Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 16:26:08 -0500 From: Mark Mandel Subject: Re: Gry again -Reply >>> Heilan Yvette Grimes 12/31/96, 09:56am writes>>> Go to any search engine (Lycos, Yahoo, etc.) and punch in "gry". You'll come up with several sites that lists lots of words ending in gry. One site lists over a hundred words ending in - gry, plus an explanation of the mistakes in the odd quiz that usually accompanies the -gry question. <<<<< Ms. Grimes is perpetuating the wild goose chase. Yes, one site* does list 100 words ending in "gry", and other sites (such as the alt.usage.english FAQ) contain the same list. But the pseudo- puzzle demands a *common* word. None of these words are common. Many of them are not English. I am talking about such all-time first-grade best-sellers as aggry bewgry Egry (France) ever-angry hogrymogry lisnagry messagry Schtchigry ulgry vergry Ymagry * The URL is too long for one line; join the next two lines: http://einstein.et.tudelft.nl/~arlet/puzzles/sol.cgi/language/ english/spelling/gry I have taken the following is taken from "The Word Detective" website. This warning is on the home page: -------- I have received, at last count, more than ten zillion pieces of e-mail on this question, and I am royally sick of it. In an almost certainly futile attempt to stem the tide (more of a tidal wave, actually) of "gry" queries, I have devised a two-step therapy program for victims of this particular affliction: FIRST, I suggest that you pay a visit to this page for a whole slew of possible answers. SECOND, I offer this little essay on the subject. -------- "This little essay" is a link to http://www.users.interport.net/~words1/gry.html , from which I excerpt the following. It is Copyright (c) 1996 Evan Morris -------- Conveniently for me, a collection of possible "third words" ending in "gry" already existed, compiled by the brain-teaser mavens in the "rec.puzzles" Usenet discussion group on the internet. It seems that aside from words based on "angry" or "hungry" (such as "dog-hungry"), Webster's Third New International unabridged dictionary lists only one word ending in "gry" --"aggry," meaning a type of prehistoric bead. But it seems quite a stretch to classify "aggry" as a common English word. Elsewhere, the Oxford English Dictionary, among others, also lists "gry" as a word all by itself, meaning a very small distance (about a tenth of an inch in John Locke's proposed decimal system). The Greek root of "gry" is noted in the OED as possibly meaning "the grunt of a pig," presumably one who was offered "gry" as a solution to this puzzle. Whether this minimalist "gry" can, in fact, be fairly said to "end" in "gry" is an existential question, but, in any case, the OED classifies this particular "gry" as obsolete, so it fails the "in common use" test. -------- Now, I hope we have put this nuisance to bed with a stake through its heart for the last time, at least on this list, at least until some newcomer comes running in at full tilt, waving it over his or her head and screaming for help. Mark A. Mandel : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/