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BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.

18 Mar 00 - 04:31 PM (#197333)
Subject: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: Ebbie

My apologies in advance. This is not music related, other than as in facing. I do a newsletter and in the last one I printed a riddle TO WHICH I DID NOT KNOW THE ANSWER. Bad me. I got the riddle in an email and I thought I'd surely know the answer by the next time. Well, yesterday a 15-year-old sent me a SASE, saying she and her friends can't wait: WHAT IS THE ANSWER?? (And I still don't know!)

The riddle goes, verbatim, complete with the spelling I was given: There are three words in the English language that end in "gry". ONE is angry and the other is hungry. EveryONE knows what the third ONE means and what it stands for. EveryONE uses them every day , and if you listened very carefully, I've given you the third word. What is it? -gry?

Does anyone know the answer? Can someone help me out? You will make me indebted for life. (I looked up suffixes on the 'net and found nothing...)

18 Mar 00 - 04:54 PM (#197350)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: Amos

Here's a compilation from a Web search I did...  it covers all the bases.
I chose a unique phrase "ONE  is hungry." and Google did the rest....
None of the following is my own work.

Amos

The answer is "gry," an antiquainted English term referring to the measurement of time.

Here is the riddle in its original form:

"Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There
are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The
word is something that everyone uses every day.  If you have listened
carefully, I have already told you what it is."

In its proper, original form, the first two sentences have absolutely
nothing to do with the question: "Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry
and hungry are two of them." Ignore those two sentences.  They are there
only to throw you off course. (And it worked, didn't it?) What's left
is the actual riddle itself: "There are only three words in the English
language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses
every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what
it is."  The key is the phrase "the English language." In this three-word
phrase, the third word is simply the word "language." Get it?  "Language"
is definitely something that "everyone uses every day"!  Without that
quirky little twist, the puzzle would be just another trivia question,
not a riddle.

Aside from "angry" and "hungry" and words derived therefrom, there is
only one word ending with "-gry" in Webster's Third Unabridged: "aggry."
However, this word is defective in that it is part of a phrase "aggry beads."
The OED's usage examples all talk about "aggry beads."

Moving to older dictionaries, we find that "gry" itself is a word in Webster's
Second Unabridged (and the OED):

gry, n. [L. gry, a trifle; Gr. gry, a grunt]
   1. a measure equal to one-tenth of a line. [Obs.] (Obs. = obsolete)
   2. anything very small. [Rare.]


This is a list of 100 words, phrases and names ending in "gry":
[Explanation of references is given at the end of the list.]

