Successive De(le(ti)o)ns

Fort hose unfamiliar with the concept, a successive word deletion is best defined by example. From a base word (PANTODON), excise a set of consecutive letters from the interior which form a word (TO). Join together the loose ends (PANDON) and repeat the process (AND). The letters remaining after the second excision (PON), containing the initial and terminal letters of the original word, form a third word. The number of words (in this case, three) into which the original word has been split is k; thus, PANTODON (TO, AND, PON) is a triple deletion

Palindrome Trans-3-Deletions

Three letters can be deleted from PALINDROME in 120 different ways. In Palindrome and Palindromes in the August 1989 Word Ways. Darryl Francis rearranged ten sets of remaining letters to form words. Here, I present one or more words formed out of 62 remainders. Unlabeled words are found in Webster\u27s Third Edition: inferred forms are indicated with parentheses

Reed Bell / Rebelled

The zealous logophiles who follow the Word Ways banner are known to be very susceptible to following a different drummer. While pursuing an elusive word through the dictionary, our interest is often detoured into areas completely foreign to the original search. Let\u27s face it -- none of us is completely immune to this

Merry Am Webster!

What makes a word interesting? I ask this rhetorically, not inviting specific response. One has only to scan Word Ways articles to realize that some logophiles fancy word length, while others prefer word construction, word sounds, geographical names, and so forth. Chacun a son gout! The charm of any word obviously lies in the eye of the beholder

Ushering in the Fulfillment of Prophecy

During the 19th century, a phenomenon known as “Holy Land mania” was sweeping the United States. Americans were intrigued by the state of the Holy Land and whether or not this state matched the images described in biblical prophecy (Robey 62). Interest in Israel’s condition invaded many aspects of American life, including literature. Looking through the lens of historical criticism, it is easy to see how authors of this time period fed on the “Holy Land mania” to include references to prophecy and the Middle East in their writings. In particular, critic Molly K. Robey accurately points out in her article “Poe and Prophecy” that Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” alludes to biblical prophecy and represents the perceived degeneration of the Promised Land

The Role of Language in the Media in Influencing Public Perceptions of Refugees

The refugee crisis has become a worldwide epidemic in recent years. As refugee entrance into host countries is debated, media outlets are covering the issue regularly. These media outlets use various types of language when portraying refugees. Many publications have been found to convey hostile and divisive themes as well as use specific linguistic tools, which contribute to negative portrayals of refugees. Media outlets have the potential to influence public perceptions of refugees because the general public in a host country receives its information primarily from the media. Overt and subtle language used to describe refugees has been previously found to influence public opinions. This study of 101 students at a conservative Christian university in the mid-Atlantic United States was designed to examine whether manipulated language in news articles impacted perceptions of refugees. Participants were randomly assigned to the positive or negative language condition and then asked to complete a survey assessing four facets of perception. None of the results were significant, indicating the language in the article did not impact perceptions of refugees. This study was limited by lack of diversity in the sample, the use of self-report data, potential personal confounds, and a small sample size. The results implied a need for balance when calling for media ethics and a need for many more empirical studies in this area

A Search for Hydroxylamine (NH_2OH) toward Select Astronomical Sources

Observations of 14 rotational transitions of hydroxylamine (NH_2OH) using the NRAO 12 m telescope on Kitt Peak are reported toward IRC+10216, Orion KL, Orion S, Sgr B2(N), Sgr B2(OH), W3IRS5, and W51M. Although recent models suggest the presence of NH_2OH in high abundance, these observations resulted in non-detection. Upper limits are calculated to be as much as six orders of magnitude lower than those predicted by models. Possible explanations for the lower-than-expected abundance are explored

More Tetragram Permutations

In the May 1984 issue of Word Ways, the editor presented Websterian words containing tetragrams consisting of all 24 permutations of the letter-sets AIRT, AIST, and AGIR. He commented there may be additional letter-sets that can be fully permuted into tetragram-embeddable Websterian words because of the incomplete nature of the Thomas-Kassler-Wooley legal tetragram list. Indeed there are; I exhibit below three more tetragram permutations