semordnilap

In Monty Python’s Parrot sketch, someone, probably John Cleese, says that a palindrome of Bolton is Notlob. This is incorrect. (Sorry John)

A palindrome is anything that is spelled the same both backward and forward. Examples include “civic”, “level”, “A man, a plan, a canal – Panama”.

If a word isn’t spelled the same backward and forward, then it isn’t a palindrome.

While looking this up, I found out about semordnilap (sometimes emordnilap). This word describes a word pair where one word is the reverse spelling of the other. Examples include “diaper/repaid”, “stressed/desserts”, and “dog/god”.

The acute observer may notice that semordnilap is a reverse spelling of palindrome.

While it is incorrect to call Notlob a palindrome of Bolton, it is correct to say that Notlob is a semordnilap of Bolton

I’m aware that this sounds like something that I’d make up. That seems to happen more often these days.


Note: I stole heavily from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/palindrome-examples.html

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