Olympic Roots and Branches

Authors

A. Ross Eckler

Abstract

In the February 1984 Word Ways, Darryl Francis presented a quiz based on words whose letters can be rearranged to form OLYMPIC and one other word. Believing that the Olympics deserve further logological celebration, I present in this article an application of "Word Roots and Branches", described in the August 1979 issue Word Ways. Briefly, a word root consists of a diagram showing how a word can be transdeleted to shorter words in single steps (in a single step transdeletion, one letter is removed from a word and the remainder rearranged to form a new word). For many seven-leter words, the root becomes an extremely dense thicket of interlocking tendrils, but for OLYMPIC, given on the next page, the root based on words in Webster's Second Edition is rather simple. Does the fact that three of the six-letter words are comply, myopic and policy carry the message that the Olympic committe is autocratic and narrow-minded?

Recommended Citation

Eckler, A. Ross (1984) "Olympic Roots and Branches," Word Ways: Vol. 17 : Iss. 3 , Article 6.
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol17/iss3/6