Here are 2 answers to the "GRY" question. This has been a very popular one on the Reference librarians list STUMPERS-L. Enjoy! ;-) Mary Lou Caskey > Man and his son have "argued for years" over where there are two or > three English words ending in " -gry." Recently, they met a woman who > stated "firmly" that ONLY TWO words end in " -gry." We have identified two: > ANGRY and HUNGRY. The question remains, are there any others? I found the following listed in 3BY5, our computer "brain box" Three words in the English language ending in -gry are: hungry angry anhungry (obsolete word menaing "to starve" listed in Webster's Third Unabridged Dictionary Others: aggry: certain type of galss bead found burried in the earth in Ghana gry - see Oxford English Dictionary meagry - see Oxford English Dictionary Source: Reference Quarterly, vol 21, #1, fall 1981, p. 19 ARE THERE OTHERS?? . ******************************************** 1. puggry - Indian turban or scarf around a sun helmet falling behind to shade the neck. 2. maugry - state of being regarded with displeasure 3. aggry - colored glass bead worn by Africans, thought to be of ancient Egyptian manufacture. And from the OED meagry - having a meagre appearance. Pam Parker Angela McCarren San Jose Public Library REPLY TWO Aside from "angry" and "hungry" and words derived therefrom, there is only one word ending with "-gry" in Webster's Third Unabridged: "aggry." However, this word is defective in that it is part of a phrase "aggry beads." The OED's usage examples all talk about "aggry beads." Moving to older dictionaries, we find that "gry" itself is a word in Webster's Second Unabridged (and the OED): gry, n. [L. gry, a trifle; Gr. gry, a grunt] 1. a measure equal to one-tenth of a line. [Obs.] (Obs. = obsolete) 2. anything very small. [Rare.] This is a list of 100 words, phrases and names ending in "gry": [Explanation of references is given at the end of the list.] aggry [OED:1:182; W2; W3] Agry Dagh (Mount Agry) [EB11] ahungry [OED:1:194; FW; W2] angry [OED; FW; W2; W3] anhungry [OED:1:332; W2] Badagry [Johnston; EB11] Ballingry [Bartholomew:40; CLG:151; RD:164, pl.49] begry [OED:1:770,767] bewgry [OED:1:1160] bowgry [OED:1:1160] braggry [OED:1:1047] Bugry [TIG] Chockpugry [Worcester] Cogry [BBC] cony-gry [OED:2:956] conyngry [OED:2:956] Croftangry [DFC, as "Chrystal Croftangry"] dog-hungry [W2] Dshagry [Stieler] Dzagry [Andree] eard-hungry [CED (see "yird"); CSD] Echanuggry [Century:103-104, on inset map, Key 104 M 2] Egry [France; TIG] ever-angry [W2] fire-angry [W2] Gagry [EB11] gry (from Latin _gry_) [OED:4/2:475; W2] gry (from Romany _grai_) [W2] haegry [EDD (see "hagery")] half-angry [W2] hangry [OED:1:329] heart-angry [W2] heart-hungry [W2] higry pigry [OED:5/1:285] hogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD] hogrymogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "hogry-mogry")] hongry [OED:5/1:459; EDD:3:282] huggrymuggry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "huggry-muggry")] hungry [OED; FW; W2; W3] Hungry Bungry [Daily Illini, in ad for The Giraffe, Spring 1976] iggry [OED] Jagry [EB11] kaingry [EDD (see "caingy")] land-hungry [OED; W2] leather-hungry [OED] Langry [TIG; Times] Lisnagry [Bartholomew:489] MacLoingry [Phillips (as "Flaithbhertach MacLoingry")] mad-angry [OED:6/2:14] mad-hungry [OED:6/2:14] magry [OED:6/2:36, 6/2:247-48] malgry [OED:6/2:247] man-hungry [OED] Margry [Indians (see "Pierre Margry" in bibliog., v.2, p.1204)] maugry [OED:6/2:247-48] mawgry [OED:6/2:247] meagry [OED:6/2:267] meat-hungry [W2] menagry [OED (see "managery")] messagry [OED] nangry [OED] overangry [RH1; RH2] Pelegry [CE (in main index as "Raymond de Pelegry")] Pingry [Bio-Base; HPS:293-94, 120-21] podagry [OED; W2 (below the line)] Pongry [Andree (Supplement, p.572)] pottingry [OED:7/2:1195; Jamieson:3:532] puggry [OED:8/1:1573; FW; W2] pugry [OED:8/1:1574] rungry [EDD:5:188] scavengry [OED (in 1715 quote under "scavengery")] Schtschigry [LG/1:2045; OSN:97] Seagry [TIG; EB11] Segry [Johnston; Andree] self-angry [W2] self-hungry ? Shchigry [CLG:1747; Johnson:594; OSN:97,206; Times:185,pl.45] shiggry [EDD] Shtchigry [LG/1:2045; LG/2:1701] Shtshigry [Lipp] skugry [OED:9/2:156, 