logogriph
(ˈlɒgəgrɪf)
Forms: 6–9 logogryphe, 7–9 -iphe, 9 -iff, 7– logogriph.
[ad. F. logogriphe, f. Gr. λόγο-ς word + γρῖϕος fishing-basket, riddle.]
A kind of enigma, in which a certain word, and other words that can be formed out of all or any of its letters, are to be guessed from synonyms of them introduced into a set of verses. Occasionally used for: Any anagram or puzzle involving anagrams.
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. i. 33 Worse than the Logogryphes of later times, Or Hundreth Riddles shak't to sleeue-lesse rimes. a 1637 B. Jonson Underwoods, Execr. upon Vulcan 34 (1640) B i b, Had I.. weav'd fifty tomes Of Logogriphes, or curious Pallindromes. 1765 H. Walpole Let. to Lady Hervey 21 Nov. Lett. (1857) IV. 439 All I can send your ladyship is a very pretty logogriphe, made by..Madame du Deffand. 1770 Fox in J. H. Jesse G. Selwyn & Contemp. (1843) II. 398, I gained great credit there by guessing a logogryphe. 1813 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XXXVI. 417 A logogriph..describes not a word only, but all the included words, which any portion of its letters can spell. 1835 Tait's Mag. II. 808 A sort of logogriff not worthy of solution. 1867–77 G. F. Chambers Astron. i. xii. 136 The original discovery was announced to Kepler in the following logogriph. 1884 J. Payne 1001 Nts. VII. 210 note, The clue to this logogriph lies in the numerical value of the letters forming the key-word. |
Hence logoˈgriphic a., of or pertaining to logogriphs, of the nature of a logogriph.
| 1814 Q. Rev. X. 464 By dropping r [from Borlase], and changing ase into us, we have the ingenious logogriphic title of Sir Bolus. |