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#191 - 03/15/00 03:06 PM -gry
109cita Offline
stranger

Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 2
Loc: Florida, by the beach
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>
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109CITA
Poet at large

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#192 - 03/15/00 04:08 PM Re: -gry
AnnaStrophic Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 6511
Loc: lower upstate New York
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.)


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#193 - 03/16/00 12:12 AM Re: -gry
whalemeat Offline
stranger

Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 14
Loc: sydney australia
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.


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#194 - 03/17/00 01:16 PM Re: -gry
sholmes Offline
stranger

Registered: 03/17/00
Posts: 6
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.


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#195 - 03/17/00 02:50 PM Re: -gry
cadaver Offline
stranger

Registered: 03/17/00
Posts: 23
Loc: Ohio USA
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".


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#196 - 03/19/00 11:30 PM Re: -gry
scoutmd Offline
stranger

Registered: 03/14/00
Posts: 2
Loc: Illinois, USA
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


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