A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia, Page 2

MISCELLANY 2 The longest words that are formed only of repetitive identically spelled syllables or syllable groups are BUMPETY-BUMPETY, BUMPITY-BUMPITY, POCKETA-POCKETA (an engine sound, OED), ANTINGANTING (a Philippine charm or amulet), CHIQUICHIQUI (a South American palm), TANGANTANGAN (the castor oil plant), KILLEEKILLEE (W2), CADANG-CADANG (blight of coconut trees), ANGANG-ANGANG (a type of Javanese gong), and TRETRETRETRE (the name Malagasy oral tradition gives to a now extinct giant lemur Megaladapis edwardsi).

Some 10-letter "repeaters" are CHINACHINA, QUINAQUINA (quinine tree). KERRIKERRI (W2), GOODY-GOODY, CHIMACHIMA (a South American hawk), and WALLAWALLA (natives of the Pacific Northwest), BELLABELLA (a native of western Canada), STRUMSTRUM (a crude musical instrument, W3), and NGORONGORO (an extinct volcanic crater in Tanzania).

Some 8-letter "repeaters" are AGAR AGAR, CARACARA, CHOWCHOW, COUSCOUS, FROUFROU, GREEGREE, GUITGUIT, HOTSHOTS, KAVAKAVA, LAVALAVA, BERIBERI, COROCORO, DIVIDIVI (tropical American tree), GRISGRIS (African amulet), KHUSKHUS (Indian grass), KINAKINA, KOUSKOUS, MAHIMAHI (Hawaiian fish), MATAMATA, REWAREWA (New Zealand tree), TUCOTUCO, POOH-POOH, SING SING, KUKUKUKU (the name of a people in eastern New Guinea (W3), CARACARA, GANGGANG, IPILIPIL, KAWAKAWA, KOHEKOHE, LAPULAPU, LOMILOMI (Hawaiian massage), MAKOMAKO (New Zealand wine berry), MURUMURU, PALAPALA (Hawaiian cuneiform writing), PIOUPIOU (French foot soldier), PIRIPIRI, POROPORO, QUIAQUIA (the round scad or cigarfish; a tortoise shell rattle), RIRORIRO, SWEESWEE (North American bird), NONENONE (a chemical with a nine-carbon chain), and YARIYARI (lancewoods), ALLAALLA (Hausa), ARRAARRA (U. S. Indian tribe), OTTOOTTO (8-8 time in music), PEEPPEEP (OED), and TOOTTOOT (OED).

Some 6-letter "repeaters" are ATLATL, BEEBEE, BONBON, BOOBOO, BOUBOU, CANCAN, CHICHI, COOCOO, CUSCUS, DIKDIK, DUMDUM, FURFUR, GRIGRI, GRUGRU, MOTMOT, MURMUR, MUUMUU, PALPAL, PAWPAW, POMPOM, SARSAR, TARTAR, TSETSE, TSKTSK, TZATZA, VALVAL, WEEWEE, DUMDUM, CHOCHO, HUMHUM, JIGJIG, KAIKAI, LABLAB, LOGLOG, MULMUL, PIUPIU, SEMSEM, SESSES, TESTES, TOETOE, TOITOI, TZETZE, ZOOZOO (dove with black collar), BERBER, BULBUL (Persian songbird), CHA-CHA, IHI'IHI, MAU MAU, TAM-TAM (tuned gong),TOM-TOM, TUK-TUK (3-wheeled transport), PIPIPI (a small black Hawaiian bivalve), AKEAKE, DUGDUG, NAGNAG, PIIPII (turkey chick), ULAULA (type of fish).

Some 4-letter "repeaters" are COCO, DODO, GAGA, JUJU, LULU, SO-SO, TUTU.

