For the Apegram there is a noun that is small only in the number of characters
Apegramma it’s a play on words, one of Games of Courier. The reader is provided with a beehive-shaped grid: in each cell there is a letter. The game consists of finding as many words as possible formed with at least four of these letters with l’the only condition to understand is the one found in the central box. You win by accumulating points, finding as many words as possible, the letters can occur more than once. Every Tuesday, we give suggestions on one of the many possible words on the Corriere website. A way to break the ice.
The word Apegram for today, Tuesday 3 March
Table of Contents
MESSAGGINO is the Apegram word for today’s match, Tuesday 3 March.
WHEN WE HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING to someone far away. At least this is the practical meaning of this altered name whose use “exploded” in the nineties with the use of mobile phones.
From the ancient need to communicate
The word messano is the diminutive of message that comes to us from medieval Latin messagiumin turn the son of the past participle sent of the Latin verb to send meaning to send or send. The message is an announcement, information, a warning communicated both directly and through a third party with all the means at our disposal. And if in the past it was necessary for someone to deliver it personally (even the word put in order comes from the same verb) technology has provided us with increasingly sophisticated tools.
The occasion and the form
At the beginning of the 90s the technological evolution of telephony led to the birth of cell phones and with them the appearance of the first SMS (these are the initials for Short Message Service) which identifies a mobile messaging protocol that allows the sending of short texts. The first message was sent on December 3, 1992 by British engineer Neil Papworth, then twenty-two years old, from a computer to a mobile phone. The message contained the text “Merry Christmas” and was sent over the GSM network.
Acronyms and confidence
As we have seen, the world of technology favors speed and loves acronyms, formed from the initial letters or syllables of multiple words that can be pronounced as a single word. Think of RAM (random access memory), but we all know NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and MOTELs (Motor + hotels) or SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles). In our language we tend to choose small confidential alterations that make the objects we are describing feel less distant. So the mobile phone immediately became the mobile phone and the messages it was able to send, the little messages.
Altered names and emotions
Altered nouns are nouns that modify the meaning of the primitive (root) noun through suffixes, adding shades of greatness, smallness, beauty or contempt, without changing its substance. They are divided into four main categories: diminutives (-ino-etto), augmentatives (-one), endearments (-uccio-ello) and derogatory (-accio-astro).
But it’s always better not to trust
These endings are very clear and make you immediately perceive the evolution of the meaning compared to the original name. But as always it is better not to trust too much: the Italian language is full of altered fakes, some very funny. The canine is a tooth and not a small puppy, the focaccia is good and certainly has nothing to do with an unpleasant seal, the bolt is a very useful joining element between two mechanical parts and certainly not an overbearing overweight.
Linguistic evolution
To understand how our way of communicating has changed, the latest essay by linguist Giuseppe Antonelli “Alfabit” published by Il Mulino can be of great help. Paolo Di Stefano spoke about it in the Corriere della Sera. This is part of his review. «”I type ergo sum”. I type therefore I am is the motto of what Giuseppe Antonelli calls technological neo-epistolary. Since the early 2000s, writing has become, for an immense mass of people, a daily habit in the exchange of fragmentary and confidential messages, until it has become the main form of relationship with the outside world. In Alfabit, his new essay (il Mulino), Antonelli takes us through the subsequent phases that our language has experienced (and still experiences) since then. With some caveats. First, never forget that language is an “ever-evolving living organism.” Therefore, second point, avoid the apocalyptic stereotypes often widespread in journalistic vulgate. Third, keep in mind that today more than in the past, dealing with changes in the language spoken and written means walking on shifting ground. So much so that the scholar intends his book as the “diary account of an uninterrupted research in progress”.
Political evolution
The sociologist Giuseppe de Rita is one of the most refined observers of Italian political life and his reflections are often published in the Corriere della Sera. In one of these articles he wrote: «Politics is reduced not just to news, but to television commentary. We can then understand and forgive the tendency of politicians to appear in the news, to personally occupy the news. None of them like being asked for an article or a written comment; many of them are starting to have doubts about the “performance” of their presence on talk shows; while the absolute majority of work is unleashed on the presence of pure news (the 10-second text message, the selfie on some group occasion, the photo at Vinitaly, the meeting with the victims of the banking crises or with the riders), in an increasingly pervasive intertwining of politics and news”. This article was published on June 15, 2018. There’s nothing to be happy about.
Apegramma is the challenge that tests your vocabulary with a beehive grid of seven letters in which to find as many words as possible. A quick and fun way to train your mind, like the other Corriere Giochi proposals: In other words by Massimo Gramellini, the Courier Quiz by Paolo Virtuani, the Crosswordil Sudoku and the Word Search.
Download theCourier Games app here
