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Unix Dict/grep Solves Left-Side-of-Keyboard Puzzle

Posted by timothy on from the mysteries-of-the-ages dept.

destinyland writes "For decades, people have been asking this brain teaser: 'What's the longest word you can type with only the left-hand letters on a keyboard?' The answer is supposed to be 'stewardesses,' but grepping the standard dictionary that ships with Unix reveals a much better answer. There's nearly 2,000 shorter words that can typed with only the left hand — including one word that's even longer. (The article also quotes a failed novel attempt using nothing but words typed on the keyboard's left side.)"

64 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. what? by X0563511 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This should be in idle... I don't see why it should be on the front page.

    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    1. Re:what? by jacquesm · · Score: 2, Funny

      My thoughts exactly, I was wondering if I had somehow enabled the idle section by accident again.

      And anybody that learned about grep the first time reading this article should hand in their geek card ;)

      --
      MP3 Search Engine
    2. Re:what? by MaxwellEdison · · Score: 4, Funny

      Technology is the new idle. The hope is we will make ourselves seem like a bunch of confused Luddites when we start tagging things technologyispants.

      With the added benefit of confusing Haggar's advertising exec's about to roll out their new campaign, "Pants is technology!" with an adorable Russian Blue cat for a spokesperson.

      --
      -=Bang Bang=-
    3. Re:what? by Turken · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sorry... those tags are improper for this article as they require the use of both sides of the keyboard.

    4. Re:what? by veganboyjosh · · Score: 5, Funny

      later, on the same flight, when i caught him in there a second time, i redestewardessed him.

    5. Re:what? by cayenne8 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Ok...to be semi-technical.

      Technically...where on the keyboard does it stop being the left side, and start being considered the right side of the keyboard?

      Frankly, I don't see a set dividing line....? Nothing is really centered.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    6. Re:what? by Tokimasa · · Score: 2, Informative

      TGB are the end of the left side, for me anyway. YHN start the right hand side.

      --
      --Thomas J. Owens
    7. Re:what? by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2, Funny

      I use a Dvorak layout, you insensitive clod!

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    8. Re:what? by LingNoi · · Score: 2, Informative

      What I don't understand is how the article is about using the left side of the keyboard yet the photo they have shows someone typing on the ride side.. (=_=)

    9. Re:what? by Bonobo_Unknown · · Score: 4, Funny
      no way, QWERTY is all one side, cos like it's a word and all... the other side is
      • UIOP
      • HJKL
      • ZBNM

      Z is a non-contiguous zone with a higher than normal left keyboardyness.

      --
      We don't believe in radical loony monotheistic religions from the middle east -- we're Christians.
    10. Re:what? by Jarjarthejedi · · Score: 2

      "'i' is on the right side of the keyboard."

      That's your only complaint about that word?

      --
      There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
    11. Re:what? by holizz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      % grep "^[aoeui',.p;qjkx]*$" /usr/share/dict/british-english-huge | awk '{print length($1) " " $1}' | sort | tail -n1
      9 okupukupu
      % grep "^[dhtnsfgcrlbmwvz]*$" /usr/share/dict/british-english-huge | awk '{print length($1) " " $1}' | sort | tail -n3
      6 crwths
      6 ftncmd
      6 mtscmd

      I think somebody compromised Debian's servers and added nonsense words to the dictionaries.

    12. Re:what? by ChienAndalu · · Score: 2, Informative

      The first one is legit, the other two are weird.

  2. Nice summary by gardyloo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's nearly 2,000 shorter words that can typed with only the left hand -- including one word that's even longer.

    Ganz falsch!

    1. Re:Nice summary by Drinking+Bleach · · Score: 4, Funny

      Is it cheating to use a Dvorak layout designed for people that can use only one hand?

    2. Re:Nice summary by beav007 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      That's not the only issue here.

      There's nearly 2,000 shorter words that can typed with only the left hand -- including one word that's even longer.

      Why does the set "More than 2,000 shorter words" include the one longer word as well?

  3. And for the next exCITING Slashdot article : by Roland+Piquepaille · · Score: 2

    The answer to an age old OS/2 puzzle : how many double clicks can you make on a mouse with your left big toe while typing repeatedly antidisestablishmentarianism.

    1. Re:And for the next exCITING Slashdot article : by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

      There are no mice with my left big toe.

      You mean the cheese there doesn't attract them?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. The answer is by ConanG · · Score: 5, Informative

    Devertebrated

    Link to the original article next time!

