Twin Ends Word Game

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined again by John Chaneski, who probably has a quiz for us or two in his pockets.

John, hello.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha.

Hello, John.

I’ll check my pockets.

We can’t see you because you’re on the other side of the continent, but I imagine that you have scrolls just jutting out of every pocket, held under your arms.

Papyrus, yes.

Papyrus scrolls.

It’s long ostrich quills.

A little chisel on your tool belt.

Yeah, I have my pterodactyl actually takes dictation while I come up with the puzzles.

Nice.

I use the phoenix for that.

Very sweet, sweet.

Hey, you know, here’s a classic concept I borrowed from a great book of wordplay called, appropriately, Wordplay by Joseph Shipley.

I have that book.

Cool.

It’s called Twin Ends.

Okay?

Twin Ends.

Twin Ends, okay.

Twin Ends, yeah.

E-N-D?

E-N-D, right.

Twin Ends.

A twin end word is one that begins and ends with the same set of letters.

Okay, two or more.

For example, the word sense begins with S-E and ends with S-E.

Got it?

Okay, great.

Good.

I’ll give you the middle letters of a word. You must give me the twin pairs that begin and end the word, or sometimes triplets.

Okay.

If you need, I’ll give you a definition.

For example, if I gave you U-R, can you tell me what word that might be?

And here’s the definition.

Place of worship.

Oh, church.

Oh, church.

Church.

That’s right. The answer is church.

Now, you’ll probably need a pencil for this one because it’d be a little easier to write the letters down.

John, I always use a pencil with you.

Oh, good. Oh, good.

Let’s try a few more. Here we go.

Okay.

Very simple.

N-O, two letters, begins and ends with two letters.

Mm—

And the definition is a species of chimpanzee.

Bonobo.

Bonobo. Very good.

Mm—

Second one is A-T.

Begins and ends with two letters.

And the definition is one who delivers a speech.

Orator.

Orator.

Very good.

O-R.

Okay.

Here’s the next one.

The letters are C-A-P-A-D.

Ooh.

C-A-P-A-D.

Yeah, write that down.

Escapades?

Yes, escapades.

Very good.

Madcap pranks.

Nice work, Martha.

Oh, thank you.

Here’s the next one.

E-E-P-I.

The definition is bashful or docile.

Sheepish.

Sheepish.

Very good, Grant.

Nice work.

It’s funny.

Actually, the longer the letters are in between, kind of the easier it is to get these.

Yeah, I would say.

Here’s the next one.

R-A-P-M.

Now, we’re looking for three letters beginning and ending.

Here’s the definition.

The defense that a defendant would not have committed a crime if law enforcement had not enticed him to do so.

Oh, excellent, Grant.

Oh, excellent.

That’s a good one, John.

Entrapment, with E-N-T on it, beginning and end.

Here’s the next one.

R-I-O, beginning and ending with two letters.

Definition is a lively dance that resembles the samba or someone from Rio.

Carioca.

Carioca is correct.

C-A at the beginning and C-A at the end.

Here’s the next one.

I-S-C-O-V-E.

I-S-C-O-V-E is in the middle.

Right.

It’s three letters beginning and end.

Okay.

Rediscovered.

Yes, rediscovered, Brad.

Nice work.

Excellent.

Okay, here’s the next one.

Y-L-I.

Two letters, and the definition is one who works in a salon.

Stylist.

Stylist, yeah, very good.

Next one is E-R-G-R-O, and we’re looking for three letters beginning, three letters at the end.

Clue is where the miners spent most of their time.

Underground.

Underground is right.

U-N-D, I was looking for.

Good topical clue.

Yes.

And here’s the last one.

O-N-O-G-R-A.

O-N-O-G-R-A.

Phonograph.

Phonograph is right.

Nice work, Grant.

Good one, Grant.

Thanks, John.

Well, you’ve got the stumpers. How do you come up with your stumpers anyway?

I go to sleep, and when I wake up, they’re sitting on my bed stand.

Elves!

Where are my radio elves?

I think of them in my hypnopompic state.

Nice.

Nice.

John, thank you so much.

Thank you, guys.

Bye-bye.

If you’d like to try to stump us with any kind of question about language, call us 1-877-929-9673.

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And you can email us words@waywordradio.org.