Primitive words and roots of words · HackerPapers discussionshttps://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1104.4427/Collected HN comments and submissions linking this paper.enMon, 02 Nov 2026 11:16:22 GMTPrimitive words and roots of words — mentioned by Gehinnnhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44886610urn:hackerpapers:mention:1104.4427:44886610Wed, 13 Aug 2025 10:13:31 GMT<p>This reminds me of primitive words [1]: A primitive word is a word that is not the (2+ times) repetition of any other word. This is slightly different than a non-pattern word from the article, which is a word that is not a 3+ times repetition of any other word. The anti-pattern game is about extending words such that they do not contain a pattern word. I wonder how the situation changes if 2 times repetitions would count as pattern (i.e. non-primitive words). For primitive words, it is an open problem if the language of primitive words (over any non-trivial finite alphabet) is context free. I…</p><p><a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1104.4427/">Paper and discussion history</a>. A mention is not an endorsement.</p>cs.FL