Someone asked a friend of mine to name three English words that are not compound and also have "ph" in them, pronounced with a hard 'p'. We were able to come up with "shepherd" and "haphazard." Does anyone know of a third? Maybe there are only two, and it was a mean puzzle... or maybe there are a lot, and we just can't think of them.
Your friend must be a poophead to uphold the loophole that the answer can't be a compound. I asked uphill and downhill, and looked around every flophouse and through every peephole.
Finally, I came to rest in my upholstered chair, and took a nap.
"... that are not compound." Though I guess upholstered is a good example. Thanks.
Yep. I understood the condition. You're welcome.
I suggest you be equally tricky and say you found at least 16. Challenge him or her to find them.
upholster, upholstery, upholsteries, upholsterer, upholsterers, upholstering, upholstered, upholsters, shepherd, shepherdess, shepherding, shepherded, shepherds, shepherdesses, haphazard, haphazardly
I see no rule about inflected forms.
Why not throw in PhD as an answer. If he or she balks, ask them to pronounce it without a hard p. And it most certainly is NOT a compound.
So. Just for fun, no tricky limitations (shepherd could theoretically be considered a compound when you consider the etymology, as could upholstery), let's just come up with words containing ph, sh, th, ch where they are not pronounced as the common digraph.
Hiphop
chimera
mishap
pothead or $#!+head
and lots of others. Any favorites?