aggry [OED:1:182; W2; W3]
Agry Dagh (Mount Agry) [EB11]
ahungry [OED:1:194; FW; W2]
angry [OED; FW; W2; W3]
anhungry [OED:1:332; W2]
Badagry [Johnston; EB11]
Ballingry [Bartholomew:40; CLG:151; RD:164, pl.49]
begry [OED:1:770,767]
bewgry [OED:1:1160]
bowgry [OED:1:1160]
braggry [OED:1:1047]
Bugry [TIG]
Chockpugry [Worcester]
Cogry [BBC]
cony-gry [OED:2:956]
conyngry [OED:2:956]
Croftangry [DFC, as "Chrystal Croftangry"]
dog-hungry [W2]
Dshagry [Stieler]
Dzagry [Andree]
eard-hungry [CED (see "yird"); CSD]
Echanuggry [Century:103-104, on inset map, Key 104 M 2]
Egry [France; TIG]
ever-angry [W2]
fire-angry [W2]
Gagry [EB11]
gry (from Latin _gry_) [OED:4/2:475; W2]
gry (from Romany _grai_) [W2]
haegry [EDD (see "hagery")]
half-angry [W2]
hangry [OED:1:329]
heart-angry [W2]
heart-hungry [W2]
higry pigry [OED:5/1:285]
hogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD]
hogrymogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "hogry-mogry")]
hongry [OED:5/1:459; EDD:3:282]
huggrymuggry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "huggry-muggry")]
hungry [OED; FW; W2; W3]
Hungry Bungry [Daily Illini, in ad for The Giraffe, Spring 1976]
iggry [OED]
Jagry [EB11]
kaingry [EDD (see "caingy")]
land-hungry [OED; W2]
leather-hungry [OED]
Langry [TIG; Times]
Lisnagry [Bartholomew:489]
MacLoingry [Phillips (as "Flaithbhertach MacLoingry")]
mad-angry [OED:6/2:14]
mad-hungry [OED:6/2:14]
magry [OED:6/2:36, 6/2:247-48]
malgry [OED:6/2:247]
man-hungry [OED]
Margry [Indians (see "Pierre Margry" in bibliog., v.2, p.1204)]
maugry [OED:6/2:247-48]
mawgry [OED:6/2:247]
meagry [OED:6/2:267]
meat-hungry [W2]
menagry [OED (see "managery")]
messagry [OED]
nangry [OED]
overangry [RH1; RH2]
Pelegry [CE (in main index as "Raymond de Pelegry")]
Pingry [Bio-Base; HPS:293-94, 120-21]
podagry [OED; W2 (below the line)]
Pongry [Andree (Supplement, p.572)]
pottingry [OED:7/2:1195; Jamieson:3:532]
puggry [OED:8/1:1573; FW; W2]
pugry [OED:8/1:1574]
rungry [EDD:5:188]
scavengry [OED (in 1715 quote under "scavengery")]
Schtschigry [LG/1:2045; OSN:97]
Seagry [TIG; EB11]
Segry [Johnston; Andree]
self-angry [W2]
self-hungry ?
Shchigry [CLG:1747; Johnson:594; OSN:97,206; Times:185,pl.45]
shiggry [EDD]
Shtchigry [LG/1:2045; LG/2:1701]
Shtshigry [Lipp]
skugry [OED:9/2:156, 9/1:297; Jamieson:4:266]
Sygry [Andree]
Tangry [France]
Tchangry [Johnson:594; LG/1:435,1117]
Tchigry [Johnson:594]
tear-angry [W2]
tike-hungry [CSD]
Tingry [France; EB11 (under "Princesse de Tingry")]
toggry [Simmonds (as "Toggry", but all entries are capitalized)]
ulgry [Partridge; Smith:24-25]
unangry [OED; W2]
vergry [OED:12/1:123]
Virgy [CLG:2090]
Wirgy [CLG:2090; NAP:xxxix; Times:220, pl.62; WA:948]
wind-angry.
wind-hungry [W2]
yeard-hungry [CED (see "yird")]
yerd-hungry [CED (see "yird"); OED]
yird-hungry [CED (see "yird")]
Ymagry [OED:1:1009 (col. 3, 1st "boss" verb), (variant of "imagery")]

This list was gathered from the following articles:

George H. Scheetz, In Goodly Gree: With Goodwill, Word Ways 22:195 (Nov. 1989)
Murray R. Pearce, Who's Flaithbhertach MacLoingry?, Word Ways 23:6 (Feb. 1990)
Harry B. Partridge, Gypsy Hobby Gry, Word Ways 23:9 (Feb. 1990)
A. Ross Eckler, -Gry Words in the OED, Word Ways 25:4 (Nov. 1992)

References:
(Many references are of the form [Source:volume:page] or [Source:page].)

