Wordsmith.org
Posted By: 109cita -gry - 03/15/00 08:06 PM
Okay, we've mostly all gotten that email that's passing around. I've seen it several times over the years. So what is the third word that ends with GRY? *grrrr*

<font color=bagbag face=arial size=3>109CITA
Poet at large</font>
Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: -gry - 03/15/00 09:08 PM
The E-mail you refer to has misstated an old riddle, and in the process the entire point/trick was lost. The correct wording would be: "Angry and hungry both end in -gry. What's the third word in the English language?" Answer: language.
(I think I learned this, in fact, from A.W.A.D. itself, bless its heart.)

Posted By: whalemeat Re: -gry - 03/16/00 05:12 AM
the 3rd word besides angry and hungry is in fact 'gry' that is, it both starts and ends with the same three letters. It means the dirt that collects under fingernails.

Posted By: sholmes Re: -gry - 03/17/00 06:16 PM
Hmm. I was told at one point some years ago that the answer was 'agry', which was supposedly a small smooth stone. I think it came from the OED.

Posted By: cadaver Re: -gry - 03/17/00 07:50 PM
This is a cut and paste from the OED.
gry , sb. Obs.

a. L. gry (in Plautus Most. i. iii. 67 where recent edd. have gru), a. Gr. gru occurring in
the phrase oude gru, and explained by the lexicographers as meaning (1) the grunt of a pig, (2) the
dirt under the nail; hence the veriest trifle.
The smallest unit in Locke's proposed decimal system of linear measurement, being the tenth of a
line, the hundredth of an inch, and the thousandth of a ('philosophical') foot.
Also means "to roar".

Posted By: scoutmd Re: -gry - 03/20/00 04:30 AM
There are actually several words that end in -gry. The best discussion of this mis-stated riddle and the other words that end in -gry is at the Internet Public Library:
http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/FARQ/gryFARQ.html

© Wordsmith.org