Word Prompt – MAYIM – Martin Bodek

Mayim is an interesting, flexible, moebius-strip of a word.

The Hebrew version is a palindrome. That’s the simplest thing about the word.

The first and last Hebrew letters of the world are also palindromes. Now things are starting to get less than simple.

The palindrome – miyam – defines where the mayim comes from. How about that! I need a word for that. Let me try to coin one: palindromscriptive.

Um, that’s gonna need some work.

Anyway, mayim – like “horse” and “sheep” – is both singular and plural, with a singular literal meaning, and a plural of figurative meanings.

“Sky” in Hebrew, is sha-mayim, which means “there is water.” I won’t try to coin another word explaining how this works, but if you took the Hebrew palindrome of Mayim Shamayim, you’ve got your whole planetary water cycle right there.

Yes, my head is also spinning.

The Bible wastes no time at all with the first mention of the word. It’s in Genesis 1:2. The 21^st word (And look, a number palindrome!). After this, it appears another 587 times. I know. I counted.

Mayim Bialik is probably the most famous Mayim who ever existed (and I still would prefer her over Ken Jennings for Jeopardy! Hosting duties).