Sunday 9 December 2012

Five English Words That Are Utterly Unique

Syzygy
Amazingly, the only English word with three Ys also happens to describe a rare astronomical event involving three heavenly bodies. A syzygy is the alignment of three celestial bodies in a straight line, commonly the Earth, the Sun and the Moon. Now, what is the only common English word to end in -mt??

Dreamt
A poet would appreciate how this past tense of dream possesses such a special quality -- the only word in regular English usage to end with -mt. We hear from people constantly who swear there must be another term ending in -mt. No one has ever actually offered a second example, however. Perhaps it exists in a dream. The next word is the exact opposite of -mt.

Tmesis
 The sole term in the English language to begin with Tm- has an unusual meaning to match. Tmesis is the insertion of one or more words between the words that make up a compound phrase. For example: "what-so-ever" inserted in the middle of "whatever." You'll never guess what's next: the only word that contains X, Y, and Z.

Hydroxyzine
Only one word in all of English has an X, Y, and Z. Hydroxyzine is also the only word on this list that you may have swallowed at some point. This medication developed in the 1950s can help calm you down, prevent sneezing, and impress you with unique linguistic qualities. Our final word is more of a riddle: What is the only English term pronounced the same if you remove four letters??

Queue
Before it meant a line, a queue referred to the tail of a beast in medieval pictures and designs. The unusual spelling owes its origin to French, like so many words that look a little odd in English. Prior to the Frenchification of queue, Latin spelled it simply as coda. The duplication of U and E often feels like waiting in line: once you think you are almost there, the queue magically seems to repeat itself


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