Epigram

An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. Derived from the Greek: ἐπίγραμμα epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on, to inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia.

The presence of wit or sarcasm tends to distinguish non-poetic epigrams from aphorisms and adages, which may lack them.

Ancient Greek

The Greek tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuaries – including statues of athletes – and on funerary monuments, for example "Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby...". These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in verse. Epigram became a literary genre in the Hellenistic period, probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams.

Though modern epigrams are usually thought of as very short, Greek literary epigram was not always as short as later examples, and the divide between "epigram" and "elegy" is sometimes indistinct (they share a characteristic metre, elegiac couplets); all the same, the origin of the genre in inscription exerted a residual pressure to keep things concise. Many of the characteristic types of literary epigram look back to inscriptional contexts, particularly funerary epigram, which in the Hellenistic era becomes a literary exercise. Other types look instead to the new performative context which epigram acquired at this time, even as it made the move from stone to papyrus: the Greek symposium. Many "sympotic" epigrams combine sympotic and funerary elements – they tell their readers (or listeners) to drink and live for today because life is short.

Epigram (programming language)

Epigram is a functional programming language with dependent types. Epigram also refers to the IDE usually packaged with the language. Epigram's type system is strong enough to express program specifications. The goal is to support a smooth transition from ordinary programming to integrated programs and proofs whose correctness can be checked and certified by the compiler. Epigram exploits the propositions as types principle, and is based on intuitionistic type theory.

The Epigram prototype was implemented by Conor McBride based on joint work with James McKinna. Its development is continued by the Epigram group in Nottingham, Durham, St Andrews and Royal Holloway in the UK. The current experimental implementation of the Epigram system is freely available together with a user manual, a tutorial and some background material. The system has been used under Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

It is currently unmaintained, and version 2, which was intended to implement Observational Type Theory, was never officially released, however there exists a GitHub mirror, last updated in 2012.

Epigram (horse)

Epigram (foaled 1949 in Ontario) was a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1952 Queen's Plate, Canada's most prestigious race and North America's oldest annually run stakes race.

Bred and raced by E. P. Taylor, his dam was Hasty Bet, a daughter of Reigh Count, the 1928 Kentucky Derby winner and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. Epigram was a son of the American-bred winner of the 1938 Ascot Gold Cup, Flares, who in turn was a son of Gallant Fox, the 1930 U.S. Triple Crown winner and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee.

In a rare mistake by the E. P. Taylor racing team, Epigram was entered in a September 1951 claiming race and was taken for $2,500 by Three Vs Stable, owned by the Veal brothers, Frank, Lawrence and Gordon, proprietors of a Studebaker dealership in Toronto.

Epigram entered the 1952 Queen's Plate having never won a race and having only earned $75. At the time when the distance was set at one and an eighth miles, in a twenty-one-horse field Epigram won the Queen's Plate by defeating E. P. Taylor's horse Dress Circle and Acadian who came into the race having won divisions of the Plate Trial Stakes.