We’ve all heard the old axiom “there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team,’” but here’s another one for you: There’s no “O” in “number.” OK, maybe this isn’t a nugget of motivational wisdom, but it does make me wonder why “No.” is the standard abbreviation for “number.” English is full of odd abbreviations — take “lb” as an abbreviation for “pound” (which we touched on in a previous edition), “oz” for “ounce,” or “Rx” for “prescription.” While the letters in an abbreviation don’t always match the full word, there’s usually an etymological story to explain it. Let’s examine “No.” and “number.”
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This abbreviation goes back to the Latin numero, which translates to English as “number.” The “numero sign” has been historically expressed as “N°,” “No,” or “No.” — versions that shorten the word “numero” to just its first and last letters. The Oxford English Dictionary has examples of the abbreviation being used as an adverb meaning “in number” going back to the 1660s, mostly used in reference books. A citation from a 1693 dictionary demonstrates the adverb usage: “No vi. that is, Six in number.”
The abbreviation began to be used as a noun, also in reference books, around the mid-to-late 18th century. In a 1797 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica: “When the magnifiers, No 4, 5, or 6, are used.”
The usage of “No.” continued to grow, and it was adopted for a wide variety of topics outside reference materials. In the 1836 “Sketches by Boz,” Charles Dickens wrote, “Mrs. Macklin, at No. 4. opened her little street door,” and in an 1840 letter, he wrote, “I am curious to see how the idea of the first No. of my projected work, strikes you.”
This repeated use in reference books, by major authors, and by reputable publications earned the abbreviation “No.” a permanent place in the common lexicon, despite the mismatch with the English word “number.” Without such usage, it might have faded away. But today, anyone will understand if you use “No.” to replace the word “number.”
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism. He is also a freelance comedy writer, devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
The romantic classic Pride and Prejudice opens with the sentence, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” In this line (one of her most famous), author Jane Austen employs an often-underrated grammatical tool: the past participle. Here, “acknowledged” enhances Austen’s storytelling by forming an adjective instead of a verb.
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To transform the verb “acknowledge” into a past participle, all Austen needed to do was add the suffix “-ed.” Now, “acknowledged” acts as an adjective, modifying the noun “truth.” Other examples of past participles include “a hushed conversation” and “on borrowed time.” Although these terms might look like simple past tense verbs, they’re called past participles when used in this context as adjectives.
Most regular past participles are formed this way — by adding “-ed” to a verb. Irregular verbs, however, have less predictable past participles. They take on various suffixes, including “-en,” “-n,” “-ne,” or “-t.” This looks like “shaken confidence” or “a lost letter.”
Past participles don’t just modify nouns — they also form verb tenses. When combined with the auxiliary verb “have,” they create what’s called the perfect verb tense. For example, in Mr. Darcy’s line, “In vain I have struggled,” the past participle “struggled” works with “have” to form the present perfect tense. This tense indicates that the struggle started in the past and is still relevant to the present. More examples of this tense include: “He has graduated” and “She has left.”
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The same formula is used for other perfect verb tenses. For past perfect tense, use “had” instead of “have,” as in, “In vain I had struggled” or “They had waited.” When combined with “not,” past participles form negative perfect tenses, as in Elizabeth Bennet’s reflection: “I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.” Past participles are also used in the less-common future perfect tense, which uses an additional auxiliary verb, “will” — “She will have read the letter by noon.”
Finally, past participles are key in the passive voice, where the subject receives the action rather than performing it. For example, in Mr. Darcy’s revelation, “I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit,” the subject “I” is the recipient of the action, not the doer. To create the passive voice, use a conjugation of the verb “be” along with a past participle, as in, “The pages of the novel were torn.”
In short, past participles are an incredibly useful construction that we can find sprinkled throughout both literature and everyday speech. Whether transforming verbs into descriptive adjectives or creating clarity in complex tenses, their versatility and precision are crucial to storytelling, from grammar class to Jane Austen’s novels.
Rachel is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer. When she's not writing, you can find her wandering through a museum, exploring a new city, or advocating the importance of the Oxford comma.
For native English speakers, there are likely specific grammar rules that just sound right to you. Here are four grammar topics you might not know how to explain.
If you grew up speaking English as your first language, there are likely many things that just sound right. A question is delivered with a higher tone at the end to make it sound inquisitive. Excitement is portrayed with loud and fast voices. Other elements, such as the order in which words are delivered, are dictated by specific grammar rules that you might not even be aware of. Here are four little-known grammar rules you probably don’t think about much — until someone uses them the wrong way.
