# What do you call a word that spells a different word backwards? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 17, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927 "2015-04-17T17:34:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SisterofMax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@SisterofMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterofMax)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927/1 "2015-04-17T17:34:07Z")
Immediately after reading about this on The Straight Dope, I read in an article on [MSN.com](http://MSN.com) that an anagram that spells different words backwards and forwards (evil - live, for example) is called a semordnilap. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927/2 "2015-04-17T18:05:51Z")
[Article in question](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1399/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards). Did the MSN article say that that was an accepted name or did they just make it up? ---
**Author:** ![Dukeguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Dukeguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dukeguy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927/3 "2015-04-17T20:57:40Z")
This word is also listed here: [semordnilap - Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/semordnilap) however, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the word semordnilap just doesn’t sound like a descriptor for a word structure. The reason… it’s just the word “palindromes” backwards. [http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/](http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/) suggests semi-palindrome or half-palindrome - but concedes there is no official accepted term. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927/4 "2015-04-17T21:48:40Z")
Way back when, I used to see the word “drow” being used. A whole lot easier to spell and pronounce. ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2015, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927/5 "2015-04-18T02:22:30Z")
Antistrofogram? C’mon Greeks — little help? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927/6 "2015-04-18T02:51:38Z")
Wiki says it was coined by [Dmitri Borgmann](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Borgmann). I have a couple of his recreational language books, and they’re worth seeking out if you can find them cheaply. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927/8 "2015-04-19T03:58:19Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Wiki says it was coined by [Dmitri Borgmann](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Borgmann). I have a couple of his recreational language books, and they’re worth seeking out if you can find them cheaply. I’d be surprised if Borgmann was the first to come up with **semordnilap**. It just seems too obvious. The most generic and common term I’ve heard is **reversal**. Of course, one can reverse any word, so perhaps it’s too generic. As for **drow** , that’s what dark elves are called in D&D. I think it’s a revival of an old word found in the OED. As for Borgmann’s books, I have two copies each of _Language on Vacation_ and _Beyond Language_. Don’t have _Curious Crosswords_, but I was never a crossword fan. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-word-that-spells-a-different-word-backwards/717927/9 "2015-04-19T15:43:30Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I’d be surprised if Borgmann was the first to come up with **semordnilap**. It just seems too obvious. The WIki page on Semordnilap states: > [@](#): > > A reverse spelling of palindromes. “Semordnilap,” according to author O.V. Michaelsen, was probably first used by recreational linguist Dmitri Borgmann, cited by Martin Gardner in the revised edition of C. C. Bombaugh’s Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature (1961) [1]. Doing a Google ngram search finds no hits before 1965 other than that one.