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May 11, 2017
This week’s theme
Words originating in running

This week’s words
au courant
runnel
concur
palindrome
excursus

Sator Square
Sator Square, a Latin palindrome found in the ruins of Pompeii
Photo: Wikimedia

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

palindrome

PRONUNCIATION:
(PAL-in-drohm)

MEANING:
noun: A word, phrase, sentence, or a longer work that reads the same backward and forward. For example, “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!”

Check out the MPM (Massive Palindrome Miner).


ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek palindromos (running again), from palin (again) + dromos (running). Earliest documented use: 1637.

USAGE:
“The entire family is obsessed with wordplay. Palindromes are their specialty (thus the girls’ names [Ava and Pip]).”
J Courtney Sullivan; Little Sister, Big Plans; The New York Times Book Review; May 11, 2014.

See more usage examples of palindrome in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Testing can show the presence of errors, but not their absence. -Edsger Dijkstra, computer scientist (11 May 1930-2002)

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