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The Order of Adjectives
If someone told you they bought a “red shiny big bicycle,” you would understand what they meant, but you might not be able to shake the feeling that their description was a little bit off. That’s because adjectives are almost always listed in a particular order:
Quantity: one, many, a few
Opinion/Quality: beautiful, good, sweet
Size: big, little, short
Age: old, youthful, antique
Shape: heart-shaped, round, spiral
Color: green, blue, dark
Origin/Material: American, wooden, leather
Qualifier: buttoned, sports, gardening
Following this order, the correct version of the example above is “big red shiny bicycle” — doesn’t that flow better? Interestingly, native speakers don’t usually need to be taught the accepted order of adjectives. When people grow up absorbed in a certain language, they pick up the flow of language patterns. So when we hear a list of adjectives spoken, they sound either “right” or “wrong,” and our ears will often tell us the correct things to say or write.
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Who vs. Whom
“Whom” is fancy and “who” is regular — right? While a lot of people think that’s the case, there’s actually a grammar rule behind when to use “who” vs. “whom.” There’s nuance to this issue, but “who” and “whom” are both pronouns. “Who” is used to refer to the subject of a sentence, and “whom” refers to the object of a verb or preposition in a sentence.
An easy trick to understanding which word to use is to answer the question using other pronouns. If “he,” “she,” or “they” works in the sentence, then “who” is the correct form.
Who is going to the fair? → He is going.
Who wants to know? → She wants to know.
If you can answer the question using “him” or “her,” then you’re dealing with object pronouns, and “whom” is the correct form.
Whom should I go out with? → You should go out with her.
Whom does the car belong to? → The car belongs to him.
For a mnemonic device, put aside the true context of the question and use “him” — if it sounds correct, then the “m” in “him” matches up to the “m” in “whom.”
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Ablaut Reduplication
This complex-sounding term describes a simple phenomenon in linguistics. “Reduplication” refers to repeated words in a compound word or phrase, such as “boo-boo” or “pom-pom.” Ablaut reduplication is when the vowel sound in the second syllable is slightly altered. Here are some examples:
chitchat
ding-dong
flip-flop
hip-hop
knickknack
Ping-Pong
singsong
ticktock
zigzag
You’ll notice the first vowel is almost always the high “i” sound, as in the word “hit.” If there are two words in the phrase, the “i” vowel sound will always come first, followed by an “a” or “o” vowel sound. If there are three words in the phrase — for example, “tic-tac-toe” or “bing-bang-boom” — the vowel sequence is “i,” “a,” and then “o.”
Ablaut reduplication almost certainly doesn’t appear on any elementary school tests, but a native English-speaking child likely would know “dong-ding” is a bit odd for the sound of a doorbell. The correct flow is a result of rules we instinctively learn when being raised speaking the language.
Once upon a time, the answer to “How are you doing?” was “I am well” — never “I am good.” This rule is likely still taught in grammar lessons, but it’s less strictly held to in casual conversation. You may even use “good” and “well” interchangeably throughout your life. However, in formal grammar terms, when “good” is used as an adjective, it should be paired with nouns. “Well” is an adverb, so it should be paired only with verbs.
I’m doing well.
I can’t see well.
My dog is a good boy.
I had a good day.
The distinction between “well” and “good” is often confused with states of being, specifically when paired with the word “feel.” When referring to physical health, use the word “well” (“I have a cough and don’t feel well”). But if you’re discussing your emotions, then “good” is the correct term (“I’m not feeling good about the test today”). In that second example, “good” is not an adjective, so it doesn’t matter that it’s being paired with the verb “feeling.” “Good” is working as a noun, or state of being. How many of these grammar rules did you remember? If you’re being quizzed on them, maybe it’s important to be able to recite the rules, but there are always exceptions. Just make sure you can get your point across.
Lisa Galek is a freelance writer and editor based in Cleveland, Ohio. Her writing has appeared in Business Insider, Apartment Therapy, Scholastic Science World, and on, literally, thousands of American Greetings cards. The only thing she loves more than an Oxford comma — or an em dash — is her husband and three charming children.
Are you a fan of the “dot dot dot” in your typing? The punctuation mark, called an “ellipsis,” has some formal rules for its usage that you may not be following.
How do you use an ellipsis? No, not the aerobic exercise machine — that’s an elliptical. And we’re not talking about celestial bodies blocking each other in the sky, either. That’s an eclipse.
