“relief pillar” / longest German single word palindrome
“Mr. Owl ate my metal worm”. That’s not only a terrible tragedy, but also a genuine palindrome. You know, one of these words (or in this case: phrases) that spell the same forward and backward. Luckily, the German languages offers you a lot of opportunities to go both ways.
German palindromes range from given names (Anna, Otto) to animals (Reittier – “mount”, Uhu – “eagle owl”) to objects (Lagerregal – “Storage rack”, Rotor – “Rotor”) and everything in between. There is even a plethora of whole palindrome sentences in German:
Na, Fakir, Paprikafan? – “Hey, Fakir, are you a fan of paprika?”
Dir, Gisela, male Ina dein Kajak! Nie, Daniela, male Sigrid! – “To you, Gisela, Ina should paint a Kayak. Never paint Sigrid, Daniela“.
According to the Guiness Book of World Records, with an astonishing 13 letters Reliefpfeiler is the longest German palindrome that consist of only one word. “Aha!“, you might shout in amazement. And congratulations, you have just named another palindrome.
References:
https://www.monopol-magazin.de/palindromtag-12-02-2021
