Regressive Anagrams
| No. of Players: | 1+ |
| Type of Game: | written |
| What you need: | pen and paper |
Goal
To form a new word by removing and rearranging letters.
How to play
This game moves in the opposite direction of Progressive Anagrams. Players choose a word at random. This can be accomplished by opening a book to a random page and selecting the last word on that page. After this word is written down, the first player removes a letter and rearranges the letters to form a new word. The next player does the same and so on, until players can no longer form new words. The last player to have successfully formed a new word is the winner. If players reach a one-letter word, the round repeats with a new first word until a winner is declared.
Example
Andrea and Bryce randomly select the word RAINING by unmuting a TV and noting the first word spoken. They agree that whoever wins the first round gets to choose the first word for the next round. They flip a coin to see who gets to remove the first letter. Andrea wins, removing N to make AIRING. Here is the complete first round:
RAINING
AIRING
GRAIN
GAIN
NAG
AN
A
Since they reach the one-letter word A, they select another random word. This time Bryce goes first by removing E from HUGE to make HUG:
HUGE
HUG
He strategically wins with this opening move because he could have made HUE instead, which would have allowed his opponent to win with HE.
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:
RE + DRESS - D + G + ICE - C + V + ANA + GRAMS = REGRESSIVE ANAGRAMS
