What is a Stair Word™?

Question

_{This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series inaugurated by JLee with his original Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.}

If a phrase adheres to a certain rule, then I call it a Stair Word™.

Use the examples below to find the rule.

Stair Words™	Not Stair Words™
PANAMA	AFRICA
SOUPY	SOLID
WICKER	WACKER
INLET	OUTLET
WAIF	LADY
ENCHANT	IMPRESS
BORN	BARN
SIGN	SINE
QUALM	QUILT
BICKER	ARGUE
FARADAY	EINSTEIN
CALM	STORMY
FOULER	VULGAR
BANANA	ORANGE
MANAGE	GOVERN
BUCKET	PITCHER

In case you want it in CSV:

Stair Words™, Not Stair Words™
PANAMA, AFRICA
SOUPY, SOLID
WICKER, WACKER
INLET, OUTLET
WAIF, LADY
ENCHANT, IMPRESS
BORN, BARN
SIGN, SINE
QUALM, QUILT
BICKER, ARGUE
FARADAY, EINSTEIN
CALM, STORMY
FOULER, VULGAR 
BANANA, ORANGE 
MANAGE, GOVERN
BUCKET, PITCHER

The puzzle relies on the series' inbuilt assumption, that each wordcan be tested for whether it is a Stair Word™ or not on its own.

These look mostly like Bumpy Words™, except that a couple of them don't quite fit the pattern. I wonder if they're related, though... — GentlePurpleRain, Nov 03 '16 at 14:37
@GentlePurpleRain - Already checked. Doesn't fit in here Wicker and Wacker both are Non Bumpy. — Techidiot, Nov 03 '16 at 14:41

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 03 '16 at 19:31

17

A Stair Word™ is a word in which

successive letter sequences (pairs) move in opposite directions on the keyboard.

For example (using an example keyboard image that I had lying around in my Pictures folder):

SOUPY and WICKER, for example, adhere to the rule:

and SOLID and WACKER, for example, do not:

as L→I→D is two consecutive moves to the left, and A→C→K is two consecutive moves to the right. (Arguably, S→O→L is also two consecutive moves to the right, but O→L is nearly vertical.)

These are called Stair Words™ because they are suggestive

of a multi-flight staircase, zig-zagging back and forth:

^{(Image derived from http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/EP1181423B1/imgf0001.png)}

answered Nov 03 '16 at 19:31

Peregrine Rook

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Oh man! I walked the stairs but didn't knew where I was walking. +1 – Techidiot Nov 03 '16 at 19:35
Curses. I even looked at positioning and didn't notice what you saw. +1 from me as well – Rubio Nov 03 '16 at 19:36
@Rubio - How can you miss it man! C'mmon you got the vexed one right :D – Techidiot Nov 03 '16 at 19:38
I know, right?! Kicking myself down the ... uh.... stairs. – Rubio Nov 03 '16 at 19:38
@Techidiot I couldn't see it either, and I WROTE the vexed one. – TwoBitOperation Nov 03 '16 at 19:41
I was (partly) inspired by What is a Waterfall Word™?, which makes me all the more surprised that nobody got this before me. – Peregrine Rook Nov 03 '16 at 19:46
I just revisited the words and I am confused as to how BARN is a stair word? And why BORN is not? Its either wrong example or may be this stair logic has some flaw. Can anyone explain? :-/ – Techidiot Nov 03 '16 at 19:52
@Techidiot: You're misreading the table: BORN is listed as a Stair Word, BARN is listed as Not a Stair Word. – Peregrine Rook Nov 03 '16 at 19:58
Ah my first thought was alternating up and down rows on the keyboard, I didn't even consider looking at it horizontally. Good job! – Ryan Smith Nov 03 '16 at 20:01

What is a Stair Word™?

1 Answers1