acrostic

plural acrostics · alternative acrostick · alternative acrosticke · alternative crostic

1. alsoattributiveA poem or other text in which certain letters, often the first in each line, spell out a name or message.First known use 16th c.

   I have written an acroſticke ſonet to his Maieſtie, a canzonet to the Queene, and another acroſticke unto the Prince; whoſe ſervant I am by vow, and ſubordinate ſubject by birth.

   1603, Hugh Holland, “To Sir Robert Cotton, Knight, Lord of Cunnington”, in Pancharis: The First Booke. Containing the Preparation of the Loue betweene Ovven Tudyr, and the Queene, long since Intended to Her Maiden Maiestie: […], printed at London: By V[alentine] S[immes] for Clement Knight, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Pancharis: The First Booke. […] (Illustrations of Old English Literature [Green Series]; volume 2, number 1), [London]: [Privately printed], 1866, →OCLC, page 55

   5 more examples

   He [Judas Maccabeus] was termed Mackabæus, becauſe he carried in his ſtandard, or vexillum militare, theſe four Hebrew letters, Mem, Chaph, Beth, and Jod, or M. C. B. and J. whereunto their points being added, which are their vowells, (for others they have none) his mott was Mackabai, whereof he took his name. Theſe four letters are the acroſtickes or initiall letters of theſe four wordes in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Exodus, Mi Chamocha Baalim Jehovah, which is in Latin Quis ſicut tu Deorum Jehova? ["Who among the gods is like you, O Adonai?", Exodus 15:11.]

   1600 December 7, Abraham Hartwell, “Nº LXXXV. Of the Same [i.e., Of the Antiquity, Variety, and Reason of Motts, with Arms of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England].”, in Thomas Hearne, editor, A Collection of Curious Discourses Written by Eminent Antiquaries upon Several Heads in Our English Antiquities. […] In Two Volumes, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Printed by and for W. and J. Richardson, published 1771, →OCLC, pages 278–279

   [L]et him that is melancholy […] apply his minde I ſay to Heraldry, Antiquity, invent Impreſſes, Emblemes; make Epithalamiums, Epitaphs, Elegies, Epigrams, Palindrona Epigrammata, Anagrams, Chronograms, Acroſticks, upon his friends names; […]

   1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Exercise Rectified of Body and Minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 4, page 282

   And afterwards gives as many reaſons for it, as there are letters in Hibernaculum Ciconiarum, and that too in the Acrostick way, each ſentence beginning with a letter of thoſe words, according to their order.

   1684 August 29, “Disquisitio de Magia Divinatrice & Operatrice &c. Auctore Francisco Moncæio 4º Francofurti & Lipsiæ 1683 [book review]”, in Philosophical Transactions: Giving Some Accompt of the Present Undertakings, Studies and Labours of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume XIV, number 162, London: Printed by T. R. for John Martyn, printer to the Royal Society; […], published 1670, →OCLC, pages 707–708

   There is a most crying dullness on both sides. I have seen tory acrostics and whig anagrams, and do not quarrel with either of them, because they are whigs or tories, but because they are anagrams and acrostics.

   1711 May 20 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, May 10, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 61; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 379

   But ſhould this Method fail, recourſe might be had to others more effectual, by Learned Men called Acroſticks and Anagrams. Firſt, might be found Men of Skill and Penetration who can diſcern that all initial Letters have political Meanings.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Further Account of the Academy. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 92

2. alsoattributiveA poem in Hebrew in which successive lines or verses start with consecutive letters of the alphabet.

   3 more examples

   The Whole [of the Book of Zephaniah] is wrote in a very lively, tender, and pathetic Stile; and all the Chapters, except the laſt, (which ſeems to have been of later Compoſition than the reſt) are in Acroſtick Verſe, i.e. every Line, or Couplet, begins, in an Alphabetical Order, with ſome Letter in the Hebrew Alphabet.

   1744, Thomas Stackhouse, “From the Death of Josiah to the Babylonish Captivity”, in A New History of the Holy Bible, from the Beginning of the World, to the Establishment of Christianity. […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for Stephen Austen, […], →OCLC, book VI, footnote, page 950

   Each of the five chapters of the Lamentations contains a distinct elegy, according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. And in the first four chapters the versification resembles acrostics. In the three first chapters each verse consists of three lines, and the initial letters of each verse are in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, with the exception that i. 7, and ii. 19, consist of five lines.

   1837, George R[apall] Noyes, “Notes on Lamentations”, in A New Translation of the Hebrew Prophets, Arranged in Chronological Order, volume II (Containing Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations), Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 288

   The psalm is an individual thanksgiving that publicizes the psalmist as an encouragement for all who struggle to remain loyal to their God. It is in acrostic form in which every line begins with a successive letter of the twenty-two letter Hebrew alphabet. […] The acrostic form perhaps explains why the specificity one expects in a thanksgiving is diluted.

   2002, Richard J. Clifford, “Psalm 34”, in Psalms 1–72 (Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries), Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, →ISBN, page 173

3. alsoattributiveA kind of word puzzle, whose solution forms an anagram of a quotation, with its initial letters often forming the name of the person quoted.

   those who rack their brains in solving the Acrostics in our Sunday papers will, perchance, be saved many a rack and many a failure by our reverse alphabetical arrangement

   1924, Lawrence H. Dawson, “Preface”, in John Walker, The Rhyming Dictionary of The English Language, London / New York: George Routledge and Sons / E. P. Dutton and Co., page vi

   1 more example

   For those of you who are new to acrostics, here is what to do. Your goal is to figure out the quote in the grid. […] Reading down the first letter of each answer spells the name of the author and the title of the work from which the quote was taken.

   2003, Anne Brown, “Introduction”, in Challenging Acrostic Puzzles, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing Co., →ISBN, page 5

4. alsoattributiveA kind of word puzzle in which a series of words are clued, and individual letters from the clued word spell out one or more additional words.

comparative more acrostic · superlative most acrostic · alternative acrostick · alternative acrosticke

1. alsoattributiveOf or pertaining to acrostics.

   Other ancients have suggested that the original verses were written in hieroglyphs and also mentioned the acrostic code.

   1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, page 42