1332: Palindromes Aug 4, 2018
As this is the 1331st Word Facts post, the focus of today is on palindromes.
Conceptually these are pretty straightforward: something with the same spelling read in either direction; it is usally a word, but can refer to numbers, music, etc.. There are also other forms of constrained speech which use lines of symmetries, such as word-squares, which is an acrostic that reads the same left-to-right as up-to-down. One famous example found in Pompeii even depicts a word-square that is also a meaningful palindrome from Latin, generally thought to mean something to the effect of "the farmer uses a wheel for his work".
SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS
Normal palindromes, however, can be single words, like 'civic', phrases like 'racecar', numbers such as 1331, or be whole sentences, such as Peter Hilton's "Doc, note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod". To see more about the etymology of this word, check out this link.
Check out the newest Word facts Video: https://youtu.be/2u5SP0tg6Fs, and give your support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordfacts
Conceptually these are pretty straightforward: something with the same spelling read in either direction; it is usally a word, but can refer to numbers, music, etc.. There are also other forms of constrained speech which use lines of symmetries, such as word-squares, which is an acrostic that reads the same left-to-right as up-to-down. One famous example found in Pompeii even depicts a word-square that is also a meaningful palindrome from Latin, generally thought to mean something to the effect of "the farmer uses a wheel for his work".
SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS
Normal palindromes, however, can be single words, like 'civic', phrases like 'racecar', numbers such as 1331, or be whole sentences, such as Peter Hilton's "Doc, note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod". To see more about the etymology of this word, check out this link.
Check out the newest Word facts Video: https://youtu.be/2u5SP0tg6Fs, and give your support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordfacts