#17th letter of the alphabet

[lowkeyren]

guessing game time!! 🎰 + pretty liyue man :))

OH MY FOD MAYHE I AM BAD AT THIS?? L!WISH10L!WISH10L!WISH10L!WISH10L!WISH10L!WISH10

is the pretty liyue man baizhu.

MUTUAL GUESSING GAME!!!

[publicdomainreview]

The letter "A" from the Libellus Novus Elemntorum Latinorum, a 17th-century alphabet of organic type.

More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/an-alphabet-of-organic-type-ca-1650 https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/an-alphabet-of-organic-type-ca-1650

[maxladcomics]

Who is W.D. Gaster?

DISCLAIMER: Generally my theories are my observations with no clear conclusion at the end, the same technically applies for this one. I am not forcing anyone take this as 100% truth because as I'm going to explain, there are potential windows into other ideas/conclusions. I am bringing this up because I haven't seen it brought up and searching for it also returns no results. Also numbers. Also I'm tricking you with the title.

This theory is making the assumption that you have read other W.D. Gaster theories, I don't want to dig up every detail that's already been repeated and tbh I wouldn't remember all the details anyway. I am focusing on a point that I KNOW has not been focused on before.

ENTRY SEVENTEEN (Wait Max you just said--)

Ok, obvious point: ENTRY SEVENTEEN. W.D. Gaster speaks in ALL CAPS with no *, a very significant detail of his character, along with his mannerisms in speaking. It's unclear what the lack of * means but it could be related to the fact he has been erased, shattered across time and space, and mostly forgotten.

The room is called "room_gaster", so the connection has already been made here. W.D. Gaster has clearly written this entry, or at least was present for it.

2. THE NUMBER 17

Ok so I don't know if anyone has ever questioned it- but why the number 17? The sound and the fact 17 is spelled out as seventeen most likely means that this entry was spoken.

Is it because 7 - 1 = 6? or 1 + 7 = 8? What would be the significance there?

Early on in Undertale, True Lab Entry 17 did exist, but was never added to the lab directly. It was removed after a future patch, making Entry Seventeen the only one.

But why 17? What does 17 mean?

In Undertale, there are a few things associated with the number 17.

mus_st_him is 17 seconds long, this music is called "Gaster's Theme" in the sound test room.

Still, this seems to line up with W.D. Gaster being connected to the number 17

Junk food, that you can buy from Bratty and Catty, "Food that was probably once thrown away." Discarded? Abandoned? It already has a big bite out of it.

The Abandoned Quiche, heals 34 HP. A psychologically damaged spinach egg pie.

Perhaps this is too excessive, BUT: 2 x 17 = 34

Also Q is the 17th letter of the Alphabet.

If you think the Quiche is bad then this next one is WORSE:

The Deltarune song, Don't Forget. We have a note in Undertale that says "Don't Forget", with 3 characters we don't know.

It is 51 seconds long...

That is 3 x 17.

Discarded like trash, Abandoned because it was too much responsibility.. Forgotten?

3. PAPYRUS IS W.D. GASTER

I would like to tell you that this bastard (affectionate) has been hiding in front of us the entire time. Of course the Papyrus is Gaster fans knew all along, but we are but a small niche of the fandom where the theories can be simply tossed aside with excuses of Papyrus is just a goofy guy, he's just joking, there's no way there's anything serious about him.

Anyway now that I've connected W.D. Gaster with 17, allow me to show you why Papyrus IS Gaster.

In a pacifist run, Papyrus's ATK and DEF are 20

In a murder run, Papyrus's ATK and DEF are 3

That is -17

On Attack number 17 of his battle, Papyrus mentions his special attack. This attack and 3 attacks after are randomized, until Annoying Dog takes his attack, and he uses his 'regular attack'. I have been focusing on the 3 here, but counting the random attacks (4) and Annoying Dog interrupting afterwards, Papyrus has 6 attacks/turns after 17.

There are 16 monsters you have to dust in Snowdin, Papyrus is the 17th.

4. A SMALL NOTE

Papyrus has 680 HP, that can be divided by 17 (either 17 x 40 or 170 x 4) .

EDIT:

Adding another Q = 17 = Abandon item

The FUN values. F is the 6th letter of the alphabet, what do the Fun values do? They change our run in specific ways, meeting characters that don't appear again and getting strange phone calls. There is also something else that starts with F that changes the game completely.

Flowey.. and of course:

Frisk.

These names do not exist in Deltarune, W.D. Gaster has not been shattered.

5. CONCLUSION

17 means Abandoned, discarded, forgotten and forgettable. The close tie in with 3 potentially means that 3 characters have been forgotten already (the 'Don't Forget' is useless).

