Alliterative Literati

A is for (Sarah) Addison Allen*
B is for (Elizabeth) Barrett Browning, Bruno Bettelheim*, Beverly Butler*
C is for Caroline (B.) Cooney, Cassandra Clare*, Clare Clark*
D is for Diane Duane, Don DeLillo*
E is for
F is for Fannie Flagg
G is for Graham Greene, George Gordon (Lord Byron)*
H is for Herman Hesse, Heinrich Hoffmann*
I is for
J is for Jerome (K.) Jerome, Jane Jensen*
K is for Ken Kesey
L is for Lois Lowry, Lise Lunge-Larsen*
M is for Margaret Mitchell, Martin Monestier*
N is for
O is for
P is for Philip Pullman
Q is for
R is for Rainer (Maria) Rilke, Richard Russo*
S is for Shel Silverstein, Susan (Fromberg) Schaeffer*, Simon Singh*
T is for
U is for
V is for Vivian Vande Velde
W is for William Wordsworth, Walt Whitman*
X is for Xinran Xue*
Y is for
Z is for

* added on October 6th, 2010

States United

AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DE FL GA

HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD

ME MI MN MO SM MT NC ND NE NH

NJ NM NV NY OH OK OR PA RI SC

SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV WY

My latest wordplay self-challenge was to combine 3 or more state abbreviations to form words, such as:

AL AR MS ... AL MO ND ... AL PA CA ... CO ND OR

DE CA DE ... DE CO DE ... DE MA ND ... DE RI DE

FL OR AL ... IN LA ID ... IN LA ND ... IN VA DE

NE CT AR ... SC RI MS ... VA ND AL

and:

CA LA MA RI ... MA IN LA ND ... ME MO RI AL

Proper nouns include:

PA SC AL

and:

CO NC OR DE ... GA RA MO ND ... MA ND AR IN

Phictions

From "The Watchers of the Night" by James Thurber:

As for the lure of alliteration, from Piers Plowman through Pride and Prejudice and The Pit and the Pendulum to Peyton Place there are hundreds, if you want to lie there hunting titles.

Peter Pan
The Pickwick Papers
The Pied Piper
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pirates of Penzance
The Prince and the Pauper
The Princess and the Pea
Rumpole and the Primrose Path

Hrm. I don't think I can list anymore without resorting to such lowbrow cheats as PMS Pinafore or The Possibility of Peeing.

The "Miracle" of James Thurber

From "The Porcupines in the Artichokes" by James Thurber:

I myself have found, or rather my wife has found, that you can sometimes keep writers from fighting by getting them into some kind of pencil-and-paper games. You could say, for example, "There are thirty-seven given names and nicknames, male and female, in the word 'miracle.' I want you all to see how many you can find." This almost always takes up a good hour, during which the writers are mercifully silent.

M I R A C L E

Ali Alice Ami/Amie Ari

Cal Cari Carl Carlie Carmel Celia

Clair/Claire/Clare Clem

Earl Elam Eli Elia Elric Emil Eric Erica

Ima Ira

Lacie Lea Lear/Lir Li Liam Lira

Mac Macie Mali Marc Marcel Marcie Marie

Mel Mia Mic Mica Mila Mira

Rae Ric

Elementary!

~~~~~~~~~

Ac... Ag... Al... Am... Ar... As... At... Au

B... Ba... Be... Bh... Bi... Bk... Br
C... Ca... Cd... Ce... Cf... Cl... Cm... Cr... Co... Cs... Cu
Db... Ds... Dy... Er... Es... Eu... F... Fe... Fm... Fr
Ga... Gd... Ge... H... He... Hf... Hg... Ho... Hs

I... In... Ir... K... Kr... La... Li... Lr... Lu

Md... Mg... Mn... Mo... Mt

N... Na... Nb... Nd... Ne... Ni... No... Np... O... Os
P... Pa... Pb... Pd... Pm... Po... Pr... Pt... Pu
Ra... Rb... Re... Rf... Rh... Rn... Ru

S... Sb... Sc... Se... Sg... Si... Sm... Sn... Sr
Ta... Tb... Tc... Te... Th... Ti... Tl... Tm
U... Uub... Uuh... Uuo... Uup... Uuq... Uus... Uut... Uuu
V... W... Xe... Y... Yb... Zn... Zr

