war chest, cheddar cheese, star chamber, mouse-ear chickweed, star chart, Cesar Chavez, nuclear chemistry (or chemist), cedar chest, and grammar checker. These all divide arch as ar/ch—no phrases divide it as a/rch, and only a few less common ones divide it as arc/h, like arc hyperbolic, arc heating, and noted news anchor Marc Howard.

There are, of course, even more kangaroo words and phrases that include the letters a-r-c-h in order, from abnormal psychology to zebra orchid (or zygomatic arch). Of these, some of the most common (that don’t have a-r-c-h all together) are approach, handkerchief, parochial, and parachute.

Crosswords: The most common clue for ARCH is “Bend.” There are many cryptic clues for ARCH—one of my favorites is “Playful bow,” which works as a double definition.

Logo Design and Word Art: There’s no shortage of visual ideas for an Arch or arch-related logo, because the shape of an arch itself resembles a crude letter A. Here’s an interesting one from Shutterstock that works it into a lower-case a instead:

This one, a sample by Kanhaiya Sharma on Dribbble, takes a different approach by integrating the arch shape with the A and the R:

The best-known Arch logo, though, is the one for Arch Linux, with a slightly “weathered” effect and pyramidal outer shape suggesting an old stone monument, and an identifiable arch shape in its negative space.

Finally, you can distort full words into an arch shape, using a combination of what Photoshop calls the arch effect and simple stretching. Here’s an example…

This at least touches on most of the simple ideas one can pursue with the word arch. Tomorrow, I’ll get into what one can do with the symbol for “arch.” Until then…