PALINDROMUS

PALINDROMUS, or PALINDROME ($\backslash pi\backslash alpha\backslash lambda\backslash iota\backslash delta\backslash rho\backslash mu\backslash sigma$, again, and $\backslash delta\backslash rho\backslash mu\backslash sigma$, a course), a verse or sentence which runs the same when read either backwards or forwards. Such is the verse,

Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.

Some people have refined upon the palindrome, and com-

Palinode posed verses, each word of which is the same read backwards as forwards; for instance, that of Camden:—

Palissy.

Odo tenet mulam, madidam mappam tenet Anna.
Anna tenet mappam madidam, mulam tenet Odo.

PALINODE (πάλιν, back, and ὄδος, a way), a discourse contrary to principles formerly avowed; and hence the phrase palinodium canere means a recantation. (Macr. Saturnalia, vii. 5.) The term is properly applied to a piece in which a poet retracts the invective of a former satire.