Despite Papyrus speaking in all caps with no *, it is a possibility that Papyrus is one of the other two in Entry Seventeen, or Entry Seventeen itself is ABOUT Papyrus. But, this also depends on who the Goner Creator is, because that... is ANOTHERHIM.

So Papyrus could be: W.D. Gaster, one of the 2 in entry 17, the Goner Maker, or the Man behind the tree. Maybe two? Maybe all of them? As a treat? Or perhaps he is also something else..

Anyway this theory/observation ties in with my observations with the NUMBER 3, which is great! It was fun, it was easy!! I cannot!! say the same!!! for 8!!!!

[wordsaficionado]

Are you a writer constantly in need of cool, fancy sounding words to write about? Are you a person who just wants to expand your vocabulary? Do you just want words to use to make you sound smart? Well then, enjoy this list that took me a few months and tons of books and google searches to create of really good words.

All with the official spellings and definitions from the first result, alphabetically organized :)

Updated and featuring a word for every letter of the alphabet!

Abhor- regard with disgust and hatred

Abject- (of something bad) experienced or present to the maximum degree

Adumbrate/Adumbration- report or represent in outline

Adage- a proverb or short statement expressing a general truth

Aftak (Scottish)- An easing or lull in a storm

Alizarin- a red pigment present in madder root, used in dyeing

Amalgamation- the action, process, or result of combining or uniting

Anchorite- a religious recluse

Anhedonic- inability to feel pleasure

Apocryphal- (of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true

Ardent- burning; glowing

Arduous- involving or requiring strenuous effort; difficult and tiring

Askance- with an attitude or look of suspicion or disapproval

Athirst- very eager to get something

Augur- (in ancient Rome) a religious official who observed natural signs, especially the behavior of birds, interpreting these as an indication of divine approval or disapproval of a proposed action

Axiom- a statement or proposition which is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true

Baroque- relating to or denoting a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries that followed mannerism and is characterized by ornate detail. In architecture the period is exemplified by the palace of Versailles and by the work of Bernini in Italy

Basorexia- the overwhelming desire to kiss

Bawdy- dealing with sexual matters in a comical way; humorously indecent

Beguile- charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in a deceptive way

Benignant- kindly and benevolent

Bier- a movable frame on which a coffin or a corpse is placed before burial or cremation or on which it is carried to the grave

Blunderbuss- an action or way of doing something regarded as lacking in subtlety and precision

Boff- have sex with (someone)

Boudoir- a woman's bedroom or private room

Bovine- an animal of the cattle group, which also includes buffaloes and bisons

Bucolic- relating to the pleasant aspects of the countryside and country life

Calamitous- involving calamity; catastrophic or disastrous

Callow- (of a young person) inexperienced and immature

Celerity- swiftness of movement

Cenotaph- a monument to someone buried elsewhere, especially one commemorating people who died in a war

Claret- a deep purplish-red color

Conglomerate- a number of different things or parts that are put or grouped together to form a whole but remain distinct entities

Consternation- feelings of anxiety or dismay, typically at something unexpected

Coppice- an area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are, or formerly were, periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate growth and provide firewood or timber

Crépuscule- twilight

Covetousness- the feeling of having a strong desire for the things that other people have

Dearth- a scarcity or lack of something

Debutante- an upper-class young woman making her first appearance in fashionable society

Declamation- the action or art of declaiming

Declaiming- utter or deliver words or a speech in a rhetorical or impassioned way, as if to an audience

Demarcated- set the boundaries or limits of

Dichotomy- a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different

Dilatory- slow to act

Diminution- a reduction in the size, extent, or importance of something

Diocese- a district under the pastoral care of a bishop in the Christian Church

Diaphanous- (especially of fabric) light, delicate, and translucent

Dolichocephalic- having a relatively long skull (typically with the breadth less than 80 [or 75] percent of the length)

Dogmatic- being certain that your beliefs are right and that others should accept them, without paying attention to evidence or other opinions

Dutch Crocus- type of flower I thought sounded pretty

Encroached- intrude on (a person's territory or a thing considered to be a right)

Eleutheromania- a mania or frantic zeal for freedom

Encumber- restrict or burden (someone or something) in such a way that free action or movement is difficult

Epigram- a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever or amusing way

Ephemeral- lasting for a very short time

Erotomania- a delusion in which a person (typically a woman) believes that another person (typically of higher social status) is in love with them

Espionage- the practice of spying or of using spies, typically by governments to obtain political and military information

Expostulate- express strong disapproval or disagreement

Falchion- a broad, slightly curved sword with the cutting edge on the convex side.

