Anadrome

Last updated
An animation of the anadrome of wolf and flow. Anadrome animation wolf - flow.gif
An animation of the anadrome of wolf and flow.

An anadrome [1] [2] [3] [4] [a] is a word or phrase whose letters can be reversed to spell a different word or phrase. For example, desserts is an anadrome of stressed. An anadrome is therefore a special type of anagram. The English language is replete with such words.

Contents

The word anadrome comes from Greek anádromos (ἀνάδρομος), "running backward", and can be compared to palíndromos (παλίνδρομος), "running back again" (whence palindrome ).

There is a long history (dating at least to the fourteenth century, as with Trebor and S. Uciredor) of alternate and invented names being created out of anadromes of real names; such a contrived proper noun is sometimes called an ananym, especially if it is used as personal pseudonym. Unlike typical anadromes, these anadromic formations often do not conform to any real names or words. Similarly cacographic anadromes are also characteristic of Victorian back slang, where for example yob stands for boy.

Examples

The English language has a very large number of single-word anadromes, by some counts more than 900. [3] Some examples:

An anadrome can also be a phrase, as in no tops ↔ spot on. The word redrum (i.e., "red rum") is used this way for murder in the Stephen King novel The Shining (1977) and its film adaptation (1980). [11]

Anadromes exist in other written languages as well, as can be seen, for example, in Spanish orar ↔ raro or French l'ami naturel ("the natural friend") ↔ le rut animal ("the animal rut").

Invented anadromes

anadromederivationdescriptionreferences
daraf farad a unit of elastance equal to the reciprocal farad
emirp prime a prime number that results in a different prime when its digits are reversed
gnip gnop ping pong reminiscent of the other tabletop game
mho ohm a unit of electrical conductance which is the reciprocal of an ohm; now known by its official SI name "siemens", although mho is still sometimes used [12]
namyats Stayman bridge convention invented by Sam Stayman, who also invented the Stayman convention. [13]
nimda admin the computer worm assumed admin-like powers.
tink knit to unknit
xallarap parallax converse microlensing effect
yrneh henry A unit of measurement for reciprocal electrical inductance.

