Date:  Thu, 9 May 1996 10:38:50 -0400

From:  Jesse T Sheidlower <jester[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PANIX.COM>

Subject: Re: Words that end in GRY



>

> In the past few weeks I've seen this unanswered puzzler pop up in three

> different circles. So excuse me while I introduce it to this circle which

> might be able to answer it.

>

> The English language has (at least) three words that end in GRY. "Angry" and

> "hungry" are two of them. What is the third, which purportedly is an everyday

> word?



AAAAaaaaargh!



Does _every corner_ of the Internet have to be saturated with this?



The answer to the riddle in the form you heard it (as opposed to the

form you're quoting) is either "what" or "three." It's a shaggy-dog

riddle. ("There are three words..." the question begins, and when the

question asks "what is the third word?" it's really asking "what is

the third word of the riddle?" Alternately, the question is asked

earlier in the riddle, and then the last line is "'What' is the

word.", declaratively--this version only works when heard orally.)



As for words that end in -gry, there are a whole bunch, none of them

common, including puggry, maugry, iggry, aggry, gry, and others, but

the best is _nugry,_ coined on rec.games.puzzles to mean 'the sort of

person who will ask the words ending in -gry question without

checking to see if five billion people have already asked it here

before'.



JTS