What's That Flat?

Curtailment

A word or phrase becomes another when its last letter is removed. Example: ONE stingy TWO sting .

CURTAILMENT (8)

I’m a young LONGER chemist, but so far I’ve failed
To discover a drug that’s as good as CURTAILED.
My motives are pure: to make the world healthy
And in the process become really wealthy!

=Mr. Tex

The solution: LONGER aspiring FINAL aspirin .

A curtailment may consist of more than two words, though these are rare. An obscure but dazzling example: ONE chorizont (one who ascribes the Iliad and the Odyssey to different authors-look it up in NI2 if you don’t believe it!) TWO C-horizon (a particular layer of soil) THREE chorizo (a kind of spicy sausage) .

In a bigram curtailment, a word or phrase becomes another when its last two letters are removed. For example, ONE satiety TWO Satie .

In a phonetic curtailment, a word or phrase becomes another when its last sound is removed. For example: ONE qt (as in “on the qt”) TWO cute THREE queue . For discussion of what constitutes a single sound, see phonetic flats.

In a reversed curtailment, after curtailing the first word, you reverse it to get the second. Example: ONE stinky TWO knits .