anagram

 

[Gr.,=something read backward], rearrangement of the letters of a word or words to make another word or other words. A famous Latin anagram was an answer made out of a question asked by Pilate. The question was Quid est veritas? [What is truth?], and the answer Est vir qui adest [it is the man who is here]. An anagram that reads the same backward as forward is a palindrome, e.g., “Able was I ere I saw Elba.”

For the game, see Anagrams.

An anagram (Greek anagramma 'letters written anew', passive participle of ana- 'again' + gramma 'letter') is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce other words, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., Eleven plus two=Twelve plus one, A Decimal Point=I'm a Dot in Place, Astronomers=Moon Starers. Someone who creates anagrams is called an anagrammist. The original word or phrase is known as the subject of the anagram. Technically, any word or phrase which exactly reproduces the letters in another is an anagram; e.g., saltine = entails. However, the goal of serious or skilled anagrammists is to produce anagrams which, in some way, reflect or comment on the subject. Such an anagram may be a synonym or antonym of its subject, a parody, a criticism, or praise; e.g.George Bush=He bugs Gore. Another goal of anagrammists is to produce an anagram which is not only new, or previously unknown to others (this is known as "discovering" an anagram), but also one that is considered clever enough that it becomes widely known and enters the canon of famous or classic anagrams, like the examples below.

History

The construction of anagrams is an amusement of great antiquity. They were popular throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, although it is widely believed the art of anagramming was invented by the Greek poet Lycophron.

W. Camden (Remains, 7th ed., 1674) defines "Anagrammatisme" as "a dissolution of a name truly written into his letters, as his elements, and a new connection of it by artificial transposition, without addition, subtraction or change of any letter, into different words, making some perfect sense applyable (i.e., applicable) to the person named." Dryden disdainfully called the pastime the "torturing of one poor word ten thousand ways" but many men and women of note have found amusement in it.

A well-known anagram is the change of "Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum" (Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord [is] with you) into "Virgo serena, pia, munda et immaculata" (Serene virgin, pious, clean and spotless). Among others are the anagrammatic answer to Pilate's question, "Quid est veritas?" (What is truth?), namely, "Est vir qui adest" (It is the man who is here); and the transposition of "Horatio Nelson" into "Honor est a Nilo" (Latin = Honor is from the Nile); and of "Florence Nightingale" into "Flit on, cheering angel". James I's courtiers discovered in "James Stuart" "a just master", and converted "Charles James Stuart" into "Claims Arthur's seat" (even at that point in time, the letters I and J were more-or-less interchangeable). "Eleanor Audeley", wife of Sir John Davies, is said to have been brought before the High Commission in 1634 for extravagances, stimulated by the discovery that her name could be transposed to "Reveale, O Daniel", and to have been laughed out of court by another anagram submitted by the dean of the Arches, "Dame Eleanor Davies", "Never soe mad a ladie".

Pseudonyms

The pseudonyms adopted by authors are sometimes transposed forms, more or less exact, of their names; thus "Calvinus" becomes "Alcuinus" (V = U); "Francois Rabelais" = "Alcofribas Nasier"; "Arrigo Boito" = "Tobia Gorrio"; "Edward Gorey" = "Ogdred Weary", = "Regera Dowdy" or = "E. G. Deadworry" (and others); "Vladimir Nabokov" = "Vivian Darkbloom", = "Vivian Bloodmark" or = "Dorian Vivalcomb"; "Bryan Waller Proctor" = "Barry Cornwall, poet"; "Henry Rogers" = "R. E. H. Greyson"; "(Sanche) de Gramont" = "Ted Morgan", and so on. It is to be noted that several of these are "imperfect anagrams", letters having been left out in some cases for the sake of easy pronunciation.

For his book Mu Revealed, a spoof on the works of James Churchward, occult writer Raymond Buckland used the pseudonym "Tony Earll", an anagram for "Not Really".[1]

"Telliamed", a simple reversal, is the title of a well known work by "De Maillet". One of the most remarkable pseudonyms of this class is the name "Voltaire", which the celebrated philosopher assumed instead of his family name, François Marie Arouet, and which is now generally allowed to be an anagram of "Arouet, l[e] j[eune]" (U=V, J=I) that is, "Arouet the younger". Anagramming may also be used to good effect in farce or parody. A writer might take an unpleasant person he knows, base a character in a book on him, and then transpose the letters in the source's name.

