Secret language

Summary: Tours languages that hide meanings from all but a chosen few, explains the difference between ciphers and codes, and shows how secret messages have been written and broken for years.

Record details

ISBN: 9780199579280 (hbk.)
ISBN: 0199579288 (hbk.)
Physical Description: print
xi, 328 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.
Publisher: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 304-320) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

On being mysterious -- From anagrams to cryptic crosswords : Anagrams ; Palindromes ; Semordnilaps ; Acronyms and acrostics ; Word squares ; Lipograms and univocalics ; Cryptic crosswords -- Talking in riddles : Riddles ; The rebus ; The charade ; Equivocation and prevarication ; Riddles for the reader -- Ciphers and codes : Steganography ; Substitution ciphers ; Transposition ; Codes ; Towards a random key ; One-time pad ; Secret communication in the computer age ; Final word ; Ciphers to solve -- Biblical secrets : Kabbalah ; Anagrams ; Ciphers ; Notarikon ; Gematria ; Onomancy -- Words of power : Beliefs about language ; Letters and symbols ; Magic words and formulas ; Texts of power ; Iconicity -- Words to avoid : Names of humans ; In-laws ; Other avoidance -- Jargon, slang, argot, and 'secret' languages' : Jargon ; Slang ; Argots and 'secret languages' -- The everyday oblique : Politeness and the like ; Deliberate obscurity ; Humour ; Euphemism ; Abusive language ; Speaking in opposites ; Oxymora and other contradictions -- Elusive allusions : Literary allusions ; Allusive names ; Parody and satire ; Allusive brainteasers -- Finale.