9/1:297; Jamieson:4:266] Sygry [Andree] Tangry [France] Tchangry [Johnson:594; LG/1:435,1117] Tchigry [Johnson:594] tear-angry [W2] tike-hungry [CSD] Tingry [France; EB11 (under "Princesse de Tingry")] toggry [Simmonds (as "Toggry", but all entries are capitalized)] ulgry [Partridge; Smith:24-25] unangry [OED; W2] vergry [OED:12/1:123] Virgy [CLG:2090] Wirgy [CLG:2090; NAP:xxxix; Times:220, pl.62; WA:948] wind-angry. wind-hungry [W2] yeard-hungry [CED (see "yird")] yerd-hungry [CED (see "yird"); OED] yird-hungry [CED (see "yird")] Ymagry [OED:1:1009 (col. 3, 1st "boss" verb), (variant of "imagery")] This list was gathered from the following articles: George H. Scheetz, In Goodly Gree: With Goodwill, Word Ways 22:195 (Nov. 1989) Murray R. Pearce, Who's Flaithbhertach MacLoingry?, Word Ways 23:6 (Feb. 1990) Harry B. Partridge, Gypsy Hobby Gry, Word Ways 23:9 (Feb. 1990) A. Ross Eckler, -Gry Words in the OED, Word Ways 25:4 (Nov. 1992) References: (Many references are of the form [Source:volume:page] or [Source:page].) Andree, Richard. Andrees Handatlas (index volume). 1925. Bartholomew, John. Gazetteer of the British Isles: Statistical and Topographical. 1887. BBC = BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of English Names. Bio-Base. (Microfiche) Detroit: Gale Research Company. 1980. CE = Catholic Encyclopedia. 1907. CED = Chambers English Dictionary. 1988. Century = "India, Northern Part." The Century Atlas of the World. 1897, 1898. CLG = The Colombia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World. L.E.Seltzer, ed. 1952. CSD = Chambers Scots Dictionary. 1971 reprint of 1911 edition. Daily Illini (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). DFC = Dictionary of Fictional Characters. 1963. EB11 = Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. EDD = The English Dialect Dictionary. Joseph Wright, ed. 1898. France = Map Index of France. G.H.Q. American Expeditionary Forces. 1918. FW = Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language. 1943. HPS = The Handbook of Private Schools: An Annual Descriptive Survey of Independent Education, 66th ed. 1985. Indians = Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. F. W. Hodge. 1912. Jamieson, John. An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. 1879-87. Johnston, Keith. Index Geographicus... 1864. LG/1 = Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary of the World. 1888. LG/2 = Lippincott's New Gazetteer: ... 1906. Lipp = Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World. 1861, undated edition from late 1800's; 1902. NAP = Narodowy Atlas Polski. 1973-1978 [Polish language] OED = The Oxford English Dictionary. 1933. [Form: OED:volume/part number if applicable:page] OSN: U.S.S.R. Volume 6, S-T. Official Standard Names Approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Gazetteer #42, 2nd ed. June 1970. Partridge, Harry B. "Ad Memoriam Demetrii." Word Ways, 19 (Aug. 1986): 131. Phillips, Lawrence. Dictionary of Biographical Reference. 1889. RD = The Reader's Digest Complete Atlas of the British Isles, 1st ed. 1965. RH1 = Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 1966. RH2 = Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition Unabridged. 1987. Simmonds, P.L. Commercial Dictionary of Trade Products. 1883. Smith, John. The True Travels, Adventvres and Observations: London 1630. Stieler, Adolph. Stieler's Handatlas (index volume). 1925. TIG = The Times Index-Gazetteer of the World. 1965. Times = The Times Atlas of the World, 7th ed. 1985. W2 = Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged. 1934. W3 = Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 1961. WA = The World Atlas: Index-Gazetteer. Council of Ministires of the USSR, 1968. Worcester, J.E. Universal Gazetteer, Second Edition. 1823. Some words containing "gry" that do not end with "gry": agrypnia, agrypnotic, Gryllidae, gryllid, gryllus, Gryllus, grylloblattid, Gryllotalpa, gryllos, grypanian, Gryphaea, Gryll, Gryphaea, gryposis, grysbok, gryphon, Gryphosaurus, Grypotherium, grysbuck. Most of these are in Webster's Second also with one from Webster's Third Edition and one from the Random House Dictionary, Second Edition Unabridged.