"telegraphic dispatch, communication sent by telegraph," according to Bartlett's 1859 edition a coinage of E. Peshine Smith of Rochester, N.Y., from tele-, as in telegraph + -gram, and introduced in the Albany "Evening Journal" of April 6, 1852. Whoever coined it, the word was damned in the cradle by purists, some of whome pointed out that the correct formation would be telegrapheme.

May I suggest to such as are not contented with 'Telegraphic Dispatch' the rightly constructed word 'telegrapheme'? I do not want it, but ... I protest against such a barbarism as 'telegram.' [Richard Shilleto, Cambridge Greek scholar, in the London Times, Oct. 15, 1857]

Related: Telegrammic "of or pertaining to a telegram."

also aerogramme, 1899, "message sent through the air" (by radio waves, i.e. "wireless telegraphy"), from aero- + -gram. From 1920 as "air-mail letter."

"transposition of letters in a word so as to form another; a word so formed," 1580s, from French anagramme or Modern Latin anagramma (16c.), both from Greek anagrammatizein "transpose letters of a word so as to form another," from ana "back, backwards" (see ana-) + gramma (genitive grammatos) "letter" (see -gram). Evil is an anagram of live. Related: Anagrammatic; anagrammatical; anagrammatically.

"X-ray image of the arteries, veins, and/or heart chambers," 1933, from angio- + -gram.

"a tracing of the beating of the heart made with a cardiograph," 1876, from cardio- + -gram.

"a fingerprint," 1913, from Latinized form of Greek daktylos "finger" (a word of unknown origin) + -gram.

1934, from electro- + encephalo-, combining form of Modern Latin encephalon "brain" (see encephalitis) + -gram.

also gramme, metric unit of weight, 1797, from French gramme (18c.), from Late Latin gramma "small weight," from Greek gramma "small weight," a special use of the classical word meaning "a letter of the alphabet" (see -gram). Adopted into English about two years before it was established in France as a unit in the metric system by law of 19 frimaire, year VIII (1799). "There seems to be no possible objection to adopting the more convenient shorter form, except that the -me records the unimportant fact that the word came to us through French" [Fowler].

late 14c., "Latin grammar, rules of Latin," from Old French gramaire "grammar; learning," especially Latin and philology, also "(magic) incantation, spells, mumbo-jumbo" (12c., Modern French grammaire), an "irregular semi-popular adoption" [OED, 2nd ed. 1989] of Latin grammatica "grammar, philology," perhaps via an unrecorded Medieval Latin form *grammaria.

The classical Latin word is from Greek grammatike (tekhnē) "(art) of letters," referring both to philology and to literature in the broadest sense, fem. of grammatikos (adj.) "pertaining to or versed in letters or learning," from gramma "letter" (see -gram). An Old English gloss of it was stæfcræft (see staff (n.)).

A much broader word in Latin and Greek; restriction of the meaning to "systematic account of the rules and usages of language" is a post-classical development.

Until 16c. limited to Latin; in reference to English usage by late 16c., thence "rules of a language to which speakers and writers must conform" (1580s). The meaning "a treatise on grammar" is from 1520s.

For the "magic" sense, compare gramary. The evolution is characteristic of the Dark Ages: "learning in general, knowledge peculiar to the learned classes," which included astrology and magic; hence the secondary meaning of "occult knowledge" (late 15c. in English), which evolved in Scottish into glamour (q.v.).

A grammar-school (late 14c.) originally was a school for learning Latin, which was begun by memorizing the grammar. In U.S. (1842) the term was put to use in the graded system for a school between primary and secondary where English grammar is one of the subjects taught.

The word is attested earlier in surnames (late 12c.) such as Robertus Gramaticus, Richard le Gramarie, whence the modern surname Grammer.

1580s, "grammarian," from French grammatiste (16c.), from Medieval Latin grammatista, from Greek grammatistes "one who teaches letters," from gramma "a drawing; a letter, character" (see -gram).