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248A NEW 100-LETTER WORD SQUARE

DMITRI A. BORGMANNDayton, WashingtonSince m y f i r s t repor t on the at tempt to const ruct a modern tautonymic lOx 10 wo rd square , Dar ry l H. Francis and I have continued towork on the projec t , and we a re happy to repor t a second solution tothe problem. The new word square overcomes all of the esthet ic ob

jec t ions leveled agains t our f i r s t effort , and exhibits other improvemen t s as well :( 1) Of the words in the square , 60 % a re recognizable at sight as

being English(2) The square employs five different words , each appearing twicehorizontal ly and twice vert ical ly(3) All of the sources a re works published within the pas t five years ,making the square as cur ren t as is humanly possible(4) The five words are taken from five different sources( 5) All five words a re independent t e rms . as contrasted with a wordthat appear s only as par t of a two-word t e rm(6) Proper nouns have been excluded, and the square consis ts ent i re lyof English words

(7) Instead of being exclusively hyphenated words , the t e rms displaya pleasing variety of 11 internal l l punctuationHere is the unique word square that has emerged from our jointl abors :

R A B B I R A B B IA S A I L A S A I LB A S S A B A S S AB I S 0 N B I S 0 NI L A N G I L A N GR A B B I R A B B IA S A I L A S A I LB A S S A B A S S AB I S 0 N B I S 0 NI L A N G I L A N G

An in teres t ing fact is that not even one of the five words in our newsquare appears in our f i r s t one.

Definit ions and sources for the five words , l i s ted alphabetical ly,a re given below.A SAIL! A SAIL I - - Famil iar Quotations by John Bart let t , 14th Edit ion.

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249Revised and Enlarged. published by Lit t le , Brown and Company (Boston and Tor onto, 1968). The quotation including our tautonym Is fromThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coler idge, probably his greates t poeHc work. The following l ines appear in Par t Ill ,Stanza 4:

I bi t my a r m , I sucked the blood,And cr ied , A sai l! a sai l !BASSA-BASSA - - Notes for a Glossary of Words and Phrases of Barbadian Dialect by Frank A. Collymore, published by Advocate Company ( Bridgetown, Barbados , 1970). This glossary defines BASSABASSA as genera l confusion, noise , and, in some cases , exchange ofblows. II Boy, when the spree over , we going make basaa -bassa . 1IThe origin of the word i s obscure , possibly an importa t ion f rom Trinidad. For those who might argue that the dialect of Barbados l ies outside t h pale of English, we must point out that Barbados , an islandin the Lesse r Antil les of the West Indies , was a Bri t i sh po ssess ionfrom 1605 to 1966, and is now a member of the (Bri t ish) Commonwe alth of Nation s , in the same way a s a re Canada I Aust r ali a , NewZealand, and the United Kingdom i tself . The 1973 Edit ion of TheOfficial Associated Pres s Almanac call s Barbados 11 perhaps evenmore Bri t ish than Bri ta in ll English is the official and universa l language of the is land.BISON BISON - - The American Heri tage Dictionary of the EnglishLangua ge edi te d by William Mo r ri s , pubH she d jointly by Ame r ic anHeritage Publishing Company, Inc. , and Houghton Mifflin Company(Boston; New York; Atlanta; Geneva, l l l ionis; Dal las ; Palo Alto,California, 1971). BISON BISON is the scientif ic (genus + species)name for the bison, a hoofed animal of western North America ( seedefinition of I I bison l t ) ILANG-ILANG - - The World Book Dictionary edited by Clarerce L.Ba r nha r t , a Thorndike - Bar nhart Di aHo nary publi she d -exclu 5 ively fo rField Enterpr ises Educational Corporat ion (Chicago. London. Rome,Stockholm. Sydney, Toronto. 1968). This is a vari.ant spell ing ofYLANG- YLANG. a t ree native to the Phillippine s , Java . and India .having frag rant , drooping, gr e e ni sh- yellow flo we r s .RABBI, RABBI - - The New Te stament and the Book of Psa l m s , KingJames Version, published by the American Bible Society (New York,1972). In the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Chapter 23, Verse7 reads as follows:

And greet ings in the marke t s ,and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.May we feel that this gives our word square divine sanct ion?

Pe r f e ctlon in 10golo gy J a s in othe r fields of human e ndeavo r , isimpossible to attain. The edit or contends that the two phrasesA SAIL! A SAIL! and RABBI, RABBI, although appear ing in l i t e ra ry

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250works of unchallenged mer i t , can not be found as entries in any Engl i sh- language dic t ionary. Neverthele s s , we feel that a logologicalpro j e c t , launc he d with a specific goal in view. ha s be en brought to areasonably successful conclusion.

Yet, every end is only a beginning. What reader of Word Wayswill have the courage to embark on the next s tep , the construct ion ofa 12 x 12 tautonymic word square , using six different words , eachone appear ing t ~ i c e horizontal ly and twice vert ical ly? You, perhaps?

PALINDROMIC PUBLICITY1973 has been a vintage year for the pal indrome aficionado.In addition to being featured in Bergerson ' s Pal indromesand Anagram s ( reviewed e lsewhere in this i ssue) , palind romes have been the subject of ar t ic les by Michael Gar tnerin the Wall Street Journal (March 7 and Apri l 3) , and by JohnCiardi in the World Magazine , l a t e r merged with the SaturdayReview ( May 22, September 25, and October 9). Both author scomplained in their init ial art ic le s about the paucity of palindromic specimens , citing l ess than a dozen apiece , most ofthe.m well-known to Word Ways readers (though II M, ALAS,SALAMI and CAMUS SA W I WAS SUMAC m ay be new). Pre -dictably , both authors were inundated with mai l f rom p a l indrome addicts pointing out the full Gowering of this l i t e ra tu re ,necess i ta t ing follow-up ar t ic les .Gar tner comments that a surpr is ing number of pal indromeshave to do with sex, Both he and Ciardi quote the shor t butuncommonly fine pal indrome SEX AT NOON TAXES. Nodoubt this has been independently discovered by many people(Dmi t r i Borgmann cla ims to have noticed i t ten or fifteenye ar sago ) J but can anyone cite a pri nte d r efe rene e pr io r toJanuary 14, 1973? Pal indromic personal name s m ay be morecommon than pr e viousl y suspe ete d; Car tne r r e po r te d Leon W.Noel , Neil Lien , and the double pal indrome Bob Notton.

A LOGOLOGICAL VICTORYT he London Times of May 5. 1973 repor ted that the l i t t le ra i l -road station with the longe st name in the world, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll11antysil iogogogoeh, Angle sey,was reopened the day before . I t was a t r iumph for Aethwyru r a l council , which had pressed for i ts reopening ever sinceit was closed by the Beeching axe . Besides i ts great length( 58 letters.) , the name is logologically unusual in that i t conta ins fou r LIS in sue ce s sion.