



By the turn of the 20th century, the phrase had become widely known. Early examples include How to Become Expert in Typewriting: A Complete Instructor Designed Especially for the Remington Typewriter (1890), and Typewriting Instructor and Stenographer's Hand-book (1892). The modern form (starting with "The") became more common despite the fact that it is slightly longer than the original (starting with "A").Īs the use of typewriters grew in the late 19th century, the phrase began appearing in typing lesson books as a practice sentence. The earliest known use of the phrase starting with "The" is from the 1888 book Illustrative Shorthand by Linda Bronson. In an article titled "Current Notes" in the February 9, 1885, edition, the phrase is mentioned as a good practice sentence for writing students: "A favorite copy set by writing teachers for their pupils is the following, because it contains every letter of the alphabet: 'A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.'" Dozens of other newspapers published the phrase over the next few months, all using the version of the sentence starting with "A" rather than "The". The earliest known appearance of the phrase is from The Boston Journal. Pictorial depiction of the pangram from Scouting for Boys
