The names of chemical elements are an interesting group of names to conjure with.  First of all, there\u27s over one hundred of them, depending on how you can count them.  Secondly, there\u27s a good mix of short names, and in-between names

Francis, Darryl

Digital Commons @ Butler University

22 ELEMENTARY TRANSADDITIONS DARRYL FRANCIS Thursby, Cumbria, England darrylfrancis@yahoo.co.uk The names of the chemical elements are an interesting group of names to conjure with. First of all, there's over one hundred of them, depending on how you count them. Secondly, there s a good mix of short names, long names, and in-between names. -Transpositions of the element names have been examined exhaustively in previous Word Ways. Dmitri Borgmann authored two articles, "An Elemental Problem" in February 1968, and "Elementary Transpositions" in August 1978. Apart from the occasional new transposition of an elemental name (e.g. GREINTON, RINGTONE), there's probably not much to be added to Dmitri's articles. I explored transadditions of the names of the elements in a November 1977 article "Elementary My Dear Reader". In that article, 1 documented known transpositions of element names, and where an element did not have a transposition, I offered the shortest possible transadditions of the element names. So, for example, my article recorded that ARGON had transpositions such as GROAN and ORGAN, and that BISMUTH had no transpositions but that its shortest transaddition was THUMBNAILS. In the intervening 28 years, I know of only one relevant article, Edward Wolpow's "Chemical Improvements" in May 1995 which gave 20 improved transpositions and transadditions. I felt it was time to revisit the topic, in order to see whether further improvements could be engineered. First off, ( have ignored all transpositions of element names. I have simply set myself the task of finding the shortest transaddition of each chemical element name. So, for example, in the case of ARGON, r ignored GROAN and searched for the shortest transaddition of the name. In the table below, I have shown SARONG as a one-letter transaddition. That was easy; even if SARO G didn't exist, r could have used GROANS, ORGANS and other -S plurals. Other element name were not so easy. Let's look at FRANCIUM for example. There is no straightforward transposition, so back in 1977 I offered the three-letter transaddition CALIFORNIUM (another element name, coincidentally). However, in 1995 Wolpow improved this by one letter to obtain the two-letter transaddition MICROFAUNA. The table below shows 122 chemical element names. Some elements ha e more than one spelling e.g. CAESIUM and CESIUM. Some elements have more than one name, e.g. atomic number 41 is both COLUMBIUM and NIOBIUM. All element names can be confirmed in Webster's Third New International, the Merriam-Webster 10th New Collegiate or the Oxford Concise Dictionary (9th Edition). The table shows the shortest transaddition identified in either the 1977 or 1995 article, followed by the presently-known best s transaddition , with an indication of how many letters improvement there has been. The transadditions in the table can b found in Webster's Third International except when labeled: W2 Web ter 's e~ Int rnational (2nd edition); RHD Random House Unabridged Dictionary; EB Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition); SAMS Modem Dictionary of Electronics by Howard W am ; FW Funk and agnail New Standard Dictionary; OED Oxford English Dictionary. 