Authors: Ursula Dubosarsky

The Word Snoop (10 page)

BOOK: The Word Snoop

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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:

M
y
A
untie
L
ucy
A
te
Y
our
A
pple
or
M
y
A
rdent
L
ips
A
wait
Y
our
A
rrival

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:

JAPAN (
J
elly
A
nd
P
ies
A
re
N
ice)
SYRIA (
S
end
Y
our
R
ed
I
guana
A
way)

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

Me again, Word Snoops! My guess is you’re getting very good at cracking codes by now. See how you do with this one. (Hint: Think about what a lipogram is.)

REAE AN ASTARLY COES

Answers

ANAGRAMS

1. North. South, East, West

2. Silent

3. Astronomer

4. The Morse Code

5. Hibernates

LIPOGRAMS

1. Lipogram on E

2. Lipogram on A

3. Lipogram on
O

Dear Snoops,

Is anyone watching? Or listening?
Are you sure? Okay then, so we can talk.

Can you speak Greek? It’s a handy language for
us Word Snoops. You’ve probably noticed a few
Greek words in this book already. This is because
in the old days at universities people often learned
ancient Greek so they could read all the wonderful
books the ancient Greeks wrote
—
comedy, tragedy,
history, mathematics, philosophy
—
you name it.
People’s minds were so full of Greek words, they
kept slipping them into English.

Maybe one day you’ll be able to learn ancient
Greek too. In the meantime, remember the Greek
alphabet is different from ours. When you change
a Greek word to English, you have to
transliterate
it
—
change from one alphabet to
another. It’s a bit tricky, but useful for writing
secret messages…

Your friend,
θε υορδ σνοοπ . . .

Is that another Greek word?

Palindromes

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.

Go, dog!
Was it a cat I saw?
Don’t nod.
Do geese see God?

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:

Madam, I’m Adam
Too hot to hoot
No lemons, no melon
Too bad I hid a boot

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.