From the Online Etymological Dictionary:

palindrome - c.1629, from Gk. palindromos "a recurrence," lit. "a running back," from palin "again, back" + dromos "a running."
and the wonderful Russian word (PW, you’ll like it
—pereverten’.

The word came to my mind when I was browsing Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages (suggested by Ilka) http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/generic_frame.html, where I saw a palindromic language- Malayalam )south India).

norio

One of my favorite words!

Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages (suggested by Ilka)

Only Ilka would recommend such an eclectic site. I learned more than I ever though I wanted to know about spices.  ;)

As for palindromes, I agree. The longest one I know is "Able was I ‘ere I saw Elba." A spurious Napoleonic quote. Schoolboy stuff, but fun though.

- PW

A man, a plan, a canal - Panama

Two letters longer than the Napoleonic palindrome

Try this for more fun with palindromes.

DJ

[quote author=demijohn link=board=wordsuggest;num=1055992911;start=0#4 date=06/27/03 at 17:28:59]Try this for more fun with palindromes.

DJ

Ooh!  Cool!  I liked this one:

Bob: "Did Anna peep?" Anna: "Did Bob?"

Each word is its own palindrome!

[quote author=vanBeke link=board=wordsuggest;num=1055992911;start=0#3 date=06/27/03 at 17:14:04]A man, a plan, a canal - Panama

Two letters longer than the Napoleonic palindrome

No no, the word "Panama" isn’t palindromic and doesn’t count.

Fair’s fair.  :)

- PW

PS. I loved "A dog! A panic in a pagoda!"  :)

Reminds me of hearing about an English Linguist from the 1600’s named Sir Thomas Urquhart. Urquhart wanted to created his own language, here’s a quote about it:

My Universal Language is a most exquisite jewel. It hath eleven genders, seven moods, four voices, ten cases, besides the nominative, and twelve parts of speech; every word signifieth as well backwards as forwards; and it is so compact of style that a single syllable will express the year, month, day, hour and partition of the hour.