The Story of Crossword Puzzles: From Ancient Word Games to Modern-Day Brain Boosters

Crossword puzzles are an enduringly popular way to use your downtime in service of the twin benefits of relaxation and brain training. It might surprise some to learn just how enduring they have been though. Crosswords have their antecedents as far back as Ancient Rome and Greece, where acrostics and word squares were popular modes of word art. And although the concept of turning it into an interactive word game took a little longer to come along, the idea of words that can read both down and across is something that has been with us for centuries.

A Brief History of Crossword Puzzles

While the 19th Century saw puzzles known as “Magic Squares” appear in English newspapers, the crossword as we know it first appeared in 1913. It was the 21th of December in that day’s edition of New York World, and it actually took the shape of a diamond, but did feature the familiar “Across” and “Down” format, which Wynne specifically recognized as being an iteration of the Greek acrostics and Roman word squares.

While some of the clues are simple even today (“The plural of is” [3 letters]) others were very much of the time. And while Wynne’s puzzle was popular with readers, it didn’t really proliferate until publishers Simon and Schuster picked the idea up and created books with crosswords in them in the 1920s. After that, the floodgates opened, and newspapers far and wide began carrying a regular crossword puzzle, something that is still standard practice today. These days, crosswords even occasionally appear in language textbooks as a way of helping students use problem-solving skills to strengthen their learning.

Meet the Inventor of Crossword Puzzles

Who was Arthur Wynne? Well, he came a long way to be the puzzle editor of the New York World. All the way from Liverpool, in fact, with his first US home being in Pittsburgh at the age of 19, in 1890. His father was a journalist himself, which may have led Arthur to seek the same kind of work. When it appeared in 1913, the puzzle was called a “Word-Cross”, with the change coming when a typesetting error saw one edition label it a Cross-Word, which Wynne seemed to prefer.

Many of the things we have come to accept as a standard of modern crosswords were Wynne’s ideas. He was the first to include black squares in the puzzles, separating one word from another and giving the puzzles their symmetrical shape. He also demurred on being called the inventor of the crossword, pointing to the ancient origins of the concept - but crosswords wouldn’t be crosswords without the vital contribution of Arthur Wynne, so we should bear witness.

The Evolution of Crossword Games

Crosswords have gone through plenty of innovations since that day in 1913. Wynne created the template, but others have certainly picked it up and made their own changes.

A name that should be placed next to his in the pantheon of crossword creators is Margaret Farrar (nee Petherbridge). She was hired to the New York World and became the editor for Wynne’s puzzles. Initially, she sent crosswords to be printed without checking them, and was horrified when a slew of complaints that they were unsolvable turned out to be correct. She became a scrupulous close reader of every puzzle, and ended up creating her own crosswords which were deemed to be superior to Wynne’s. After a career break to raise a family, Farrar resurfaced as the first crossword editor of the New York Times in 1942.

Across the Atlantic at this time, Edward Powys Mathers had begun to publish “cryptic” crosswords in the Observer under the name “Torquemada”. The name was taken from the Grand Inquisitor of Spain Tomás de Torquemada, reflecting Mathers’ relish for the often torturous nature of his puzzles. Other innovations have included the developments of themed crosswords, a popular addition during holiday periods and special occasions, as well as mega puzzles for the particularly committed solver.

Crossword Puzzles Through the Years

When they initially appeared, crossword puzzles were seen to some extent as a space filler in newspapers that didn’t have many other ways to use up room on their pages. That can’t be said now - they have become a key part of papers of record such as the New York Times and its London counterpart, and when the first NYT crossword went into print in 1942, Margaret Farrar was quoted as saying that it would become important for national morale. At around the same time, the higher-ups at Bletchley Park were using crossword solving as a recruitment test for potential code breakers.

Crosswords have had time to go out of fashion, and have shown no sign of doing so. Puzzle apps are growing in popularity, if anything, and the use of crosswords as brain-training exercises has given them new life.

The Enduring Appeal of Crossword Puzzles

Speaking of brain training, the increasing focus on cognitive health is leading many of us - some in their more advanced years, but many of us not - to take on crosswords as a way of keeping our brains sharp. It’s certainly an excellent way to use these puzzles: a standard crossword can make us use our vocabulary, deductive thinking, long- and short-term memory and help us exercise our patience and focus into the bargain. They are also an excellent way to spend time together as a family, with one member’s skill for history and another’s knowledge of sporting culture each being of use in solving puzzles.

Fun Facts about Crosswords

The following are a few things you might not know about crossword puzzles, some of which may also help you complete crosswords in future.

• Some words which are rarely used in everyday life crop up often in crosswords due to their utility in puzzle-setting. Short words with multiple vowels such as “Etui”, meaning a small case, and “Obi”, a Japanese sash, are popular examples of this phenomenon known as “Crosswordese”.
• French crosswords often use two-letter words, unlike other puzzles, and are usually asymmetrical.
• Crosswords using the standard Korean alphabet use one syllable per square, not one character, which means multiple “letters” may be used in one square due to the way the language is written.

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