  5. Misleading summary by JonathanBoyd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The longest word isn't found in the 'a much better answer' link, but rather the other one, somewhat misleadingly. The word, in case you're interested, is supposed to be 'devertebrated', though the Oxford English Dictionary doesn't recognise it.

    There's nearly 2,000 shorter words that can typed with only the left hand -- including one word that's even longer.

    How exactly can shorter words include a longer one?

    1. Re:Misleading summary by svnt · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is such an obvious blog spam by this guy that it is painful.

      Both blog entries (one completely redundant to mask the referrals), are authored by "Moe Zilla" (painfully lame pseudonym, btw) whose "ultimate goal is to earn money online while writing about whatever I want," and whose writing style has the exact same defects as those in the summary.

      Give up dude, your high school English teach was right: you suck.

    2. Re:Misleading summary by blake182 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The longest word isn't found in the 'a much better answer' link, but rather the other one, somewhat misleadingly. The word, in case you're interested, is supposed to be 'devertebrated', though the Oxford English Dictionary doesn't recognise it.

      ~$ uname -rs
      Darwin 9.5.1
      ~$ grep "^[asdfgqwertzxcvb]\{13,\}$" /usr/share/dict/words
      aftercataract
      devertebrated
      tesseradecade

      Someone with an OED can feel free to check them.

    3. Re:Misleading summary by Rary · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A "tesseradecade" is a group of fourteen. Not only that, it can be pluralized by adding an "s", which happens to also be on the left side of the keyboard, and which brings the letter count to... fourteen. Therefore, "tesseradecades" is a tesseradecade of letters on the left side of the standard Qwerty keyboard.

      --

      "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein

    4. Re:Misleading summary by Per+Wigren · · Score: 2, Informative

      Then a tesseradecader must be something which divide things into groups of fourteen and those who make the tesseradecaders are called tesseradecaderers.

      --
      My other account has a 3-digit UID.
  6. What would be more useful is learning how to... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...type http://www.uniform/ fetish.com/pics/stewardesses/ with one hand.

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  7. Didn't work here by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Informative

    $grep -i '^[qwertasdfgzxcvb]\{12,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words
    aftereffects
    desegregated
    desegregates
    reverberated
    reverberates
    stewardesses

    Stewardesses is still unsurpassed on my box. (But maybe it's because "GNU's not Unix", so I have a different dictionary file.)

    1. Re:Didn't work here by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 5, Funny

      The longest word I got was 'redrawerredrawers', which probably indicates that my wordfile is corrupted.

    2. Re:Didn't work here by JonathanBoyd · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Stewardesses is still unsurpassed on my box. (But maybe it's because "GNU's not Unix", so I have a different dictionary file.)

      Whatever dictionary that comes with Mac OS X 10.4 returns 3 words with 13 letters:
      aftercataract
      devertebrated
      tesseradecade

    3. Re:Didn't work here by Lendrick · · Score: 2, Informative

      Interestingly enough, the longest word that can be typed with the *other* half of the keyboard, which as a lot less letters, is "phyllophyllin" -- one letter longer than "stewardesses". Check this out:

      $ grep -i '^[yuiophjklnm]\{12,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words
      hypophyllium
      miminypiminy
      phyllophyllin

      Mind you, I don't know what any of those mean. :)

    4. Re:Didn't work here by terremoto · · Score: 5, Interesting

      >The longest word I got was 'redrawerredrawers',
      >which probably indicates that my wordfile is corrupted

      I think you've found a bug ...

      % grep '^redrawer' /usr/share/dict/words
      redrawer
      redrawerredrawers
      redrawers

      ... on Fedora 9 and RHEL 4 and 5 boxes at least.

    5. Re:Didn't work here by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Insightful

      uh huh. Ya know why the unix dictionary file doesn't contain every word in the english language? Because it can't. It's a productive system. There's an infinite number of words.

      For example, 'desegregated' means something like: something was segregated and now it isn't. And segregated means that, some time in the past, someone decided to segregate. If they decide to do that again, well then it's resegregated. And what happens to it when you undo that segregation? You get deresegregated. What happens if they decide to segregate again? reresegregated? then dereresegregated? Is there a limit? No. Language is awesome.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    6. Re:Didn't work here by fishbowl · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's not just in simple suffix and prefix usage, either. There are modifier forms that are legal, if perhaps slightly archaic, that while correct will not have explicit entries in a dictionary. I once had a big argument about the word "schedular", in the sense of "make sure you tend to your schedular duties." It's complicated, because it's an etymological principle that allows it, and even though I am right, I lost the argument because "schedular" had no entry in the dictionary the other person was using. I didn't remain at that job much longer. (I don't work well with people who cannot ever admit any possibility that they could be wrong.)