Examples

Some of the following anagrams are from a jokes page on the GNU General Public License website. The Harry Potter ones are from Mugglenet.com The I am that is anagram comes from the novel Redwall by Brian Jacques. The Alec Guinness one is attributed to Dick Cavett. The Fast Food Restaurant one was contrived by Luke Venechuk.

Original word or phrase (or subject)	Anagram
Anagrams	Ars Magna
Eric	Rice
Doctor Who	Torchwood
Eric Lam Gregory House Eric Foreman Allison Cameron Robert Chase	Miracle Huge Ego, Sorry Ace Informer Nonsocial Lamer Case Brother
Dormitory	Dirty Room
Evangelist	Evil's agent
Tom Marvolo Riddle	I am Lord Voldemort
The Morse Code	Here Come Dots
Slot Machines	Cash Lost in 'em
Animosity	Is No Amity
Mother-in-law	Woman Hitler
Snooze Alarms	Alas! No More Z's
Alec Guinness	Genuine Class
Semolina	Is No Meal
The Public Art Galleries	Large Picture Halls, I Bet
The Earthquakes	That Queer Shake
Eleven plus two	Twelve plus one
Contradiction	Accord not in it
Astronomer	Moon Starer
Princess Diana	End is a car spin
Year Two Thousand	A year to shut down
Presbyterian	Best in prayer
Presbyterians	Britney Spears
Nessiteras rhombopteryx	Monster hoax by Sir Peter S"
The eyes	They see
Sean Connery	On any screen
The Fast Food Restaurant	So Far the Fattest Around
Election results	Lies - let's recount
"To be or not to be: that is the question, whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."	"In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten."
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." --Neil Armstrong	"A thin man ran; makes a large stride, left planet, pins flag on moon! On to Mars!"
Mike Newell's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Enthralling film, yet we prefer to read the books!
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson	Cue fine new film drama starring Potter lad
The children's author JK Rowling	hint: her skill conjured Hogwart!
I am that is	I Matthias
Clint Eastwood	Old West action
Why shouldn't America go re-elect President Clinton in Ninety-Six?	He has a prime or cunning tendency to wildly solicit Internet sex.
Astronomers	No more stars
Astronomers	A moron rests
Vala Mal Doran	Amoral Vandal
Atheism	It has me
"Godless: The Church of Liberalism"	O, hell: Coulter's highbred fascism
"The Dark Tower"	A word: the trek
Annuit Coeptis, Novus Ordo Seclorum	A Cut In On U.S. Providence! So, Lust Room!
Révolution Française	Un veto corse la finira (in English : French Revolution is the anagram of A Corsican veto will end it - Napoleon was Corsican.)
Frère Jacques Clément (Henri III's assassin)	C'est l'enfer qui m'a créé (It is hell that has created me)
Vin Diesel	I End Lives
Tomorrow Never Dies	Reword it, Mr. O-O-Seven
"I'm lovin' it!"	In il vomit
"So dark the con of man."	Madonna of the Rocks"
"O Draconian devil, Oh lame saint."	Leonardo da Vinci, The Mona Lisa

Music

Anagrams have also shown up in music.

• Rick Alexander's hit in 2002, "SANTA IS AN ANAGRAM FOR SATAN", became a very popular comedic example of anagrams.
• The Doors' lead singer Jim Morrison invoked his name as "Mr. Mojo Risin'" on the song "L.A. Woman".
• The band Sad Café released an album called Facades.
• Blur singer Damon Albarn used the name Dan Abnormal for his contributions to Elastica's debut album and for the title of a song on The Great Escape, and all of the band adopt anagrammed pseudonyms for the music video of M.O.R.
• The New Wave band Missing Persons recorded an album called Spring Session M.
• Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose's stage name is an anagram of "oral sex".
• The new wave band Devo has performed as a mock Christian pop group named "Dove".
• Canadian progressive rock trio Rush, even have a song in which the lyrics are made entirely of anagrams: "Anagram (for Mongo)", from their Presto album.
• On Brian Eno's album Before and After Science, there is a song entitled "King's Lead Hat", an anagram of "Talking Heads", a band Eno has worked with. The album's title anagrams into "Arcane Benefits of Creed", and Brian Eno's own name anagrams into "One Brain".
• The music artist Imogen Heap released an album called "iMegaphone"
• MF DOOM released the 2004 album, "MM..Food?"
• Anne Clark released the 1993 album "THE LAW is an anagram of WEALTH"
• French singer/songwriter Pascal Obispo's name is an anagram of the painter Pablo Picasso.
• The track "Fat Hell" on Adult Net's 12" single "Incense And Peppermints" is played by The Fall.
• Vibracathedral Orchestra released an album called Versatile Arab Chord Chart.
• New Model Army played a few 'incognito' live gigs as "Raw Melody Men", and later released a live album with that name.
• Mike (Michael) Doughty released an album called Haughty Melodic.
• Aphex Twin's 1995 album, ...I Care Because You Do, featured songs in which half the titles were anagrams.
• The name of Joe Sumner's band Fiction Plane is an anagram of Infant Police. Joe Sumner is the son of Sting, famous member of the band The Police. The anagram is said to be a coincidence.