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Ellipses are those three tiny dots that may appear together at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. The formal definition is “the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues,” but the punctuation mark has acquired a few more casual usages in modern digital communications. The origin of this curious punctuation mark dates back to the 16th century, though at that time it was written slightly differently. Let’s look at where the ellipsis came from and how you should properly use the “dot dot dot” today.
In the book Ellipsis in English Language, Anne Toner examines the earliest known uses of “…” in English. It may have appeared in a 1588 English translation of the Roman comedy Andria, but in that piece, the ellipsis was written as four hyphens instead of three periods. This marking was used to interrupt a sentence to convey a sense of silence. According to Toner, the ellipsis became quite popular among 16th-century authors, and was used in the works of Shakespeare. Sometime in the early 18th century, the hyphens turned into dots, and by the early 19th century, three dots in succession (…) had become the new standard for how to write an ellipsis.
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Now that you know a little more about the history of the ellipsis, here’s how to use it. There’s really only one formal use for an ellipsis: to indicate omitted information. Essentially, you swap out irrelevant details for a “…” to declutter a sentence while still maintaining its original meaning. You can also use an ellipsis to essentially “skip ahead” by cutting out the middle of a quote if you want to connect two separate passages.
For example, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities has one of the most recognizable introductions in literature, but someone quoting it might want to reference only a selection of it: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.” The ellipsis in the middle of the text lets us know we’re missing some words.
Even with the formal punctuation rules, the ellipsis retains an informal usage related to 16th-century stage direction: Writers use it to convey a sense of hesitation or pause at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. An ellipsis at the end of a sentence may seem to trail off instead of ending decisively; this may help establish a feeling of uncertainty or spaciness. This usage has been adopted heavily in digital communications. A text that reads, “I was waiting for you…” implies a tone of exasperation, while “I was waiting for you!” conveys excitement.
Keep in mind that various style guides have different rules for how to write an ellipsis, so it’s worth checking your preferred style guide for more information. For instance, the AP Stylebook says you should write an ellipsis without any spaces between the individual dots but include a space on either side of the set of three dots ( … ), while the Chicago Manual of Style tells you to put a space between each dot (. . .).
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism. He is also a freelance comedy writer, devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
Some of the most notorious spelling errors actually changed the English language. Language adapts to how people use it, so some typos and misusages have managed to worm their way into the common lexicon.
It may be hard to believe, but there was once a time when people had to type without the aid of spell-check or autocorrect — quelle horreur! These technological tools have become so commonplace that we can largely get away with sloppy typing or having a loose idea of how to spell a tricky word, but this wasn’t the case even a few decades ago. While most typing errors back then would result in a red mark on a term paper or perhaps a confused letter recipient, some of the most notorious errors actually changed the English language. Language adapts to how people use it, so several typos and misuses have managed to worm their way into the common lexicon. Let’s take a look at some examples of how typos and language mistakes have created new words.
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Sneeze
When “sneeze” — meaning “make a sudden involuntary expulsion of air from the nose and mouth due to irritation of one’s nostrils” — first appeared in Middle English, it was spelled “fnese” (likely an onomatopoeia). The shift to “sneeze” occurred around the 15th century as the archaic lowercase “f” (ſ)was commonly misread and copied as an “s.”
Squeeze
To squeeze something means to firmly press it, usually with one’s fingers, though it can be done with a separate apparatus (a juicer, for example). Prior to the mid-16th century, the word was spelled “squise,” and before that, a word of similar meaning was “queise.” While etymologists aren’t sure exactly why the “s” was added, some speculate it was done by mistake because it appeared similar to other words starting with “squ,” such as “squat” and “squint.”
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Ingot
The gold bars you’ve seen in heist movies are called “ingots,” and they can actually be any metal, including steel or silver. The word “ingot” comes from the Middle French word lingot. When it was borrowed from the French into Middle English, the “l” at the beginning was mistranslated as the French article le or la (abbreviated to l’ on a word beginning with a vowel), so it was thought to be l’ingot and the first letter was left out to form “ingot.”
Scandinavia
The proper noun referring to the northernmost region of Europe was originally “Scadinavia,” with just one “n.” It came from an ancient island called Scadia, now thought to be part of the Swedish mainland. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the additional “n” was placed erroneously by the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, and “Scandinavia” became common usage in the 1700s.
