Palindromes are also found in music (the table canon and crab canon) and biological structures (most genomes include palindromic gene sequences). The concept of a palindrome can be dated to the 3rd-century BCE, although no examples survive the first physical examples can be dated to the 1st-century CE with the Latin acrostic word square, the Sator Square (contains both word and sentence palindromes), and the 4th-century Greek Byzantine sentence palindrome nipson anomemata me monan opsin. The word palindrome was introduced by English poet and writer Henry Peacham in 1638. The 19-letter Finnish word saippuakivikauppias (a soapstone vendor), is the longest single-word palindrome in everyday use, while the 12-letter term tattarrattat (from James Joyce in Ulysses) is the longest in English. The 4th-century Greek palindrome: ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ ( Wash your sins, not only your face), in the monastery of Panayia Malevi.Ī palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as madam or racecar, the date and time 12/21/33 12:21, and the sentence: 'A man, a plan, a canal – Panama'.
