Are You Hangry?

 

“Are you hangry?”—The Conversation

You: “Funny how monosyllabic has five syllables, isn’t it?”

Me: “Yes, English is full of curiosities.”

You: “Such as?”

Me: “Take the letter A. If you start spelling out numbers (1, 2,  3...), you wouldn’t use the letter A until you reached a thousand.”

You: “Speaking of numbers, forty is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order.”

Me: “Regarding alphabetical order, English has a handful of words with each vowel, in order, once only. For example, abstemious and facetious.”

You: “How about this: can you think of any words beginning and ending in und?”

Me: “How about underground? Any others?”

You: “Yes: underfund. My turn: What are the only common words in English that end in -ngry?”

Me: “That’s easy: angry and hungry.”

You: “The Oxford English Dictionary now includes hangry, which combines angry and hungry to mean ‘bad tempered or irritable as a result of hunger.’”

Me: “I’m left handed. So one of my favorite words is stewardesses.”

You: “Because?”

Me: “It’s the longest word that can be typed with only the left hand.”

You: “I don’t know if there’s a right-handed equivalent. But I like uncopyrightable; it’s one of only a few words that have 15 letters, none of them repeated.”

Me: “Sort of the opposite of bookkeeping, which has three repeats in a row.”

You: “I like words containing other words. My favorite is therein, which gives you 13 words using consecutive letters: the, he, her, er, here, I, there, ere, rein, re, in, therein, and herein. If you wonder about er, it’s okay. Merriam-Webster says it’s an interjection, usually indicating hesitation.”

Me: “Does anyone else care about all this?”

You: “Almost certainly not.”

Me: “Interesting word, almost. It’s the longest commonly used English word with all the letters in alphabetical order.”

You: “Oh.”

[300 words]