Talk:Kangaroo word

message: There [ are currently] 122 words on the list of "Examples of kangaroo words". I do not think that this list belongs here. Note:
*It is much too long a list already.
*Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information.
*If the plan is to include all kangaroo words on the list, the list will be unmanageably long; if not, why not?
*"As a basic principle, you should avoid list-making in entries [i.e., articles]." —from Wikipedia:Embedded list#Lists_within_articles
*"Some Wikipedians feel that some topics are unsuitable by virtue of the nature of the topic. They feel that some topics are trivial, non-encyclopedic, or not related to human knowledge. If you create a list like the 'list of shades of colours of apple sauce', be prepared to explain why you feel this list contributes to the state of human knowledge." —from Wikipedia:Lists (stand-alone lists)#Appropriate_topics_for_lists
See also Wikipedia:Listcruft. I recommend having approximately four examples from English and approximately one each from approximately two other languages (see WP:BIAS), just to show how it's done. if there is, somewhere on the Web, a list of kangaroo words (as I suspect there is), then by all means link to it in an external links section.
Just my two cents.—msh210℠ 21:29, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have extensively edited the list to leave at least 3 examples for each set of criteria. Cricketgirl 23:08, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Examples section too large

message: I've just done a reformat on the list, to remove MiXEd cAsE, SIncE iT SlOwS dOwN rEaDiNg. The list now uses colors and typographic emphasis to mark parasite words. A "side-effect" of this change is that it is now possible to properly handle grand kangaroo words (such as frangible). Unfortunately this had another side effect of making the code (but not the rendered list) less readable, as the new list uses Wikiformatting extensively. Please post your opinions.--NetRolller 3D 11:04, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: great work on the revision!! Powerslide 05:41, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  List rewritten to be more readable 

message: A Word A Day  had this definition of a kangaroo word:
: Rather these are marsupial words that carry smaller versions of themselves within their spellings. So "respite" has "rest", "splotch" has "spot", "instructor" has "tutor", and "curtail" has "cut". Sometimes a kangaroo word has two joeys: "feasted" has a pair, "fed" and "ate". Finally, two qualifications: the joey word has to have its letters in order within the parent kangaroo word, but if all the letters are adjacent, e.g. enjoy/joy, it doesn't qualify.
It appears that this last criterion has been lost in translation somewhere along the line.  Somebody else came up with this explanation of the term :
: "My 8th grade English teacher called them kangaroo words because by jumping on some letters and skipping others, in the order they appear in the word."
I can see three possibilities:
# AWAD's definition is the correct one, and the criterion of non-consecutive letters has been dropped somewhere
# the original definition was to the effect of "not necessarily consecutive", but the "necessarily" got lost somewhere to produce the definition AWAD used (and I've ever since believed to be correct)
# the term was coined independently by two different people with these slightly different meanings
Can anybody give a clue as to which has happened?  The article certainly should at least address the more specific definition. -- Smjg 13:26, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Definition 

message: For example, the F500 company "Leidos, Inc." gets its name from the middle segment of the work kaLEIDOScope. LemonPumpkin (talk) 00:24, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  What about kangaroo words that aren't synonymous?