# Like a palindrome, but not **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 15, 2012, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830 "2012-04-15T10:59:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Molotok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Molotok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molotok)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/1 "2012-04-15T10:59:03Z")
I’m looking for something that’s like a plaindrome, except, it’s not the same back to front. It’s a sentence that, when you read it backwords, makes a completely different sentence. I’ve seen this in Russian - do any such sentences exist in English, and what are they called? ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/2 "2012-04-15T11:36:23Z")
You might be thinking of a ‘semordnilap’ - which is a word or phrase that when spelled backwards creates a new word. (Semordnilap is palindrome backwards.) Live/evil, dog/god, saw/was are semordnilaps. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/3 "2012-04-15T12:37:58Z")
An inartful example, but is this what you’re talking about: You eat bugs?! Bugs eat you?! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/4 "2012-04-15T12:57:24Z")
So basically, it’s a custom in Russia that’s completely reversed from the way they do things in America? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/5 "2012-04-15T15:12:33Z")
It’s not what you’re looking for but … There’s a famous line palindrome which reverses meaning backward despite that each line is the same. If you’ve never seen it, [“The lost generation poem - you can reverse it”](http://www.thoughts.com/ThomasYong/the-lost-generation-peom-you-can-reverse-it) might be worth a look. [Here’s a Youtube of several young people reading the poem.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWSYPDh7O5Q) ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/6 "2012-04-15T20:54:52Z")
One thing to keep in mind is that you can always construct a palindrome from what the OP is talking about. live/evil → evil live dog/god → god dog saw/was → was saw This is actually one way I have always made palindromes. Once you memorize enough words that are different spelled backwards, it gets easy to make a palidrome: evil dog saw rats, a star was god live… etc ETA: When I was a little kid I loved making palindromes, and I still have a sheet of paper where I tried to write down all of words I could think of that were different words spelled backwards. I cringe now, but I called them “semi-palindromic sub-structures” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/7 "2012-04-15T21:08:17Z")
Convict a pet and feel a cop. ---
**Author:** ![Molotok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Molotok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molotok)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/8 "2012-04-16T06:46:42Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > You might be thinking of a ‘semordnilap’ - which is a word or phrase that when spelled backwards creates a new word. (Semordnilap is palindrome backwards.) > > Live/evil, dog/god, saw/was are semordnilaps. Yes, I googled, and this is what I mean. Anyone know of any sentences like this? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/9 "2012-04-16T06:56:52Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > It’s not what you’re looking for but … > > There’s a famous line palindrome which reverses meaning backward despite that each line is the same. If you’ve never seen it, [“The lost generation poem - you can reverse it”](http://www.thoughts.com/ThomasYong/the-lost-generation-peom-you-can-reverse-it) might be worth a look. That’s not a poem, it’s a PEOM. It says so right in the headline. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/10 "2012-04-16T11:56:23Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > You might be thinking of a ‘semordnilap’ - which is a word or phrase that when spelled backwards creates a new word. (Semordnilap is palindrome backwards.) > > Live/evil, dog/god, saw/was are semordnilaps. desserts / stressed cigar t / tragic devil / lived ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/11 "2012-04-16T12:29:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > desserts / stressed > > cigar t / tragic > > devil / lived animal … lamina dialer … re-laid golfer … re-flog kramer … remark looter … re-tool mooder … re-doom recaps … spacer re-cart … tracer red leg … gelder re-draw … warder re-flow … wolfer re-live … eviler repaid … diaper reward … drawer romane … enamor sinned … dennis slipup … pupils sorter … retros spacer … recaps spools … sloops spoons … snoops steels … sleets strops … sports teemer … re-meet trader … re-dart wolfer … reflow diorama … amaroid reified … deifier re-level … leveler re-lived … deviler reviled … deliver tressed … dessert rewarder … re-drawer ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/12 "2012-04-17T03:12:44Z")
> [@boomerwang](#): > > I’m looking for something that’s like a plaindrome, except, it’s not the same back to front. It’s a sentence that, when you read it backwords, makes a completely different sentence. I’ve seen this in Russian - do any such sentences exist in English, and what are they called? You write sentence, Russia so different: so, Russia… sentence write you! Not quite, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/13 "2012-04-17T03:21:37Z")
Wait, am I the only one that wrote an English sentence in a way that it has a different meaning backwards? Granted, my example is not that good, but at least it has a different meaning when read backwards. Shit, even the nouns turn in to verbs and the verbs turn into nouns, yet still make sense. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/14 "2012-04-17T03:31:45Z")
Here’s one a little more subtle in meaning but obvious in execution: Hope is what defines man. Man defines what is hope. ---
**Author:** ![Petek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/petek/32/1590_2.png) [@Petek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petek)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/15 "2012-04-17T03:36:09Z")
I think the OP is looking for what are called _word-unit palindromes_. Here are some links that contain examples: [http://www.fun-with-words.com/palin\_word\_palindromes.html](http://www.fun-with-words.com/palin_word_palindromes.html) [http://www.kmjn.org/notes/word\_unit\_palindromes.html](http://www.kmjn.org/notes/word_unit_palindromes.html) Here’s an entire poem that is a word-unit palindrome: Love is This and This is Love by J.A. Linden Darling, my love Is great, so great; Recalling Heaven’s calm above. Fate is sweet this— All after Fall! Fall? After all, This, sweet, is fate– Above calm Heaven’s recalling. Great, so great is Love, my darling! ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/16 "2012-04-17T03:54:26Z")
> [@Petek](#): > > I think the OP is looking for what are called _word-unit palindromes_. No, he’s _not_. He asked specifically for them NOT to be same back to front. He is not looking for palindromes. Let me quote: > [@boomerwang](#): > > It’s a sentence that, when you read it backwords, makes a completely different sentence. It can’t be the same meaning backwards as it is forwards. It has to be wholly different. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/17 "2012-04-17T04:11:32Z")
Let’s try it again: “Hope is what defines man” An interesting thought. Quite deep even. But if you flip it back to front it has a completely different meaning: “Man defines what is hope” That’s a completely different thought, and also quite deep. That’s the key. It has to say something completely different back to front than it does front to back. It’s not a simple mirror like a palindrome, it is far more. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-a-palindrome-but-not/618830/18 "2012-04-17T05:26:55Z")
I wrote a short story that may be what the OP is looking for. Backwards it read: Mag lifted her eyes, looking up through lashes of feathers. Was her Diablo Rotti Largo She knew No solace Marni Wallace (_my dearly departed_) “My eyes are open.” Shackled Her soft wings, newly emerged from the chrysalis Diva Mariposa, glorious in repose She has become Gladly these weights on her heart and soul She has suffered For another _I made A promise_ And for what? Tonight Mag will be silenced Forever All we know Is this Just this once Read it backwards.