Until recently I didn’t realize that “assesses” is, with eight letters, the longest English word that contains just a single consonant, albeit one that appears four times. Nor was I aware that “bookkeeper” is the only common word in the English language with three consecutive pairs of double letters.
There’s plenty more delightful word trivia where that came from. For instance, the two longest words whose letters all appear in alphabetical order are “billowy” and “beefily.” Conversely, “sponged” and “wronged” are the two longest words with all their letters in reverse alphabetical order.
The shortest word containing all five vowels in alphabetical sequence is “facetious,” while the shortest one containing each of the five vowels in reverse order, with each appearing only once, is “unnoticeably.”
“Redivider” is the longest palindromic word in the English language.
“Overstuffed” and “understudy” each contain four consecutive letters (RSTU) in alphabetical order.
Lederer isn’t just a wordsmith; he’s a lettersmith as well. Who else would point out that H, I, O, and X are the only letters that look the same when seen in a mirror…even when they’re being viewed upside down!
Fans of presidential anagrams will enjoy some of Lederer’s efforts in that area, including: “He did view the war doings” (Dwight David Eisenhower); “Loved horse; tree, too” (Theodore Roosevelt); A rare, calm jester (James Earl Carter); and “Insane Anglo warlord” (Ronald Wilson Reagan).
Looking to stump your friends in a game of Hangman? Try using crypt, nymph, rhythm or their plurals, since none contains an A, E, I, O, or U.
In another of his books, “Crazy English,” Lederer rhapsodizes about lengthy words like “inappropriateness,”a seventeen-letter noun, “incomprehensibility,” which is two letters longer, and the 28-letter “antidisestablishmentarianism.” The definitions of the first two words cited here are self-evident. The third, unsurprisingly, means: “A doctrine against the dissolution of the establishment.” This brings to mind a three-letter word which, when spelled backward, is the title of a Paul Newman movie: duh!
Try as I might, I cannot choose my favorite Richard Lederer bon mot. Think it’s easy? Good luck selecting the best of this tiny sampling of his gems.
“Writing is a way to capture fleeting thoughts and immortalize them on paper.”
“Reading is like traveling through time and space without leaving your chair.”
“Language is a playground, and grammar is the rulebook.”
“Words have the power to hurt, heal, inspire, and transform.”
“The more words you know, the more ideas you can express.”
“Language is a living organism that evolves and adapts over time.”
“It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.”
“Language is a dance – a delicate balance of rhythm, melody, and meaning.”
“The secret to good writing is rewriting.”
“Language is the foundation of civilization. It is the glue that holds a people together.”
It’s hard to ascertain which English language writer has penned the greatest number of published words. Some have speculated it’s William Shakespeare. Others point to Agatha Christie, whose books have sold over a billion copies in English and another billion in other languages, or L. Ron Hubbard, who was credited with 1084 published works. But I think that when it comes to writing words about words, Richard Lederer has easily outdone them all.
Now if only I can find a bookkeeper who assesses such things to confirm it. <
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