Fallacy- a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument

Fervid- intensely enthusiastic or passionate, especially to an excessive degree

Floccinaucinihilipilification- the action or habit of estimating something as worthless

Foibles- a minor weakness or eccentricity in someone's character

Folichonne- (informal) slight, lightweight; mischievous

Forelsket (Norwegian)- The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love

Fungible- (of a product or commodity) replaceable by another identical item; mutually interchangeable

Funambulist- a tightrope walker

Galvanic- relating to or involving electric currents produced by chemical action

Gant- a yawn

Garrulous- excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters

Gloaming- twilight; dusk

Hedonistic- engaged in the pursuit of pleasure; sensually self-indulgent

Hiraeth- (especially in the context of Wales or Welsh culture) deep longing for something, especially one's home

Idiosyncrasies- a mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual

Idyll- an extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque episode or scene, typically an idealized or unsustainable one

Intaglio- a design incised or engraved into a material

Incandescent- soft glow

Irrevocably- not able to be changed, reversed, or recovered; final

Jettisoned- throw or drop (something) from an aircraft or ship

Kalopsia- The delusion of things being more beautiful than they are

Keening- the action of wailing in grief for a lost loved one

Ken- one's range of knowledge or sight

Lackadaisical- lacking enthusiasm and determination

Logophile- a lover of words

Loquacity- the quality of talking a great deal; talkativeness

Magnanimous- generous or forgiving, especially toward a rival or less powerful person

Magniloquent- using high-flown or bombastic language

Meandering- following a winding course

Meliorism- the belief that the world can be made better by human effort

Mellifluous- (of a voice or words) sweet or musical; pleasant to hear

Metonym- a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated

Midnightly- Taking place at midnight

Modicum- a small quantity of a particular thing, especially something considered desirable or valuable

Nihilistic- rejecting all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless

Obsequious- obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree.

Obstreperous- noisy and difficult to control

Occultation- An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them

Ochre- an earthy pigment containing ferric oxide, typically with clay, varying from light yellow to brown or red

Panoply- a complete or impressive collection of things

Pastiche- an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period

Petrichor- a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather

Pious- having or showing a deep respect for God and religion

Pithy- (of a language or style) concise and forcefully expressive

Portending- be a sign or warning that (something, especially something momentous or calamitous) is likely to happen

Portmanteau- a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for example motel (from ‘motor’ and ‘hotel’) or brunch (from ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’)

Propinquity- the state of being close to someone or something; proximity or close kinship

Propitious- giving or indicating a good chance of success; favorable

Pulchritudinous- beautiful (yes, that’s the full definition)

Pusillanimous- showing a lack of courage or determination; timid

Qawwalis- a style of Sufi devotional music marked by rhythmic improvisatory repetition of a short phrase, intended to rouse participants to a state of mystical ecstasy

Rapport- a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well

Recalcitrant- having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline

Repertoire- a stock of skills or types of behavior that a person habitually uses

Resplendent- attractive and impressive through being richly colorful or sumptuous

Reverberated- (of a loud noise) be repeated several times as an echo or (of a place) appear to vibrate or be disturbed

Reverie- a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream

Requisite- made necessary by particular circumstances or regulations

Ricocheted- rebound one or more times off a surface

Rivulet- a very small stream

Rhododendron- a shrub or small tree of the heath family, with large clusters of bell-shaped flowers and typically with large evergreen leaves, widely grown as an ornamental

Ruched- (of cloth, clothes, etc.) sewn so that they hang in folds

Sablions- French plural word for sand (I’m 90% sure)

Salacious- having or conveying undue or inappropriate interest in sexual matters

Salubrious- health-giving; healthy or a place that is pleasant; not run-down

Sarsen- a silicified sandstone boulder of a kind which occurs on the chalk downs of southern England. Such stones were used in constructing Stonehenge and other prehistoric monuments

Scagliola- imitation marble or other stone, made of plaster mixed with glue and dyes which is then painted or polished

Sceptred- invested with a scepter or sovereign authority

Scintillating- brilliantly and excitingly clever or skillful

Sepia- a reddish-brown color associated particularly with monochrome photographs of the 19th and early 20th centuries

Sepulchral- gloomy; dismal

Sonder- The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it

Soporific- tending to induce drowsiness or sleep

Sumptuous- splendid and expensive-looking

Sycophant- a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage

Synecdoche- a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”)

Taciturn- (of a person) reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little

Tangentially- in a way that relates only slightly to a matter; peripherally

Tantamount- equivalent in seriousness to; virtually the same as

Tenacious- tending to keep a firm hold of something; clinging or adhering closely

