Attributed to Napoleon: I doubt he actually said it. I wonder if there is a good palindrome which is longer. My American Collegiate Dictionary (Random House, 1947-1949) has the following example: In addition to being shorter, the above is a poor one due to requiring the movement of the apostrophe and breakup of the word madam. A Google search found some longer ones, but non as pure as the Elba sentence which required neither breakup of words nor shifting of punctuation.
You mean like maybe because he didn't speak English fluently? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! He ruled France, becoming a dictator toward the end. He was born in Corsica. As a child he spoke Corsican, which was a distinct language in those days. (Although today, like Sicilian, it almost qualifies as a dialect of Italian, and in any case most modern Corsicans are fluent in French since the island is French territory.) He was taunted for speaking French with a heavy Corsican/Italian accent. Because of the type of language (highly analytic, only slightly inflected, broad phonetic palette, peppered with foreign words), palindromes are extremely difficult to build in English. I wouldn't quibble about typography so long as the letters remain in the proper order!
Here's a French one: Émile Éric, notre valet, alla te laver ton ciré élimé. (Émile Éric, our valet, went to wash your slimy jacket)
A self-defining word. I ran across a name for that many years ago but I can't remember it. Other self-defining words include "short" and "sesquipedalian."
Autological. Its opposite is heterological. Try to answer this, without looking at the wiki reference. Is "heterological" autological or heterological? Can you see the problem? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autological_word
The best palindrome I’ve ever come across is this one: Composed in 1943 by Peter Hilton (1923–2010), British mathematician.
"Autological" is not in dictionary.com. Wikipedia offers "homologous" as a synonym, but the dictionary gives that word a much different meaning. The opposite, "heterological," is also missing, and the presumed synonym "heterologous" has nothing to do with language and words. I think the word I'm trying to remember is "autonym," but the dictionary gives a different definition for that (the name a person uses for himself), and even Wikipedia lists another definition first. Word puzzles are not difficult to create, even those that hinge on a logical conundrum. Thus "autological" could qualify as either (both? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!), and "heterological" qualifies as neither since both definitions are automatically self-contradictory.
Autonym is the opposite of xenonym. Inuit is an autonym, Eskimo a xenonym. The N word is a xenonym, and Black an autonym. Australian Aboriginals have adopted that xenonym, so Aboriginal is also an autonym.
Here's one I made myself. Napoleon never said the "Able was I..." palindrome. But one Christmas, unable to find a cooking implement to fry his garlicky French sausages, he said ruefully: "Noel O pan, Napoleon" (O meaning zero. I had to cheat a little)
I just made one up myself as well: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Pets on no deep level peed on no step.
'Lewd did I live, evil I did dwel' is my old favorite, along with, 'Naomi, sex at noon taxes, I moan.' However the oldest palindrome is said to have been uttered by Eve's husband upon their first meeting: 'Madam, I'm Adam.'
Q: What did the mathematician say when he discovered the number ½? A: Never odd or even. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