      --
      -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
    7. Re:Didn't work here by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Thanks for the code. This is what you can type on the home row:

      Dvorak:
      2-11 letters: 3358 words
      12: 54 words
      13: 24 words
      14: 14 words
      15: 5 words
      16: 2 words
      17: 2 words
      18: 1 word

      Qwerty:
      2-11 letters: 202 words
      12: 0 words.
      -
      uname -a
      Darwin maclappy 9.5.1 Darwin Kernel Version 9.5.1: Fri Sep 19 16:19:24 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.8.30~1/RELEASE_I386 i386 i386 MacBookPro5,1 Darwin

  8. "Sweaterdresses" better than "devertebrated" by musth · · Score: 3, Informative

    This has been known to logologists for years as the "best" answer to this puzzle. I believe it's from Webster's 2nd or 3rd Unabridged.

    1. Re:"Sweaterdresses" better than "devertebrated" by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Funny

      "sweaterdresses are great" can be typed entirely with the left hand.

      "stewardesses have the greatest assets"

      I win! :D

    2. Re:"Sweaterdresses" better than "devertebrated" by PARENA · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except that you shouldn't type "h" with your left hand, my friend. :P

      --
      Here's the secret to immortality: ...oh dang, I forgot.
  9. Because the... by iamapizza · · Score: 5, Funny

    databases were devertebrated after stewardesses were watered

    --
    Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
  10. Past tense disqualified? by sxltrex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article:

    Technically, the word "reverberated" is just as long, and so is "desegregated" - but they're sometimes disqualified because they require using the past tense.

    So past tense is disqualified but plural is ok? What official body is making up these rules?

    1. Re:Past tense disqualified? by pthisis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And desegregates and reverberates must be okay, right?

      --
      rage, rage against the dying of the light
    2. Re:Past tense disqualified? by Linker3000 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Mornington Crescent!

      --
      AT&ROFLMAO
    3. Re:Past tense disqualified? by somersault · · Score: 4, Funny

      What official body is making up these rules?

      I'm not sure, but I'd start the search by eliminating all those bodies with a working right hand.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    4. Re:Past tense disqualified? by gardyloo · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, no, no. That's not how the game is played . . ..

    5. Re:Past tense disqualified? by ShatteredArm · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, that's perfectly acceptable in the American version, and it might even be within Icelandic rules as well.

    6. Re:Past tense disqualified? by gardyloo · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think it's only acceptable in the Official American Ruleset, and then only when out of croop. The cromulent thing to do in this case is invoke Toksvig's Protocol (if Reynold's Standard Opening is allowed).

    7. Re:Past tense disqualified? by whoever57 · · Score: 2, Funny

      What official body is making up these rules?

      I'm not sure, but I'd start the search by eliminating all those bodies with a working right hand.

      It's not so much eliminating those bodies with a working right hand as eliminating those with a right hand that is not otherwise engaged.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    8. Re:Past tense disqualified? by ShatteredArm · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh, right. I think I recall something like this happening during the Robertson-Glass game a few years back. In that particular case, I believe it was deemed acceptable under the Fahlenburg exception.

    9. Re:Past tense disqualified? by gardyloo · · Score: 2, Funny

      You have a very good memory. I know the R-G #1 game was pretty big -- are you talking about that one, or maybe the rematch in which Robertson was accused of having a computer read out possible stations to him via otic implant?

  11. Re:Left or right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh yeah? Well, I typed my reply with my left penis!

    What do you mean, you only have one penis?

  12. Devertebrates? by laddiebuck · · Score: 4, Funny

    Personally, I'm much more likely to type "stewardesses" into a search engine when I need to use only one hand... for whatever reason.

  13. Honestly... by Orlando · · Score: 5, Insightful

    who cares?

    --
    -= This is a self-referential sig =-
  14. Woah! by nog_lorp · · Score: 2, Funny

    There's nearly 2,000 shorter words that can typed with only the left hand â" including one word that's even longer.

    Wait, there is a word that is both shorter and longer than "stewardesses"?

