The old Webster dictionaries in the early 1900?s listed the best
example of an acrostic as:
HEART
EMBER
ABUSE 
RESIN 
TREND

or

H E A R T
E M B E R
A B U S E
R E S I N
T R E N D

They said ?Psalms 119? is the best example of an acrostic ever written
and is found in the Bible (KJV).  Can you locate an English acrostic
like the above example that is 6 of more letters long and reads top to
bottom and left to right like the 1900?s sample above?  Thank you. 
McIsencraft

Here are several acrostic word squares which use words longer than five letters:

"C I R C L E
 I C A R U S
 R A R E S T
 C R E A T E
 L U S T R E
 E S T E E M

This was published in the 2 July 1859 edition of the British magazine
'Notes and Queries'.

According to 'Making the Alphabet Dance' by A. Ross Eckler, 'the
modern history of the word square can be said to start with" the above
regular 6-square. If that's true, the art of making English word
squares got off to a good start: this one has the finesse that it
'squares CIRCLE'.

 P R E P A R E
 R E M O D E L
 E M U L A T E
 P O L E M I C
 A D A M A N T
 R E T I N U E
 E L E C T E D

Dmitri Borgmann reprinted that 7 in 'More Quality Word Squares' ('Word
Ways', Feb. 1988, p.17). He might have found it himself, but, as he
didn't credit individual 7s to their authors in that article, I'm not
sure.

 A G A R I C U S
 G E N E R A N T
 A N A C O N D A
 R E C E N T E R
 I R O N W O R T
 C A N T O N A L
 U N D E R A G E
 S T A R T L E D

Mrs. A.H. Burkholder found the above regular 8-square, and it was
published in the November 1926 edition of 'Enigma' (the journal of the
National Puzzlers' League). Agaricus is a genus of mushrooms. Thus by
the rules of biological taxonomy it needs a capital initial."

Braingle: Usenet Newsgroups : rec.puzzles
http://www.braingle.com/news/recpuzzles.php?start=0&id=%3C107qr5cjmlod97e@corp.supernews.com%3E

If you are interested in acrostic word squares, here's discussion of
one of the most famous examples, in Latin:

The Cole Family: ROTAS Square
http://www.thecolefamily.com/italy/pompeii/rotas.htm

This article may also be of interest to you:

About Puzzles: Word Squares Forerunners to Crossword Puzzles
http://puzzles.about.com/library/weekly/aa030528.htm

Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "word square" + "6 by 6" OR "six by six"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22word+square%22+%226+by+6%22+OR+%22six+by+six%22

I hope this is exactly the kind of information that you were seeking.
If not, or if anything is unclear or incomplete, please request
clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before you
rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

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Request for Answer Clarification by mcisencraft-ga on 17 May 2004 16:41 PDT

I tried to leave a tip when I accepted my answer but the Google
dialogue box "hung up" twice.  It also removed comment tags. Sorry for
Pink.

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 17 May 2004 16:56 PDT

Unfortunately, there is no way to leave a tip after the question has
been rated. I'm sorry that this glitch occurred, but please don't
worry about it. Maybe I'll be able to answer another question for you
someday, and we can take it from there.

Best,
Pink

Great Job Pink!  Did the Psalm 119 factor ever come up during your
research?  I am very happy with you answer. Thanks, McIsencraft.

Here are some sites where you can learn more about Biblical acrostics.
Note that these are NOT word square acrostics like the ones above, but
are alphabetical acrostics of a different sort. And, of course, these
verses form acrostics only in the Hebrew alphabet, not in translated
versions of the Bible.

http://www.richardbrodie.com/psalm119.html

http://www.stephenbroyles.com/Psalm%20119.htm

http://www.studylight.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T155

~pinkfreud