"Cumulative" words

[panache45]

I've coined this term, because I've never heard of this concept, but there's probably another word for it. I'm referring to words as "abcde...," in which "a" is a word, "ab" is a word, "abc" is a word, etc. Obviously, in English, these words would have to begin with letters that can be words in and of themselves.

Is there an existing name for these words?

What is the longest such word in the English language?

[Mangetout]

Just in case someone requires an example, I think you're talking about this phenomenon:

He
Her
Hero
Heroin
Heroine

Not sure there will be a term for this, as it's interesting, but not very useful (in an everyday sense)

[Jragon]

To be clear, are you referring to a series such as:

a
an
and
Andy

Or specifically a set of words in any language such as that it literally follows the standard lexicographic order of its alphabet?

ETA: Nevermind, I assume Mangetout is probably right

[boomerwang]

I did a Google search, found nothing. The longest one of those I could think of was ''noted'.

[hammos1]

Originally Posted by boomerwang

I did a Google search, found nothing. The longest one of those I could think of was ''noted'.

Is 'n' a word though?

'Amides' is a six letter example.

[dtilque]

Originally Posted by hammos1

Is 'n' a word though?

There's an entry for it in the dictionary. Some people seem to think that makes it a word.

I checked Borgmann's Language on Vacation and he calls them curtailments, obviously looking at it as removing letters, but it comes out to the same thing. His examples are pasterns, reversers and albertines. Looking up any unfamiliar words is an exercise for the reader.

I haven't checked Word Ways yet; it's too late at night. Perhaps tomorrow.

[Jragon]

Originally Posted by hammos1

Is 'n' a word though?

"Would you like to save your file? y | n > n"

Granted that's an abbreviation, but if we want to be generous I'd say you could consider exceedingly common abbreviations as words themselves.

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

Just in case someone requires an example, I think you're talking about this phenomenon:

He
Her
Hero
Heroin
Heroine

I think he's interested in those sequences where you add only one letter, not two, to the end of the previous word.

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by hammos1

Is 'n' a word though?

Sure. Every single letter is a word referring to the letter, or the letter's form. And some of them have additional meanings as well. For example, Merriam–Webster defines "n" as (among other things) "an indefinite number; especially : a constant integer or a variable taking on integral values".

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

I think he's interested in those sequences where you add only one letter, not two, to the end of the previous word.

Not sure. One category is a superset of the other anyway.

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by dtilque

I checked Borgmann's Language on Vacation and he calls them curtailments… I haven't checked Word Ways yet; it's too late at night. Perhaps tomorrow.

Word Ways calls them curtailments too. Here's an example from a 1976 issue.

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

Not sure. One category is a superset of the other anyway.

If you're not going to care about how many letters you add to the end of the word, then the exercise of finding the longest such word is trivial: it is simply the longest word in the English language, and the sequence of accumulations contains (at minimum) its first letter, and the entire word.

Under your definition, a more interesting problem than the one posed by the OP is to find the longest sequence, rather than the longest word.

[Ximenean]

I think they can only start with A, I, or O. Best I can come up with is

I
id
ide (Collins English Dictionary)
idea
ideal
ideals

or

a
as
ass
asse (Random House Dictionary)
asses / asset
assess / assets

[dtilque]

Here's one I found years ago, but have never mentioned to anyone. Unfortunately, it uses an abbreviation, albeit a very common one:

c
co (=company)
cos (lettuce)
cost
costa
costar
costard
costards

All the words can be found on M-W online

Originally Posted by Ximenean

I think they can only start with A, I, or O.

Why? Isn't C the speed of light as well as a commonly used computer language? Why can't it be used?



psychonaut, are you a subscriber to Word Ways, too?

[panache45]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

I think he's interested in those sequences where you add only one letter, not two, to the end of the previous word.

Yes. Beginning with one letter, then adding one more at a time.

And I'd consider A, I and O to be the only true 1-letter words. The others are more like symbols (not implying that all words aren't symbols).

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by dtilque

psychonaut, are you a subscriber to Word Ways, too?

I used to be, but I had to let my subscription lapse for lack of time for reading. Maybe in the future I will resubscribe.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

If you're not going to care about how many letters you add to the end of the word, then the exercise of finding the longest such word is trivial: it is simply the longest word in the English language, and the sequence of accumulations contains (at minimum) its first letter, and the entire word.

Under your definition, a more interesting problem than the one posed by the OP is to find the longest sequence, rather than the longest word.

Agreed- it isn't interesting at all if there isn't a series of more than two words.

