Funny words spelled backwards9/20/2023 ![]() There are even a few two-syllable ones like civic, level and madam. Yup, same in both directions, pretty funny. You can throw in a few palindromes for a laugh, like mum, dad, nan, pop, stats, noon, toot, peep and deed. A more difficult game would involve saying the word backwards, sound by sound, blending into a word, then writing the word, adjusting spelling choices as necessary e.g. If keeping both letters and sounds exactly the same, this activity is limited to targeting two-letter vowel spellings in “oo” and “ee” words like “pool” and “keep”. ![]() When working with just one child, I ask the child’s parent to play too, and not-very-subtly encourage the parent to make a few mistakes, so that we end up with a grinning winner. If working in a group, children can take turns being the quiz master. If working on four sound words, words like “spin” (nips) and “nuts” (stun) can be reversed. For the hardline “I’m not picking up a pencil” brigade I also have an embarrassment of colourful and novelty pens and pencils, and coloured paper. Sometimes we use paper and pencil, and sometimes mini whiteboards, which are often somehow more exciting (novelty, I guess). This requires and builds awareness of the sounds in words (phonemic awareness) which is crucial for spelling. 9.Looking for a fresh early-level spelling activity? Inspired by the old board game “Backwords”, lately we’ve been having competitions to write words backwards.įor example, I say “write nip backwards” and learners have to write “pin”. In fact, it was not a Welsh name at all, but “ bugger all” backwards. The Dylan Thomas play Under Milk Wood was set in a Welsh village with a Welsh-looking name, Llareggub. Retsof is now known for a 1994 salt mine collapse. The little hamlet of Retsof, New York, was named for William Foster, owner of a salt mine company there. There’s also a big Annapolis summer music festival called Silopanna. Sometimes, when you’re naming streets, you just run out of ideas. In Annapolis, Maryland, there’s a little street called Silopanna Road. British slang for a young man who is up to no good. It features properly backwards-named characters like Senoj Nosnibor (Robinson Jones). The title of Samuel Butler’s 19th-century novel lampooning the society of the time was meant to be “nowhere” spelled backwards, but the h was moved out of place. Erewhonīackwards spelling in the name of satire has a long history. (Hint: Nacirema is “American” backwards, and that’s not the only semordnilap you’ll find here.) 4. a cherry tree in which the Spirit of Truth resided.” The Nacirema have become well known for what they tell us about the study of “exotic” cultures. NaciremaĪ 1956 anthropology paper by Horace Mitchell Miner examined the “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”, an exotic tribe that lives between “the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles.” Their nation was founded by a hero named Notgnihsaw, who did two incredible things: He once threw a piece of wampum over the Pa-To-Mac river, and also “ down. Her next project will have to be an anagram (Pharo?). Oprah has a magazine titled by her first initial ( O), a network named with both her initials (OWN – The Oprah Winfrey Network) and a production company that spells her name backwards (Harpo). The animators modeled the character after Walt Disney himself. The name of the sorcerer in Fantasia is “Disney” spelled backwards. Here are nine words, besides semordnilap, expressly built to be semordnilaps. ![]() ![]() While there are some semordnilaps that arose by chance (desserts-stressed, diaper-repaid), there are many, like “semordnilap,” that were created on purpose, usually to not-so-covertly hint at the words they happen to be reversing. ![]() While a palindrome reads the same way backwards or forwards (otto, kayak), a semordnilap (itself a semordnilap of “palindromes”) makes a completely different word when spelled backwards. Semordnilap is a word playfully coined by word-game lovers sometime in the mid-20th century. ![]()
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