Place names with this property include: AKA AKA (rural district near Auckland, New Zealand), BADEN-BADEN (in Germany), BELLA BELLA (coastal town in British Columbia, Canada), BORA BORA (an island in French Polynesia), BUBUBUBU (a stream in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), BUDGE BUDGE (a suburb of Calcutta), DUM DUM (another suburb of Calcutta), FOFO FOFO (a town in Papua), GOONOO GOONOO (Australia), GRONG GRONG (a town in Australia), KIRAKIRA (Solomon Islands), KURRI KURRI (Australia), LOMALOMA (Fiji), MITTA MITTA(Australia), NENGONENGO (Fr. Polynesia), NGORO NGORO (a crater in Tanzania), PAGO PAGO (Am. Samoa), PAOPAO (Fr. Polynesia), PUAPUA (W. Samoa), PUEPUE (Solomon Islands), PUKAPUKA (Cook Islands), RABA RABA (Papua New Guinea), REKAREKA (Fr. Polynesia), SAVUSAVU (Fiji), SOMOSOMO (Fiji), WALLA WALLA (U. S.), WALLAN WALLAN (Australia), WAGGA WAGGA (Australia), and WOY WOY (Australia).

Brian Fone writes, "I noted in a quick glance through part of the word oddities site that there were two names of Australian towns i.e. Wagga Wagga and Grong Grong. I have lived or worked in both places. I also lived 10 miles from the town of Kurri Kurri in New South Wales As a matter of interest these names are of Australian Aboriginal derivation and I am told that the doubling of the names means that the subject is multiple -- so that Wagga Waga means 'place of many crows' and Kurri is a kookaburra-- hence.... Grong Grong means 'poor camping ground' and is an exception it seems to the doubling. There is a Mitta Mitta too, 'little waters,' a Walla Walla 'lots of rain' and Wallan Wallan 'circular ground covered with rain water.' And there is also Goonoo Goonoo 'plenty of water."

[The section on repeaters was contributed to by Stuart Kidd, Chris Cole, Jim Lizzi, Milos Chlouba, Juozas Rimas, Mark L. Oxner, Byron Davidson, Pierre Abbat, Jason Leith, Fast Eddie, Mark Milam, John Haddad, Martin Cregg-Guinan, Jeremy Ardley, Willis Johnson, Ivan Zlatarski, Charles Turner, Wojciech Dragan, David Weston, and Brian Fone].

There are many scientific names for which the genus and species are the same; these are called tautonyms. The shortest of these is Loa loa (a species of nematode worm). Long ones are Coccothraustes coccothraustes (the hawfinch) and Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (the yellow-headed blackbird). Some have a third, subspecies, name as well, ranging from Bufo bufo bufo (the European toad) and Naja naja naja (Sri Lankan cobra) to Crossoptilon crossoptilon crossoptilon (the Szechuan white-eared pheasant) [Susan Thorpe, Stuart Kidd, Charles Turner]. According to Charles Turner, the North American Plains or Prairie bison is Bison (Bison) bison bison; the genus, subgenus, species, and sub-species are all the same word.

According to Oscar van Vlijmen, repetition is the normal procedure to form plurals of substantives in the Indonesian language. For example, orang = man, orang orang = men.

Some words containing a sequence of letters repeated are: UNUNUNIUM (provisional name for Element 111), the name LEKKERKERKER, Mohottiwatte GUNANANA (a Buddhist High Priest in the late 1800s), and ZENZIZENZIZENZIC (explained elsewhere on this page) [Pierre Abbat, Dan Tilque, Byron Davidson, James E. F. Landau, Juozas Rimas].

The three-syllable word HIDEOUS, with the change of a single consonant, becomes a two-syllable word with no vowel sounds in common: HIDEOUT [Mark D. Lew].

HIV VIRUS is an obvious redundancy, since the "v" stands for "virus." Some other common redundancies which include an abbreviation are ATM MACHINE, SALT TALKS, START TALKS, VIN NUMBER, PIN NUMBER, AC CURRENT, DC CURRENT, ISBN NUMBER, DOS OPERATING SYSTEM, ABS BRAKING SYSTEM, DIMM MODULE (Dynamic Inline Memory Module), EFT TRANSFER (Electronic Funds Transfer), EMP PULSE (Electromagnetic Pulse), and LCD DISPLAY [Thomas Larson, Nate Roe, Charles Turner, and others].

