Again, each dictionary was divided into several others, according to the numerical characteristics placed at the end of each word. Many words appeared repeatedly in several of these subdivisions.
The work is yet unfinished, although the classification already amounts, I believe, to nearly half a million words.
〈QUEER COINCIDENCES.〉
From some of these, dictionaries were made of those words only which by transposition of their letters formed anagrams. A few of these are curious:—
| Opposite. | Similarity. | Satirical. |
|---|---|---|
| vote veto | fuel flue | odes dose |
| acre care | taps pats | bard drab |
| evil veil | tubs buts | poem mope |
| ever veer | vast vats | poet tope |
| lips slip | note tone | trio riot |
| cask sack | cold clod | star rats |
| fowl wolf | evil vile | wive view |
| gods dogs | arms mars | nabs bans |
| tory tyro | rove over | tame mate |
| tars rats | lips lisp | acts cats |
There are some verbal puzzles costing much time to solve which may be readily detected by these dictionaries. Such, for instance, is the sentence,
I tore ten Persian MSS.,
which it is required to form into one word of eighteen letters.
The first process is to put opposite each letter the number of times it occurs, thus:— {240}
| i | 2 |
|---|---|
| t | 2 |
| o | 1 |
| r | 2 |
| e | 3 |
| n | 2 |
| p | 1 |
| s | 3 |
| a | 1 |
| m | 1 |
| 18 |