snopes boards the "-gry" bandwagon

[brianmelendez]

One of Cecil’s more obscure columns, hardly ever mentioned here at the SDMB, is What are the three English words ending in -gry?* That other bastion of fighting disinformation, the Urban Legends Reference Pages at snopes.com, just got into the act with a new article, Three common words in the English language end with ‘-gry.’ The snopes article lists a dozen -gry words besides angry and hungry.

The article makes no mention, though, of the “G or Y” theory :rolleyes: or the 1975 radio program (or any other supposed origin). Or Cecil. :mad:
*I’m posting in MPSIMS instead of CCC because (1) it doesn’t get much more mundane and pointless than this, and (2) most other threads on this subject have appeared here, including one thread by Coldfire.

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

At least they say the “original wording theory” is just a guess, unlike others (Cecil included) who accept it as fact. It might be true, but at this time there’s absolutely no corroboration.

[samclem]

Jesse Sheidlower, of the OED, posted this to the ADS-List:

As for words that end in -gry, there are a whole bunch, none of the common, including puggry, maugry, iggry, aggry, gry, and others, but the best is nugry, coined on rec.games.puzzles to mean ‘the sort of person who will ask the words ending in -gry question without checking to see if five billion people have already asked it here before’.

One assumes that the word is pronounced new-gry, in the style of newbie. Very fitting.

[NajaNivea]

Snopes’ explanation for the wording of the riddle left me more confused than anything. I had always assumed the “if you listened very carefully, I’ve already told you” bit refered to the part where you say “ending in -gry”-- with “gry” being the accepted answer to the puzzle.

Meh.

Peace,
~mixie

[Caesar_s_Ghost]

Why would Snopes be required to mention Cecil? They don’t quote him, and basically the only thing connecting them is that Cecil wrote a column, and so did the Mikkelsons. There’s really no reason to mention him.

Mixie, the original wording says “There are three words in the English language.” The first word would be ‘the,’ the second word would be ‘English,’ and the third word would be ‘language.’

[NajaNivea]

*Originally posted by Caesar’s Ghost *
**Mixie, the original wording says “There are three words in the English language.” The first word would be ‘the,’ the second word would be ‘English,’ and the third word would be ‘language.’ **

I get it. I just didn’t think that was the most obvious conclusion to be drawn.

~mixie

[samclem]

Caesar said

Mixie, the original wording says “There are three words in the English language.”

But that’s the real stumper. How do you know they were the “original” wording?

[xash]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by brianmelendez *
**One of Cecil’s more obscure columns, hardly ever mentioned here at the SDMB, is What are the three English words ending in -gry?

I believe it is one of the most frequently asked questions here on the SDMB. Repeatedly asked in GQ.

[Governor_Quinn]

Xash, you’ve been whooshed. (No sense of verbal irony, I take it)

[xash]

*Originally posted by Governor Quinn *
**Xash, you’ve been whooshed. (No sense of verbal irony, I take it) **

Oh, sorry Gov. Pardon me.

[Skywatcher]

Gaaaaah! I was hit with a chain letter variant yesterday!

>Send this to 5 People and the answer will pop up on the screen
>automatically.

Yeah, right, sure…:rolleyes:

[malaka]

*Originally posted by brianmelendez *
**The article makes no mention, though, of the “G or Y” theory :rolleyes: **

From the article:

The catch here is that by offering the examples of “hungry” and “angry,” the teller misleads the listener into thinking he’s asking for a word ending in “GRY” when he’s really asking for a word ending in “G or Y.” The correct answer in this case is “say,” a short word ending in “y” which the teller had pronounced three times in the course of presenting the riddle.

[Marley23]

Cecil wasn’t the first guy to write about this either, you know. I imagine there are other topics common to both sites - I happen to be a big fan of snopes as well. After I check my e-mail in the morning, I immediately check for new material on Snopes and the Straight Dope.

[brianmelendez]

*Originally posted by malaka *
**From the article: **

:smack: Thanks for the catch, malaka.

[Philster]

*Originally posted by brianmelendez *
**The article makes no mention, though, of the “G or Y” theory :rolleyes: or the 1975 radio program (or any other supposed origin). Or Cecil. :mad:
*I’m posting in MPSIMS instead of CCC because (1) it doesn’t get much more mundane and pointless than this, and (2) most other threads on this subject have appeared here, including one thread by Coldfire. **

They sure do mention the ‘g’ or ‘y’ theory when relating how the riddle could have been succesful as being delivered orally:

below from Snopes…

“…The catch here is that by offering the examples of “hungry” and “angry,” the teller misleads the listener into thinking he’s asking for a word ending in “GRY” when he’s really asking for a word ending in “G or Y.” The correct answer in this case is “say,” a short word ending in “y” which the teller had pronounced three times in the course of presenting the riddle…”

[brianmelendez]

*Originally posted by Philster *
They sure do mention the ‘g’ or ‘y’ theory when relating how the riddle could have been succesful as being delivered orally:

::deja vu::

[malaka]

*Originally posted by brianmelendez *
**::deja vu:: **

LOL!

Proves my theory that people open threads, read the OP and then post…without reading any other messages.

[av8rmike]

Before reading that article, I posted in jest to a similar thread here that an answer was “puggry,” thinking I’d made up the word.

Turns out there actually is such a word, though not in English. Looks like I got whooshed in this one.

[Cervaise]

*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen *
**Gaaaaah! I was hit with a chain letter variant yesterday!

>Send this to 5 People and the answer will pop up on the screen
>automatically.

Yeah, right, sure…:rolleyes: **

Actually, it’s possible that at least one out of five recipients will be a reader of either the Dope or Snopes and will respond with a short-tempered, “NOT THIS STUPID THING AGAIN, READ THIS LINK GODDAMMIT!”

So the answer may very well “pop up on the screen automatically.” From a certain point of view.