Ananyms and anadromic names

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
ananymderivationdescriptiontypereferences
Adanac Canada a tourist cottage in Ontarioproper name
Adanac[s] Canada a Canadian lacrosse teamteam name
Adaven Nevada ghost townproper name
Airegin Nigeria composer Sonny Rollins is African American song name
Allerednic Cinderella A "riches to rags" tale as opposed to Cinderella's rags to riches. Used by Jonathan Gershuny of high-achieving women whose careers stall after marriage.proper name [14]
Alucard Dracula borne by various characters inspired by Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897)proper name [15]
Ani Lorak Karolinastage name of Karolina Kuiekpseudonym
Azed Dezapen name of Jonathan Crowther, after Spanish inquisitor Diego Deza pseudonym [16]
[C. W.] Ceram Marecpen name of German journalist K. W. Marek (latinized Marec)pseudonym [17]
Dioretsa asteroid asteroid with retrograde orbit proper name [18]
Dnoces "second" Apollo program joke by Grissom, after Edward H. White II proper name [19]
Ebbot [Lundberg] TobbeTobbe is the usual hypocoristic of his given name Torbjörnpseudonym
Eivets Rednow Stevie Wonder album name [15]
elgooG Google reverse-spelling search enginecompany name
Navi Ivan Apollo program joke by Virgil Ivan Grissom proper name [19]
Erewhon "nowhere"A utopia and the title of an 1872 novel by Samuel Butler. The digraph <wh> is not reversed. Many names within the book are also ananyms.proper name [5] [20]
Erised "desire "The Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone bears the inscription in reverse: "I show not your face but your heart's desire."proper name [21]
Esio Trot "tortoise"children's book by Roald Dahl book name
Essiac Rene Caissetea formula invented by Rene Caisseproduct name
Etnaviv Vivante open-source driver for Vivante GPUproduct name
Regor Roger Apollo program joke by Grissom, after Roger B. Chaffee proper name [19]
Гярб вечнълс (Giarb vechnals)Слънчев бряг (Slanchev briag, "Sunny Beach") Bulgarian Cyrillic ananymproper name
Harpo [Productions] Oprah Oprah Winfrey's media companycompany name [5]
Klim "milk"a brand of powdered milk sold by Nestlé, early ads featuring the slogan "Spell it backwards"product name [22]
Kroz Zork homage to older computer gameproduct name
Livic "civil [engineering]"trade newspaper, "a reflection of Civil Engineering"company name [23]
Llamedos"sod 'em all"in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (compare Llareggub)proper name
Llareggub "bugger all"in Under Milk Wood proper name [5]
MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System) "spam"reverse backronym organization name
Nagirroc Corriganhistoric home in Florida, after the owner's last nameproper name
Namor "Roman"comic book character named by Bill Everettproper name
Nevaeh "heaven"feminine given nameproper name
Nevar"raven"In the 2002 TV series Raven , Nevar is the nemesis of the main character. It is also a minor character in an episode of Teen Titans Go! (see Bizarro World). (It is also a possible answer to Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter riddle in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland .)proper name [24]
Niloak Pottery "kaolin"material used in productscompany name
Nitsuga Agustín stage name of Agustín Barrios-Mangoré pseudonym
Nogard"dragon"character in Alan F. Beck art series The Adventures of Nogard & Jackpotproper name [25]
Nomad Damon named for founding member Damon Rochefortband name
Nomar [Garciaparra] Ramonfor his father, Ramon Garciaparraproper name
Nujabes Seba Junstage name of Jun Sebapseudonym
OAT (organizing autonomous telecomms) TAO (The Anarchy Organization) OAT stands for "Organizing Autonomous Telecomms", a reverse backronym of its former name TAO, "The Anarchy Organization"organization name
Posdnuos "sound sop"stage name of Kelvin Mercerpseudonym [26]
Rednaxela Terrace, Hong KongAlexanderbelieved to have been originally named after a Mr. Alexander, who partially owned the street, but reversed due to a clerical errorproper name [27] [28]
Rekkof Aircraft Fokker Rekkof aircraft are based on Fokker designs. Also Rekkof Restart. Now Fokker Next Gen.company name [29]
Rellim Millera farm in West Virginia, named for founder Paul Millerproper name
Revilo Oliver pen name of cartoonist Oliver Christiansonpseudonym
Revilo [P. Oliver] [Revilo P.] Oliver Revilo was philologist Revilo P. Oliver's name at birthproper name
Ridan Nadir named after another horseproper name
로꾸거 (Rokuko) 거꾸로 (gokkuro)backwards for Korean for "backwards"song name
Saint Lucia Aicult Niasafter Caribbean sea country (St. Lucia in Latin)proper name [30]
Seltaeb Beatles the Beatles' merchandising companycompany name [15]
Senim Silla "All is mines."stage name of hip hop artist Ross Rowe; "mines" is African-American Vernacular for "mine"pseudonym [31]
Senrab [Street]Barnesa street in Stepney (whence Senrab F.C.), near Barnes Streetproper name
Sevas Tra "Art saves."debut album of Otep album name
Soma [Records] Amos after owner Amos Heilichercompany name
Strebor Robertsaltered from the company's original name, the Roberts Companycompany name
Sualocin Nicolaus after Niccolò Cacciatore (Nicolaus Venator in Latin)proper name [30]
TesremosSomersetpen name of Derrick Somerset Macnutt pseudonym [32]
Tebloc Colbertplace in Mississippi, named for a local family, whose name is found in many places, and thus altered "to avoid further repetition"proper name [33]
Trebor Robert 14th-century composer whose real name may have been Robertpseudonym
Trebor Robert Trebor is a confectionary founded by Robert Robertsoncompany name
Trebor Robert Robert Trebor is the stage name of actor Robert Schenkman.pseudonym
Trebor and Werdna Robert [Woodhead] and Andrew [C. Greenberg] characters in Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord computer game named after its programmersproper name
Trugoy [the Dove] "yogurt"stage name of David Jude Jolicoeur, due to his fondness for yogurtpseudonym [34]
Xvid DivX a competitorcompany name
Yarg GrayAllan and Jenny Gray revived the recipeproduct name
Yellek Kelley named for R. J. Kelley, trainmaster at the passing pointproper name
[Stanley] YelnatsStanley [Yelnats]the main character in Louis Sachar's novel Holes proper name
Yen Sid Disney the powerful sorcerer in Fantasia (1940), whose apprentice Mickey Mouse causes mayhem after borrowing his master's hatproper name [35]

Many jazz titles were written by reversing names or nouns: Ecaroh inverts the spelling of its composer Horace Silver's Christian name. Sonny Rollins dedicated to Nigeria a tune called "Airegin".

A number of Pokémon species, such as the snake Pokémon Ekans and Arbok ( cobra backwards with a K), have anadromic names.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Also called (often humorously) a semordnilap [5] or emordnilap, [6] and sometimes called a levidrome.
    • Semordnilap is an anadrome of palindromes . According to author O. V. Michaelsen in his 1997 book Words at Play, semordnilap was probably first used by recreational linguist Dmitri Borgmann, cited by Martin Gardner in the revised edition of Charles Carroll Bombaugh's Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature (1961). [7]
    • Levi Budd, a boy from Toronto, Canada, coined levidrome in 2017, and there were attempts to get it recognized by Merriam-Webster and Oxford English Dictionary. [8] In 2018, Oxford replied that it is still not ready. [9] As of 2021, it is still being requested. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anagram</span> Rearrangement of letters in a word or phrase

An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word anagram itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which is an Easter egg suggestion in Google after searching for the word "anagram".

