page_title: Ambigram
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ambigram / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Ambigrams «&#160;Chump&#160;», «&#160;honey&#160;», «&#160;M. H. Hill&#160;», «&#160;Bet&#160;», «&#160;bung&#160;», «&#160;maw&#160;», «&#160;pad&#160;», «&#160;hay&#160;», «&#160;dip&#160;», words published between June and September 1908 in The Strand Magazine. 180° rotational symmetry. Authors: Mitchell T. Lavin, V. K. Allison, B. R. Bligh and Clarence Williams. Text says: "ARE THERE OTHERS! As you will notice, the slang word «&#160;chump&#160;», if written in the manner here shown, reads the same even when held upside down. I think it is the only word in the English language which has this peculiarity, and therefore hope you will consider it worthy of insertion in your «&#160;Curiosities&#160;» column. - Mr. Mitchell T. Lavin, 931, West Ninth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A." "ANOTHER «&#160;REVERSIBLE&#160;» WORD. Last month you gave me an example of a word so written that it read th same when turned upside down. Such words are very few and far between, but I have succeeded in discovering another, for which I hope you will be able to find a corner. - Mr. V. K. Allison, Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, U.S.A." "MORE REVERSIBLE WORDS. Seeing the reversible word «&#160;chump&#160;» among your «&#160;curiosities&#160;», I am sending you a name, «&#160;W. H. Hill&#160;», which, when written in the style shown, reads the same when reversed. Surely this is the only name possessing so convenient a peculiarity. - Mr. B. R. Bligh, 2, Porchester Mews, Bayswater, W. In writing the word «&#160;Bet&#160;» so that it reads the same when upside down, I have simply written the letter B twice – once with the paper inverted. Three letters and one word are thus twice repeated. Possibly B is the only letter of the alphabet that will produce such an interesting anomaly. I also send you five more examples of reversible words. - Mr. Clarence Williams, 2016, Bright Street, Carbrook, Sheffield." Français&#160;: Ambigrammes «&#160;Chump&#160;», «&#160;honey&#160;», «&#160;M. H. Hill&#160;», «&#160;Bet&#160;», «&#160;bung&#160;», «&#160;maw&#160;», «&#160;pad&#160;», «&#160;hay&#160;», «&#160;dip&#160;», mots publiés entre juin et septembre 1908 dans The Strand Magazine. Symétrie par rotation de 180 degrés. Auteurs&#160;: Mitchell T. Lavin, V. K. Allison, B. R. Bligh and Clarence Williams.
context_page_description: An ambigram is a calligraphic design that has several interpretations as written.
  The word ambigram was coined by Douglas Hofstadter, an American scholar of cognitive science.
context_section_description: Although the term is recent, the existence of mirror ambigrams has been attested since at least the first millennium. They are generally palindromes stylized to be visually symmetrical. 
  In ancient Greek, the phrase "νιψον ανομηματα μη μοναν οψιν" (wash the sins, not only the face), is a palindrome found in several locations, including the site of the church Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, Turkey. It is sometimes turned into a mirror ambigram when written in capital letters with the removal of spaces, and the stylization of the letter N (Ͷ).
  The first sator square palindrome was found in the ruins of Pompeii, that means it was created before 79 AD.
  A sator square using the mirror writing for the representation of the letters S and N was carved in a stone wall in Oppède (France) between the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages
  A boustrophedon is a type of bi-directional text, mostly seen in ancient manuscripts and other inscriptions. 
  Every other line of writing is flipped or reversed, with reversed letters. Rather than going left-to-right as in modern European languages, or right-to-left as in Arabic and Hebrew, 
  alternate lines in boustrophedon must be read in opposite directions. Also, the individual characters are reversed, or mirrored. It was a common way of writing in stone in Ancient Greece.
  Mirror writing in Islamic calligraphy flourished during the early modern period, but its origins may stretch as far back as pre-Islamic mirror-image rock inscriptions in the Hejaz. 
  The earliest known non-natural rotational ambigram dates to 1893 by artist Peter Newell. Although better known for his children's books and illustrations for Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, he published two books of reversible illustrations, in which the picture turns into a different image entirely when flipped upside down. The last page in his book Topsys & Turvys contains the phrase THE END, which, when inverted, reads PUZZLE. In Topsys & Turvys Number 2 (1902), Newell ended with a variation on the ambigram in which THE END changes into PUZZLE 2.
  In March 1904 the Dutch-American comic artist Gustave Verbeek used ambigrams in three consecutive strips of The UpsideDowns of old man Muffaroo and little lady Lovekins. His comics were ambiguous images, made in such a way that one could read the 6 panel comic, flip the book and keep reading. In The Wonderful Cure of the Waterfall (13 March 1904) an indian medicine man says 'Big waters would make her very sound', while when flipped the medicine man turns into an Indian woman who says  'punos dery, eay apew poom, serlem big'. Which is explained as, 'poor deary' several foreign words that meant that she would call the 'Serlem Big'. The next comic called At the House of the Writing Pig (20 March 1904), where two ambigram word balloons are featured. The first features an angry pig trying to make the main protagonist leave by showing a sign that says; 'big boy go away, dis am home of mr h hog', up side down it reads 'Boy yew go away. We sip. Home of hog pig.'. The protagonist asks the pig if it wants a big bun, upon which it replies 'Why big buns? Am mad u!', which flips into 'In pew we sang big hym'. Finally in The Bad Snake and the Good Wizard (1904 Mar 27) there are two more ambigrams. The first turns 'How do you do' into the name of a wizard called 'Opnohop Moy', the second features a squirrel telling the protagonist 'Yes further on' only to inform it that there are 'No serpents here' on his way back. These ambigrams are all relatively simple compared to contemporary designs, but given the constraints that Verbeek had due to the drawing and story they are impressive nevertheless. In a 2012 Swedish remake of the book, the artist Marcus Ivarsson redraws The Bad Snake and the Good Wizard in his own style. He removes the squirrel, but keeps the other ambigram. 'How do you do' is replaced by 'Nejnej' (Swedish for no no) and the wizard is now called 'Laulau'.
  From June to September 1908, the British monthly The Strand published a series of ambigrams by different people in its "Curiosities" column. Of particular interest i
caption: Early ambigrams published in The Strand Magazine, June 1908
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