See who can solve this riddle.

[RetroJay]

Hi all.

Ok. My Bro has a game called 'The Filmaker'.
In one section you have to answer a riddle. (to which we have no clue of the answer) :

Let's see if anyone here can solve it.
-----------------------------------------------

"Made up of nine letters I be,
but some can be removed, you see.

Remove one letter from the word,
And you will see something absurd.

For a new word I do spell out,
Despite the letter I'm now without.

Do not yet think that you are done,
Repeat til I'm a word of one.

This traits unique, I don't deny.
Now please tell me:  what word be I?

I will provide hints for the dense:
To scare in the progressive tense."
------------------------------------------------

Just a bit of fun. A good workout for the little grey cells!

Jay.

[ddq]

I'd heard this one before, here's the solution.

Spoiler

Startling. Remove one letter at a time, and a new word is formed.
Starting,
Staring,
String,
Sting,
Sing,
Sin,
In,
I.

[close]

[Tuomas]

Yeah, and I found it in google searching for 'words of nine letters'... Came up with a nine letter puzzle.

[RetroJay]

That was quick. :o

Thank you very much for the answer.
I'm usually pretty good with riddles but never come across this one before.

Hey! If anyone else has a riddle then post here.

Jay.

[Stupot]

Is this the ONLY nine letter word in the English language that you can do this with?
Surely not!  Jeepers!

[Edit]
Oh, I realise, the final line is a clue as the the first word.

[Kweepa]

Got it by looking up scare in a thesaurus.
I like how the puzzle calls you dense if you can't work it out without the clue - as if!
I also like how scare and startle aren't really synonyms.


EDIT:

Is this the ONLY nine letter word in the English language that you can do this with?
Surely not!  Jeepers!

cleansers
discusses
drownings
groupings
paintings
piercings
prattlers
prickling
restarted
scrapping
sparkling
splatters
splitting
spritzers
stampeded
stampedes
starlings
startling
strapping
stringers
stringier
switchers
tramplers
trampling
trappings
wrappings

[RetroJay]

There always has to be one. :

[Kweepa]

One what?

[RetroJay]

One clever sod. 

Hey Steve. Would you mind if I PM'd you later regarding your Panorama module.
I would like to ask you a couple of questions, if I may.

Thanks.
Jay.

[mkennedy]

Did this question or something similar appear in the "Ask Marilyn" column? It seams vaguely familiar.