Pangram

[Slava]

Okay, first the story of how I came across this word. Writing to a new professor to ask about a course in Spring, I used his name in the salutation. For some reason, my Eudora spell-check doesn't like Sangmpam, and suggested, in all CAPS, this lovely word instead. Weird, how these things come up with their suggestions, no?

That being said, a pangram is a sentence that uses all the letters of the alphabet. The acme of a pangram is one that uses all the letters once and only once.

The old standard, used for typing exercises, is: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

[Perry]

Any other pangrams to contribute?

[Stargzer]

No pangrams, but back in Ancient Times when I worked in the Bureau of Data Management and Strategy, Novell's spell checker suggested I replace the acronym / abbreviation "BDMS" with "BUMS." Knowing the upper management and some of the other people who worked there, either kind of bum would be a most appropriate description!

[Slava]

Any other pangrams to contribute?

Thanks to http://rinkworks.com/words/pangrams.shtml:

* Forsaking monastic tradition, twelve jovial friars gave up their vocation for a questionable existence on the flying trapeze. (106 letters)
* No kidding -- Lorenzo called off his trip to visit Mexico City just because they told him the conquistadores were extinct. (99 letters)
* Jelly-like above the high wire, six quaking pachyderms kept the climax of the extravaganza in a dazzling state of flux. (96 letters)
* Ebenezer unexpectedly bagged two tranquil aardvarks with his jiffy vacuum cleaner. (71 letters)
* Six javelins thrown by the quick savages whizzed forty paces beyond the mark. (64 letters)
* The explorer was frozen in his big kayak just after making queer discoveries. (64 letters)
* The July sun caused a fragment of black pine wax to ooze on the velvet quilt. (61 letters)
* The public was amazed to view the quickness and dexterity of the juggler. (60 letters)
* While Suez sailors wax parquet decks, Afghan Jews vomit jauntily abaft. (59 letters)
* We quickly seized the black axle and just saved it from going past him. (57 letters)
* Six big juicy steaks sizzled in a pan as five workmen left the quarry. (56 letters)
* While making deep excavations we found some quaint bronze jewelry. (56 letters)
* Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward. (55 letters)
* A mad boxer shot a quick, gloved jab to the jaw of his dizzy opponent. (54 letters)
* The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. (54 letters)
* A quart jar of oil mixed with zinc oxide makes a very bright paint. (53 letters)
* Whenever the black fox jumped the squirrel gazed suspiciously. (53 letters)
* We promptly judged antique ivory buckles for the next prize. (50 letters)
* How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts! (49 letters)
* Crazy Fredericka bought many very exquisite opal jewels. (48 letters)
* Sixty zippers were quickly picked from the woven jute bag. (48 letters)
* Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes. (40 letters)
* Heavy boxes perform quick waltzes and jigs. (36 letters)
* Jinxed wizards pluck ivy from the big quilt. (36 letters)
* Big Fuji waves pitch enzymed kex liquor. (33 letters)
* The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. (33 letters)
* Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. (32 letters)
* Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz. (31 letters)
* The five boxing wizards jump quickly. (31 letters)
* How quickly daft jumping zebras vex. (30 letters)
* Quick zephyrs blow, vexing daft Jim. (29 letters)
* Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow. (29 letters)
* Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud. (28 letters)
* Blowzy night-frumps vex'd Jack Q. (26 letters)
* Glum Schwartzkopf vex'd by NJ IQ. (26 letters)

[Stargzer]

Some Pangrams actually had a purpose. this particular version of the venerable Fox Message was once used in telecom because it would not only test the entire alphabet, but would also help one check the line length and the automatic return on a Model 33 Teletype machine.

Code: Select all

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG'S BACK SIXTY-NINE SPACES01234567890

(I'm not shouting; the teletype only had upper case. I remember the original sentence (The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.) from elementary school because not only does it have all the letters of the alphabet, but also most of the major parts of speech: two articles (The, the), three adjectives (quick, brown, lazy), two nouns (fox, dog), a verb (jumps), and an adverb (over).


On a regular 72-character line, if the automatic return was set to ON then the last thing printed on the line would be the number 2. Because of he way that teletypes worked, the 3 would be printed over the line just printed, in the middle of the line as the print head returned to the left, and the rest of the line ("4567890") would print out on the next line. If the automatic return was not set ON, the the last readable character would be the 1, followed by a black square made when the remaining characters all printed on top of one another in the 72nd space. If the end-of-line or beginning-of-line was not set properly one would see more or less than 72 characters printed on the line. Any teleprinter that could print an 80-character line would print the entire message on one line. Note that the way the message is constructed, the second "s" in "spaces" is in the 69th space.