Anadrome

An anadrome^{[citation needed]} (also emordnilap,^[1] semordnilap^[2] and levidrome^{[lower-alpha 1]}) 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).

An animation of existing words or names for entities related to the thing named by the anadrome

Examples

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.

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	Google	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

• -nym
• List of geographic anagrams and ananyms
• Category:Names derived from word reversals

Notes

1. 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

• 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.

1. "Is 'Emordnilap' a Real Word?". Snopes. 13 December 2014.
2. updated, Arika Okrent last (April 29, 2014). "9 words created by spelling other words backwards". theweek.
3. https://fox4kc.com/news/what-is-a-levidrome-merriam-webster-recognizes-new-word-in-honor-of-little-boy/
4. "Latest word on 'levidrome': Oxford says it's not ready, but linguist begs to differ". Times Colonist. October 14, 2018.
5. "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.
6. "Fox 4".
7. "20461 Dioretsa (1999 LD31)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
8. "Livic at three years old". 23 March 2007.
9. "Fokker's Back in the Airplane-Building Game - CBS News". CBS News. 10 March 2010.
10. Cummings-Grady, Mackenzie Cummings-GradyMackenzie (March 8, 2024). "21 Savage's 'Redrum' Has an Unexpected Origin From a Classic Horror Movie". XXL Mag.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. "De La Soul co-founder Trugoy the Dove dead at 54". AP News. February 12, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
15. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/05/18/de-la-souls-mind-bending-rap/af8f9493-1894-41e2-88f2-ed2057247d0b/
16. Alan F. Beck, The Adventures of Nogard & Jackpot , 2009. ISBN 978-1449519391
17. 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.
18. Room (2010), p.40
19. Room (2010), p.517
20. 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.
21. Room (2010), p.99
22. 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.
23. "Llamedos - Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki".
24. "Namyats (4C, 4D, 4H, 4S) - Bridge Bidding Convention". BridgeHands. Petaluma, California. 22 January 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
25. Koehler, Dorene (2017). The Mouse and the Myth: Sacred Art and Secular Ritual of Disneyland. Indiana University Press. p. 161.
26. Smedley, Emma (1920). The school lunch: its organization and management in Philadelphia. Emma Smedley. p. 171.
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.

External links

• The dictionary definition of anadrome at Wiktionary