Andree, Richard. Andrees Handatlas (index volume). 1925.
Bartholomew, John. Gazetteer of the British Isles: Statistical and
        Topographical. 1887.
BBC = BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of English Names.
Bio-Base. (Microfiche) Detroit: Gale Research Company. 1980.
CE = Catholic Encyclopedia. 1907.
CED = Chambers English Dictionary. 1988.
Century = "India, Northern Part." The Century Atlas of the World. 1897, 1898.
CLG = The Colombia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World. L.E.Seltzer, ed. 1952.
CSD = Chambers Scots Dictionary. 1971 reprint of 1911 edition.
Daily Illini (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
DFC = Dictionary of Fictional Characters. 1963.
EB11 = Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed.
EDD = The English Dialect Dictionary. Joseph Wright, ed. 1898.
France = Map Index of France. G.H.Q. American Expeditionary Forces. 1918.
FW = Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language. 1943.
HPS = The Handbook of Private Schools: An Annual Descriptive Survey of
        Independent Education, 66th ed. 1985.
Indians = Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. F. W. Hodge. 1912.
Jamieson, John. An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. 1879-87.
Johnston, Keith. Index Geographicus... 1864.
LG/1 = Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer
        or Geographical Dictionary of the World. 1888.
LG/2 = Lippincott's New Gazetteer: ... 1906.
Lipp = Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World. 1861, undated
        edition from late 1800's; 1902.
NAP = Narodowy Atlas Polski. 1973-1978 [Polish language]
OED = The Oxford English Dictionary. 1933. [Form: OED:volume/part number if
        applicable:page]
OSN: U.S.S.R. Volume 6, S-T. Official Standard Names Approved by the United
        States Board on Geographic Names. Gazetteer #42, 2nd ed. June 1970.
Partridge, Harry B. "Ad Memoriam Demetrii." Word Ways, 19 (Aug. 1986): 131.
Phillips, Lawrence. Dictionary of Biographical Reference. 1889.
RD = The Reader's Digest Complete Atlas of the British Isles, 1st ed. 1965.
RH1 = Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 1966.
RH2 = Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition
        Unabridged. 1987.
Simmonds, P.L. Commercial Dictionary of Trade Products. 1883.
Smith, John. The True Travels, Adventvres and Observations: London 1630.
Stieler, Adolph. Stieler's Handatlas (index volume). 1925.
TIG = The Times Index-Gazetteer of the World. 1965.
Times = The Times Atlas of the World, 7th ed. 1985.
W2 = Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language,
        Second Edition, Unabridged. 1934.
W3 = Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language,
        Unabridged. 1961.
WA = The World Atlas: Index-Gazetteer. Council of Ministires of the USSR, 1968.
Worcester, J.E. Universal Gazetteer, Second Edition. 1823.
 

18 Mar 00 - 04:54 PM (#197351)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: wysiwyg

The way I've heard this one, it is minus the hint yours contains promising a third word, and is presented as an impossible challenge-- you know, I'll give you [x] if you can get this. It might have been [ngry], too, nt just [gry].

Your version... is there a math word about the number one that works?

18 Mar 00 - 04:59 PM (#197354)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: wysiwyg

Hey!! A list of new 'Cat names to pick from!!!

It's about time!

18 Mar 00 - 05:01 PM (#197356)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: The Beanster

Ebbie, I really have no idea what the answer could be but I think the answer must be a play on words somehow--it's not literally another word that ends in "gry" because, like you said, no others exist. At first I thought it might be "agree" or something like that--with the same sound as "gry" but a different spelling. Maybe check the "gree" suffixes and see if any words fit into the clues. Sorry, that's the best I can do right now, but will think about it...

18 Mar 00 - 05:06 PM (#197359)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: The Beanster

Oh dear--I posted my thing there and didn't even SEE the enormous post from you, Amos!! (Time for my meds) lolol

18 Mar 00 - 05:19 PM (#197367)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: Ebbie

Amos, you are amazing. (Amazing Amos) It never occurred to me that it might be a trick question. (And I will definitely utilize Google from now on!) Now all I have to worry about is the people I have made angry! I think what I'll do is rephrase the riddle in the next newsletter and see what kind of response I get. (And I'll mail the answer ahead of time to the 15-year-old! 'Tis only fair...)

Thanks to both of you. I was almost sure I'd get an answer on Mudcat but I certainly never expected it so very quickly.

18 Mar 00 - 08:51 PM (#197433)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: Mbo

Amos! I relinquish the title! You are DA DULLEST MAN EVER!!! Thanks for all the great research! Only dull guys like us would bother over such a trifle! DULLNESS FOREVER!!!

--Mbo

18 Mar 00 - 09:27 PM (#197449)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: Ebbie

Mbo- trifle is easy for you to say!

18 Mar 00 - 09:54 PM (#197463)
Subject: RE: BS: Facing the Music: Riddle gone awry.
From: Mbo

Awww....I heard the same riddle on The Cartalk Puzzler...

--Mbo