ogham

or og·am

[ og-uhm, aw-guhm ]

noun

1. an alphabetic script used originally for inscriptions in an archaic form of Irish, from about the 5th to the 10th centuries.
2. any of the 20 characters of this script, each consisting of one or more strokes for consonants and of notches for vowels cut across or upon a central line on a stone or piece of wood.
3. an inscription employing this script.

ogham

/ ɔːm; ˈɒɡəm /

noun

1. an ancient alphabetical writing system used by the Celts in Britain and Ireland, consisting of straight lines drawn or carved perpendicular to or at an angle to another long straight line

Word History and Origins

Origin of ogham¹

1620–30; < Irish; MIr ogum, ogom

Word History and Origins

Origin of ogham¹

C17: from Old Irish ogom, of uncertain origin but associated with the name Ogma, legendary inventor of this alphabet

Example Sentences

Some of the stones have ancient chisel marks that archaeologists say resemble ancient Celtic writing known as Ogham.

From BBC

Ogham is an ancient Irish alphabet, represented by a series of marks on stones and it is the earliest written source of the Irish Language, dating back to the 4th Century AD.

From BBC

In his lyric essay “Of Trees In Paint; In Teeth; In Wood; In Sheet-Iron; In Stone; In Mountains; In Stars,” philosopher Aengus Woods traces the historical and etymological through lines of trees to ogham, a medieval alphabet used for Old Irish; it is believed that each letter in the script was named after a tree, akin to Holten’s illustrations in this anthology.

From Washington Post

Mr. O’Doherty quickly became a leading figure in the Conceptual Art movement, creating cerebral works that drew on disparate sources like chess, geometry and an early medieval Irish alphabet called Ogham.

From New York Times

Another series, which he called “structural plays,” invited viewers to conduct a program of physical movements, the order of which he derived from formulas using things like Ogham and chess notation.

From New York Times