bobvan (12/03/82)
I've recently become interested in words that can appear twice in a
sentence with no other words in between. Here is an example I remember
from a grade school reader: "He ate until he had had enough." I
imagine that many style books object to this practice, but it does
parse correctly (though with some difficulty). Another fairly commonly
doubled word is "that". I recently caught myself constructing a
sentence containing "once once". Now I'm wondering how many
other English words can be doubled in this way. Please mail or post
your contributions, with context. Can one word ever appear repeated
three times?!? Does this word doubling occur in other languages?
On a completely different topic, I recently asked readers of this
newsgroup for a definition of "yow", noting that it was in my on-line
dictionary, but none of the printed dictionaries that I had handy.
I've gotten the following responses (edited):
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According to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) which is the
best source for exotic words. "Yow" is "an exclamation
of obscure meaning." The only reference is circa 1440, but
the word is not marked obsolete. (The OED likes to cite
early uses.)
Jerry Schwarz
eagle!jerry
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The only way I've ever heard "yow" used is as an expression of pain. It
usually means to me the same thing as "ouch" does. Of course, this could
mean surprise also, as in the context of your note.
--Dave (pur-ee!davy)
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Yes, in fact, "Yow" is part of the vocabulary of the inimitable Zippy the
Pinhead, and is used as a generic expression of surprise and enlightenment,
as in the expression "Yow!! I am excessively diverted!"
- Am I elected yet?
M. Yawitz, Ampex
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From: ucbvax!peter@UCBERNIE (peter b. kessler)
from the random house dictionary of the english language, college edition:
yow (you), interj., n. (an exclamation or shout of pain, dismay, etc.) [imit.]
... peter
p.s. and don't forget little freida's ``yowie-zowie''.
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In summary, the word seems to be used both as an expression of pain and
as an expression of surprise.
Thanks to all who contributed,
Bob Van Valzah
(...!decvax!ittvax!tpdcvax!bobvan)