THE
QUESTION
I was going to make my final decision that night. My first topic for
Jack’s Corner—what would it be? I had it narrowed down
to three esoteric, intriguing possibilities, but then it happened
again. The question. I was doing a workshop in Brantford, Ontario.
The topic was spelling. I’ve written spelling books; I was doing
a workshop on spelling; I was presenting my favourite spelling trivia;
he thought I might know, and he asked the question. The young man
implored, “Please help me; it’s been driving me crazy
for years. What’s that third word ending in –gry?”
The question. I guess people think I might know the answer to that particularly
bothersome and ubiquitous piece of language trivia. I have been asked
the question on golf courses, in classrooms, in oases of various types.
Here is that puzzle that befuddles and makes people feel linguistically
impaired.
The question. What is the third word?
I can help. The answer is not pugry, a Hindi word for a kind of turban.
In its proper, original form, this is not a language trivia question.
It is a riddle with a perverse twist like all good riddles. The first
two sentences have nothing to do with the question. “Think of words
ending in –gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.” Ignore
those two sentences; they are there simply to throw you off and set you
up. What’s left is the actual riddle itself. “There are only
three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word
is something you use every day.”
The key is the phrase the English language. The third word is language—get
it?
Spread the word.
