A near-perfect French 9-by-8 word rectangle

Word Ways, Nov, 2007 by A. Ross Eckler, Faith W. Eckler

The following 9-by-8 French word rectangle attributed to Jean-Charles Meyrignac appears on the Internet (for example, on www.mathpuzzle.com for May 25 2004). The source says that all but one of the words can be found in the Petit Larousse. This is intermediate in difficulty between an 8-by-8 and a 9-by-9 double word square, the latter of which has never been done in English. No 9-by-8 English rectangles are known by us to exist, but French is particularly adaptable to this form because of the many inflected verb forms.

D E C R O C H E S
E C O E U R A N T
R O N F L A N T E
A T T R I S T E R
P A R A P H E R A
E M A C I E R A S
R E I T E R A I S
A S S E N A S S E

DECROCHES--verb DECROCHER--to unhook, 2nd person sing., present

ECOEURANT--adj. m, nauseating, revolting (note that the oe is a diphthong)

RONFLANTE--adj. f, roaring, highflown, grandiloquent

ATTRISTER--verb to make sad, infinitive

PARAPHERA--verb PARAPHER--to initial, 3rd person sing., future

EMACIERAS--verb EMACIER--to emaciate, 3rd person sing., future

REITERAIS--verb REITERER--to reiterate, 2nd person sing., imperfect

ASSENASSE--verb ASSENER--to deal a blow, 1st person sing., subjunctive

DERAPERA--verb DERAPER--to get out of control, 3rd person sing., future

ECOTAMES--verb ECOTER, 1st person plural, past historic (the source of the rectangle does not identify this word other than to say that it is from the verb ECOTER which it does not define and which is not in our French dictionary (Oxford-Hachette). We believe that this is a neologism possibly having something to do with ecology)

CONTRAIS--verb CONTRER--to counter, 1st person sing., imperfect

REFRACTE--verb REFRACTER--to refract, 1st person sing., present

OULIPIEN--adj. m. relating to the French experimental literature group Oulipo

CRASHERA--verb CRASHER--to crash, 1st person sing., future

HANTERAS--verb HANTER--to haunt, 2nd person, past historic

ENTERAIS--verb ENTER--to graft, 1st person sing, imperfect

STERASSE--verb STERER--to evaluate the volume of a quantity of wood, 1st person sing., subjunctive

A. ROSS ECKLER

FAITH W. ECKLER

Morristown, New Jersey