As in, I’m sangry that sangry wasn’t included in the list of English words ending in -gry.
Also sangry that I was not allowed to use SANGRY! as the title of this thread.
LINK TO COLUMN: What are the three English words ending in -gry? - The Straight Dope
The buried bit is probably just folklore, dating to at least the 1880s, along with claims that they were from ancient Phoenicians or Egyptian sources. Imitations are alleged to be made in England and Venice (see link, pp 117-119).
Another source says the beads vary in color and that the natives believe burying the beads will cause them to grow and to multiply.
A third source claims aggry was a term for cowrie beads, from the Indian Ocean, introduced by Arabs, who introduced them to India as well. They were not limited to Ghana, but also to other west African areas. The shells were said to be replaced with blue beads, and then the name was further genericized to refer to beads in general.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020186108707131#preview
What are the three English words ending in -gry?, apparently.
bollweevils; When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers to provide a link to the column in question. Saves search time and avoids people repeating what’s already in the column. Yeah, the column is on front page now, but it will soon sink back into the Archives (it’s from 1988, after all). I assume it’s the one about words ending in -gry, which was an internet riddle floating around at that time. John W. Kennedy has provided the link for you (thanks, JWK) and I’ve edited it into the bottom of the first post.
You also started a new thread with your “aggry” post. Since these two are really about the same column, I’ve merged into one thread. And edited the title to make it easier for readers to understand what it’s about.
None of these are any kind of big deal, just sort of common courtesy for other readers. You’ll know for next time.
Well, strictly speaking, there are more than three. And I’m always happy for an excuse to grep the dictionary. Unfortunately, “sangry” had not yet made my Webster’s Second International, (copyright 1934).
grep gry$ /usr/share/dict/words
aggry
ahungry
angry
anhungry
hungry
unangry
Sangry is obviously the state that drinking a lot of sangria puts you in. It should be much more common than it is. Barkeep, a round of sangria for the house!
I wish I could find the source on this, but somewhere, some time, I understood the question was actually an oral riddle, not a written riddle, along the line of:
The idea is, of course, that “‘g’ or ‘y’” couple with words that end in “gry” makes the “or” sound like “r,” causing the hearer to think that “ending is ‘gry’” was the riddle.
Of course, my hearing something doesn’t make it so. You got to read it on the Internet for it to be true!
Let’s not forget “ogry”, as in: “Shrek was feeling particularly ogry that day.”
It’s in the urban dictionary. Huh, imagine that.
Yes, sorry, now I know.
But I insist that some of the poetry was lost by editing the title when combining the threads.