Acrostic

An acrostic (from the Greek ἄκρος Akros, lace ' and στίχος stíchos verse ', ' line' ) is a form (usually verse ), in which the beginnings (letters in a phrase or words in Versfolgen ) read one after the other sense, for example, a name or a set shown. The German term for this verse is Leist Envers.

Acrostics include both the category steganography as well as to the rhetorical figures. You must be delimited against pure abbreviations or strings of words, so for example, acronyms, such as INRI.

In Jewish literature acrostics are widely used, starting with the Hebrew Bible. In some psalms the first letters followed by 22 verses of the series of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet (Psalm 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119 and 145). The first four words of Psalm 96, 11 ( Ps 96.11 EU) contain an acrostic of the name of God, YHWH. In later rabbinic literature, the first letter of works or stanzas interpret each point to the author. This is for example the case of the Sabbath hymn Lecha Dodi, in which the first letter of the first eight verses form the name Shlomo ha -Levi and indicate the author Shlomo Alkabez.

The acrostic was popular in ancient, medieval and baroque poetry, as for example in Otfrid of White Castle (around 800-870 ) or Martin Opitz ( 1597-1639 ). Paul Gerhardt song you Commit thy way is an acrostic Psalm 37.5. An example from modern times is "Lust = life by electricity" by Elfriede Hable (* 1934). Acrostics also encountered as mnemonics for scientific or everyday contexts. A special case is the ABeCeDarius, in which the initial letters forming the alphabet.