FAQ: WHAT IS AN ANAGRAM?/HISTORY OF ANAGRAMS.
Larry Brash
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (= "Quit! End one's flaky requests.")
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PART ONE OF FIVE PARTS
Written and maintained by Larry Brash.
Version 6.01. Last updated: 10th March 2001.
HTML version of this FAQ available at:
http://www.anagrammy.com/alt-anagrams.html
Recent Changes:
Major revision of most sections.
All examples are now only by alt.anagrams members (including year of
discovery)
Revised list of anagram generators and checkers. (PART THREE)
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WELCOME TO ALT.ANAGRAMS
You have wandered into one of the friendlier, wittier, more intelligent
newsgroups around Usenet. This FAQ is posted every couple of weeks. If
you have any questions, comments, requests or flames about this FAQ or
about anagrams in general, then email me at
mailto:awards...@anagrammy.com
Many thanks to William Tunstall-Pedoe and many others for their
assistance in providing information for this FAQ. They provided many
of the examples and the information about the anagram generators and
books. Many thanks to everyone else who has sent suggestions,
corrections and positive comments.
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CONTENTS IN THIS PART OF THE FAQ
1. What is an anagram?
2. What about some examples of anagrams?
3. What is the history of anagrams?
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1. WHAT IS AN ANAGRAM?
An anagram is he apposite transposition of the letters of a word, name,
phrase, sentence, title, or the like into another word or phrase.
All the letters of the name or phrase must be used once and only once.
This is the basic rule of anagramming. We will look at some examples in
the next section of this FAQ.
The best anagrams are meaningful and relate in some way to the original
subject. They can be funny, rude, satirical or flattering.
People sometimes confuse palindromes and acronyms with anagrams.
Palindromes are words or phrases that are spelt the same forwards and
backwards, for example: "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!" Palindromes
are not dealt with in this FAQ. Palindromists have their own newsgroup
called appropriately news:alt.tla . The Fun-with-words website has a
useful section on palindromes. at http://fun-the-words.com/
Strictly speaking, acronyms are words that are formed by the initials
of a place, organisation or the like, e.g. MASH (Mobile Army Surgical
Hospital). However, the meaning of the word "acronym" has undergone
some change with the advent of the Internet and the use of TLA (Three
Letter Acronyms), such as, BTW (by the way). These are really
abbreviations rather than true acronyms.
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2. WHAT ABOUT SOME EXAMPLES OF ANAGRAMS?
Anagrams which tend to be preferred by anagrammatists those that are
related to, or gives insight into, the text being anagrammed. Here are
some discoveries or rediscoveries by members of alt.anagrams:
Some short ones
A Chevrolet = Love the car! (Meyran Kraus, 1998)
Gin and Vermouth = Hung over, damn it! (Art Day, 1999)
Stipend = Spend it. (Jon Gearhart, 1999)
Stone age = Stage one. (John Morahan, 1999)
Political Satire
Adolf Hitler. = Heil, old fart! (Jean Fontaine, 1998)
Milosevic = Cos I'm evil. (Larry Brash, 1999)
George Bush. = He bugs Gore. (Don P. Fortier, 1999)
The Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic = Damning evil policy,
Serbs voted asshole out. (Rick Rothstein, 2000)
George "Dubya" Bush = Boy, he'd bugger USA. (Andrew MacCormack, 2000)
Famous People
Chairman Mao. = I am on a march. (Mick Tully, 1998, Wayne Baisley,
1999)
Diana, The Princess of Wales = Elton's idea is crap. He fawns.
(Larry Brash, 1998)
Elvis Aaron Presley. = Seen alive? Sorry, pal! (David Bourke, 1999)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. = A famous German waltz god. (Earle Jones,
1999)
Robert Schumann. = Brahms' Nocturne. (Meyran Kraus, 1999)
Thomas Alva Edison = Aha! Ions made volts! (Larry Brash, 1999)
William Shakespeare = I'll make a wise phrase. (Richard Grantham,
2000)
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy = O, it's a lovely thick novel! (Richard
Grantham, 2000)
The Israeli general, Moshe Dayan = Hail, great hairless one-eyed
man! (Richard Grantham, 2000)
Sir Peter Paul Rubens = Superb painter rules. (Janet Burholt, 2000)
Miss Venus Williams = I'll win massive sums. (Janet Burholt, 2000)
Famous places & things
United States Of America. = Its cause: attain freedom. (Dan
Fortier, 1999)
Medicinal marijuana. = A cure? I'm in a damn jail. (Larry Brash,
1999)
The great pyramid of Cheops = My God! Perfect Pharaoh site! (Richard
Brodie, 2000)
Harley Davidson Motorcycles = Very costly old road machines. (Larry
Brash, 2000)
Entertainment
The Artist formerly known as 'Prince' = No first-rate workmanship
recently! (William Tunstall-Pedoe, 1998)
I Can't Get No Satisfaction. = A fantastic song - notice it! (Paul
Lusch, 1998)
"Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson = A lesson's been due,
boy! Silver turns traitor. (Steve Krakowski, 1999)
The Three Stooges: Larry, Curly and Moe. = Actors? Lord, they're an
ugly threesome! (Larry Brash, 1999)
Sydney Pollack's "Tootsie" = Testicles on lady? Spooky... (Meyran
Kraus, 1999)
Eurovision Song Contest. = I vote on cretinous songs. (Kevin Hale,
1999)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. = Crap LP sung by the
LSD-prone Beatles. (David Bourke, 1999)
Miss America Pageant. = I'm a greasepaint scam! (Tom Myers, 1999)
Famous Quotes
Religion is the opium of the masses. = Sometimes, if theologian is
pusher. (Larry Brash, 1998)
If at first you don't succeed. = Try deft, if cautious, second!
