Palindrome Day

A palindrome is when a word, date or phrase reads the same forwards as it does backwards. Some examples are "racecar", "civic", "deified", "kayak" and the name "Hannah". ​ Phrases can make palindromes such as: "Was it a rat I saw?", or "No melon, no lemon."

Our friends in Finland have given us the longest palindromic word: "saippuakivikauppias", which means "one who sells soapstone". ​ The longest palindromic word in English is “tattarrattat”, which appears in Ulysses by James Joyce, and is used to describe the sound of someone knocking on a door.

AKG7329749 ©akg / VIEW / DoublespaceAKG8800869 ©akg-imagesAKG1230356 ©akg-images / SNA

In French, a well-known palindrome is "Engage le jeu que je le gagne." (Start the game so that I may win). The Germans ask us "Trug Tim eine so helle Hose nie mit Gurt?" (“Did Tim never wear such light (in colour) trousers without a belt?”), whilst the Italians, ever dramatic, offer us “Avida di vita, desiai ogni amore vero, ma ingoiai sedativi, da Diva” (Greedy for life, I desired all true love, but I swallowed sedatives, like a Diva).

In honour of the eight-digit palindrome date occurring on 22nd February this year - 22/02/2022, (unless you're in the US, Canada or anywhere else that formats dates as MM/DD/YYYY) - we have drawn heavily on artistic license and created an album of 'palindromic' images for you to enjoy.

See more images here

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