Literature

Summary anagrams

Another genre of anagramming is that which deals with using anagrams of quoted literature in order to convey the essence of the work itself. This style is commonly referred to as summary anagramming and is a favorite genre of noted contemporary anagrammatists such as Simon Woodard. Below is an example of one of Woodard's polished summary anagrams, on Homer's Odyssey:

"Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns, driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy." -Homer's Odyssey
=
Hurrying home to his wife, Odysseus shoved off, fled the sea god's wrath, endured many moments of mistreatment, then landed on southern Ithaca...a long epic![2]

Astronomy

One practical use to which anagrams have been turned is to be found in the transpositions in which some of the astronomers of the 17th century embodied their discoveries with the design apparently of avoiding the risk that, while they were engaged in further verification, the credit of what they had found out might be claimed by others. Thus Galileo announced his discovery that Venus had phases like the Moon in the form "Haec immatura a me iam frustra leguntur -oy" (Latin: These immature ones have already been read in vain by me -oy), that is, when rearranged, "Cynthiae figuras aemulatur Mater Amorum" (Latin: The Mother of Loves [= Venus] imitates the figures of Cynthia [= the moon]). Similarly, when Robert Hooke discovered Hooke's law in 1660, he first published it in anagram form. One might think of this as a primitive example of a zero-knowledge proof.

There are also a few "natural" anagrams, English words unconsciously created by switching letters around. The French chaise longue ("long chair") became the American "chaise lounge" by metathesis (transposition of letters and/or sounds). It has also been speculated that the English "curd" comes from the Latin crudus ("raw").

Notable anagrams

• In 1975, British naturalist Sir Peter Scott coined the scientific term "Nessiteras rhombopteryx" (Greek for "The monster {or wonder} of Ness with the diamond shaped fin") for the apocryphal Loch Ness Monster. Shortly afterwards, several London newspapers pointed out that "Nessiteras rhombopteryx" anagrams into "Monster hoax by Sir Peter S".[3]

• The related words "parental", "prenatal", and "paternal" are all anagrams of one another.

• "Eleven plus two" is an anagram of "Twelve plus one", and they have the same sum of 13.

• The antonyms "united" and "untied" are anagrams of each other.

• Teachers often use the fact that "listen" is an anagram of "silent" when encouraging their students to listen quietly.

• "Walker Texas Ranger" is an anagram of "Karate Wrangler Sex", and this is one of the Chuck Norris Facts.

• In Harry Potter series, Tom Marvolo Riddle is an anagram of "I am Lord Voldemort".

• In Kingdom Hearts II, name of each member of Organization XIII is an anagram of each member's original name plus letter X.

• Homer Hickam, Jr.'s book Rocket Boys was adapted into the 1999 film October Sky. Both titles are anagrams of each other.

• "Alan Smithee", a pseudonym commonly used by Hollywood film directors, anagrams into "The Alias Men".

Methods

Before the Computer Age, anagrams were constructed using a pen and paper or lettered tiles, by playing with letter combinations and experimenting with variations. (Some individuals with prodigious talent have also been known to ‘see’ anagrams in words, unaided by tools.) Anagram dictionaries could also be used to create anagrams.