Trepidation- a feeling of fear or agitation about something that may happen

Truculent- eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant

Ubiquitous- present, appearing, or found everywhere

Unequivocally- leaving no doubt

Valise- a small traveling bag or suitcase

Vaunted- praised or boasted about, especially in an excessive way

Venorexia- the feeling of romance that comes with the arrival of springtime

Verdant- (of countryside) green with grass or other rich vegetation

Wanton- (of a cruel or violent action) deliberate and unprovoked

Whelm- engulf, submerge, or bury

Xerically- of, pertaining to, or adapted to a dry environment

Yillen (Scottish)- shower of rain

Yoked- attack, especially by strangling

Yūgen- the beauty that we can feel sense into an object, even though the beauty doesn't exist in the literal sense of the word and cannot be seen directly

Zenith- the time at which something is most powerful or successful

I hope you enjoyed my little panoply of words!

Ily all, and ty for really amplifying the last post I made like this! I hope it helps someone out there and if there are any mistakes or inaccuracies PLEASE lmk!

[ms-boogie-man]

Ahem…

Do not come to me pretending to know the outcome either way of this apparent partnership between Tulsi Gabbard, RFK jr, Elon Musk, and President Donald Trump. There is not one person here on Tumblr who has any more info on this than I, so there is not anyone qualified to badmouth me in this. You can have your hunches and concerns, that is fine… I would like to hear them, but do not get uppity with me about it

Here are some facts:

Elon is a businessman and a wildcard. He is the world's biggest contractor to the US government… and that means bigger than Raytheon, HR Textron, Ameron Global, and all the rest. He did not invent the Tesla automobile… he took a rag-tag group of tech hippies, invested in their ideas, put a corral of organization and logic around what they were doing, and brought the Tesla to fruition. His son was brainwashed into the trans cult and is now lost to him, and that may be part of his bone to pick with globalists. Elon bought Twitter, made it into X and has stood up for free speech ever since. He is also said to be the creator of the overhead network of satellites that will form our internet in the future. He also has shown a huge and often disturbing interest in Artificial Intelligence and chipping people.

Robert F Kennedy Jr is a hardcore liberal who may hold some common goals with conservatives, but he also has some national desires that go against conservatives, i.e., gun laws, as one example. His views on health are important though. While working on the goals he has in common with the Trump admin, RFK jr may be hoping to get a couple of his liberal notions thru on the backside. It will be up to us, We the People, to stop this from happening.

Tulsi Gabbard has always held a soft spot within my heart. Like me, she is very pretty, and too, she talks a good game, and, she seems to have served her country cleanly and well… but… I know that she has been involved with the Clowns In America, and this gives me pause yo. I will never trust anyone fully if they have been thru that rat mill. I do like her apparent commitment and vigor yo

What can I say about Donald Trump? He confuses me at times… then at other times, I feel very sure of his commitment to our republic. Feelings are not what this movement is about yo Either way, unless we are going to put a lot of lives on the line, Trump is our best bet to take back our country as peacefully as possible… and that is a fact yo

I have brought up the following before Did anyone notice this 👇🏼 in January 2017?

Btw, JAG stands for Judge Advocate General

These gentlemen, officers in our military, stood with President Trump for 17 seconds *begins counting on her fingers

Yup! Just as I thought yo! The 17th letter in our alphabet is the letter Q

*interesting

Angie/Maddie��❥✝︎🇺🇸

[loopingpyre]

what was the 999 thing actually

im trying to find a copy of the whole interview now, because the site it was on seems to be just gone now. So here's an extract from reddit followed by my explaining to hide spoilers.

The number 9 door does not open to a combination of numbers that has a digital root of 9. It actually responds to 8. This is because, the number 9 on the door, is actually 'a fucking lowercase q', the 17th letter of the alphabet and has a digital root of 8.

These are both pronounced 'kyu' in japanese. However, this hinges on zero announcing 'seek a door that reads a 9' in japanese.

So the scene is rewritten in english so as the characters find the rules written on cards, and the 9 can visually look like a q instead, preserving Zero's comedy.

[callsignfate]

2024 Event Plans!

◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇~◇

Dates not planned (yet):

Kate Laswell, the alphabet! 26 days of oneshots

> 26 days where you all vote from a list of three (not so) ambiguous titles that start with that days letter. This event goes on at the same time as Valeria's.

Valeria Garza, the alphabet! 26 days of oneshots

> 26 days where you all vote from a list of three (not so) ambiguous titles that start with that days letter. This event goes on at the same time as Laswells.

500 follower event! (Starts when we hit 500 followers.

>5 posts a day for a week with a bonus request being posted at the end of each day. Every 500 followers, a larger and longer event will happen!

Dates planned (ish):

Easter weekend writing binge!

