Name that Word

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What's the shortest word in the English language that contains all
five of the standard vowels: a, e, i, o, u.

--Jeff

--
Loyalty to the country always, loyalty
to the government when it deserves it.
--Mark Twain

Rain on a tin roof sounds like a drum.
We're marching for freedom today-ay!
So turn on your headlights
and sound your horn,
if people get in the way. --M. Python

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia (More info?)

In article <10cko46eg923e8d@corp.supernews.com>, jturner@localnet.com says...
> What's the shortest word in the English language that contains all
> five of the standard vowels: a, e, i, o, u.

Here are the shortest I found with the vowels in order:

caesious (I assume it has to do with cesium)
acheilous (acheilia means congenital absence of the lips)
arsenious (of or containing arsenic, especially with valence 3)
facetious (playfully jocular)
acheirous (don't know)
arterious (don't know)

--
Go to http://MarcDashevsky.com to send me e-mail.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia (More info?)

Marc Dashevsky wrote:

> In article <10cko46eg923e8d@corp.supernews.com>,
> jturner@localnet.com says...
>> What's the shortest word in the English language that
>> contains all five of the standard vowels: a, e, i, o, u.
>
> Here are the shortest I found with the vowels in order:
>
> caesious (I assume it has to do with cesium)
> acheilous (acheilia means congenital absence of the lips)
> arsenious (of or containing arsenic, especially with
> valence 3)
> facetious (playfully jocular)
> acheirous (don't know)
> arterious (don't know)

Marc, you answered a question not asked. There's nothing in the
question about the vowels being in alpha order. My answer would
be 'oiseau', but some might object to its lack of Englishness...

--
Dan Tilque

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia (More info?)

Dan Tilque wrote:
> Marc Dashevsky wrote:
>>In article <10cko46eg923e8d@corp.supernews.com>,
>>jturner@localnet.com says...
>>
>>>What's the shortest word in the English language that
>>>contains all five of the standard vowels: a, e, i, o, u.
>>
>>Here are the shortest I found with the vowels in order:
>>
>> caesious (I assume it has to do with cesium)
>> acheilous (acheilia means congenital absence of the lips)
>> arsenious (of or containing arsenic, especially with
>>valence 3)
>> facetious (playfully jocular)
>> acheirous (don't know)
>> arterious (don't know)
>
> Marc, you answered a question not asked. There's nothing in the
> question about the vowels being in alpha order. My answer would
> be 'oiseau', but some might object to its lack of Englishness...

As far as I can tell, oiseau isn't English but French. I did a quick
search and came up with only capitalized usage that wasn't in the
context of other French words. You've got the length right, though.

--Jeff

--
Loyalty to the country always, loyalty
to the government when it deserves it.
--Mark Twain

Rain on a tin roof sounds like a drum.
We're marching for freedom today-ay!
So turn on your headlights
and sound your horn,
if people get in the way. --M. Python

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia (More info?)

Jeffrey Turner wrote:

> Dan Tilque wrote:
>>> In article <10cko46eg923e8d@corp.supernews.com>,
>>> jturner@localnet.com says...
>>>
>>>> What's the shortest word in the English language that
>>>> contains all five of the standard vowels: a, e, i, o, u.
>>>
>> My answer
>> would be 'oiseau', but some might object to its lack of
>> Englishness...
>
> As far as I can tell, oiseau isn't English but French.

Yes, I know, and I indicated that it wasn't English in my answer.

> You've got the
> length right, though.

Maybe yes, maybe no. The traditional answer to this question is
'sequoia', which is one letter longer than 'oiseau'. It turns out
there are several other, less common, words of that length, as
you can see at ACOWOAT:

http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words6.html

That page also has EUNOIA, but notes that this word does not
appear in any dictionaries. Judge for yourself whether it's a
word or not.

--
Dan Tilque

PS Marc, you may be interested in paragraph 5 of that page.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia (More info?)

In article <10ckpecq57u0i53@corp.supernews.com>, dtilque@nwlink.com says...
> Marc Dashevsky wrote:
>
> > In article <10cko46eg923e8d@corp.supernews.com>,
> > jturner@localnet.com says...
> >> What's the shortest word in the English language that
> >> contains all five of the standard vowels: a, e, i, o, u.
> >
> > Here are the shortest I found with the vowels in order:
> >
> > caesious (I assume it has to do with cesium)
> > acheilous (acheilia means congenital absence of the lips)
> > arsenious (of or containing arsenic, especially with
> > valence 3)
> > facetious (playfully jocular)
> > acheirous (don't know)
> > arterious (don't know)
>
> Marc, you answered a question not asked. There's nothing in the
> question about the vowels being in alpha order. My answer would
> be 'oiseau', but some might object to its lack of Englishness...

Yes. I understood that, but since I knew that facetious and
abstemious were answers to the unasked question, I thought I
would mention them as a starting point. As it turns out,
caesious only has three consonants.

In case someone doesn't know, the longest English word with
only one vowel is "strengths."

--
Go to http://MarcDashevsky.com to send me e-mail.