~~~~~~~~~

names (or NAmEs) composed of atomic symbols:

AmY, BeRnICe, CaSeY, CInDy, ClArICe, ClArK, ErICa, EsThEr, FIONa, GeNa, HeRb, IReNe, KrISTeN, LaNa, LaURa, LaWReNCe, MoNa, NaNCY, NiNa, OSCAr, PaULa, PaULiNe, RaNDy, RuBY, SeReNa, TiMoThY, ULrICK, VErONiCa, WAlLaCe, XeNa, YVONNe

~~~~~~~~~

words (of 5 or more letters) composed of atomic symbols:

AcORn, BiONiC, CoLuMn, CuRbS, DyNaMo, EuGeNiCs, GaUGe, HYMnAl, MoNiKEr, NArCoTiCs, PaTcH, PrISm, RaBBI, RhUBaRb, SCaReDy-CAt, SCrAtCH or ScRaTcH, UNReAl, WAlRuS

~~~~~~~~~

words (of 6 or more letters) composed of the one-letter atomic symbols (B, C, F, H, I, K, N, O, P, S, U, V, W, and Y):

BIONIC, BONBON, CHOPPY, CHUBBY, CHUNKY, COFFIN, FOPPISH, HICCUP, INKFISH, KINSHIP, PUFFIN, SKUNKS, SNIPPY, SPOOKY, SPUNKY, SUNFISH, UNHOOK, WHOOSH

Words With No Graphemic Throwbacks?

Today I pulled from my jacket pocket a scrap of paper with a list of words. I don't really remember why I compiled the list, but it seems I was collecting words in which no letter is repeated. The longest examples I found have 11 unique letters:

9-letters: depravity, operating, spherical
10-letters: epistolary, graciously, impersonal, importance, judgmental, sublimated
11-letters: facetiously, fractiously, personality

(TMBG) I Palindrome I (GBMT?)

Some well-known palindromes:

Madam, I'm Adam.
Able was I ere I saw Elba.
A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.



A few of my own devising (not all of which make any sense):

A BERYL TREVOR OVERTLY REBA
EEL FOR OVERT TREVOR OF LEE
S.N. RUFO STOLE LOTS OF URNS.
"HARASS LIARS!" RAILS SARAH.
DALY: "MEG, NEVER REVENGE MY LAD."
O, MY BABY MO! or AI! MY BABY MIA!
ERIS EDWARDS, DRAW "DESIRE."
DOC. ASTA, EDNA ELBA TASTES REGAL LAGER, SETS A TABLE, AND EATS A COD.

Another, which has multiple variations:

EVE WENT: "I SAW PAM'S MAP." -- "WAS IT NEW, EVE?"
Here, EVE may be replaced with HANNAH, DAD, ANNA, HE/EH ("WAS IT NEW? EH?"), &c.
Also, PAM'S MAP may be replaced with ELBA'S SABLE, MUM'S MUM, GOD'S DOG, LIAM'S MAIL, A RAM, MARA, &c.
(e.g., HANNAH WENT: "I SAW A RAM, MARA." -- "WAS IT NEW, HANNAH?")



Some palindromic word pairs:

BRO'S ORB, DOCK COD, DROLL LORD, ERROL LORRE, GNUS SUNG, LLAMA MALL, NEW WEN, POT'S TOP, PUT UP, RAT STAR, REGINA NIGER, SETON NOTES, SNUG GUNS, STORY ROTS, TANGY GNATS


And some single-word palindromes (including names, affixes, initialisms, contractions, and interjections):

3-letter: ADA, AGA, AHA, A.K.A., ANA, AVA, BIB, BOB, BUB, DAD, DID, DUD, EKE, -ENE, ERE, -ESE, ETE, EVE , EWE, EYE, GAG, GIG, HAH, HEH, H.O.H., HUH, ICI, LIL, L.O.L., MIM, MOM, MUM, NAN, N.I.N., NON-, NUN, OHO, ORO, PAP, PEP, PIP, POP, PUP, SIS, S.O.S., TAT, TET, TIT, TOT, TUT, VIV, WOW, YAY

4-letter: ABBA, ANNA, BOOB, DEED, ECCE, ELLE, ESSE, -ETTE, KOOK, MA'AM, NOON, OTTO, PEEP, POOP, SEES, SUUS, TOOT

5-letter: MADAM, RADAR

6-letter: HANNAH, REDDER

7-letter: RACECAR, REVIVER



And finally, some links:

http://www.rinkworks.com/words/palindromes.shtml
http://www.palindromelist.com/
http://thinks.com/words/palindromes.htm
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Palindromic_words
http://www.fun-with-words.com/palindromes.html

A werewolf by any other name...

