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Just stressed: the semordnilap and the palindrome

A word, phrase or sentence that makes sense when reversed, but is not the same as the original is called a semordnilap.
A string of letters that reads the same backwards as forwards is a palindrome (“Madam, I’m Adam”; “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!”; “Was it a car or a cat I saw?”). A semordnilap is closely related, but the reversed text must be different. For example, if you reverse “diaper” you get “repaid”, and if you invert “desserts” the word “stressed” appears.
Breaking news: USA Today reports that a man found a finger in his frozen custard.
A more complicated example is “deliver no evil”, but you can probably invent better ones for yourself. As semordnilap is palindromes written backwards, it’s a self-referential word, one that encapsulates within itself the thing it represents. You could hardly say that it’s common, but many earnest palindromists have accidentally discovered it, and it has some small circulation among word wizards.
A person who gets what he deserves is said to have gotten his just deserts with one "s" and not his just desserts, which, if used in an epicurious context, might be a pun rather than an error.
Posted by abnu on Wednesday, May 04, 2005 @ 12:29 AM [ + ]

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