autogram
|au-to-gram|
🇺🇸
/ˈɔːtəˌɡræm/
🇬🇧
/ˈɔːtəɡræm/
self-described writing
Etymology
'autogram' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'autogramma', where 'auto-' meant 'self' and 'gramma' meant 'letter' or 'something written'.
'autogramma' from Greek passed into scholarly and coined English usage as a compound (auto- + -gram) in modern times; the English word 'autogram' was formed by analogy with other '-gram' words (e.g. 'telegram', 'anagram').
Initially the roots together meant 'a thing written by oneself' or 'self-written mark', but in modern recreational-linguistic usage it evolved to mean specifically 'a sentence that inventories or describes its own letters/words'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a self-referential sentence that describes the frequency of its own letters or words (an inventory of its own characters or words).
The autogram "This sentence contains three a's, two b's, and one c" attempts to state the counts of letters within itself.
Synonyms
Last updated: 2025/11/25 18:02