Many adults and children are very fond of solving crosswords, but few people know what a crossword really is and where it came from. This is what this article will talk about.
What is a crossword puzzle
What is a crossword puzzle? Crossword is called a word game. This game is the most common and intellectual. If you literally translate the word "crossword" from English, you get two separate words: a cross and words. Thus, translating into Russian, we get a cross of words or a baptist. From this we can conclude that the crossword puzzle has its own distinctive property - it consists of the intersection of words. And its main rule is that each letter should be recorded separately from the others, in its own cell.
To summarize, we found out that the crossword puzzle has its own distinctive properties and its own rules for writing. But in many newspapers and magazines, crosswords are used for completely different tasks that are not related to word crossing, or even not related to solving words. And this means that such "crosswords" were invented by illiterate compilers, and such publications themselves cannot be considered high-quality.
So, we figured out what a crossword puzzle is in its classic version, then we will consider what kind of crosswords are.
Types of Crosswords
Sometimes it’s hard to understand what a crossword puzzle is, relying only on its name. The classification of crossword puzzles by their geographical name is more understandable: for example, a crossword puzzle can be American, English, Russian, Scandinavian or Japanese. Such crosswords have their own rules, which are the same in almost all publications, and they are always solved according to the same principle.
But it happens that it’s hard to understand by name what kind of crossword puzzle it is. For example, a chinword has nothing to do with tea or Chinese chinatown. This is a linear crossword, where words should not intersect, as in a classic crossword, but they are located in one line. The last letter of the last word is the beginning of the next.
Another type of crossword puzzle is a crossword puzzle. It also has a special structure: all the words here with the same number of letters are located around the assignment.
So, what is a crossword puzzle, we figured out, now consider the history of the appearance of the crossword puzzle.
Where did the crosswords come from
The earliest mention of a crossword puzzle is considered to be a plate with a pattern that is very reminiscent of a crossword puzzle. It was found during excavations of an ancient settlement in England and dates back to the 3-4th century.
Modern crosswords appeared relatively recently - about a century ago. But where exactly they appeared is a very controversial issue. To date, Britain, the United States and South Africa have disputed the right to be considered the birthplace of crosswords. Each country has its own story of the appearance of the first crossword puzzle. For example, residents of England believe that the first crosswords began to be published by the London newspaper The Times in the mid-19th century. And in the United States, they believe that they have published crosswords since 1913 in the New York World newspaper.
Residents of South Africa tell a very romantic story of the appearance of the first crossword puzzle: they were invented by a prisoner who painted his puzzles on the stone floor of the cell. The cellmates approved this novelty; later it was transferred to paper and mailed to the newspaper.
Crossword in the life of a child
What is a crossword puzzle in a child’s life? Educators answer this question unequivocally: this is an intellectual game that helps to develop memory, teaches a culture of thinking, teaches you to search for missing information. During the solving of the crossword puzzle, the child consolidates the knowledge gained, and also during this, active memorization works for him, which helps to effectively absorb the material.
When choosing crosswords for children, you need to take into account the age-related capabilities of the child, only then solving a crossword puzzle will benefit him, facilitate further learning, and also become an exciting and useful activity.