[f. Gr. τῆλε, TELE- + -GRAM; so F. télégramme (1867 in Littré), Ger. telegramm (1865 in Sanders).] A message sent by telegraph; a telegraphic dispatch or communication.
(This term encountered at first much opposition from scholars, as not being formed on Greek analogies, which give, as in mod.Gr., τηλεγράφημα, TELEGRAPHEME; but its practical convenience led in a few years to its general adoption. In the Panmure Papers it takes the place of ‘telegraphic despatch’ from 11 Oct., 1855. Cf. also TELEGRAPH 3.)
1852. Albany Even. Jrnl., 6 April (Bartlett). A friend desires us to give notice that he will ask leave … to introduce a new word…. It is telegram, instead of telegraphic dispatch, or telegraphic communication.
1855. Ld. Clarendon, 31 May, in Panmure Papers (1908), I. 218. A message should go forthwith by telegram.
1857. Lady Canning, Let. fr. Calcutta, 16 Jan., in A. Hare, Two Noble Lives (1893), II. 140. ‘A telegram’—a new Yankee word for a telegraphic despatch.
1857. [see TELEGRAPHEME].
1857. Maj. Birch, Lett., 21 April, in Morn Chron., 23 Oct., 4/5. A telegram to the following effect has this day been transmitted to you [etc.].
1858. Chamb. Jrnl., IX. 75/2. The Longmans have promised to include the word telegram in their forthcoming dictionary.
1859. Lytton, What will he do, XII. xi. I sent a telegram (oh that I should live to see such a word introduced into the English language!).
1860. Lytton (‘O. Meredith’), Lucile, II. iv. § 5, note. Ere a cable went under the hoary Atlantic, Or the word telegram drove grammarians frantic.
1873. F. Hall, Mod. Eng., 158, note. There is, as against the exact, but surfeiting, telegrapheme, our lawless, telegram.
attrib. and Comb. 1875. G. Ager (title), The Telegram Code, for the Use of Bankers, Merchants, and Shipowners.
1881. Blackw. Mag. April, 470. The general telegram-sender.
1895. Daily News, 3 Dec., 5/3. For some years past the Parisians have had the benefit of a system of ‘telegram postcards’ which are sent by pneumatic tubes.
Hence Telegram v. (rare, ? Obs.), intr. to send a telegram, to telegraph; trans. to telegraph to; Telegramese (nonce-wd.) = TELEGRAPHESE 1; Telegrammatic, Telegrammic adjs., of or pertaining to telegrams; concise or condensed like a telegram. All rare.
1860. Punch, XXXVIII. 5 May, 181/2. The message will be sent that men are going ‘on the loose,’ and JACK or TOM or HARRY will be *telegrammed to meet them.
1864. Sala in Daily Tel., 27 July. Every patriotic man is bound to resent … any insult offered to the flag of his country … without being told or telegrammed to shoot anybody.
1876. E. Fitzgerald, Lett., 2 Aug. I ought to have telegramed back to you.
1894. Pall Mall Mag., March, 733. It [the telegram] was not written in *telegramese, and it cost more money than it ought.
1866. Visct. Strangford, Selection (1869), II. 14. The *telegrammatic battle is no longer a simple duel between Athens and Constantinople.
1878. All Y. Round, 30 March, 226/2. It would be rather difficult to exceed this advertising compression power, not to say telegrammatic terseness.
1864. Webster, *Telegrammic,… in the nature of a telegram; hence, laconic; concise; brief; succinct.
1866. London Rev., 25 Aug., 216/1. People insist that thought should be expressed with telegrammic brevity.
1891. G. Meredith, One of our Conq., II. ix. 237. The letter was telegramic on the essential point.