23 I am aware that Sir Jeremy Morse has coined the excellent WELL-MANICURED as a transaddition of LA WRENCruM. I had hoped to find this in the extensive list of WELL- words in Webster's Second or the Random House Dictionary, but it's in neither so I'm sticking with the two word term AMERICAN WALNUT. Actinium multiplicand numismatic (2) Aluminium multilingualism Aluminum immunological funambulism (2) Americium ceramidium ceramidium, paramecium Antimony mountainy Argon sarong Arsenic • canIster Astatine insatiate Barium Umbrian RHD Berkelium tumblerlike W2 tumblerlike W2 Beryllium lumberingly lumberingly Bismuth mintbush W2 mintbush W2 Bohrium bothrium Boron bronco bronco Bromine recombing combiner (I) Cadmium miracidium music-mad W2 (2) Caesium musicale Calcium calumbic aciculum Californium California nutmeg uncomformablility Carbon borchan brochan Cerium muckier muckier Cesium miscued Chlorine cholinergic chronicle (2) Chromium microphthalmus W2 mesorchium (4) Cobalt blackout backlot (I) Columbium columbarium columbarium Copper cropped cropped Curium Urumchi RHD Urumchi RHD Dubnium unimbued Dysprosium praseodymiums praseodymiums Einsteinium diminutiveness diminutiveness Erbium bumpier Europium • Eupatorium W2 (5) promIscuousness Fermium flummeries flummeries Fluorine flouncier Francium microfauna microfauna Gadolinium modularizing OED modularizing OED Gallium mulligan mulligan Germanium organomagnesium RHD spermagonium (3) Gold lodge lodge Hafnium Hahnium Helium Holmium Hydrogen Indium Iodine Iridium Iron loliotium Krypton Kurchatovium Lanthanum Lawrencium Lead Lithium Lutetium Magnesium Manganese Meitnerium Mendelevium Mercury Molybdenum Neodymium Neon Neptunium Nickel Nielsbohrium Niobium Nitrogen Nobelium Osmium Oxygen Palladium Phosphorus Plati num Plutonium Polonium Potassium Praseodymium Promethium Protactinium Radium Radon Rhenium Rhodium Rubidium 24 humification hylocomium greyhound cumidin, Numidia ionized rhipidium • grOin probankruptcy W2 non-Malthusian W2 two-dimensional circuitry SAMS epithelium multitude • gel lIlant u ms managements measurement voltage divider SAMS conumerary W2 uncommendably W2 pyopneumopericardium W2 • pneumopentoneum clinker bituminous stomium exogeny, xylogen Plumatellidae W2 pseudohypertrophies penultima rumelgumption uplooming assumptious W2 praseodidymium helminthosporium remultiplication W2 fluidram Brundisium EB infrahuman (2) humanish W2 thelium hylocomium greyhound cumidin, Numidia ionized rhipidium • groin ??? • • • pyknometer (3) _ ??? non-Malthusian W2 American walnut W2 (10) plead humility (2) multitude • germantums managements immunoreactive measurement voltage divider conumerary W2 uncommendably W2 endomysium (10) xenon unnilpentium (4) clinker hemoglobinurias limnobium (1) orienting columbine stomium exogeny, xylogen ampullariid FW neurohypophysis (4) penultima outmanipulate uplooming assumption (I) praseodidymium thermopolium (4) computerization (\) Mudiria (\) dragon murrhine humidors Brundisium EB Ruthenium Rutherfordium Samarium Scandium Seaborgium Selenium Silicon Silver Sodium Strontium Sulfur Sulphur Tantalum Technetium Tellurium Terbium Thallium Thorium Thulium Tin Titanium Tungsten Unnilhexium Unniloctium Unnilpentium Unnilquadium Unnilseptium Uranium Vanadium Wolfram Xenon Ytterbium Yttrium Zinc Zirconium 2S uintatherium amateurism semilune,.seminule colic ins uromantist W2 furloughs multinational W2 mechanotherapeutic W2 multinuclear limphault W2 mouthier Ultima Thule antirheumatic W2 unsetting lunarium W2 nondesquamative W2 mayflower extension butyrometric ytterbium chintz mercurization uintatherium ??? • • • marasmius (I) muscadine troublemakings semilune, seminule colicins servile podiums uromantist W2, tentoriums unfurls (2) sulphury matutinal (4) catechumenist W2 (5) multinuclear resubmit limphault W2 mouthier multihull (2) • Unit mutilation (3) unsetting ??? • • • multifunction ??? • • • ??? • • • unnilpentiums lunarium W2 avizandum (6) flatworm (I) connex (3) butyrometric maturity (I) zinco (1) computerizing 

Elementary Transadditions

http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5048&context=wordways

Elementary Transadditions

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Digital Commons @ Butler University