[The Cyber Stylebook of the San Antonio Express-News states that RIO GRANDE RIVER is a redundancy since Rio means "river." There are numerous similar place names such as Gobi and Sahara deserts and Fujiyama and Sierra mountains; however, these are generally not considered redundancies because they involve two languages.]

HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS is the longest word consisting entirely of alternating vowels and consonants. (For information on this word, see the long words section.) Other such words are ALUMINOSILICATES, CYTOMEGALOVIRUSES, DEPOLARIZABILITY, EPICORACOHUMERALER, HETEROZYGOSISES, HEXOSAMINIDASES, HYPOVITAMINOSISES, ICULANIBOKOLAS (plural of a cannibal fork mentioned in the March 2003 National Geographic), MYELOCYTOMATOSISES PARAMYXOVIRUSES, PARAROSANILINES, PARASITOLOGICAL, SUPEREROGATORILY, TENOSYNOVITIDES, TENOSYNOVITISES, UNIMAGINATIVELY, VERISIMILITUDES [Stuart Kidd, Paul F. Doering, Charles Turner]. An endangered Hawaiian plant, Abutilon eremitopetalum, and a recently extinct burrowing mammal from Madagascar, Malagasy bibymalagasy, alternate vowels and consonants [Charles Turner, Mark Isaak, "Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature"]. LATERAL ALA NASI, defined as "a soft tissue landmark formed by the lateral attachment of the ala nasi (the outer flaring wall of each nostril) with the cheek," appears in Principles and Practices of Radiation Therapy [Charles Turner].

IMMUNOHEMATOLOGIC contains 8 pairs of alternating vowels and consonants.

Some words containing 7 pairs of alternating vowels and consonants are: ALUMINOSILICATE, AUTOMANIPULATIVE, DELIBERATIVENESS, GELATINIZABILITY, HYPEROXYGENIZES, IMAGINATIVENESS, INERADICABILITY, INOPERATIVENESS, MEGALOPOLITANISM, PHENOMENOLOGICAL, PHOTOPOLYMERIZATION, PRECIPITINOGENIC, PREFIGURATIVENESS, REMUNERATIVENESS, SEMIMINERALIZED, UNAPOLOGETICALLY, UNILATERALIZATION, UNILATERALIZES, VERISIMILITUDINOUS [Nelson H. F. Beebe].

Craig Kasper says GORAN IVANESEVIC (a top tennis player) may be the longest name of a relatively famous person that alternates consonants and vowels.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES is the longest name of a country consisting of alternating vowels and consonants.

Other place names consisting of alternating vowels and consonants include GULEMALAMALALANA Point in Papua New Guinea, REBUREBUSIWASIWA (a Papuan town), KAWAKAWAMALAMALA (a Fijian stream), and PROMYSEL IMENI NARIMANOVA (a village in Azerbaijian) [Juozas Rimas].

Juozas Rimas reports that Fijian streams NAIVUTUVUTUNIVAKALOLO and NONDRAISILISILINAYALEWATONGA have even longer sequences of alternating vowels and consonants (19 and 20) but the sequences constitute only part of the words.

Some Japanese place names with alternating vowels and consonants include: KAKINOKIZAKA (district in Meguro, Tokyo), KASUMIGASEKI (district in Chiyoda, Tokyo), and TAKADANOBABA (district in Shinjuku, Tokyo). These spellings use the widely-recognized Hepburn system for the Romanized alphabet version of Japanese words. In this system, all Japanese ideographic and phonetic characters can be represented by a "vowel-only" or "consonant(sound)-vowel" combination [Joseph Hernandez].

The earliest known appearance of the word HELLO in print is in a letter written by Thomas Edison dated August 15, 1877. In the letter, addressed to T. B. A. David, president of Central District and Printing Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, Edison suggested that the word should be used to answer the telephone. HELLO is an alteration of the much older word HOLLO.

