Mystery Question #9
"Consider the humble goatgrass, Mia." Max was pacing back and forth as was his habit when he was in a thoughtful manner, and these were his words for some time. Mia looked at him curiously.
"Aegilops is the genus. Bears a striking similarity to winter wheat. Or if Aegilops isn't to your fancy then how about billowy or ghosty? For that matter let us not forget spoonfeed."
"Is this one of your word plays?" asked Mia slyly as she gazed up at her brother.
"English is a marvelously eccentric language," Max said, by way of agreement.
What is curious about the words he mentioned?
Answer:
"Aegilops is the genus. Bears a striking similarity to winter wheat. Or if Aegilops isn't to your fancy then how about billowy or ghosty? For that matter let us not forget spoonfeed."
"Is this one of your word plays?" asked Mia slyly as she gazed up at her brother.
"English is a marvelously eccentric language," Max said, by way of agreement.
What is curious about the words he mentioned?
Answer:
The words in question have all their letters arranged in alphabetical order-or, in the case of spoonfeed, reverse alphabetical order. As a point of interest, Aegilops is the longest such English word in the usual direction, and spoonfeed the longest going backwards. If you choose to exclude words with consecutive repeated letters from the prize , then sponged and wronged must unseat poor spoonfeed.
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