Futility Closet

Write the word RAVINE and advance each letter 13 places through the alphabet, and you’ll get RAVINE spelled backward:

jeofail
n. a lawyer’s mistake

Composed in 390 B.C., Aristophanes’ play Ecclesiazusae concludes with the name of a dish on which the characters plan to feast.

The word is lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimupotrimmatosilphioliparomelitoaktakexhumeno-kichlepikossuphophattoperisteralektruonoptopiphallidokinklopeleioplagoosiraiobaphetragalopterugon. At 169 letters, it’s still the longest word in the Greek language.

A sentence composed entirely of contractions taken from Robert Burns poems:

E’en th’ flow’rs afiel’ ha’e fac’t heav’n wi’ th’ rightfu’, shinin’ blessin’ that’s prevail’d i’ th’ min’ o’ th’ faithfu’ servan’ an’ th’ mournfu’, wand’ring craz’d o’ th’ worl’: heav’n's pray’rs ha’e honour’d th’ cheerfu’ an’ th’ gen’rous ‘gainst t’other worl’s glib-tongu’d, wither’d pow’r.

When the English poet laureate Alfred Austin unveiled a statue of Burns in 1896, Punch proposed some remarks for him.

“Ye ken I canna mak’ ye a lang speech, bein’ mair a wanchansie mon, ram-feezled wi’ writin’, than a skirlin’, tapetless glib-gabbet,” he was to say. “Burns was nae feckless gowk, sae it’s a pleasure tae me tae unveil this sonsie statue.”

dentiloquy
n. speech through gritted teeth

• SISSIES: ··· ·· ··· ··· ·· · ···
• MOTTO: -- --- - - ---
• ENTENTE: · -· - · -· - ·
• TARTAR: - ·- ·-· - ·- ·-·
• POSSESSIVENESS: ·--· --- ··· ··· · ··· ··· ·· ···- · -· · ··· ··· (18 dots in a row)
• SERVOMOTOR: ··· · ·-· ···- --- -- --- - --- ·-· (12 dashes)

INTRANSIGENCE is a palindrome: ·· -· - ·-· ·- -· ··· ·· --· · -· -·-· ·

Prospicimus modo quod durabunt faedera longo
Tempore, nec nobis pax cito diffugiet.

That means “We foresee now that the confederacy shall last a long time, and that peace will not quickly fly away from us.” But reverse it:

Diffugiet cito pax nobis, nec tempore longo
Faedera durabunt, quod modo prospicimus.

and it means “Peace will soon fly away from us, and the covenant shall not last long, which we foresee already.”

See also A Bilingual Palindrome.

LIST and ROLL are synonyms in two different senses.

Both mean to tilt — and both refer to a series of names.

onymous
adj. not anonymous

• AURAL means heard; ORAL means spoken.
• RAISE means erect; RAZE means tear down.
• SUCCOR means aid; SUCKER means hoodwink.
• ENUMERABLE means countable; INNUMERABLE means uncountable.
• ERUPT means burst out; IRRUPT means burst in.
• ERADICATE means pull up by the roots; IRRADICATE means root deeply.
• PETALLESS means lacking petals; PETALOUS means having petals.
• RECKLESS means careless; WRECKLESS means careful.