The Word Snoop (10 page)

And then there are the Word Snoop’s favorite backronyms, the ones that form a secret code. During WWII, soldiers who were posted overseas would write backronyms, using the names of countries, on the backs of letters they sent home. Now, if the person receiving it didn’t know it was a backronym, they would just frown and say, “How very peculiar!” But if they understood . . . aha!

Don’t get too excited, though; they were mainly love letters. So ITALY on the back of an envelope meant “
I T
rust
A
nd
L
ove
Y
ou” and HOLLAND meant “
H
ope
O
ur
L
ove
L
asts
A
nd
N
ever
D
ies.” (Ahh.)

Hmm. What do you think MALAYA stood for? Well, it could be:

I bet you could make up some amazing backronyms out of the names of countries yourself. Go on, give it a try—it doesn’t have to be a love letter (that’s a relief!). Any sort of secret message will do. Here are a few the Word Snoop just made up:

Why don’t you try with TONGA or CHILE? Or, for a real challenge, what about UZBEKISTAN!

P
alindromes are words or sentences that are spelled the same backward or forward. The word
palindrome
comes from two ancient Greek words—
palin,
meaning “back again,” and
dromos
, meaning “running”—so it’s a word that runs forward and then back again. Look closely at the words EYE, NOON, and RADAR. It doesn’t matter at which end you start writing the word, it’s spelled the same. This means they are palindromes.

The ancient Greeks and Romans enjoyed making palindromes, especially for inscriptions on public monuments, but lots of languages have them. In English, the longest common word that is a palindrome is REDIVIDER. But in Finnish, the word for a soapstone seller, believe it or not, is a palindrome—SAIPPUAKIVIKAUPPIAS. (Now that’s an unusual occupation—soapstone, anyone?)

Palindromes can be found in names like Hannah, Otto, Pip, or Aviva, or places like Glenelg (where they even have an annual palindrome festival!). And then there’s always ABBA, the Swedish pop group. But a whole sentence can be a palindrome. Have a look at the ones below. Ignore the punctuation and the gaps, just look at the letters.

Believe it or not, in 1969 the French writer Georges Perec wrote a palindromic story that was 500 words long! The whole story reads the same backward as forward. It would have been very difficult to do, and it was a very strange piece of writing. In fact, some people who read it didn’t realize it was a palindrome and thought he had gone mad . . .

The comedian Weird Al Yankovic wrote a song of palindromes about singer Bob Dylan. Try singing this:

Wow! (Hey, that’s a palindrome too.)

I wonder if you can make up your own palindrome song? First, you need a supply of words. To get you started, try to figure out the palindromes on the opposite page, but I’m sure you can think of lots more yourself.