An anadrome[citation needed] (also emordnilap,[1] semordnilap[2] and levidrome[a]) is a word that has its spelling derived by reversing the spelling of another word. It is therefore a special type of anagram. There is a long history of names being coined as ananyms of existing words or names for entities related to the thing named by this subset of anadromes. Note that a levidrome usually spells another, existing word backwards, e.g. pots vs. stop,[6] while an anadrome results in novel letter sequences, such as Canada yielding Adanac (quite common street name in Canadian cities).
Examples
edit| Anadrome | Derived from | Explanation | Type | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20461 Dioretsa | asteroid | asteroid with retrograde orbit | astronomy | [7] |
| Livic | civil (engineering) | trade newspaper, "a reflection of Civil Engineering" | work | [8] |
| Rekkof Aircraft | Fokker | Rekkof aircraft are based on Fokker designs. Also Rekkof Restart. Now Fokker Next Gen. | business | [9] |
| Redrum | Murder | Word used in the Stephen King novel The Shining (1977) and its movie adaptation (1980) | Entertainment | [10] |
| yrneh | henry | A unit of measurement for reciprocal electrical inductance. | electricity | |
| daraf | farad | a unit of elastance equal to the reciprocal farad. | electricity | |
| 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. | electricity | |
| Trebor | Robert | Source of the names of Trebor confectionery, Robert Trebor, and probably Trebor the composer | name (alias) and product | |
| Trebor and Werdna | Robert [Woodhead] and Andrew [C. Greenberg] | Characters in Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord computer game named after its programmers. | work | |
| Seltaeb | Beatles | Beatles' merchandising company | business | |
| Llareggub | "bugger all" | In Under Milk Wood | work | [2] |
| Harpo Productions | Oprah (Winfrey) | Oprah's media company | business | [2] |
| Senim Silla | "all is mines" | "mines" is AAVE for "mine". | name (alias) | [11] |
| Navi | (Virgil) Ivan (Grissom) | Apollo program joke by Grissom | astronomy | [12] |
| Dnoces | (Edward H. White the) Second | Apollo program joke by Grissom | astronomy | [12] |
| Regor | Roger (Chaffee) | Apollo program joke by Grissom | astronomy | [12] |
| 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. | work | [2][13] |
| elgooG | reverse-spelling search engine | business | ||
| Xallarap | parallax | Converse microlensing effect | term | |
| Ebbot (Lundberg) | Tobbe | Tobbe is the usual hypocoristic of Torbjörn, his real given name. | name (alias) | |
| 로꾸거 (Rokuko) | 거꾸로 (gokkuro) | Backwards for Korean for "backwards" | work | |
| Xvid | DivX | A competitor | product | |
| Trugoy (The Dove) | yogurt | He likes yogurt | name (alias) | [14] |
| Posdnuos | "Sound-Sop" | Both were used as stage names for Kelvin Mercer | name (alias) | [15] |
| MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System) | spam | reverse backronym | product | |
| Alucard | Dracula | Borne by various characters derived from Dracula | work | |
| Nimda | admin | The computer worm assumed admin-like powers. | product | |
| Nogard | Dragon | Character in Alan F. Beck art series The Adventures of Nogard & Jackpot | name | [16] |
| Emirp | Prime | An emirp is a prime number that results in a different prime when its digits are reversed. | term | |
| (Coquitlam) Adanac(s) | Canada | Team is Canadian | organization | |
| Nujabes | Jun Seba | His real name | name (alias) | |
| Essiac | Rene Caisse | Its inventor | product | |
| Revilo | Oliver | multiple authors and artists use this as an alias | name (alias) | |
| Adanac (Nipissing District, Ontario) | Canada | Location | placename | |
| Airegin | Nigeria | Composer Sonny Rollins is African American | work | |
| Yarg | (Allan and Jenny) Gray | Couple who provided the recipe | product | |
| Soma Records | Amos Heilicher | Owner | business | |
| Nomad (British band) | Damon (Rochefort) | Founder member | organization | |
| Gnip Gnop | ping pong | Reminiscent of the other tabletop game | product | |
| Trebloc, Mississippi | Colbert | Local family, whose name is found in many places; the reversal was "to avoid further repetition". | placename | [17] |
| Nagirroc | Corrigan | Owner's surname | placename | |
| Strebor | Roberts | Founder/owner? | business | |
| Ridan (horse) | Nadir | Named after another horse | name (animal) | |
| Niloak Pottery | kaolin | Material used in products | business | |
| Rellim Farm | (Paul) Miller | Founder | business | |
| Yellek, Ontario | (R. J.) Kelley | Trainmaster at the passing point | placename | |
| Nomar (Garciaparra) | Ramon | His father's name | name | |
| OAT (organizing autonomous telecomms) | TAO (The Anarchy Organization) | reverse backronym of its former name | organization | |
| Kroz | Zork | Homage to older computer game | product | |
| Ani Lorak | Karolina | Her real forename | name (alias) | |
| Sevas Tra | "art saves" | work | ||
| Azed | (Diego) Deza | Crossword compiler named after Spanish inquisitor | name (alias) | [18] |
