[net.nlang] A Challenge

wex@ittvax.UUCP (Alan Wexelblat) (08/11/83)

A friend of mine challenged me to find the longest English word that can be typed
on a standard QWERTY keyboard using only the right hand (and the standard
touch-type method, which places Y, H, and B within the domain of the right hand.
Any takers?  I couldn't come up with anything longer than five letters (plumb)!
Mail responses to:
--Alan Wexelblat
decvax!ittvax!wex

rar@uofm-cv.UUCP (08/15/83)

I seem to recall seeing at least some of these posted earlier,
in answer to the question:
"What is the longest word one can type using one's right hand on
a qwerty keyboard using standard touch typing?"...

	homophony
	homophyly
	monophony
	nonillion
	pollinium
	polyphony

But I did not previously see:

	Philippino

also, if we allow 'b' for the right hand, we get

	bumpkinly
	hillbilly
	bibliophily

(My personal favorite is "lollipop", which is too short.)
Likewise, for the left hand only:

	aftereffects
	desegregated,  desegregates
	extravasated,  extravasates
	reverberated,  reverberates

To flog furthur an expired equine quadruped,
for the top row only:

	peppertree	(perhaps 2 words, to pick nits)
	pepperwort
	perpetuity
	proprietor
	repertoire
	typewriter	(yet another of life's minor finds)

and for the middle row only:

	alfalfas,  alfalfa
	Halakah		(legal part of Talmudic literature)
	halkahs

Alas, the bottom row is distressingly weak, vowel-wise.
All these found courtesy of grep on our (large) dictionary.

Rob Rutenbar	University of Michigan

rainbow@ihuxe.UUCP (08/15/83)

Seven letter words (like "million" given in a previous response) are
very abundant. Even eight letter words are common (most of which are
compound words). I've thought of three nine letter words (monophony,
polyphony, and hillbilly). Can we now come up with a ten letter word?

jdd@allegra.UUCP (08/16/83)

You guys can only type 9-letter words with your right hands, eh?  Guess you
never heard of "hypolimnion", "hypophyllium", "hypophyllum", "miminypiminy",
"phyllophyllin", "Plynlymmon", "polyphonium", or "polyphylly"!

Cheers,
John ("It Doesn't Matter 'Cause I Don't Touch-Type") DeTreville
Bell Labs, Murray Hill

done@teklabs.UUCP (08/19/83)

In standard touch-typing, at least the way I practice it, the "B" key
is controlled by the LEFT hand, not the right.  If this is incorrect,
I have been touch-typing wrong all these years.

Anyway, the word "million" is my non-controversial candidate for the
longest word typable by the right hand alone.

Don Ellis
Tektronix

solomon@crystal.ARPA (Marvin Solomon) (08/22/83)

A simple run through /usr/dict/words using egrep (faster than grep)
reveals many eight-letter words that can be typed with the right hand
and two nine-letter words:
	hillbilly
	polyphony
(although, come to think of it, I just typed "hillbilly" using the left
hand for the "b").  A somewhat more useful statistic concerns words
in which the hands alternate:  Such words are particularly easy
to type quickly and accurately, and are therefore especially useful for
passwords.
-- 
	Marvin Solomon
	Computer Sciences Department
	University of Wisconsin, Madison WI
	solomon@uwisc
	...{ihnp4,seismo,ucbvax}!uwvax!solomon