Translation
telegram
Word origin
From Greek tele ('far') and gramma ('something written'), assembled in English in 1852 and taken into every European language within a decade. Esperanto borrowed the finished word rather than building one.
- Origin
- Greek
- Root
- tele + gramma
- English cognates
- telegram, grammar, diagram
Examples
.
He sent a telegram to his mother.
.
We received the telegram the same day.
.
Before the telephone, people wrote telegrams.
A borrowed root, not an build. You can see tele- and -gram-
inside it, and both elements are real in the international vocabulary -
, , , diagramo - but neither is an Esperanto
affix, and there is no root gram- you may attach to things at will. -
came in as one piece.
It is a period word, and worth knowing for that reason. A telegram was charged by the word, which is why telegrams read the way they do: no articles, no polite padding, everything compressed. The early Esperanto movement ran on them - congress arrangements, the greetings read out at the opening ceremony - and any Esperanto text from before about 1960 will use the word without explanation. Since then the everyday word is mesaĝo.
The verb is telegrafi, from the machine. is the message,
is the apparatus and the system, and telegrafi is to send by it -
the same three-way split English has, and the same one you get with
telefono and .
Where this fits
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telegramo: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "telegramo" (telegram): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 51.