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Syllabus
A syllabus is an outline of the subjects in an academic course. Given the scholastic nature of this word, it’s interesting that it came to be through a spelling error. The word was coined in Latin as a misreading of the Greek sittybos, meaning “table of contents.” The original misprint appeared in a 15th-century edition of Cicero’s collection of letters, Ad Atticum.
The most commonly held theory as to the origin of “culprit” is that in the Middle Ages, French was still the language of law in England, a result of the Norman Conquest. When a defendant would plead not guilty, the clerk would reply back with the phrase, “Culpable, prest d’averrer nostre bille,” meaning “Guilty, ready to prove our case.” This phrase was eventually shortened to “cul. prit.” and either by way of ignorance or expediency, the word “culprit” stuck.
Jennifer A. Freeman is the Senior Editor of Word Smarts and Word Daily. When she's not searching for a perfect synonym or reaching "Genius" level on Spelling Bee, she's playing with her Welsh Terrier in Greenville, SC.
Are you facing a moral conundrum? Or is it an ethical query? These terms are very similar but actually have specific distinctions for when you should use them.
Certain pairs of words may appear to be synonymous, but in reality, they have slightly different definitions that make each distinct. Examples include “historic” and ”historical,” “special” and “unique,” and of course the topic at hand: “morals” versus “ethics.” Many people use these terms interchangeably, but their definitions offer a more nuanced usage.
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The word “moral” dates back to the mid-14th century and comes from the Latin moralis, roughly meaning the “proper behavior of a person in society.” As an adjective, “moral” means “concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior.” When used as a noun, the singular means “a lesson that can be derived from a story or experience,” as in, “The moral of the story was that good prevails over evil.” When used in the plural, “morals” shifts to a collective sense of right and wrong. In general, morals are related to the individual compass of each individual, so they’re often subjective on a very personal level. One person’s morals may be entirely different from those of a peer.
“Ethics,” on the other hand, is a term that’s usually used to describe right vs. wrong on a societal level. In the plural, it means “moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity,” and in the singular (still spelled “ethics”), it means “the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles.” The difference between “morals” and “ethics” is an understandably tricky distinction because the word “moral” appears in the definitions for “ethics.” Try to think of one being a part of a whole. Whereas morals are individual, ethics are a set of values held by a larger community of like-minded people. These values can dictate the behavior of an individual.
Despite this distinction between the terms, some ethicists and philosophers consider the words to be synonymous and use them interchangeably, so nobody would actually fault you for doing the same. That being said, there is one distinct way in how the terms are used in modern parlance. Concepts of morality are referenced when speaking about topics that have heavy personal judgment, such as religion and philosophy. “Ethics,” meanwhile, is more commonly used in reference to business, medical, and legal practices.
While there’s no explicit right and wrong for how to use these terms, these general guidelines may make it easier. It makes sense to use “morals” if talking about a set of beliefs that resonate with you on a personal level. In turn, use “ethics” for bigger-picture concepts that affect more than just one individual.
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism. He is also a freelance comedy writer, devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
ASAP, BRB, TTYL — we’re all guilty of rushing our communications and shortening frequently used phrases. But sometimes an abbreviation becomes so ubiquitous that it replaces a full word or phrase, and almost no one remembers the original usage. Some of the terms you use every day started out as acronyms before they became accepted common vocabulary words. Make sure to RSVP for this language lesson as we decipher some of the most common acronyms and abbreviations hiding in plain sight.
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SCUBA
You can’t get your SCUBA certification without learning this acronym. It means “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus,” which is a pretty straightforward description of the equipment and the activity.
TASER
This one originated in a pulp fiction series. It stands for “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle,” both the name of a 1911 book, and the series’ main character and his weapon. The electric rifle and the modern taser differ in functionality, but it’s interesting to examine how sci-fi predictions and inventions have turned up in reality. The 1970s word “taser” was inspired by Tom Swift, and patterned on “laser.”
RADAR
Lots of technological terms are acronyms, and for good reason. A long string of words isn’t always easy to remember, and a random letter mashup isn’t either. Industry jargon tends to create pronounceable words out of the abbreviations: “RADAR” stands for “radio detection and ranging.”
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SONAR
Similar to “RADAR,” “SONAR” refers to a type of ranging. Instead of radio detection, it uses sound to navigate. “SONAR” stands for “sound navigation ranging.”
LASER
Be happy “LASER” goes by the acronym and not the full name: “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” As with “taser,” “radar,” and “sonar,” “laser” is now commonly used as a regular word, not just as the acronym.
