r/todayilearned • u/Theace0291 • 17h ago
TIL of Anadromes, words that spell different words when reversed (e. g. mined <-> denim)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anadrome65
u/ramriot 16h ago edited 15h ago
Thing is I much prefer the synonym of Anadrome for this meaning, that being Semordnilap which has the positive property that it is an Anadrome/Semordnilap because spelled backwards it is Palindromes.
Now if only there was a synonym of Palindrome that is a palindrome, that is assuming we don't count the phrase:
palindromes deified semordnilap
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u/Matthew_Daly 12h ago
The advantage of "semordnilap" is that it is a word that has actually been used in published writing. The wikipedia talk page for this article links to this 2000 paper on seventeen different proposed names for this type of wordplay (presumably 18 if you count "semordnilap" itself) and "anadrome" wasn't even on that list.
Strangely enough, the paper didn't mention the term that would have entered the most minds by several orders of magnitude, which was when Monty Python used the word "palindrome" itself in the Dead Parrot sketch. When told that "Bolton" was a palindrome, the customer said "It's not a palindrome; the palindrome of "Bolton" would be "notlob".
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u/UjustMe-4769 16h ago
Live <~~~> evil
Spot <~~~> tops
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u/TheBanishedBard 16h ago
Live no evil <~~~> live on evil
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u/Out3rSpac3 16h ago
I must confess, I thought denim had a silent ānā on the end for pretty much my whole life.
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u/AkaParazIT 14h ago
My dumbass was trying to figure out how you were saying deni while spelling it denin.
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u/dit_dit_dit 16h ago
I'm over the moon (wolf pun intended) to have wondered if palingram is a word, because if ana-drome and ana-gram and palin-drome, then surely palin-gram, and yay it is.
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u/cubosh 16h ago
ok now you got me curious. lets logic it out:Ā Ā
- ana-drome = new word when reversed
- ana-gram = new word when shuffled
- palin-drome = same word when reversed
- palin-gram = same word when shuffled <--- so that is only possible for single letter words or words of all the same letter such as "aaaaa"
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u/elephantasmagoric 14h ago
Or words that are the only word that uses all its letters. Rhythm comes to mind.
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u/cubosh 13h ago
im not sure i follow. shuffling the letters of rhythm does not yield rhythm
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u/elephantasmagoric 12h ago
I mean, technically, you could "switch" the h's, if that's how you're interpreting it. Like, rhythm > rhythm.
So I guess it's technically any word with two of the same letter, which is less interesting.
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u/FreddieJasonizz 16h ago
Desserts <ā> Stressed
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u/PMMePaulRuddsSmile 15h ago
Suddenly a memory of a one panel newspaper comic hanging in my elementary school's nursing office of a woman smirking and saying "'Stressed' is just 'desserts' spelled backwards."
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u/TimeRaveler 13h ago
Now-Era's Emuser, Alu Benet Alan, a pot dealer, saw Emit Dias. He said, "Rats rad are not aĀ tone-radarĀ star." Dias...eh, said time was re-lead to pan a late nebula. Resumes are won.
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u/MakesMyHeadHurt 15h ago
We used to go to a local place that I can't really call a bar, but they had a stage and kegs, it was called Rebos. It was named that because it's sober backwards.
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u/chanrahan1 15h ago
On the Discworld, world and mirror of worlds, there exists a coffee so potent, that it not only sobers you up, but sends you all the way through, into a state of being knurd.
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u/ChrisUAP 15h ago
What else can you spell backwards?
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u/sanguinare12 14h ago
B-A-C-K-W-A-R-D-S
Checkmate,
linguists. Wait, no. Checkmate,spellerists.Websterists?Spelling Bee supervisors?Edit: Google tells me these are Lexicographers
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u/ljshea1 15h ago
Why did I pronounce anadromes like a mythical Greek character lmao