Word squares were popular in Britain in the nineteenth century. In 1859, the scholarly journal 'Notes and Queries', published the following word square which claimed to 'square the circle'.

Contributors then provided more examples in which a person or event made the word square relevant to the current time:

From making squares from given words, word squares became a game in which clues had to be solved in order to construct the square.

From Guess Me by F. Planche (1872)

These word square games continued to appear in many puzzle books and magazines throughout the 1800's. Some used pictures as clues and some were intended to be educational (history, geography, etc.).

Other shapes soon made their debut and the word square was no longer limited to being square. Diamoonds, octagons, pyramids and half-squares became popular. In the 1870s, the American magazine St. Nicholas featured these puzzles:

H. E. Dudeney was a puzzle expert (d. 1930) who claimed to have written the first word square with versified clues. In this example, the numbers in each line are to be replaced by the solution words.

'Twas spring. The abbey woods were decked with second.
The abbot, with his fifth, no trouble reckoned;
But shared the meats and seventh which every man
Who loves to feast has first since time began.
Then comes a stealthy sixth across the wall,
Who fourth the plate and jewels, cash and all,
And ere the abbot and the monks have dined,
He third, and leaves no trace behind.

P A L A T E D
A N E M O N E
L E V A N T S
A M A S S E S
T O N S U R E
E N T E R E R
D E S S E R T

From World's Best Word Puzzles (1925)

Dudeney claimed that very few seven-letter word squares existed (at least in his time) and he had never seen a good one of eight letters.

Today, seven-letter word squares are quite common. Besides the one above, the following are good examples which use acceptable words:

However, eight-letter squares usually necessitate the use of obscure words and/or archaic spellings:

A G A R I C U S
G E N E R A N T
A N A C O N D A
R E C E N T E R
I R O N W O R T
C A N T O N A L
U N D E R A G E
S T A R T L E D

Nine-word squares use a lot of unusal words and even proper names. Dimitri Borgmann claims that over 900 such squares have been constructed:

Is it possible to construct a perfect ten-letter word square? Consider that for over twelve years no person or computer has been able to come up with an acceptable ten-letter word square. Early computer efforts were disappointing as illustrated by the following which only found words for eight of the ten lines:

A C C O M P L I S H
C O O P E R A N C Y
C O P A T E N T E E
O P A L E S C E N T
M E T E N T E R O N
P R E S T A T I O N
L A N C E T O O T H
I N T E R I O R L Y
S C E N O O T L
H Y E T N N H Y

Borgmann and Darryl Francis constructed some ten-word squares using tautonyms (words consisting of two words repeated) and allowing themselves to repeat words within the square:

O R A N G U T A N G
R A N G A R A N G A
A N D O L A N D O L
N G O T A N G O T A
G A L A N G A L A N
U R A N G U T A N G
T A N G A T A N G A
A N D O L A N D O L
N G O T A N G O T A
G A L A N G A L A N

As Tony Augarde states in The Oxford Guide to Word Games, "The field is wide open for someone (or some computer) to construct a really acceptable ten-word square."

The next feature looks at PALINDROMES, from the most well-known to the longest palindromic words in the English language.

See you next time!