CARE Package
You might send these types of parcels because you care, but that’s not what they’re named for. “CARE” stands for “Cooperative for American Remittances,” an organization that helped send packages from Americans to their friends and family in Europe after World War II. The original CARE packages contained macaroni, cornmeal, Carnation chocolate drink mix, and dried milk.
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Smart Car
No, smart cars weren’t named for their genius capabilities. The acronym “smart” (styled in the lowercase) stands for “Swatch Mercedes Art.” It’s a pretty big name for such a tiny car, but that’s the name Swatch and Daimler Benz agreed on for their collaboration.
CAPTCHA
It sounds exactly like what it was created to do — capture. The “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart” was always intended to be an acronym, and it’s a lot less work than saying the whole thing.
Yes, even search engines and company names are acronyms. This one is “Yet Another Hierarchically Officious Oracle.” (The exclamation point was added for trademark differentiation, but also serves as branding.) This tech conglomerate is still hanging on, but its overly long name doesn’t mean much anymore.
Canola Oil
There’s not a canola plant, but you can still find this all-purpose cooking oil in many pantries. It comes from the rapeseed plant, but that’s a loaded name to sell at the grocery store. Canadian scientists made the rapeseed oil better suited for cooking, and now you can purchase “Canada oil, low acid.”
Jennifer A. Freeman is the Senior Editor of Word Smarts and Word Daily. When she's not searching for a perfect synonym or reaching "Genius" level on Spelling Bee, she's playing with her Welsh Terrier in Greenville, SC.
Some surnames say a lot about a family’s history without any further explanation — consider Schwarzenegger, Obama, or even Boyardee. But even common last names can hold a lot of significance and provide a glimpse into someone’s heritage. Smith — the most common last name in the United States — is shared by more than 2 million Americans, yet it holds an etymological clue to understanding how those people might connect to their ancestors. Let’s look at what some common last names have to say about history.
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The Viking Connection
Any surname that ends in “-son” or “-sen” has a potential connection to Vikings, according to a researcher from the Centre of Nordic Studies. Vikings didn’t have family names, but they did have a patronymic system in which children were named after their father. So, for example, a father named John may have named his son Johnson (John’s son). According to the same research, any English surname with personal characteristics (Goodman, Longfellow, etc.) also likely possesses a Viking connection. The same goes for the common last names Roger and Rogers, which come from the Old English name Hrothgar, meaning “famous spear.” That name stems from the Old Norse name Hroarr, which was a popular moniker throughout Scandinavia.
Surnames and Professions
The most popular surname in English-speaking regions is Smith, with about 2.3 million Smiths in the U.S. (just shy of 1% of the population). This last name was originally used to designate someone with a specific smithing (metalworking) occupation. The name originated in England, where there were Smiths in every village working on a variety of trades. In addition to the fairly well-known occupations of blacksmith and locksmith, there might have been a gold or silversmith, a whitesmith (working with tin), a coppersmith, a locksmith, a gunsmith, a blade or swordsmith, an armor or shieldsmith, and a coopersmith (making barrels and casks). With so many smithing professions, you can see how Smith has lasted in popularity.
Many other English surnames also have to do with professions. The name Wright, for example, comes from those who were skilled manufacturers of wooden objects; the surname Fletcher originated among those who made arrows; and the last name Ward comes from anyone who served as a watchman.
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Last Names and Places
Another common (and long-established) method for selecting a surname has to do with a person’s place of origin. Many surnames are simply copies of the region from which a family hailed — for example, Bedford or Pickering. There are also English last names that stem from other countries, such as Fleming (from the Flemish region of modern Belgium) or Moore (from Morocco). Literal landscape features provide inspiration as well, such as in the case of Hill or Woods. These may have been defining features of your ancestors’ hometown.
The most popular surname in the world is Chinese in origin: Wang, a name that boasts a historic connection to ancient royalty. Wang — which means “king” in Mandarin — became popular after many Chinese kingdoms were destroyed by the first Qin dynasty emperor in the third century BCE. Royal families all changed their name to Wang en masse to protect their individual identities, so there were too many Wangs for the new regime to target any specific royal family.
This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the history behind popular last names. There are an estimated 11 million unique surnames in the world today, making it an impossibility to trace the etymology of each here. But for anyone who’s curious about their family history, follow some of the etymological examples above and you may learn a thing or two about your ancestors.
