A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma

One of Sir Winston Churchill’s most famous quotes comes from an October 1939 speech: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”

The 1960s television show Batman gives Churchill homage when The Riddler says “It’s a mystery. Broken into a jigsaw puzzle. Wrapped in a conundrum. Hidden in a Chinese box. A riddle.” The quote has been adapted multiple times in common culture.

In 2008 a New York Times article on the disappearance of fortune cookies from restaurants in China had the title “Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie.” Seinfeld has Elaine saying “Maybe he’s an enigma – a mystery wrapped in a riddle.” To which Jerry replies “He’s a mystery wrapped in a Twinkie.” But my favorite is from The Fifth Elephant. When one character mimics the Churchill quote another, named Sergeant Colon, misinterprets the quote later to be “a misery wrapped in an enema.” (Thanks to tvtropes.org for these and many more examples.)

Mystery, conundrum, and enigma are all odd words, unlike many others  unless you’re Sergeant Colon. Mystery is one of the most common non-adverb words to use two “y”s; conundrum (with panjandrum) just sounds funny, and enigma has vowels beginning and ending the word with the odd gm in the middle. Where did these oddly constructed words come from and what’s the difference between them?

Mystery came to English through the church in the early 14^th century. It originally referred to (according to etymonline.com) “religious truth via divine revelation, hidden spiritual significance, mystical truth” The path it took was through Anglo-French (misterie), Old French (mistere), and/or Modern French (mystère) from the Latin mysterium, which refers to a secret rite or secret worship or secret thing, and eventually from the Greek word myterion or its plural mysteria that refers to a secret rite or doctrine. When the Old Testament was first translated into Greek, the word was used to describe the “secret counsel of God”, and was translated into Latin (in the Vulgate version) as sacramentum. So the word has a religious connotation that the others do not.

By the late 14^th century  the word came to broader English use to describe anything hidden or secret. Since the development of the detective story (attributed substantially to Poe) the term is now a genre, but wasn’t used for that genre until 1908.

Conundrum came into use in the 1590s, when at Oxford University they were looking for a slang word to use to describe a pedant. It is also spelled quonundrum, and is described by etymonline.com as a “ponderous pseudo-Latin word”.  One dictionary defines it as a riddle with a pun or play on words involved, and uses as an example the riddle “What is black and white and red/read all over? A newspaper.” Use conundrum when there is some humor involved in the riddle.

Enigma also comes from Greek and Latin. Its Greek root word is ainigma, which is from ainos, the word for a fable or riddle. The Latin word that came from ainigma is ænigma. While in the mid-15^th century the word enigmate was being used in English, it was in the 1580s that enigma appeared.

Enigma has the broadest definition, and can define a situation, an individual, or a saying, question or picture that has a hidden meaning. It is also the name given to the German code-making machine used through World War II.

Use enigma in general, mystery particularly with detective stories or religious rites, and conundrum with humor.  Don’t be, as Raymond described his brother Robert on the television show Everybody Loves Raymond “an idiot wrapped in a moron.”