palindrome
noun

- a word (or group of words) that is the same when you read it forwards from the beginning or backwards from the end

The Cambridge Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Palindromic wordplay is nothing new. Palindromes have been around since at least the days of ancient Greece, and our name for them comes from two Greek words: palin meaning “back” or “again” and dramein meaning “to run”.

In the past, palindromes were more than just smart wordplay. Until well into the 19th century people thought palindromes were magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets to protect property or people from harm.

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PALINDROMIC CURIOSITIES

A favourite palindrome is how the first man supposedly introduced himself to the first woman: “Madam, I’m Adam.”

The French diplomat and developer of the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps, had an ambitious project, beautifully condensed as: “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.”

The longest palindromic word in the Oxford English Dictionary is the onomatopoeic TATTARRATTAT, coined by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922) for a knock on the door.

In English, two palindromic novels have been published: “Satire: Veritas” by David Stephens (58,795 letters), and “Dr Awkward & Olson in Oslo” by Lawrence Levine (31,954 words).

Better known is the following 222-word poem: “Dammit I’m Mad” by Demetri Martin. Enjoy, and don’t worry too much about the meaning, the author is mad:

Dammit I’m mad.
Evil is a deed as I live.
God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt.
To be not one man emanating is sad. I piss.
Alas, it is so late. Who stops to help?
Man, it is hot. I’m in it. I tell.
I am not a devil. I level “Mad Dog”.
Ah, say burning is, as a deified gulp,
In my halo of a mired rum tin.
I erase many men. Oh, to be man, a sin.
Is evil in a clam? In a trap?
No. It is open. On it I was stuck.
Rats peed on hope. Elsewhere dips a web.
Be still if I fill its ebb.
Ew, a spider… eh?
We sleep. Oh no!
Deep, stark cuts saw it in one position.
Part animal, can I live? Sin is a name.
Both, one… my names are in it.
Murder? I’m a fool.
A hymn I plug, deified as a sign in ruby ash.
A Goddam level I lived at.
On mail let it in. I’m it.
Oh, sit in ample hot spots. Oh wet!
A loss it is alas (sip). I’d assign it a name.
Name not one bottle minus an ode by me:
“Sir, I deliver. I’m a dog”
Evil is a deed as I live.
Dammit I’m mad.

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“ ‘Step on no pets’ is not only good advice, it’s also a PALINDROME.”

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40