Was it a rat I saw? Yo, banana boy! Mr Owl ate my metal worm. Perhaps these sound like the ravings of a mad person, but in case you haven’t figured it out, these are palindromes: words or phrases that can be read the same way in either direction.

Palindromes are interesting little things with a long and illustrious history dating back to 79AD. Around this time, a Latin word square was discovered buried in volcanic ash in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum with the words ‘Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas’ (the farmer/sower, Arepo, sows the seeds). The words within the square could be read horizontally or vertically from either top left to bottom right or bottom right to top left.

Even though these funky little phrases were around in ancient Roman times, the word ‘palindrome’ was not used to describe them until the English writer Ben Johnson coined the phrase in the 1600s. It’s derived from the Greek words palin (‘again’) and dromos (‘direction’).

Single word palindromes include radar, level, madam, kayak and dewed. Even ‘I’ and ‘a’ qualify, and if you’re called Hannah, you probably already know that your name is also part of this unique collection of words. The longest palindrome recorded is a sentence consisting of 17,259 words.

Neither spaces nor punctuation are usually taken into consideration when constructing palindromes, which makes life easier. So why not get creative and give it a go yourself? You may come across an ‘evil olive’ or two or discover you’re as ‘mad as Adam’.

This is why you should never trust Google Translator.

…but we haven’t gone far. Giles Publications is now on the 4th floor (room 401-2) of the Stag Building on Queen’s Road Central. Our new, more spacious office allows us to pace while pondering and provides comfortable surroundings for visiting clients. We hope to see you soon!

My parents’ favourite nickname for me translates roughly to “silly pig”. Now, my Chinese readers will nod sagely–chances are, they suffered similar nicknames–but my Western readers might well wonder about the sort of childhood I had, growing up.

FYI, “pig” is a term of endearment, given to sweethearts, wives and cuddly children. If one is feeling especially fond, one might even use “silly piggy pig”, as my aunt is wont to do. Yeah. To my dear Western readers: try “silly piggy pig” on your sweetheart over dinner, and see how that goes.

There is other imagery found in idioms and proverbs that somehow took on completely different meanings on the opposite sides of the globe. It is a well-established fact that money does not grow on trees, at least not in the West. However, the Chinese think differently. Not only does money grow on trees, the trees themselves are ripe for the shaking — trees like your father, your boyfriend, your older sister, your endlessly patient best friend…

Isn’t it amusing to find the human brain ascribing widely differing cultural interpretations to imagery dredged from what looks like some sort of collective consciousness?

To help stimulate and educate our brains, we at Giles have been known to partake in the occasional game of Scrabble in the office – in between projects of course. As it is a game of words, we can almost pass it off as actual work whilst having a little fun along the way.

And fun it is. Until someone catches you unaware and starts using those irritating two-letter words to sneak in a few more extra points. But fear not – two can play at that game. You may think that there is absolutely no use for the X and the Q that you have been so unlucky to pick, or even the Z that just won’t fit anywhere on the board, but you would be wrong. You can be as sly as your competitors and place the X next to an existing U to create XU (a Vietnamese currency) or throw in a Z before an A and make ZA (slang word for Pizza). Yes, fellow Scrabble players, these words are in the official Scrabble dictionary and can be played without question.

It certainly helps to learn the two-letter words, especially at that crucial part of the game when the tiles are running low and you’re running out of options. A simple QI (traditional Chinese healing medicine) or a BA (eternal soul in Egyptian mythology) might just land you a few vital points to put you ahead of the game. And don’t forget to look out for those triple word scores before you place your tiles.

Fun facts for Scrabble fans:

Scrabble was invented in 1949 by an architect names Alfred Mosher Butts and was originally called Criss-cross Words. Scrabble is sold in 121 countries and is available in 29 languages.

150 million sets have been sold worldwide.

One in three American households own the game of Scrabble.

The highest scoring word to be played on record is QUIXOTRY, which was placed over two triple word scores and scored a total of 365 points.