h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

EFL

Posted Mar 25, 2008

I've been lurking around, looking for somewhere to stable my hobbyhorse. If you're considering offering a stall, please be assured that he's a gentlemanly 24hh skewbald, with a back like a comfy sofa upon which I and my artificial hips may happily ride. He's telepathic, so there's no need for bit, bridle or reins; we wander at will (mine) through the dense under- and overgrowth of the English language, hurdling anomaly and omaly alike, steeplechasing where consistency and inconsistency challenge the unwary.
Where to start? With 'A', of course. Let's canter through the alphabet seekinbg words with a particular orthographic phenomenon,
eg 'ph:
aphasia, biography, cenotaph...and so on.
Or we might try verbs which use a multitude of prefixes with the same stem, eg 'sist'
On these rambles, the route may develop rocks, making passage difficult. Look what I do then:
assist, consist, desist, insist, persist, resist, subsist, transistOR.
The next stage is to collect nouns with the same stem, so I'm only jumping the gun very slightly.

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Latest reply: Mar 25, 2008