Double Dactyls

wonderwarthog A famous library science theorist once wrote me a poem, honoring my obsession with double dactyls:

Higgledy piggledy
Robert E. Wagers
did double dacytls
to sharpen his wits
what did his colleagues think
bibliothecally
strictly the pits Aug 1, 2010

Telofy Oh dear, sorry. I didn’t realize it’s one of those semi-open lists that were closed down in the transition. It’s open now. Jan 19, 2010

pterodactyl Thanks, telofy. I'd love to add it, but my computer is showing this as a closed list. Perhaps you could open it up? (Or, just add alopecanthropy on my behalf?) Jan 19, 2010

Telofy Nice. I once wrote a poem in pure dactyls (except the last verse in each stanza) but the word-order ended up being pretty avant-garde/experimental. ^^ Jan 19, 2010

hernesheir Patience and Fortitude
Were lost in a Scuffle:
My trained pigs exited -
Ate the truffle.

Eight-thousand francs was the
Worth of this black treasure.
I to my poverty;
Pigs, to leisure.

Almost hews to the double dactyl verse form....


Jan 19, 2010

Telofy Marvelous! Add it!
(If someone should favor a different pronunciation, they can file an appeal.) Jan 19, 2010

pterodactyl Just stumbled across the word "alopecanthropy" today -- apparently, it's the technical name for the condition of being a werefox (by analogy with "lycanthropy", the condition of being a werewolf.) My best guess at the pronunciation is 'æləpə'kænθɹəpi, which makes it a good candidate for this list. Jan 19, 2010

Telofy Hehe, great movie. :-) Nov 9, 2009

sionnach Thanks, telofy! I think I will just confine myself to adding Whiney McWhinerson and Grumpy McGrumperton, as I actually know someone who uses them both on a regular basis (each time they do I grit my teeth and try not to kill them, because it's generally done in the context of that wonderful scene in "Office Space" where the clueless cow-orker chirps to the main character "Sounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays" Nov 9, 2009

Telofy I can’t believe I haven’t added antepenultimate yet! Do you want to? Regarding quodlibetarian I gave my preference the spelling without the “r”—it seems to be more “common”. ^^
(And do feel free to add all those names.) Nov 8, 2009

sionnach Not to mention assorted characters like Whiney McWhinerson, Grumpy McGrumperton, Ivana Jumpyourbones etc etc etc ad summam nauseam.... Nov 8, 2009

sionnach Well, let's see, the last quodlibertarian I remember stumbling across around these here parts was bilby. Before that was reesetee. Before that was someone called Clifford the Crocodile. Which would make Clifford the Crocodile the antepenultimate quodlibertarian.

To be honest, I'm not sure that was worth the effort. Nov 8, 2009

Telofy Thanks and welcome to Wordie!
Dactylian yields 253 Google hits so it definitely is in widespread use. If you have any more double-dactyls, feel free to add them. :-) Jul 27, 2009

55cards I'm completely new to Wordie, and came here specifically from Google looking for a list of double dactyls - it's a great list! While reading it, I thought of another one:

double-dactylian

Is that any good? Jul 27, 2009

Telofy Hi, and welcome to Wordie.
Thanks for your word. In the case of self-referentially I actually like the hyphenate version more, who knows why... Douglas Hofstadter perhaps. ^^

And thanks to everyone who donated double dactyls here. :-) May 6, 2009

charlesferdinand Selfreferentially? May 6, 2009

milosrdenstvi idiosyncrasy, used of Benjamin Harrison May 6, 2009

Telofy Yep, I found that list yesterday. So many pretty dds – but I don't want to appear kleptomaniacal. ^^ Apr 29, 2009

pterodactyl See also this list. Apr 28, 2009

Telofy Thanks. Sounds intriguing, I can't wait to force an opportunity to use it.
I separated the nicknames by \n instead of ,, so the authorizations for this list were mucked up for a few hours, sorry. Apr 28, 2009

milosrdenstvi While considering kleptomaniac for the Schwa-free challenge we found kleptomaniacal for this one... Apr 28, 2009

Telofy Oh yes, I didn't consider the element of quaintitude. That's definitely a plus for hyphens, but usually (or by default) I'm rather progressively oriented. I guess that once I gained a somewhat reliable feeling that the mainstream accepted spelling of a word is, I'll probably more or less stick with the most non-mainstream one that looks acceptable (and pretty) to me. (Unless I seek to evoke certain connotations.) This might very well be influenced by how often Gene Wolfe uses it.
Just recently I decided for myself to write email. Donald E. Knuth convinced me.

Imagine the time when people considered writing "newfangled" "new-fangled". ^^ Apr 28, 2009

madmouth interesting. I always plunk for the hyphens precisely for aesthetic purposes. they give me a feeling of quaint prettiness, probably from the days of 'to-morrow' and 'to-day'.
Apr 28, 2009

Telofy Thanks you two.
I added antiestablishment. I tend to prefer the version without hyphen if I can find it in one of my favorite dictionaries (or if I think it looks much prettier). Apr 28, 2009

madmouth anti-establishment?
gubernatorial?
Reginald Worthington?
Apr 28, 2009

pterodactyl Indianapolis! Apr 28, 2009

yarb Well, I am British, so maybe it is. Thanks for the invite! Apr 28, 2009

Telofy I thought this /-tɹi/ was just a British thing, I'll consult Wikipedia on that tomorrow.
Then welcome to my list, /ˌsu:.pɚ.əˈɹɒg.ə.tɹi/. :-)
Thanks.

Edit: I opened the list for you in case you meet any more of our little (double dactylic and inevitably sesquipedalian) friends. Apr 28, 2009

yarb It's true that it's not clear-cut. But it's only seven syllables if you pronounce "tory" bisyllabically*. I think most people would pronounce the ending like tree, and weakly, in spite of the way it's written - at least that sounds natural to me, perhaps because my love of dactyls forces me to supply a weak syllable after a /--/-...

*Similarly I pronounce monosyllabically as a double-dactyl, eliding the sixth written syllable. Apr 27, 2009

Telofy Hmm, it's one syllable too long and then there is also this second secondary (no pleonasm) stress.
But it's more important for the words to be hexasyllabic I think. Apr 27, 2009

yarb supererogatory? Apr 27, 2009