Happy Friday!
I was looking for something fun and I stumbled on this word and several articles about it. I was in word nerd heaven! I’ve tried to whittle it down, but if you are at all interested, there is more information out there. The definition is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram, where they also have pangrams in different languages. The other examples and information are from http://www.fun-with-words.com/pang_visitor.html. Enjoy!
Definition
A pangram (Greek: παν γράμμα, pan gramma, "every letter") or holoalphabetic sentence for a given alphabet is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and keyboarding.
Brief History
Almost half a millennium ago, a printer scrambled a galley of type to produce the first pangram for a specimen book. The text was in Latin, so only 23 letters were required (Latin does not use J, V or W; however V is now used to represent the consonantal U, and sometimes J to represent consonantal I). [KC – Many of you may recognize the example below from templates and font research.]
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit,
diam nonnumy eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolo…
This means There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it, and wants to have it, simply because it is pain…
Examples
A perfect pangram is one where each letter is used only once, such as these gems:
· The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.
· Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
· How quickly daft jumping zebras vex.
And here are several that use each letter (though some are repeated. The total number of letters is in parentheses after the pangram.
· The five boxing wizards jump quickly. (31)
· Sympathizing would fix Quaker objectives. (36)
· Jim just quit and packed extra bags for Liz Owen. (39)
· A large fawn jumped quickly over white zinc boxes. (41)
· Harry, jogging quickly, axed Zen monks with beef vapor. (44)
· Five or six big jet planes zoomed quickly by the tower. (44)
· My grandfather picks up quartz and valuable onyx jewels. (47)
· Jack amazed a few girls by dropping the antique onyx vase! (47)
· Fred specialized in the job of making very quaint wax toys. (48)
Have a fantastic weekend (and vacation if you’re taking days off for the holidays)!
Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
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