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism. He is also a freelance comedy writer, devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
Whether it’s from new technology needing new words to talk about it, or young people inventing and repurposing slang, words and their definitions change all the time.
Whether it’s due to new technology that demands new terminology, or younger generations inventing and repurposing slang, words and their definitions change over time. Sometimes a word gains a different usage in slang or casual conversation, and the updated context gets picked up in print, and soon a new definition appears in the dictionary. Ask a lexicographer, and they’ll tell you that the definition of a word is only accurate if that’s the way people are using it. Let’s take a look at some words that have been through a veritable roller coaster of meanings throughout the centuries.
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Fantastic
In the 14th century, the original meaning of “fantastic” was “only existing in the imagination,” as if in a fantasy. It took on its more general, superlative meaning — “wonderful or very good” — in the 1930s. After the fantasy of the Roaring ’20s crashed into the Great Depression, maybe it was time to get back down to earth.
Meat
There was once a time when vegetarians could eat meat for every meal. Although it’s unlikely there were many vegetarians by choice back then, the Middle English definition of “meat” was simply “food, nourishment, or animal feed.” This included carrots, potatoes, and anything else on the menu. It wasn’t until the 1300s that the word started to refer to the flesh of animals eaten as food.
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Literally
As one of the most infamously abused words in the English language, “literally” is the bane of many grammar sticklers. Yes, one definition in use since the 1530s is “in accordance with the exact meaning of the words used.” But for over 300 years, the word has been squeezed and squished into so many dubious contexts that the Oxford English Dictionary literally added “used for emphasis while not being literally true” to the list of definitions.
Myriad
“Myriad” used to be a word that specified the number 10,000. This came from the Greek myrias, meaning the same thing. However, the word always had connotations with “a number too large to be counted,” as 10,000 was the largest number the Greeks could express in a single word. Now we simply say “ten thousand,” and “myriad” means “a countless or extremely great number.”
“Egregious” comes from the Latin egregius, meaning “illustrious,” which was used to mean “standing out from the flock.” In the 1500s, the English word was used to mean “excellent or distinguished,” yet by the 1600s, “egregious” was being used sarcastically to mean “outstandingly bad or shocking.” This widespread use of the word is what ultimately stuck, and “egregious” has been forever tarnished since.
Featured image credit: Natalia Lisovskaya/ Shutterstock
Jennifer A. Freeman is the Senior Editor of Word Smarts and Word Daily. When she's not searching for a perfect synonym or reaching "Genius" level on Spelling Bee, she's playing with her Welsh Terrier in Greenville, SC.
Playing Clue doesn’t make you a detective, and playing Operation definitely doesn’t make you a surgeon. But if you’ve ever played a game of Scrabble, then you can add “anagram builder” to your LinkedIn resume (hey, there’s a market for everything). An anagram is “a word, phrase, or name formed by rearranging the letters of another, such as ‘cinema,’ formed from ‘iceman.’” The English word “anagram” is a 16th-century invention that was borrowed from the French anagramme, but it has ancient traditions, evidenced by its roots in the ancient Greek ana, meaning “back,” and gramma, meaning “letter.”
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Anagrams were used by Kabbalists — ancient Jewish mystics from the first century CE — as a tool for interpreting the Hebrew Bible. They believed that by rearranging certain words and phrases, you could decipher new interpretations of the actual text. This trend continued throughout Greek and Roman society, as scholars relied on the use of anagrams to decipher hidden meanings in words and names. One lasting example is the Latin question Quid est veritas? (“What is truth?”), which transforms to the anagram Est vir qui adest (“It is this man here”).
In English, “anagram” — or in this instance, “Anagrame” — appeared in a 1589 poetry treatise titled The Art of English Poesieby George Puttenham. By the 17th century, anagrams were so widely used and adored that a writer named Thomas Billon was appointed Louis XIII’s official anagrammatist (one who makes anagrams). In that role, Billon was tasked with creating anagrams that glorified the royal family, poked fun at people’s names, and prophesied future events.
Today, anagrams are largely used in the context of games and word puzzles, especially in the form of cryptic crosswords. Unlike traditional crosswords, these cryptic variants rely on clues that are word puzzles in themselves, often incorporating anagrams in order to get the right answer. Scrabble and newer online word games can be the entry point for an anagram novice to become obsessed with creating new words using a random, jumbled assortment of letters at their disposal.
Featured image credit: Photology1971/ Shutterstock
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism. He is also a freelance comedy writer, devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
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