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Bigram

cartoon bee   blue colored eye   grandma

No. of Players: 1+
Type of Game: written
What you need: pen and paper

Goal

To think of words containing two consecutive letters.

How to play

The gamemaster calls out two letters and the other players list as many words as they can that contain these letters within a set time. The letters must appear consecutively in the word, and in the order that they were spoken by the gamemaster. Players agree that these letters can appear anywhere within the word, or anywhere except the start and/or the end of words, or some other rule as desired. Players are awarded one point for every word, two points for every word not appearing on other players' lists, three points for words that contain more than one instance of these letters, and four points for the longest list. The player with the highest score becomes the gamemaster for the next round. The scoring system can be adjusted as desired, as well as whether proper nouns are permitted. This game can also be played alone.

A variation of this game that uses three letters is called Trigram.

Example

Andrew calls out the letters S and A and tells players they have five minutes to list only words that end with these two letters. Words that start with, or contain these letters in the middle of the word, are not permitted. Proper nouns are allowed, as well as commonly understood foreign words. He tells them the scoring system is simple: the longest list wins.

Blair's list:

VISA
MESA
KIELBASA
BALSA
SALSA
MEDUSA
PONDEROSA
MIMOSA

Chrissy has all the words in Blair's list except for KIELBASA and PONDEROSA, but has these three additional words:

URSA
CASA
CONTESSA

Chrissy therefore wins because her list is longer by one word.

Did you know?

Your family may call her grandma, granny, or gram. But these nicknames are relatively recent, historically speaking. The full word 'grandmother' actually dates back to 1375–1425. It derives from the Old English ealde mōdor, literally meaning 'old mother.'

boy sitting at table with open book   woman sitting at table with cup of coffee   grandmother in rocking chair knitting

The origin of 'great-grandmother' (þridde mōdor, or 'third mother') is slightly more recent. It was first recorded around 1520–30. Incidently, the prefix grand- is used to refer to a person who is one generation removed, and the prefix great- indicates yet another generation.

boy sitting at table with open book   woman sitting at table with cup of coffee   grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting

Following this convention, 'great-great-grandmother' would be fēowerþe mōdor (fourth mother) and great-great-great-grandmother would be fīfte mōdor (fifth mother). Given that the average person lived just 35 years in the Early Middle Ages when Old English was spoken, few people back then would have had use for these terms. Other than speaking of mothers who were long since gone, of course.

boy sitting at table with open book   woman sitting at table with cup of coffee   grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting

However, that is not true today. There have been a few cases of single families with six generations alive at the same time. And even one family with seven. This occurred with the birth of Christopher John Bollig on January 21, 1989, which made Augusta Bunge Pagel a very-much-alive sixte mōdor – that is, a great-great-great-great-grandmother!

boy sitting at table with open book   woman sitting at table with cup of coffee   grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-great-great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting

According to Guinness World Records, Augusta was born on October 13, 1879 in Tonawanda, New York. This made her 109 years, 3 months, and 8 days old at the time. Followed by her daughter Ella Sabin (aged 89), her granddaughter Anna Wendlandt (70), her great-granddaughter Betty Wolter (52), her great-great-granddaughter Debra Bollig (33), her great-great-great-granddaughter Lori Bollig (15), and her great-great-great-great-grandson Christopher.

boy sitting at table with open book   woman sitting at table with cup of coffee   grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-great-great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting   great-great-great-great-grandmother in rocking chair knitting

Augusta died on May 18, 1989 in Medford, Wisconsin – no doubt quite proud of her amazing family!

In case you're wondering, the images under the title of this word game form a rebus puzzle:

B + I + GRAM = BIGRAM

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