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Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 17:04:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: wsmith@wordsmith.org
To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--syzygy
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syzygy (SIZ-uh-jee) noun

   1. Astronomy. Either of two points in the orbit of a celestial body where
      the body is in opposition to or in conjunction with the sun. Either of
      two points in the orbit of the moon when the moon lies in a straight
      line with the sun and Earth. The configuration of the sun, the moon,
      and Earth lying in a straight line.

   2. The combining of two feet into a single metrical unit in classical
      prosody.

[Late Latin syzygia, from Greek suzugia, union, from suzugos, paired : sun-,
syn- + zugon, yoke.]

Ambigram: http://wordsmith.org/words/syzygy.gif

SYZYGY
This curious word comes from the Greek language, where it meant the yoking
of two oxen. Over the eons, it came to mean the joining of any two entities
without losing the individual characteristics of either one. This idea brings
the yin/yang symbol to mind, and also the ambigrammatic phenomenon of two
letters being joined into one shape without loss of their readability. In
astronomy, however, "syzygy" is defined as an alignment of three heavenly
bodies in the solar system, more like the periodic alignment of the three Ys 
in
the word. How could a word that once implied the pairing of two entities come
to refer to the alignment of three?

        The answer comes in the fact that in science, no phenomenon can be
investigated without taking into account the presence of the investigator.
And when two heavenly bodies are seen to be in alignment, they are being
seen from a third, which is necessarily in the same straight line. So
no matter which way you look at the syzygy ambigram, it satisfies both sides
of its ambiguous definition.
-John Langdon, http://www.coda.drexel.edu/wordplay

This week's theme: words with ambigrams.

.............................................................................
There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.
-Arthur C. Clarke, writer (1917- )

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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/syzygy.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/syzygy.ram