[mod. f. as prec. + Gr. -γραφος writing, written; see -GRAPH.]
1. = CRYPTOGRAM.
a. 1849. Poe, Tales, Gold Beetle. I could not suppose him [Kidd] capable of constructing any of the more abstruse cryptographs.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 641, note. Much of the Talmud consists of cryptographs which designedly concealed meanings … from ‘persecutors’ and ‘heretics.’
2. A kind of type-writer for writing in cipher.
1889. Daily News, 21 Oct., 3/6. The Wier Cryptograph … by means of which a small and simple type-writer is made to write cryptograms, to be translated mechanically on a similar machine.
Hence † Cryptographal a., Cryptographic a., of, or of the nature of, cryptography; † Cryptographical, dealing or concerned with cryptography; Cryptographer, Cryptographist, one who writes in or is skilled in cipher. [All founded on a possible Gr. κρυπτόγραφος: see above.]
a. 1691. Boyle, Wks., VI. 339 (R.). Neither have I any zeal for the character, as cryptographal or universal.
1641. Wilkins, Mercury, Pref. (1707), 3. Now … both are grown Such Cryptographers.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. xii. 478. A cryptographic, secret, or cypher writing.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Nov., 4/1. The cryptographic advertisements in the second column of the Times.
1694. Lond. Gaz., No. 2973/4. Recreations of divers Kinds, viz. Numerical, Geometrical … Horometrical, Cryptographical.
1753. Chesterf., World, No. 24, ¶ 12. In possession … of a more brachygraphical, cryptographical, and steganographical secret.
a. 1849. Poe, Tales, Gold Beetle. To divide the sentence into the natural division intended by the cryptographist.