HYPoThAlAmICoHYPoPHYSeAlS is the longest word that can be spelled using chemical symbols. Other such words include NONRePReSeNTaTiONAlISmS, BrONCHOEsOPHAgOSCOPIEs, ThErMoPHOSPHOReSCeNCe, HYPSIBRaCHYCePHAlISm, HYPErPHOSPHOReSCeNCe, SUPErCoNdUCTiVITiEs, PARaPrOFeSSiONaLS, and SUPErSOPHISTiCAtE [Stuart Kidd]. IrReSPONSiBILiTiEs reuses no element’s symbol [Mike Keith]. PrAcTiCaLiTiEs may be the longest word using only two-letter abbreviations, or PaRaCrOsTiCs if no elements are repeated [Richard Sabey].

HYDROXYZINE (a prescription drug) is the only word in RHUD2, OED2, and W3 containing XYZ. Allowing scientific names in biology, there is XYZZORS (a nematode worm) [Stuart Kidd]. XYZAL (Levocetirizine) is a prescription drug introduced in England in 2001 [Dennis Miller].

The most commonly used words in spoken English are I, YOU, THE, and A.

The most commonly used words in written English, according to the 1971 American Heritage Word Frequency Book are: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, for, was, on, are, as, with, his, they at, be, this, from, I, have, or, by, one, had, not, but, what, all, were, when, we there, can, an, your, which, their, said, if, do.

The most commonly occurring words in Shakespeare's plays and poetry (with frequencies) are: the 29854, and 27554, I 23357, to 21075, of 18520, a 15523, you 14264, my 12964, that 11955, in 11842, is 9734, not 8871, with 8269, s 8160, for 8100, it 8080, me 8059, 7357 his, 7228 be, 7120 he. In Shakespeare, 8598 words (abaissiez, abash, abatements, abates, abbeys, ..., zo, zodiac, zodiacs, zone, zwaggered) are used only once [Nelson H. F. Beebe].

The most commonly occurring sound in spoken English is the sound of a in alone, followed by e as in key, t as in top, and d as in dip [Stuart Kidd].

Some words with horizontal symmetry (they reflect themselves across a horizontal line) are: BEDECKED, BOOHOOED, CEBID (a type of monkey), CHECKBOOK, CHOICE, CODEBOOK, COOKBOOK, DECIDED, DIOXIDE, DOBCHICK, EXCEEDED, HIDE, HOODOOED, ICEBOX, KEBOBBED, OBOE, OKEECHOBEE.

Some words with vertical symmetry are MOM, WOW, OTTO, MAAM, MA'AM, TOOT, AHA, AA, AHA, AIA, AMA, AVA, AWA, HAH, HOH, HUH, MAM, MIM, MM, MUM, OHO, OO, OXO, TAT, TIT, TOT, TUT, UTU, VAV, WAW.

All of the letters of these words have vertical symmetry: AUTOMATA, AUTOTOMY, HIMATIA, HOITY-TOITY, HOMOTAXIA, MAHATMA, MAHIMAHI, MAMMATI, MAMMOTH, MATAMATA, MOTIVITY, MOUTH-TO-MOUTH, MYOMATA, MYXOMATA, OUTWAIT, TATOUAY, TAXIWAY, THATAWAY, TIMOTHY, TOMATO, TOWAWAY, WITHOUT, YAWATAHAMA (a city in Japan), and YOUTH.

Upper case BID is horizontally reflective while lower case bid is vertically reflective [Hugo Brandt Corstius].

SWIMS has 180-degree rotational symmetry. If written in lower-case cursive, chump comes very close to having 180-degree rotational symmetry [Mark D. Lew].

These words with 6 or more letters have all letters rotationally symmetrical: NINONS, ONIONS, SISSOOS, SOZINS, ZOONOSIS, ZOOZOOS.

All of the letters of these words have both horizontal and vertical symmetry: HI, OH, IO, OHIO, OHO, and IHI'IHI (rare Hawaiian fern that now exists only in three populations, two of which are inside volcanoes) [Bruce D. Wilner, Dan Tilque, Mike Turniansky].

IFF is a word invented to mean "if and only if." According to MWCD10, it can be pronounced three ways: "if and only if," like "if," and like "if" but with a prolonged "F." There are 118 conjunctions in MWCD10; IFF is the only "new" conjunction, first seen in print in 1955.

