supervocalic

mollusque commented on the word supervocalic

Part of the problem Eric Chaikin reasons, is that he's always been infatuated with wordplay rather than competition. He demonstrates that devotion one night at the tournament, when he explains to other math-brained word lovers his concept of "supervocalics," a word he coined to describe words or phrases containing the letters A, E, I, O, and U once each (Julia Roberts is a supervocalic actress; Mozambique and Belorussia are the only two supervocalic countries; Hair Club for Men is a supervocalic...hair club). Eric is a patient, dedicated linguistic analyst, but over the board, in competition, something goes awry. "Maybe I'm just not good at games," he says.

--Stefan Fatsis, 2001, Word Freak, p. 352

March 25, 2008

mollusque commented on the word supervocalic

See also panvocalic, euvocalic, euryvocalic, alphavocalic and retrovocalic.

December 30, 2008