Anagram Definition and Examples

A type of verbal play in which a word or phrase is formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase, such as changing united to untied. Adjective: anagrammatic. Its generally agreed that the best anagrams  relate in some meaningful way to the original subject. An imperfect anagram is one in which  letters have been omitted (usually for ease of pronunciation). See Examples and Observations below. Also see: AcrosticLogologyMetathesisParagramPseudonymWord PlayWords at Play: An Introduction to Recreational Linguistics Etymology:  From the Greek, to rearrange letters in a word Examples and Observations My name is only an anagram of toilets.(T.S. Eliot)A thin man ran; makes a large stride, left planet, pins flag on moon! On to Mars!(an anagram for Neil Armstrongs Thats one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind)12 Anagramsgentleman: elegant manArnold Schwarzenegger: he’s grown large n’ crazedBritney Spears: best PR in yearsdormitory: dirty roomdeclaration: an oral edictNew York Times: monkeys writeevangelist: evils agentClint Eastwood: Old West actionMargaret Thatcher: that great charmerdesperation: a rope ends itathletics: lithe actscommittees: cost me timeCaught AnagrammingThe head of the organic food giant Whole Foods has been caught touting his company and trashing a competitor in anonymous writings on the Internet. Using a pseudonym, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey . . . wrote under the screen name Rahodeb, an anagram for the name of his wife, Deborah.(Frank Langfitt, Lacihte? Whole Foods CEO Spams Under Anagram. NPR, July 12, 2007)Edwin Morgans Letter to a French NovelistSaporta:O  satrap!O Sparta!Oars tap.O, a strap?A pastor?Pa Astor?Ps! Aorta.Taro sap.Art soap?A rat sopto paras.O. A. S. trap.So apart!– Pat. Rosa.(Edwin Morgan, Letter to a French Novelist, 1964) Anagrams in Fiction Anagrams in The Da Vinci CodeAnagrams are used in popular fiction from time to time. In Dan Browns best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code (2003, film version 2006), the lines O, draconian devil and Oh, lame saint written in blood on the body of the murdered curator of the Louvre are anagrams of Leonardo da Vinci and The Mona Lisa respectively. The central ideas of The Da Vinci Code can be found in an earlier book, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln (1982).(Barry J. Blake, Secret Language. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010)Yorick Was Here (and Kilroy, Too)Alas poor Yorlik, I knew him backwardsTraditionally,  anagrams  are warped signifiers which warn their recipients that they contain a buried signified which wants to surface. It is the word  backwards  which tells the recipient how to unpuzzle the anagram by reading something in the utterance from left to right. The joke is, of course, doubly intertextual. Apart from the clear Shakespe arian reference,  Yorlik  backwards reads  Kilroy, the well-known character who is frequently mentioned in the slogan  Kilroy was here. . . . [T[he recipient is faced with having to know about an item of world knowledge which is imperative for the complete appreciation of the joke.(Delia Chiaro,  The Language of Jokes: Analyzing Verbal Play. Routledge, 1992)The Anagrammatick Method in  Gullivers TravelsBut 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. Thus  N  shall signify a Plot,  B  a Regiment of Horse,  L  a Fleet at Sea. Or secondly, by transposing the Letters of the Alphabet in any suspected Paper, who can discover the deepest Designs of a discontented Party. So for example, if I should say in a Letter to a Friend,  Our Brother Tom has just got the Piles, a Man of Skill in this Art would discover how the same Letters which compose that Sentence, may be analysed into the following Words;  Resist,-- a Plot is brought Home--The Tour. And this is the Anagrammatick Method.(Jonathan Swift,  Gullivers Travels, Part III, Chapter Six) The Lighter Side of Anagrams Lisa: Hey Ralph, want to come with me and Alison to play Anagrams?Alison: We take proper names and rearrange the letters to form a description of that person.Ralph Wiggum: My cats breath smells like cat food.(The Simpsons)Monty Pythons Man Who Talks in AnagramsPresenter: Hello, good evening and welcome to another edition of Blood, Devastation, Death, War Horror. And later well be talking to a man who does gardening. But our first guest tonight is a man who talks entirely in anagrams.Hamrag Yatlerot: Taht si crreoct.Presenter: Do you enjoy this?Hamrag Yatlerot: I stom certainly od. Revy chum so.Presenter: And what is your name?Hamrag Yatlerot: Hamrag, Hamrag Yatlerot.Presenter: Well, Graham, nice to have you on the show. Now where do you come from?Hamrag Yatlerot: Bumcreland.Presenter: Cumberland?Hamrag Yatlerot: Staht sit sepreicly.(Michael Palin and Eric Idle in Monty Pythons Flying Circus, 1972) Pronunciation: AN-uh-gram