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Origin and history of logogriph

logogriph(n.)

type of word puzzle based on synonyms, etc., and often in the form of a verse, 1590s, from French logogriphe, from Greek logos "word" (see Logos) + gripos/griphos "riddle," a figurative use, literally "fishing basket, creel," probably from a pre-Greek word in a lost Mediterranean language. "The variation [p/ph] is typical for Pre-Greek words; such an origin for a fisherman's word is quite understandable" [Beekes].

Entries linking to logogriph

1580s, "the divine Word, second person of the Christian Trinity," from Greek logos "word, speech, statement, discourse," also "a computation, account," also "reason, judgment, understanding," from PIE *log-o-, suffixed form of root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather," with derivatives meaning "to speak," on notion of "to pick out words." The Greek word was used by Neo-Platonists in metaphysical and theological senses involving notions of both "reason" and "word" and subsequently picked up by New Testament writers.

"word-sign, sign or character representing a word," 1840, from logo- "word" + -gram. Generically, "any symbol representing graphically a product, idea, etc.," from 1966. The earliest use of the word (1820) is in the sense "logograph," but OED explains this as a substitute for logograph, "which in this sense is itself a mistake for logogriph," the old type of word-puzzle.

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