hypernyms - Word for "No I in Team"


I heard a song this morning that had "We put the us in trust" in its lyrics. It reminded me of the maxim "There is no I in team." I've heard other, gloomier examples like "harm in harmony" and "utility in futility." Is there a hypernym for "insight based on the presence (or absence) of substrings in another string"?



Answer



When a word is within a word, it is called a kangaroo word. Also known as: marsupial, or swallow word


Wikipedia says:



A kangaroo word is a word that contains letters of another word, in order, with the same meaning. For example: the word masculine contains the word male, which is a synonym of the first word; similarly, the word observe contains its synonym see.
The etymology of the phrase kangaroo word is from the fact that kangaroos carry their young (known as joeys) in a body pouch. Likewise, kangaroo words carry their joey words within themselves. Twin kangaroos are kangaroo words containing two joey words (for example: container features both tin and can). In contrast, an anti-kangaroo word is a word that contains its antonym; for example: covert carries overt, animosity carries amity



In Richard Lederer's, The Word Circus: A Letter-Perfect Book. 1997:



"Among the kangaroo words that yield the most joviality and joy are those that conceal multiple joeys. Let's now perambulate, ramble, and amble through an exhibit of this species. Open up a container and you get a can and a tin. When you have feasted, you ate and have fed. When you deteriorate, you rot and die. A routine is both rote and a rut. Brooding inside loneliness are both loss and oneness.


"A chariot is a car and a cart. A charitable foundation is both a fund and a font. Within the boundaries of a municipality reside city and unity, while a community includes county and city."



Thus harm in harmony could be said to be an anti-joey word and futility an anti-kangaroo word because it carries the word utility.


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