Nearly all of the following terms and definitions come from Sabine Baring-Gould's The Book of Werewolves; numbers in {brackets} indicate pages on which the terms are introduced and/or discussed.

church-dog, bar-ghest, pad-foit, wush-hound "animal haunting a churchyard" {106}
Lycanthropy:wolves::Kuanthropy:dogs::Boanthropy:cows {8}
versipellis "one who can change his skin" (Latin) {12}
loup-garou [pl., loups-garoux] "werewolf" (French) also: lou garol {2, 4, 106, 107}
eigi einhamir, eigi einhammr "not of one skin" (Norse) {15, 16}
hamrammr "man in beast form" {16}
gandreid "wolf's-ride" {17} http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/gandreid.html
vargliki "werewolf" {28}
Ulf "wolf" {36}
Ulfhamr "wolf-shaped" {36}
Ulfhednar [pl., Ulfhednir] "dressed in wolfskin" {36}
Berserkar [pl., Berserkir] "dressed in bearskin" {36}
kveldulfr, Kveldulf "evening wolf" or "twilight wolf" {43}
vargr "wolf" or "godless man" or "werewolf" (Norse) {48}
vargr (Norse) = were (English) = garou, varou (French) {48}
u-argr "restless" {48}
var-ulf "werewolf" (Danish) {48}
vaira-ulf "werewolf" (Gothic) {48}
wearg "scoundrel" (Anglo-Saxon) {48}
vargs "fiend" (Gothic) {48}
wargus "outlaw" {48}
verevulf "werewolf" or "outlaw" {48}
utlagh "outlaw" (Anglo-Saxon) {49}
louleerou [pl., louleerous] "werewolf" {106}
varga mor "wolf-witch" {108}
vrkolak "werewolf" (Bulgarian/Slovakian) {114}
vlkoslak "werewolf" or "vampire" (Serbian) {115}
wawkalak "werewolf" (White Russian) {115}
oborot "one transformed" (Russian) {117}
vilkodlak, vlkodlak, vlkolak "werewolf" (Slovakian) {117, 124}



A search for "werewolf" on the Mythical Creatures and Beasts Wiki turns up the following information:

Albania = oik
France = loup-garou
Greece = lycanthropos
Spain = hombre lobo
Mexico = hombre lobo and nahual
Bulgaria = varkolak
Turkey = kurtadam
Czech Republic/Slovakia = vlkodlak
Serbia/Montenegro/Bosnia = vukodlak
Russia = vourdalak
Ukraine = vovkulak(a), vurdalak(a), vovkun
Croatia = vukodlak
Poland = wilkolak
Romania = vârcolac, priculici
Macedonia = vrkolak
Scotland = werewolf, wulver
England = werewolf
Ireland = faoladh or conriocht
Germany = Werwolf
Netherlands = weerwolf
Denmark/Sweden/Norway = Varulv
Norway/Iceland = kveld-ulf, varúlfur
Galicia = lobisón
Portugal = lobisomem
Lithuania = vilkolakis and vilkatlakis
Latvia = vilkatis and vilkacis
Andorra/Catalonia = home llop
Hungary = Vérfarkas and Farkasember
Estonia = libahunt
Finland = ihmissusi and vironsusi
Italy = lupo mannaro

Mythical Creatures Guide

Alphabetically Consecutive Trigraphs (ABC, BCD, CDE, &c.)

I found words for the following trigraphs:

1. DEF (defend, indefinite, &c.)
2. FGH (afghan)
3. GHI (laughing, sighing, &c.)
4. HIJ (hijinks)
5. LMN (calmness)
6. MNO (hymnody)
7. NOP (inoperative, synopsis, &c.)
8. RST (burst, worsted, &c.)
9. STU (astute, sturgeon, &c.)

The word-game word-list web site http://www.morewords.com/ provides examples for the above as well as the following:

10. ABC (dabchick)
11. XYZ (hydroxyzine)

-- and for this alphabetically consecutive tetragraph:

1. RSTU (overstuffed, understudy, &c.)