Word game
From Citizendium - Reading time: 1 min
A word game is a game that uses words, letters, sentences or other parts of a language. They are often board games, but are not necessarily; for example, Scrabble Slam does not use a board. Wordplay is often classified with word games.
History[edit]
One of the first known instances of wordplay is the so-called Sator Square. This was found in an inscription in Herculaneum. It contains five words, each of five letters:
| S | A | T | O | R |
| A | R | E | P | O |
| T | E | N | E | T |
| O | P | E | R | A |
| R | O | T | A | S |
The words together form a 25-letter palindrome that can be read vertically or horizontally.[1][2] The Latin means: "Arepo the Sower holds the wheels, his works".
Anagrams were popular in Roman times and the Middle Ages and are still popular today. Crosswords were invented in 1913[3] and Scrabble in the 1930s ('31 or '38 - the precise date varies depending on the source).[4] Many other word games have become popular more recently, such as Boggle and Scrabble Slam - and of course, nowadays these all have online counterparts.
Examples[edit]
- Crosswords
- Boggle
- Scrabble
- Anagrams
- Palindromes
References[edit]
- ↑ Walter O. Moeller: The Mithraic Origin and Meanings of the ROTAS-SATOR Square (Leiden: Brill, 1973).
- ↑ It is believed it may have been written by Christians as the word PATERNOSTER is contained within. Plexoft.
- ↑ Crossword Tools
- ↑ Scrabble history
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