telegram

A telegram is a written or printed message, originally sent through telegraphy. The use of the telegrams was popular for social and business correspondence in the latter half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Even in the telephone age, the telegram remained popular, and spawned its own style of writing that in turn persisted in other media. Telegram services still exist today, though the popularity has largely waned, replaced by other forms of text communication.