Back and forth
By now you know what a palindrome is: it’s a series of letters or of individual words which, when spelled backwards, is identical to the frontward spelling. Bob can tell you about these:
Is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
It occurred to a Canadian lad that there is no word for a series of letters that yields up a word in one direction and a wholly different word in the other:
I mean, Martin Gardner came up with the perfectly sensible “semordnilap” for these, but it never, ever caught on.
Hence: “Levidrome.” It’s “-drome,” from Greek dromos, direction, and “Levi,” the kid’s name.
A word from Oxford Dictionaries on this matter:
So why not “levidrome”?
(Via HelloGiggles.)
Roger O Green »
28 November 2017 · 2:19 pm
so should it be capitalized? I expect not, for lots of words are named for people.
CGHill »
28 November 2017 · 2:36 pm
I think not, and I think the Earl of Sandwich might agree.
December rambling #1: Sheila E. turns the big 6-0 | Ramblin' with Roger »
15 December 2017 · 7:36 am
[…] Levidrome – a series of letters that yields up a word in one direction and a wholly different word in the other […]