Not only is SOS a palindrome (a word that reads the same backward and forwards, like civic, deified, etc.) it’s also an ambigram, a word that looks identical whether read upside-down or right-side-up. While the same series of dots and dashes could also just as easily translate to the Morse code sequences for VTB, SMB, and others, SOS had an instantly recognizable symmetry.
Transmitted without pause and repeated every few seconds, the SOS meaning was unmistakable, specifically because it didn’t form any known word or abbreviation. The sequence of triplet dots and dashes proposed by the German government soon became the international favorite for its elegant simplicity. Britain, for example, favored CQD as the Titanic sunk into the ocean in April 1912, it broadcast a mix of CQD and SOS calls (the resulting confusion helped take CQD out of use for good). At first, different nations used different codes. At a time when international ships increasingly filled the seas, and Morse code was the only instantaneous way to communicate between them, vessels needed a quick and unmistakable way to signal that trouble was afoot. Translated to Morse code, SOS looks like this: Unlike WD-40, CVS, and TASER, SOS is not even an acronym: It’s a Morse code sequence, deliberately introduced by the German government in a 1905 set of radio regulations to stand out from less important telegraph transmissions. But what is the SOS meaning, actually? The answer, dear readers, is nothing-and that’s exactly why it’s important. Best known for its appearances in desert island cartoons, maritime movies, and earworms by ABBA and Rihanna, the letters SOS have been used as a code for emergency since 1905. These are all things that “SOS,” the international abbreviation for distress, does not stand for. “Save On Socks (at Sal’s Irregular Sock Emporium)!” Nope, it’s not “save our ship.” Not even close.
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