The Backward Index

Between the 1930s and 1970s, employees at Merriam-Webster created a massive "backward index." It was a card catalog, containing all the words in its dictionary typed backwards. It eventually included around 315,000 index cards.

The reason for creating this thing was to allow the company to find words with similar endings. Such as all words ending in 'ological'. It also helped them create a rhyming dictionary.

Computers made the backward index obsolete, but it still sits in the basement of the company's headquarters.

More info: Merriam-Webster

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 04, 2017
Category: Languages | Collectors

Comments

.dessap sah emit esohw aedi taerg A

Posted by Joshua Z. Levin on 04/04/17 at 10:10 AM

Sounds like something a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder paired with dyslexia might work on.

By the way, I'm not missing in action. I'm on vacation in France.

Posted by KDP on 04/04/17 at 01:39 PM

I hope they made sure to backward index noon, redivider, civic, radar, level, rotor, kayak, reviver, racecar, redder, madam, and refer.

Posted by Virtual on 04/04/17 at 07:15 PM

@Virtual- You missed "I" and "a".

Posted by BMN on 04/05/17 at 11:35 AM

Doc, note: i dissent. a fast never prevents a fatness. i diet on coD.

Posted by Virtual on 04/05/17 at 04:58 PM

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