pentagram
(ˈpɛntəgræm)
[mod. ad. Gr. πεντά-, πεντέγραµµον n. from neuter of πεντέγραµµ-ος adj., formed or consisting of five lines, f. πέντε five + γραµµή line, mark.]
1. A five-pointed figure formed by producing the sides of a pentagon both ways to their points of intersection, so as to form a five-pointed star; the ‘five straight lines’ of which the figure consists form one continuous line or ‘endless knot’. Formerly used as a mystic symbol and credited with magical virtues. (Also called pentalpha, pentacle (pentagle, pentangle), † pentagonon (-goron, -geron).)
| 1833 Fraser's Mag. VII. 547 The pentagram was a pentagonal figure, supposed to possess the same kind of power which, amongst us, used popularly to be attributed to the horse-shoe. 1855 Tennyson Brook 103 Sketching with her slender pointed foot Some figure like a wizard pentagram On garden gravel. 1878 A. W. Ward Greene's Fr. Bacon ii. 51 Notes 209 The pentagramma, pentageron or pentalpha is the mystic figure ‘produced by prolonging the sides of a regular pentagon till they intersect one another. It can be drawn without a break in the drawing’. 1895 A. M. Stoddart J. S. Blackie viii. 176, I found a hindrance—a pentagram—in my way, like Mephistopheles. |
2. A series of five letters or characters.
| 1972 Computer Jrnl. XV. 260/2 The peak frequencies are steadily reduced, from one occurrence of the space symbol in seven characters in the case of single characters, to a maximum frequency of approximately 600 in 1,000 documents in the case of the most frequent pentagram, TION∇. 1974 Sci. Amer. Jan. 108/3 Rows 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, in 32 parts, give the 32 pentagrams. |