(Michael Jeans-Jakobsson, 1998)
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. = Tony's sham tribute -
"Ciao, ciao, Emperor!" (Larry Brash, 1998)
Long Quotes
"There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is not
being talked about" =
"Shh, gay is taboo. Hate being sunk in that rotten gaol. Wilde died
broken, beaten 'n' total nut." (Larry Brash, 1997)
"That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for Mankind.", Neil A.
Armstrong. =
A thin man ran; makes a large stride, left planet, pins flag on Moon.
On to Mars! (Steve Krakowski, 1998)
"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, or to take
arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them?" =
Is a befitting quote from one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. But
why won't Hamlet's inspiring motto toss our stubborn hero's tortuous
battle for life, on one hand, and death, on another? (Larry Brash,
1998)
Longest single-word anagrams
A comprehensive list of these can be found at
http://www.ozemail.com/~lbrash/anagrams/one_word.html
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3. WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF ANAGRAMS?
(Adapted from "The Anagram Dictionary" by Michael Curl and "Words at
Play" by O.V. Michaelson)
According to some historians, anagrams originated in the 4th century
B.C. with the Greek poet Lycophron who used them to flatter the rich
and mighty. Other sources suggest that Pythagorus, in the 6th century
B.C., used anagrams to discover philosophical meanings. Plato and his
followers believed that anagrams revealed divinity and destiny.
Alexander the Great dreamed that he had caught a satyr the night before
the siege of Tyre. His advisors told him it was a good omen, because
the Greek word for satyr anagrammed to Tyre. The city fell the next
day.
Anagrams were often believed to have mystical or prophetic meaning in
Roman and early Christian times. History then mentions little of
anagrams until the 13th century A.D., when the Jewish Cabalists again
found mystical significance in them.
In the Middle Ages in Europe, anagrams became popular. However, the
principal activity of anagrammatists in the Middle Ages was in forming
anagrams on religious texts. For example:
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum (Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.) =
Virgo serena, pia, munda et immaculata (Virgin serene, holy, pure
and immaculate)
or more irreverently:
A virgo intacta and a mum? Presume a lie! (Larry Brash, 1998)
Many authors anagrammed their names to make pseudonyms. Francois
Rabelais became Alcofribas Nasier, and Calvinus became Alcuinus (V and
U were interchangeable in Latin) and both wrote abusive anagrams of
each other's names. In the 16th and 17th centuries, scientists, such as
Galileo, Huygens and Robert Hooke, often recorded their results in
anagram form to stake their claim on a discovery and prevent anyone
claiming the credit.
In the days of French Royalty. Louis XIII appointed a Royal
Anagrammatist, Thomas Billon, to entertain the Court with amusing
anagrams of people's names.
The 19th century bought about the vogue of anagramming the names of
famous persons. Lewis Carroll gave us:
Florence Nightingale = Flit on, cheering angel
Disraeli = I lead, sir
This era also gave us the cognate anagram, where the anagram has some
relevance to the original, eg.
Astronomer = Moon starer
The British naturalist, Sir Peter Scott, believed in the existence of
the Loch Ness Monster so strongly that he gave it a scientific name . A
critic later anagrammed it:
Nessiteras rhombopteryx = Monster Hoax by Sir Peter S.
Today, one finds anagrams mainly in cryptic crosswords and, of course,
here in alt.anagrams.
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THE ALT.ANAGRAMS NEWSGROUP =
Ah! Our gang swap letters, man.
We start an' morph languages
Wanna gag? (a) Morph us letters.
What's up? Goal: arrangements.
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(C) 1998-2001 Larry Brash. mailto:la...@brash.net
Permission is granted to freely distribute this document in electronic
form provided it is done so unaltered and in its entirety. Information,
alterations and constructive criticism should be sent directly to the
author for inclusion in future versions.
--
Larry Brash
The Anagrammy Awards: http://www.anagrammy.com/
The alt.anagram's FAQ Page: http://www.anagrammy.com/alt-anagrams.html