The identity of the longest word in English depends on the definition of "word" and of length.

The -gry puzzle is a popular word puzzle that asks for the third English word that ends with the letters -gry other than angry and hungry. Specific wording varies substantially, but the puzzle has no clear answer, as there are no other common English words that end in -gry. Interpretations of the puzzle suggest it is either an answerless hoax; a trick question; a sincere question asking for an obscure word; or a corruption of a more straightforward puzzle, which may have asked for words containing gry. Of these, countless trick question variants and obscure English words have been proposed. The lack of a conclusive answer has ensured the enduring popularity of the puzzle, and it has become one of the most frequently asked word puzzles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palindrome</span> Sequence that reads the same forwards and backwards

A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as madam or racecar, the date "22/02/2022" and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panama". The 19-letter Finnish word saippuakivikauppias is the longest single-word palindrome in everyday use, while the 12-letter term tattarrattat is the longest in English.

A thesaurus, sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings, sometimes as a hierarchy of broader and narrower terms, sometimes simply as lists of synonyms and antonyms. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:

...to find the word, or words, by which [an] idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synonym</span> Words or phrases of the same meaning

A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be replaced by another in a sentence without changing its meaning.

Pneumono­ultra­micro­scopic­silico­volcano­coniosis is a 45-letter word coined in 1935 by the then-president of the National Puzzlers' League, Everett M. Smith. It has sometimes been used as a synonym for the occupational disease known as silicosis, but it should not be as most silicosis is not related to mining of volcanic dusts. It is the longest word in the English language published in a popular dictionary, Oxford Dictionaries, which defines it as "an artificial long word said to mean a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambigram</span> Symmetrical calligraphic or typographic visual pun

An ambigram is a calligraphic composition of glyphs that can yield different meanings depending on the orientation of observation. Most ambigrams are visual palindromes that rely on some kind of symmetry, and they can often be interpreted as visual puns. The term was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in 1983–1984.

Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological)reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one through popular usage. The form or the meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or morphemes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acronym</span> Abbreviation consisting of initial letters of a phrase

An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps with no punctuation.

The word(s) of the year, sometimes capitalized as "Word(s) of the Year" and abbreviated "WOTY", refers to any of various assessments as to the most important word(s) or expression(s) in the public sphere during a specific year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American and British English spelling differences</span>

Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American spelling. Many of the differences between American and British or Commonwealth English date back to a time before spelling standards were developed. For instance, some spellings seen as "American" today were once commonly used in Britain, and some spellings seen as "British" were once commonly used in the United States.

Phonetic reversal is the process of reversing the phonemes or phones of a word or phrase. When the reversal is identical to the original, the word or phrase is called a phonetic palindrome. Phonetic reversal is not entirely identical to backmasking, which is specifically the reversal of recorded sound. This is because pronunciation in speech causes a reversed diphthong to sound different in either direction, or differently articulate a consonant depending on where it lies in a word, hence creating an imperfect reversal.

<i>Word Ways</i> Magazine on recreational linguistics, logology and word play

Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics is a quarterly magazine on recreational linguistics, logology and word play. It was established by Dmitri Borgmann in 1968 at the behest of Martin Gardner. Howard Bergerson took over as editor-in-chief for 1969, but stepped down when Greenwood Periodicals dropped the publication. A. Ross Eckler Jr., a statistician at Bell Labs, became editor until 2006, when he was succeeded by Jeremiah Farrell.

James Albert Lindon was an English puzzle enthusiast and poet specialising in light verse, constrained writing, and children's poetry.

<i>Palindromes and Anagrams</i>

Palindromes and Anagrams is a 1973 non-fiction book on wordplay by Howard W. Bergerson.

