The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-05-03
WORD ODDITIES.
Some Interesting curiositiss Of ths
English Language.

rioSitieS or Mother English.
Observation-Disclosures is rath'
er long word, You cannot find II IN
the dictionary, but you will find II used
In Shakespeare and some OF the other
early English writers,
The word Is meaningless. The only
interesting point about 1t Is Its length,
Twenty-seven letters In a breath are
quite a few But our dictionary gives
some almost as long-for instance. the
following two Of twenty-four letters
each:
Observation-Disclosures
Inanthropomorphisab
Here are some OF the other boa con.
strictors
Twenty-three letters:
proportionablenesses
Twenty-Five:
Intcrcommunicabilities
Twenty-one:
1nterconvertibillties.
Twenty;
Histomorphologically.
nterdifterentiation.
Supersensitivenesses
Hypersensitivenesses
II Is safe to say that the ordinary
reader would not rua on to one OF
these In a hundred years, and IL he did
he would run the other way.
1t is interesting to know that the
entire alphabet can be arranged In one
Ineligible sentence without the repe-
tition of a single letter-just twenty
six letters In the following sentence,
and no two alike:
]. Q. vandz struck my big fox whelp.
That simple sentence Is the hardest
possible one to write on the typewriter.
So many Of the letters In the alphabet
are used so seldom that even a good
typist has to study out the combina.
ton before finding some Of them. This
sentence is the only known one that
contains every letter In the alphabet
but once and makes sense.
Another interesting word group In
which the entire alphabet Is put into
seven words and only thirty-two let
ters are used is: Burst, fed, jingle,
quip, vim, hack, zyxomma." This Is
the smallest number OF words that the
alphabet can be included In.
Two ineligible sentences, however,
Of eight words and thirty-two letters
apiece have been found, They are:
Quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Pack my box with Ave dozen liquor jugs
The first sentence is often used In
testing the types on typewriters on ac'
count of the shortness and the fact
that It includes every letter and has the
advantage of making sense.
Here is a list of the longest mono
syllables in English:
Seven letters, through; eight letters,
strength, thoughts, starched, thrilled,
straight, squalled, schnapps; nine let.
ters, strengths, squelched, scratched
splotched, stretched.
Probably the most interesting word
curiosity is the one made up OF the
greatest number Of other words In the
regular sequence. That word Is in
discrimination. In-discr rim in -at-i-on
contains seven words and is only six.
teen letters long. That Is allowing q
fraction more than two letters to each
word, and only one word is repeated.
Here are two that have six separate
words within the one:
Ass-ass-in s-in-at-i-on-
Assassination.
In-fin-it-at-i-on-
Infnitation.
There do not seem to be any that can
be split up into five sensible parts, but
here are several quads:
In-sat-i-ate-
Insatiate.
ASS ss-sin-ate--
Assasslnate.
Investigate
Investigate.
Initiate
Initiate.
Two three-part words that make
sense when the parts are taken sepa'
rately are:
Together
Together
In-no-cent-
Innocent.
The dictionary is full of funny and
curious things. This is only small
part of the unusual things that you
can find out about words in an hours
perusal Of the most wordy book in the
English language.-New York Press.
TIE wiadana rs FNnaPianaa