Tĕl'e-grăm, n.

n. [Gr. τῆλε, far, and γράμμα, that which is written, from γράφειν, to write; Fr. télégramme.] A message sent by telegraph; a telegraphic despatch.

This word is of recent American origin, its first occurrence being in the following passage from the Albany Evening Journal for April 6, 1852, emanating from Mr. E. P. Smith, of Rochester: “A friend desires us to give notice that he will ask leave, at some convenient time, to introduce a new word into the vocabulary. The object of this proposed innovation is to avoid the necessity, now existing, of using two words, for which there is very frequent occasion, when one will answer. It is telegram, instead of telegraphic dispatch, or telegraphic communication. The word is formed according to the strictest laws of the language from which the root comes. Telegraph means to write from a distance; telegram, the writing itself, executed from a distance. Monogram, logogram, &c., are words formed upon the same analogy, and in good acceptation.”