Has anyone figured it out yet?

Three of them have seven letters, with a consonant repeated in the middle. I can't make a "theme" out of that.

seven-letter words: orotund, trunnel, draggle, pinnate
-ron o.

Four letter, Anglo-Saxon monosyllables could make a theme.
But not here. Seventh sons of seventh sons are special,
but what's special about seven letter words?

I sent in on Monday a guess that it was going to be words that become other words with a letter added on to the beginning.

Dear Jackie: Or to say it Wordsmith's way, they are words
that when beheaded yield a new word. Never occurred to me.

I never heard of "raggle" before, but here it is:
Raggle - A groove that is cut into the side of a vertical surface such as a wall or chimney that is used to insert a flashing element such as a reglet or counterflashing.

Oh, hey, thanks--when I saw draggled, I was sure my guess was (as usual) wrong.

Jackie,

Cheers on your step toward AWAD immortality -- I'll look for you in the next issue of AWADmail.

AWAD immortality [snort] We shall see. I really kind of hope I'm wrong, or that for whatever reason he doesn't put my name there (I only wrote out of excitement--I love this sort of thing), 'cause he always puts the addresses. Oh, well. If it happens, I hope I don't get any more unsolicited offers of marriage, like last time. (I think someone wanted out of his country.)

I never heard of 'reglet' before either:
Reglet
(n.) A flat, narrow molding, used chiefly to separate the parts or members of compartments or panels from one another, or doubled, turned, and interlaced so as to form knots, frets, or other ornaments. See Illust. (12) of Column.
(n.) A strip of wood or metal of the height of a quadrat, used for regulating the space between pages in a chase, and also for spacing out title-pages and other open matter. It is graded to different sizes, and designated by the name of the type that it matches; as, nonpareil reglet, pica reglet, and the like.

And what is a 'chase' in book making?

Definition of "quadrat":
Quadrat
(n.) A block of type metal lower than the letters, -- used in spacing and in blank lines.
(n.) An old instrument used for taking altitudes; -- called also geometrical square, and line of shadows.

I found a glossary of printing terms, but it didn't have "chase":
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~typo/glossary/theme-h.htm

reglet

does this mean there's a big reg?

Whew, I see I'm not immortal! I think mine fell under the almost-got-it-right category. Here's what I sent:
"Ooh, ooh, I love this!

"Words that are words but can become other words when a letter is added to the beginning"!
(rotund---> orotund)

Oh, how awkward that was, but I don't care! Can't wait to find out the theme! :-)"

When the last word came 'round, I sent him:

"If beheading is what you call it when you take a letter away from the beginning of a word to make another word, what do you call it when you add a letter at the beginning to make another word? :-))"

No answer.

I found a site about "chase" the wooden frame in which type
was placed and locked, prior to printing in the old days.
Here's a picture, scroll down half way:
http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:6wXjdT6-IYgJ:www.balanceresearch.com/museum/gallery/typset01/enlarg01.htm+typesetting+chase&hl=en&ie=UTF-8