AWADmail Issue 91
                         Jun 17, 2003

       A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
      and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages

--------------------------------

What's common among the five words: 
extemporize, impresario, macroscopic, postdiluvian, and plausive. 

ANSWER: 
Each of these words employs all fingers of both the hands at least once to type
it on a standard qwerty keyboard. Go ahead, try them out.

Some interesting facts about words in this category:

o Only about two of every 1000 words in the English language fulfill this
  criterion (0.2%).

o Each word has to have a `p' since that's the only letter typed with the
  right pinkie.

o The word "plausive" was the only one last week where each finger was used
  once and only once. Here are other words in that category:

   impalers (those who pierce)
   impearls (forms into pearls or adorns with pearls)
   lempiras (plural of lempira, a monetary unit of Honduras)
   meropias (plural of meropia, a term for partial blindness)
   piroques (canoes)
   spicular (having a needle-like structure)
   spirulae (plural of spirula, a type of mollusk)

Now's the time for readers' solutions. An honorable mention goes to the
following reader for what she called "A Stately Solution". Read on for others.

Each word contains the abbreviation of a state -- forwards and backwards --
of the United States.
* extemporize: RI--Rhode Island, TX--Texas
* impresario: AR--Arkansas, MI--Michigan
* macroscopic: SC--South Carolina, OR--Oregon
* postdiluvian: IL--Illinois, ID--Idaho
* plausive: LA--Louisiana, AL--Alabama

All words have exactly one "decliner" (letter that drops below the writing
line), a "p" in them.

This week's words are all related to "Present Day World Leadership".

My Third and Fourth graders have been following this week's words with
interest and have come up with the following ideas for the mystery theme:
"They all have `S's (Ashlee), They all have `I's and `P's (Connor), They
are all made up of smaller words (Jared), It has something to do with the
meaning (Robbie)."

I think I have this weeks theme: The Grateful Dead. Each word seems to
compliment the band in some form.

I would say that all the words have a common thread of expression outside
the bounds of the usual, or at least outside the private into public realm.

Might the theme be "management styles?" I think I've worked for someone with
each of these styles!

Did the Tony Awards inspire a week of words related to theatrical
performances?

Extemporize, impresario, macroscopic, postdiluvian, plausive are all
words used by James Joyce.

My NYU student and I are having fun trying to guess this week's theme.
His guess is: words that sound great when pronounced with a lisp.

I give up. How about 'words that don't have anything to do with one another'?

............................................................................

He that uses many words for explaining any subject, doth, like the
cuttlefish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink. -John Ray,
naturalist (1627-1705)

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