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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.
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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ updated, Arika Okrent last (April 29, 2014). "9 words created by spelling other words backwards". theweek.
- ^ "Is 'Emordnilap' a Real Word?". Snopes. 13 December 2014.
- ^ Bombaugh, Charles Carroll (1961). Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature. Dover Publications. p. 345.
- ^ "What is a "levidrome?" Merriam-Webster recognizes new word in honor of little boy". November 27, 2017.
- ^ "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.
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