I've posted this question on another site and it seems to be going over well so maybe you'll enjoy it.
There are not many words in the English language, 4 letters or longer, where one letter makes up more than 50% of the word. Examples include mummy, fluff, muu-muu, puppy, and the like. The question: What is the L-O-N-G-E-S-T word you can think of that fits this bill?
Rules:
1. No proper names ("Alabama" doesn't make it)
2. No interjections ("Oooof!" and "Ahaaa!" are likewise out) and
3. Most importantly, while it is probably possible to key in a dozen or so keystrokes and have a list of applicable words spit out in five seconds, the final rule is "Grey matter only, please!"
I've got a 7-letter and a 9-letter example and someone on the other site came up with another 9-letter word (with, in this case, one letter repeated 5 times) though I'm sure there must be more.
Happy pondering!
One who murders by surprise attack.... sniper?
How about ASSASSINS?
Interesting word derivation for assassin...
Word History: At first glance, one would be hard-pressed to find a link between pleasure and the acts of assassins. Such was not the case, however, with those who gave us the word assassin. They were members of a secret Islamic order originating in the 11th century who believed it was a religious duty to harass and murder their enemies. The most important members of the order were those who actually did the killing. Having been promised paradise in return for dying in action, the killers, it is said, were made to yearn for paradise by being given a life of pleasure that included the use of hashish. From this came the name for the secret order as a whole, an, “hashish users.” After passing through French or Italian, the word came into English and is recorded in 1603 with reference to the Muslim Assassins.
Definition courtesy of Dictionary.com
How about a whole sentence with more than 50% one letter?
Assassins possess assets. (12 esses, 10 other)
Ver-r-r-ry impressive, B.B.! I came up with an 11-letter word but it's a bit on the bogus side:
Over time, many of my friends have grown a bit in the buttocks department but I have remained ASSLESS for the most part. Some of my friends are openly envious of my relative ASSLESSNESS but what can I say?
(told you it was bogus...)
Plus, now that I think of it, you could expand your excellent sentence to:
Sissy assassins possess sassy assets
although you could easily argue that this would be a prime example of the paradox of making less of something by adding to it.
Swiss assassins possess assets. 15/12 ratio
Argh.
You posted while I was composing:
Sassy, sissy swiss assassins possess suss assets.
24/17
Try saying that 5 times quickly... True tongue twister material to rival:
she sells sea shells by the seashore
Are you sure it's as bogus as all that? I seem to recall the Old Lady, in the Bernstein musical Candide, singing about being "...and repeatedly stripped, and I'm missing the half of my backside." Shouldn't that qualify?
No, wofa - she was only half-arsed.
edit: Great minds, shona!
"I'm missing the half of my backside"But if you'll excuse me saying so, that's a
half-arsed solution, wofa.
Over this side of the Pond being "assless" would be lacking a donkey. Which actually could make more sense, come to think of it.
"He would have worked on the beach selling donkey rides but for his asslessness".
Edit: Snap, Rhuby!
The word that began me thinking on this subject has a majority of a letter you wouldn't think would make up more than 50% of any word - the letter "Z." It's not a huge word but an accepted alternative spelling (one I refuse to use, natch) has an even 50% Z's.
I'll close out this thread in a day or two assuming that my Z word is not much of a stumper. "Possesses," at 9 letters, is another goodie. Any others?
I never miss "LAST CALL" pour me a glogg please, and I hope it's a freebee.
A few more: mummy, eerie, booboo, voodoo, added, referee, peeve, daddled, daddy, error, fluff, gagging, gigging, levee, muumuu, nanny, ovolo, peppy, assists, rarer, teepee, emeer
pour me a glogg please
It doesn't quite fit the original greater-than-50% stipulation, so maybe we could devise a "recurrent letter index," which normalizes the percentage by dividing it by the square root of the total length of the word (or something like that). In which case
Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (Webster Lake to you)
has to be in the running for top honors (seventeen Gs out of 50 total letters) !
When I was a kid, my cousins' family vacationed at that lake and brought back a souvenir ashtray featuring that bizarre name. It never failed to fascinate me. Over the years I have often been inspired to attempt to compose a love song featuring that mysterious locale, something along the lines of "Underneath the Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamauggian Moon" but somehow was never able to crank out a suitable effort. After all, what rhymes with Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg??
(Bet the spell-check is going to gag on this one...)
And, yes, "pizzazz" was the word that originally starting me thinking about similar "50%+" words.
(Suspicions confirmed. Instead of Chargoggagogg... (etc.) the spell check suggests that maybe the word I'm searching for is "chariot." A bit of a stretch, what? And the suggested correct spelling of "pizzazz" is "placard"??
the suggested correct spelling of "pizzazz" is "placard"
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Ænigma.
when it can't find a word that's close goes to the next one alphabetically that is in its data base.
It doesn't even bother looking for anything close. It just picks the next one in its list. And, except for standards such as doesn't, it doesn't like apostrophes at all.
I didn't know that! I haven't ever used it because I'm a good enough speller and I know that people are generally tolerant of my typos (heck even my NAME'S a typo!) My most common typo is int he present sentence.
heck even my NAME'S a typo!)I've always wondered about that. I tend to mentally yell your first name, because of those two capital letters. It's actually quite unsettling, all this mental yelling, and I've been here for almost two years - you'd think I'd be used to it!
I tend to mentally yell your first name Oh, Bean, how funny! You kill me!
A few more: mummy, eerie, booboo, voodoo, added, referee, peeve, daddled....
Please, what does "daddled" mean?!
re:what does "daddled" mean?!
just a guess, but it think it is a nonsense word --something like dilly- dally, (past tense of dilly dally?)
she diddled and daddled and was late to school.
I got this from a google hit:
Dadle \Dad"le\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Daddled, p. pr. & vb. n.
Daddling.] [Prob. freq. of dade.]
To toddle; to walk unsteadily, like a child or an old man;
hence, to do anything slowly or feebly.
I think daddled should be descriptive of a male parent by his progeny, a blending of dad and addled. "My old man, he is SO like daddled."