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Hydra #170465 10/07/07 01:41 PM
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What's that? A vertical palindrome?

No, it's Dutch for acrostic. It's interesting how the sound went from Greek [kʰ] to French [ʃ] to English [k̚] influenced by spelling. English acrostic > Greek akros 'head' + stikhos 'line (of verse); row' (cf. stichometry 'counting lines of poetry').


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Hydra #170466 10/07/07 02:21 PM
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Quote:
No, it's Dutch for acrostic. It's interesting how the sound went from Greek [kʰ] to French [ʃ] to English [k̚] influenced by spelling. English acrostic > Greek akros 'head' + stikhos 'line (of verse); row' (cf. stichometry 'counting lines of poetry').
Thanks for explaining 'dʒejmz.

I know it's bad habit Hydra, sometimes I just think in Dutch.

BranShea #170472 10/07/07 06:41 PM
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So then what do you call a word (like mom/wow) that reads upside-down?

I know such words exist in Chinese. I imagine there are very few in English.

Hydra #170475 10/07/07 08:02 PM
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Originally Posted By: Hydra


I know such words exist in Chinese.


Other than, say, one, two, three, river, sun and mouth, which, when turned upside down, are respectively one, two, three, river, sun and mouth, at least in single hanzi form* I would tend to doubt it.

*I'm not sure that single hanzi form is valid for any word in Chinese. Well, maybe for one, two and three.

Hydra #170476 10/07/07 08:17 PM
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I don't call it anything.The word is WOW. Turned upside down I'm willing to understand MOM, but in the meantime the W's are still W's. Upturned W's will never become M's. If I want to be nitpickitytoo.

Here is: Palindrome

Here is: Etaoin Shrdlu

Here is: Written Chinese is unusual in being the only major modern-day writing system not based predominantly on an alphabet or a compact syllabary. Instead, Chinese characters are symbols/glyphs whose parts may depict objects or represent abstract notions.'
(a person standing on his head may look like an upturned glyph.)
I'll ask Jennifer from Shenyang about upside down glyphs.
Many peoplia upsidownia. Some artist wrote or painted that.

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(I did find the acronym acrostic thread, but that had a certain je ne sais quoi...)

-joe (honi soit qui mal y pense) friday

panache?

BranShea #170478 10/07/07 09:57 PM
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Well, it has a name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambigram

And you're right, Faldage. Ambigrams exist in Korean, not Chinese. One example: The word door, turned upside-down, becomes bear.

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I wonder where Jackie's name comes from. My parents.

zhmzed, you don't want to know how I pronounce your screen name to myself...

Aramis, come here a minute--I have something for you.

sue-em, here's the first thread; thought I remembered Anna wanting to know about peoples' handles.

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That was a fun re-read, Jackie -- thanks for finding it.

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Nice to read the OldTimers.

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Aside from the obvious pecuniary reference, Pennyless comes from my maiden name, Penny Lesser. (In my high school Latin class, we each made up Latin names for ourselves. Mine was Mina Minor.)

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