Anagram is a technique, which essentially means permuting the letters or sounds of a word (or phrase), which results in another word or phrase. In a number of cases, it is also customary to name other functional mixes of the letter or sound composition of words (that is, not literary devices) as anagrams.
Despite the fact that close attention was drawn to the anagram fairly recently, this technique seems to be among the oldest ones. From the lectures of Ferdinand de Saussure, it is possible to see the concept of the widespread use of anagrams in the most ancient epics: the Mahabharata and Ramayana, Iliad and Odyssey, as well as in the Bible; Magical properties were attributed to anagrams from ancient times. The texts of the Vedas serve a perfect example. The creator of the anagram is considered to be the poet and grammarian named Lycophron, who lived in Ancient Greece in the 3rd century BC. As the Byzantine author John Tzetzes reported, he composed the first of the anagrams known to us from the name of King Ptolemy: Ptolemaios - Aro Melitos, which means "from honey", and from the name of Queen Arsinoe - as "Ion Eras" (Violet of Hera).
In the Middle Ages, anagrams were often attributed to magical action, and therefore the search for anagrams was often somewhat difficult and dangerous due to the fact that this historic period was heavily influenced by faith which perceived unnatural or “magical” things dangerous.
Since the start of 17th century, the increased popularity and usage of anagram can be tracked. Many authors start using the technique to describe their works, names and even personal qualities. More attention is paid to the device as well with the essays and other works on the matter are written. The tendency continued to the modern times, where anagram is often used for various purposes, making it an important aspect of language.
First and foremost, anagram is a common way for an artist to come up with an idea for the pseudonym. This fictional name for many people is something that hides their identity yet leaving a hint of who the author may be. Anagram provides this connection between a real name and the new identity while simply shifting the positions of letters. Parody as a genre of comedy often makes use of the technique, highlighting the name to get a satiric effect.
This device can also be used for more global and important issues as well. Cryptic messages often rely on it and many hidden messages were sent using the power of anagram. Also, an anagram-based decipher strategy is used to decode a number of ciphers.
Furthermore, psychologists use anagrams as the base for memory tests, where the person is asked to solve an anagram.
This technique was used by great scientists and philosophers to mark some discoveries as theirs. This was a precaution measure to make sure that their discovery or idea is actually true and has the potential. This was done by Galilei, Hooke, Peter Scott, and other great minds. When the discovery is proven to be important and measurements are correct, the person would then reveal the anagram he or she created earlier. This would state that the discovery was made by that person before the other claimants.
Anagram is also a popular choice for the titles. Many songs, films, books etc. have the titles that are the anagrams of another piece of art. It is done either unintentionally or to provide a correlation between the two for only the attentive people to notice. Characters inside of the books and films are often influenced by the power of anagrams. For example, Harry Potter’s “I am Tom Riddle” is transformed into the famous “Lord Voldemort” nickname for the antagonist of the series.
