Beheadments , curtailment and more

Beheadments :

By beheadment, I mean removing the first letter of a word.

In beheadments, a word loses its first letter and becomes another word.

Example:

Sparking — Parking

Pants — ants

Glass — lass — ass

Spare — pare — are

Charm — Harm — Arm

In the seventeenth century, the poet George Herbert included this form of word play in his poem , ‘ Paradise ’

I bless thee , Lord , because I GROW

Among thy trees , which in a ROW

To thee both fruit and order OW.

What open force , or hidden CHARM

Can blast my fruit or bring me HARM ,

While the enclosure is thy ARM ?

Enclose me still for fear I START

Be to me rather sharp and TART ,

Than let me want thy hand and ART.

When you dost greater judgement SPARE ,

And with thy knife but prune and PARE ,

Ev’n fruitful trees more fruitful ARE ..

Beheadments occasionally include more than two words. A famous example is

Aspirate

Spirate

Pirate

Irate

Rate

Ate

Also read

All you need to know about redundancy

Curtailment:

It involves removal of the last letter.

A word or phrase becomes another when its last letter is removed.

Example:

Stingy — Sting

Aspiring — Aspirin

Let’s see this funny example:

Sheathed

Sheathe

Sheath

Heath

Heat

Eat

At

A

Letter Words ( Grammanym )

Alphabets and numbers that are used instead of other words are called letter words or Grammanym.

Examples

Essay — SA

Enemy — NME

Emily — MLE

Entity — NTT

Tea — T

Sea , see — C

Why — Y

Cue , Queue — Q

See you — C U

Double you — W

Pea — P

Are — R

Are you — R U

Before — B4

Empty — MT