"ofta" hidden in books

old folks that are

Ubang tigúlang nga wíting mupalit dáag lungun, Some old folks that are just waiting to die buy themselves a coffin in advance.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

omnes fines terrae and

And ye shall understand, that of all these countries, and of all these isles, and of all the diverse folk, that I have spoken of before, and of diverse laws, and of diverse beliefs that they have, yet is there none of them all but that they have some reason within them and understanding, but if it be the fewer, and that have certain articles of our faith and some good points of our belief, and that they believe in God, that formed all things and made the world, and clepe him God of Nature; after that the prophet saith, Et metuent eum omnes fines terrae , and also in another place, Omnes gentes servient ei , that is to say, ‘All folk shall serve him.’
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

or four times and

The horse neighed three or four times, and I waited to hear some answers in a human voice, but I heard no other returns than in the same dialect, only one or two a little shriller than his.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

ourselves from the affair

How the matter settled itself I do not know—we were much too anxious to disentangle ourselves from the affair and get out of range of the eye of the old gentleman in the bath-chair to make minute inquiries.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

of Feng then accompanied

Two retainers of Feng then accompanied him, bearing a letter graven on wood—a kind of writing material frequent in old times; this letter enjoined the king of the Britons to put to death the youth who was sent over to him.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

ornaments from the altar

Suppose a party of armed foreigners were to enter a village church in America and break ornaments from the altar railings for curiosities, and climb up and walk upon the Bible and the pulpit cushions?
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

occasion for the assistance

In almost every other race of animals, each individual, when it is grown up to maturity, is entirely independent, and in its natural state has occasion for the assistance of no other living creature.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

of favor they ascended

They obtained the government of a province; and, by the aid of merit, of reputation, or of favor, they ascended, by successive steps, to the illustrious dignities of the state.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

out from the affections

Cephalical Medicines may be found out from the affections of the brain itself.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

obtained from the audience

She felt altogether happy, for she knew that the young lady who was to appear in the second scene could not possibly meet with such an expression of good feeling as she had obtained from the audience.
— from Daireen. Complete by Frank Frankfort Moore

opened fountain they are

As the Spirit is now to them an opened fountain, they are to have recourse to it, to seek and obtain, day by day, more grace, for the purging of the flesh, for overcoming the 116 world, for bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, for fighting the good fight of faith and laying hold on eternal life.
— from A Bible History of Baptism by Samuel J. (Samuel John) Baird

of fixing the affections

John de Brienne represented to his daughter the necessity of fixing the affections of the young king.
— from Heroines of the Crusades by C. A. (Celestia Angenette) Bloss

old familiar thrill a

At Hyde Park Corner she turned into St James's Park, and, passing the barracks, received with an old familiar thrill a covert smile from the handsome sentry.
— from A Bed of Roses by Walter Lionel George

or fifteen thousand anyway

It was an immense crowd, for squares on Liberty street, breaking cars open and stealing—ten thousand or fifteen thousand anyway—just streaming back over the hill, taking the things away.
— from Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877 Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878 by 1877 Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July

of finished taste and

[Pg 142] The vice-regal party sat down to dinner at their usual and not irrational hour of four o'clock, which, in these our modern days of dissipation and late hours, would be considered as an hour for dinner quite gothic and á la Bourgeois ; for in these our polished days of finished taste and refinement, late hours seem to be the very acme of fashion; late dinners necessarily being succeeded by late suppers, and, par conséquence , afternoon breakfasts, in consequatory succession, bringing up the rere of fashionable high-life to the great practice and benefit of the College of Physicians.
— from The Eve of All-Hallows; Or, Adelaide of Tyrconnel, v. 1 of 3 by Matthew Weld Hartstonge

or four times a

Now the people go there to see the bull fights which are held three or four times a year.
— from Europe from a Motor Car by Russell Richardson

or four times and

After a long pause, the little man, who had been staring at him intently, nodded his head three or four times, and spoke again.
— from The Second Dandy Chater by Tom Gallon

or four times a

On account of these warnings, the numbers are seized by Government order three or four times a month, even although it be the organ of the Austrian “bourgeoisie.”
— from Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885 by Various

only forswore their allegiance

Their eagerness in this matter caused much concern to many of the Federalists of the eastern States, who commented with bitterness upon the light-hearted manner in which these settlers forsook their native land, and not only forswore their allegiance to it, but bound themselves to take up arms against it in event of war.
— from The Winning of the West, Volume 3 The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 by Theodore Roosevelt

This tab, called Hiding in Plain Sight, shows you passages from notable books where your word is accidentally (or perhaps deliberately?) spelled out by the first letters of consecutive words. Why would you care to know such a thing? It's not entirely clear to us, either, but it's fun to explore! What's the longest hidden word you can find? Where is your name hiding?

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