The following words have 75% of their letters the same: IIWI (a Hawaiian bird), BIBB, FAFF, LALL, LILL, LOLL, LULL, MUMM, SASS, SESS, SISS, SOSS, TATT, ZIZZ, ÉPÉE (a fencing sword), and SUSS ("Suss out" is British slang for "figure out") [Byron Davidson, Daniel Steinberg, Philip Bennett].

IMPETICOS is an example of a nonce word (a word which has been found to have been used only once). The word is spoken by the clown in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. W2 says perhaps it means "impocket."

INTERCHANGEABILITY contains the words THREE, EIGHT, NINE, TEN, THIRTEEN, THIRTY, THIRTY-NINE, EIGHTY, EIGHTY-NINE, NINETY, and NINETY-EIGHT [Stuart Kidd].

INTESTINES has each of its letters occurring twice. Some other such words: ANTIPERSPIRANTES, APPEASES, ARRAIGNING, BERIBERI, BILABIAL, CAUCASUS, CHOWCHOW, CICADELLIDAE, CONCISIONS, COUSCOUS, ESOPHAGOGRAPHERS, FROUFROU, GENSENGS, GREEGREE, GUITGUIT, HAPPENCHANCE, HORSESHOER, HOTSHOTS, INACCIDENTATED, JIPIJAPA, MAHIMAHI, MESOSOME, MILLIEME, MIMETITE, RAPPAREE, REAPPEAR, SCINTILLESCENT, SHAMMASH, SHANGHAIINGS, SIGNINGS, TAENIODONTIDAE, TEAMMATE, UNSUFFICIENCES, VETITIVE [Pierre Abbat, Stuart Kidd, Philip C. Bennett, Charles Turner].

The shortest word with six letters appearing at least twice is METASOMATOSES [Stuart Kidd].

IO (an interjection in Chambers and one of the moons of Jupiter), AI (the three-toed sloth), EO, OK, and AA (rough volcanic rock) seem to be the shortest two-syllable words.

IRAQ is one of the very few words ending in Q. Obscure words ending in Q are: SHOQ, PONTACQ, INUPIAQ (an Eskimo people), SUQ, ZAQAZIQ (or ZAGAZIG, a city in Egypt), ZIA-UL-HAQ (a proper name), and N'ASTALIQ. Chambers has TALAQ and TZADDIQ (which can also be spelled TSADDIQ). OSPD has TRANQ although this word is not in W2 or W3. KANGIQSUALUJJUAQ is an Inuit village in Quebec. KUUJJUAQ is a Canadian city. UMIAQ is apparently a variant spellling of UMIAK, an Eskimo boat, which is in W2 and W3.) SADIQ is a city in India. ABQAIQ is a city in Saudi Arabia [Dave Baker].

KÄRNTEN (one of the states of Austria) has 8 pairs of alternating dits and dahs in Morse code (-.- .-.- .-. -. - . -.) [Pierre Abbat]. A Finnish word for "focusing" has a total of 18 alternating dits and dahs: TARKENTAEN (-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.) [Pertti Malo].

A Finnish tongue twister for "a water devil hissed in the elevator" has 56 dits in a row in Morse code. It has a total of 60 dits and 3 dahs which is the greatest ratio (20:1) known in any mix. VESIHIISI SIHISI HISSISSÄ (...-........................................................-.-) [Pertti Malo].

MOTMOT (a tropical American bird) and TOM-TOM (ignoring the hyphen) contain only dahs in Morse code (-- --- - -- --- -) and (- --- -- - --- --) [Chris Cole, Byron Davidson].

SHEESHES (plural of SHEESH) may be the longest word containing only dits in Morse code (... .... . . ... .... . ...) [Byron Davidson].

In English, ignoring spaces, the longest palindrome in Morse code is INTRANSIGENCE (..-.-.-..- -......- -..-.-.-..) [Chris Cole]. If spaces are not ignored, the longest word is FOOTSTOOL [Andrew Dart]. The Finnish word for "stereo mapping" is even longer with 33 characters: STEREOKARTOITUS (...-..-..----.-.-.-.----..-..-...) [Pertti Malo].