  15. Re:I use Dvorak, you insensitive clod... by CaptainPatent · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Actually the fact that so few words can be typed on the same hand is evidence towards the efficiency of Dvorak.

    alternating hand keystrokes are the fastest and least stress-inducing type of keystroke. The fact that so many words in Qwerty can be typed on the same (left) hand and so few can be in Dvorak shows that a larger subset of the Dvorak words alternate, whereas a smaller subset of the Qwerty words do.

    need more proof, just do a

    $grep -i '^[aoeuidhtns]\{12,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words

    then follow that up with a

    $grep -i '^[asdfghjkl]\{12,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words

    --
    Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
  16. Re:I use Dvorak, you insensitive clod... by Junta · · Score: 2, Interesting

    More interesting statistics:
    The longest word I can type without leaving the home keys (not even the whole home row) is sensuousness.
    231 words longer than six chars are possible with the dvorak home keys without moving
    6 words longer than six chars on the qwerty home keys
    1,091 words longer than 6 charsare possible with the dvorak home row
    9 words longer with the qwerty home row.

    1,139 words longer than six letters can be typed with left hand in qwerty (bad sign)
    9 words longer than six letters can be typed with left hand in dvorak.

    46 words longer than six letters can be typed in qwerty right hand.
    0 words longer than six letters can by typed by dvorak right hand.

    Never played around with this, but now that I have, it does kinda prove that dvorak does a good job of keeping the activity balanced between hands and on the home row.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  17. Okupukupu! by IdahoEv · · Score: 4, Funny

    The longest word I can type with my left hand is "okupukupu", you QWERTY-using insensitive clods!

    [15:44:56] ~$ grep -i '^[pyaoeuiqjkx]\{14,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words
    [15:44:58] ~$ grep -i '^[pyaoeuiqjkx]\{13,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words
    [15:45:04] ~$ grep -i '^[pyaoeuiqjkx]\{12,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words
    [15:45:07] ~$ grep -i '^[pyaoeuiqjkx]\{11,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words
    [15:45:12] ~$ grep -i '^[pyaoeuiqjkx]\{10,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words
    [15:45:16] ~$ grep -i '^[pyaoeuiqjkx]\{9,\}$' /usr/share/dict/words
    okupukupu

    --
    I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
  18. Re:But... by liquidsin · · Score: 4, Funny

    bare stewardesses

    --
    do not read this line twice.
  19. My dict is bigger by Lulu+of+the+Lotus-Ea · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is the SOWPODS international scrabble tournament dictionary
    % egrep '^[qwertasdfgzxcvb]{12,}$' /usr/local/share/scrabble
    abracadabras
    aftereffects
    decerebrated
    decerebrates
    desegregated
    desegregates
    extravagated
    extravagates
    extravasated
    extravasates
    reaggregated
    reaggregates
    resegregated
    resegregates
    reverberated
    reverberates
    stewardesses
    sweaterdress
    sweaterdresses
    watercresses

    --
    Buy Text Processing in Python
  20. dereverberated by Lemmeoutada+Collecti · · Score: 5, Informative

    Removing reverberation from a soundtrack, also called echo removal.

    --

    You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
  21. Sean M. Burke knew this in 1998 =P by AcquaCow · · Score: 2, Informative

    In the "Stupid QWERTY Tricks" section of his site, he lists all of the words that you can type on the left/right hand side of the keyboard...

    http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/stupid_qwerty_tricks.html

    He published all of that online in 1998...
    (1998-09-21)

    In comparison, the longest Dvorak word, typed with only the left hand is: "upkeep" ...not that that has anything to do with the efficiency of Dvorak...

    The other Dvorak word lists are far more interesting:
    http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/stupid_dvorak_tricks.html

      -- Dave

    --

    up 12 days, 22:30, 2 users, load averages: 993.20, 994.21, 994.56
    *makes note to limit user processes...
  22. Re:But... by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Informative

    Google images stewardess ass or sex stewardess if you want it to be the first link. And how bored I must be to sit here thinking up ways to get stewardess as the first porn link using only left keys in Google.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  23. Re:But... by biovoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    PONed!

  24. Starcraft by depthcharge101 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The answer is "starcraft" guys.

  25. Re:Passwords by ameline · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think you're holding something *else* in your right hand, and that these "passwords" are for porn sites.

    --
    Ian Ameline
  26. extraterrestials FTW by atomic-penguin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I RTFA and didn't find any mention of this supposed word, anywhere. So I ran my own grep on the dictionary.

    Left hand results:

    egrep '[abcdefgqrstvwxz]{12,}' /usr/share/dict/words
    winner: extraterrestrials

    Right hand results:

    egrep "[hijklmnopuy'-]{9,}" /usr/share/dict/words
    winner: polyphony's

    Top row results

    egrep '[qwertyuiop]{11,}' /usr/share/dict/words
    winner: teletypewriter's

    --
    /^([Ss]ame [Bb]at (time, |channel.)){2}$/
  27. Re:But... by Strep · · Score: 2, Funny

    bare breasted stewardesses