> The weekend before Easter, there will be 3 posts a day, 2 being pre planned and 3 being voted on/requests.

Writetober 30 days of posts!

> Starting October 1st, there will be 2 posts every day until the 31st, where there will be 10 posts voted on throughout the month.

Writesgiving a week of posts!

> 7 days before Thanksgiving, I will be posting 2 posts every day until the day of where I will post 3 voted on posts/requests

Birthday bash!

> 1 post will be posted every day from the 1st of December to the 17th of December. This goes along with Writemas

Writemas!

> Starting December 1st, 2 posts will be posted until December 25th. On Christmas day, there will be 3 posts. This goes along with my birthday bash posts.

[There will be posts outside of events. These posts bay be short, rejected drafts, rejected ideas for events, requests that I feel have been waiting a long time, funny idea scraps, ect.]

[half-oz-eddie]

Pretty, Coral Green

Steve had a crush on his new lab partner. But it wasn’t just that pretty face that attracted Steve. He couldn’t stop himself from staring at his lab partner’s pretty hands.

Q is for Quirofilia (fetish for hands)

This is the 17th fic in my Harringrove Kinktober ABCs

A series of 26 unrelated ficlets about Billy and Steve, each one written for a kink that starts with every letter of the alphabet.

@harringrovekinktober

At the beginning of his last spring semester, Steve was assigned a new lab partner in school. Billy Hargrove.

Billy wasn’t very talkative or friendly but he liked to get his work done and over with, so the project was sure to be an easy A…

An easy A as long as Steve could stop watching Billy write, or hold a beaker, zip and unzip his book bag, or fantasize about those big beautiful hands gripping his cock. 

One of these days Billy was gonna spot his erections in class if he didn’t fucking relax. 

—

Steve always noticed the way Billy would flex his hand after a few minutes of taking notes, and the veins in his hands would protrude. He’d rub his calloused hands together and they’d sound like soft sandpaper. 

Steve would wriggle around in his chair, adjusting his pants, trying to conceal his erection.

His hands were just so pretty… and interesting. Sometimes they’d be smudged with motor oil from Billy taking care of his car between classes, and other times he’d have nail polish on his fingers because Chrissy or Heather liked to try out their polish on his nails.  

Today, the coral green polish on his nails was beginning to chip away on his middle and ring fingers. He was sporting the one gaudy ring he swiped off Munson in the lunchroom. It looked better on him than it did on Eddie. 

Billy slid a note to Steve, asking for the notes from the first half of the period.

His handwriting was as pretty as the hands it came from. 

Billy was pretty, too. Especially when he wanted something. 

Steve passed his notes to Billy, watching as he scribbled down the first page, switching hands and continuing to write. 

He was also ambidextrous. Fucking show off. 

After class, they met in the library to work on their project and Steve’s constant staring at Billy’s hands became more obvious. 

“Can we work on the project at your place?” Billy asked. “I hate having to be quiet in the fucking library.”

“Sure.” Steve said without skipping a beat. 

Keep Reading On Ao3

[shall-we-die]

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[best-non-english-word-torunament]

Round one: Otucha vs Fwomaj

(poll at the end)

Otucha (Polish)

[ɔˈtu.xa]

Translation: encouragement, uplift

Polish is an Indo-European language belonging to the Slavic branch. It’s spoken by 36,7 million people in Poland where it is the national language. It is written with a Latin alphabet due to church influence, adapted with the addition of nine letters (ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź, ż) and removal of three (x, q, v).

Motivation: I just really really like the way it sounds tbh

Fwomaj (Haitian Creole)

[fwomaʒ]

Translation: Cheese

Haitian Creole is a French based Creole spoken by 11 million people in Haiti that emerged in the 17th and 18th century as a result of slave trade. Outside of 17th century French it has linguistic influences from a variety of languages, mostly West African ones including Wolof, Fon and Éwé but also Taino, the now extinct indigenous language spoken in Haiti before colonisation. It’s a national language and taught in most schools, as well as being the main language. Only 15% of Haitians are fluent in French, which is the second national language and has had a higher social status.

Motivation: Fwomaj comes from the French word fromage, and is spelled in a way that makes me laugh. Also cheese is a good food.

[didanawisgi]

Gematria (/ɡəˈmeɪtriə/; Hebrew: גמטריא or gimatria גימטריה, plural גמטראות or גימטריאות, gimatriot)[1] is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher which is used.

Hebrew alphanumeric ciphers were probably used in biblical times, and were later adopted by other cultures. Gematria is still widely used in Jewish culture. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures: the Greeks isopsephy, and later, derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria, Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria.

