WORDS FROM THE TYPEWRITER Ever since I learned to type back in High School I've had a sort of hobby of trying to think up words that when typed on a QWERTY keyboard would use every one of the eight typing fingers just once. All these words obviously have to be eight letters long, and all will have a "p". I'm curious if there is anyone out there who is also doing the same thing. I can't be the only nut doing this. If so email me at [email protected]

The list of words

Legitimate words

Proper Names, and Places, including the full name of some individuals that I heard of somewhere

Occasionally you have to pluralize these names in order to make them work

Legitimate words that I didn't think were real but by doing a search on the Internet they turn out to be so

Made up words. Close, but no cigar


Additions "stolen" from the work of Robert K. Meyer and Dolph Ulrich from their web page "Perfect Words are Pleasing" (No longer to be found on the Internet)


More words from a journal called "Word Ways". (Used without permission. Will glady remove if anyone complains!)

From TYPEWRITER WORDS
Mike Keith, Word Ways, 1999:4, 270
ISOFINGER WORDS

We now consider some properties that relate to the fingers used when typing. An isofinger word is one (by necessity an isogran) in which each finger. is used at most once. The most elegant such words are those with eight letters, so that all of the fingers are used exactly once. Here are the 8-letter isofinger words we found, grouped by the first finger used:

L4: aphorise
L3: septimal spicular
L2: captions captious clasping elapsing esophagi
L1: biplanes
Rl: harelips jackpots
R2: implates
R3: lifespan
R4: palmiest panelist pantiles parsonic plainest plaudits pleasing poniards

Isofinger words with initial letters of L4 and R2 are the hardest to find; the two in the list above were supplied by Fred W. Helenius. APHORISE relies on British spelling, while IMPLATES is an inferred plural of the OED word IMPLATE (to install a plate).

from TYPEWRITER WORDS: ALL FINGERS USED
Rex Gooch, Word Ways, 2000:1, 71

In "Typewriter Words" in the November Word Ways, Mike Keith define isofinger words as those in which each finger is used at most once (for eight-letter words, each finger used exactly once). I find the term isofinger unfortunate, since iso- means "equal" when the opposite is intended. As possible alternatives, I propose heterofinger (somewhat ungainly), heterodigital (hybrid components), or pandigital (in my opinion the best).

In any event, here is a much larger collection of such words. These have been drawn from the Oxford English Dictionary, Webster�s Second The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, or Stedman�s Medical Dictionary except when otherwise labeled.

L4: aethiops, anoptics, antipose, aphorise, apomicts, aposthic, autopsic
L3: wainrope, wakeup to, warp line, wingclap, work camp, saponite, saporine, satinpod, scalping, scarpino, scoparin, scorpian, scripula, sea point, septimal, Serapion (Dorland�s Medical Dictionary), shagpile, shiproad, slatepin, slipband, spalding, spandril, speakful, speak-out, spicular, spignale, spirulae, Spongiae, Spongida, sporadin (Pulliam & Carruth, Complete Word Game Dictionary), sprackly, sprankle, stampido, stenopia, stiphado, stipulae, superial
L2: earlship, elapsing, epigamos, epistoma, epularis, esophagi, dasiphor(?), displant, dystopia, caprious, captions, captious, clasping, Claypits (placename)
L1: fplasmid(?), tapsimel, toadship, top whack, typicals, gladship, backshop, bakeshop, biplanes, black spy
R1: yak corps, haplites, harelips, hipocras, jackpost(?), jackpots, jackstop(?), malt-skep, meropias, metopias, mist-pale, modiwarp
R2: impalers, impastod, impearls, implates, in pastel
R3: outspeak, Oxenpark (placename), land-spit, lateship, lempiras, lifespan
R4: packshot, pactions, paisyble, palmiest (Pulliam & Carruth), panelist, pantiles, parosmic, parsonic, pasty-lid, pationes, paysible, pearlins(?), pearlish, Pelagius, penalist, Pensilva (placename), pen-stalk, perisoma, petaism (Pulliam & Carruth), petalism, philaser, pie-wagon, pile arms, Pileatus, Pindaros, pintados, piroques, pistacho, placings, plainest, plaisure, plan view, plashier, plastein, plasticy, plaudits, plausive, playsire, pleasing, plenitas, plurasie, poniards, Pontiacs, postique, post-jack, pralines, prankles(?), pre-Islam, premisal, prosequi, proximad (Pulliam & Carruth), pytalise, puckarow, pyralids, pyrexial

The only other word not in these lists or yours that I can add is "ptyalise," the British form of ptyalize, to increase or stimulate the secretion of saliva. So there you are!

Enjoy!! - Stuart Kidd, (Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia)