Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The record produced by a chronograph.
- noun An inscribed phrase in which certain letters can be read as Roman numerals indicating a specific date.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An inscription in which a certain date or epoch is expressed by the numeral letters contained in it, each letter being counted according to its independent value, as in the motto of a medal struck by Gustavus Adolphus in 1632: “ChrIstVs DVX; ergo trIVMphVs” (C + I + V + D + V + X + I + V + M + V—that is, 100 + 1 + 5 + 500 + 5 + 10 + 1 + 5 + 1000 + 5 = 1632).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An inscription in which certain numeral letters, made to appear specially conspicuous, on being added together, express a particular date or epoch,
as in the motto of a medal struck by Gustavus Adolphus in 1632: ChrIstVs DVX; ergo trIVMphVs. - the capitals of which give, when added as numerals, the sum 1632 . - noun The record or inscription made by a chronograph.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A sentence or inscription in which the
capital letters , interpreted inRoman numerals , stand for a particular date if rearranged.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The first of these lines is a chronogram, that is, it contains a date.
The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 Anatole France 1884
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By FranCIs GoLDsMIth. "has no date on the title-page, the real date of 1652 being supplied by the chronogram, which is a better one than most of those quoted in" N. & Q., "inasmuch as all the numerical letters are employed, and it is consequently not dependent on the typography.
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"chronogram" indicating the year 1634 thus: -- sInt DoMUs hUjUs pII reges nUtrItII regInae nUtrICes pIae.
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See Philip Walsingham Sergeant 1912
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The planning phase consists in the development of a planning matrix, determination of assumptions and conditions, determination of activities, formulation of indicators, estimation of financial and human resources needed, and the development of a chronogram (for timing of activities).
Chapter 5 2000
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If, as is possible, these words are intended to form a chronogram, they yield the date
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux 1840-1916 1913
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They're both of the sixteenth century, when we were prosperous and artistic; and over the north-side entrance there's a chronogram inscription concerning the siege.
The Chauffeur and the Chaperon Karl Anderson 1901
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But we perceive that the obviously mutilated prophecy of Merlin the Magician and the apocryphal chronogram of the Venerable Bede had come under her notice.
The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 Anatole France 1884
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I add another chronogram "by Godard, upon the birth of Louis XIV. in 1638, on a day when the eagle was in conjunction with the lion's heart:"
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In the same volume there is another example of the chronogram, at p. 261., in the "Septem Mariæ Mysteria" of Antonius Chanut.
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"If you desire to know the yeer, this chronogram will tell you: fILIVs ante DIeM patrIos InqVIrIt In annos," which would represent the date of 1568.
qms commented on the word chronogram
A chronogram for a desolate scene,
A twelvemonth both wretched and mean:
Though MeMory's vexed
There's hope that the neXt
ImproVes on vIle twenty-sIxteen.
December 22, 2016
Gammerstang commented on the word chronogram
(noun) - One of the simplest devices of the word-juggler, and as old as the Romans. It consists in selecting certain letters indicating a date from a name or an inscription on a tomb, an arch, or a medal, printing them larger than the others, and obtaining thereby a date which is regarded as an augury. In some chronograms only the initial letters are counted as forming the solutions to the puzzle, but in others all the characters used for Roman numerals are taken into account. History supplies many first-rate chronograms. In fact it was once the custom to strike medals with chronogramic sentences in which the date of the occasion commemorated was set forth by the letters selected. --Henry Reddall's Fact, Fancy, and Fable, 1889
April 23, 2018