Lipograms
| No. of Players: | 1+ |
| Type of Game: | written |
| What you need: | pen and paper |
Goal
To write something without using a particular letter of the alphabet.
How to play
A lipogram is a piece of writing which deliberately avoids using a particular letter. While writing something which omits the letters Z, Q, or X is an easy enough task, this is much harder to do with letters that frequently appear in words. Roughly speaking, here is the frequency ranking of letters in the English language (note: letters to the left appear more frequently in words than letters to the right):
E T A O I N S R H L D C U M F P G W Y B V K X J Q Z
Gamemasters challenge themselves and/or others to write a sentence or two without using a selected letter. For added fun, a particular topic can be set, as well as a time limit. The first player to complete this task, or to write something the gamemaster judges is the most coherent, gets to select the next letter to be avoided, as well as to set other rules as desired.
For a similar word game, see Univocalics.
Example
Amelia decides to challenge the two players with the toughest letter to omit: the letter E. She tells them they have 3 minutes to write a single sentence telling her what they think of this game. The player with the longest sentence, by letter count, will become the next gamemaster.
| Brooklynn: | This is not fun, gratifying or a happy task as I am not too smart or fast thinking. |
| Chad: | Doing this job is as hard as baking muffins without flour and cooking spray. |
With a final letter count of 64 to 62, Brooklynn wins to become the next gamemaster.
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.'
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.
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.
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!
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.
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:
LIP + O + GRAMS = LIPOGRAMS