References

  1. ↑ Brunton, Finn (November–December 2010). "Roar so wildly: Spam, technology and language" (PDF). Radical Philosophy (164): 6. Retrieved December 13, 2024. Bifacial text, a kind of anadrome which reads with two distinct meanings when read forward or backward.
  2. ↑ Kragh, Helge (2024). The Names of Science: Terminology and Language in the History of the Natural Sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 255. As the first case of a retrograde asteroid [Dioretsa] was named as an anadrome, namely asteroid spelled backwards.
  3. 1 2 Sutherland, Denise (2020). Solving Cryptic Crosswords for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. p. 61. These sorts of two-way words are called anadromes, and roughly 900 of them exist in everyday English.
  4. ↑ Luschnig, Cecelia Eaton; Luschnig, Lance J. (2017). Etyma II: An Introduction to Vocabulary Building from Latin and Greek. Lanham, Maryland: Hamilton Books. p. 307. The other side of Palindrome is semordnilap. [...] These are also called anadromes.
  5. 1 2 3 4 updated, Arika Okrent last (April 29, 2014). "9 words created by spelling other words backwards". theweek.
  6. ↑ "Is 'Emordnilap' a Real Word?". Snopes. 13 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Bombaugh, Charles Carroll (1961). Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature. Dover Publications. p. 345.
  8. ↑ "What is a "levidrome?" Merriam-Webster recognizes new word in honor of little boy". November 27, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Latest word on 'levidrome': Oxford says it's not ready, but linguist begs to differ". Times Colonist. October 14, 2018.
  10. ↑ "A Victoria 10-year-old created a word for a linguistic oddity. Over the past four years, it's come to mean so much more". Capital Daily.
  11. ↑ Lederer, Richard (1998). The Word Circus: A Letter-perfect Book. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc. p. 89.
  12. ↑ "Definition of MHO". www.merriam-webster.com.
  13. ↑ "Namyats (4C, 4D, 4H, 4S) - Bridge Bidding Convention". BridgeHands. Petaluma, California. 22 January 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  14. ↑ Gershuny, Jonathan (1999). "Time Budgets, Life Histories and Social Position". Quality and Quantity. 33 (3): 277–289. doi:10.1023/A:1004648804214. S2CID   142779389.; Langdon, Julia (13 August 2000). "Cherie Booth: Now you see her, now you don't" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 2019-04-23. Retrieved 23 April 2019.; Hay, Hannah Furness (31 May 2013). "Hay Festival 2013: Working women are Cinderella in reverse" . Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  15. 1 2 3 Honeycutt, Curtis. "Grammar Guy: A look back at backward words". Savannah Morning News.
  16. ↑ Room (2010), p.40
  17. ↑ Room (2010), p.99
  18. ↑ "20461 Dioretsa (1999 LD31)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  19. 1 2 3 Harland, David Michael (2007). The first men on the moon: the story of Apollo 11. Springer. p. 136. ISBN   978-0-387-34176-7 . Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  20. ↑ Balfour Daniels, R. (Winter 1969). "Names in the Fiction of Samuel Butler (1835-1902)". The South Central Bulletin. 29 (4). Johns Hopkins University Press, South Central Modern Language Association: 129–132. doi:10.2307/3187333. JSTOR   3187333.
  21. ↑ Jeelani, Hasina (November 16, 2021). "What we can learn about self-love from the Mirror of Erised in 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'". Vogue India.
  22. ↑ Smedley, Emma (1920). The school lunch: its organization and management in Philadelphia. Emma Smedley. p.  171.
  23. ↑ "Livic at three years old". 23 March 2007.
  24. ↑ "The Story Behind Lewis Carroll's Unsolvable Riddle". Mental Floss. September 12, 2021.
  25. ↑ Alan F. Beck, The Adventures of Nogard & Jackpot , 2009. ISBN   978-1449519391
  26. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/05/18/de-la-souls-mind-bending-rap/af8f9493-1894-41e2-88f2-ed2057247d0b/
  27. ↑ Yanne, Andrew; Heller, Gillis (2009). Signs of a Colonial Era. Hong Kong University Press. p. 143. ISBN   9789622099449.
  28. ↑ "Stories behind Hong Kong street names: Rednaxela Terrace and its famous resident". South China Morning Post. 8 July 2016.
  29. ↑ "Fokker's Back in the Airplane-Building Game - CBS News". CBS News . 10 March 2010.
  30. 1 2 Ridpath, Ian; Tirion, Wil (2007). Stars and planets: the most complete guide to the stars, planets, galaxies, and the solar system. Princeton University Press. p. 140. ISBN   978-0-691-13556-4.
  31. ↑ Crazy Illa Wulf (May 2007). "Senim Silla: return of a star". platform8470. Gistel, Belgium. Archived from the original on 27 August 2008. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  32. ↑ Room (2010), p.517
  33. ↑ Phelps, Dawson A.; Edward Hunter Ross (Fall 1952). "Names Please: Place Names along the Natchez Trace" (PDF). The Journal of Mississippi History. 14. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Mississippi Historical Society: 240. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-07. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  34. ↑ "De La Soul co-founder Trugoy the Dove dead at 54". AP News. February 12, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  35. ↑ Koehler, Dorene (2017). The Mouse and the Myth: Sacred Art and Secular Ritual of Disneyland. Indiana University Press. p. 161.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.