I first head on the show "Beauty and the Geek"
It is a latin word...it's a palindrome that I think starts with an "I"
I'm pretty sure that it's just a really long description of a moth and it's activities.
2007-03-17 13:14:32 · 4 answers · asked by booda2009 5 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Yes, thank you, I'm aware of what a palindrome is. I'm saying that the particular word that I'm looking for IS a palindrome.
2007-03-17 13:23:53 · update #1
I was interested so I had a look on wikipedia and lo and behold:
"Another Latin palindrome, "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni" ("We enter the circle at night and are consumed by fire"), was said to describe the behavior of moths. It is likely from medieval rather than ancient times."
I love wikipedia :)
(I just looked and I'm clearly still too sober at this time of night, as I'm the only person to read your question right lol)
2007-03-17 13:28:19 · answer #1 · answered by reniannen 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
"In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni" is the one they were talking about on Beauty and the Geek.
This sentence is a riddle in the form of a palindrome -- literally a puzzle inside a puzzle. This particular sentence is called "the devil's verse"
It's difficult to translate because the anonymous Roman author had to use words in uncommon senses in order to make a palindrome. Yet, given that the palindrome is a riddle, it is easy to pick out bad translations.People who haven't studied Latin should still be able to pick out the words "night", "consume" and "fire", which could make them think that the sentence has some sort of dark, evil meaning.
There was also a 1978 movie with this phrase as the title:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240610/
Those geeks are pretty geeky!
2007-03-20 09:54:24 · answer #2 · answered by Sweet n Sour 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Palindrome is word or phrase which reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ‘madam’, ‘radar’, and ‘Draw, o coward!’. Longer sequences are usually nonsensical, but there are exceptions, as in: ‘Doc, note, I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod’.
From Greek 'palindromos', meaning running back again, recurring.
2007-03-17 20:33:52 · answer #3 · answered by Catie I 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
palindrome means words or sentences that read the same way from back to front or front to back......"radar" is such a word.
2007-03-17 20:19:40 · answer #4 · answered by donkey hotay 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