| Tesremos | (Derrick) Somerset (Macnutt) | His middle name | name (alias) | [19] |
| Sualocin | Nicolaus (Venator) | Niccolò Cacciatore's name (~Nicholas Hunter) Latinized and reversed | astronomy | [20] |
| Rotanev | (Nicolaus) Venator | Niccolò Cacciatore's name (~Nicholas Hunter) Latinized and reversed | astronomy | [20] |
| Senrab (F.C.) | Barnes | After Senrab Street, after Barnes Street | organization | |
| (Neuchâtel) Xamax | Max (Abegglen) | Founder, backwards and forwards | organization | |
| C. W. Ceram | K. W. Marek | Surname Latinised and reversed | name (alias) | [21] |
| 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. | term | [22] |
| Llamedos | sod 'em all | in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (modelled on Llaregub) | placename | [23] |
| Esio Trot | tortoise | Children's book by Roald Dahl | work | |
| Nevaeh | Heaven | feminine name | name | |
| Гярб вечнълс (Giarb vechnals) | Слънчев бряг (Slanchev briag, "Sunny Beach") | Bulgarian alphabet ananym | placename | |
| Namyats | [Sam] Stayman | Bridge convention invented by Stayman, who also invented the Stayman convention. | term | [24] |
| Adaven | Nevada | ghost town | placename | |
| Etnaviv | Vivante | open-source driver for Vivante GPU | product | |
| Namor | Roman | Comic book character whose creator wrote down noble-sounding names backwards and thought Roman/Namor looked the best | name | |
| Eivets Rednow | Stevie Wonder | Music album named from its artist | work | |
| Yen Sid | Disney | The powerful sorcerer in Fantasia (1940), whose apprentice Mickey Mouse causes mayhem after borrowing his master's hat. | name | [25] |
| Klim | milk | A brand of powdered milk sold by Nestlé, early ads featuring the slogan "Spell it backwards." | product | [26] |
| Nevar | Raven | The nemesis of the main character, the sorcerer Raven. | work | |
| Rednaxela Terrace, Hong Kong | Alexander | Believed to have been originally named after a Mr. Alexander, who partially owned the street, but reversed due to a clerical error | placename | [27][28] |
| (the Mirror of) Erised |
desire | Its full inscription (mirrored and correctly spaced) reads "I show not your face but your heart’s desire." | name | |
| Nitsuga | Agustín | Pseudonym of Agustín Barrios-Mangoré | name |
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".
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ In 2017, a boy from Toronto, Canada coined "levidrome", and there were attempts to get it recognized by Merriam-Webster and Oxford English Dictionary.[3] In 2018, Oxford replied that it is still not ready.[4] As of 2021, it is still being requested.[5]
References
edit- Room, Adrian (2010-07-26). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-4373-4. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
- ^ "Is 'Emordnilap' a Real Word?". Snopes. 13 December 2014.
- ^ a b c d updated, Arika Okrent last (April 29, 2014). "9 words created by spelling other words backwards". theweek.
- ^ https://fox4kc.com/news/what-is-a-levidrome-merriam-webster-recognizes-new-word-in-honor-of-little-boy/
- ^ "Latest word on 'levidrome': Oxford says it's not ready, but linguist begs to differ". Times Colonist. October 14, 2018.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Fox 4".
- ^ "20461 Dioretsa (1999 LD31)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ "Livic at three years old". 23 March 2007.
- ^ "Fokker's Back in the Airplane-Building Game - CBS News". CBS News. 10 March 2010.
- ^ Cummings-Grady, Mackenzie (March 8, 2024). "21 Savage's 'Redrum' Has an Unexpected Origin From a Classic Horror Movie". XXL Mag.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "De La Soul co-founder Trugoy the Dove dead at 54". AP News. February 12, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
- ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/05/18/de-la-souls-mind-bending-rap/af8f9493-1894-41e2-88f2-ed2057247d0b/
- ^ Alan F. Beck, The Adventures of Nogard & Jackpot , 2009. ISBN 978-1449519391
- ^ 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.
- ^ Room (2010), p.40
- ^ Room (2010), p.517
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Room (2010), p.99
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Llamedos - Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki".
- ^ "Namyats (4C, 4D, 4H, 4S) - Bridge Bidding Convention". BridgeHands. Petaluma, California. 22 January 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
- ^ Koehler, Dorene (2017). The Mouse and the Myth: Sacred Art and Secular Ritual of Disneyland. Indiana University Press. p. 161.
- ^ Smedley, Emma (1920). The school lunch: its organization and management in Philadelphia. Emma Smedley. p. 171.
- ^ Yanne, Andrew; Heller, Gillis (2009). Signs of a Colonial Era. Hong Kong University Press. p. 143. ISBN 9789622099449.
- ^ "Stories behind Hong Kong street names: Rednaxela Terrace and its famous resident". South China Morning Post. 8 July 2016.
External links
edit
The dictionary definition of anadrome at Wiktionary
