BORED? Play our free word games – INTERACTIVE HANGMAN History of PalindromesPalindromes as a form of wordplay have been created for many centuries. For example, the ancient Greeks are known to have often inscribed the following onto their fountains:
It translates as wash the sin as well as the face. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the above it not actually a palindrome. This is because we have written it using letters of the English alphabet; when Greek characters are used it is a palindrome because ps is a single letter in Greek (Y). The Romans were also admirers of palindromes, and produced such sentences as:
It means we enter the circle after dark and are consumed by fire and is said to describe the movement of moths. The following 2D palindrome square also dates back to Roman times. It is inscribed on a stone tablet outside Rome in Italy and is the earliest known 2D palindrome.
Sator Arepo tenet opera rotas means the sower Arepo works with the help of a wheel.
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