A palindrome is a word or phrase which reads the same backwards, like rotor or imadam I’m adam. Is there a term for a word or phrase which when reversed forms another, different, word or phrase, like are / era or loots / stool? What’s the longest such pair of words?
They’re called reversals.
I don’t think “reversals” was a true term until recently, if ever. technically, if it is not a palendrome, it is just an anagram if the letters can be rearranged to spell another word. - Jinx
Thanks. I like the term anadrome.
Depends on what you mean by “recently”. Dmitri Borgmann called them reversals in his 1965 book Language on Vacation.
While they are anagrams, they are a special case with an additional restriction that other anagrams do not have. Since that restriction makes them a type of wordplay that some people find interesting, it’s useful to have a word to distinguish them from garden variety anagrams.
Can anyone do better?
Restressed and desserter? (One who makes cakes, then runs away).
Detressed and desserted?
Or retressed and desserter?
(Axel’s examples have different numbers of s’s in them)
Oops. Yours work though. You win!