Palindrome — From Greek to English | etymologist.ai
palindrome
/ˈpælɪndroʊm/·noun·1629 CE — Ben Jonson, 'Timber, or Discoveries'·Established
Origin
From Greek palindromos 'running back again' (palin 'back' + dromos 'course'), entering English via Ben Jonson in 1629, with palin tracing to PIE *kwel- 'to turn' — the same root that gives us cycle, wheel, colony, and culture — making 'palindrome' a word whose own etymology performs the revolution it describes.
Definition
A word, phrase, number, or sequence that reads the same forwards and backwards, from Greek palindromos (running back again), combining palin (again, back) and dromos (a running, a course).
The Full Story
GreekAncient Greek, with English adoption in 1629well-attested
The word 'palindrome' entered English in 1629, coined by the playwright and poet Ben Jonson in his work 'Timber, or Discoveries', drawn directly from the Ancient Greek compound παλίνδρομος (palindromos), meaning 'running back again' or 'recurrent'. TheGreek compound unites πάλιν (palin, 'back, again, once more') with δρόμος (dromos, 'a running, a course, a racecourse'). In classical Greek usage, palindromos described things that ran or moved backwards — tides, returning soldiers, reversing
Did you know?
The 'palin-' in palindrome traces to PIE *kwel-, meaning 'to turn or revolve.' That same ancient root produced the OldEnglish word for wheel, the Greek kuklos that became cycle, and — more surprisingly — the Latin colere, 'to till the soil,' from which we get both colony and culture. The palindrome's defining reversal, the turn-and-run-back, shares
*hweulaz from *kʷekʷlo-), 'pulley', 'colony', and 'culture'. The dromos element descends from PIE *drem- ('to run, to step'), related to Greek δραμεῖν (dramein, 'to run') and producing 'dromedary' (the fast-running camel, via Greek δρομάς, dromas) and 'hippodrome' (horse-running track, from ἵππος + δρόμος). The concept of self-reversing text is far older than the English word: the Latin SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS square, discovered at Pompeii and dated to before 79 CE, is the most celebrated early palindrome. Scholarly treatments of the root *kwel- appear in Pokorny's Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (IEW 639) and in Watkins' American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. Key roots: *kʷel- (Proto-Indo-European: "to turn, revolve, move around — source of palin via the concept of going back around; also yields *kʷekʷlo- (wheel, cycle), Latin colere (to cultivate), English 'cycle', 'wheel', 'colony', 'culture', 'pulley'"), *drem- (Proto-Indo-European: "to run, to step — source of dromos; yields Greek dramein (to run), dromedary (the running camel), hippodrome (horse-running track)"), παλίνδρομος (palindromos) (Ancient Greek: "running back again — the direct parent form from which English palindrome is borrowed").