Although a type of gematria system ('Aru') was employed by the ancient Babylonian culture, their writing script was logographic, and the numerical assignments they made were to whole words. The value of these words were assigned in an entirely arbitrary manner and correspondences were made through tables,[2] and so cannot be considered a true form of gematria. Aru was very different from the gematria systems used by Hebrew and Greek cultures, which used alphabetic writing scripts. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria; Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria. There is currently no academic consensus over whether Hebrew gematria or Greek isopsephy was used first.

Gematria sums can involve single words, or a string of lengthy calculations. A well-known short example of Hebrew numerology that uses a gematria cipher is the word חי chai (lit. "alive"), which is composed of two letters that (using the assignments in the Mispar gadol table shown below) add up to 18. This has made 18 a "lucky number" among the Jewish people. Donations of money in multiples of 18 are very popular.[3]

In early Jewish sources, the term "gematria" can also refer to other forms of calculation or letter manipulation, for example atbash.[4]

Etymology

Although the term is Hebrew, it may be derived from the Greek γεωμετρία geōmetriā, "geometry", which was used as a translation of gēmaṭriyā,[5] though some scholars believe it to derive from Greek γραμματεια grammateia "knowledge of writing". It is likely that both Greek words had an influence on the formation of the Hebrew word.[6][1] Some also hold it to derive from the order of the Greek alphabet, gamma being the third letter of the Greek alphabet ("gamma tria").[7]

The word has been extant in English since at least the 17th century from translations of works by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. It is largely used in Jewish texts, notably in those associated with the Kabbalah.

[q-counter]

I suppose I should make an

introduction post.

As the Q counter, I count your Q's for you.

I was inspired by Blogs such as @t-counter and @alphabetcompletionist

Q is the 17th letter in the alphabet, and according to this website, the least common.

Frequently Asked Questions

I will add questions to the FAQ when I get questions.

[publicdomainreview]

The letter "A" from the Libellus Novus Elemntorum Latinorum, a 17th-century alphabet of organic type.

More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/an-alphabet-of-organic-type-ca-1650 https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/an-alphabet-of-organic-type-ca-1650

[maniculum]

Hear me out: this is a mostly plausible alternate history alphabet.

The places where this one is wrong are all the most RECENT changes to the English alphabet.* So clearly we’re looking at an alternate history with a point of divergence sometime around the late medieval / early modern period. It's got to be a post-printing-press era because the handful of letters that occurred in English but not Latin during the medieval period are all absent, and the development of the printing press was the final push that made English drop them.**

First, ⟨j⟩ wasn’t invented in this timeline. Note that ⟨j⟩ is a very recent letter; there’s no attestation of it being used to represent a distinct sound before the 16th century, and that idea didn’t make it into English until the 17th century. Before then, ⟨i⟩ was doing extra duty. ⟨j⟩ actually developed from a variant of ⟨i⟩ — if you’re familiar with the “long s”, it’s like if someone decided that we should split it off as its own letter, so e.g. ⟨s⟩ made the /s/ sound and ⟨ſ⟩ made the /ʃ/ sound.*** There was a conventional usage where sometimes you'd put a little hook on the ⟨i⟩ depending on its position in the word, just like the long s was position-dependent, and we turned the hooked ⟨i⟩ into ⟨j⟩.

Second, ⟨w⟩ developed differently. Now, ⟨w⟩ as its own letter is also recent, BUT there was already a substantial history of people using a literal double-u -- ⟨uu⟩ -- to represent that sound. However, the differentiation between ⟨u⟩ and ⟨v⟩ is also quite recent, following similar logic to the ⟨i⟩ and ⟨j⟩ thing from above, and developing around the same timeframe, which is why even though we call ⟨w⟩ a "double-u" in English, it looks more like a double-v (and in fact some languages call it that). At the time we named it, those were functionally the same thing; whether the name solidified as "double-u" or "double-v" was pretty much arbitrary. Anyway, you could interpret this alternate alphabet as having split ⟨w⟩ in two at the same time they split ⟨u⟩ and ⟨v⟩: perhaps the ⟨w⟩ with the blob in the middle could represent a "crossed" ⟨w⟩.**** If you want a speculative usage of the second ⟨w⟩ (which we could name "double-v"), I propose that one could represent /w/ and the other could represent /ʍ/.***** Of course, if I were designing an alphabet that split ⟨w⟩, I'd literally do a double-u and a double-v, so that the two characters were ⟨ɯ⟩ and ⟨w⟩.

