Chapter 15 Wordplay Summary and Analysis

Bryson describes the history of various word games, beginning with the crossword puzzle, which is invented by an American newspaper editor in 1913. The crossword puzzle is not accepted as an intellectual exercise until several decades later when intellectual papers such as the London Times and New York Times began printing them. Another popular word game is Scrabble, which is invented in 1931 and becomes widespread in 1953. The palindrome is another arduous word game in which a sentence must be read the same backward and forward. The anagram rearranges the letters in a word to describe it. The rebus uses letters and symbols to give a coded message, such as is commonly seen in American license plates. A holorime is a line that sounds two distinct ways because of the combination of sounds. This is heard when people misquote the lyrics...