[dtilque]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

I used to be, but I had to let my subscription lapse for lack of time for reading. Maybe in the future I will resubscribe.

I almost did the same, but then I found that if I put the latest issue in the bathroom, I'd get it read while doing other business.

Those who consider A, I and O as the only one letter words have a rather limited idea of words. Most dictionaries have every letter listed as a noun in addition to any symbolic meanings and abbreviations. And you can't tell me C (as in the programming language) is either a symbol or abbreviation.

[Ximenean]

Originally Posted by dtilque

Those who consider A, I and O as the only one letter words have a rather limited idea of words. Most dictionaries have every letter listed as a noun in addition to any symbolic meanings and abbreviations. And you can't tell me C (as in the programming language) is either a symbol or abbreviation.

C, as in the programming language, is a proper noun. Generally in word games of this type proper nouns are not allowed. c, when used to mean the speed of light for example, is listed under "symbols" in dictionaries that I have looked at. So not everything listed in a dictionary is necessarily a word.
You may be on firmer ground with the idea that C is the name of the letter C itself, but if it counts as a noun at all I'd consider it a proper noun.

[cjepson]

If we limit ourselves to "familiar" words (i.e., words that you might hear in conversation), there is:

a
an
ant
ants
antsy

[dtilque]

Originally Posted by Ximenean

C, as in the programming language, is a proper noun. Generally in word games of this type proper nouns are not allowed.

That depends on the person doing the word game. Generally, most people who do these things would like to do them with only uncapitalized words, but if they can't find an appropriate lowercase word, capitalized words will be usually be used.

You may be on firmer ground with the idea that C is the name of the letter C itself, but if it counts as a noun at all I'd consider it a proper noun.

It also has the definition of something in the shape of the letter. This definition applies to all the letters. I wouldn't consider such usages to be proper nouns, since they're not names, but they're often capitalized anyway.

[Ximenean]

Originally Posted by dtilque

That depends on the person doing the word game. Generally, most people who do these things would like to do them with only uncapitalized words, but if they can't find an appropriate lowercase word, capitalized words will be usually be used.

OK, but the trouble with proper nouns is that there are so many of them. If you want to use "wana", say, no doubt there is a village in Mali or somewhere called that. Or, you could register on a message board under the user name Wana, and hey presto, proper noun. Common nouns have to get past teams of crack lexicographers to get into reputable dictionaries.

[Pixel_Dent]

In scrabble circles these are called Pyramid words.

[Pixel_Dent]

On closer reading of the OP I realized Pyramid Words aren't exactly the same because you're allowed to place new letters in the middle. For example...

I
in
sin
sing
sting
string
staring
starting
startling

[Annie-Xmas]

I got to wondering the longest word you could make starting with the last letter and going backwards. All I could up with was:

a
pa
spa

[dtilque]

Originally Posted by Ximenean

OK, but the trouble with proper nouns is that there are so many of them. If you want to use "wana", say, no doubt there is a village in Mali or somewhere called that. Or, you could register on a message board under the user name Wana, and hey presto, proper noun. Common nouns have to get past teams of crack lexicographers to get into reputable dictionaries.

Then you need to be consistent. Every letter is listed as a common noun in most dictionaries.

Another consideration is that by excluding all but three of the letters, you're preemptively excluding about 85% of all words from this particular form of word play.

As for the other way that Annie-Xmas wants, Borgmann also did those. He called them successive beheadments, since he was looking words getting shorter, but it comes down to the same thing. He came up with a couple long ones:

aspirate
spirate
pirate
irate
rate
ate
te
e

prestates
restates
estates
states
Tates (a people who live in Transcaucasia)
ates
tes
es
s

I'm not to sure about the "te" and "tes" in the above. In the first, he actually put all the words in a poem, but the "te" was in the phrase te Deum. In the second, he claims "tes" is some kind of sol-fa syllable or perhaps the plural of one.

[Bear_Nenno]

n/m

[dtilque]

Originally Posted by dtilque

prestates
restates
estates
states
Tates (a people who live in Transcaucasia)
ates
tes
es
s

Another thing. I have no idea where he got ates from. He didn't make any comment on that. It's possible it's an error on his part.

[Deflagration]

I've just tried with with the TWL06

If we allow the use of any starting letter we get 4 eight letter words:

REPOSERS
PASTERNS
MAXIMALS
BARBELLS

If we restrict ourselves to only A,I and O.

We have:

34 - two letter words
101 - three letter words
126 - four letter words
63 - five letter words
21 - six letter words
4 - seven letter words

ANTICKS
AMIDOLS
AMUSERS
ABASERS