Post edited 5:40PM – Nov-01-11 by Ron Draney

Despite my fascination with the culture of the 1920s, my main association for the word flivver is as one of the few relatively common words with a double V. The others are various forms of the slangy verb "to rev" (revved, revving) and the adjective savvy.

I've never been able to find a good word with a double J, Q, X or Y, and most of the ones I have for K (chukker, pukka) are distinctly foreign. It might be fun to see who can come up with my examples for double H or W.

Well, that certainly didn't take long.

I would also have accepted fishhook and withhold.

Ron,
My favorite double-K word is "bookkeeper," because it also has the distinction of having three double letters in a row.

Post edited 8:37PM – Jan-13-12 by Bob Bridges

Now, come on, you guys, this is cheating.  "Hitchhike", "glowworm", "fishhook", "withhold", "plowwright", "roughhouse" and "bookkeeper" are not words, in the sense of "flivver" and "skivvy", they're TWO words, no matter that we spell them without a space between them.  We are a Germanic language, after all.

"Powwow" and "bowwow" probably should be eliminated, too.  "Bowwow" not only is usually hyphenated but it's the merest reduplication.  "Powwow" might be reduplication, too, just not (originally) in English.  Let's be self-disciplined about this.

As for "flivver", it isn't a word for an old car, it's an old word for a car.  I used to see it as a slang term in books written before and around WWI; even then I got the impression it was no longer current, and by WWII it seems to have been out of date.  It says here it meant a cheap car, specifically the 1910 Model T.  "Origin unknown".

Hm, here's the entry on "powwow":

1620s, "priest, sorcerer," from a southern New England Algonquian language (probably Narragansett) powwow "shaman, medicine man, Indian priest," from a verb meaning "to use divination, to dream," from Proto-Algonquian *pawe:wa "he dreams, one who dreams." Meaning "magical ceremony among N.Amer. Indians" is recorded from 1660s. Sense of "council, conference, meeting" is first recorded 1812. Verb sense of "to confer, discuss" is attested from 1780.

Aaarrrgh!  <tears at hair>

Post edited 2:08AM – Feb-04-12 by tromboniator

Well, now, Brother Bob, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. If compound words are merely two words with the space removed, then we should be able to reinsert the space with no harm to the meaning, shouldn't we? A book keeper is the same as a bookkeeper? I don't think so. A high chair is the same as a highchair? I see differences. Hot head and hothead? Dumbbell? Smallpox? Bobsled? I think each of these is a single word just as a single compound is formed from two (or more) chemical elements. The elements are still discernible, but the properties are different from either. I concede that for the purposes of the double-letter search using them may be slightly underhanded!

Navvy.

The game has its own rules