A word that is spelled the same way forwards and backwards - like pop - is called a palindrome, but what about a word that becomes a different word when spelled backwards - like stop, or dog?
For a growing number of English-speakers around the world, the name for words like this is “levidrome,” a term that traces its roots to six-year-old Victoria resident Levi Budd.
Budd introduced his word to the world in a YouTube video posted last October, and since then he’s gotten the attention of two dictionaries, two breweries, numerous schools, an Olympian and William Shatner - who celebrated Budd with a tweet full of levidromes.
“It’s really incredible seeing how this little idea has rippled out,” said Levi’s father Lucky. “All over the world we’re seeing people posting things about the word levidrome.”
That sustained and widespread use is what Oxford Dictionaries told Budd it would need to see in order to add his word to the dictionary.
#Levidrome, a name for a word which makes a different word when spelled backwards, was brought to our attention by @Lucky_Budd and @WilliamShatner a couple of weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/nXhfbVlAE7
— Oxford Dictionaries (@OxfordWords) November 23, 2017
The growing popularity of the term has led to mentions of Budd in news stories around the world, but his father says he has remained humble about his newfound notoriety.
“We were at a birthday party a little while ago and the grandmother of the birthday girl came up and said, ‘Levi, you’re famous.’” Lucky Budd told CTV News. “He looked up at her and said, ‘I’m not famous, my word is famous,’ and I thought that was really amazing. He really hasn’t let it go to his head.”
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Penny Daflos
