Anadrome

This article is about a type of anagram and is not to be confused with Anadromy.

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.

An animation of the anadrome of wolf and flow.

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:

• two letters: am ↔ ma; eh ↔ he; ew ↔ we; no ↔ on
• three letters: bro ↔ orb; dog ↔ god; gum ↔ mug; nip ↔ pin
• four letters: edit ↔ tide; evil ↔ live; liar ↔ rail; part ↔ trap
• five letters: denim ↔ mined; knits ↔ stink; lever ↔ revel; peels ↔ sleep
• six letters: denier ↔ reined; diaper ↔ repaid; drawer ↔ reward; pupils ↔ slip-up
• seven letters: amaroid ↔ diorama; deliver ↔ reviled; gateman ↔ nametag
• eight letters: desserts ↔ stressed

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

anadrome	derivation	description	references
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.

ananym	derivation	description	type	references
Adanac	Canada	a tourist cottage in Ontario	proper name
Adanac[s]	Canada	a Canadian lacrosse team	team name
Adaven	Nevada	ghost town	proper 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	Karolina	stage name of Karolina Kuiek	pseudonym
Azed	Deza	pen name of Jonathan Crowther, after Spanish inquisitor Diego Deza	pseudonym	[16]
[C. W.] Ceram	Marec	pen 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]	Tobbe	Tobbe is the usual hypocoristic of his given name Torbjörn	pseudonym
Eivets Rednow	Stevie Wonder		album name	[15]
elgooG	Google	reverse-spelling search engine	company 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 Caisse	tea formula invented by Rene Caisse	product name
Etnaviv	Vivante	open-source driver for Vivante GPU	product 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 ananym	proper name
Harpo [Productions]	Oprah	Oprah Winfrey's media company	company 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 game	product 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	Corrigan	historic home in Florida, after the owner's last name	proper name
Namor	"Roman"	comic book character named by Bill Everett	proper name
Nevaeh	"heaven"	feminine given name	proper 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 products	company name
Nitsuga	Agustín	stage name of Agustín Barrios-Mangoré	pseudonym
Nogard	"dragon"	character in Alan F. Beck art series The Adventures of Nogard & Jackpot	proper name	[25]
Nomad	Damon	named for founding member Damon Rochefort	band name
Nomar [Garciaparra]	Ramon	for his father, Ramon Garciaparra	proper name
Nujabes	Seba Jun	stage name of Jun Seba	pseudonym
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 Mercer	pseudonym	[26]
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	proper name	[27][28]
Rekkof Aircraft	Fokker	Rekkof aircraft are based on Fokker designs. Also Rekkof Restart. Now Fokker Next Gen.	company name	[29]
Rellim	Miller	a farm in West Virginia, named for founder Paul Miller	proper name
Revilo	Oliver	pen name of cartoonist Oliver Christianson	pseudonym
Revilo [P. Oliver]	[Revilo P.] Oliver	Revilo was philologist Revilo P. Oliver's name at birth	proper name
Ridan	Nadir	named after another horse	proper name
로꾸거 (Rokuko)	거꾸로 (gokkuro)	backwards for Korean for "backwards"	song name
Rotanev	Venator	after Niccolò Cacciatore (Called Nicolaus Venator in Latin)	proper name	[30]
Seltaeb	Beatles	the Beatles' merchandising company	company 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]	Barnes	a street in Stepney (whence Senrab F.C.), near Barnes Street	proper name
Sevas Tra	"Art saves."	debut album of Otep	album name
Soma [Records]	Amos	after owner Amos Heilicher	company name
Strebor	Roberts	altered from the company's original name, the Roberts Company	company name
Sualocin	Nicolaus	after Niccolò Cacciatore (Called Nicolaus Venator in Latin)	proper name	[30]
Tesremos	Somerset	pen name of Derrick Somerset Macnutt	pseudonym	[32]
Trebloc	Colbert	place 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 Robert	pseudonym
Trebor	Robert	Trebor is a confectionary founded by Robert Robertson	company 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 programmers	proper name
Trugoy [the Dove]	"yogurt"	stage name of David Jude Jolicoeur, due to his fondness for yogurt	pseudonym	[34]
Xvid	DivX	a competitor	company name
Yarg	Gray	Allan and Jenny Gray revived the recipe	product name
Yellek	Kelley	named for R. J. Kelley, trainmaster at the passing point	proper name
[Stanley] Yelnats	Stanley [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 hat	proper 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

• Back slang, use of invented anadromes as coded language
• Anagram
• Palindrome
• Verlan
• List of geographic anagrams and ananyms
• Category:Names derived from word reversals

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]