syzygy
noun

- a connection, or harmonious concurrence of different elements or ideas

- the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system

PSA Languages / Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

“Syzygy” can be traced to the Greek syzygos meaning “yoked together", a combination of syn- "with, together with" and zygon "yoke".

Zygon is also the source of “zygote”, meaning “a cell formed by the union of two gametes” and “zygoma”, which refers to several bones and processes of the skull, including the "zygomatic bone" (a.k.a. the cheekbone).

“Syzygy” entered the English language in the mid-17th century and has its roots in ancient astronomy and mathematics. Over time, the term has come to be used metaphorically to describe any kind of alignment, connection, or harmonious union between elements or ideas.

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SPECTACULAR SYZYGY

It happened on a ship called the Queen Mary, heading to America. Harry Parr Davies, who played music for Gracie Fields, accidentally dropped his glasses into the ocean. He was really upset because he couldn't read his music without them, and practicing on the ship would be difficult. Harry told Gracie about his problem who then went to the purser's office to see if they could buy a new pair on the ship. While she was there, a steward was putting up a notice that said, "Found: a pair of glasses. Ask the purser if they belong to you."

Gracie had a sudden idea and said, "If no one claims them, can Harry try them on and see if they fit?" The purser agreed, so Harry tried them on and they turned out to be his own glasses! The person who found them had a cabin on a lower deck. He said, "It's the most unbelievable thing. I stuck my hand out of the window to check if it was raining, and the glasses fell right into my hand."

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5 REALLY WEIRD WORDS

- SYZYGY = the only word that contains three alternating y’s.

- BOOKKEEPER = the only word that has three consecutive pairs of letters that are the same.

- FACETIOUS (scherzhaft) = the only word in the English language that contains all the vowels in alphabetical order.

- TWYNDYLLYNGS (Zwillinge) = the longest word in English without any vowels.

- UNCOPYRIGHTABLE the longest English word that does not repeat any letters.

Dear OWAD Reader, If you’ve ever experienced an interesting syzygy coincidence, drop me a line about it and I’ll share with you an astonishing experience which happened to me in back in 1996!

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SYNONYMS

- a close similarity, connection, equivalence, or coincidence

accidental happening, accordance, affiliation, affinity, alignment, analogue, analogy, chance occurrence, closeness, coincidence, collation, commensurateness, commonality, common denominator (factor), concert, concord, concordance, concurrence, conformity, congruence, connectedness, connection, consonance, corollary, correlation, correspondence, divine decree (will), equality, equivalence, Fates, fortuity, fortune, freak happenstance, God smiling down on one, happenchance, happenstance, interrelation, Lady Luck, like peas in a pod, luck, mapping, matching, metaphor, mutuality, odd chance, overlap, pairing, par, parallel, parity, partnership, peculiar turn of events, pendant, providence, rapport, reciprocity, relatedness, resemblance, sameness, selfsameness, semblance, serendipity, similarity, simile, simultaneity, simultaneousness, symmetry, synchronicity, synchronisation, synonym, SYZYGY, the stars, tie-in, tie-up, togetherness, twist of fate, unforeseen event, wheel of fortune, wyrd

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“SYZYGY is one of the weirdest words. It’s the only word in English which contains three alternating y’s.”

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