Computers have enabled a new method of creating anagrams, the anagram server, anagram solver or anagrammer. These are often used to find solutions for crosswords, Scrabble, Boggle and other word games. A large number of these are available on the Internet. When the anagrammist enters a word or phrase the program or server utilizes an exhaustive database of words to produce a list containing every possible combination of words or phrases from the input word or phrase. Some programs such as Lexpert (used for Scrabble) only allow one-word answers. Many anagram servers can control the search results, by excluding or including certain words, limiting the number or length of words in each anagram, or limiting the number of results. Anagram solvers are often banned from online anagram games, such as Yahoo! Literati where they can be used for an unfair advantage, in some cases allowing a player to never miss a single word.

Anagram solvers do not have to use English. Any language can be used, particularly those which use the Roman alphabet. Anagrammers can even find solutions in multiple languages at the same time. Anagrammers may have other related functions, such as fitting the letters into a certain sequence. If while doing a crossword the reader knows he has a seven letter word in the form Z?R??N? (the question marks represent a blank square) then an anagram solver can tell us all the words that fit this pattern, for example zeroing and zircons.

When sharing their newly discovered anagrams with other enthusiasts, some anagrammists indicate the method they used. Anagrams constructed without aid of a computer are noted as having been done ‘manually’ or ‘by hand’; those made by utilizing a computer may be noted ‘by machine’ or ‘by computer’, or may indicate the name of the computer program (using ‘Anagram Genius’).

Crosswords

Cryptic crossword puzzles frequently use anagrammatic clues, usually indicating that they are anagrams by the inclusion of a word like "confused" or "in disarray". An example would be Businessman burst into tears (9 letters); the solution, Stationer is an anagram of into tears, the letters of which have burst out of their original arrangement to form the name of a type of businessman.

What is the most anagrammable name on record? There must be few names as deliciously workable as that of "Augustus de Morgan" who tells that a friend had constructed about 800 on his name (specimens of which are given in his Budget of Paradoxes, p. 82)

Anagrammy Awards

Anagrammy, a non-commercial web site run by anagram aficionados, hosts a monthly competition for various categories of original anagrams, including peoples' names, current events, long anagrams, and rude anagrams. Participants are free to post their original anagrams throughout the month on the Anagrammy forum, and nominate those deemed worthy for an Anagrammy award. Voting is usually held during the first week of each month. An annual Grand Anagrammy voting contest is also hosted for all winning Anagrams. The web site also includes practical information on anagramming techniques, and a database of famous and winning anagrams.

Games and puzzles

Anagrams are in themselves a recreational activity, but also make up part of many other games, puzzles and game shows.

• In Scrabble, the players must make words by placing lettered tiles on a grid to score points in an effort to have scored more points than the opponent at the end of the game. A version of Scrabble called Clabbers, the name itself being an anagram of Scrabble, allows for tiles to be placed in any order on the board as long as they anagram to a valid word.

• In Boggle, players make words from a grid of sixteen random letters by joining adjacent cubes to make valid words.

• On the British game show Countdown contestants are given 30 seconds to make the longest word from nine random letters. One point is awarded per letter of the word, or 18 points for using all nine letters. An example of a 9-letter word: s, a, a, p, i, o, n, j, c to form "Japonicas."

• On the British game show BrainTeaser, contestants are shown a word broken into randomly arranged segments and must announce the whole word. At the end of the game there is a "Pyramid" which starts with a three-letter word. A letter appears in the line below to which the player must add the existing letters to find a solution. The pattern continues until the player reaches the final eight-letter anagram. The player wins the game by solving all the anagrams within the allotted time.

• The Jumble is a puzzle found in many newspapers in the United States requiring the unscrambling of letters to find the solution.

• Anagrammatic is a game on Miniclip where you have to make anagrams.

See also

• anagrammatic poem
• Anagrams a board game
• ambigram
• blanagram
• palindrome
• pangram
• constrained writing
• letter bank
• Erewhon
• wordplay

References

External links

• Anne'n'Graeme- The Anagram Comic Strip
• The Anagrammy Awards - a monthly anagram competition
• Scrabble Anagram Solver
• Internet Anagram Server
• Word Finder and Anagram Solver
• Anagram Generator
• Anagram Genius
• Anagram Logic
• Funravel A game that involves unravelling funagrams.
• Downloadable Anagram Generator Software from Fourmilab
• WordList07 - A reference of official word lists(scrabble), with anagrams and wildcard searches

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