The semicolon is a tough one, and the reason I described this as MOSTLY plausible. The only possible explanation I can advance is that its inclusion is inspired by the history of the ampersand, ⟨&⟩. For a time, ⟨&⟩ was included as a letter of the English alphabet, usually listed at the end. One could imagine the designer of this alternate alphabet as deciding that they also wanted to change things up by including a punctuation mark, and picking ⟨;⟩. But of course this is misguided, because in fact ⟨&⟩ isn't a punctuation mark; it's a ligature of ⟨et⟩, and I believe technically it qualifies as a logogram.

* I specify "English" because I am not up on the history of orthographical innovation in other languages that use the Latin alphabet. I’m sure there have been more recent changes in other languages’ implementation of the Latin alphabet, but these are the most recent changes that apply to English.

** When Europeans first started making movable type, it was designed to print Latin, so letters not in Latin weren’t available, meaning printed texts couldn’t have ⟨ð⟩, ⟨þ⟩, ⟨ƿ⟩, or ⟨ȝ⟩. Some Norse languages held onto ⟨ð⟩ and/or ⟨þ⟩ anyway and eventually people did make type for them, but English ditched them pretty quickly. To my knowledge no current writing system uses ⟨ƿ⟩ or ⟨ȝ⟩; ⟨ƿ⟩ didn't seem to fully catch on even in the medieval period, and I don't think ⟨ȝ⟩ was ever in use outside of the British Isles. English orthography was kind of already phasing out its extra letters even before printing arrived, so they never had a chance.

*** For people who don’t know IPA, /ʃ/ is the sound English currently represents with ⟨sh⟩. English apparently decided that “add an ⟨h⟩” was the basic solution to differentiating any two consonant sounds, as likewise it replaced ⟨ð⟩/⟨þ⟩ with ⟨th⟩ and ⟨ȝ⟩ with ⟨gh⟩.

**** Annoyingly, there's no Unicode symbol for "crossed W", but it's the style that they use in the Wikipedia logo if you want an example. The two ⟨V⟩s overlap in a kind of x shape instead of meeting at a point in the middle.

***** The phoneme /ʍ/ does occur in English, but it's a little hard for me to describe because it's fallen out of a lot of dialects, including my own. If you pronounce ⟨w⟩ and ⟨wh⟩ differently, your ⟨wh⟩ is probably /ʍ/.

One of the greatest Tweets and it hasn't even existed for 24 hours

[wisteriamusic]

Branches of a Universes

I'm thinking way too much about but basically anyone in the know about the multiverse goes to Multicity a neutral world to get mv identification. A series of letters, numbers, and symbols describing their universe, branch, and timeline

So, starting with something basic UT-966[Branch:S-NP-Ac-Gf-TP]{17}

UT = Undertale with other universe shorthand going here like US or UF. 966 is what timeline of that universe it is this isn't counting reset but its more like what copy it is. The lower the number the closest it is to the original.

Branches: S = Story/Tale. B = Partial/Both. C = Coded/Game.

NP = No Player and P = Player. The world doesn't need to function as a game to have a player. Players are often just entities that can control a character usually the human or their soul to enforce their world it can happen in a Story world too. The player themself can even be Chara or Frisk.

Ac = Fallen Angel Chara. Ec = Evil Chara. Gc = Morally Grey Chara. Mc = Player Muse Chara. Pc = Player Chara. Jc = Judgement Chara. Nc = Narrator Chara.

Gf = Morally Grey Frisk. Kf = Kind Pacifist Frisk. Ef = Evil Frisk. Sf = Soulless Puppet Frisk. Vf = Unwilling Vessel Frisk. Pf = Player Frisk. NTf = No True Frisk.

TP = True Pacifst. FP = False Pacifist. NE = Neutral Ending. GE = Genocide Ending. Will probably add something in parenthesis about the specific False Pacifist and Neutral Endings.

17 is simply a number designated to certain characters 17 is for Sans seeing how in alphabetic order Sans ends up being 17th.

Some additional stuff MW = Modded World. SE = Scripted Events. LB = Limit Breaker and L = Limited. GW = Game World. CB = Code Breaker.

I like the idea that those in the Coded/Game world often develop unique abilities that can affect entire universes still no one would chose to be in a game timeline because of how much more restricted and less real they are. Gonna add more onto this but later in another post.

[retrogradeinverse]

Solving a Retrograde Inverse puzzle

In this post I will go through the process of solving the puzzle above, from the point of view of a hypothetical person who has no clue what the solution might be. Of course, the puzzle being designed by myself, I have to pretend.

Alright. Starting now.

Okay... so I'm guessing the word "uniformize" implies I'm supposed to make the ciphertext uniform in some way. I see that it's split into seven groups and they aren't all the same size. Maybe I can make them the same size somehow.

