ERE is an outdated synonym for before, relegated in the twentieth century to verse and not often used in everyday speech. It was more commonly used in colonial times and in many cases was followed by the word “long.” Benjamin Franklin was quoted as having said, “Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities.” Erelong, without the space between ere and long is regarded as an archaic synonym for soon.
A famous example of a palindrome (a sentence reading the same forward and backward) is “Able were I ere I saw Elba.” The sentence refers to Napoleon’s loss of status after his exile to the island of Elba. Some regard this palindrome as more pure than others because it both has meaning and its halves (both letters and spaces) perfectly mirror each other.
Another famous palindrome with a historical bent is “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!” In the twenty-first century, computers have assisted with the creation of long palindromes of thousands of words, but these can often be faulted for merely listing words in sequence and not conveying a logical thought or a storyline.
Ere itself is a palindrome. The fear of palindromes has been coined aibohphobia by musician and author Stan Kelly-Bootle. While the fear of palindromes is not a generally accepted phobia, siderodromophobia (the fear of railroads and train travel), automatonophobia (the fear of ventriloquist dummies, animatronic creatures, and wax statues), and porphyrophobia (the color purple) all are. If you are in the mood for a triple feature to honor this blog entry this weekend, why not rent the movies Palindromes (directed by Todd Solondz), Arachnaphobia, and The Color Purple.
Ere is also a homophone for other familiar crossword words air, err, and heir.If you are logophobic (fearful of words), stop reading now.
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