My previous blog entry on TXTing provoked this response from my friend Lloyd:

…[I] figured out that longest word typed with only the upper letters in the QWERTY keyboard is not only TYPEWRITER but also includes several 3 other words: PERPETUITY, PROPRIETOR and REPERTOIRE. The longest in the middle line is: GALAHADS and nothing from the bottom line but 2 character element symbols like: Zn

Obviously this is some sort of geek challenge. I accept!

Using Python I replicated Lloyd’s results for the top row of the QWERTY keyboard:
PERPETUITY, PROPRIETOR, REPERTOIRE, and TYPEWRITER

Lloyd’s result for the middle row is highly suspect – GALAHADS is the plural of a proper noun. www.thefreedictionary.com does cite a couple of references, but it certainly isn’t in the dictionary I am using. My results are:
ALFALFA and HALALAS (a unit of currency in Saudi Arabia)

There is nothing of note on the vowel-forsaken bottom row.

The longest words that can be typed using only your left hand are:
AFTEREFFECTS, DESEGREGATED, DESEGREGATES, RESEGREGATED, RESEGREGATES, REVERBERATED, REVERBERATES, and STEWARDESSES

For the right hand I get:
HYPOLIMNION (the bottom layer of water in a deep lake)

It seems that Lloyd and I are not the only ones to try this experiment, Wikipedia has completely different (and even more obscure) words listed.