Post #2344566

2026-05-03 19:48 UTC

If you rot13* the word &#39;gnat&#39;, you also reverse it: gnat → tang *: replace every letter with the one 13 places ahead of it: a → n, t → g (wraps round), etc.

Replies (5)

@scruss@xoxo.zone 2026-05-03 19:53

If you rot13 the work 'irk', you get a close synonym, 'vex'

Open ##3038221
@scruss@xoxo.zone 2026-05-04 14:07

Still on my ROT13 nonsense: gnat/tang is the longest pair that are ROT13 and reverse of each other. If you're into very obscure words, nana/anan work too. (Anan: obsolete interjection meaning 'in a moment' or 'at your service', 17th century)

Open ##3038223
@felipe@social.treehouse.systems 2026-05-03 22:09

@scruss@xoxo.zone something tells me the mathematical proof [that such word exists] might be quite neat and cool

Open ##3038230
@elithebearded@fed.qaz.red 2026-05-03 22:39

@scruss@xoxo.zone Years ago I used that for my Usenet "Organization:" header. I had run /use/dict/words through rot and then looked for the ones that were still words

Open ##3038232
@_the_cloud@mastodon.social 2026-05-04 03:09

@scruss@xoxo.zone Nice! Another set of close rot13 synonyms: anil ↔ navy. Longest one I found was 7 letters: abjurer ↔ nowhere.

Open ##3038234