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Is there a word for...

  • 09-06-2004 11:44PM
    #1
    flogen
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,250 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    ... a sentance that makes sense both ways, but isn't a palendrome (as in it means 2 different things depending on which way the words are)?

    rough example:

    I did.
    did I?

    or:

    Afar from home.
    Home from afar.

    You know what I mean?

    Flogen


Comments

  • #2
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭simu


    Look here:

    http://www.opundo.com/wordrow.htm
    Palingrams are sequences of letters, syllables or words that read the same backwards as forwards.


  • #3
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,789 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    "Unclear"?


  • #4
    flogen
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,250 Mod ✭✭✭✭flogen


    thanks simu, but I'm looking for a word to describe a sentence (or string of words, such as my example below which would be the end of a sentence and the beginning of another) which reads differently backwards..... such as:

    ...Start the process. this is Never Ending......
    .....Ending? Never!! Is this process the start........?

    I know the two sentences arent totally different, but they are layed out different, and so on.

    flogen


  • #5
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭simu


    How about this?
    semordnilap noun [C] a word, phrase or sentence which can be read in reverse with a different meaning

    semordnilapic adjective

    From here!


  • #6
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭simu


    With regards to semordnilaps, I'm not sure if the words can be treated as indivisible units though.

    “deliver no evil” and "live on reviled" would seem to be a purer version of a semordnilap but as far as I can see, the definition apples to your sample sentences too.


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  • #7
    flogen
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,250 Mod ✭✭✭✭flogen


    nice one simu, that seems to be bang on what I was looking for... I'd say it applies to whole words rather than individual letters, just like palingrams...:d

    thanks again,

    flogen


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