Question: I'd like to know about the word that sounds like "a-rye" and means "wrong" or "astray," as in "The business deal went a-rye." I'm not sure of the spelling and I'm curious whether it's connected in any way to "aright."Answer: "Awry" (for that's your word) comes ultimately from the verb "wry." First as "wrigian" in Old English, then as "wrien" in Middle English, this verb meant "to have a particular tendency or inclination; to incline."
The derivative noun "wry" with the sense "slanted direction" or "askew position" was first used in the phrase "on wry" or "upon wry" in the 14th century. The preposition "on" meant "in (such a state)." Thus "on wry" meant "to one side," "obliquely," "crookedly," or "askew." This usage was contemporary with a sense (now obsolete) of the verb "wry" that meant "to deviate or swerve from the right or proper course; to go wrong."
The more familiar adjective "wry" that we use today, as in "a wry smile," is essentially the same word. The adjective first appeared in the 16th century with the meaning "twisted" or "crooked." The underlying "crookedness" of "wry" can also be seen in "wry humor," denoting humor that is ironic, clever and sometimes grim.
Turning back to "on wry," we find that by the 15th century the phrase had been shortened to the single word "awry." The "a" of "awry" developed simply as a shortened form of "on." There are parallels to this development seen in such other English words as "aback," "ablaze," "afloat," "alive," "asleep," "aslant" and "aside." All of these were at one time noun phrases beginning with "on" -- "on back," "on blaze" and so on.
"Aright," on the other hand, which is also very old (it goes at least as far back as the 10th century), appears to have been "aright" from the beginning -- there is no evidence for "on right." The "a" of "aright" is also equivalent to "on," however, so the underlying form of "aright" (and of the much rarer "awrong") does resemble that of "awry." But that's where the similarity ends. There is no etymological connection between "aright" (or "awrong") and "awry."
Question: One of my work associates claims that the longest word that does not repeat any letter in the word is "ambidextrously." Is there any longer word that doesn't repeat a letter?
Answer: The kind of word you ask about, one in which no letter of the alphabet appears more than once, is called a "nonpattern" word and belongs to a larger group of words called "isograms." Isograms are words with a particular letter pattern, or, as in the case of "ambidextrously," the lack of a pattern.
"Ambidextrously," which contains 14 letters, is certainly one of the longest nonpattern words. Another 14-letter nonpattern word is "hydropneumatic," defined in Webster's Third New International Dictionary as "of, relating to, or operating by means of both water and air or some other gas." We are aware of two words that surpass the 14-letter mark. The Third New International includes an entry for "dermatoglyphics," a 15-letter nonpattern word that denotes patterns of the specialized skin of the inferior surfaces of the hands and feet or the study of such patterns. A more familiar 15-letter isogram is "uncopyrightable." There could be other nonpattern words that are even longer, but we haven't smoked them out yet.
Another interesting type of isogram consists of words in which each letter repeats itself an equal number of times. Such words include "arraigning," "intestines," and "tromometer." And consider "deeded," which uses both the "d" and the "e" three times.
This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Send questions to: Merriam-Webster's Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal St., Springfield, MA 01102.) Merriam-Webster Inc.Dist. by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.