# One-hand words?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 18, 2018, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800 "2018-03-18T23:29:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2018, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/1 "2018-03-18T23:29:06Z")
Recently while doing a search on “Star Wars Rebels” I noticed how except for a single letter the whole thing is typed by the left hand. Conscious of this, I noticed in a later search on “Stargate” the whole thing was a left-hand word. So any single-hand words that you particularly notice?
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### Author:  [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/2 "2018-03-18T23:34:17Z")
I type the letters “r” and “b” in “rebels” with my right hand, but maybe my form of typing is idiosyncratic. When my hands are in typing position, my left hand is facing forward, with my fingertips pointed nearly straight towards the top of the keyboard, but my right hand is tilted over to the left, at about a 45 degree angle counterclockwise. I always reach over with my right index finger to type the letter “b.”
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2018, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/3 "2018-03-18T23:37:23Z")
‘Stewardesses’ is a bit of typewriter trivia, but I can’t say I type it very often.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2018, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/4 "2018-03-18T23:42:52Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#):
>
> I type the letters “r” and “b” in “rebels” with my right hand, but maybe my form of typing is idiosyncratic.
Hm. “B” I can see–the reach isn’t bad. But “r”? That one’s a huge stretch for me–I can’t even keep my right hand on the home keys and still reach that one. (I was assuming from the question the standard touch-typing fingers on a QWERTY keyboard–that may have been a hasty assumption.)
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### Author:  [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2018, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/5 "2018-03-18T23:43:39Z")
I’m sorry, I meant the letters L and B. Not R and B.
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### Author:  [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2018, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/6 "2018-03-18T23:49:59Z")
Attempting now to type with the left hand only, within the perimeters of my usual hand positioning, and allowing for the right hand to hit “enter”, starting after the ellipses…
Rest
Tree
Deer
Trace
Cart
Rex
Grace
Weed
GERD
Vacate
Rat
Veer
Reeve
Fred
Racer
Vest
Ass
Dear
Read
Sweet
West
Stew
Drew
Draw
Ward
Eve
Cave
See
Seed
Deeds
Street
Greet
Sage
Gestate
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/7 "2018-03-18T23:50:19Z")
That makes more sense. In standard touch-typing (which I took in high school) the split between left and right hands is between t & y, g & h, and b & n.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/8 "2018-03-19T00:12:29Z")
Jeff Miller maintains a collection of word trivia which I have had occasion to cite before. His “typewriter words” section is [here](http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/wordtriv.htm#Typewriter%20Words). I especially like the fact that _johnny-jump-up_ (14 characters including dashes) would normally be typed entirely with the right hand by a touch typist on a QWERTY keyboard. That’s a word I’ve actually heard of before, unlike _aftercataracts_ and some of the other words listed.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2018, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/9 "2018-03-19T01:22:13Z")
On a related trivia note, there’s a story that all of the letters in the word typewriter were deliberately placed in the same row because it enabled early salesman to type out the word quickly and thereby supposedly demonstrate how fast a person could type.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2018, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-words/810800/10 "2018-03-19T02:05:26Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#):
>
> ‘Stewardesses’ is a bit of typewriter trivia, but I can’t say I type it very often.
This is the first one I thought of, and it’s definitely one I’ve typed before not simply referring to the fact that it was a left-handed typewriter word. “Reverberates” or “reverberated” is another one (much more common these days where “stewardess” isn’t used so much) , although I personally do sneak the right hand index finger in for the “b” there.)
And, of course, “typewriter,” is a bit of some kind of trivia itself, being typed solely from letters in the top wrote of the typewriter.
ETA: Ah, shit, trivia above mentioned right in the post above mine, though I have never heard the story about it being purposefully placed there for salesman.