Levidromes around the world

“I believe in the magic and authority of words.” — Rene Char

In October 2016, six year old Levi Budd and his father, Robert Lucky Budd, produced a short video about the origination of Levi’s word, ‘levidrome.’ As if knowing it is such a young boy who thought of this wasn’t exciting enough, another interesting point is that Levi and his parents live here on Vancouver Island.

Young Levi’s interest in words, specifically palindromes — words that can be spelled the SAME forwards or backwards (kayak, level, civic) began the journey. In the video mentioned above, Levi’s dad explains that when Levi was only five, Levi noticed that a stop sign spelled POTS backwards. Of course he wanted to know what it was called because it’s not a palindrome.

So, for a definition, a levidrome is a word that forms a different word when spelled backwards.

Oxford Dictionaries says it could add the created word of the six-year-old boy from Victoria B.C., to its lexicon. The dictionary has taken notice of the word. Oxford Dictionaries have also said they only add words that, “demonstrate widespread and sustained use over time.” You can help make that happen. If you’re on Twitter share any levidromes you can think of, even if others already have, and use the tag, #levidrome (even include @daily_levidrome) and it would be great if you also use the tag @OxfordWords. I share them frequently. They can be used with the same #levidrome tag on other social media as well (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat.)  Or simply spread the word.

The exciting part is that people all over the world have caught on. Teachers and librarians are using them in their classrooms; thanks to social media, individuals across the globe are using them; bloggers are blogging about it; even William Shatner (of Star Trek fame) has petitioned for its use.

A few news articles if you’re interested in a bit more detail:

Levidrome List (and the original video of Levi and his parents) it’s a must watch.

Let’s get Levi’s Word in the Dictionary (Times Colonist newspaper)

US Dictionary recognizes new word in honour of little boy

I plan to continue spreading the word about levidromes on Twitter and elsewhere. Let’s help get this intelligent young lad’s word recognized by Oxford Dictionaries!