Let me see... there are 19 characters total. Unfortunately that is a prime number so there's no way I can just rearrange the spaces and get all groups to be the same size. However, looking more closely, I notice that the groups with only two elements don't have a letter in them while all groups of size 3 have exactly one letter, maybe there's something to it.

A way of finding out what the apparently missing letters should be by looking at the numbers, maybe? It's a possibility, I guess, but I don't see how. I was thinking maybe the numbers relate to the positions of the letters in the alphabet but that seems unlikely. L is the 12th letter but that's the only match, an the other numbers are all too big. Even if I wrap around the alphabet I would land on the 17th letter for the first group, and that's Q, not P. And then 42 shows up in two groups with different letters... yeah, I don't think that's it.

On that note, the number 11 is within the alphabet and is not paired with a letter in the ciphertext. That corresponds to K in the alphabet, so the last group could be 92K, and now I have 6 groups that are all 3 characters long. How does that help me? The groups are uniform in size but that's about it. There's no consistency to where the letter appears in each group, sometimes it's at the start, sometimes it's at the end and where it is changes at different intervals. Let's scratch that idea.

What if instead of trying to turn numbers into letters, I do the opposite? I can represent each letter as two digits, corresponding to its position in the alphabet, and thus get twelve groups of two digits each, as such:

P  95 42 C  42 A  35 Z  L  12 92 11 16 95 42 03 42 01 35 26 12 12 92 11

This looks like progress, but also I have no idea if anything I did so far gets me any closer to the solution. Maybe I am missing something... (I hover my mouse over the puzzle page) OH! of course, the puzzles have an additional hint in the image's alt-text! "ASCII and you shall receive". Okay, so maybe I am on the right track with replacing the letters with numbers, but I should be using the ASCII code of each letter instead of its position in the alphabet. I could check an ASCII chart but I happen to know this a neat fact about ASCII: the code for each letter (in uppercase) is just its position in the alphabet plus 64, so if I add 64 to each number that was originally a letter, I get this:

80 95 42 67 42 65 35 90 76 12 92 11

I still have no idea if I am getting any closer to the solution, but I also remember ASCII is a binary encoding system, so I have a bit of a crazy idea, I'm going to get rid of all the spaces and plop that number into a base converter to convert it from decimal into binary:

10101011011011010110010101110100011011110110111001111001011011010111100110111011

Turns out the resulting number is 80 digits long. That's interesting, bytes are 8 bits long, so that corresponds to 10 characters. Could be a coincidence, but what are the odds? Well, there's one more thing left for me to do down this track and if it doesn't work, I'm out of ideas. I'll just find a binary to ASCII converter and hope for the best.

«metonymy»

It worked!

You know... I have the solution, but I can't help to feel like I'm still missing something. I never did figure out what the point of the yin-yang symbol was.

---

...And that's it. I am aware me having designed the puzzle means I was able to just avoid going down thousands of possible roads that lead nowhere, and that the roads that lead nowhere that I did follow were cherry picked to be ones that were helpful in one way or another.

This puzzle is both easier and more difficult than ones you can actually find on the site. The alt-text hint in particular is way more helpful than ones in previous puzzles are. The yin-yang symbol is also more helpful than the illustrations from the other puzzles, despite hypothetical me appearing to not know what it meant. There is even one extra hint I didn't mention at any point. If you look hard enough at the image you might even see it.

On the other hand, the process of replacing all of the letters with their ASCII code, then converting the resulting number into binary, and then converting that back into ASCII text is way less intuitive than the solution to any of the other puzzles. Having to do all that is much more complicated and prone to error than, I don't know, find out the cipher that was used to encipher this text and the key that was used, or open this text in an editor and do a single search and replace operation.

This one was so unforgiving that even if you did everything right you might think you were stumped because, as you may have found out, if you copy the binary number into the binary to text converter that I linked and just click the "convert" button, you get an unrecognized character. You have to specifically click the character encoding drop-down and pick the option that says just "ASCII", not "ASCII/UTF-8", which is the default option.

The way I personally would have done it, though, would be to code a script to convert the string of zeros and ones into a file with those specific bits and looked at the file in a text editor or a hex editor -- in this particular instance, Notepad does recognize the correct encoding and displays the solution. However, I wanted to show that coding is not necessary to solve any of the puzzles. It helps, but you don't have to do it.

None of the puzzles in the site have been solved in years, which is why I'm writing this post, but to be perfectly honest I think the main reason for that is that I have done a terrible job at getting people to even look at them. I don't want to believe I am the only person who would look at a sequence of numbers and letters and, with some encouraging, think "hmm, maybe if I replace the letters with numbers somehow, I can convert the resulting integer into binary data and see what it looks like".

I really, really don't want to believe that.